Quote:
Originally posted by CumSensei
The sites slowly changed from the great "banner farm" sites that was converting so well to more and more simple sites in the hunt for BIG amount of traffic no matter how bad it was.
And so it went on and on. And these "new sites" started to offer more and more free links to content instead of sending the surfer where he is supose to be at....YOUR SPONSOR!
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What you are describing was inevitable. Back in '96 the surfers were almost all newbies and the demand for online porn so far exceeded the supply, that we could get away with anything.
But even if - to keep it simple - you assume the same number of new surfers coming online each year, 8 years on only 12½% of our potential customers are newbies. Many have more experience of the 'Net than a lot of webmasters! A lot of us still act otherwise, but these are real people. No way could we keep peddling the same rubbish or use the same trix to sell it.
Within this context, TGPs are no more than an excellent example of form following function. "Samples" are not only a way to try to reassure the millions of surfers we burned in the past that these days we really do have something to offer, but also a way to tempt those who wouldn't normally think of paying for porn. It is a valid marketing model used in any number of industries, which - unless content and bandwidth prices climb again - is why, despite those who might wish otherwise, TGPs aren't going anywhere.
For sure the burn rate among both operators and submitters is high. Next time you see someone giving away samples of food or wine in a supermarket, watch how few actually buy: freebies aren't a magic key to sales, just a way to stimulate an initial interest. Most of your potential buyers are still reluctant and it takes skill to close the sale.
And that's what many webmasters - would-be TGP operators and submitters - don't realize. TGP'ing looks so easy and it takes minimal HTML knowledge and design skills to put up something which looks like a TGP or a TGP gallery. When it turns out to be a money pit, most won't blame themselves but the TGP model.