Hey everyone

[painful]

Hi, it's been a few months since I've been on here and a lot has happened. I haven't been able to sell my site, but it might be for the best. A few weeks ago my wife decided the military life is stressing her out too much (threat of sending me to Iraq scares her) so she thinks it's in her best interest to divorce me, I guess to try to remove her emotions from the equation. Whether it works or not I'll probably never know. So, with no sex at night anymore, I have a ton more time to work on my website. I really need some help updating the site. I am buying Dreamweaver finally, I've been trying to use Microsofts Frontpage to do all my manipulation but it sucks donkey balls.

Can someone take a look at this TGP posting I put together and critique the hell out of it? I built it on FP, so I know it is kinda lame. Don't critique the actual content, just layout and file sizes and whatnot.
http://www.painfulecstasy.com/tgp/sarah_tgp/0112.htm

Ya, I know the dialog is cheesy, so sue me.

Also, is the real money to be made with a free site? After the bills are paid (we are splitting them up since she still is gonna live in the house for the kids), I have about $800 of money leftover to play with each month, not to mention my side job of painting motorcycles for the race track.

I was thinking of buying a nice camera and taking my own pics and movies, not of me, but of the hot women of Las Vegas where I live. There are tons of girls who are willing to do just about anything for some cash.

I need help please, I need to shift this into high gear! Thanks everyone.

[Evil Chris]

It's not a TGP though is it... it's a gallery to be submitted to a TGP.

In any case, I see it's a picture based gallery. It's only got 11 thumbs, and the minimum for most picture galleries is 16.
Personally I find that the thumbs are too big. 135x180 or 180x135 are fairly avergage but you could go a little bigger if you want. Just keep symmetry to the page.

The thumbs are poor and grainy. Thumbs need to be of the highest quality. You should look around for a good tutorial on making awesome thumbs.

You used black as your background. I wouldn't but that's my own choice. I just find it's too dark and gloomy.

[Magnus3x]

Chris makes some great points above.
My biggest complaint is the thumb + image quality. The format and layout and the thumb sizes remind me of the old TGP2 days (with more pics mind you) of old. If you are subbing to the HUN I dont think they would like your banner above their recip, I could be wrong but I would never do that.

These are some simple yet effective Pic gals
http://bondagebank.com/gallhit/100104/833/3/2/7
http://bondagebank.com/gallhit.php?100104,572,3,2,7

[Stephane76]

exactly what Chris said...
and i do agree with magnus comment on the top banner , i will just take it off.
I will definitely do 4 columns and 3 rows
also , http://www.thehun.net/webmaster/grap...movielarge.gif , that 's a big no no, upload the Hun banner on your own server

from the site :
OUR BANNERS

Though we don't demand reciprocal links we sure appreciate them. You can use either a text-link or one of these banners. Please put them on your own server. Thanks for the favor!

[Evil Chris]

I'm reminded that making galleries isn't as easy as one might think.
You also have to take into consideration that the rules for one submit aren't the same for the next, and you have to make everyone happy.

[painful]

That's exactly what I wanted to know. I guess the reason they are so grainy is because I had to shrink the file size so it didn't overload the bandwidth, something that happens instantly when I get a submission on the Hun. I guess making the thumbs smaller and higher quality would work just as well.

What do you mean by "upload to my own server"? I saved it to my computer and uploaded it to the server using FTP. Is that not what I should've done? My main issue is the bandwidth. I am trying to set up a server from my home, but it will probably be wayyyy too slow, but the network guy from work is helping me out, so it's all free basically. That would make things a lot easier for me. I don't pay for excessive bandwidth use (at least thats what the cable company says anyway).

Please, keep the critiques coming. If you have a good source of info on how to build a proper picure post, please let me know as well.

Thanks,
Brett

[painful]

Ok, I built a new one, please critique this one. It loads pretty quick on my computer, let me know how it is on yours.

http://www.painfulecstasy.com/tgp/0115/0115.htm

Better, same or worse?

[painful]

Has/does anyone use a submitter like Chameleon? Wondering if it's worth the $24

[painful]

I don't have my Dreamweaver yet, so this is all done on Frontpage. It sucks to use such a primitive design tool.

[Panky]

Originally Posted by painful

That's exactly what I wanted to know. I guess the reason they are so grainy is because I had to shrink the file size so it didn't overload the bandwidth, something that happens instantly when I get a submission on the Hun. I guess making the thumbs smaller and higher quality would work just as well.

Manually crop your thumbs and adjust the quality in Photoshop. Your full size images will never make it through the majority of scripts out there. They need to be at least 43kb to pass through the scripts.

Another thing to consider, is that by using larger thumbs, the majority of surfers will not click on every single thumb on the gallery. They can easily scan it to see what interests them the most and click.

Originally Posted by painful

What do you mean by "upload to my own server"? I saved it to my computer and uploaded it to the server using FTP. Is that not what I should've done?

That's what you are supposed to do, but when you look at your source code it looks like you are hotlinking TheHuns recip.

img src="http://www.thehun.net/webmaster/graphics/hunmovielarge.gif" width="197" height="94"

It should be something like this:

img src="http://www.painfulecstasy.com/recips/hun.gif"

Recips go at the very top of your gallery. Do not add a banner, button, or text link above the recips. If you have a button, banner, or text link at the top of your gallery before the content, it needs to be placed under the recips. Never place recips at the bottom of your gallery.

You are allowed 3 links out to your sponsor.

Avoid blinking text links or banners. Some sites will decline you for blinking links.

Don't use all caps on your text. It is harder to read and appears that you are shouting at your surfers.

You want to clearly state where your links lead to when clicked. Some reviewers are anal about blind links. By stating where the link leads to when clicked, you avoid the blind link issue.

ONLY $5 FOR A 5 DAY TRIAL

$35 FOR 6 MONTHS WITH DAILY UPDATES!!!

Can be mistaken for a blind link even though the text above it has the site name. It's not clear where they are buying the trial from. By adding the site name, there's no question. (Sounds picky, but some reviewers are anal.)

Say something like: "Cum get your 5 day trial at Painful Ecstasy for only $5.00!"

Leave out the $35.00 for 6 months. It makes your site appear cheap. People are going to wonder why many sites charge $19.95 - $29.95 for 1 month and you are charging only $35.00 for 6 months of access.

Personally, I wouldn't link the text that you currently have linked, but instead link, "COME SEE MORE", followed by the rest of the text.

[painful]

Great, thanks! So you would make LARGER thumbs? Evil Chris said my thumbs were too big. I'll adjust some things on the new post and see how it looks. Thanks

[Panky]

Your thumb size is large enough. You need to improve the quality of them. You also need to increase the weight of your full size pics. The height and width of the full size pics are fine.

[painful]

are you still talking about the old one, or the new one I posted at http://www.painfulecstasy.com/tgp/0115/0115.htm

[painful]

Shit, I'm still trying to figure out how to save the freakin recip banner onto my server as a .gif, I feel a bit tarded. Derrrrrr.

My photoshop is confusing me even more too!

[painful]

nope, I can't figure it out. I need to go to bed.

[painful]

I think I did it. jeez this is harder than it looks

[Panky]

Originally Posted by painful

are you still talking about the old one, or the new one I posted at http://www.painfulecstasy.com/tgp/0115/0115.htm

The gallery in your first post.

As for this one... The colors hurt the eyes. Tone down the blue background and don't use red text on it. The red text is hard to read.

Divide up your thumbs. Add a text link somewhere in the middle of your gallery and then the end. You are allowed 3 links out to the sponsor. Use them.

Your thumb size is fine. You can reduce the full size image weight by optimizing them in an image editor. Instead of 1200 on the long size, you can drop it down to 800-900.

Watch the blind linking. Use the text you have, but add the site name to it.


To save a recip...
Right click. Save as. Save it in a folder called recips on your desktop. Make sure to name the thumbs. Upload the recips folder to your root of the domain you are using for submitting.

Another thing to consider, is that when you use a submit tool, such as Chameleon, the submit tool will give you a recips folder full of recips to upload to your server.

[painful]

Originally Posted by Panky

Another thing to consider, is that when you use a submit tool, such as Chameleon, the submit tool will give you a recips folder full of recips to upload to your server.

Do you recommend a submitter? Will it make things easier for me?

[Panky]

Originally Posted by painful

Do you recommend a submitter? Will it make things easier for me?

If you plan on submitting to more than a handful of sites, a submit tool such as Chameleon, will be a tool one can't live without.

Chameleon Submitter is something like $25.00 a month to use. Roughly 2 rev sales or 1 PPS sale.

Before you submit to TGP and/or MGP sites, you need to build galleries that won't be kicked by the scripts and ones that stand a chance of getting reviewers approval. The galleries must also be designed to sell. No sense having galleries listed if they don't get the surfer clicking to the tour as quickly as possible.

The site you are sending the traffic to is important as well. I would place larger thumbs on the main tour page. When you click to review the second page of the tour, (http://www.painful-ecstasy.com/tour.php), you show the different models, (which is fine), but I would use images something like the ones here: http://www.painfulecstasy.com/tgp/Hun/0113/index.php because they show more of what the site offers catering to the niche.

[MrBone]

Got kind of a woa feeling. IMO. I don't read huge text well. Just sort of bypass it.

[painful]

Ok, so I understand a bit more now, simplistic and easy on the eyes. Use brighter colors to make the mood happy, not gloomy. High quality pics, etc.

I just bought a new domain name, I am going to build my site myself (painful ecstasy was built for me)

Any tips on building a site from scratch? Any good hosts that won't rape me on cost but will leave me enough bandwidth that I don't get shut down the minute I start getting traffic. What program do you recommend using to build the site? I am planning on buying DreamWeaver this weekend, is it what I need?

I have a home server I have been playing with, it runs a Linux based OS and is basically a desktop converted. Is it more economical to purchase server space or a virtual dedicated server somewhere or could I run a website for a few months on my own server until I get some customer sign-ups?

Finally, what do you think of my new site address www.realteenfuck.com? think it could be good for some traffic?

[painful]

I'm gonna maybe treat this one as a free site.