Okay, here's what I think. You have to make galleries that are a little more exceptional. Make your jpgs bigger, for one thing, they look too small/compressed. This isn't 1999. More pictures would be better, try 20 instead of 16. I don't crop my thumbs or mess with the aspect ratio at all. This results in both horizontal and vertical thumbs, which makes the page a little busier, but it works for me.
It's true that it's harder now to get listed than it used to be. Make your galleries better and then keep track of who lists you. Eventually you have to just give up on the places that won't take your galleries, saves time submitting ;) But keep at it and you will find bigger TGPs who will take your gallery with reasonable regularity. Spend time finding the mid-range TGPs that will list you every time. Isn't it better to submit 10 galleries you know will get listed at a 100k TGP than to submit 20 to one of the big guys and get no traffic at all?
Just my
