Where do you host your graphics?

[SyncMaster]

As we all know hosting graphics (layout graphics, images and stuff you use in your resource sites) on your own server or shared host is going to consume allot of bandwidth. I see some of the site owners host their graphics on third party image hosting sites like photobucket etc. The problem is that they ran out of bandwidth soon and display "bandwidth exceeded" message instead of displaying the original images. Do you guys know of a good free image hosting site that have no bandwidth issues etc? or any alternative way?

Cheers,

[mcfox]

Can't you just host them on your own site?

[SyncMaster]

I am currently hosting them on my own site but as i said earlier, it is going to consume bandwidth so thought i should host them on a third party free host :)

[mcfox]

The problem with third-party free hosts is exactly as you described in your original post - after a while they images get taken down, especially if they consume too much bandwidth.

You could always 'spread the load' as it were by hosting images across a few different paid hosts using your own domains. Get a cheap .info domain from Registerfly and buy some cheap hosting from somewhere else and put some of your images there.

[AbdulR]

Yeah you can easily get 750gb+ for 7-10 bucks a month now. Anhosting, bluehosting and dreamhost to name a few
I don't know how reliable dreamhost are I've read mixed reviews but anhosting and bluehosting have been fantastic for me.

and if your site is popular enough to be using that much bandwidth you must be making a serious amount of cash from it...

[fryman]

I will be using 2,800 gb this month :(

Damn bandwidth is getting expensive!

[AbdulR]

I will be using 2,800 gb this month :(

Damn bandwidth is getting expensive!
http://midphase.com/html_files/plandetails_prophase.php

"unmetered" for 12 bucks... hmmm.

[fryman]

hahahaha

Don't even need to visit the link to see that it is crap... 12 bucks? Yeah... sure...

[Scilynt]

I will be using 2,800 gb this month :(

Damn bandwidth is getting expensive!with that kind of traffic, I would think you could get a dedicated/month for one days revenue.

[fryman]

I do have a dedicated. problem is that I only get 700gb of bandwidth. Each 500gb block costs me an extra $50, so you can see that it quickly adds up

[AbdulR]

hahahaha

Don't even need to visit the link to see that it is crap... 12 bucks? Yeah... sure...
Actually 12 bucks seems like a fair price considering you need to pay extra to get awstats and the 12 bucks only includes 3 mysql databases :p

[fryman]

And, according to a post I just saw in their forum, they give you bandwidth in 100gb blocks, when you are close to using 80% of your bandwidth you need to ask for another block and so on.

I would go crazy doing that.

[AbdulR]

And, according to a post I just saw in their forum, they give you bandwidth in 100gb blocks, when you are close to using 80% of your bandwidth you need to ask for another block and so on.

I would go crazy doing that.
*sigh* there is always a catch isn't there.

[Drew]

12/09/06 5:28pm Fryman: I need more bandwidth
12/09/06 5:29pm Site Admin: Here ya go
12/09/06 5:30pm Fryman: I need more bandwidth again
....
....

I can just imagine it.

[SyncMaster]

2,800 gb :eek: man thats too much

[Scilynt]

2,800 gb :eek: man thats too muchThats how the big boys do it! lol. Wonder how many servers some of those top 10 sites have to use to keep up with bandwidth.

[Drew]

actually not that many .... if you know a trick or two....

I'll save you all the effort of pm'ing me, work it out for yourself. Think laterally.

It's a Goose kinda thing!

[dzerv]

fryman: maybe you have to transfered to an "unmetered" dedicated server.
i have moved my site to an unmetered vps that i have and i don't have any problems with traffic :-)

[MaxS]

I host the images on my own server. A bit over 1,000 GB is needed -- nothing too bad, it still all fits on one server.

[PGZ]

I do have a dedicated. problem is that I only get 700gb of bandwidth. Each 500gb block costs me an extra $50, so you can see that it quickly adds up

Sounds to me like you got a ****ty server plan to begin with.

Mine is $190 a month and comes with 2000 GB getting 500 gigs more is also fairly cheap.

So I dont know who your with but it may be time to get a Server/GB that can handle your load.

PGZ

[PGZ]

Also I used Midphase and they shut me down in like 10 days.

BW was fine it was the amount of connections I was getting at one given time. It was slowing the whole server down so they axed me.

That was just with one site on the server also. So even though they say unmetered they will find a way to get rid of you. They want that customer that pays for unmetered but doesnt really need it.

PGZ

[Drew]

If I was able to "fix" the image bandwidth issue for people, ie so that they could host their images almost anywhere and not have a problem if the remote site shut down.

What would it be worth to people?

What if I said I could do it for images you already had out there?

[Scilynt]

$300+! Because you could then use as many free host as you wanted, not have any real bandwith problems and not have to worry about your images getting deleted because you would have multiple backups to use anytime. Just think of the bandwitch you could save!


*NOTE* not that I could afford that price at all, but it sure would be worth a hell of a lot for sites using a ton of bandwidth and they could save hundreds every month.

[PGZ]

I'd say at least $500 Geek cause once it gets out as to how its done you will have nothing. So the 1st price should be high cause it will disappear over time.

Well maybe $300-$500

PGZ

[Scilynt]

To bad it wouldn't be easy to sell something like that on a needs basis. So if somone is only using 10gb it could be really cheap. But if someone is using 3000gb it would be saving them a ton of money and should be worth more to them. Maybe a multiple domain discount?

Of course the possible redundancy protection would be worth a lot alone.

I agree with PGZ, would need to be high to help protect the code and watch for people selling it without permission.

[PGZ]

If you could encrypt the code that would be good but some people frown on that.

PGZ

[Greg-J]

We have a licensed version of SourceGuardian Geek. If you release something like this, I'll encode it for you.

I don't know if you've ever actually tried to break the encryption/obfuscaion that SG provides - but it's impossible. I mean.. well ya. Let's just go with impossible.

Future scripts from Build Revenues will feature some enrypted functions and will be encrypted and packaged on the fly when purchased.

Remember I'm talking about encryption here, not encoded. You won't need any special plugin on your server.

[rob]

fryman: maybe you have to transfered to an "unmetered" dedicated server.
i have moved my site to an unmetered vps that i have and i don't have any problems with traffic :-)
Unmetered servers still have limits.

[Kellerkind]

I have 2 shared hosting accounts and distribute the bandwidth. This is really getting annoying and next month I want to use one dedicated server.
If anyone has a recommendation for a dedicated < 150$ & 1000GB ++ bandwidth please let me know.
Cheers, great forum by the way.

[Greg-J]

Kellerkind, I can get you more for less mate. PM me and we can talk details.

[fryman]

What exactly do you mean by "I can get you"? Do you do hosting?

[Greg-J]

As of now, yes. Not officially - but we are going to start hosting. Yes.

[fryman]

When and how much? Do you have a server specification list with prices I can take a look at?

[Greg-J]

Respond to the PM I sent you earlier and remind me to send you a price sheet when I get up.

[fryman]

I've always wondered... wht time zone are you in?? I always see you logged in so late that I wonder if you live in London or something like that

I am a vampire... its 4:48 over here and I won't be sleeping until 9 or 10 a.m. My friends say I am a lazy slob because I wake up ad 4 p.m., but what they don't understand is that I usually work 10-12 hours per day, I just have a different schedule than the average guy

[Drew]

Greg's on the same timezone as LA I think.

[Greg-J]

I'm in GMT-7. (yeah, L.A.)

Truth is, I'm always up and always on. I get 4 hours of sleep and spend the first half of the day with my family and the next 12 tp 16 hours or so working depending on what day it is.

So when it's 4:48 for you, it's 2:48 for me. And by the way, your clock is about 18 minutes fast.

[Drew]

Greg: Your soooo Yesterday! (GMT+12 here)

[fryman]

That's why I always laugh at those new guys that pop in the forums asking for high paying adsense keywords or similar crap. Everyone thinks that you just need to upload a bunch of pages to the net and money will start rolling in...

[Greg-J]

Ya I always give funny looks at those infomercials where people are like "And with MakeMoneyOnTheInternetRightNow-ItsSuperDuperEasy3872638476.com I was able to make an extra $7,500 my first day with just spending 4 hours! You really have to visit MakeMoneyOnTheInternetRightNow-ItsSuperDuperEasy3872638476.com to get started now!

I think "my ***"... I work until my eyes feel like they're about to bleed most nights and I've only really just started to get ahead a few months ago. If it weren't for the realestate market here, I wouldn't have been able to spend those first two years studying the Internet.

And yes, I really did study it for two years. All day. You didn't think I was able to explode so fast by chance did ya ;)

[Drew]

greg: it's called "overnight success", it only took 2 years to be an "overnight success"

[Greg-J]

Ah, yes. Then I believe I am an 'overnight success'.

[fryman]

And yes, I really did study it for two years. All day. You didn't think I was able to explode so fast by chance did ya

Totally agree. I spent about 2 years studying SEO for hours and hours, 7 days a week...

Now it feels so nice when I put up a site and start getting free traffic from the engines in a couple of weeks.

[Regal]

bandwidth for myspace sites are so unlimited...what an easy game this is :biggrin:

[Drew]

Only if you hotlink to other sites....

[worlddom]

As an aside, did you know that it is now the French who control GMT (or rather UT - universal time). The Brits gave it up as being too expensive!

[Regal]

Only if you hotlink to other sites....

Well, you could in fact hotlink...but I wouldn't suggest it. If you wanted to, linking to myspace server space directly would be your safest bet.

But using places like photobucket etc is easy, and you'll very very rarely have any problems with the unmetered bandwidth. I can tell you that once your in the top 10 search results you'll need multiple accounts, but the price you pay is so minscule compared to the monthly revenue you gain.

[fryman]

Why would you need multiple accounts, Regal?

[Drew]

Even using MySpace itself is hotlinking...

Anything that gives someone else control over the availability of your content is bad, as a site will be finding out soon that is hotlinking my images.

[Scilynt]

Even using MySpace itself is hotlinking...

Anything that gives someone else control over the availability of your content is bad, as a site will be finding out soon that is hotlinking my images.Are you switching them out with gay midget porn bloopers? Because that would be mean. But be sure to post URLs so we can laugh while he learns a valuable lesson. heheh.

I don't mind the random hotlinking if one thing but using your images for everything is going too far. I had one guy on ebay using a bunch of my picturs (that I took) and using my bandwidth for a TON of his auctions. But he stopped eventually when I had mixed up my images and image names on "accident" heheh.

[PGZ]

Dumb question but how can I check to see if someone is hotlinking my images ect...

Where do I need to look and what for.

PGZ

[Drew]

It's not a dumb question, you can't always just look at your server logs.

This is not a sure fire way but it works for me:

1. Identify the top 10 referrers from your server logs. (ie profiles)
2. Visit those profiles, look for your cornertag. If your cornertag isn't there then there is a chance your being hotlinked.
3. Visit the sites that do have cornertags on the profile, see if you can find the image in question. (If they are smart they will display a copy of the image on their own site, but use yours in the code they hand out)

Thats basically how I did it, although because it was a huge site in my case I just downloaded their entire site and then used a search tool to find references to my site. (Google may even help here)

[Drew]

Are you switching them out with gay midget porn bloopers? Because that would be mean. But be sure to post URLs so we can laugh while he learns a valuable lesson. heheh.


No what I will be doing is replacing those images with advertising for my site, but it has to be done right or I will get people who have used code from my site as well, and I don't want that.

[Scilynt]

No what I will be doing is replacing those images with advertising for my site, but it has to be done right or I will get people who have used code from my site as well, and I don't want that.Well you and your more productive solution can just go...lol jk. Yeah, that is a better idea heheh.

[Greg-J]

I have been really struggling to justify putting an admin panel in MSRS, but this might be the argument that solidifies the need for one.

As long as your .htaccess is writable, I could see a very powerful solution here...

[Scilynt]

That could be very cool. Not only could it make some things a lot easier and more productive (news module for example?), just having an admin panel would raise the percieved value of the script.

[Cyclops]

The thing I would most like to see on the MSRS is an RSS feed in a panel down at the bottom above the footer.
For SEO purposes you can't get anything better.

[Drew]

Thats easy....

[Cyclops]

Thats easy....
Yes...but not for me :biggrin: I'm chronically challenged :whistling:

[Drew]

Just be patient...

[Cyclops]

I bought a script for RSS but haven't got around to checking it out...if you think it could be of any help to you just yell.

[Drew]

I was planning on using an open source tool called rippy, just haven't gotten around to looking at it yet. (It's been something I've been meaning to work on for a while)

[mawt]

Just get a paid photobucket account. Or maybe a few. haha

[Selena]

Matt, this thread is ages old.
But while on the topic of this, my paid photobucket account works pretty good.
I use it for images i use for freeweblayouts layouts.
My images get about 1 million views per month and are still up and running fine =D

[urbanista]

I host them in photobucket, but I am not a huge site, so it doesn't really prose a problem to me... lol Maybe open up a website where you can host only your files?