Free image hosting BUSINESS SECRETS

Discussion in 'General Marketing' started by Mailzas, Jan 8, 2008.

  1. Overclock099

    Overclock099 Notable Member

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    #61
    Very interesting,,I use same script..Can you make tutorial for this..
     
    Overclock099, Jan 16, 2008 IP
  2. alexs464

    alexs464 Well-Known Member

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    #62
    And I was wondering how image host sites make there money!

    Great Thread!~
     
    alexs464, Jan 16, 2008 IP
  3. usmanzali

    usmanzali Well-Known Member

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    #63
    hey how did you make the user paying thing script?
     
    usmanzali, Jan 16, 2008 IP
  4. aras

    aras Active Member

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    #64
    Good thread here, as from an advertiser perspective how does your geographic stats look like, it seems that you can improve that $0.4/cpm , if you have some traffic from western part of the world.
     
    aras, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  5. ChrisPhp

    ChrisPhp Active Member

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    #65
    Not sure, but this looks like a security problem.
    What if $filename becomes something like ../../some_file_name?
    Hackers could try to include some file from your server, which is a possible security issue. Make sure you always sanitize (user) input.

    Just my 2 cents.
     
    ChrisPhp, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  6. Mailzas

    Mailzas Peon

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    #66
    overclock099
    Nicier gallery change:

    From a gallery.php change to this:
    
    //$class     = (($class == 'row1') ? 'row2' : 'row1');
    $class     = 'row1';
    
    Code (markup):
    Delete additional things except image showing:
    
    echo "<td class='{$class}' valign='top' align='center'>
      <a href='viewer.php?file={$file}'><img src='{$thumb}' alt='{$file}'   class='galthumb' /></a>
      </td>";
    
    Code (markup):
    JAVASCRIPT IMAGE RESIZE:
    Place some code
    
    		//Scale image if needed
    		$h = $file_info['1'];
    		$w = $file_info['0'];
    		
    		$oh = $file_info['1'];
    		$ow = $file_info['0'];
    		
    		//width - new_width
    		//height - new_height
    
    		if ($w > 830){
    			$new_width = 830;
    			$new_height = ($h * 830) / $w;
    			
    			$w = $new_width;
    			$h = $new_height;
    		};
    		
    		 		
    		if ($h > 650){
    			$new_height = 650;
    			$new_width = ($w * 650) / $h;
    			
    			$w = $new_width;
    			$h = $new_height;
    		};
    		
    print <<<HTML
    <script type="text/javascript">
      function scale_img(){		
    	  pic = document.getElementById('thepic');		
    	  pic.height = $h;
    	  pic.width = $w;
    	  
    	  link = document.getElementById('thelink');	
    	  link.href = "javascript: max_img()";	  
    	};
    	
      function max_img(){		
    	  pic = document.getElementById('thepic');		
    	  pic.height = $oh;
    	  pic.width = $ow;
    	  
    	  link = document.getElementById('thelink');	
    	  link.href = "javascript: scale_img()";
    	};
    </script>	
    HTML;
    
    Code (markup):

    Showing image
    
    	//resized
    	$href= "#";
    	if (($w <> $ow) or ($h <> $oh))
    	  $href = "javascript: max_img();";  
    	
    	$img = "<a id='thelink' href=\"$href\"><img id='thepic' src=\"{$path}{$file}\" width='$w' height='$h' alt=\"{$file}\" title=\"{$file}\" /></a>";
    
    Code (markup):
    ChrisPhp
    I understand your point, however this time this is not user input, but instead .htaccess input.

    
    http://www.heyimage.com/files/../../../etc/passwd
    
    Code (markup):
    Server changes to:
    
    http://www.heyimage.com/etc/passwd
    
    Code (markup):
    Lots of specific information, will hope not programmers, also enjoy this thread.
     
    Mailzas, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  7. souljaboygear

    souljaboygear Guest

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    #67
    Hi Mailzas,

    Thanks for this great thread! I have never gotten into image hosts, (it is my opinion that there is too much competition and too little money) but it was interesting to read how you overcame your problems and turned them into successes :)
     
    souljaboygear, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  8. ORZ

    ORZ Well-Known Member

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    #68

    oH I guess overall you did offer a fair share on uzdarbis.lt :)
     
    ORZ, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  9. Mailzas

    Mailzas Peon

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    #69
    usmanzali
    This quit advanced topic, took me 3 days just to implement user and security part. Admin part still not updated. Main things is:
    * IP, image_id pool deleted every 4 hours by "cron.php"
    * Checking visit IP country to be sure You not paying for asia traffic.
    * Check if visitor computer run javascript, to defend autosurfers.
    * payments table
    * views table

    aras
    Here is my countries, If You have some ideas, how increase CPM please let us know.
    [​IMG]
     
    Mailzas, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  10. Mailzas

    Mailzas Peon

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    #70
    souljaboygear
    Thanks for good words. Well still need lot of success to finish my goal. Thanks for supporting, it's easier to work, when lot of people saying I am doing good job.

    ORZ
    That was a small test to see if people will be interested, will do more action on that forum. By the way I am from Lithuania, small EU country. ORZ read my thread on Lithuania forum.
     
    Mailzas, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  11. Mailzas

    Mailzas Peon

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    #71
    Shocking news, people does not want to earn!

    Do You remember yesterday, I created new google adwords campaign, for getting new members. In new campaign I wroted, that I will pay members to upload and share pictures. Today I got a statistics from google adwords, and guess what? CTR from 0.3 droped to 0.1 for new ad. (Based on 13 clicks). That mean 3 times less people click on my ad! So according to stats, people looking for a place to upload photos, but not interested at all, for getting paid for this. Seems not very logical for me at all.

    I have theories behing that:
    * Maybe ads positioning changed on websites and is very poor now?
    (checked this by enabling old ad, seems not true)

    * "good countries" does not want to earn money
    Doing some research on google trends for a phrase "earn money" it seems "good countries" not interested in earning money. Seems India, and Pakistan now, are the main money earning searchers. Maybe You know if
    paypal.com money is accepted in those countries?

    * "Make money" is scam everytime?
    Maybe "make money" market is so oversaturated, and overscamed, that people asociate everything as scam, where they see, that they can be paid over the internet?

    * My ad, has mistakes, or not interesting?
    What You think? Here is the ad:

    Earn for photo upload
    Get paid for uploading and sharing
    photos. 5$ welcome bonus!
    HeyImage.com
     
    Mailzas, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  12. RobertGarcia

    RobertGarcia Well-Known Member

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    #72
    Great thread! Thanks.

    Maybe because of this :D and $5 welcome bonus? well, i think its too good to be true :)
     
    RobertGarcia, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  13. vdupuy

    vdupuy Well-Known Member

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    #73
    My guess would be that people are always very skeptical when they see an ad to earn easy money. Also depends on your keywords, and what people are really looking for when they see your ad.
     
    vdupuy, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  14. Mailzas

    Mailzas Peon

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    #74
    ARE YOUR IMAGE HOSTING WEBSITE LOOSING UPLOADERS?

    Let's separate typical image hosting visitors into 2 parts:
    viewers, and uploaders right? I think uploader is much more valuable, because of his actions, you get more visits and page views. 10 active forum uploaders, can easily give Your website 2000 or more visits a day.

    So let's think how typical uploader acts?
    * He finds your website some way, maybe throught paid advertisement,
    * uploads few images
    * Maybe share images, with a friends
    * and forgets your website.
    (I have 170 members, but we do very little pictures uploaded per day)

    WHAT BIG WEBSITES DO ABOUT THIS?
    They have branded desktop applications, for uploading images directly from Your computer. It's much harder to forget an image hosting website, when You have an application on your computer, from which You can upload images directly to website.

    I am planing to get this branded application for a HeyImage.com website. However I am not very smart about desktop programing, so I will pay programmer on freelance site to develop it. I think such an application will cost about 100$ - 150$ to develop.

    LET'S SHARE EXPENSES
    Maybe You want this application for your image hosting website too? If 4-5 websites would join it would be quite cheap per website. I can do project management, and will pay my part, from You will be needed only website logo to add to application. Also website should be powered by Mihalism script(same login procedures). Please let me know if someone is interested in that.
     
    Mailzas, Jan 17, 2008 IP
    MTbiker likes this.
  15. Judd

    Judd Active Member

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    #75
    Great idea! I think I am going to create a desktop app for my site tonight :) great way to get people to remember your site.
     
    Judd, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  16. ORZ

    ORZ Well-Known Member

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    #76
    So am I ;)

    And I guess I could explain the fact why not one got interested into it.
    In InternetinÄ—s programos there are a lot of this BUX sites and they pay to click ads ( too bad admins can't remove this sections since they would lose 20% of there members ) so basically this sites pay 1-3cents per click and people just earn a lot more then you offered ;/ 10 clicks 20 cents and they would have to do a lot more work to get 1k impressions for you. Yeah this sort of activities suck, but I just keep my eyes closed on that forum.
     
    ORZ, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  17. mikey1090

    mikey1090 Moderator Staff

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    #77
    this was a good read. thanks. I'll be interested to know how you manage to improve the CPM
     
    mikey1090, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  18. Yoeld

    Yoeld Peon

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    #78
    Great thread. I have learned a lot! Thanks.
     
    Yoeld, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  19. ChrisPhp

    ChrisPhp Active Member

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    #79
    mailzas, what exactly do you mean with * Check if visitor computer run javascript, to defend autosurfers.
    Can you explain that a bit more please?
     
    ChrisPhp, Jan 17, 2008 IP
  20. Mailzas

    Mailzas Peon

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    #80
    ChrisPhp,

    Here is the code. Note that I print from javascript small image.
    From image request i count how much views I have.
    Simple autosurfer, will not interpret javascript, so no visits will be counted.

    Also note $hash part. When changing part of request, I get sure
    that browser have not "cached" "this image".

    
    function set_javascript_track($code, $file, $user_id){
      $hash = rand(1000, 10000);
      $params = "action=img_track&track=$code&file=$file&user_id=$user_id&anything=$hash"; 
    
    print <<<HTML
    	<script language="Javascript1.2">
      <!--
      document.write("<img width=0 height=0 src=ad_tracker.php?$params>");
      //-->
      </script>
    HTML;
    };
    
    Code (markup):
     
    Mailzas, Jan 17, 2008 IP