Well, just making it a business won't change anything. It makes no difference to the users. It does make a difference to potential cooperation partners. However, I've got my first requests for cooperation after a year or two. Don't count on it.
If amateur photographers are a big majority of your users, the next logical step would be to optimize the whole website for amateur photographers to get more of them. Start to target amateur photographers explicitly. Post your service in amateur photographer's forums, change the copy of your website to appeal to them. State all benefits of your service in terms of value that amateur photographers get out of your service.
For example, take the home page. It doesn't say anything about amateur photographers. Why not? If this group is 80% or so, you could put a headline like "Perfect photo storage for amateur photographers."
If your website appeals to a very specific niche right now and 80% of your customers are from that niche, it makes sense to optimize your business around that niche for now and expand into new customer segments/niches later.
By turning into a paid service, you also need to act and behave professionally. Some people have new expectations. For example, the service shouldn't be down often. You have to have backups, security etc.
And from here, it is all about business development. I learned so much from HN. For a start, read everything from patio11 and his blog. Sign up for his newsletter.
Read the book "Getting Everything You Can Get Out of All You've Got". The part about internet businesses is a bit dated but the rest is a gold mine for opportunities for business development.
Read stuff about copywriting. Read everything about lifecycle emails that are all the rage now. Introduce an email course for amateur photographers how they can get the best value out of your webservice, get some testimonials etc.
Ask amateur photographers what features they need from you and what kind of benefits they get from your service.
If amateur photographers are a big majority of your users, the next logical step would be to optimize the whole website for amateur photographers to get more of them. Start to target amateur photographers explicitly. Post your service in amateur photographer's forums, change the copy of your website to appeal to them. State all benefits of your service in terms of value that amateur photographers get out of your service.
For example, take the home page. It doesn't say anything about amateur photographers. Why not? If this group is 80% or so, you could put a headline like "Perfect photo storage for amateur photographers."
If your website appeals to a very specific niche right now and 80% of your customers are from that niche, it makes sense to optimize your business around that niche for now and expand into new customer segments/niches later.
By turning into a paid service, you also need to act and behave professionally. Some people have new expectations. For example, the service shouldn't be down often. You have to have backups, security etc.
And from here, it is all about business development. I learned so much from HN. For a start, read everything from patio11 and his blog. Sign up for his newsletter.
Read the book "Getting Everything You Can Get Out of All You've Got". The part about internet businesses is a bit dated but the rest is a gold mine for opportunities for business development.
Read stuff about copywriting. Read everything about lifecycle emails that are all the rage now. Introduce an email course for amateur photographers how they can get the best value out of your webservice, get some testimonials etc.
Ask amateur photographers what features they need from you and what kind of benefits they get from your service.