Announcement

**Guest** · 02-12-2006, 04:12 AM

Once again ZendURL has outperformed ResellersPanel in traffic. Today we ranked 25,027 on Alexa while they ranked 33,586.

**The Stealthy One** · 02-12-2006, 02:32 PM

Now that's a nice accomplishment.

**Guest** · 02-12-2006, 11:17 PM

Thanks

We've had so many visitors recently that we are going to need to buy a second dedicated server. Since relaunching a week ago we have received more traffic in one week then we did the entire month before!

**Guest** · 02-12-2006, 11:22 PM

congrats man

you can make some good mulah on advertising!

**Guest** · 03-12-2006, 12:44 AM

Thanks.

Google Adsense has been doing (amazingly) well, and I am averaging $1.5-$3 CPM for banners (which is a lot!) Enough that for once I will actually be able to afford a second dedicated server

It is all just seeming to come together perfectly, and I am so thrilled about it.

**Guest** · 03-12-2006, 01:24 AM

hey if you dont mind me asking, how did you start off this whole free hosting site thing? I mean since you couldn't really start off with a dedicated server (or maybe you did haha), but did you start off with a shared hosting account then after getting enough income from advertising you slowly started purchasing the dedicated servers?

Best Regards

**Guest** · 03-12-2006, 06:03 AM

It was a very long process.

I actually had no intention of starting a free hosting business. However back in December (2005) I was browsing HotScripts and saw the MultiHoster script. I checked it out and decided that I could start a free hosting business with this script. It claimed that it worked on shared hosts, so I installed it onto ZendURL which was then located on RSP. That is how it started. It was mildly succesful for the first couple of weeks. However phishers were everywhere, and my site was getting hacked daily. My account was actually suspended, but Kalin did a huge favor and let me keep the account as long as I got rid of ZendURL. So that was the end of that.
It could've ended there, but I was still determined. I spend from February until June custom coding my own control panel. Then in July I purchased a $39/mo VPS with the money that TomorrowHosting was making me and I relaunched ZendURL. It was a great success, however the site was so popular that within a week I had upgraded all the way to a $79/mo plan, and my site had run out of space and was crashing hourly.
I moved then to my first dedicated hosting company Servstra. They were great and my site was even more succesful their. However due to phishing they asked me to leave, and I was stuck again. I then went to SurfSpeedy, and was even more succesful. However after an ugly incident with SurfSpeedy (http://freewht.com/showthread.php?t=4350) I was left without a providor, and losing money. I took the first half of November coding a custom made antiphishing firewall and then got a dedicated server from UBHosting and I've been with them since, and I am now ready to get a second dedicated server.

So I did start at sharing, but I *really* started with a VPS. However let me tell you it was a pain copying everything from the VPS over to the dedicated server providor. It was one of the biggest chores, and I will never do it again.

Let me tell you this: if I wasn't suspended due to phishing from RSP I'm sure I would've broken their CPU limit a week later. Free hosts are resource intensive, and I would recommend at least a $79/mo VPS as a barebone minimum.

That is the story (so far) of ZendURL. However now that we have the antiphishing firewall I'm sure the rest of it will be a big happier. It already seems to to, because at the current rate I think I'll be making $x,*** this month

**Guest** · 03-12-2006, 06:15 AM

thanks for the full story. i know it took you a while to write, thanks again

Best Regards,

**Guest** · 03-12-2006, 04:35 PM

Cardine,
You are definately braver than I am. I ran a free hosting site for awhile. It didn't get much attention but what attention it did get resulted in having to shut it down till I found a much more suitable solution. Many people will take the power of php and perl and use it for the most devious purpose they can think of. Phishing schemes are everywhere and it seems no matter what you do they always find a way to get around any security you put into place.

So now what I plan to do is give hosting to users that have an array of original ideas. Right now I host 2 people that are into CG. Both of them maintain their sites very well with no signs of losing interest. I've hosted them both for at least 2 years now and they both really appreciate the free hosting I provide them. So I will probably expand on this idea. The market for hobbies and specialties seems to be very high. So I will probably host independent artists of all types.

Best of luck with your free hosting business. Its not a business that just anyone can pull off and get going easily.

**Guest** · 04-12-2006, 01:48 AM

Yes, I certainly empathisize with you. We had hackers, and then when we figured out how to stop hackers we had phishers. And then now I learned today, that our downtimes were not because of our sites popularity, but because of DoS attacks that we have now taken care of. The list of things that people try to do to your site just never seems to end.

Best of luck to your (upcoming) free hobby hosting site.
Thanks for your support (and everybody's support).

**Guest** · 04-12-2006, 04:53 PM

Originally posted by cardine View Post

IF iamme's post is allowed, then I am sure that mine will be allowed as well.

ZendURL is not only a file uploader, but a free hosting site. We are ranked #1 in Speed and in Features by Free-Webhosts (which has over 500 free webhosts total). We offer 200MB of space to upload your RSP images. We also have PHP, PERL, CGI, SSI, MySQL, and Frontpage Extensions in case you may want to have a special "package" page for a special offer you may want to highlight.
You can also use us to host your domain for a custom template for FREE. We support two domains per account, and we have NO forced ads on your site. So for no cost at all you can host your own custom template for your RSP sites! So create an account on the free host that outdoes paid hosts, and get your RSP template hosted for free!
We are receiving 100,000 pageviews/day, and of course as always I am very willing to advertise with RSP websites. Please let me know if you are interested, as I am looking for a new popup provider.

http://www.zendurl.com

Humm, can anyone explain why the quoted post is not spam??

**The Stealthy One** · 04-12-2006, 05:11 PM

I don't think it is. He is talking about a useful service, it isn't written like an ad, and he's a longtime, regular contributor here.

**Guest** · 04-12-2006, 06:19 PM

As compared to what?? A useless service??
It looks like an ad to me.
I didn't know that being a longtime, regular contributor here, gives us the right to spam our links.
I have lots of usefull services, but I do not post my links here.

~~~~ Tempted to leave a few links,,,,,,

~~~~

**Guest** · 04-12-2006, 06:28 PM

Its not like he signed up for the forums with the intention to spam us like all the spammers have been doing. I see nothing wrong with members that have been here for awhile posting their favorite link or posting their own website in the forums. All though I think it would be better to post threads like this in the "Webmaster Lounge" under "useful links and resources". But I don't consider this thread or jamme's thread about his image hosting site as spam. Such services like these I consider useful resources for those who are members of RSP and this forum that can't afford hosting and don't want to use the turnkey templates RSP provides.

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ZendURL - Free Web Hosting For Your Custom RSP Site

ZendURL - Free Web Hosting For Your Custom RSP Site

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