Some thoughts on TGP traffic from a submitter

[HowlingWulf]

It's like shoppers at the mall. Some of them know exactly what they want and where to buy it (Search Engine traffic). Others are looking for something in a certain class like a new video game to play, book to read, or a new pair of shoes (blog,linklist,directory,etc traffic). But for most of the time, most shoppers are browsing (TGP traffic). Like window shopping or walking into a store just to 'look around'. Some of them might spot something they like, and some of THEM might actually buy it. However, there's lots of people browsing every day...

Now some numbers:
TGP (Thumbnail Gallery Post) traffic is sometimes called 'crap traffic' because the ratios are so bad, and for good reason. The majority of tgp traffic is browsers of free porn. Your hope is some of them spot something they like, and some of THEM actually buy a membership. Don't hold me to this, but we'll use the rough conversion ratio of 1:1000 for a sponsor sale from TGP traffic. This means for every 1000 surfers you send to a sponsor site, one of them buys a membership. Other sources of traffic would have a much smaller ratio (Search Engine traffic) and a few would have a much greater ratio (404 traffic, etc) but we will use 1:1000.

Now, to get those 1000 surfers to the sponsor site via TGP traffic, you'll use a gallery of roughly 15 pics or 6 movies with links to promote the sponsor, and submit it to many TGP sites to get listed. The amount of surfer traffic the gallery will receive in its lifetime depends on which TGPs list it, where they list it, what time of day its listed, how long its listed, if they have niche or archive pages where it gets listed, and of course the amount of surfer traffic that TGP site receives, among other factors. Almost all large TGPs these days require partner passes, and many of those must be purchased. One which still accepts free submissions (once every three days) is thehun.com. Good luck getting accepted there though, you'll have lots of competition.

Ok now we have surfers looking at our tgp gallery. How many of those go on to the sponsor as part of our 1:1000 average selling ratio? It turns out 2-5% of these free porn browsers will click your link to the sponsor. This is called the click-through-ratio (CTR). If you're new to this we'll use a 2% CTR for our calculations. This means out of 100 surfers who visit your gallery, only 2 will check out the sponsor. Using these figures, you can estimate it takes 50,000 surfers on average to visit your gallery before 1 of them buys a membership! Fortunately there's lots of TGP traffic possible and the numbers are volatile. A good gallery/sponsor combo can increase the CTR up to 5% (extremely difficult though) and the sponsor ratio to 1:500, taking an average of only 10,000 surfers for each sale. On the flip side a poor gallery/sponsor combo can have you pulling your hair out.

Extra note on CTR, it can be misleading. Higher might not be better. Consider the blind/misleading sponsor link "Click here for the FREE Paris Hilton Blowjob video!" which would get lots more people to click (higher CTR) but since they won't find the free Paris Hilton Blowjob video at the sponsor, the sales ratio would plummet. A strong sponsor link "Click here to access all our teen videos for only $1!" would filter out freeloaders and decrease the CTR to those who understand the teen videos would cost them $1. Most sites frown on the blind/misleading link so best not to use it, and the strong link might be too much unless you have a special offer. Most webmasters use something in between. I recommend something niche related that sticks out. "Click here for more porn" = ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz..... while "Click here for our video archive of white bitches banging big black cocks!" would be better.

For other sources of traffic, you need only adjust the numbers. For linklist traffic, I've found a CTR in the teens (roughly 15%) and a smaller sale ratio, but the amount of surfer traffic is much less than from TGPs.