Gallery Critique

[Bec]

Hi all

This request hits content, traffic, design ... and I'm clueless where exactly to post this so here goes...

We've been submitting galleries, and they are getting picked up and generating a lot of traffic, but we aren't seeing any conversions. Could you look at a couple of these and offer up some suggestions on what I should try or change for new galleries I make?



http://www.lesbianporn4free.com/galleries/tb/fls/

http://www.lesbianporn4free.com/galleries/ars/lb3/

http://www.lesbianporn4free.com/galleries/nd/ashley/

http://www.lesbianporn4free.com/galleries/weg/cathy10/

Thanks!

[Lee]

The links dont work hon

Regards,

Lee

[Bec]

Ok, I edited the urls ... for some reason they got really shortened in the first post ... I tested them, and all seem to open now.

Thanks for the heads up Lee!

[Chilihost]

Your galleries look fine, I would stick with doing series galleries as they tend to get listed at more places. What type of traffic numbers are you talking about? It could be a number of things, first off TGP traffic is not that great to begin with so getting 100,000 page views and only 1 sale is actually quite normal. Second, it could be your sponsor is overused. The one thing I tend to recommend is going with smaller, underexposed sponsors that are fresh to surfers. I am not big in the lesbian niche, so I can't tell if you are using sponsor content or not. If it is sponsor content, it tends to be overused and people get to your gallery and just don't bother clicking anywhere cuz they have seen it all before. Finally, it could be your traffic source. Different TGP sites convert traffic at different rates. For instance, thehun may convert hardcore movie traffic very well but is shit for lesbian traffic (I don't know if that is true, its just an example). How are you getting your traffic? Are you using an auto-submit tool? If not, you should, it will get you more traffic and hopefully more sales too.

Hope all this helps!

cheers,

Luke

[Bec]

I would stick with doing series galleries as they tend to get listed at more places.

I don't understand the term "series galleries" ... would you claify more?

What type of traffic numbers are you talking about?

Well, we're sill trying to figure out how to determine how many hits a certain page gets, but since most tgp's don't want pages with counter codes, we're a bit lost.

We're mostly trying to use the Webalizer to figure out visits and where it's coming from.

I do know the last gallery of Cathy got over 18,000 on it's first day on Richard's Realm. The first three use sponsor content, the last one was bought content ... we're using a mix of both. Right now there isn't a lot of bucks for buying a lot of sets. Also, since we're a free site we don't get to send traffic to a member's area where we can utilize the hardcore shots ... so have pics in sets that we can't realistically utilize right now.

Also, each sample above showed a different sponsor, as we're uncertain too on who has "less exposure", so testing out each sponsor to see what they do converson wise.

I think we're still suffering from bandwidth shock... that Cathy gallery darn near ate up all our BW in one day and we scrambled to add more. One listing on the Hun would sink our little lezzie boat! I don't understand how anyone who does galleries for tgp traffic can do this without a dedicated server and oceans of bandwidth. Even if we use some free sponsor hosting for some galleries, you aren't allowed any links to go out that isn't to one of their sites ... and to me that means no links for recips. We aren't finding a whole lot of tgp's that accept clean galleries.

I build the galleries, and my partner in crime does the sumbissions. We did find a free submitter program, but I don't think she's figured out how to use it yet ... but it's defnately high on the must do list!

Thanks for the feedback Chilihost ... you're a gem!

[Chilihost]

Bec,

series gallery = a gallery with photos in a series (your 2nd gallery has mixed pics, all others have series).

If you are suffering bandwidth shock, perhaps you should contact me and set up a good quality high-bandwidht hosting account. I will take care of ya, trust me!

If you are continuing to do TGP galleries then be prepared to skate the thin line of bandwidth vs sales. TGP traffic is very hard to convert and make money off of, but it can be done successfully! There are lots of tips and tricks that you will have to know about to make it worth your while. Contact me on email sales@chilihost.com or icq 118860760 and we can chat a bit further on this.


cheers,

Luke

[southernexposure]

Don't forget the Slugs that will post your images in BBS. It will cost you out the ass if anyone gets hold of those images. You need to graphically compress your images so it's 50% smaller in file size (not picture size) but make sure you test the quality.

I found out the hard way with that bandwidth issue. One BBS had entire galleries of mine posted and used 30 gb's in a day. At the time it was costing me 2.70 a gig. you do the math.

Your best bet is to go with Chili Host.. The Prices are Unbelieveable.
I'm signing up at the end of the week.:groovy:

[Hammer]

The gallery designs are great so it's not that. Although I would recommend giving each gallery a title. Nice big teaser heading to tell me right away what the gallery is about as soon as it loads.

The sponsors you're using are good but I do think that those tours are kinda bland. Try promoting some sites with splashier tours. More color for one thing.

I'd also like to point out that as a straight man the content on those galleries appeals to me and the galleries worked for me so if there's a problem anywhere it must be the pay site tours.

In case you're unsure what I'm trying to say in that last paragraph, I'm saying that I registered a substantial rise on the shwing scale.

[Jasun]

I have to agree about the low ratio of conversion with TGPs. So far I've had much more luck spamming Yahoo groups (as much as I hate it) than I have with the TGP.

TGP is a great traffic source, but unless the landing pages are top notch, I'd not expect much in the way of conversions.

I'd also look at who you're posting your galleries with... if the traffic you're getting from them is made up of people who don't wanna pay for a site, no amount of excellent galleries or quality content or anthing will change that.

Once, I just changed the links on my sites to new link lists, and got a slight rise in conversions.

Keep it up, though.

[Bec]

Originally posted by southernexposure
Don't forget the Slugs that will post your images in BBS. It will cost you out the ass if anyone gets hold of those images. You need to graphically compress your images so it's 50% smaller in file size (not picture size) but make sure you test the quality.

I found out the hard way with that bandwidth issue. One BBS had entire galleries of mine posted and used 30 gb's in a day. At the time it was costing me 2.70 a gig. you do the math.

Your best bet is to go with Chili Host.. The Prices are Unbelieveable.
I'm signing up at the end of the week.:groovy:

I'm guessing here that you mean if they get hotlinked ... they can't do that from the site, I'm using Robot Control on it. But yes, if they download, those bigger files hurt big time.

If a gallery has already been accepted to various tgp's... can I adjust the size of the big pictures? I won't touch the html, or change the big photo name at all... just optimize and upload the smaller file.

And yes, Luke and I talked at length yesterday, and we'll most likely sign up for a better hosting package by the end of the month.:bow:

[Bec]

Originally posted by The Hammer
The gallery designs are great so it's not that. Although I would recommend giving each gallery a title. Nice big teaser heading to tell me right away what the gallery is about as soon as it loads.

The sponsors you're using are good but I do think that those tours are kinda bland. Try promoting some sites with splashier tours. More color for one thing.

I'd also like to point out that as a straight man the content on those galleries appeals to me and the galleries worked for me so if there's a problem anywhere it must be the pay site tours.

In case you're unsure what I'm trying to say in that last paragraph, I'm saying that I registered a substantial rise on the shwing scale.

Thanks Hammer for looking them over. I did do some with header text, and others have said to not really bother, save it for further down since most gallery surfers ignore anything at the top of page anyway. But I'll certainly give that some thought, heck, doesn't cost anything to add a line or two!

And yea... I got what you meant about them appealing to you ... they do to me too:smooch: hehee

[Dzinerbear]

I may be way off base here, but I'll say it anyway. I think your sites and your sponsors' sites are suffering from Free-itis. Way too much hype about "free" stuff.

If it's "free" why do you need my credit card? I always asked. I don't think I'm just a jaded surfer either, I think anyone who's been on the Net for longer than two weeks knows that nothing's free, especially not porn.

On this page: http://www.lesbianporn4free.com/main1.html

I counted 15 "frees" in the text alone.

Why don't you try pushing some pages that aren't hyped with "free" and see if that gets you anything. Write some hot copy about what these women are doing to one another, get a rise and I bet you get a credit card.

On my gay sites I don't bullshit people. I don't lie and say it's "free" when it ain't, I don't tell them there's hot twinks when there ain't, and I give them what I promise them inside. I don't lead them down blind alleys, I don't use pop-ups, I don't steal content, I don't trade links with bullshit sites.

The money isn't exactly rolling off the presses like at the mint, however, I'm building loyalty, I'm selling, my sales are going up every pay period, my sub-affiliates are starting to sell, I've got excellent search engine rankings. If this keeps up, by this time next year, I'll be pulling in some good coin.

While everyone else is trying the "free" thing, why don't you try something else. Just be upfront and try and get their little Johns as hard as possible so they've got to buy.

If you want to check out my site, send me a private message and I'll send you the URL.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[Dzinerbear]

Hey all,

I wanted to publicly apologize to LdyLnWlf, in talking to her privately I realized that my message was little too blunt and could have read that I was accusing she was misleading people.

And what I was trying to say is this: Just because everyone else is doing something doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea or a good approach, and if you tried something new and innovative that surfers might actually notice and buy.

How many surfers have been burned by the "free" thing and they'll never give their credit to another site every again?

How many surfers have been burned by the free demo and freaked when they saw a $40 charge on their credit card? What are the chances that they're going to give their credit card to another site?

Is it a good idea to stuff your twink domain name with hairy men file names just to get a good search engine ranking?

Is it a good idea to throw pictures of big cocks in a surfers face when they click a link for big tits?

Is it a good idea to kill people with pop-ups and hijack their bookmarks?

Ethically speaking, is it a good idea to use boy, teen, and barely legal on your site?

If this industry continues to burn people we will eventually run out of people to burn, or VISA will pull out the big fire extinquisher and ... we've been down this road before, and if we don't try and clean things up ourselves, we'll all suffer in the end.

Sorry LdyLnWlf my apologies to you, I wasn't accusing you, I was simply going on a little rant. And I apologize if anyone perceives that I was raking you over the coals.

Cheers
Dzinerbear

[Jasun]

you're absolutely right, though.

What worked so well for us all a few years back doesn't work anymore. People are scared to give out credit card info, so if a site is claiming everything is free, but selling things like Penis Enlargement pills or some other type of snake oil, their radar is detecting bullshit.. they're leaving.

Since the days of dialers, people are scared to even go to a "free" site. My boyfriend once went to a "free" site just out of curiosity, didn't like what he saw, and forgot about it... he got a $87 charge on his phone bill the next month, because a dialer had reconnected him to a different computer in Nigeria. He's never even trusted MY sites since then.

I've found that coming right out and telling people that yes, there will be money involved, but it's a legit site, it's got quality content and they're not gonna screw you around goes a lot further than leading people to believe their site is free, when it's obviously not.

People aren't as easy to fool as they used to be, and although the post Christmas New computer wave is coming, even THAT's been slowing down in recent years.

[Bec]

Thanks for clearing that up a bit Dzinerbear ... my first knee jerk reaction was that I'd seriously screwed up with the site and just earned a bad rep! But after reading it a couple times, I saw you were doing a rant, and realized you weren't accusing me of all those things.

I actually agree with you. I hate this "free" when it ain't ... I use no pop console links whenever possible even though it cuts a signup return to about half. I designed the site with nice clean graphics and different color pallette just to get away from all the cookie cutter designs I saw when I started researching the porn industry. I wanted it clean and classy, easy to navigate, hopefully memorable and bookmarkable.

There was a comment on another board about those cookie tours being so jammed with images and blast in the face text ... and guessing it's done to essentially overwhelm the surfer with so much "input" that he's going to get all this marvelous content once he whips out the ol credit card. But also commented that surfers are catching on to that presentation too, and it's becoming less and less effective.

I personally don't like the idea of promoting teens or "barely legal", it's too damn close to KP in my eyes. We get notices from the police dept all the time about child molestors who have moved into the area, and recently one little girl was found dumped in a field not 2 blocks from me. It's a sick sign of our society that the teen market is so "hot" right now. (my opinon only, others are certainly welcome to an opposing view).

Since deciding to come into this industry, I've quickly learned that there are those here with morals, and those that don't give a flying fuck about doing you, or their customer's, dirty.

Those of you who have come to my posts, and given such insightful responses are to be commended. It's guys like you that took the bad taste out of my mouth that used to happen when someone said "porn on the internet".

It is a business... and with a bit of help, and time, I do hope to earn the same respect of being a reputable member of the industry as so many of those of you that I've met here have done.

Hugs