How to make an Image Hosting site ?

hi
i need your advice/help about image hosts

i want to make one and i dont know from where to start

What host to choose, some unlimited space and bandiwith plan ? do i need a dedicaded box for this host this site ? please if you run a simular site give me your advice and name some hosts too

also what script to use, a free one to a paid one ?

other things that i need to know ?

i ask your help for avoid some big mistakes as a new in the image hosting

thank you

 

hello,

basically it all starts out with finding a niche, and a good script that can be used for imagehosting. Next to that you need to have ways of getting traffic to that image host domain. one of teh good script around is a free one and called mihalism image hosting.

We run several (adult) image hosts and adapted the script into a get paid version, in our version the admin can alter a setting that pays a certain amount to every user for views he brings to the site. SO that is a kind of revenue sharing, this attracts users as well.

As we run some adult image hosts, i can't give you a url to look at, but it can in PM.

The script modifications are for sale also.

// Peter

 

You should think twice before entering the image host niche. Personally I do have a free image host and I would recommend you to get a dedicated hosting or even a VPS.

Shared Plan might work well as well for the first weeks but when traffic will increase, you need to have a good hosting.

Monetizing image hosts is another story, whether you will add advertisements since the beginning or you will wait until traffic comes in, it all depends on you

 

i dont want to make an adult site
a family safe image host is my plan

mihalism looks ok , but is realy free or it get any % of the traffic ?

also do you have any suggestion about the host plan that i will need ?

right now i dont care how i will get traffic, i want more to make a safe start with out spend too much cash (is more a test this project for me) so i can play and learn with it with out to worry how to cover the cost or solve problems each month.

ps. you can pm your url, if i make my host i will need an adult host to suggest to users for not upload the nudes to me

 

You need to use offshore VPS hosting coz shared hosting is not allow to host this site.
Don't use free script coz there are many backdoor inside the script,avoid it at all cost.
I use aihscript.com

 

I like the idea of the fact you say that every free script has a backdoor, we developed many imagehosting sites and used the mihalism version for it, we never got problems, but if you think it does please tell me (then my sites are in danger)

Peter

 

check http://imagejockey.cn/ if you are in need of a script to start your site. You can also use it for filehosting and if needed I could also sell you a great domain

 

I would also be interested in starting a image hosting site.

How it should be advertised and what would be a decent budget to start it ?

 

I have an image hosting script I downloaded from somewhere. I could give you that?

Also you would need a tonne of space maybe pay as you go and also alot of bandwidth. Try Rackspace

 

You can search on sourceforge.com for a great script

 

Why offshore VPS?

 

why offshore ???
and do you have any to suggest me ?

 

Try Scriptteen image hosting script. it has everything you need like a nice Admin CP, Adsense code etc.www.scripteen.com/scripts/scripteen-free-image-hosting-script.html

 

Ya scriptteen is good one.You can also try ot 4images,coppermine,gallery .All are free.
x10media also provides paid script for image hosting.

You'll need dedicated server once traffic increases.

 

there are really a lot of things to consider before starting a image hosting services, let have a look:

- DO i want a adult or family safe image host?
well that is up to you, just think that most adult images hosts admins have a lot more work i terms of moderating the uploaded images, then i think about image not allowed by the laws of your country, DMCA and so on. Family safe image hosts have a lot less to do with DMCA acts and illegal pictures.

- What script do i need?
This is not the most easy question of all, although some people will say a image hosting script is a image hosting script. It depends on several things. Best is to find out what you want to offer your visitors, do you want classic images hosting like we do on http://gyzu.net or do you wanna offer gallery features like with 4images or coppermine. then also you need to think on extra services that you want as a secondary income from the host. Maybe you can alter the script to offer real life prints thru a affiliate program, or maybe photobooks or whatever you can imagine.

- Do i need a dedicated server from the start?
Well maybe it is wise to start out with a dedicated server, lots of space and bandwidth but then lets see what is a lot of space, we run several adult image hosts on one dedicated server, then we also run our bloghosting service on it and even one of our file hosting sites. And all together it consumes 100 GB webspace. Some people will say yeah but then you don't have much visitors, well together the sites pull over 125.000 uniques a day and doing ten times more pageviews. I believe that a single inmage host can start of on a small VPS, just make sure you have decent backup possibilities and one other tip, when looking for a server try to stay with the same control panel that way it is easier to export your site to a new server when needed.

- How should i promote my image host?
Best way of promoting a free non paying imagehosting service is find a niche and search some forums with that make some post on these boards and use your imagehost to post the images in those topics. YOu like formula 1 well post all the team members of your favorite team on those formula one boards, maybe you can even make a special group on the imaghosting service and offer memebers of these boards a xl account.

- how do i earn money?
The big question for a lot of people with images hosts, you can just market it to the niche alike said above and then try to sell it. but wouldn't it be better to have recurring income every month again. Well loook for good paying ads service like adsense, layerads, bin layer and more of them around. Since you will have a lot of viewers try to find CPM advertisers.

- Is that All??
no there is way more to think about, but i think this is it for now, when someone has questions, just shout them in the topic or in my pm or if you have it, msn, aim, yahoo or icq. We can help you with setting up the service, getting the advertisers and also get the domainname and hosting if you want.

// Peter

 

A free image script that works vary good.

http://www.gravy-media.com/

 

Showing what Im.gg is based off of looks pretty good:

http://chevereto.com/

 

Yes Johnny, im.gg is using Chevereto free image hosting script

 

Personally I'd just begin with a free hosting script (though if you're really serious about it and have some funds to back it up, generally better to go paid if it has more features you'd like etc.) using cheap hosting, then as your site grows, try and make money from it, then when it's big enough move to a VPS, then the only thing you'd need to watch is bandwidth (or move up again to a dedi for more physical resources).

 

thank you all for your help