Back to Basics: TGP Guide Part 2

Part one of this guide is here:
http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/tgp-guide-1.html
Here's some more notes for anyone who is thinking about getting into TGPs as a way to make money and generate traffic...

Bandwidth
A major issue to anyone submitting to TGPs

If you're not sure what bandwidth is take a quick refresher at the Adult Webmaster Glossary - Brief explanation HERE:

When it comes to working with the TGPs out there - there's no getting away from this word. As I mentioned in the earlier guide, when you make a TGP gallery you have to give away a certain amount of free content. This means using pictures mostly (although some webmasters do use movies). Pictures always use up a good deal of bandwidth. One picture at 25kb might not sound like much but if you multiply that by tens of thousands of surfers looking at it then the bandwidth bill will start to mount up each month.

A listing at one of the so-called 'big boys' in the TGP site world (such as the Hun) then your highest traffic will be on the first day of your listing. The traffic will decrease to around two thirds on the second day, and then continue to drop down after that. A listing at the Hun for example could burn up around 5 - 6 gigabytes of bandwidth in a single day. So you need to be prepared BEFORE you get listed there.

Some TGPs also have archives and you can continue to receive traffic and sales from there after your gallery has slipped from the main listings. While the traffic is a fraction of what it is in the peak days of a listing - it's not to be sneezed at.

How do people make a profit when they have to pay for all that bandwidth?

There are a number of ways webmasters can afford to do TGPs, burn so much bandwidth, and still make a profit They are as follows:

1) They are given a specific amount of bandwidth each month - and are careful not to go over it.
Eg. 100 gigabytes per month.

2) They are getting bandwidth cheaply per gigabyte.
Eg. 50 cents to a dollar per gigabyte of bandwidth.

3) They are on a plan where they have a set amount and wish to 'burn off' the extra they have not used.
If you are getting say 30 gigabytes of bandwidth each month for your money, and have only used say 10 gigabytes and are nearing the end of the month - then you could decide to make a TGP gallery to use up that extra bandwidth. After all, you're paying for it...

Overage is a hosting term which means 'how much you are charged for each gigabyte of bandwidth used OVER your monthly allowance'. If you are going to play the TGPs - check with your host how much 'overage' would cost you. Webmasters have often found themselves with a bit of a nightmare on their hands: They created a gallery and it received a lot of traffic. This traffic took them over their allowed monthly amount of bandwidth. THEN they find that overage for them was going to be $3 or more per gigabyte used. It is hard to make a profit from the TGPs paying that much per gigabyte.

Image compression

From what I've just written about bandwidth and TGPs, it's probably starting to look like a good idea to use as little bandwidth as possible. While you DO have to keep the same number of pictures and thumbnail images on the TGP gallery (and to a certain extent you might need to keep the graphic recip links on there) - OPTIMIZING the gallery is very important.

So what does that mean? For the most part I'm talking about the images on the site. With TGPs it's more important than ever to learn how to get image file sizes as small as possible. Let's remember that each gallery is likely going to be viewed by many thousands of surfers. Every kb of file size you manage to trim away will be multiplied by the same thousands of times and saved from your monthly bandwidth bill. So it's important to know how to compress both your thumbnail images AND the larger pictures.

Here's some articles which will give you both a free tool AND everything you need to know about image compression:

Image Compression Basics

Batch Image Compression

It's equally important to have good looking thumbnail images and pictures in order to get listed at the TGPs. Many galleries are turned down because the thumbnail images looked ugly and over-compressed. As always - you have to walk a fine line here and get the balance between optimally compressed images and decent-looking images. But make sure your galleries are lean, mean low-bandwidth machines!

Image sizes. Here's a guide as to image sizes for your thumbnails and large images:

Thumbs: 100 x 140 pixels.

Larger pictures: 550 pixels on the LONG side (and let the graphics software take care of the length of the other size when you resize it... maintain aspect ratio).

Where to submit your gallery

So - you've built a monster gallery, got it reviewed (very important!), and you're ready to party. So what now? Where can you get this gallery listed?

There are generally two kinds of TGPs: Small ones which are owned by webmasters like you or I. And then the 'monster ones' which have been around on the web for years and are the ones that send MASSIVE traffic to the galleries that get listed there. BOTH have value to the TGP gallery builder. If you want a good list of small / medium sized TGPs and want to practice your gallery building skills without spending a lot of money on bandwidth, then take a look at some of the TGPs listed here:

TNB Trusted Traffic

There's a list of the largest TGPs here - http://www.teendose.com/wm/usernix.html - which is kindly provided by XM, and has some indication of the traffic you could expect from these places.

You can also get some indiction of 'who's who' in the TGP world from this list of sites:
http://ranks.sextracker.com/spn.html?cls=ranks&cat=Universe&pg=0-0.html
...which again shows some indication of the traffic involved.

If you're going to get seriously into the TGPs then it will also be worth looking at a tool like GASS - http://www.darksoftcomputers.com/gass/ - which comes complete with a list of the major TGPs ready to submit to. It's also also a very handy tool to help with submitting. You can read a review I wrote on GASS here:

Review of GASS

At the heart of any TGP webmaster's traffic and success is his or her 'submit list'. This is your own personal list of TGP submit pages which you can build up over a period of time. And it will take time to build up such a list. Start off a simple .txt file which lists the places that are sending traffic and are worth submitting to.

Make sure you take a read of this article too:

Finding new link lists to submit to

... which was originally written about the link lists but is also relevant here.

You could also make your own autosubmitter tool:
http://www.tomsnewbiebooster.com/making-your-own-auto-submitter.html

It's equally important to build up your list of places NOT to submit to also. This is your own personal 'blacklist' of TGPs that continued not to list you, had silly rules of some description, or were generally not a place you want to submit to again. This list will serve as a reminder months down the road and prevent you from wasting time on attempting to re-submit to the TGPs listed there.

The great debate...
Are TGPs worth the effort?

There are two very different and very strong viewpoints when it comes to the TGPs.

1) "TGPs are an absolute waste of time and effort. They cost the webmaster a fortune in bandwidth and you'll be left with NO SALES. Stay away from the TGPs!"

2) "Here's a source of traffic which I can convert. All traffic is good traffic and I can market my sponsors to these surfers. TGPs make me a lot of money each month."

In a recent poll here on the board, entitled "Should new webmasters try tgp traffic?"

The results came back as follows:

Yes: 39%
No: 61%

TGPs are not right for everyone. The only 'fact' I can post is this:

Some people DO make money from the TGPs (with some webmasters using TGPs exclusively to make it as an adult webmaster), and some webmasters move on to other things.

The only real way you'll find out is to do as much research into that scene as possible and then try it out for yourself. TGPs can work - but they are not suited to everyone.

So that's the end of my intro to TGPs. You might also want to read the TGP Booster next:
... which has some good information in the ARCHIVES:

http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/tgpbooster/archives/tgp-booster-001.html
through to...
http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/tgpbooster/archives/tgp-booster-027.html

Good luck on the TGPs!

TOM ^"^

ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com

Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER

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