XFileSharing Pro - My Research. Is the file hosting market too saturated?

How much money are you making monthly? Remember that it is making, not revenue!

Over $500
7
37%
Over $100
0
No votes
Under $100
1
5%
About break even
1
5%
Losing money
10
53%
 
Total votes: 19

Message
Author
qq_bbq
Posts: 122
Joined: Jul 05, 2009 11:33 pm

My Research. Is the file hosting market too saturated?

#1 Postby qq_bbq » Jul 20, 2010 2:39 pm

Seeing as how I am either losing money or barely breaking even every month, I decided to do research on the current file hosting market, in particular, sites using xfilesharing pro. From my research, there are about 400 such sites. I checked each site's Alexa ranking and only 28 sites are in the top 100000 (I may have missed a couple sites). That's 28 out of 400 sites (7%). I am actually not surprised by that since there are so many file hosting sites out there. But that's a 93% failure rate and there's no telling that any of those sites in the top 100000 Alexa ranking are even making money. I suspect many are either barely making any money or breaking even after all the expenses are calculated. (servers, payouts, etc.)

Here is a listing of the 28 sites along with their Alexa ranking:
1650 usershare.net
3410 enterupload.com
4141 turboshare.com
5764 cramit.in
17057 quickupload.net
24076 midupload.com
24586 mangoshare.com
26732 filebling.com
27079 banashare.com
34617 uploadkeep.com
37125 superfastfile.com
37359 onionshare.com
38795 missupload.com
38960 sharejunky.com
41952 turboupload.com
44408 mlfat4arab.com
51144 imzupload.com
53458 amonshare.com
57084 zomgupload.com
58415 file-share.cc
60735 stage666.net
61126 filestab.com
62041 sendinto.com
68310 supashare.net
81260 file2box.net
89497 loadfiles.in
89997 flowhot.info
92433 xvidstage.com

Compare that to our competitors:
rapidshare.com
megaupload.com
hotfile.com
fileserve.com
sharingmatrix.com
uploading.com
storage.to
etc.

Our competitors have more money than us, better equipment, better bandwidth, better rewards, better software, etc. How can we to compete with them? With so many options/competitors, it is really hard to get a new site going unless we start paying for downloads/visitors. But consider well established and trusted hosts such as fileserve.com which is paying up to $25 per 1000 downloads and sharingmatrix.com which is paying up to $30 per 1000 downloads. Who is going to use a new site that nobody has ever heard of? And even if they do use our site, it is nearly impossible to match the competitor's payouts and be profitable.

Consider flyfile.us which was based on xfilesharing pro script, when they posted their site up for sale, they were losing money! They managed to average about $1000 revenue per month out of 900000 downloads a month. They were paying out more in rewards than they were taking in and that does not even include their server expenses which I estimate at close to minimum $1000 per month. Flyfile's payout rates were no where near what fileserve, sharingmatrix, hotfile, etc. are paying now. But even at those lower rates, they were losing thousands of dollars per month.

I know the user ids of the owners of some of those top 100000 sites post here. Maybe they can give their input on this. Is anybody else worried about the state of this industry? 93% failure rate is pretty scary. Even if I missed a couple sites, let's say 10 of them. That would knock the failture rate to about 90% (38/400). Still very worrisome.

So with many established sites increasing their payout rates, how can we compete with them?

wlooooo
Posts: 33
Joined: Mar 11, 2008 1:18 am

#2 Postby wlooooo » Jul 20, 2010 6:29 pm

ok .. Mmm my first website i have build from 2 years 2008 www.filealbum.com with xfs .. Not pro ver .. I have get about 10000 alexa ranking .. I use a google adsense and have made about 120 $ / day ok have some problem cuz i use a shared hosting hehe :p and some personal problem thats why i dont complet my project my web reach this rank and its has just 20 days old ... now am starting from some days to build my 4th web with xfs pro version am not do my best yet cuz i do some work with the themes but hope soon my new web www.rx4.org

ankurs
Posts: 1054
Joined: Mar 10, 2009 2:34 am

Re: My Research. Is the file hosting market too saturated?

#3 Postby ankurs » Jul 20, 2010 8:46 pm

qq_bbq wrote: So with many established sites increasing their payout rates, how can we compete with them?
go regional, find ur audience and target them

dont start paying for downloads from day one or else you might endup closing if you dont have deep pockets

make sure you have site policies that depends on premium subscription and not just ad momentized

qq_bbq
Posts: 122
Joined: Jul 05, 2009 11:33 pm

#4 Postby qq_bbq » Jul 20, 2010 9:30 pm

ankurs I notice your site has changed to a file mirroring one, are you still using xfs pro script on another site or have you backed out of the market?

ankurs
Posts: 1054
Joined: Mar 10, 2009 2:34 am

#5 Postby ankurs » Jul 21, 2010 5:31 am

qq_bbq wrote:ankurs I notice your site has changed to a file mirroring one, are you still using xfs pro script on another site or have you backed out of the market?
i stil have xfs pro, but its not profitable yet ; i am hoping with xfs script getting better in coming version, i might be able to compete or atleast offer same kinda services as big boys

GMC
Posts: 172
Joined: Aug 15, 2009 4:48 am

#6 Postby GMC » Jul 21, 2010 5:45 am

I lost money on my first venture into this market.

But I own two forums and an image hosting site - so I have a captured market for people who will support my site

I only closed it down due to continual Ddos attacks on my servers and a full "hack" of my main server (some one didnt like me!!)

I am getting a new domain and a new look - and I will have another go

I WILL NOT be offering a cash reward for downloaders (as I did in the past)- I want to run a site like the old rapidshare - you get credits for premium accounts and thats it

Wish me luck on this front - lol

PS My site was Upit-downit.com Alexa a tick over 100,000

qq_bbq
Posts: 122
Joined: Jul 05, 2009 11:33 pm

#7 Postby qq_bbq » Jul 21, 2010 8:03 am

ankurs: even if the script get better, those using xfs pro will get the same benefits as you, and the big competitors will get better too

ankurs
Posts: 1054
Joined: Mar 10, 2009 2:34 am

#8 Postby ankurs » Jul 21, 2010 8:57 am

qq_bbq wrote:ankurs: even if the script get better, those using xfs pro will get the same benefits as you, and the big competitors will get better too
then the only solution as per your analysis is to get a custom script ? i dont have boat load of cash to spend on a custom solution

xfs looks good & i see a good future of this product ! they have been adding lot of mods and features in each new version

i was hoping 1.8 to be released after a good testing period (atleast a week or two) , but sibsoft has chosen to test it for 2 days ! lets see how it pans out

mastypk
Posts: 123
Joined: Apr 04, 2010 11:49 am

#9 Postby mastypk » Jul 21, 2010 9:35 am

ankurs,

Would you like to disclose your email address to me? I need to discuss something with you.

ankurs
Posts: 1054
Joined: Mar 10, 2009 2:34 am

#10 Postby ankurs » Jul 21, 2010 10:21 am

mastypk wrote:ankurs,

Would you like to disclose your email address to me? I need to discuss something with you.
i think we had a email exchange regarding NL servers, search for word 'oxl' in your mail box

qq_bbq
Posts: 122
Joined: Jul 05, 2009 11:33 pm

#11 Postby qq_bbq » Jul 21, 2010 11:17 am

Poll so far 5/7 (71%) is breaking even or losing money. Not a big sample but we can see that you either make good money or lose money, nothing in the middle.

Where are you guys getting the NL servers from? Email me [email protected]

Filesplash.com
Posts: 1
Joined: Jul 21, 2010 7:27 pm

#12 Postby Filesplash.com » Jul 21, 2010 7:32 pm

Hey, you forgot filesplash.com in your list ;-)

Its really hard to make cash in this biz when u dont pay other sites for uploading..or when you dont have contacts to webmasters who host on your site...

But for me it works i must say i make a lot of more than the servers cost...
but yeah i got soem contacts so it was not that hard.

I wuld say if you dont have a lof of money or a lot of freinds dont try to own a site like this...there are many other ways to get cash:-)