Understanding The usage of Gallery Links?

[LincolnLog]

I know the subject seems very simple, but I have to understand what has been the practice or what IS the practice to be successful.

I get emails from my sponsor with gallery links (my rev code already attached)

Many of the 70+ new links are very similiar, diff look, diff offers. I assume i pick the ones i want?

Anyway, they group them according to sites and then have a group tag that looks like this:

4 movie galleries: group 4m/t20

Anyone know how to read that 4m/t20

I would like to know what the hell that stands for, I have sent an email to my sponsor, but thought i would toss that out here to see if thats a common thing I should know.

Why so many new links, so often, are these for building TGPs with or what.

How are others using them - I have been buidling my content slowly and trying not to look like a tgp, more branding and care with the look and selection, how can i use these bulk gallery links?

[porn punk]

4m/20t probably means 4 movie galleries with 20 thumbs or something similiar.

Sounds like your talking about hosted galleries and the only thing they're really good for is to build fake tgp's or fill your personal tgp's and even then I'd advise against using them for much not only cause they're fairly ineffective, but because a lot of sponsers don't even maintain them properly during maintance and updates.

You can't submit them to tgp's or build freesites with them. You can link them into pages on your sites if you want but the time could be better spent elsewhere.

Use their content and build your own stuff

[LincolnLog]

Thanks Punk!

I am working on my own galleries and content...
Not sure if im interested in building traditional TGPs,

The links that i generate go to the similiar sign up pages and galleries that they email to me, not much difference except that they send them to me in big batches all ready to go.

I want to focus on unique presentation of content, in the end it still goes to one of their preformated sign up pages - (which are also free galleries as well.) I think when i begin to generate some sales they will make some custom sign up pages for me.... when you are an affiliate the jump from your site to the sponsor is a bit harsh unless you design your site to mirror thiers. And, I want my own unique look.

[porn punk]

You're on the right track, but in actuality (except I break this rule all the time to make my galleries match colors in the backgrounds of the contents), you should sort of be building your sites and or pages to at least be similar to there's so it's more of a blend psychologically for the surfer (again, I go against this all the time but for the most part that works the best for me).

I guess what I'm saying is be original if you can but not "too original".

If you click on cozyacademy link at the top, you'll find sections with tutorials that cover what you're looking for in great detail, and then you can veer off on your own.

Things will change for you personally as you go along. In fact after reading another article about promoting non adult content on a link I picked up on google, I started building stuff as amateur looking as possible (which wasn't very hard for me at first). But for now, I'd suggest reading through those cozy tutorials a little at least

[LincolnLog]

This is my first site and am learning as i go..
Thanks again Punk! Good advice, i have been reading at the acadamy and here in the forum.
Lots to learn, but also im trying to work out how and what i want my site to be... im starting with the philosophy of building something that i would enjoy looking at (keeps me interested) and trying some new creative ideas - with the goal of also uderstanding what is the norm for most sites.

After i get this site built with enough content to start promoting it, i will try something a little more straight forward with the knowledge i have gained (i think it will an easier build)

I had a look at your live webcam links - thats amazing stuff - i bet that is a great earner!

Thanks again, the log

[theviking]

Originally posted by LincolnLog


I had a look at your live webcam links - thats amazing stuff - i bet that is a great earner!

I bet that is a branded steamray site, and no site is a big earner unless you get traffic, and rather targetted traffic, to the site

[porn punk]

Viking's right. Looks can be deceiving.

You'd be amazed if I were to show you my best earners. I'm not going to but I'll tell you this much. They're galleries I generated on auto in Dreamweaver that looks like your little five year old sister might have made them and link to the most basic porn sign up sites with no special fancy design whatsoever.

They suck up a hell of a lot of bandwidth though.

Just keep it simple and build your own stuff. I haven't found any reason to get fancy yet and I really really want to, but why try to prove something that's going to cost me and get me nowhere.

[LincolnLog]

My second site is going to be a more traditional TGP site. My thought was to grab photos and links from my sponsors to thier hosted galleries. (nothing new)

Ive been reading about hotlinking - and how thats a no no - but its not going straight to a sign up page - the pages im linking to have sign up stuff on then (how the hell else would you make money) the pages they will land on will contain more/larger images that are clickable and produce nice hirez shots.

Is this an ok direction? or do i need to build all the galleries my self and ignore my sponsors efforts?

Was also thinking of adding "some" text links that go to movie samples (labled and set in the side bar)?

Do banners help much? One per page above or below thumbs - do they produce?

Thanks - i know its noobie stuff thats why I searched first - read at the acadamy and posted in the newbie section...

Lincoln

[balls_deep]

Originally posted by LincolnLog
My second site is going to be a more traditional TGP site. My thought was to grab photos and links from my sponsors to thier hosted galleries. (nothing new)

Ive been reading about hotlinking - and how thats a no no - but its not going straight to a sign up page - the pages im linking to have sign up stuff on then (how the hell else would you make money) the pages they will land on will contain more/larger images that are clickable and produce nice hirez shots.

Is this an ok direction? or do i need to build all the galleries my self and ignore my sponsors efforts?

Was also thinking of adding "some" text links that go to movie samples (labled and set in the side bar)?

Do banners help much? One per page above or below thumbs - do they produce?

Thanks - i know its noobie stuff thats why I searched first - read at the acadamy and posted in the newbie section...

Lincoln

hmmm... here goes. but realize you need to read a lot more.

linklist and tgp's require that you host everything on your submission site so there is one good reason not to hotlink.

hotlinking is only acceptable if your sponsor tells you so in the TOS, or you get specific permission.

build your own galleries, use the sponsors FHG for filler, you are new so you will most likely be using FHG's for your initial efforts. These are no where near as effective as your own created galleries.

banners work great, just don't make a banner farm. and 468x60 banners won't get many clicks compared to some other odd sized banners.

use your banner placeholders to promote your best sponsors.

text links work great but don't make your page look like a link farm. You can create text links and a layout that seems to be content and doesnt appear to be a link farm if you set it up correctly.

[LincolnLog]

Ok, after doing some more reading, im learning the terms and my search results are getting better. (so late in the game , why did i wait?)

Anyway - It looks like the way im building my first few sites with a lot of sponsored FHGs (free hosted galleries) that these sites are suited only for promotion via link lists...

NOW - if i download the same content that is in the FHGs - and rebuild my own galleries - now that can be promoted to link lists AND to TGPs (if any of them will take newbies that dont pay)

Here is the real structure issues.
When building galleries that meet TGP requirments (im still learning about that) is it common practice to build these pages as stand alones?.. just a gallery with no site structure or menus around it? (repeat this untill your are insane or rich or insanley rich?) Can i build some galleries and mix it into my existing sites and just submitt the TGP friendly pages?

Like many newbies - i signed up with one of the bigger sponsors - so my content is not unique, but they are providing me with hosting space and all my content (cheap easy way to get started i thought)...

I planned on one site as a blog and another as a more traditional gallery site (is this where i should mix in some home made galleries) and try to get in with a TGP?

I know its a lot of basic question, and its pretty amazing to have insiders share... thanks for helping those of us who are on the outside looking in.

Lincoln

[Hammer]

If you hope to get your galleries accepted at the good TGPs you'll need to buy your own content or find a sponsor that lets you use the content in their members area. Taking the content from their freehosted galleries usually won't work because it's been used too much already, whether it's on their FHGs or a new gallery you built.

Of course, your biggest hurdle will be finding TGPs that will accept your galleries because most only list partner submitter's galleries and getting a free partner account these days is nearly impossible. That means that in most case you'll have to pay for partner accounts.

[LincolnLog]

With that said - then why worry how the galleries are built except for coversion purposes?

I can cross off TGPs as a form or promotion (unless im breaking out my credit card) and im not.

So I am back to square one which is - hotlinking to free hosted galleries - which doesnt seem to be an issue becuase TGPs are dead to the free world.

Looks like i can use the FHG with the knowledge that home made will convert better.

As far as my sponsor is concerned - i would not be building my galleries off of thier premade ones, i have full access to all of the higher rez picts and videos, they have them available to browse or download as zipped package. Of course the FHGs are made from many of these same photos - so it would be up to me to try and build galleries that do not use the same photos that they are?

[theviking]

FHG's are mainly used as filler content at you're own sites. You can allso use them to create blog posts off, and as content in a fake TGP. They are _not_ for be submitted to TGP's.

Don't make a big deal out of the FHG's unless you are going to build a fake TGP or will be using them for blogposts.

When it comes to the content you're sponsor provides, you can pretty much use it to build any kind of site, as long as you promote that sponsor on the page.

There are still some pretty good TGP's that accept free submissions, but they are not going to start listing you're galleries overnight. Be prepared to submit a few months before they start to list you. You can allso get a few gallery clicks by using autosubmitters like Chameleon Submitter, but IMO that is mainly a waste of time if you have other projects you rather could spend time on.

I see you are talking a lot about hotlinking to FHG's. Most sponsor will not allow you to hotlink pictures from their FHG's, but i do belive you mean just linking to FHG's, and that is the purpose of FHG's....use them as filler content on you're sites.

It is not sure that homemade galleries converts better than FHG's, but it is 100% sure that you're chance of getting listed at TGP's with homemade galleries are higher than the 0% if you submit FHG's.

If i were you, and you are willing to go the hard route with gallery submitting, i would have made a structure like this on my server:

Root - make a good blog, handwritten and quality where you write blogposts off you're galleries.

subdomains - make feeder blogs, niche blogs.

/folder1 @ root - here you will list you're freesite folders

/folder1/free1 @ root - inside this folder you will have you're warning and mainpage to the freesite + two gallery folders

/folder1/free1/gall1 @ root - here you will have one of the two galleries you are using for you're freesite.

With this strycture you can have a fully functional traffic machine going pretty quickly. With a couple of weeks work on this HUB i would say 1-2K hits to sponsors within the first month is not impossible.
That is, if you submit 2-3 galleries, 1 freesite, 5-6 blogs and maintain a few bookmarkers at you're "real" blog.
You could allso build a few splogs at freehosted services that you link to you're feeder blogs.

Good luck

[LincolnLog]

Thanks for the breakdown...

I will have to study more nichology and improve my writing skills for sure.

I was assuming none of it was easy, simple (if you have web skill sets) but time consuming and actually working - not just waiting for something to happen.

When you say "willing to go the hard route with gallery submitting"

Am I missing something - is thier easier/better ways! Im working on my blog and generating orginal ways to view the same content others have access to.

I was hoping to make gallery submitting a part of the overall plan, but not the main focus... first: i wanted to know how it works and go old school, just to gain the knowledge and traffic potential, but it really looks boring and would rather spend time working on more orginial content.

Which brings up another simple question, what about editing or preseting my sponsors content reformatted - photoshop all new looks, for example lets say we want to build a good ole old timey site, i take new photos and make the images black and white add some crackle... will this help my galleries have an edge when competing for tgp spots against content from the same sponsor?

Thanks again!

[theviking]

but it really looks boring and would rather spend time working on more orginial content

Welcome to the adult buiseness.
I have done quite a few things in my life, but nothing can be so boring that stuff in this buiseness. If you find something that works for you, you have to repeat it, and repeat the hell out of it. That's how things work.

what about editing or preseting my sponsors content reformatted - photoshop all new looks

Be sure to talk to the sponsor before you change something at the content. If they produce their own exclusive content they might agree, but if they just use licensed content i doubt you can do anything like that.

When you say "willing to go the hard route with gallery submitting"

"Hard" because it is the most boring and repetitive tasks you are going to do, and allso hard because the traffic will peaks, and as i said, the first months you will seldom get listed unless you have some paid PA's. An autosubmitter could help you get some clicks to you're first hundreds of galleries or so.

BIG ref.code to CS if you are going to try it:
http://www.chameleonsubmitter.com/ph...k.php?ref=8362

[porn punk]

I would take viking's advice. I actually sent you a pm a couple days ago on an exact procedure for doing it (in case you might have over looked it). Pretty much the same as he's telling you and it should work for you to get you started. He's explaining it better than I did though.

[LincolnLog]

Thanks Punk and Viking.
Very nice roadmap. I have a few diff apps i use to build galleries, I will try a few different ones untill i get it right. And then I will submit it to you to see what your thoughts are. Might be easier for me to get some things built then have you double check it.

Thanks alot guys.

[porn punk]

Just forget hosted sponsor galleries (or sponsor free sites for that matter) exist for the time being. That's the best advice you could get at this point.

I'd say the same for sponsor feeds but I still have to convince myself of that first so don't hold me to this last one.

[mtskys]

After reading this, I am not sure if I am on the right track with what I have been doing. My blog is all sponsor material with links to their hosted galleries. The only thing on my blog is a softporn pic to intice the user to click the pic or word links. My understanding was I shouldn't build my own galleries on my site with their free content because of the 2257 compliance requirements. I might be just missing something totally? The more you think you are finally getting the jist the more you learn you don't know much... sorry for the ignorance.

[whiskey]

I'm with you, mtskys. I've been posting (and hosting) and pic or three which links to the sponsor's FHG. Of course, all my blog posts are original material, but now I'm wondering if I'm doing it incorrectly.

Or if, in fact, there is a right way at all.