Steemimg.com - Some Info, A Monetization Proposal for maintaining servers, and website analytics.
My Dedicated Steemit Image Hosting website http://steemimg.com has been growing fast, this is expected as the demand for images hosting by users increases as the platform does. As I have mentioned before I have pre-purchased 10 years of server space for a set number of possible uploaded images, once this limit is hit (won't take long at this pace) I will have to cut off new uploads or dramatically limit total daily uploads.
I have plans to get all of the uploaded images onto IPFS so that the images would potentially have a place to live forever via the same image url even without my server actually holding the file. I was hoping this would be a potential way to have my server remain smaller and still be able to offer full image hosting essentially forever for free. I Find out that even while getting images onto IPFS you still need the server space for the actual network isn't where it needs to be just yet. I don't need to get into all of this here really so I just keep it at that.
So what it comes down to is if we want to try and keep this dedicated service going after my current limit is hit or just to use other free image hosting to host all of or images?
At the moment (obviously) the majority of Steemit Users don't use my service or else this conversation would have come up a lot faster... Currently I have 1400 users who are very active and seem to primarily use steemimg to upload their images. Even at this small number of users compared to total steemit users, image counts go up quickly, which drives up total image space, but whats most important is served bandwidth. I'm not sure how familier most of you are with how image hosting works but essentially the server can only handle so much bandwidth before slowing down and eventually failing. The more images that are hosted on steemimg the more images are requested and served to all of your looking at the post the image is contained in. The more popular steemit becomes, the more the posts are read, the more times these images are served equals A LOT of bandwidth.
One good thing is that posts don't last very long on steemit and after that first 24 hours requests for these images goes way down freeing up bandwidth of new posts and so on... I have been able to set up the server to handle this but it can only go so far. This leads me to... sorry to be long winded ;)
Monetization Proposal
My idea is simple, get sponsors... you.
Instead of throwing dumb, unrelated, obstructive, and bothersome ads onto the website I want to instead have Steemit Users and or their Steemit Posts sponsor a day (or longer) of essentially server costs.
I could treat this like any other ad space and have users bid on the space to promote their posts and or themselves (gain followers?). I would offer up the home page text dead smack in the middle with a small message and a link to your content. I could also offer up the customization of the background image.
I would then take the profits from these ad buys to maintain and upgrade the server. I think this would be a win win for the Steemit community and a new way to promote your content while helping maintain a service!
So... What do you think? Anyone want to get in on the first ad placement and put a bid in on the comments below? In addition to getting your placement on the very busy http://steemimg.com I could also get you and your post up on a post by me when trying to acquire a new ad placements, a Thank You of sorts.
I also wanted to share some website analytics so here you go...
August 1st to Today
Look forward to everyones thoughts on this
Blue
I guess I will start a comment thread for bids on the first promoted post.
Starting Bid $5 SBD or in the equivalent in Steem
You will get the homepage intro text position under by @blueorgy for 24 hours. You can put up a sentence of your choice (I have to approve) and then the link to your content and a link to your profile.
Thanks & Good Luck!
hi,
I wrote a cute little story about a baby dolphin and all the posts he read on steemit last week and your post is in it!
have a look, I hope you like it
thanks
I think you provide a really great service, but you're also competing against a lot of other services out there. If they need ads to survive, you probably will too. From my perspective, if people want free, they don't care about ads. If they want a paid account, they can go that route too. My suggestion would be to do what you need to do to get enough money to make this worth your time which includes ads. At the same time, offer a subscription plan for users who want it. I do hope it works out, because I think your platform is one of the best out there.... but if I needed to, I would use another service because, ultimately, this space has been commoditized, and it's mostly a secondary concern for just "putting my images somewhere so I can publish my blog post."
Hi.
Happy to help.
Can we purchase a licence in SBD for instance ?
Imho 5 SBD/year seems reasonable. or 20 SBD lifetime.
Regarding point 3, I suggest you create a small banner that users would put in their posts (something like: Hosted on Steemimg).
You would also get revenues from the campaign on steemit, which I would be happy to relay personally on the forums and chat rooms.
Lmk if you need help. Your platform is awesome, and it needs to survive.
I do see the benefits of having Paid Memberships or cost per year License and this would defiantly have the potential to maintain the server costs but, and a big but, I really like keeping it free. It just seems like the way things should be on and around the steemit community. It's defiantly something i can dive deeper into, like upload plans by usage and need...
Having a banner, just in general, could be cool for people to sport on their posts if they desire ;) will need a solid design for that.
Thanks for the great comment.
Then the question is
How much to you need to keep it alive and free, up and running with 20,000 users daily (let's say).
After that, we will just launch a campaign for donation (count me in) + a Steemit posts .
What do you think ?
Its defiantly a possibility and a good idea. I really have to crunch the numbers to figure out what it will be costing at that 20,000 daily users, so I'll have to get back to you on that one. I have a feeling its costly. My next server upgrade will be pretty big so it may be the initial costs and then we go from there.
I'd definitely go for a premium subscription. I love this idea. :)
Ill volunteer myself first. What would it cost to sponsor the servers for one day?
I have a series of personal stories going through Special Forces training that I'd like to be seen by more and I love your website. easy match :)
I was thinking to make the minimum bid for a daily sponsor $5 SBD for now, since I have the server costs covered until the server upgrade. This would increase over time and also getting a higher bid would help out long term and would go towards that initial upgrade cost.
Started the bidding in a comment thread here
As a writer and someone who's been using steemimg to host the images from my stories, I really like the idea.
I am especially liking the possibility of being seen by a new array of people, who normally wouldn't look into the tags I post my stories under - it's essentially being listed on another category/tag that most people use.
If it means keeping the sight alive and free I'm all for it - Good luck!
Have you any API for posting images?
Yes there is via a third party I used to create the website... however I don't want to activate it, because frankly it would be a lot to deal with and I want to keep it to the current format. If and when I have a big heavy server and a clear line of sight for resource requirement I may open it up for apps and possibly even Steemit to use.
Hi @blueorgy, and do you know what is the position of Colombia? I´m exiting to know it...
Nice to type you again!!!
Well done, Blue!
Steemimg is Awesome , you got my Upvote for Life !