You know those "create your own gallery" scripts that are inside affiliate programs?
 

Everyone has seen them, where you pick the images & banners & colors & fonts & whatnot & the script spits out a gallery that you can download or the sponsor hosts.

Has anyone ever seen one that's actually worth using?

Even if it's offered & does make pages that look decent, do you still just make your own galleries?

I'm helping a friend out with a revamp of their admin & they have this option in there & IMHO, I've never seen one that was worth the money the program paid to have it installed :D

I really never use them.

The ones I've seen in use are crap. Maybe it's the script. Maybe it's the setup. Seems like no matter what niche you choose, they tend to toss together pics from some random niche. The template choices often suck too, but that is probably the fault of the folks at the program. If I can't just copy and paste hosted promo links, I don't even bother.

I get better and faster results building them myself. The couple I tried to use were taking me 5 times as long to do half as much...worthless to me :(

Never used it.

I never felt the desire to use it. I would rather that the program take the same money and pay someone good to build galleries that convert, and stop worrying about making everything in 101 colors. A tuned up and on message gallery is way better than just a hodge podge of pieces tossed together without rhyme or reason.

Now, if the system randomly generated galleries, and over time presented the ones that sell the best or have the best click rations, now they would be on to something. But just building random shit and tossing it at the wall isn't going to make anywhere near as much money, IMHO.

Alex

I have used them to make filler free sites real quick :)

http://www.bootystation.com/porn/latina-sex/
http://www.bootystation.com/porn/gangbang-orgy/
http://www.bootystation.com/porn/handjobs/

I have tried a few, but what they make doesn't look much different from the pre-made galleries so why bother.

Don't like 'em!

In general I think they're too limited on what you can edit. Then again I dont want to go through 50 step's, choosing 1 thing at a time, only to find out that I dont like it either..

It's tough to code one that could do it all. Workin on it, lol.

Your examples just reinforce why I don't like them :D

One idea might be for the programs to just offer the blank templates, so that builders can use them for ideas - but that might be a bad idea as well, since people would end up just using them for other projects - but then again, I'd bet that's going on already with the versions that let you download the galleries once you're created them :D

I absolutely hate them and they facilitate the hobbyist porn webmaster who'll spam tgps, etc with those ugly prefab galleries.

Aw Come on Mr Blue, don't hold back..tell us how you really feel :D

I've never used them, not once.

Ok - what would make it more desirable?

The ability to change the layout more easily?

The ability to change text, keywords, etc?

We don't have the problem with niche not matching though, btw...

Forget that damn tool. Build unique hfs' and fhg's and hang them out for list lists and tgps. You will get more listing that way. The tool is just too time consuming to grab links.

As far as affilates that build and submit, zip sets of 25 and let them use their own templates. That way your provide content will not become overused as quickly.

There isn't anything you could do to make them desirable to me. Why? Because every webmaster that used it would be submitting the same templates to me. They wouldn't get listed.


I understand that DD likes them :) |couch|




|escape|

ok... definitely going to take your advice but our gallery builder adds the code automatically, keeps track of the ones built, and is super quick to use - I would be amazed if someone could do one by hand quicker.

Interesting - but if there were enough template variety that would overcome that issue wouldn't it? Also we could limit each templates use perhaps... or allow webmasters to add their own tmp? What do you think?

I would have to see a couple to answer that. |huh

We are just about to add the feature but I will be happy to let you know when it is ready.

We just hugely revised our webmaster area and it is a long and strong ways better than our old one. (Just ask |greenguy| )

Far-L, the real problem lies with the abuse factor of pre-made galleries. There are so many who will take a couple of pre-made galleries and just make dead looking front ends and try to slip them by LL. There are lots of great tools but the abuse factor as turned so many LL and TGPs off to them :( Keeping them to a limited amount may be the answer to this problem.

I might have misunderstood. This gallery builder that GG described, as below, is what I would find to be useless. Of course you are going to want a link export tool. Should you want or need to look at example let me know and I will pm you a login to look at what I am doing.

Imo those 5step make your own gallery are utter crap. I'd either use a FHG which have some sort of structure to them (also crap) or 9 outa 10 occasions I make my own gallery.

What I'd like to see more programs offering is ziped content sets of 25-30pics of decent quality that are 500 on the long side as standard. And a ton of header image/s that I can incorporate into my galleries. Only a handfull of programs currently offer this.

-N

My point on all this is basically that I have never seen one that works that good or make decent pages. I may feel this way because I have a shitload of templates already that I can swap colors & things around in in the same amount of time that it takes one of these scripts to make me a piece of crap where I have to guess if the banner would look ok without looking at the template ahead of time :D

BTW, incase you haven't figutred it out yet, Far-L is the friend I'm helping out :D

The big problem I see with those gallery builder deals is that there couldn't possibly be enough options and variety in there to have any of the product be unique enough to bother with. Sometimes I'll play with them a bit if a sponsor has them available, but all in all I'd prefer their programmers churn out some HFS instead of creating a slick tool I have no use for.

Thanks! Completely fantastic feedback - I am utterly thankful to everyone for weighing in on this.

I think our gallery maker is capable of overcoming much of your opposition - but only when we add a few features, some previously planned and some from your suggestions, and the rest of the content...

On the other hand - we are definitely going to add plenty of hfs, |greenguy| is helping out on that end... |waves| We are also adding tons of gallery zips listed by model/niche, description, and publish date.

I will say that Far-L & the Home Grown crew have a very good start to their revamping of the affiliate program & aside form the script thing (which I personally dislike) and a couple of other very minor things, they are on the right track |thumb

Thanks! We are working on it but it sure is a huge leap forward from where we were in what I call our "hobbled and on crutches" period.

I would like to take a look at your new builder before I start getting submits :D

I would like to see much more control with these:

1. Allow us to choose which banner is used in which position as well as how many.

2. Provide a large number of layouts so that these galleries are not oversaturated.

3. If you do recips as well, ideally have a device where webmasters can upload a few custom recips and have this saved in the lounge as well. Also make sure just as with the banners/text link placement that there are many different options to choose from regarding where to place the recip.

4. Allow us to save a configuration for next time that can be used for general use.

5. Make the number of pictures configurable as well as the ability to select certain pictures over others.

Hope my wishlist is helpful! :)

Allfetish - wouldn't it just be easier (and take about the same amount of time) to do that by hand on your local machine?

Pretty much where I end up every time :D

I think we can incorporate these features and more innovations that will be make the webmasters efforts less burdonsome and more efficient. We will succeed or may lightning strike me down while i am being eaten by a shark after being tortured by the haitian voodoo mafia and thrown in the sea.|bow|

I hope it doesn't come to that, but if so be sure to get it on video. |headbang|

Geez Far-L, up early or up late? I dunno if I should be saying g'mornin or g'nite. :D

Exactly, even when I did run two TGPs, they were so low traffic and impossible to grow without piss-off-the-surfer trade script crap that FHG-anything is a total waste of programmer/designer time. I'd love to see some real FHG stats. I'm betting that <= 5% of program affiliates (the top 5%, including all the high traffic TGP owners) are the only ones really using FGH to any real gain. They're just in my way, personally. I'm with nekrom, content to build galleries by hand is the most useful thing any program could give me (although I'm not so sure about 500 on the longest side being a standard...) -- but 80% of programs out there are dumping 10-15 shitty ass video captures into zips and calling it "picture content". As if any reputable TGP (or LL for that matter) is going to approve a picture gallery built solely of vidcaps. Come on! Anywho, yeah, I've played with the 5step tools too, and found them to be just as useless as standard FHGs. I'd rather see a program spend all that time, energy and money putting together sites that update frequently, actually convert, etc. (it's my belief based on my experiences that most of the programs that claim frequent site updates and bank-busting conversions typically don't.) |thumb
Most FHG / script-generated-5-step-galleries are typically 100% photoshop and/or way too high ad:content ratio to actually submit anywhere with any respect anyway.

I agree that it's faster to build them by hand, then go threw all the steps.

GG - aren't all these forums prefab, with the same features and smiles and options. Like every one?

Also GG - in the letter you said:

"But, when you deal with both webmasters and surfers, there is nothing wrong with sending two separate Newsletters. Just, never mix the two."

"Never?" Why - is it a sin? Are you saying webmasters never buy adult content to review? Or that consumer might not want to try out doing affiliate programs? On actual sites aren't there webmaster and consumer links on main and secondary pages together? Will people leave if they see that?

Also, I just checked 15 links from your newsletter, and they used pre-made galleries. All your sponsors recommend them.

As far as copy goes here's a selection from two random clicks on your homepage. I'm not saying anything about these producer's content...

"But, as the electricity rises and the ropes tighten this little whore quickly realizes that she can't escape, can't stop the orgasms, and can't control the electricity."

"Dana takes punishment while hanging from her wrist and balancing on a block of wood. She is then led around like a dog and put in a cage where she must suck cock and get fucked. Finally. she is tied on top of the cage and fucked in the pussy and ass by Chris. Charming."

Again, I'm sure their content is good. But what's the point, these weekly newsletters seem to send conflicting information.

Lastly, do you feel the design of the our green guy list-o-rama is effective? Is it for surfers or webmasters?

Does anyone know WTF this IFRvideo is talking about? I think he is trying to get in GG's shit but I can not see where he said anything that relates to this thread (other than the quote).

I have no clue. I was hoping someone could translate. |crazy|