Hello, need advice

[painful]

Hi everyone. I have been trying to decide what to do with my site now that it is running. I want to drive customers to the site using TGP's, but not sure how to go about it. I know I need to make a free page linked to my site, but I'm not too sure how to do it. Should it match the site or not? Should I find some content that ISN'T on my site to put on the free page or should I use content that is in the site but have it at a lower resolution and not the whole set? I think that is the way I am going with it.

Also, what kind of programs do you all use for modifying pictures and video clips? I was using Movie Maker for the videos, but I think that is too amateur and I know there are better programs.

As far as TGP's, I have read about automatic TGP programs that will do it for me, like GSSubmitter or something, do you recommend this?

Thanks for the help, I have a million questions and no time to ask them, my day job is killing me!

[Evil Chris]

Hey painful... welcome to XNations.

I looked at your site and you're definitely on the right track. Now you need what we all need, and that's more traffic which will equate to sales. There are many many choices you can make to build traffic (or outright buy it) and drive it to the front door of your site.

I see that you're eventually going to be taking on webmasters (affiliates). Since you're billing with CCBill, I suggest you take on their internal affiliate system for now. Many webmasters actually prefer this system. Hopefully you'll grow to a size eventually where you might want to use an external stats backend, but lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet.

If it's TGPs you're interested in to drive traffic to your paysite, there are a lot of choices there. Personally I have used software from jmbsoft.com for many years, but I know there are a lot of others out there. Look around, and find out what suits you.

[painful]

Thanks for the advice Evil Chris, I'll check out the CCBill stuff right now.

[Panky]

Originally Posted by painful

Hi everyone. I have been trying to decide what to do with my site now that it is running. I want to drive customers to the site using TGP's, but not sure how to go about it. I know I need to make a free page linked to my site, but I'm not too sure how to do it. Should it match the site or not? Should I find some content that ISN'T on my site to put on the free page or should I use content that is in the site but have it at a lower resolution and not the whole set? I think that is the way I am going with it.

TGPs work in a few different ways.

• You can build a gallery and submit it to TGP sites. Example pic gallery

The TGP gallery doesn't have to completely match the site you are promoting. However, it should have some element of the site, such as the site name you are promoting.

You can choose to use your own content or purchase content in the niche you are promoting. You only need 15-16 pics for a TGP gallery. These should be hi-quality pics. Resize them to no larger than 800px on the long side.

TGP galleries must follow a few basic rules before being considered for a listing.

Some sites you can submit to without a partner account. Other sites, you must apply for a partner account and/or pay a fee for the privilege to submit to them.

• You can build your own TGP or Fake TGP site

A TGP site of your own can be used for listing your own galleries, submitted galleries from webmasters, and free hosted galleries provided by sponsors. A fake TGP is a TGP site that does not accept galleries from submitters. There are a few different ways to earn money from your own TGP site, plus use it as a traffic generation and filtering tool.

• Purchase gallery spots on TGP sites

Some sponsors and gallery submitters choose to buy gallery spots on TGP sites.

Originally Posted by painful

Also, what kind of programs do you all use for modifying pictures and video clips? I was using Movie Maker for the videos, but I think that is too amateur and I know there are better programs.

I use Photoshop and manually crop my thumbs. For movies, I use TEMPGnc to convert formats if need be and AVI/MPEG/RM/WMV Splitter to cut them.

Some people use programs like Arles or ThumbsPlus to batch process images and build galleries.

Originally Posted by painful

As far as TGP's, I have read about automatic TGP programs that will do it for me, like GSSubmitter or something, do you recommend this?

For submitting, I personally use Advanced Submitter in manual mode. There is also Chameleon Submitter, Dream Submitter, and Gallery Submitter. (Learn to build a proper gallery first before even attempting to submit, purchasing submit accounts, or buying a submit tool.)

[xcitizen]

I need to agree with both Chris and Panky about their replies.

Marketing of pay site is generally a very complex task, there are many factors that take place at one time influencing sale of memberships together (also on the other side, there are many things/possibilities you should/could do to boost the sales).

Things depends on your budget and how much time & money are you willing to invest.
Lots of ppl are for example hanging around webmaster boards - you can do some good promo there even with less investment.

Other important thing is to have your affiliate program ready and working - so people can join. Give them a good deal, marketing tools, sample galleries or sample content so they can make the galleries themselves and promote you.

Once you're ready, a tool like Chameleon submitter will send the galleries you have to all relevant TGP/MGP sites out there and the good thing is that it will follow the individual TGP/MGP site rules..
It basically... 1.) saves the time spent looking for relevant TGP/MGP sites yourself.. & and 2)...it sends the deserved galleries to actual TGP/MGP sites fast.. so lets say, you can get your sample gallery to hundreds sites within a few.. its a great traffic generator for your sites and its good for promo.

You should consider using it in-house as a way to promote your sites (people use to do it themselves or they hire in-house submitters for them...). Also, other way is having affiliates use the above tools and let them work for you this way.. However, as Panky said, learn things first and then start working with tools.
On Chameleon Web page, there are nice interactive Tutorials available at http://www.chameleonsubmitter.com/tutorials.php Those have been made in Macromedia Flash to show how to set up the tool, use the program properly and get the maximum benefit out of its features..