Does Anyone Actually Use Hosted Galleries?

[Lee]

For anything other than filler galleries on their own TGPs?

Just curious as to whether it is worth while getting some put up for the Stud Money sites?

Regards,

Lee

[Kath]

I don't use them but I will tell you that when we surveyed our webmasters @ SexMoney.com almost ALL of them said that the thing they wanted most was hosted galleries. So now we have 'em.

Personally - and maybe I'm just too "old school" for today's biz - but I think hosted galleries are a BAD thing. Bad for the content provider, bad for the industry (too much free & too much free hardcore, why add to it?) and just a bad idea in general.

However... majority rules. At the Phoenix Forum when asked how to choose a quality affiliate program, lots of people answered with good repuation, good payouts, variety of sites & hosted galleries.

Things change.

[Lee]

Originally posted by Kath
Personally - and maybe I'm just too "old school" for today's biz - but I think hosted galleries are a BAD thing. Bad for the content provider, bad for the industry (too much free & too much free hardcore, why add to it?) and just a bad idea in general.

Im more against them for the fact that it breeds laziness in the webmasters... what ever happened to the days where a webmaster actually had to work to make money :boom:

Regards,

Lee

[Chilihost]

it seems that fake tgps with nothing but hosted galleries are the new fad taking over from cj sites and with the amount of hosted galleries available it is easy to do. Hunkmoney offers hosted galleries and a hosted TGP site, those get a lot of traffic to them and the occasional signup too.

cheers,
Luke

[basschick]

i sometimes use fhgs, but most of them are utter crap.

[Bec]

I do use some of the better ones and mix them up with those that I make myself... and trust me Lee -- I work my fanny off and it's nice to have a few of those handy for a fast filler on occasion.

[Dawgy]

webmasters today do not want to do any work.

they want:
free content
free hosted galleries
free hosting
free rewards

what ever happend to buying a photo set, making a gallery, submitting the gallery, and actually working for the $40 you get paid for those joins?

ok, end of rant.

yes, fhg are good tool to have & they do make money if theyre done properly :devil:

[Pistol]

We ran a research exercise a few months ago asking this very question and the response was overwhelmingly in favor of having hosted galleries as a part of our program. We were also told that we ran the risk of not being supported by some webmasters if we didn't have them.

From an experience perspective - ours work well and some of our webmasters generate sales quite consistantly by using them.

They can also chew - REALLY CHEW - up the bandwidth. If you haven't got a good hosting deal it's not advisable.

[AusCoding Allan]

I agree with the majority here in that if used properly hosted galleries are great, but people should work for their money like everyone else so those that just post a whole lot of hosted galleries aren't really doing it right but who's to say what's right and wrong except the paycheck at the end of the month.

No real opinion here but as Bec put it, they're great filler at a pinch.

Cheers,

Allan

[Dzinerbear]

I do use some Randy Blue hosted stuff. But I really prefer to take content donated from a sponsor and work it into my site so that it fits the overall design.

Like Bec, I work my butt off, so I appreciate having stuff that's already resized etc.

I've got a page on my site that I feed TGP traffic into and it has a thumbnail of every guy on the site and the lower half of that page features thumbnails all of Randy Blue's hosted guys. Having those RB's really helps boost the Holy Shit factor.

I also think that if you've got webmasters using your hosted stuff for TGP submissions that there's going to be so much of it out there. If you ever finally get a potential sale to your site, after they've seen all of the guys on your site 4,000 times already, they might just end up saying, "Oh shit, I've seen all this stuff before, there's no need to buy a membership."

Cheers,
Michael

[McAttack]

Good points all around, but one thing that comes back to my mind is when it comes down to, what I care about it sales. I don't care if the webmaster is lazy and he makes $30 for a gallery that he didn't make, the point is, he got the traffic to it and the sale was made. They don't work as hard as others had to even 2 years ago. Fine. But that's called progress. Building a house now is much easier than it was 20 years ago.

When looking at most FHG, they suck ass. They're only good AS filler because the looks are horrible, the content used is really bad, they're just made up quickly and it shows.

Programs that complain about the content that's out there, this is ridiculous. The programs have CONTROL over what content goes out. the FHGs you make can have the right pics in it that get the surfer going, but not far enough to get them off. If all the programs would smarten up like the small majority of them that already have, use the RIGHT content. Don't just pick 18 random pics from every set you have.

Personally, most of the FHGs that I see aren't as good as the ones made by experienced WMs who know how to sell using a gallery.

[Macho 411]

Yepp I use them on my site
find it helps generate traffic to the site
get a sale here & there off them at times....

[basschick]

i don't think i'm a lazy webmaster. i put in 12 - 16 hour days 5 days week, and two 10 hour days generally. most of those hours aren't spent checking stats and emails - they are spent actually working.

i don't care about rewards when choosing a sponsor, and i do not use free hosting. i do use free content when it is good and not overexposed - i make more money when the content is actually in the site i'm selling for.

i won't choose a sponsor because of fhgs, but if they offer fhgs, why not offer ones that stand a chance of making some sales? a few programs figure "hey, since we're making these galleries anyway, might as well make good ones" but those companies are few and far between. the rest figure they're doing it for the webmasters, and give us crap that might not have made sales in 1998.

if a sponsor is going to bother offering tools, why not offer useful ones?

[McAttack]

Originally posted by basschick


i won't choose a sponsor because of fhgs, but if they offer fhgs, why not offer ones that stand a chance of making some sales? a few programs figure "hey, since we're making these galleries anyway, might as well make good ones" but those companies are few and far between. the rest figure they're doing it for the webmasters, and give us crap that might not have made sales in 1998.

if a sponsor is going to bother offering tools, why not offer useful ones?

EXACTLY! That's my biggest beef when I get asked by sponsors "Why don't you push us more" or whatever. Give people REAL tools, not just banners. I'd rather see a sponsor provide better content to use and better text links, than crap content, crap galleries, but 1000 banners and FPAs.