Tips for a successful free site

[RDude]

I know we have discussed free sites a fair amount and even had a workshop going for a while (I can't seem to find the thread though - LOL), but I thought it might be good to just have people offer a tip or two, or more, of what makes a free site fairly successful for them. No one wants to give away their "top secret" information of course, but anything that can help those who would like to know.

I know that free sites are not always massively successful, but I will say that conversions for my free sites are a lot better than they are for my TGPs.

Thanks:cool:

[Daniel]

Great idea Rdude. I havent had much success with freesites so I'd love to watch on and learn a few things..

[basschick]

do you mean TGPs or galleries?


I know that free sites are not always massively successful, but I will say that conversions for my free sites are a lot better than they are for my TGPs.

Thanks:cool:

[RDude]

do you mean TGPs or galleries?

My free sites do better than my TGPs do as far as traffic to sales ratios are concerned. I'm talking about an actual TGP (one that I don't take other galleries on though so a "fake" TGP if you will), like http://www.gayhairypix.com It does ok for the most part, but not as well as http://www.hotmaturestuds.com as a free site.

So I thought it might be good just get a few tips and suggestions as to what people have done to see some success from their own free sites.

[desslock]

Well I have two suggestions --

1) Have something to say. I personally think that the most successful and longest lasting sites are ones that have a point or some kind of view. It could be anything, but it should be too broad.

2) also, even though this is not a requirement, another very thing to do is to create a sense of place. today's phrase for this is a "social networking site," however I'll point out that people have been doing this since before MySpace/Facebook.

JustUsBoys and Adam4Adam spring to mind as great examples of this. What are we doing? We're "hangin' out on JustUsBoys." That site as a very well developed sense of place.

Steve

[RDude]

Thanks for the feedback Desslock. However, I'm inquiring on tips for a small free site of 5-6 galleries with anywhere from 60-100 images per, featuring 1 sponsor. JUB is a massive directory and "social network". That's not quite what I have in mind here. lol Just a little too big for me at this point. Thanks.

[tigermom]

How are people doing with freesites these days? I've stopped doing them, as they seem to be practically dead on the straight end of the market. By that I mean you get under a sale per freesite, on average - definitely not something to waste time on.

[RDude]

How are people doing with freesites these days? I've stopped doing them, as they seem to be practically dead on the straight end of the market. By that I mean you get under a sale per freesite, on average - definitely not something to waste time on.

My current free sites pull in an average of 2-5 sales per month at the moment. I have 8 of them. So they're still worth it to me. Those aren't huge numbers, but if I can get a few more going and they can maintain that kind of conversion, they'll pay off in the long run. I was just looking for tips from people who are seeing a bit of success themselves with free sites. Perhaps bounce some ideas off of one another. If they're dead though for a lot of people, I only hope that doesn't happen to me.;)