XFileSharing Pro - Recommended user limits ? Can anyone help! Making losses

Are you making good - with XFS Pro?

No - Loosing money
11
69%
Yes - Making a Profit
5
31%
 
Total votes: 16

Message
Author
Hendrickson
Posts: 90
Joined: Nov 18, 2009 9:15 pm

Recommended user limits ? Can anyone help! Making losses

#1 Postby Hendrickson » Dec 13, 2009 8:22 pm

Hi,

I know we all have competing sites.... But is anyone willing to share. Let us know what user limit/s might actually lead to a few premium account sales?

I'm struggling to make any money with this system..(Infact I'm loosing alot of money)And I think my user limits are at fault.

I have hundreds of users online and thousands of downloads a day...yet many days on end without a single premium account sale.

I've tried lower my prices, setting higher limits..Nothing is working and if this keeps up another Xfilesharing site fails..... I'm ripping my hair out for ways to make this work...


I will pay for info that works...If thats whats needed

jeyul
Posts: 51
Joined: Feb 17, 2009 8:14 am

#2 Postby jeyul » Dec 13, 2009 9:59 pm

I'm making money. Not much, but I have a small profit. I am from Romania so the ads aren't too good. With 15000 unique visitors per day I am barely making 500$ a month which 200 of them go to the hosting and almost all the rest to the users. It's true, I do not pay 10$ per 1000 downloads like missupload.com does. I pay 0.7$/ 1000 downloads which is the biggest rate for a Romanian site and sincer the users saw this thing, my traffic is getting bigger and bigger :)

Mega B
Posts: 76
Joined: Jul 08, 2009 12:55 pm

#3 Postby Mega B » Dec 14, 2009 4:15 am

The initial startup costs of setting up a Filehosting site are much higher than alot of normal sites this is due to the higher server specs,i started our site about 6 months back and i allocated a reasonable amount of money to get throught the lean times until the site starts going into a break even mode then as we all hope the profit mode.
Its been a sharp learning curve as hosting company that we 1st used went bust on us so we had to get the backup site up and running asap as like you we had started to loose some money.

At this moment the site is just started the going into profit mode and yes its mainly the adverts on the site that carry the site initially but after trying differant tactics we are starting to get people pay to join which is good news and does great things for your ego as going days without anyone signing up as payed members is soul destroying,i feel that people dont want to commit to a years payed up membership to a brand new site i think as time goes by and people see that you are a reliable host and in for the long haul that is when people start paying for the 12 months rather than just for 7/30 days time duration.

For the last 6 months i have mainly been refining our site and getting rid of a few small glitches and also the main SEO job which is not the nicest of jobs and is totally boring but it has to be done.

I am getting towards the end of our seed money for starting the site and as the paying members increase we are looking for a great 2010 as all the indications are looking good.

I will never say how much it has cost to setup the site it would be hard to say as i have spent alot of time which you cannout count but as you have mentioned the survival rate in the File Hosting arena is very low and many good sites go to the wall.

I am always refining the site and trying new ideas as it is a cut throat business to be in and we all aspire to be the next Rapidshare so it can be done but i hope it starts turning around for you.

Hendrickson
Posts: 90
Joined: Nov 18, 2009 9:15 pm

#4 Postby Hendrickson » Dec 14, 2009 7:24 am

Thanks for the replies, I'm trying to stick it out for the long haul. But it all comes down to money.

So nobody can recommend any good settings for the use limits setting tab?
  • Download delay seconds per 100mb
    Download speed limit
    Download timeout before download.
    Bandwitdh limit per x days
These I think are were my site is failing. I brought my site, apparenty it was making some good profit. I've yet to see it and now I'm starting to belivie I was scammed. Its easy enought to edit the sql stat tables to fake a few good moneys of payments.

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

#5 Postby GMC » Dec 15, 2009 2:24 am

My site is new so I do not expect much - but I do expect in time to make some - from this

I have nothing to add in terms of specs I have tried to mimic the bigger hosts and am refining from there

Good luck everyone!

User avatar
PilgrimX182
Posts: 2186
Joined: Mar 22, 2006 1:39 pm

#6 Postby PilgrimX182 » Dec 15, 2009 9:01 am

Some users start filesharing sites just like a hobby, wasting money on them but not getting much profit.
Profit of these sites 80% depends on what ads you're using. 20% is how much traffic you get there.

marketermac
Posts: 4
Joined: Dec 30, 2009 8:40 pm

#7 Postby marketermac » Jan 06, 2010 2:33 pm

PilgrimX182 wrote:Some users start filesharing sites just like a hobby, wasting money on them but not getting much profit.
Profit of these sites 80% depends on what ads you're using. 20% is how much traffic you get there.
I'm surprised there isn't a writeup on what ad networks are being used / limits are working for these type of sites (I assume you run lots of them and probably have tested a lot of different strategies).

I'm just getting started but I'd like to think I've got a handle on costs vs. advert income (I used to run a ton fo proxy sites, which is damn near the same business model as file sharing sites - tons of bandwidth and concurrent users with much of the revenue from ads).

In any event, if there is demand for it I'll gladly put together a PDF on what has worked for me with proxy sites the past (ad networks and premium accounts). It'd be great if there was a member with a larger file sharing site who could give some input and try out some of the networks I suggest to report back how well they work with the file sharing model.

Just let me know either way..

Hendrickson
Posts: 90
Joined: Nov 18, 2009 9:15 pm

#8 Postby Hendrickson » Jan 11, 2010 6:41 pm

marketermac wrote:
PilgrimX182 wrote:Some users start filesharing sites just like a hobby, wasting money on them but not getting much profit.
Profit of these sites 80% depends on what ads you're using. 20% is how much traffic you get there.
I'm surprised there isn't a writeup on what ad networks are being used / limits are working for these type of sites (I assume you run lots of them and probably have tested a lot of different strategies).

I'm just getting started but I'd like to think I've got a handle on costs vs. advert income (I used to run a ton fo proxy sites, which is damn near the same business model as file sharing sites - tons of bandwidth and concurrent users with much of the revenue from ads).

In any event, if there is demand for it I'll gladly put together a PDF on what has worked for me with proxy sites the past (ad networks and premium accounts). It'd be great if there was a member with a larger file sharing site who could give some input and try out some of the networks I suggest to report back how well they work with the file sharing model.

Just let me know either way..
Im interested :) Since I'm making a loss any help I can get will be worth while.

PowerChaos
Posts: 521
Joined: Dec 19, 2009 5:12 pm

#9 Postby PowerChaos » Jan 17, 2010 4:23 am

well i readed this topic

and i got a few comments

lets first answer the ads

i used google ads on a proxy website , easy money (100$ on 2 days from ads only)
but got banned by google because they say that it is fraude ( 1.2 mill visitors per day and all the time the server was crashing so google got bad stats of the site , they check it and it is down , it comes up and they get stats like 1.2 mill visitors , so they say fraude o.O )

well , at this moment i am using adklikz.com
they are mostly like bux.me ads but they are not bad

then to answer a otehr question

i am a hosting company to , i offer vps and dedi servers and i started up a download location
so far , it exist for 1 month on a dedi server (Q9550 with 8GB ram and 1TB hd)

its kinda expensive , but i dont lose money because i earn the money from my clients that pays for my services (hosting)

so thats not a big problem to lose money in the beginning

then to answer the ads question , that you earn 20% by clietns is not complete true
it all depends what money you spend on it for publicty and where you spend it
you can spend 1000$ and dont have a single persone to your site , or you can spend 1000$ and earning 10 000$ because you spended it to the right sites and right campains

let the users know that you exist and it will be fine
take care of your site and take your time , dont rush things and it will be fine

then to answer your question of best stats

for me the dowload limit is 150kb and 15 seconds wait time
no traffic limit , because thats kinda rubish if your file cant be downloaded then anymore
no download limit for same reason , get 2k persones to download a file that is over his limit ?? , not good

15 days non downloaded files will be trashed , its like they say , a download location and not a file storage for your single space wasting files that never get downloaded but that you want to have as backup

basicly , set the settings like you want them to be , but think where it need to be used for and think not for you , but think to other persones
aks your friends what they want , ask on forums and take a look at other sites what other does , then make a average of it or try to find the right solution for you

do you got a traffic limit (i dont have :P ) then put a limit on it
do you hate small space wasting files ?? put a short delete term on it
do you have great ads ?? then put a long download waiting time on it
but as you probaly know to
a short wait time can have lower download speed
but a long wait time of 60 seconds ... that need to be fast or you get no users

so its like i say , take a look around and you will make it right like you think it should be

if you want to take a look at my settings , feel free to go to http://boosterking.com and take a look

i forgot something to say
my server is kinda funny
most persones use a shared server (getting more profit or to pay server costs of it )
but they dont use a dedicated server for 1 website
because it is mostly to expensive to buy 2 servers to put your website on

in my case , because of problems i got before with big downloads (files of 700mb) was i forced to do it this way
1 server shared with more users (cpanel , webhosting) and 1 single server to store the files and as download location :D

and now to answer the big quetsion
no , i dont make profit yet , i only lose money so far (on this 1 month) but i got around the 150 files on it already (few deleted already , few reported) and a few registered users and 1 user taht want to become premium

so it just need time and it will be fine :D

Greets From PowerChaos

Hendrickson
Posts: 90
Joined: Nov 18, 2009 9:15 pm

#10 Postby Hendrickson » Jan 17, 2010 5:14 pm

Hi powerchoas, thanks for your tips. Good luck with your site. At least your costs are low. I'm loosing more I know due to the fact that my site runs on 3 dedicated servers. And has some 80,000 files and 20,000+ users.

Using:
  • 1 server for the main site so its not effected when the file servers are over loaded with many uploads.
  • 2 files server almost at 100%....

Soon I have to add another server, so times are tough. Not to mention I have to payout $,$$$ odd dollars for user payouts. This hurts me...

I can see why the likes of missupload.com has scrapped their reward system. Must have been bleeding them dry..lol much like me......I too think I'll have to review or scap the reward payout system. All this money going out and very very little coming it. Makes me want to cry at times. But I hope it will one day pick up soon.

I'm learning alot. Also learn that its very hard to survive once you start getting users and payments.

PowerChaos
Posts: 521
Joined: Dec 19, 2009 5:12 pm

#11 Postby PowerChaos » Jan 18, 2010 4:44 pm

well , if you want

take a look at my site or contact me and i can give you great prices for dedicated servers (hosting company :P)

but if you are bleeding to death because of the payments they ask

then do it differend and be smart

dont reward points for anonymouse downloads , only for premium downloads

so a member need to pay to gain back a bit of money

or dont give paypall payments or put the stuff realy high

and reward premium points , so they can get free premium accounts

there are differend ways to limit this abusing , because you cant live with no profit

it all depends how you take care of it

ps: the website i mean for dedicated servers is at http://getadedi.com

or contact me at powerchaos.Com (contact form or webmaster at powerchaos.com)

i hope this helps you to prevent from losing stuff

Greets From PowerChaos

Hendrickson
Posts: 90
Joined: Nov 18, 2009 9:15 pm

#12 Postby Hendrickson » Jan 18, 2010 6:18 pm

PowerChaos wrote:well , if you want

take a look at my site or contact me and i can give you great prices for dedicated servers (hosting company :P)

but if you are bleeding to death because of the payments they ask

then do it differend and be smart

dont reward points for anonymouse downloads , only for premium downloads

so a member need to pay to gain back a bit of money

or dont give paypall payments or put the stuff realy high

and reward premium points , so they can get free premium accounts

there are differend ways to limit this abusing , because you cant live with no profit

it all depends how you take care of it

ps: the website i mean for dedicated servers is at http://getadedi.com

or contact me at powerchaos.Com (contact form or webmaster at powerchaos.com)

i hope this helps you to prevent from losing stuff

Greets From PowerChaos
Thanks for the ideas. I'm going to have to review things before I go bankrupt. I've seen your plans. But 4TB a month bandwidth doesn't cut it with file servers.

PowerChaos
Posts: 521
Joined: Dec 19, 2009 5:12 pm

#13 Postby PowerChaos » Jan 18, 2010 6:55 pm

well , i offer unlimited to :P for a few $ extra , (60$ normal , can go down to 40$ for 100mb/s unmetered)

and mainly is 4TB enouf to start with
even for a starting file host

its when you have a lot of downloads (in your case :P) that they preffer to go unmetered or that they preffer to go dedicated ( 100mb dedi line = 400$ :S ) but then it becomes realy expensive

well , in any case if you like , send me a pm or so and i can give you my msn adress if intrested :D

Greets From PowerChaos