Free Sites

[Xstr8guy]

No. Carries wasnt and neither am I. What were both saying, and if you read my last post, is that a. he can learn tons from the sites submitted, and b. read the rules of every link list. They are after all, all different.

Now how is that either not advising or bashing ?

Get a grip.

He asked a question! Have you not noticed that when someone asks a question here... we try to answer? We don't tell someone to figure it out for themselves. We offer advice if we know the answer. This is not GFY.

[marcjacob]

What i actually said is "i thought that too, odd". sorry that upset you. certainly wasnt intented too, and i dont believe that carrie intented to insult you either.

[Dzinerbear]

And actually I can't learn a ton from the galleries submitted to my link list because if you've been following the link list thread (two of them actually) you'll be able to devine that most of the submissions I've been getting are free hosted galleries with three recip buttons at the top. What am I suppose to learn from that?

Yes, you're absolutely right, I could sift through the other 10% of galleries submitted to my LL that are actual free sites, but I'm a busy guy and I thought it might be easier just to ask.

Michael

[Xstr8guy]

Truce!

So marc, you do freesites, right? Can you offer some advice?

[marcjacob]

For goodness sake, im sorry you took carries comments and my agreement of them as an insult.

I DID NOT INTEND IT TO BE THE WAY YOU TOOK IT

IM SORRY IF I OFFENDED YOU

2nd apology, you arnt getting a third as i didnt intend it the way it obviously came out in the first place.

[marcjacob]

Truce!

So marc, you do freesites, right? Can you offer some advice?

Yeah - read the rules on every one. I made the mistake of using the word "boy" and im banned from a couple of lists. Every rule list is different.

As Gaydemon pointed out, no banners on warning page. They seem to like clean designs with many photos. Ive tried ignoring sites that ask for larger image counts, but to be honest the bigger ones that send the traffic are the ones who make those demands. Seems worth following those rules to me. May be wrong though.

[Xstr8guy]

Do you make good sponsor sales compared to AVS galleries? More or less?

[marcjacob]

Much less, my avs ratios are by far the best.

[Xstr8guy]

Much less, my avs ratios are by far the best.

Good info! So why bother? Do you manage to snare the free site surfers in your AVS hub?

[DEVELISH]

OH my, did kindergarden end early today

Michael, the way I started was looking at other freesites - i found that they are struktured pretty simple

- theme
warning page with recip links and an ENTER link (some LL rules mention where it should go to)
- index page with thumbnail or text link to 3 or 4 gallerie pages
- gallery page I have have 15 pics each (4 galleries total)
- thumbnail link should go to imagefile and not html file
- banners can be on all pages except warning page (read rules how many allowed and where)
- dont overload with banners

thats how I do it - dunno if I do them right or if they could be better - nobody complained so far of the users LOOOL

DEVELISH

[marcjacob]

I see it as extra sales. Might aswell take it i guess.

[Dzinerbear]

Wow! 30 pics is a lot, eh? Another 20 pics and you've got an AVS gallery. Oh well, I guess it's a different breed of surfer.

Thanks for the tips.

Michael

[tigermom]

I did about 100 freesites this year and I noticed something interesting. The "general" LL's, which accept gay FS into the gay category (and sometimes sub-categories), have slightly different rules than many of the strictly gay LL's. It seems that there are many gay LL's that insist on 30+ pictures per FS, sometimes 50 and I've even seen 60 pics as the minimum! I decided not to submit to these, as I felt this was giving away too much porn for a free site.

So, my rules here are based on the "general" LL's, such as Jay XXX, Greenguy's Link-O-Rama, Penisbot etc.

1. Four page for a site with the same structure always: Warning Page => Entry Page => 2 Gallery Pages.

2. Themed site with one name that actually matches the content. I haven't seen a rule about images for logos. Could be a very new thing, as I haven't submitted in a few months.

3. Three outgoing links per page. These could be links to your sponsors or to your hub. This applies to the Warning Page too (except for the recips table). Many LL's count an EXIT link there as one of the three (best is not to have it).

4. No blind links ever. Make sure you either have a banner as part of the link, or you use the site's name in the text. Never use the word ENTER in a link to a sponsor, not even on a banner.

5. Warning Page Rules - Your recips have to be above the ENTER link. ENTER link must be visible and prominent. A minimum of 5 recips in your table. Up to 12 recips is perfectly ok. I could get away with 16, easily, if the table is clean. You can use text links in the recips and have them all in a uniform design.

6. No FPA's above content. Clear links to galleries on your entry page.

7. Galleries should have 12 pics each. It used to be 10 each, and still is on many LL's, but Greenguy changed it to 12 per page on LOR, so if you want in there, 12 is the way to go.

8. Clear large thumbs, clear large images. GG's new rule for images is to have the total of width and height of pixels at a minimum of 1200 pixels. That means something like 700 by 500 or 550 by 650 etc. It needs to come up to 1200 in total. And still, make sure your file size for both images and thumbs is within reason.

9. Submit from a constant set of domains which don't have privacy settings. Don't use a free email service for your email addy. Be out in the open in general.

10. Vary your designs! They like seeing pretty sites and ones that are different from one another. Play with things like thumbs layout on galleries, and overall site layout and style.

I think this is it mostly. I hope I didn't forget anything too important. One thing that really helped me was to get my first freesites reviewed. If you like, either post your freesites here or PM me and I'd be happy to take a look and let you know if I see anything. Another good thing, is to get to know the LL's owners on their board (PM me if you don't know where that is).

You can also take a look at some of my gay FS here -
http://www.hot-guys.ws/fs/

Hope this helps

[glowlite]

You got several rules wrong for the 3 LL's you mentioned.

[maxpower]

Some of you guys are a bit lost on this FS stuff, personally I think if you have not made at least 1000 FS then it might not be best to offer advice. For the most part the advice I see could be copied from the rules of sites like http://www.link-o-rama.com/ the self-proclaimed link nazi :thumbsdown: