Monetizing an image-sharing site
I have a chance to be involved with an established, but small image-sharing site in the same sort of area as imgur or 9gag. Part of the deal would involve profit-sharing, and I'm trying to decide whether it's worth the time and effort. Right now the site pulls in 1000 visitors/day or so, but I think I could improve the UX significantly and pop that up.
Can anyone think of any big wins here as far as monetizing, other than just Adwords? I'm not so familiar with the space, but I wouldn't want to 5x the traffic but then still only be able to make a few bucks a day.
I run one of the largest image hosts on the web. 6 million visitors / day.
The only way to monetize is to wrap images in content the way imgur or giphy do. Your biggest cost will be traffic delivery / CDN and your biggest revenue will be ads as opposed to premium subscriptions.
This business does not make money. Giphy will eat the entire industry soon because they have a neat little trick up their sleeve but it's too late for you to replicate their model.