Alternative Gallery Layouts

I thought we'd go over some different-looking gallery layouts today. I'm not talking about your TGP2 pages here, there's already a lot of very creative thinking going on there I'm glad to say, we're gonna look at those gallery pages within your free sites - the parts after the index, fpa and main pages. The same creativity is rarely applied to those pages as it is with the new TGP2 pages that are emerging so let's look at 3 layouts that we could use...

1) Shotgun!

Example: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/galleries/gallery-1.html
Template: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/galleries/gallery-1-code.html

This is a simple layout using a table which has 2 sides. The thumbs all go on either the right or the left and then the other 50% of the screen is taken up with your advert. Whether you put additional text links above and below this whole table is totally up to you. You'll note here that I've also used only text (HUGE TEXT!!!) as my means to send traffic to the sponsor, which will load INSTANTLY. What also looks great on that side is a big text link at the top, then a small squarish pic (maybe a screen grab of the sponsor's front end?) and then another text link under that.

2) Four Corners!

Example: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/galleries/gallery-2.html
Template: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/galleries/gallery-2-code.html

Here the screen is divided into two parts - an upstairs and a downstairs. This is great because we get to sneak in TWO very prominent ad spots. The emphasis, as always, is on getting the surfer to notice our ads and not just click on the thumbs as soon as they enter. Notice that I've not used a border on the tables OR on the thumbnails. I find that when I add a border to my thumbs, it can often draw attention to them so they've been left out here. Try to get the surfer to notice your ADS before your content. You've got 2 really GREAT ad spots with this layout - so use your very best custom-made ads in them.

3) The Movie Strip!

Example: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/galleries/gallery-3.html
Template: http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/galleries/gallery-3-code.html

This one takes a little more work. To get it looking just right, you must use portrait (tall) thumbnail images of the same size so that they can be put in a strip on either side and form a seamless line. The table is set to 100% so that the content is thrown right to the edges of the page and you get to keep the middle and most prominent part of the page for a nice juicy advert. Again, spend time on this ad as it's the only one on the page and work to make it as bold, sexy and as appealing as you possibly can.

Over to YOU!

Before I made these galleries, I sketched out the ideas on paper which have me a great reference when it came to setting up the tables. Tables can let you use the pretty rigid and stiff HTML format to achieve some pretty spectacular and exciting layouts on your galleries. Look at magazines, TV, posters, as well as other webmaster's sites and see if you can come up with some layouts of your own. Feel free to use any of the designs here today in any way you see fit too. Hopefully, they'll give ya starting points for new directions...

TOM ^"^

Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER

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