Originally Posted by $5 submissions

We've handled thousands of galleries during our submission days. My opinion is not meant to be SUPER AUTHORITATIVE--there are other opinions out there and there are more experienced webmasters out there. Take this with a grain of salt.

The short answer: There is no magic formula per se. Conversion depends on many factors. Here is a short list of the variables:

1) Quality of Content. Content is still king. Traffic may be the EMPEROR but content is king. Crappy content + kick ass traffic = money but not as much money as kick ass content + kick ass traffic.

2) Quality of layout. The layout and 'design' can sometimes be overly hyped as the 'secret ingredient' to submitting. It isn't. That's like getting excited over the shape of the spoon and neglecting the quality of the food or the preferences of the person eating the food or the ambience of the restaurant. Regardless, layout is still a factor. It is part of the overall "delivery mechanism" for the content. To that extent, it should SHARPEN the focus of delivery not thwart or dilute its impact.

3) Quality of Text. This factor is very much neglected and underappreciated. Text and Content work together. The Content is the draw. The text is the framing that directs the consumption of the content. It directs and instructs the surfer as to what to do next or how to interpret the content. It also sets the credibility of the site being advertised by answering the following questions:

a. Will there be more of this type of content in the site you are recommending?
b. Does the site KNOW the niche it claims to possess?
c. What does the surfer need to do to get more of this type of content?
d. What can the surfer expect in terms of service, content, and logistics (i.e, will the videos load quickly, any restricitions, etc)
e. Niche-specific questions

4) Conformance with the site being advertised. A gallery IS a bite-sized sample of a site being recommended. Nothing more nothing less. It is a free 'demo'. Hence, optimization done for conversion at the paysite design level should also influence the gallery pages pushing it. In particular, is there CONSISTENCY of message? Is there a SHARP difference in terms of experience between a gallery and its sponsor site?

5) How well does the sample thumbs represent the content?

6) How well does the sample thumb (to be placed on the TGP) represent the gallery it links to?

7) How well does the text description accurately describe the gallery? Does it contain enough textual clues as to tease and get the surfer's atention?

8) Do the content selected for the galleries tell a story? Does it tell it in the way that fans of the niche the gallery is pushing will appreciate and respond to?

9) The quality of the traffic of the TGPs the gallery gets listed on. Are the galleries customized for traffic/clicking behavior of certain specific TGPs?

10) This is just a partial list but there's tons more, I'm sure.

One thing is clear. TGP subs, while some parts can be rationalized and put on a spread sheet and analyzed using statistical tools, is largely still more ART than SCIENCE. There's a huge number of variables. Whoever figures out a way to RATIONALIZE this form of advertising (as much as possible and allowing for manual inputs/tweaking) stands to make a LOT OF MONEY. That's for sure.