Right, I don't have many posts, so who gives a fuck what I have to say. Yes, I'm fairly new to this board, but not to the industry and have made just as many mistakes as the rest of you...
It is too bad I don't have a log from our TGP2 workshop chat last week because it contained a lot of good ideas and answers to a lot of these questions. The best place to start digging up infor on TGP2 is
http://www.tgp2.net.
Anyhell - no, you won't see the amount of traffic with tgp2 that you will with tgp, but you don't need to! The quality of traffic is between that of se and tgp traffic, with a push closer toward se traffic, which everyone knows converts a hell of alot better than tgp galleries. TGP2 galleries, especially those that have the big images on html are also quite se friendly and will be found down the road...
I've played w/ TGP2 off and on for a couple of years now with mixed results. However, like most of you, am sick of all the free porn out there and dwindling sales so a few months ago I did a few of my own tests to compare tgp / tgp2 conversions. With the same content and same basic designs (I made 10 galleries, in various niches, with various sponsors) I was 1 / 1000+ with tgp and 1 /127 with the tgp2 versions. I was 1 / 47 with one tgp2 gallery (a gallery that I'm still getting sales on) that did 1 / 800 with its tgp equivalent. Maybe not 30 times better in this instance, but significant none the less. The fact you can advertise more and show less is a no brainer as to why conversions are better.
The basic theory that less is more is what tgp2 is about, and is what is proven, at least to tgp2 ers, day in and day out.
As a result of these tests and the fact that I had 2 near ten k a day and some smaller tgps generating only a few sales each week pushed me all the way over to TGP2. I've also changed other things like ditched my trade scripts and am now concentrating on quality of traffic, not quantity. I'm getting that many sales on pics of the day right now...
Like tgp, hosted tgp2 galleries do NOT do as well as made galleries, and no there isn't a lot of them, but, like Jimmer said, use the rotator till you make enough of your own. Use what is available as filler. Spend your time building and submitting galleries instead of babysitting your site. Submitting to the tgp2 gallery pool alone will make you money over time - but no, it won't be overnight. Once you have enough of your own, rotate them in, create a "hall of fame" section, whatever...
Everyone that builds free sites and / or galleries owes it to themselves to at least try it out, (in only takes a few more minutes to make a tgp2 gallery - which is nothing more than a small free site w/ out the entrance page and traffic sucking recips) but like I said, give it some time - it can take 2 weeks to a month to have your galleries cycle through the rotator - but when it does, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.