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Building my First Link Site

By

Mitzy

Babe Buffet TGP2

This is about my experiences building my first link site, Babe Buffet TGP2.

Why TGP2?
Why did I do a TGP2 site instead of a link list? In September, I was listening to Newbie Radio and heard Colin (from Oprano TGP2 Board) speak about the TGP2 movement. I had read a lot about TGP2 and had even built a couple of galleries. Colin said the time to build a TGP2 site was right now, to get in at the beginning. He was very convincing. Add that to the fact that I've wanted to build a link site since I started in this business a year ago, I thought, "what the hell..... might as well do it now".

Finding a script.
Well, being mitzy, and in the middle of moving to a new town, and saving up for Vegas and not wanting to spend any money, I went for the free script. I wont go into detail, but I went thru four free scripts before deciding to buy. One was web-based and was having hosting problems at that time, one offered no freedom of design, one offered freedom of design, but the galleries came with the script, so I had no choice of what I linked to, and the last one skimmed a large amount of traffic to a sponsor with pop up hell. No telling how much money I could have made in the time it took me to go through all of those scripts. And ended up buying a script anyway!!!

Design.
For those who don't know me as the hardheaded Webmaster who held steadfast onto Frontpage2000, I have only been writing code since March when I was halfway finished with my Triple Triple. So designing in straight code is still a challenge for me. Designing around a five-part template is really a challenge. I had in my head what I wanted it to look like, and through trial and error, and help from the wonderful scriptwriter, I finally got it built. Just recently I discovered that the script has been upgraded and I have a lot more building to do.. Oh well, yet another challenge.

For the banner, I used my graphics program and built a graphic by extracting an image from a licensed set I had. I'm sure a text title would have done, but I wanted a graphic.

I've been taught on the board to have an ad on the screen at all times. I have been to some link sites and wondered how they paid for bandwidth. Ones with one or two ads max... A very clean looking page, but even if there is sponsor code in the skimming script, I think text and banner ads are important. Visitors to my site know that for a fact. It's too soon to tell if the ads will work.

Getting galleries.
I cannot tell you how excited I was the first Sunday I posted on LTS. I stayed up until about 3:00 AM making sure everything was just right, with every intention of waking up at 8:30 so I could post on Link Trade Sunday at 9:00. Well, needless to say, I slept till 10:00 and was number 25 on the list.

Since this is a tgp2, getting galleries was the easiest part. I submitted to the site list on the tgp2 board, as well as the auto submit programs that do tgp2. In the month that I've been open I have well over 700 galleries. Not bad for a rookie. Now Sunday night and Monday are still my busiest times for reviewing.

Getting traffic.
MAN!!! That is the toughest part. I am still struggling with the traffic. I have a trading script built in, I have submitted to several directories, been listed in DMOZ, joined the tgp2 web-ring, I feed it traffic with a cj site and a lot of consoles. I also am experimenting with other means of traffic building. Bookmarkers are another question. I've been told I wont get many bookmarkers without hardcore pics ( one of my few rules). Only time will tell on that. I do know it will take time to build up search engine traffic.

Trading and manipulating traffic.
I do have a trading script integrated into my tgp script. I decided on using one to gain traffic right now and to manipulate traffic when I'm getting enough hits.

All in all this has been a positive learning experience for me. I've learned the difference between a cgi script and a php script and how to use both. I've learned about MYSQL databases.

This experience has also reinforced the lesson I've been taught over and over on the VNWR board about the importance of networking. Without the help of many wonderful webmasters on the VNWR board, the TGP2 board, and OpranoTGP2, I would not be writing about a link site.

It's too soon to tell if it's a moneymaker or a bandwidth eater. But I'm very glad I did it and am looking forward to building a niche tgp2 sometime in the near future.

Mitzy