the future of tgps and link lists (maybe)

[Dr Bizzaro]

I think the big site's traffic would drop off and grow smaller and smaller by the day....while sites that remained free would flourish with new traffic.

[bret]

Originally Posted by Dr Bizzaro

I think the big site's traffic would drop off and grow smaller and smaller by the day....while sites that remained free would flourish with new traffic.

But the quality of that traffic would be much better... When revenues drop enough, some of the bigger sites will try this.

[Linkster]

Dare - ya hit on a point thats been on my mind for a long time - and that is that the sponsors expect that their sites get advertised for free by us - by linking the submitters sites - we dont get jack for that service - and for that matter the submitter never gets really whats due them but thats another thread.
Im sure someone will bring up the argument that without the submitters, we wouldnt have sites to link to - we all know thats not true - between the sponsors giving away hosted free sites and galleries we have more than enough to load a well run TGP or LL - added of course to the pool of LL/TGP owners own free sites and galleries - hell - thats why most TGPs dont need submits from outside - they get enough to list everyday just from their trusted friends that run other TGPs.
The rampant explosion of sponsors lately has been due to the fact that they dont have to budget for advertising, other than to drag more WMs to their programs on boards like this - which is why theyve been able to cut way back on their staffing - the people that used to do the pushing of sites to the public for them arent needed right now.
Theyve about driven some of the best content companies out of the biz with their free giveaways - WMs dont need to buy content anymore for their own advertising.

I totally agree that the people with the traffic need to start getting back to the old model of advertising - some still do it with certain banner placements on som LLs and TGPs, but that is definitely becoming a minority. Its time for sponsors to meet the real world.

[Linkster]

One point I left out - Im still of the firm belief that the sponsors should be the ones paying for the submitters to be able to submit to places that now charge - why should a hard-working WM have to pay for the traffic thats going to the sponsor and hope that this weeks ratios might give them a sale - after scrubbing and other things that the sponsors might do

[Chop Smith]

Originally Posted by Linkster

...and that is that the sponsors expect that their sites get advertised for free by us - by linking the submitters sites - we dont get jack for that service - and for that matter the submitter never gets really whats due them but thats another thread.

Linkster, this is not quite a true statement. As I stated above, the sponsors are paying for advertising - revenuse share or pay per signup. I agree that if you don't list hosted sites from the sponsor that you 'don't get jack'. Unless the sponsor is submitting directly to you, they are paying for advertising either to you for listing the hosted site or to the submitter for building and submitting to you.

And again as I stated above, I agree 'the submitter never gets really whats due them'

[Opti]

Originally Posted by Tommy

I am just saying anything is possable

Now lets take it a step further.
The trades you have with other tgps and linksites
could have revshare codes in the link urls

I think this might make it possible... and incorporate a central public counter service too... that sells adpsots on behalf of each site like adbrite.com

Been working on a system like this for my personal network of sites.

[whitey]

Right before the visa regulations impacted avs's, we had a softcore, fetish tgp site that we began charging for access to the non blind site that included hardcore galleries.

We made a ton of cash in three months before the visa/avs shit hit the fan. The avs we were using for access kicked us off. We tried to get another avs interested, but it was not easy.

Once one had a billing model, the possibilities of marketing this concept are endless Tommy.

We are right there with you. The problem, im my mind, is the billing model. We have proven that the concept works already.

[ClickBuster]

Do you know what would I do if I had an LL like Link-o-rama for instance. I'd build my own VIP area where I'd push HQ sites for $1 monthly, just to distinct payable surfers from the other punks out there and build some better marketing knowing that you're not serving SEs, nor other LLs - you'll be building a site only for your VIP members - not so many restrictions that you should care about. The advantages of such VIP area are actually pretty much, you should think about it I think this could be done with you current LL software by only adding a new category and restricting access with .htaccess and offer signup on an unsuccessfull login.

Since this is my *reply* I would appreciate if somebody let me know if he/she decides to do it any time soon

[Robbo]

Yeah we`ll probably always compete with free porn eminating from one country or another. I could see something like that if our government said everything has to be behind age verification. But then that does bring up the matter of where new traffic comes from especially if we were still forced to compete with others who could still show whatever. As far as the US is concerned I think anything of that magnitude would be politically driven at this point.

[ClickBuster]

What I think will happen is that webmasters will try to increase the quality of their sites in order to get listed in the VIP area. I personally prefer to have surfers that have verified their age with CC and have 100 quality hits instead of 3k smoochers. Maybe this is not so good for LL traffic, but for TGP, mentioning the large numbers...

[swedguy]

hmmm, the more I think about it the better it looks

If they pay a nominal fee to get access = proved themself that they have a CC and want to use it. Same as AVS.
Since the traffic is already pre-approved, it's of higher quality.
Submitters will realise that you have higher quality traffic = higher quality submits. <--- good reason why people would sign up and retain. Of course there's more things you can provide that make them sign up and retain, but that's one thing.

[Useless]

I'd love to see you big traffic handlers go to a paid model. I'd finally get some traffic to my TGP. I'd probably have to switch from a 10mbps pipe to a 100.

I say go for it!

[Tommy]

I think A thumb tgp with a strong search engine presence would be perfect

[Tommy]

I would never take that big of a gamble with Tommys

I am working on anew tgp now and I am thinking about opening it free and then maybe 8 months later trying it

[bestdutchrates]

I like the idea but I also know that the biggest tgp owner out there wil never ever charge his visitors. And the rule is that the one who is the most succesfull, always has the true on his side.

just my cents

[Useless]

Originally Posted by bestdutchrates

I like the idea but I also know that the biggest tgp owner out there wil never ever charge his visitors. And the rule is that the one who is the most succesfull, always has the true on his side.

just my cents

And that is the truth. The almighty Hun, who has made himself rich by providing the cleanest and most honest page, would have to add more servers to handle the influx from those unwilling to pay to see our indentical advertising. To quote Ross Perot (referring to NAFTA), 'there would be a huge sucking sound' made by the movement of surfers to other reliably free venues.

[Chop Smith]

I think TGFind.com had a 'surfing charge' a few years back. After viewed X number of the galleries listed, you would get a popup requiring you to register. I am thinking that it was 4.95 a month.

I just visited TGFind.com. They still have a to register but it redirected back to the index.

[Tommy]

ya know years ago I use to redirect some of my se traffic to a page asking the surfers to buy an AVS membership I dont remeber exactly but I think it did a good 40 sales a day

http://www.tommys-bookmarks.com/index1.html

[stuveltje]

i never thought it would be a problem to pay some $ to submit to linksites or tgp, i know tommy you started a post about charging 3 years ago or so on the ans board i didnt found it a bad idea that time and i still think its a good idea, and my thoughts are if all are doing it, alot of "one day" webmasters will be away from the bizz, the webmasters are not forched to pay for submitting, they still can choose to submit to other linksites who dont ask money....so it isnt forching the submitters, i know people would complain if realy all linksites would do it, because lately its a trend that newbies start bizz with a linksite instead of free sites or other things, but then the choise is still to the submitter, they dont have to pay if they dont want to, i think not on the getting rich part, i think at that part that a seriouse submitter will pay to have they sites listen, i think many cheaters will disapear, just my point of view.....(oke back checking if the trojan is gone from my puter, i hate puters!)

[eman]

Originally Posted by Tommy

what if ALL the tgps and linklists charged the surfers a small price for access

like 5.00 a month

people like pk worldsex and the hun could be multi millionares overnight

75% of linklists/tgps would disappear because surfers would suss out the winners and losers.

In time some of the remaining 25% would drop the charge and gain market share by reverting to the "free" model.

This in turn would encourage others to follow the "free" model and things would eventually end up where they are now.

[chilihost]

My opinion, if thehun started charging $1 or 5 access fee per month, thehun would have almost zero traffic within a month as surfers would just go to another free place.

it would only work if all tgp owners did it at the exact same time...and if you can get agreement to that then I will personally start a free site that same day so I can get all that traffic!!!!!

cheers,
Luke

[GeorgeTH]

I actually think that as it stands now, with the quality of general submissions, paid spots partly taken up directly by sponsors (not gallery posters anymore), there is a tiny chance that it might work out with some specific rules:
· no sponsor content, none at all!
· no trade script, no other missleading links
= and above average experience for the surfer!

I turn this would probably attract some decent submissions, too, since the surfer has shown he/she is willing to pay.

But I agree with GG: we have tried it with AVS (which was good as long as it lasted), and after that I had actually tried briefly a micro-pay-system on my site for people to get to complete sets, but that failed badly...

Still - I would give it another go, particularly considering all the new micro billing options evolving, like SMS billing. Once they become more practical and worldwide accepted there could be a real chance, even if 1,000s of sites will continue giving away free porn.

[RawAlex]

Tommy, in a perfect world, it would work. If all the people listing free porn starting charging for it, well, we would make more money (if for no other reason, that we would stop paying for so much bandwidth!).

However, nature abhors a vacuum. If the top 10 links site and the top 10 TGPs start charging, the surfers just all go somewhere else. New free links and free TGPs would pop up, and your surfer base would pretty much disappear overnight.

The traffic you did send out would probably be better, as you would have filtered off all the freeloaders.

Of course, you could just turn tommy's into a low price membership site and get it over with. Nothing stopping you from charging for access to listings, I guess. I am not entirely sure how many people would be willing to give you free galleries so that you can make money, but that is another issue.

It's like TGP2 - a nice idea, but not as successful because the original TGPs and TGP galleries didn't go away. Instead, there are movie gallery posts, and they are WAY hotter than TGP2.

Alex

[security_man]

the key to it is to either have everyone do it at the same time, but like everyone has said that just wont happen (unless copa goes through and thats why i kinda hope it does <ducks the flying objects comming his way from other webmsaters for the blasphemy> LOL).

the other way to do it is to give the surfers something more than what they can get anywhere else for free.. not much more but something... kinda like AVS did but for some reason we have all poo pooed avs now too.

i wonder why it seems great ideas are usually the same ideas that already exist as bad ideas because they werent mouthed by big names in the industry?

[Sean416]

I think the only real way this would happen is if the US implies some kind of law like all surfers have to enter a CC number in order to view any graphic images. Then you could charge a surfer a $5 lifetime membership to your TGP, link list or whatever. But if that were the case, I think it would have to be all FHG's and FHS's because the domains hosting the free content would have to be controlled. Otherwise you couldn't tell who is the TGP and who is the gallery submitter.

Did anybody else notice tommy's thought pattern? He just started charging for submits and now all the sudden he is thinking about charging surfers too... he's getting greedy! Musta made some nice money from the submits fee. LOL j/k tommy.