Ok! Time to open up the secret!
I used to play CS in a gaming zone at my place called Trap17. I used to waste 8 hours out of my life,everyday in that place and I kept doing it for about 2-3 years! After which that gaming zone was converted into a Gaming Shop where now Game CD's are sold. Its name was changed from Trap17 to Cobra!
My friend and I used to miss (bunk) our college lectures and play CS. And after that place closed down... We were really disappointed. I wanted to keep that name up and soon after I registered that domain.
Like most of you guys, I was looking out for free web hosts. Some of them, whom I tried are freedom2surf(which is now a paid hosting site), compactvision, dymihost, chromehost etc.. of which most of them either closed down or used to put ads on top of the page.
Dymihost ( which has quite better than trap in terms of BW and space ) closed down suddenly. I had written more then 350 php programs and stuff. This was really a huge blow and It was like all my work was gone in a flash.
Things were crappy and It was hard to find a good free host. I soon thought about starting my own free hosting. I made a small crappy site initially with my remaining programs and stuff.. Started free web hosting as a side feature.. and then I really started getting a good response.
I signed up for google ads and I saw the revenue was quite satisfactory to keep up the web hosting requirements. The site which I had started more like a personal one was getting a reputation of a professional site. and soon people started critsizing the personal website, tiny programs and registration systems that I had created. I removed all my site data and made trap17 a dedicated free Web hosting site.
To keep up with low expenses and stuff, I had a very simple design actually.. the only member whom I remember to be with trap17 from a very long time is WASSIE ( co-admin ) Soon I realised that, trap17 was falling behind as it was not having a proper presentation and template.. Lurk ( admin of www.lurkcorp.com ) donated the main template of trap17.com and from that day, things really changed..
To keep the service as reliable, fast, secure and cheap as possible, I was testing out many servers. Old members may remember that trap17 had also lost the forum contents due to these server transfers.. things were difficult in the begenning.
But the this was only a begenning... when finally my Google account was disabled! Due to a member who tried to spam on the ads. Frankly, at that time, the first thing that hit my mind was to Close down Trap17. But it was only the responsiblity of so many members and the feeling that I had at the time when my site was closed, I decided to keep up the site. Till now [26 Nov 2004] I have been covering up the expenses from the money I made out of my part time job..
At that time ( when I got my google account disabled), I met another person who had an advertising company. I partnered with him and he in turn introduced my to other companies. Trap17's Traffic statistics were pretty much impressive and It attracted a lot of attention. soon I was accepted by that company and I started a partnership deal to trade off the expense of the site by selling of the top advertising space at trap17 forums.
Soon the partnership was terminated, but it did not make much of a diffrence because till then, I was introduced to many advertisers... so there after I Stopped running behind google ads and stuff ( even though they can fetch up 20 times more money that what I am earning of these ads ) but my main motive was to keep the server up and also to keep the site running. Even a little amount enough to keep this site up was quite satisfactory.. ( I haven't made any profits or even any money of this site .. Because all my google accounts were disabled at the last moment when I was actually expecting my payments )
I had registered about 2-3 google accounts and placed them on other sites.. so that I could atleast make some money off those. But Google Disabled them too saying that a Publisher who has been disabled is not allowed to participate in the adsense program. and when I saw my ad-tracker stats, I noticed that someone was purposely trying to get my account disabled. because everyday, I used to see a huge set of clicks from a single ip address. One by one all my google accounts were disabled. And I lost all of the money I had with google.
2 of my server charges have been paid by my pal who is from Canada. I still owe him more than a $100. But I think I can repay him back soon because, I will start getting the money of my advertisers after december. I hope to recieve before it, but it may take time due to shipping and stuff. I really thank that guy a lot, his name is Wen. It was because of this guy that this site continued to run. If I hadn't met this guy, this site would had been closed 2-3 months back..
Initially because of the name of the site and stuff, I also had to fight through a hell lot of bad reputation! This was the worst chapter for trap17.. I dont know why, but members were afraid of the name or something. Or may be the competitors. Bad words, news etc are were spread about trap17. (for eg. http://www.free-webhosts.com/reviews/Trap17.php ) Issues were made out of small things like the MySQL hookups. Couple of members were also trying to spam the MySQL server ( the main reason that was and That is for the MySQL hookups )... But these things are practically un-avoidable. Haden't I recived funds, I could had ensured to get another chip of ram for my server, but due to financing problems. I could not upgrade.
Trap17 survives because of the members.. The Traffic and the popularity. The only thing that holds this community is its popularity. The reason for this success inspite of so many difficulties was simply that We did not make this site for profits at the first place. I am satisfied with whatever small amount I make to keep the server up. eg. 4discuss.com, one of the biggest competitor closed off his site, removed all the user accounts after he lost google ads. And gave an excuse saying that the server has been hacked! That guy did it, because his intension was profit. While I, even though I wanted to do it ( because I had lost my main source of income) , I simply could'nt.
Trap17 has gone through many difficulties initially... more than one can imagine. the ones listed out above still fall short. Very old members actually know what trap had been through before it reached the this successful position. I remember working for about 18 hours a day for my site! I used to literally sleep in front of my pc. All day, I used to search for advertisers, manage my forums, lookout for better servers and monitering them etc... But, now, I am able to concentrate only on financial, marketting and other professional aspects. Thanks a lot to my admins who have really taken the load off my head regarding the forums. After being with trap17 for a long time and helping it out sincerely, I finally gave Wassie the server rights and direct access to it for making and editing user hosting accounts. Then I gave it to Spectre ( one of the only members of trap17 who has helped us without any specific intension. ie. without requesting any hosting account ) . Here is the place where I guess we prove the amount of trust we have in each other in this community.
After getting this site to work on a full swing, I launced astahost.com for members who were very highly talented and were feeling un-confortable at the trap17 forums. And then due to the requests for paid hosting, I and one of my chat friends ( the former manager of freenukehosting.com forums ) launced a paid hosting site ( www.computing-web-hosting.com ) We belive we have one of the highest competitive and cheapest rates available on the internet. We are still young and learning ...
I hope this site keeps growing ( umm.. well without those difficulites ) and continues getting loads of new members day by day. So that we may serve as many members as possible..
Thank You for all your time ( for reading this article ) and your support without which Trap17 was simply not possible...
Warm Regards,
OpaQue.
