How to Make More Money from Your TGP Galleries and TGP Submissions
First Edition, July 24th, 2007.
Revised October 3, 2007.
by Jay from NNGalleries.com
After running a TGP since 2001 I have learned a lot about galleries and gallery submissions. As you can imagine, a large portion of my sales are from galleries and aside from that, my visitors enjoy the content I share with them, otherwise the site would have stopped growing a long time ago.
More importantly for this article, as a TGP owner I review free and paid galleries on a daily basis. I have seen templates and content that simply don't work and content so terrible it should never have been shot. Yet, people still submit it and expect to make money off garbage. This is my personal collection of hints and tips for making more money off your TGP galleries.
Content Quality
There are some obvious differences between webmasters who submit galleries for free and those who pay for spots. Most notably, those who pay for spots typically submit better stuff. No, that doesn't mean that if you pay for a spot your content is suddenly better. It means that people who are serious enough to buy a spot, will take their submissions seriously as well. They will submit good quality content and not waste your time (or theirs). Of course, this is only an observation. This brings me to my first point -- don't submit garbage. If you are not willing to spend the time to put together a gallery or pick great content, then you shouldn't submit at all. Good content is nice to look at, but great content is what makes sales. If a gallery doesn't make you look twice, then it won't make a surfer look twice either. The "wow" factor needs to be there.
Give Them What They Want
This is common sense but often forgotten. If you are running a website and it has a niche, provide galleries and content from ONLY that niche. Don't add content that isn't related. If people learn that your site is the place to find the exact niche they are after -- they will come back again and again and post links in forums, on websites, everywhere! Your traffic will only grow by having a great reputation in your niche.
When submitting, by just visiting any TGP and looking at some of the galleries on the website you get an idea of what type of galleries they will accept. Again, don't waste your time submitting something that isn't related. You'll only piss off the webmaster of the TGP and no doubt get yourself banned if you do something *really* stupid like submit gay content to a teen website. Yeah, sorry, but that just won't work.
Don't Mislead Surfers
Sure, its great to get thousands and thousands of hits to a gallery by tweaking your text to make it appealing to surfers at any cost. Most everyone would rather get 10,000 visits to a gallery than 1,000. However, if your text or thumb is misleading, all those surfers will just close the window if they see what you say you're offering isn't what they expected. That means you'll burn bandwith for little to no return. Moreover, by misleading surfers to think you have something you actually don't, you aren't attracting the people who ARE actually interested in what you're offering. I would rather have 1000 targetted hits than 10,000 untargetted clicks.
Above all, make the best thumb you can everytime (if its a thumb TGP) and if its text, make sure your descriptions of your galleries are accurate but sexy (the best of both worlds).
Those who click will get what they want and possibly buy, those who don't like it won't burn your bandwidth.
No Fat or Ugly Chicks.
Never. Really. Well, unless that's the niche... but in most cases its not. If you wouldn't date or fuck her (while sober), then don't submit it.
Fresh Content Sells
Have you ever clicked a gallery and its one of those photo sets that has been all over the internet for the last 4 years and everyone has seen it?
Nobody wants to view content they have already seen. If you want to make new sales, use new content.
The only exception to this is a gallery that has really hot or exclusive content that generates good sales no matter how many times you post it. You will know when you find a gallery that does this.
Simplify Your Templates
Always assume that surfers are stupid. Really. Its not necessarily true, but it will help your sales if you assume they are.
Make simple and straight-forward templates for your galleries to lead people into the photos and then make it obvious where to click to see more (the advertisment).
A flashy and busy template looks great but if the surfer can't figure out where the "click here to see more" link is, then you won't be making a single sale.
If you use FHGs (Free Hosted Galleries) you're probably too lazy to make your own templates anyway, so I'm pretty surprised you're still reading this article at all. Which brings me to my next suggestion...
Don't Use Hosted Galleries
In my belief, Hosted Galleries are distracting and confusing to surfers. If they are full of splashy graphics and text, your sales might suffer. If you insist on using templates, try using simplified ones that make it easy for the surfer to understand what is what -- specifically, what is a thumbnail and what is an advertisment.
Furthermore, making your own templates offers another opportunity for you to brand and advertise your website to surfers.
If they like what they see, they're likely to type in the website domain featured in the header, right? Why post a hosted template that has the paysite domain splashed all over it. Surfers will sometimes avoid affiliate links because they think they might install a virus or trojan, so they type in the domain name they see instead.
No Blind Linking
"Blind Linking" is misleading surfers into clicking something that isn't what it appears to be.
For example, creating a thumbnail that is bigger than the rest that links to a paysite rather than a full image is a blind link. People WILL click it thinking its an image, and usually that's your plan all along, right? But the majority of those clicks did in fact expect an image, so they'll just close it anyway.
Linking any regular-sized image directly to the paysite is also a blind link. Surfers don't like being tricked into clicking, and its a good way to get banned from submitting to many TGPs. You want to give the surfer a sample of the content and then suggest "hey, you should signup" only after they've exjoyed what you've offered.
Recip Link Yourself
Some TGPs don't allow it, but I believe you should link or recip link yourself from your own galleries.
It will generate bonus traffic for your website from your galleries.
I allow it, but many TGPs don't, so make sure to read the rules.
Early Bird Gets the Worm
This is extremely true when it comes to TGP submissions.
If you want to ensure you get great sales, submit galleries and photos from websites that are brand new, and before anyone else has a chance.
You will pick up quick and easy sales just by being the first and making the effort quickly.
Saturation: Don't Promote What Everyone Else is Promoting
Ever so often someone who bought one of my gallery spots will contact me and ask me why they aren't making sales. Sure enough, they're submitting the same content as 4 other people and are upset with me because their sales suck.
Look around you. If everyone else is promoting the same content as you are with your galleries, why on Earth would you saturate the market further by submitting more of the same?
All you will do is fill the market with even more free content and it will hurt everyone's sales, including yours. Fact of the matter is, if people can get it for free, they won't buy it -- period.
Your chances of a sale are far better if you promote something nobody else (or fewer people) are promoting. You'd link this is common sense but its not.
Check Your Results
No matter what you are doing, always keep track of what you do, and what the results are. For example, if you are submmitting to a particular TGP and they won't accept your galleries, they don't generate sales, or don't receive much traffic, then you would be best to focus your efforts elsewhere.
Similarly, if you are making galleries and promoting them and they are not generating sales overall (whether via your website or submissions) then you need to make changes to improve sales or try sometihng else.
Conversely, if a particular model, set, color scheme, text, or even a specific TGP yields sales, stick with it. Keep track of sales generated for specific galleries and repeat and expand until it doesn't sell anymore. Always capitalize when you find something that works.
SEO, Clicks, and Gallery Titles
Anchor text for your galleries posted on websites may help your search engine results. Use your keywords in your descriptions and gallery titles. Seek out unique and interesting words instead of the boring and over-used staples like "sexy" "babe" and "fucking" which are so common they have nearly lost all meaning. A great resource for this is thesaurus.com, type in those tired old words and you'll get a list of fresh new ones you can use. Keep a list.
By Jay from NNGalleries.com - Submit to TGP - TGP Submitter
Copyright 2007 by NNGalleries.com