The Making Of A TGP
Part 3 of 4

By

Mr. Boo

Fat TGP

Choosing a submission script

Depending on the way you go about things there is only 2 TGP scripts I recommend, both are made by the same company (www.jmbsoft.com). They offer 3 scripts, a free script, a SQL based script and a Perl based script.

Free Version

If you are on a low budget then this will have to do. It is a simple script which allows your pages to be automatically updated whenever someone submits a gallery. It doesn't have many features but it will save having to manually add galleries. The down point of the script is that all posts are automatically approved without you getting a chance to see them. This can be bad as you will have to manually edit a cgi file to remove offending galleries. Also anything will be able to be posted... broken links, illegal URL's etc.

The Perl Version

This script is called AutoGalleryPro or AGP. It is a very powerful script which will allow you to review all submissions received through a very friendly admin interface. You will be able to blacklist domains, IP number from being submitted. You can set up partners which will be able to post without you reviewing them. Partners posts will appear above all other posts for that day. You will be able to break up the list of galleries using list breaks. This is useful for adding blind links and sponsors in between posts. You can customize email letters to be sent out once you have approved, declined a gallery for listing. The layout is also highly configurable.

The script is fairly easy to install but should a problem arise you can ask someone or a friend *wink* to install the script for you on your server. The script does have a price however which is probably its only down point. The price for this script is US $55. The layout and coding of this script is very high and is well worth the $55 price tag.

The SQL Version

AutoGallerySQL or AGS is very similar to AGP except that it uses a different method for storing data. It uses SQL which makes it easier for the script to organize the contents of the database. because of this there are less limits on the kind of design you can have for your TGP. You can organize your posts by category, time, ratings or a combination of each.

If you have the money lying around I would opt for the SQL version as it has many extra options over the other scripts. It only costs $85 for such a well written script. There are other available TGP management scripts out there. I would stick to this however as the price for the amount of options you get is unrivalled.

Choosing Sponsors

Sponsors are of course one of the most important things with dealing with any kind of site. Without naming too many sponsors you will need a wide variety of sponsors as TGP traffic can be very hard to profit from in the beginning:)

You will need a dialer. No matter what you feel about dialers if you don't use one you are losing out some awesome money. My favorite is webmastercommerce who pay bi weekly and have never missed a payment. www.webmastercommerce.com

Of course, pay per signup and recurring revenue sponsors are a must. you probably have a big list of these so I wont drop any names. Just make sure you have some available which go with the theme of your TGP.

Pay per click sponsors are a great way to make money. Add a few blind links within your gallery list and watch the money mount up. A quality pay per click sponsor is Nexcash, http://www.nexcash.com

There are some very cool sponsors on the net. One of the best sponsors I have stumbled across on the net is CashGalleries. This sponsor gives you galleries on their hosting. All you have to do is link to these galleries and you will get credit for all the money you generate off of them. This is a very unique program and is highly recommended. http://www.sexyclick.com

Creating a layout

The most important thing about a CJ/TGP is its layout. Different things work for different sites. Don't be afraid to change things around a bit now and then to come up with a layout, which produces a good productivity rate and also keeps quite a few bookmarkers.

In most cases a surfer is expecting a gallery when they load your site if they are from a trading site. This means it's a good idea to have a few things load as soon as the page opens. You need something to produce out clicks and at least one sponsor link.

I find it's a good idea to put a text sponsor link at the top of the page in eye-catching colours. Do not use a banner at the top of the page, as it will only cause the page to slow down. After that you need to have something for the surfers to click, you might want to add a real gallery to the TGP so it looks like they have actually gone to a gallery. Once they have finished checking the pics they will go on to check out the galleries. If you want to send high quality targeted traffic out to your trades then a toplist is a good idea. If you want to send quantity back so you would get a higher productivity rate on your site then a few gallery links will do the trick. Use galleries with link skimming added so that a percentage of all clicks on the galleries go to trades.

If you opt for the toplist look then it's a good idea to go straight into the list of main galleries and then add adverts every 30-50 posts to your sponsors. On the other hand if you had galleries at the top you can have a banner or another text link, maybe even some blind linked images to dialers. After the extra add you can then get to the main gallery listings.

The best way to layout the galleries is to order them by date and give them descriptive links. This allows the surfer to know the site has recently been updated and that they can expect another update sometime soon. The descriptions help out productivity and search engine rankings. Descriptive gallery links make the page full of text most of which will be orientated around the niche which your TGP represents. In time you will become one of the highest sites for your niche's keywords.

A title isn't necessary for a TGP. If you want to use one it doesn't make much difference to the amount of traffic you will get or produce. Webmaster links can be placed at the bottom of the page out of the way somewhere so that all available space goes to the sponsors and trades.

If you use archives it is essential that you keep the same look throughout the site. Surfers may feel they are going to other sites. Make sure that all windows open in a new window as well. This makes it easier for surfers to browse and also increases your productivity. If a gallery has messed with your back button you will not be effected if you do things this way. A good way to do this is to set the base target as new. If a sponsor requires opening in the current window just use specify that for each sponsor link. If you have a toplist try to make them open in the current window too as it will help to make sure surfers click on something on your trader's site.thus increasing your productivity even more!

Meta Tags should be in place, Use a short description for the description tag (with keywords) A keyword tag is essential, a page follow tag is also wise which will make spiders follow all the links from your site. This will help get your submitters sites and galleries isn't the SE and make your site higher in the link popularity as the spider will find all those lovely recip tags pointing to your site on the gallery page.

A warning page is also not necessary but is a good idea. Traffic from SE's and recip links will then have to go to the warning page and then a Full Page Add (FPA). Traffic trading sites will still be able to send traffic directly to your main listing page. You do not want to send traffic from trading sites to a warning page as the surfers will just back out thinking it is a pay site.

Going live

Now you have your design done its tie to open the doors to the public. You need to submit your TGP to all the SE's you can think of. You should also tell your friends, family, pets about the site LOL. The more people that know about the TGP the faster it will grow!

Go to some message boards and do some link exchanges and whatnot (where allowed). Never Spam your site. It gives webmasters a bad impression of the site and of yourself.

Be sure to join us next week for the fourth and final part of Mr. Boo's tutorial.