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Thumbnail Gallery Posts and the Free Content Model
Traffic for sure, but TGPs lie right at the center of an ongoing controversy in the adult industry about the free content business model. There are lots of opinions one way and the other, but one inescapable underlying mechanism: "Let's face it, surfers are humans and humans are greedy little pigs. If you offer surfers something for free, they will take it and take it and take it." [Titmowse 2004]
Free sites are sites where surfers can access content for free without paying a membership fee or other charge. They include free sites, thumbnail gallery posts (TGP), Link and Top Lists. Kath Blackwell [2003] has a good introduction and overview of the TGPs in a recent issue of Klixxx: "TGP: The Biggest Traffic Resource You're NOT Using." [LINK]
Tons of Traffic
As AEBN's Jo Hawke [2004] put it: "Thumbnail Gallery Posts (TGPs) and Movie Gallery Posts (MGPs) are the traffic kings. They were invented just shortly after the invention of 'dirt' and have been maturing nicely ever since." She goes even further: "What is TGP/MGP traffic like, you ask? Hmm... Think: United States Depression era line for government cheese. Kid in a candy store... Crack whore left guarding the stash... You get the idea. Surfers bombard TGP/MGP sites in a feeding frenzy and gobble up every new gallery posted. They smack your servers around like a rag doll wanting all the free porn they can possible inhale." [LINK]
There is no mystery why TGPs attract a lot of traffic-they're a free lunch (and we always thought there was no such thing)! Exactly how much traffic? The following are current traffic stats for some of the higher-trafficked TGPs. The rank is the site's standing among all available websites. Reach measures the number of users. "Reach is typically expressed as the percentage of all Internet users who visit a given site. So, for example, if a site has a reach of 28%, this means that if you took random samples of one million Internet users, you would on average find that 280,000 of them visit the site. Alexa expresses reach as number of users per million." [Alexa] These TGPs have extremely impressive traffic figures.
High Traffic TGP Sites
| Site |
Traffic Rank |
Reach |
Page Views |
| 89.com |
311 |
2,535 |
6.5 |
| Sleazy Dream |
383 |
3,800 |
2.1 |
| XNXX.com |
625 |
1,770 |
4.1 |
| Pichunter |
1,001 |
1,155 |
4.1 |
| Hun's Yellow Pages |
1,073 |
1,945 |
1.2 |
| World Sex |
1,194 |
1,805 |
1.2 |
| EasyGals |
1,444 |
1,055 |
2.5 |
| AL-4A |
2,340 |
971 |
1.3 |
| MMM100 |
3,010 |
507 |
3.0 |
| Thumbzilla |
3,029 |
677 |
1.7 |
Source: Current Alexa stats, May 2004.
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It's worth noting that all free sites are not created equal so far as traffic is concerned-TGPs do the best of all: "In comparison to TGP galleries, free sites get very small traffic numbers. The surfers know that they are going to get more advertising in a free site than they do in a TGP gallery so fewer people surf free sites than those who surf galleries." [Marie 2004a]
Giving Away the Cow
TGPs are responsible for providing the lion's share of all that free content that surfers can access so easily-perhaps too easily. Are free sites a variation on giving away the cow instead of selling milk? Free sites have been an integral part of the adult Internet business since the beginning; and some webmasters [Post 2003] see little harm in it even now. Many regard TGP traffic as abundant but poorly converting. But others like Hawke [2004] argue that TGP traffic can be extremely lucrative.
Still more think there is far too much free everything in this industry: "Free porn, free hosting, free content, free lunches, I dislike them all because they send the wrong message to people starting in this industry." [Steve 2002] A free site is usually based on a no-cost model including free hosting and free content-an overall recipe that can mislead the newbie webmaster and wreak havoc with industry quality standards generally. According to Cozy Frog's Steve [2002] some drawbacks to "free" include:
Most major traffic sources for free sites and TGPs will not accept sites and galleries on free hosting, so the newbie will find it very difficult to get his work listed anywhere that is worthwhile.
Free hosting is never free. There is always some cost to the user and most newbies are not experienced enough to realize what they are paying for.
The top and bottom of a Web page are the optimum places to advertise and that's why a free host grabs those spots for their own banners.
Free content is often over-exposed. Surfers need to be held on a page long enough for the advertising to attract their attention. They won't remain for very long on a site that has images that they have seen before.
The idea of free content and free hosting sends entirely the wrong message to new webmasters. This is a business, just like any other, and in business everything has a cost. Simply put, you have to spend money to make money.
The upshot of this overall culture of free, says Steve, is that finally it devalues the webmaster's work (including dollar value of time) as well as the perceived quality and marketability of the products. And that applies to the industry in general-models, content producers, designers, programmers, and so on:
Everything in this industry does have a value; everything costs something to produce. Webmasters who have been brought up on a diet of 'free' see little value in anything that is produced for this industry. They have never had to pay for anything before so why should they start now. That attitude has begun to affect us all.
An Inoperable Tumor
FreeAdultWebmaster's Sumrpal makes some good points in his recent "The 'Free Sample' Business Model Gone Berzerk." He speaks of an entire "free sample sub-industry" within the adult industry that includes:
TGP & LinkList owners
Hosting companies
Content companies
Webmaster Resource sites
Software/Script Writers/Sellers
Gallery and Freesite builders
"That is an impressive lineup of infrastructure. It also illustrates why 'we,' the participants in the industry itself, won't stop the free sample business model. Too many of our friends, acquaintances and business partners are involved in any one of the above. The list above probably represents the majority of people, numerically at least, in the entire industry. So it's a lock that 'we' won't voluntarily stop flooding the Internet with free samples." [Sumrpal 2004]
He says that sponsors would benefit especially from limiting free content, especially since only about 10% of their revenues come from affiliate free sites. So why do they do it?
"I can only surmise that they won't take any action because they, themselves, own and operate TGPs and LinkLists, Hosting Companies, Content Companies, Webmaster Resource sites, Software/Script companies, and on and on... A lot of them appear to be inextricably involved in the infrastructure, or are close personal friends and/or business partners of people in the infrastructure. So they seem to be willing to accept lower overall sales in exchange for not upsetting the apple cart, as the saying goes." [Sumrpal 2004]
Fact of the matter is, the free site model is just too big and integral a part of the adult industry to expect it to end any time soon. Like Hawke [2004] said, TGPs have been around since the invention of dirt and are just as common. But they are something like an inoperable tumor-not the best thing to have but can't remove it without killing the patient.
Nothing's Forever
Maybe that sounds kind of pessimistic. Not only is evolution always possible (at least in theory) but it can become necessary. Porn Resources' Marie thinks the free content model is no longer working as well as it used to. The traffic is still there, but the sales may not be:
"This business is becoming tough, and things that may have worked yesterday are not necessarily working today and may never work again. People in this industry rely on loads of traffic to make sales and that certainly worked in the past but it doesn't seem to be working now. TGP was always seen as the place to get traffic and of course traffic means sales-well it used to, and for some it still does, but not for most people." [Marie 2004a] She mentions increased cheating too: "The level of cheating by those who build TGP galleries has risen markedly in the last year or so; would that have occurred if sales figures from galleries were still good?"
Where she is going with all this is that the free sample model may no longer be working and, rather than just let it die a slow painful death generating increasing traffic while delivering fewer and fewer sales, it's time to think of something new:
"Stop thinking in terms of TGP galleries and free sites for a few moments and see if you can't come up with some alternative methods of driving traffic and selling adult content that might be viable for you.
Even think further outside the box than spending money on PPC programs. Look for ways that you can market your product without being dependent on huge amounts of traffic to make just a few sales." [Marie 2004a] She gives some advice on how to start thinking about something different and marketing creatively instead of sticking with the old and perhaps broken model.
Things can and do change-AEBN's Jo Hawke thinks that the free content scene is shaking itself out, leaving TGPs as the last ones standing: "The days of the picture-post are gone for the most part. The free sites are still around, but they take a fairly substantial amount of time to build. AVS sites (Age Verification Systems) are also going the way of the dinosaur. Once the dust settles, what will be left are the TGPs and MGPs. They're fast and easy to build and have a theme that surfers understand - FREE." [Hawke 2004]
Thumbnail Gallery Posts are not going to disappear tomorrow and they may be working very well for some webmasters, especially those who know how to handle this type of site well (see sidebar for some Rules of Thumbs). But the TGPs may also be the prime representatives of a free content business model that has outlived its usefulness for the adult industry. All we need now is a better idea...
Sources:
Tony Davis. "Hardcore Content On Free Sites: Have We Pushed Too Far?" YNOT News 03/11/04.
articles.ynotmasters.com/public/ViewArticle.cgi?ID=2954
Jo Hawke. "Traffic from TGPs / MGPs," XBIZ 12/21/04.
www.xbiz.com/article_piece.php?cat=46&id=2105
Kath Blackwell. "TGP: The Biggest Traffic Resource You're NOT Using," Klixxx Magazine 12/03.
www.klixxx.com/archive/tgp.shtml.
Marie. "Making Sales or Giving It Away for Free?" Porn Resource 04/27/04.
www.pornresource.com/article.php?aid=1616
Dan Post. "Free porn: is there really too much?" Adult Biz Power 01/07/03.
www.adultbizpower.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=260&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Reverend Sassy. "Five Deadly Free Site Sins!" Cozy Frog (2002).
www.cozyfrog.com/guides/startup/articles/DeadlySins.asp.
Steve. "I hate free," Cozy Frog (2002).
www.cozyfrog.com/guides/other/articles/HateFree.asp
Sumrpal. "The 'Free Sample' Business Model Gone Berzerk: A Study," FreeAdultWebmaster 04/04.
www.freeadultwebmaster.com/articles/sumrpal13.html
Titmowse. "Free Site No No's!" Cozy Frog 02/16/04.
www.cozyfrog.com/guides/startup/article/FreeSiteNo.asp
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