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How to Sell the Cow While Giving the Milk for FREE
Or... "How to Make a Profit from TGP Sites"
by Kath Blackwell
It's an age-old saying with lots of merit, but is it possible to sell the cow if you're handing out free milk right and left? Well, yes and no. You can if you think about the different levels of quality in the free content that you are offering. You wouldn't give away a case of the high-grade AAA quality stuff for free, would you? But maybe a sample of it in another form, say a lick of ice cream, a small sip of the chocolate version - heck even a little nibble of cheese made from the quality milk will get them hungry for more. Some webmasters think a change in quality means that you should dole out the sour stuff - or the curdled, sat-too-long-in-the-barn-quality milk. Not so…giving them a bad sample will leave a bad taste in their mouths and they just might move on to look for something sweeter. It's your job to get them interested and on the hook, and once they are Jonesing for a bigger taste - it's time to reel 'em in!
Okay - cow and milk analogies aside, finding the proper combination of quality samples versus giving away the whole enchilada is what will get you that sale. Finding this perfect mix is the key to making a success of TGP (thumbnail gallery post) traffic. Keeping in mind that TGP conversion ratios are a whole different story than those of free or AVS sites, a good ratio to shoot for in TGP traffic would be about 1:400 or more. These are sales conversions, not click conversions. Your click ratio should be much higher even without sneaky tricks, like blind links or script redirections, but since the bottom line is really what we're looking at in this article - we'll focus on the conversion numbers from here on out.
Why Isn't It Working???
Sometimes the best way to find out how to make something work is to look at the different failing scenarios that some webmasters experience. Learning from your mistakes is a good thing - but sometimes getting a bird's eye view of someone else's can be just as beneficial - and less costly! Here are the three TOP ways that adult webmasters fail when trying to tap into TGP traffic for their Web sites.
The Old "Quantity vs. Quality" Debate…
One of the biggest reasons most webmasters fail at TGP is because of their inability to use the TGP traffic to its full potential. Not understanding your traffic can be your biggest mistake. Knowing where it comes from, what it wants, whether it has sales-potential or if it's just "mooching" traffic - understanding these factors is essential to getting your traffic to work FOR you instead of AGAINST you.
If you use your TGP traffic the way it was designed to be used, you will find more success than the guy who has the mentality of "whoever has the most hits and dies, wins." TGP traffic should be thought of as "a means of showing surfers samples of content for the pay sites you are advertising." Nothing more - nothing less. Don't confuse QUANTITY with QUALITY, or you'll lose. More pics, more nudity, more hardcore- does not necessarily mean more sales. In fact, if you were to ask an honest TGP list owner what converts the best he'd probably tell you to build sites with the minimum required thumbs, featuring softcore content with as little full nudity as possible.
Why wouldn't hardcore sell better than softcore? This has been a newbie webmaster debate for YEARS, but the real reason is that showing the hardcore content defeats the purpose of the surfer's need to buy. If he's already seen the "hard stuff" why would he want to pay? On the other hand, showing sample photos of unattractive models, low-quality photography or unappealing images, defeats the purpose of properly representing the pay site's content that you are trying to sell. Note: Of course this doesn't apply if ugly or odd photography is the niche you are going after…remember to adapt this information to suit the theme and nature of your site!
Use the TGP basic marketing approach to the letter, by making galleries of a suitable number of thumbnail images, with quality content featuring "teaser" shots that will interest the user and make them want more. The use of creative text will connect your gallery seamlessly to the pay site, making the whole TGP concept pay off in the end.
Know Your Market!
The second mistake that a lot of webmasters make when trying to use TGP is that they are selling it to the wrong market. Time and time again it can be seen on the 'Net - a marketing opportunity overlooked by selling the wrong thing at the wrong time, to the wrong people. This is another reason why knowing and understanding your traffic can help you succeed.
If your site is called "Big Beautiful Mommas" but you feature sample photos of thin, college-aged women, chances are your conversion rate won't be very high when you try to sell it to a BBW sponsor. On the other hand, if your site is called "College Cheerleaders" and your content features some cute babes in cheerleader gear - BUT…you're trying to sell your surfers to a Hardcore Bondage Fetish site, you can still kiss those sign-ups good bye. Match your content to your traffic to your sponsor - a simple equation that will save you lots of time and money.
An example of a good-selling niche site would be a site that features:
An appropriate site title that matches the niche theme.
Proper keywords and meta tags to be used when submitting to the search engines and TGP traffic lists.
Niche-based content that matches the theme offered by the sponsors.
Targeted sponsor banners that also match and work well with your niche and site theme.
These points are essential to boost your site's marketability and for overall better traffic-targeting techniques. You can't sell ice cream to people who are looking for skateboards, and vice versa. Remember this in simple everyday terms and use it to your advantage when creating each page of your site.
Know Your Competition - Be Original!
The third mistake that is common among failing webmasters is the over-saturation effect. Granted, there are thousands upon thousands of horny surfers out there looking for their own personal niche/fetish and there IS lots of room for everyone, but there are certain niches that are so over-done that it's almost impossible to sell them. Basic "sex" themes like hardcore, blondes or couples are some great examples. Getting listed on a TGP traffic site with lots of defined niches and fetishes will definitely get you better-targeted traffic. If the TGP list has only a small number of options, chances are you will get some accidental click-thru traffic that might not be looking for what you are offering. In the end this is nothing more than a waste of bandwidth. All you are left to do is hope that they click on some sort of mega-site link and find something else that you are offering that will suit their tastes, before they suck up any more bandwidth on their way out.
Niche-out into a more defined realm of fetish, or experiment with micro-niches until you find what works best for you and your traffic. If you have surfers looking for blondes…are they looking for blonde lesbians, blonde women in uniform, blonde BBWs or blonde gay men? Find out, and use your knowledge to your advantage to better sell your sponsors and increase your conversions.
Other Options…Thinking "Outta the Box"
Another way to avoid this mistake entirely is to not actually sell adult content. What? What are you saying? I know it sounds weird but offering items that are not hardcore in nature, yet are inherently related, can sometimes sell better than the adult sites themselves. Selling products that are targeted to adults - can help separate your special site from all the other sites out there who are selling essentially the same thing - memberships.
Some of the best things to sell are penis enlargement programs, dating services and the popular Viagra-related health products. Other items that sell well with this model are adult guides to cities around the world, adult "sex" toys, adult clothing, like lingerie or fetish gear - even adult magazines.
Keep your options - and your mind - open to new ideas, new methods of getting traffic and new ways of using that traffic to your advantage. While you're checking out TGP, also check out the whole new developing world of TGP2 - a new twist on the old TGP method that just might be the answer to your needs! Don't be afraid to try new things - that's how WE, as adult webmasters, learn how to find our own niche. Finding what works best for you will mean more $$$ in the long run - and that's always a good thing!
TGP can work, if you know what you're doing - and if you take the time to learn how to do it right.
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