This complete guide to free-hosted galleries (FHG) will define what they are, how they appeared, their development, and how this recent phenomenon is affecting the adult industry. We will also provide you with the materials needed to take advantage of this exciting tool
Webmasters Against Hosted Galleries
As more and more FHG are being used on TGPs there is less and less room for gallery posters. Consequently, the webmasters who have the most difficulty adapting to the affects of hosted galleries are the gallery submitters.
FHG stands as a direct competitor to those webmasters who earn their living by gallery posting to TGP sites. Undoubtedly, the quality of FHG is far behind the quality of galleries made by professional webmasters. There will always be a demand for galleries created by independent webmasters, most notably from the largest TGP's (such as The Hun, World Sex, etc.) who can afford the luxury of reviewing and policing webmasters' galleries. By chasing new members they pick up only the best quality galleries with diverse and exclusive content. This provides them with less instantaneous profits, but helps them retain larger quantities of loyal surfers. In order to survive on the market, gallery posters will have to create outstanding quality galleries in order to obtain listings from the TGPs. If you are unable to make quality galleries with low expenses, you should seriously think about some changes in your activity.
In a year or two, probably 50-70% of TGP traffic will be coming through FHG, and the remaining 30-50% will still account for independent posters' galleries. In case of CJ sites the situation will change even more radically. An estimated 80-100% of traffic will go through. The entire business seems gloomy to gallery makers/posters in TGP and CJ, but new opportunities are arising.
On the other hand, the situation seems to be very favorable for the site owners. FHG make it possible for an extremely high level of income to be earned from a site. It's no secret the TGP surfers are reluctant to purchase, so site owners try to expose their TGP traffic to as many ads through hosted galleries as possible.
Difficulties the Sponsor Faces With FHG
First of all, sponsors must realize that FHG creation and support expenses lie solely upon their shoulders. Costs of creating the hosted galleries must be considered with the payout. Sponsors who offer a 50% revenue sharing program who also bear the expenses of FHG support will seem more financially secure than sponsors who have a 70% revenue sharing rate but reduce payment through sales from the FHG. (This is comparable to sponsors who offer less payment to webmasters who opt to use a console-free tour) We have seen sponsors take many different approaches to hosted galleries in the year 2002. There is one thing that we noticed for certain: Affiliates' confidence is affect when different rates are offered through the use of FHG. Different payout rates made through sales from hosted galleries makes gives webmasters a feeling of uncertainty from sponsors; and the last program a webmaster wants to promote is a sponsor that he has mixed feelings about. If your affiliates do not have confidence in your program then you are destined to fail. It is important to keep a professional front with free-hosted galleries that is consistent to the manner in which the rest of the program is run.
Another necessity of free-hosted galleries is making them easily attainable and usable within a program. While picking up data for our service we have run across a certain amount of sponsors whose FHG operated with some peculiar generators. Many gallery generations took a substantial amount of time, forcing you to spend hours out of the day on one particular site to achieve a hundred or so URLs. If you are integrating FHG into your program, make sure that it is user friendly. Have newbie webmasters evaluate the ease of obtaining these galleries correctly and make sure they can readily find and generate the correct codes. If newbies can use the system, anyone can use it. Gallery generations should be achieved quickly and in mass numbers, and the output of the system should be simple lines of urls so that the affiliate can easily transfer the galleries to fit his own site format. If this does not happen, webmasters will waste precious time because of your lack of usability, and you will lose potential traffic and sales. Make sure you plan ahead. Once word gets out that you have hosted galleries your server load will increase dramatically. Host your galleries on separate domains and servers from your pay sites are on, and plan ahead for large quantities of traffic.
Another common misconception is that many the URL's for galleries can be changed simply by replacing one webmaster's ID for another webmaster's ID. This can lead to the affiliate not receiving credit for sales. Lastly — and perhaps most importantly — the FHG need to have a solid, professional design. Many FHG that we have seen were of very low quality, dramatically decreasing their profitability while also hurting conversion ratios. Those poor conversion ratios reflect on the program as a whole, so it is essential that only high quality hosted galleries are used. Those sponsorship programs that manage to make their exceptional quality galleries will achieve the best results. Keep this in mind: the best TGP listings are reserved for the most attractive galleries.
Finally, the last thing owners of sponsorship programs work on is ample promotion of their free-hosted galleries. Early data about sponsors with FHG services was very uncoordinated and very random. The only way to find information about FHG was from word of mouth, webmaster message boards, or webmaster information sites. We have decided to go a step further by launching our new free service FreeHostedGalleries.com, which keeps you up-to-date and fully informed about free-hosted galleries from sponsors. Webmasters will find the information invaluable. You can find all of the hosted galleries available on the net easily. Galleries are classified by niches, sponsors, and sites.
In conclusion, we would like to draw the webmasters' attention to this new marketing tool. In the near future it will become one of the most influential factors on the market. Webmasters who consistently use FreeHostedGalleries.com will have a constant leading edge on the competition. These ambitious webmasters will lead the pack in maximizing revenue to the fullest potential from their site. Sign up for our free service and start taking advantage of all Free-Hosted Galleries has to offer!
