Offloading Bandwidth to other sites

[Andy]

I was planning to offer a widget to show weekly updated data in the form of an image that other people webmasters can display on their sites.

But the problem is that the bandwidth drain on my hosting could be huge. This is because I was thinking of allowing other sites to hotlink to the image. So if the image was 10K bytes in size and 1000 sites link to it, I get a bandwidth drain of 10 megs for every average of 1 page view per site. Some sites may get 1000+ hits a day so the bandwidth could easily shoot up to gigabytes per month just for 1 image.

So how about uploading the image to a service such as imageshack.us? For this to work I need to create/find a script to automatically upload my image to their site and no Ads to surround the image.

The only snag I see is that I can't have my link embedded into the image so if the image is clicked it will take the user to the image hosting site rather than my linked site. This keeps it White hat anyway 

A possible flaw with this idea is that it may not be possible to automate the update process since the image may go through a human review so they would likely not like their service being used in this way. They expect the image to remain unchanged after upload.

[johnhask]

Maybe the inbound link "benefit" would offset the bandwidth drain?

[Menard]

I have seen several topsites and button/banner exchanges use Photobucket to host their exchange images.

Perhaps part of a topsite script might be useful; as they will show a different image based on your ranking on the topsite.

I use Photobucket myself as Imageshack will block images used on topsites, banner exchanges, traffic exchanges, and other sites; Photobucket does not block their hosted images.

Another thing with Photobucket, though I don't know if there is anyway to automate this, is that you can change the image by uploading a new one in place of the old one, just keeping the same image name. I have had to do this on a few occasions for a traffic exchange I am promoting as the exchange owner keeps changing the bonus credits, so I have several banners and I just replace the banner and don't have to update the image on any of the sites which link to it.

[Andy]

Maybe the inbound link "benefit" would offset the bandwidth drain?

Not if you hit your bandwidth limits in a few days each month.

Photobucket does not block their hosted images.

Interesting. I just checked them out...

It seems to be against the terms of service to upload "promotional materials" e.g. banner Ads.

The Pro Account has unmetered bandwidth and FTP access. The FTP access would allow you to auto-upload files using suitable software.

[SensoVision]

Not if you hit your bandwidth limits in a few days each month.

many hosts allow you to buy additional bandwidth for a bit higher price, maybe you can try this?

Regarding uploading images to 3rd party server I don't see it as a good solution, as you would depend from other site and it's uptime(personally I hate when image from other source stop loading some site). Also as you already said it would be against TOS of image hosting sites...

I would either try one of following solutions:
- minimize size of the image to smallest possible and generate it on your host.(certain images wisely compressed could be really small).
- make some applet in Flash or even in PHP(of course if it wouldn't be too tricky to install for webmaster) which would retrieve text data and generate image from it.
- retrieve data with javascript and format it without using graphic or with minimal elements e.g. your logo only(AdSence work in similar way).

Hope that helps a bit.

[Andy]

Javascript is good for generating a text version and you can include a link to your site in the noscript part which webmasters wouldn't have a problem with since it wouldn't show up on their page for most browsers.

p.s. I am also looking at Google gadgets. This helps get your widget noticed. They are just containers for html and javascript that webmasters cut and paste to their sites.

[Andy]

I found that with Google Gadgets that they will host your images for free which is just as well since popular Gadgets can get millions of views per week!

I built my Gadget and was about to release it but I found the cache gets in the way of seeing your latest update after publishing. So I will wait till tomorrow. My one is about random weight loss tips.

It looks a bit boring graphically, but I can add color options and some icons later.

I was trying to figure out how one of the most popular gadgets worked to customize the background image. It is a clock with a web 2 style background. The coding is Javascript and uses alpha blending of a PNG image which lets varying amounts of a solid rectangle of background color shine through to give a rounded corner effect and glass effect. It overloaded my brain trying to figure it out.

They feature this clock/calendar here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/gadgets/ The source code is available too. There are only 2 images used, one for the alpha channel of the background and one for the clock face plus hand positions.

This is how my Gadget looks on a web page after I selected a yellow border: http://www.weight-loss-tips.ws/wlt-test.html - I modified it to add some padding inside the border which isn't showing with me right now. But you can get the idea of how to get 2 links back to your website from a Gadget that may get millions of impressions each month 

[Queen Bee]

Looks nice, Andy. I definitely enjoy your weight loss tips. Now I just need to get the rest of my family to read them.
Good luck with the Gadgets. I'm glad you've found an alternative solution.

[donecweb]

This is how my Gadget looks on a web page after I selected a yellow border: http://www.weight-loss-tips.ws/wlt-test.html - I modified it to add some padding inside the border which isn't showing with me right now. But you can get the idea of how to get 2 links back to your website from a Gadget that may get millions of impressions each month 

I think I may be missing something here. I looked at your gadget and you can do the same thing with CSS and a text file to draw the text from for display. I do it on my bestwebstop.dbws.info home page.

[Menard]

I think I may be missing something here. I looked at your gadget and you can do the same thing with CSS and a text file to draw the text from for display. I do it on my bestwebstop.dbws.info home page.

Andy is looking for a way to allow the tips box to be used on other sites without drawing bandwidth from his hosting. If he used the css and text file, it would draw bandwidth from his hosting but the Google gadget uses their bandwidth.

[SensoVision]

glad that Google got an option for hosting images for you, keep us up-to-date about your progress, it would be interesting to see how it goes.

[Andy]

I think I may be missing something here.

Google also publicise the gadgets which is a major benefit! That's how they get to be seen by millions of people rather than just a handful of people.

[donecweb]

That explains the reason for using Google gadgets quite well thanks Menard and Andy. Does Google charge for using your gadgets on other sites or for publicizing your gadgets?

[Andy]

It's a free service. The Gadgets include a link back to big G so they get a benefit out of it too.

[Jimmy123]

 I modified it to add some padding inside the border which isn't showing with me right now. But you can get the idea of how to get 2 links back to your website from a Gadget that may get millions of impressions each month