ImageReward was an image hosting service launched in March 2007 that permitted users to create albums, to tag them, etc. Yet the novelty of this service, as its name indicates, was that it rewarded users with points exchangeable for money.

The images could be sent from your computer or by using a URL link. The points could be exchanged directly for cheques, vouchers for Amazon or Super GiftCard. Yet it wasn’t an easy task earning money.

To earn 10 dollars it was necessary to accumulate 20,000 points. So as to give you an idea, they award you 50 points upon registering, 20 points if you invite a new user, and two points every time someone looks at one of your images.

The points are earned when the images are displayed by means of a special link that show advertising around it. It’s curious to see how the users failed to trust the viability of the service and advised against using it as a repository for images that you don’t wish to lose.

And that’s the way it’s been; the service hung up a sign saying “We’ll be back in a few months” (approximately in September 2007). A year has already passed and the service hasn’t come back online and the users have lost the images they uploaded.

User revenue is a very valid system that makes a community of users feel more identified and involved with the project. Yet we must not confuse this with enslaving the user. To attain 20,000 points was the result of a more than notable contribution to the system, and it translated into 10 measly dollars.

The differentiating element of ImageReward was to share revenue; the rest was the same as any other images hosting website. In my opinion, they should have taken more care of this element.