Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : Web Hosting Lounge : How does one get a file sharing site popular?

[vivithemage]

I am curious, I have a pretty well set up site, and I am not sure how to really generate any traffic to it..."organically".

I won't post it, to look like I am trying to get blatant traffic of WHT.

[Mike - Limestone]

What kind of files are on there? Is the content legal, e.g. not in violation of copyright law?

If it is legal and serves a niche target, one would probably want to build it through either word-of-mouth or specific advertising.

-mike

[quantumphysics]

Don't have ads.
Don't have wait times.
Allow direct downloads.

Instant popularity.

[vivithemage]

Originally Posted by quantumphysics

Don't have ads.
Don't have wait times.
Allow direct downloads.

Instant popularity.

True, but i'd have to give all that, then take it away...haha. You can upload what you want, if it gets flagged, it will remove it.

[Jesse_613]

Call it a promo. Then people are not tricked

[vivithemage]

Haha, yeah ... but where to advertise?

[quantumphysics]

if you run a legit service no matter what you do never advertise for your file host on wjunction

[vivithemage]

I can't imagine them being too useful, haha.

But where else can I? I don't want to advertise on torrent sites, haha.

[RockstEdy]

host pron. problem solved haha.

[aaa_server]

Could help if you try to register on some forums that has stuff upload/download section (like applications, movies, games etc) and advertise it there indirectly in a new thread.

[The_Cow]

Most people that upload serious amounts of popular media upload to hosts which will give them commission per X downloads or for each premium account signed up for via their links.

If you dont wish to head down that route, cater for a niche.

I used to run file hosting sites some years ago and started off catering for people interested in a specific niche and it turned out quite well, I let the file host die in the end (I sold it off) but built a successful forum off the back of the user base I created (and later sold that off also).

[JayNL]

Be better than IMGUR.com and twist your ass in the reddit crowd. That should give you a substantial boost in traffic.

But as long as you're not better and more visually appealing than WeTransfer, cooler and more integrated than IMGUR, and not faster than ZippyShare, you really don't stand a single chance, sorry.

[Sinoco]

Originally Posted by quantumphysics

Don't have ads.
Don't have wait times.
Allow direct downloads.

Instant popularity.

+1 But then, instant shutdown. Unless you have an unlimited supply of money, file sharing sites can take bags of money to run (but I'm sure you know that).

Originally Posted by Jay August

But as long as you're not better and more visually appealing than WeTransfer, cooler and more integrated than IMGUR, and not faster than ZippyShare, you really don't stand a single chance, sorry.

These are all sites I've never heard of, and I do a lot of file sharing, never once used one of these sites. I think there's much deeper competition in the market than this.

[vivithemage]

Yeah, information I already knew ... guess I shouldn't expect something genuine/new, otherwise you guys would have done it yourselves .