Free Image Hosting Solutions

The internet isn’t really free. Sure, we all surf it to find free information, free things to look at, free games – but we’re paying for it by viewing advertising. And sometimes we pay for the stuff they advertise on those free sites. So whenever you see the word “free” online, you should ask yourself – how are they making a profit? Free image hosting is no exception. Bandwidth and Images Images require a lot of bandwidth. A LOT, Depending on your picture quality, it can take a hundred or a thousand times as much bandwidth to download an image as to download a text document. And bandwidth costs money; it’s the main expense, outside of labor, that a typical web service provider incurs. So how can someone provide free image hosting and yet make a profit? There are several ways, both legitimate and ethical and not. You should be aware of all of them prior to making a decision to use free image hosting. Profitability of Free Image Hosting One way is by taking ownership of your images. There are sites out there that will claim a copyright ownership of images uploaded to their servers. It’s in the contract (that no one reads); and you can fight it, but they make enough money from all the images together that a few guys filing lawsuits are worth it. The lesson here: read your contracts before releasing your stuff onto the internet! Another way is by running advertising on the pages displaying your images. This might be okay with you; for instance, if you just want to share pictures of the convention you went to, or you have a bunch of wedding pictures you want people to take a look at, but if you’re selling a product, it’s unkind to ask your customers to both pay for the product and pay to view it by looking at advertisements. And they’ll be offended. Yet a third way is by allowing you to upload images, but charging people to download unwatermarked versions. This method is a bit newer, but it’s catching on. It allows you to upload your fifty wedding pictures, but requires Gramma Mark to pay a dollar each for them. This business model is similar to what a lot of photo developers are doing recently with electronic images. There are also several free image hosting providers who allow you to use their services for a limited amount of webspace and downloads in the hopes that you will then upgrade to a premium service level. These providers tend to be ethical and good choices; and it’s a great way to try out image hosting services without having to commit to a contract or invest your money. Your Best Choice Image hosts that provide free image hosting sometimes provide special tools, like thumbnail generation and

image sorting, that can prove invaluable to your content; but more often than not, you will have to do these things yourself. You also may not be able to get a report as to whether people are looking at your images. And the profit they are making from your images may not be palatable to you. What you need to decide, then, is what you really want from an image hosting provider, and go with it. A free image host may suit your needs. But it’s possible that you need an image host who will be kinder to your customers. And if you’re paying for image hosting, you should also be able to run your own advertisements on your site, and get the advertising revenue. Think it through before deciding.