argh! my free site sucks!!!!!!!!

Patti - just use as much sales text as you want! Get the top of that page filled with hot selling text and then your site banner. That is premium ad space for YOU - and those recips should be well down the page.

All the linklist wants to see is that their recip shows up before your Enter link and that you have the requisite number of "free" pics inside.

Other things they don't want is forced through a fpa when entering your main page when coming directly off the index/warning page. And most limit 2 banners on the main page and 3 outbound links to your other free sites and a hub site.

In other words, it shouldn't look like a banner farm.

You can force a surfer thru an fpa from your main page when you send them off to another free site or your hub site ... that isn't forcing anyone landing on your index to go thru one and is perfectly acceptable.

and yet i have definitely seen link lists that say they allow a single passthrough page. but in order to do this, you would have to put together a list of link links that do allow it - i'm sure a lot don't.

i'm very used to working with tgps, and a lot of tgps require the recips in the upper 1/3 of the page. but as you pointed out last night, most link sites simply require that their link be above the enter link - so that does leave a lot of real estate on the top of the page to play with. i will definitely be doing that next.

Link sites allowing a passthru are becoming a rarity. Too many webmasters were using them and then not providing a "no thanks show me the galleries" link at the bottom of the page once their site got listed ... so due to abuse by a few, the rules have changed for the many.

I personnaly like the recips on the warning page


TITLE


Warning text


Recips table (best to have 6-8 recips only or less, but never just one or two)


ENTER - EXIT


for JUB and Billy's I'm ok with a passthrough page as long as the ad isn't huge and there are top and bottom links to move on to the galleries and it's not too tiny. I had some webmasters submit a site with a huge FPA and really tiny "Continue...." text that was very hard to find

wow I was going to give some input but everyone has put in some great stuff here. I would just suggest having alot more free galleries and maybe even some hosted galleries on the page. :)

Mark

A free site is only allowed so many outbound links Mark ... that's why on the main page she should show 2 banners - one to her paysite and one to another she's upselling as an affiliate. Her galleries can show whatever banner it is that the gallery represents.

On her main page she can include 3 text links. Once she gets a circle of free sites happening and ideally a Hub site made ... her links on her main page of a free site would go to:

1. the previous site in the circle - forcing them thru an fpa first that links at bottom to the main page for that free site

2. her hubsite - again a forced fpa viewing before they get the link to the main page (don't link the "no thanks" to your index for that site -but go directly to the main page of that site, they already saw a warning when they dropped into the free site to begin with)

3. the next site in the circle - again thru an fpa that links to that sites main page

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bec

A free site is only allowed so many outbound links Mark ... that's why on the main page she should show 2 banners - one to her paysite and one to another she's upselling as an affiliate. Her galleries can show whatever banner it is that the gallery represents.

On her main page she can include 3 text links. Once she gets a circle of free sites happening and ideally a Hub site made ... her links on her main page of a free site would go to:

1. the previous site in the circle - forcing them thru an fpa first that links at bottom to the main page for that free site

2. her hubsite - again a forced fpa viewing before they get the link to the main page (don't link the "no thanks" to your index for that site -but go directly to the main page of that site, they already saw a warning when they dropped into the free site to begin with)

3. the next site in the circle - again thru an fpa that links to that sites main page

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Good advice Bec. I haven't done many free sites so I have lots to learn too. :)

Mark

basschick, let us know about your results. It doesn't seem like we have any resident experts on the subject. We all could learn a lot from your experiences. I'll put up some freesites tomorrow and share as well.

Oh, none of the big straight/mixed LL's accept FPA's before content... at least none that I know of. Maybe the gay LL's do, I don't know.

Oh god, I didn't see the second page of this thread before I replied. I see Bec is our resident freesite expert. Sorry Bec!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

Oh god, I didn't see the second page of this thread before I replied. I see Bec is our resident freesite expert. Sorry Bec!

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LOL... glad you added that! I was thinking, "man I really fucked up with the information!"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bec

LOL... glad you added that! I was thinking, "man I really fucked up with the information!"

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Lol, I'm so sorry! I totally missed the second page where you shared the REALLY good advice. I'm going to try to put it into practice tomorrow.

Btw, are all freesites so graphically barren? Lol. It seems like the majority have no style or pizazz. Is it taboo to try to spice them up a bit?

Also Bec, what is a good full-size image to use. I use 700-800px on my AVS sites and I'd rather not give the freesite surfers images that big. And can the full-size images be displayed on html pages with or without banners?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xstr8guy

Lol, I'm so sorry! I totally missed the second page where you shared the REALLY good advice. I'm going to try to put it into practice tomorrow.

Btw, are all freesites so graphically barren? Lol. It seems like the majority have no style or pizazz. Is it taboo to try to spice them up a bit?

Also Bec, what is a good full-size image to use. I use 700-800px on my AVS sites and I'd rather not give the freesite surfers images that big. And can the full-size images be displayed on html pages with or without banners?

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The freesite needs to load fast - same concept as the gallery for a tgp. You have a very short time frame to push the site ads in their faces before they hunt for the enter link. That warning page is every bit as important for selling your sites as what you put on the main and 2 gallery html's. This is that area of marketing where ugly sells. For some reason, the more amateurish these look the better, believe it or not. And since they are so skimpy in the text dept. - and needing to be spidered - the site title and entry links, etc. should really be text based rather than on a fancy graphic.

If you DO want a nice animated "Enter Here" type deal, fine, but add a text link under it as well. You can do a simple fancy text looking header graphic for a little punch, just keep it something small - 15-50 kb max and add on an alt tag with the site title... or even take one pic and toss the site "title" onto it for a little more site branding - pop it to a 2 column table and put the sales text next to it at the top of the page.

On the using html for the gallery pic pages - there's a type of tgp that allowed this and it was referred to as TGP2. They originally got going in an effort to reduce the number of "free pics" being presented to the surfer. The large pics were on an html page - galleries only allowed 5 pics total, and you could ad a banner and add more sales text to the large pic page as well. Unfortunately, every link I had about TGP2 building and the sites that accepted them seem to be defunct. I'm really sorry to see this didn't get the support, as it was started as an effort to reduce the amount of free porn given away everyday.

So for now, we're stuck abiding by free site rules where the pics are just linked from the thumbs and not on an html page.

As to pic size - I totally agree about not giving surfers free hi res material. Since I like to build free sites and be able to also take those same galleries and make a copy that can be submitted - I just have my galleries satisfy most tgp rules at the same time.

Minimum 15 pics - I make my big pictures to fit between 550-600 on long side and come in around 41-60kb max file weight. Thumbs are never smaller than 90 pixels on short side - and come in around 5kb. Of course if you use something like 150 squares - those thumbs going to bump up a bit weight wise. I usually use some text with a link at top of the gallery page, with maybe a banner either mid page or as the closer link.

I use a Max of 3 outbound links to the sponsor site on the gallery. This way I have a freesite that meets the linklist rules as well as 2 galleries I can clone, add 3 outbound recip links (one recip is always to my hubsite btw), stay within the 6 links total allowed, and send them out knowing they meet the rules of even the most persnikkity tgp.

Of course if you have a backlog of galleries you've already submitted, just start sorting them by "category/niche" into a bunch of folders for a freesite grouping that you can resuse those in. Make your index and main pages for a group of threes sites that all fit a particular niche. Now go ahead and put on about 6 site recips you know you want to submit em to on the warning page. On the main page add three text links under a line saying More Free Porn ... back and forward link the 3 free sites you just made so they create a circle (moving them thru a fpa)/add em to your hub under your free site links, add links to the galleries to your tgp rotator database or just add a link if not using a script... and start submitting them. (Note: middle link on every main page always go to your hub site thru an fpa!)

You now have 3 free sites out on up to 18 link lists (if you use 6 dif ones for each site), 6 total galleries you can submit, 3 new free sites to add to your hub site and 6 new galleries you can show the surfer off your hubsite. If you're running a paysite ... you now have 6 galleries that could be offered as fhg's (after YOU submit them once of course!) ... 6 sets of sized content and thumbs that can get zipped up and offered as a zip download for them to make their own ... banners that you made to promo the paysite now become additional promo material you can add for the affiliates to fetch. That one little freesite group does a LOT of work if handled right.

When your 2nd group of three is ready, go back to the last site you did in the 1st grouping of 3 - have the 3rd link on the main page move to the first site in the next group and the last site's 3rd link in 2nd group links to first site in first group. A surfer can now move thru 6 freesites, but need to go thru 6 fpas to do it too!

Repeat this as you add a new group. If you setup your freesites into clusters of niches, you'll quickly be able to filter your traffic and present them the types of sites they really want to see. (IE: first group of 3 fits Uncut Cocks, 2nd group of 3 fits Watersports, 3rd group of 3 fits Ebony and so on.)

A good plan is to figure out 6 categories/niches and make a 18 site circle with them. Make your FPA so that it features an ad for each niche - which also helps to filter the surfer to his porn choice.

I have no idea if this program any good - found it just now again when trying to locate those tgp2 sites: TGP Gallery Maker

It supposedly builds the galleries, submits them like the Advanced Submitter program and also helps with doing the free sites. Worth a look since it's free to download now. If anyone has it or tinkers with it - give us some feedback.

You know i just have to say this...

Some of the replies in this thread made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

Its amazing how far some of you have come in the last 12 months so far as the amount of knowledge you have gained.

Actually, i lie, not just in this thread, in various threads as of late a lot of people who 12 months ago didnt know what or how to do something learned and are passing that knowledge on to others.. Kudos to you all for sharing the information :thumbsup:

Regards,

Lee

Yes, it's wonderful actually.
And it was great to see Bec back here full force. I've missed here.

Now, if I could just get you guys to admit that just because a freesite used to X,Y,Z doesn't mean it always has to be X,Y,Z. This business changes fast and as quickly as you think you have one thing figured out, it morphs into something else. I was disappointed that everyone was focusing on the actual word "freesite" instead of trying to embrace the concepts I ws trying to put forth. It was like you were all saying, "Well ATK Galeria isn't a freesite, so we're just not going to listen to what you're saying."

Nevertheless, this has been a great thread, I sure have learned a lot. Thanks for all the tips, Bec.

dzinerbear

I don't think it was that no one wanted to listen Michael ... it was just how the term freesite gets used to describe so many different types of sites we use to market with, that some here were saying that what ATK has is in essense a hub site to show off their mini "free sites" ... they even say that right on the front page: "ATKINGDOM's Network of Adult Free Sites Visit all of our free sites for weekly updated, high-quality content" ... with the table of sites underneath becoming their little free sites with the free pics and upsell to the paysite.

What I think happened is folks hit your link, went Oh, it's a hub ... and clicked off again without studying the model to see what you were sharing. And I admit, I did the very same thing - the first time. Since you are obviously upset, I decided to go back again and try to see what you saw.

I now see WHAT they are doing that is different and certainly deserves a longer look by most everyone here. In a nutshell, their mini free sites are the equivalent to one or two page tours in many many ways, and a "fresh" idea in how to utilize the hubsite/freesite concept to get folks to that paysite. It's definately a twist in the marketing by presenting it on a hub like that. I have seen tours utilize those same "features" out front to lure folks to join, but not done quite this way away from the actual paysite. And yes, they are indeed updating those minisites.

So did I see what it was you wanted to show us?