articlemenu Published: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 Search Articles    Print This Article

I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m not a fan of Thumbnail Gallery Posts (TGPs). The excessive availability of free porn is a serious problem for legitimate adult webmasters, and there’s no greater source of free porn than popular TGP websites. Surfers need only to point their browsers at one of a hundred TGPs to be rewarded with thousands of free adult pictures, with categories including hardcore sex, Asian girls, bondage, hentai and just about anything else you could imagine. It’s all there for the taking, and taking it requires no special skills or knowledge. The problem is so large, it’s a wonder that anyone signs up for AVS sites or membership sites at all.

The case against TGP sites is as compelling as it is obvious. With so much free porn being simply handed out, how can an adult webmaster turn a profit? It also can’t be ignored that placing large amounts of free hardcore in environments that have not been screened for age is only asking for trouble - lawyers who represent Adult Industry clients believe that webmasters providing free hardcore make the most attractive target for Ashcroft and his federal anti-porn squad. A jury in an obscenity case will have less sympathy for a webmaster who made hardcore easily accessible to children.

It’s easy to point a finger at this problem, but it’s another beast entirely to tackle it. So many webmasters are actively involved in TGP sites, stopping them all would be a fruitless endeavor. Plus, one can hardly blame webmasters for supporting or operating TGPs - the traffic numbers are usually staggering. Yet despite the immensity of the problem, key Industry players have joined forces to come up with a solution that will help everyone involved. The solution has been called TGP2. How well it works will depend directly on the amount of support it receives from webmasters.

A traditional TGP submission is a web page with anywhere from ten to thirty thumbnail images. Each one of those images links directly to its full-size counterpart. Let’s say the average TGP site lists thirty new submissions per day, with an average of 15 images per submission. That’s four hundred and fifty free pictures for the visitors of that TGP. And should four hundred and fifty images not be sufficient for a TGP surfer, he or she has only to visit another TGP to find more. The main thrust of TGP2 is to limit the number of full-size pictures given away, while bombarding the surfer with thumbnail images showing what he or she could be downloading were they a member of the site being advertised on the TGP2 page.

First understand that TGP2 is not yet set in stone. A relatively new concept, TGP2 is constantly evolving through a combination of webmaster feedback and lessons learned (via trial and error). TGP2 is nothing more than a set of guidelines designed to drive more productive traffic to the paysites advertised on your TGP2 pages. Operating a TGP2 site requires no special software - you can use any normal TGP script. TGP2 webmasters must simply enforce submission guidelines.

The Guidelines
Currently, TGP2 guidelines are few and simple. First guideline - TGP2 submissions must offer no more than five clickable thumbnail images per page. A clickable thumbnail image is defined as a thumbnail image that is linked to a full-size image. Fewer than five is acceptable. Second guideline - a TGP2 submission page may have no more than twenty thumbnail images in its entirety. Remember though that only five of those thumbnails may lead to a full-size image. The rest must be unlinked. Third guideline - there may be no links to standard TGP sites on a TGP2 page. TGP2 webmasters do not want to help surfers find standard TGP sites. The trick is to keep the surfer on TGP2 sites until that surfer has made a purchase on a sponsoring paysite. Fourth and final guideline - no exit/enter consoles or auto-bookmarking scripts. These final rules are intended to make TGP2 sites more enjoyable for the surfers who use them. The goal is to keep them coming page to TGP2 sites and away from standard TGP sites.

At this point there are likely quite a few of you reading this shaking your head and thinking things like “it’ll never work.” The common criticism of the TGP2 concept? That somebody somewhere will continue to build TGP sites and steal all of the surfers. To a degree that’s indeed true. There will always be standard TGP sites… but that fact should not paralyze adult webmasters from seeking to limit the damage. TGP2 has the backing of key players in the adult entertainment field, including sponsorship programs, free site hosts and other services needed to make money with a TGP site. Look for these sponsors to stop accepting TGP traffic in the near future. Look for free hosts to start denying service to TGP gallery makers. As TGP2 continues to grow, making money with a standard TGP site will prove more and more difficult.

Find Out For Yourself
I encourage you to look into TGP2 and see what it’s all about. If you operate a TGP site, why not also set up a TGP2 site and compare results? Do you submit to TGP sites? Try also submitting to TGP2 sites and see which version makes you more money. You can get more information on the TGP2 movement by visiting http://www.tgp2.net. You can expect to hear more about TGP2 as it matures. Stay tuned.

Connor Young is Editor-in-Chief of The ADULTWEBMASTER Magazine, and currently lives in California where he operates CyberSultan.com, a popular adult search engine.