Cost of Running a DDL

[Krack3r]

Im realy yearning to start a ddl soon however i have this fear of uncertainity that everyone has when you are venturing int the unknown. So does anyone know what it costs to run a DDL in terms of server cost, Time online and other expenses.

Krack3r Reviewed by Krack3r on 6th Sep 2011. Cost of Running a DDL Im realy yearning to start a ddl soon however i have this fear of uncertainity that everyone has when you are venturing int the unknown. So does anyone know what it costs to run a DDL in terms of server cost, Time online and other expenses.:P Rating: 5

[0ccul7]

Domain - $10
WCDDL - Free
Server - Minimum $5 to start with
Skin and other graphic work - Custom one will cost from $20 to $100
Mods - $10 to as much as you want

At least $50 to $70 to start with

[soft2050]

Starting from the base:

Domain - Depends on which you want - Eg: 10$
Server Cost at start - 3-5$
Script - Many free scripts like WCDDL, DDLCMS to use
Custom Skin - Around 50$ for a good skin to code or get a template converted to WCDDL for cheap prices

Thats just which you needed at start
Mods and other things will be needed at a later time to promote the site

[Mr Happy]

Wouldn't bother starting a DDL site if I were you. Times are changing and DDL sites are dying. For the record I said in a post back in March or April that it was "the beginning of the end" for DDL sites. A few months on and all the major DDL sites are losing traffic eg PhazeDDL, DDLSpot, DDLSite, AtomicWarez, NexusDDL, MechoDDL etc.

Their are a number of problems. First, Google sees DDL sites as poor quality. All they basically are are link farms that link to other warez sites in an iframe page. This is a big problem as it means far less traffic from Google.

The next problem is due to automated uploading and submitting ever topic submitted is the same. Say you have 50 sites and they all submit a new movie which has just being released. When a person looks at the DDL site they see the same title for every submit and some may have 2 stars and some sites may have 5 stars but the submits are exactly the same. Looking at the list of 50 movies with the same title it's very confusing and hard to know which is better. Often a one star site could submit a TS while the five star site has submitted a CAM but the visitors to your site have no way of knowing this.

Why would anyone use a DDL site to search for a movie when they can search Google which does a far better job at ranking results or search a large busy form like WBB and you can clearly see the topics with a high number of replies and views.

Setting up a DDL is incredibly cheap but you really need to ask the question you really need to ask yourself is should you.

[SuicidalMedia]

It definitely isn't worth it if you're going to use a premade script. You shouldn't pay attention to people who say that DDL sites are dying either, the only reason why current DDL sites aren't that popular is because they're not that good themselves in the first place. I know I'd never go look for something on a site that links totally lame sites from their Index.

1. You need a good script.
2. Good domain.
3. A lot of traffic.

Webmasters will be emailing you 24/7 to get their sites listed if you offer good traffic, but that's about it. Traffic isn't worth it either if you accept lame sites.

[ajinkya9]

the only reason why current DDL sites aren't that popular is because they're not that good themselves in the first place. I know I'd never go look for something on a site that links totally lame sites from their Index.

I completely agree with Suicidal.
Your aim should be to make users happy. Just aim on that and your site will be fine.
Some suggestions are:
1.Don't use ads
Once you have loads of traffic, just put up a small banner in the sidebar sell it for 100$ or something like that.

2.Don't sign-up for affiliate sites.
Most DDL sites redirect you to these affiliate sites, or give you false links stating 'WinRAR download FREE at sharingzone.net' or something like that.

Make a Clean site without Youtube, or IMDB links for every movie.

Try to keep out duplicates.

It's better to have two links to different products, than having 200 links to the same movie.

[0ccul7]

No matter what you do, make a custom script or what ever, still, Google will look at the site as a link farm as stated by Happy. Do some thing that max people didn't do, make it unique

Maximum DDL sites nowadays are going down because they rank on the basis of days as a Whitelisted site or submissions. But I think, max don't even bother to go to the site and check it out and see if it's good or what. (No direct offense to anyone)

One more thing, no matter how much money filehosts pay, I as an uploader for over 3 years will claim it with pride, that nothing can beat RS and MU kind of sites. So go with the better rules like RS for good rated sites, and you may see some good traffic. Compare the views of RS threads with the other paying filehost threads in WBB or other forums

Peace

[Sponge Bob]

These are the main things with DDL site.

1. Advertise on the site to other sites to get traffic to your site.
2. Reply emails fast as people want fast replies
3. Clean and fast loading site
4. Keep less of ads
5. Unique Features would do good,( I can tell u one, like may be auto download, a person who doesnt have a premium can may be use your account tho its encrypted so they cant see your premium details but can download using premium, everyone would come to your ddl.) (Just my unique feature suggestion that no one has)
6. Server cost is not much in the start till u start getting traffic.

Hmm yeah what else?

[0ccul7]

5. Unique Features would do good,( I can tell u one, like may be auto download, a person who doesnt have a premium can may be use your account tho its encrypted so they cant see your premium details but can download using premium, everyone would come to your ddl.) (Just my unique feature suggestion that no one has)

Thanks I'll think about using that

[SuicidalMedia]

0ccul7,
I think you're missing the point. DDL sites are for those who don't have time for Googling movies, shows and music. What's that telling you? You don't need to rely on search engines. In fact, you don't even need them. You need direct traffic, users who will actually visit your site again, and not only once.