Hosted Galleries

[RawAlex]

Something I have learned in the last little while is integration - not having all the thumbs in a single block, but spreading them out and putting promotional stuff where surfers would normally expect to see free stuff - so rather than 4 rows of 5 thumbs (example) you might replace two thumbs with a small banner, etc... squeezing text between rows, and generally ASKING for the sale - moving the surfer forward where you can.

The big TGPs are doing okay right now listing sponsor galleries, but I think that the "sameness" problem is going to get them, the same way it has gotten to the 4 panel tours.... once people have seen the same galleries in the same layouts a few days in a row, they will run and move on to something else. Right now TGPs have the upper hand on pure volume, but that will play out.

I also think that programs aren't ready for the costs associated with the hun moving to all sponsor galleries... imagine a smaller program getting 20-30 million tgp hits a day (looking at 10 pics each, that is 300 million pictures a day) that don't convert - that can start to cost ya...

It is a transitory situation - anyone want to guess where it is going?

Alex