Don't waste your 404's

I run a couple of Image hosting sites that I have basically done next to no promotion of for around 3-4 Months. The traffic is steady and they do OK income wise.

3 weeks ago, when checking the stats, I noticed that there were a lot of 404 errors showing up in the logs. This is of course to be expected as older images are purged from time to time.

I took the time to find the referers of some pages where the no-longer existing images were being referred to in order to take a look.

Then, I sat down and looked at how I could use this to my advantage and came up with a Solution.

My solution was pretty simple - whenever a request comes in for an image that is no longer hosted, I built a custom 404 handler. The 404 handler in my case outputs an Image - as an image is what is being requested. Now you may wonder "so what" but here is the crunch. It is not just any image, but an "Advert" for my site.

To See how I have implemented the "Advert" - http://www.4freeimagehost.com/uploads/notanimage.jpg

Then, I went back and looked at some of the pages that were referring to non-existant images again and saw a clear image with my message on it.

Now, today when I have gone and checked my Stats, I noticed something quite surprising. With no other additional promotion of my site, and no other changes at all, I have already Exceeded the previous months unique visitors (and the month is only half over) and the revenue from the site is on track to exceed last month as well.

So, whatever you do, monitor your stats - even on established sites and see how you can better monetise your existing traffic or potential traffic. Why not take 15 minutes and look at your stats and see if you could gain some more "free", Viral adevertising and traffic.

 

i run adsense on my 404 pages so far $ 0 income

 

No, I am not talking about running Adsense on 404 pages at all - but using the 404 traffic to market your site - and generate more real visitors looking at more real pages.

I would never run adsense on a 404 page unless it had some real content as well.

 

RRWH, what you just did is normal practice on all large scale image hosting sites like flickr, imageshake, photobucket, etc. It's not new.

 

hex -> thanks for the comment, but What I am trying to convey is more of a concept to hopefully help others.

I was trying to point out that a site MAY already be getting some sort of traffic that could be better converted - and that by thinking outside the box - or looking at all alternatives your site could possibly do better with minimal effort.

I was of course trying to show an example of exactly how I acheived this with my particular site.

 

Sure, it IS a good practice. Viable for these type of sites only.

 

Good idea, Can you tell us the results after a few weeks?

 

Actually makes sense..I used to have a simple..'This page does not exist.Click here to proceed' line on 404s...Maybe I'll try something catchy so that visitors visit my high-value pages..

 

Can I ask how one does this? I have Cpanel, but I don't know if there is an option to do it easily.

 

Think there should be one link called 'custom error pages'..been sometme since i opened the cpanel

 

And you should remove those ads right now.

 

Very helpful advice here.... I have never given a thought to my 404 pages. This is "outside the box" thinking and I, for one, appreciate you letting us know.
I will take a look and see how I might be able to use my 404 pages to create more traffic..... BIG THANKS.

 

Agreed, you can't use Adsense on error pages, RTFM.

Anyone that doesn't have a custom 404 page is just throwing away traffic. Many people just close the browser window when they get that ugly 404 not found standard page. At least you should customize that page with your header or logo and provide a link to your homepage, give your visitors a way to get back to your site before they leave forever.

 

you should not place ads on 404 pages i think this is againts adsense TOS thats if you are using adsense.

 

Now we know why you have 1300 posts.

 

Hmm, I wonder how you can do this with leeched images. I tried replacing a leeched image with another image, but this causes an 'infinite loop' as the system thinks the 'another image' is also getting leeched.

 

I thought everyone used custom error pages.
First thing to set up once the site is hosted.

I have seen some custom error pages that were more fun to read than the site itself.

No adsense, but hey, good for affiliate links, banners, reviews, etc etc

 

You have to allow your own domain access.

 

Thanks much. I never thought about my 404s. I'm going to take your advice. Appreciate your taking the time to share your experience.

P. S. Please note that I the link to your website wasn't active when I tried to click on it.

 

i do the same thing on my site:

http://illhostit.net/files/1/Comedy/nothinghere404.jpg