July 28, 2004
FREE IMAGE HOSTING FOR THE BLOGSPOTTED - UPDATED 8-2-05
Even though Blogger has undergone a number of improvements in the last few months, there are still some shortcomings. The most obvious being a lack of image hosting.
(8-2-05: see update at the bottom of this post)
If you're new to blogging and you aren't quite ready to plunk down the cash to register a domain and pay for server space (or your geek skills aren't quite that advanced yet), what can you do?
After a quick Googling, I came across ImageShack. They'll host your images for free.
Catches? Didn't see any. They appear to make their money via Google ads on their site pages. There's also a PayPal donation button.
Limits: Max single image size is 1024kb - more than adequate for your normal blogging needs. No limit to the number of files you can upload. Images stay on their server unless they are inactive for 365 consecutive days.
There's no software to download, and you don't even have to register to use it if you don't want to.
Personally, I would recommend registering, because it's free, and only registered users can delete their uploaded files. It also makes it easier to manage and keep track of your images if you have an account.
I've only toyed with it a little, myself, but it seems to work ok, and they have some positive reviews.
Although I can't make any ironclad guarantees, this does seem like a useful tool.
UPDATED 3-6-05: Sissy of And What Next... has the illustrated guide of how to remove the black bar (the one with the size properties of the full size image) from the bottom of your thumbnails.
UPDATE 5-24-05: [If you've found this post useful enough to blog about, send a trackback or e-mail the permalink to me at harvolson-at-gmail.com and I'll add you to my Bad Example Groupies blogroll. See this post for details]
UPDATE 8-1-05: Sissy of And What Next... found free video hosting at Zippy Videos.
UPDATE 8-2-05: Blogger now offers 300 MB of free image hosting for Blogspot sites, as I explain here.
» basil's blog links with: Learning To Blog V: Free Image Hosting
» It'sAPundit.com links with: Hotlinking Is Bad
» And What Next... links with: Video Hosting
» The Owner's Manual links with: #88 Best of Me Symphony
Excerpt: Wow. It's been over a month since I read part four of Harvey's series on
Weblog: basil's blog
Tracked: April 16, 2005 11:16 PM
Excerpt: Hotlinking images is a no-no. Blog Netiquette has information here. The Alliance of Free Blogs offers more here. Bad Example has more free image hosting tips here.
Weblog: It'sAPundit.com
Tracked: July 27, 2005 06:53 AM
Excerpt: We all know about the great Image Shack>for free image hosting and Harvey's image hosting tips. Well, now we have FREE VIDEO HOSTING at Zippy Videos. So far, like Image Shack, I see no catches. VERY easy to use, it's...
Weblog: And What Next...
Tracked: July 27, 2005 05:06 PM
Excerpt: Moveon.org seems to get a pass from the Dems when they publish anything outrageous. Anti-Catholic bigotry is not new; what is new is the silence on the left denouncing it. Bigotry from Moveon.org - no outrage from the Dems
Weblog: The Owner's Manual
Tracked: July 31, 2005 11:01 PM
Thanks, Harv. Gonna check into that!
That is on my ever growing list for this weekend. Thank you!
Thanks for the posting. A list with a few more providers with larger file limits would be great, though ;-)
I'v been using Image Hosting from http://www.imagecrown.com everything has been working great with them.
Take a look at http://www.imagebulk.com
Nice upload and speed times
I really like MyImageBuddy at http://www.myimagebuddy.com They're very fast and reliable.
Bill - I like the 5 Meg file-size limit part, but here's what I'm less enthusiastic about:
"HOWEVER, this service is not meant for hosting all the images on your website. It is for people without websites or that don't want to use their own web space to share images. If you use our service to host many images on an active website, we will delete the images."
and
"How long will you host my image?
We keep images online at least 60 days. Sometimes we delete old images less often, but if you need to share an image longer than that, upload it again every couple weeks."
ImageShack is still a better bet for bloggers.
http://www.imagebulk.com has done the job for me.
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