Anyone that has used or browsed for image hosting previously will have stumbled across and possibly utilised Imagevenue.com. Imagevenue, like imageshack.us provides a simple upload script that allows users to upload jpeg/jpg images of 3 MB or less then supplies the code required to implement the uploaded images into web sites, blogs and forums.

Imagevenue itself appears to be very basic looking but the Top 100 Alexa ranking tells a story much deeper than the basic html tables and deceivingly simple design. To reiterate, Imagevenue is one of the top 100 most visited sites on the Internet out of the millions upon millions of sites available and it joins the likes of Facebook.com, Apple.com and About.com to name but a few so it is in good company. Imagevenue is presently ranked at 98th on the Global Alexa Top 500 and receives less traffic than the two file hosting sites Rapidshare and Imageshack.us which rank 12th and 51st respectively.

The Rise

The recipe to the success of Imagevenue? Simplicity and reliability. What imagevenue used to supply that other imagehosts didn’t was the simplicity of both uploading/viewing images without the hassle of pop-ups and obtrusive advertising, the reliability and without the complex designs. This provided Imagevenue with many new users as many other image hosts would overcrowd the pages with advertising to compensate for the bandwidth and infrastructure costs.

All the above provided Imagevenue with a viral nature of growth allowing the site to reach the elite top 50 must visited sites a year ago to the day almost.

The Fall?

Imagevenue was/currently is advertising free on the Index page and used to only contain an advertising block above/below the full size images. Users may have noticed negative changes recently which include speed and reliability issues and an increase in the number of ads including pop-ups. These issues have been the downfall of many of the competitors of Imagevenue with many image hosts not being able to survive the pressures of the industry with unsustainable business plans.

Analysis of the Alexa trend over the past few months (See screenshot) shows an overall fall in the number of daily page views and with current speed and reliability issues this could cause this trend to continue further. Combine these issues with the increased number of ads which are bordering on obtrusive this could cause the fall of Imagevenue out of the Alexa Top 100.  Such adverts drive even the most loyal of users away to competitors. In essence, Imagevenue has been a victim of its own success as the costs of infrastructure is constantly rising and has caused increased advertising to pay for these costs.

Unless Imagevenue is able to rectify the above issues it leaves the market open for more image hosts to enter the industry and take a share of the dominance which Imagevenue has built up over the years. The lessons to learn from the study of Imagevenue is that when you reach the top (or very near) the only way is down unless you are able to maintain the highest level of service whilst still providing the utmost user experience possible. Success has a habit of haunting so learning from others mistakes can help avoiding the same fate and unless action is taken fast, Imagevenue could suffer a similar misfortune to other image hosts which were unable to succeed in the competitive market.