For those of you who listen to The Porn Professors on YNOT Radio, you will have heard all that this series of articles will entail – but do not despair, reviewing the material in writing will still be well worth the effort; there may even be some new points and secrets strewn throughout, so don’t miss these articles, whether you have heard me talk about this subject or not.For those of you who listen to The Porn Professors on YNOT Radio, you will have heard all that this series of articles will entail – but do not despair, reviewing the material in writing will still be well worth the effort; there may even be some new points and secrets strewn throughout, so don’t miss these articles, whether you have heard me talk about this subject or not.

For those of you who do not listen to the show… well, I could wonder why, but suffice it to say we have awesome workshops from time to time, and one recent workshop dealt with TGPs. I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to thank my co-host for the TGP show, Ken (SexHussy) of World Thumbs, for assisting me with that very informative workshop, which provides the meat of this article.

Over the next few weeks I will lay out vital information for those webmasters wishing to start their own TGP sites, and for those webmasters who own one already but need to grow a full plan of attack. I will be talking about site design, script management, traffic solutions, how to get submissions from webmasters, operational rules, and a myriad of other important issues.

Unlike my normal approach, this time I will be talking about specific programs and products that I feel are the best. My mention of certain products or programs does not mean that others are not acceptable, but I will talk here about those that I have personally found to work well for me. Like everything in this industry, other webmasters may have products and programs that they find work better for them, so by all means do more research than just these articles when you are picking scripts and services. When talking about scripts I will point out important or useful features and list the products I have already found to have these features, but other scripts may have them as well.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

Perhaps you have heard that anyone who owns a TGP site is a millionaire and, by golly, you are going to be the next one. Good for you! Now hold on tight because I am going to pop your bubble and bring you back down to earth. Running a successful TGP is hard – harder than running successful free sites for sure, easily harder than AVS sites, and I would dare to go out on a limb to say even harder than pay sites. With that said (and your feet firmly back on the ground), the TGP site, the granddaddy of all free sites, can be a very profitable venture if you approach it with a well thought-out plan and your eyes wide open to the obstacles and pitfalls that you will most likely encounter.

There are basically four parts to a successful TGP. First you’ll need a well-designed, fast-loading template that will serve as the main page of your TGP. Templates are bits of HTML code that work with the TGP script to produce the final look of the TGP site for its visitors. Second, you will need the script that will actually automate the day-to-day operation of your TGP. Third, you will need submissions from gallery builders; these submissions will provide the content that surfers will view and thus the reason why surfers visit your TGP.

Once again that nasty word “traffic” will appear, and if you have not already figured this out, traffic rears its ugly head at every turn of the adult website business. This week we are going to talk about planning so that you have the necessary information prior to design, so that your cart stays behind the horse where it belongs.

First off, what type of TGP are you going to build? Is it going to be a big, multi-category TGP or is it going to be a TGP based on a very specific niche? What are you going to call this million dollar profit center of yours? Where are you going to host this monstrosity, and will your server support all of the add-ons that your script might need? What script are you going to use to maintain your TGP, and how many hours per day do you have to devote to this awesome venture of yours? Note I said hours per day.

Choosing the type of TGP may sound like a rather simple decision, but spend some time thinking about it. If you go with a multi-category TGP then the ability to get submissions, set up trades and get the site moving may be a little easier – but the set-up of templates and archive pages will be much more difficult. On the other side of the coin, a niche site is quicker and easier to set-up in general, but you will have a harder time getting the traffic and webmaster submissions you need to get the site moving traffic. Whichever way you decide to go, there are benefits and weaknesses. My thought is to build the big one first, get it out of the way, and then if you decide to do niche sites they will seem like a breeze.

Next step in planning properly will include choosing the script that you feel is right for your needs. After having tried many I have found that Comus Thumbs is the best script around. I say this because of its ease of installation and use. No matter what script you decide to choose, spend some time finding out all you can about it. Do they offer support? Talk to others and see how easy it was to install, and how easy it is to use to accomplish your daily tasks. Make sure that it has the ability to bulk import, which will be a serious benefit when adding free-hosted galleries and galleries from gallery submitters who have text files of all their galleries.

Once you have the script you will be using, find a host that has all of the required systems and software. In choosing a host, make sure that you tell them what you are planning on doing. Make sure that their Terms of Service allow for adult content. Make sure that you are on a machine that will be able to handle large amounts of traffic and will be able to withstand some very heavy bursts as well. As I said, be upfront with them and make sure they know your plans. In addition, make sure you check on uptime, that they have 24-hour support, and that you are comfortable that they will be quick to respond when your site is down. It will do no good to build a huge site and have tons of traffic trades if your server is constantly down and no one is around for twelve hours to fix it.

Last, pick a name that is going to be good for your site. Try to make it a name that people may search for to help you get traffic. Make sure it matches your site. If you have a big boob niche TGP then obviously FreeLittleTits.com is not the right name for your site. If you are planning on building several sites you may want to also be thinking forward – try to come up with a name that is easily branded so that you can brand your whole TGP network.

Well, you have your homework assignments for this week. Next week we will go over the design of the templates… the good, the bad and the very ugly. As always, I wish you all success in your endeavors and look forward to your comments. Until next week.

Tony Davis is a professional adult Webmaster who can be reached by email at tony@aytd.com. Webmasters interested in Tony’s 2257 Custodian of Records service are encouraged to read more at www.keepmyrecords.com. Right now you can enjoy an earlybird special! Avoid the rush and the pandemonium; get your records in order now and save four months of fees.