It’s crazy. I’ll say it again. Absolutely crazy.
I have this one adult sponsor that sends me an email every time they update their database of free-hosted galleries. I get that email at least once a week, sometimes twice. Right now, their existing list of available FHGs numbers in the hundreds, possibly even over a thousand. I’ve seen TGPs with less gallery links than those of this particular sponsor.
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"If you've gotten the idea that sponsor content is somehow lame, think again. It's not the content that's lame. What's lame is the misuse of sponsor samples." |
What’s even nuttier, I’ve got another sponsor that provides me with an online wizard with which I can create a free-hosted Thumbnail Gallery Post of my very own. They provide all the content and my referrer ID is embedded in each auto-generated link. I get to personalize the TGP with my logo and sub-domain name. I can be a TGP webmaster for no money at all.
But wait. There’s more.
Like the sponsor that lets me build an online adult toy store stocked to the margins with DVDs, dildos and delicious edible underwear. I don’t have to rent any real estate or buy any products. I don’t need to worry about merchant accounts or commercial licensing. I just join the sponsor, follow the rules and open up a shop as if I was the proprietor.
I tell you this because I am sincerely amazed at the amount and variety of free sponsor-provided content available to the affiliate webmaster.
When I first got into this field, I was damned lucky to find a sponsor that furnished any free content at all. When there was free content, it wasn’t very much. Maybe a gallery full, at the most. All the rest of the free content was upsell stuff and there wasn’t much of that either. That’s why I made my own content when I was starting out. It was cheaper to buy a crappy digicam and shoot my own tits. In addition to that dearth of free sponsor content, the prices for paid content were positively astronomical in comparison to today’s rates.
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Now there’s an endless buffet of free sponsor-provided content. There are gratis goodies for every taste, not just galleries. Want to show movie clips? There’s a sponsor for that. Want to add some Flash games or illustrated stories to your web page? There’s a sponsor for that. Do you have the domain and the hosting but still can’t afford the filler? You can literally fill your site with the free content from one or two sponsors.
It doesn’t matter whether your site is gay or straight, hardcore or softcore. You want to market niche products and services to a niche audience? Chances are there is an adult sponsor that offers some sort of free content to their niche affiliates, no matter how obscure the kink.
If you’ve gotten the idea that sponsor content is somehow lame, think again. It’s not the content that’s lame. What’s lame is the misuse of sponsor samples.
Probably the most common misuse of sponsor content is when webmasters try to submit it to TGPs in the form of galleries. Some submitters try it with free-hosted galleries. Others try it with galleries made from the free image/clip sets they get from their sponsors. Don’t do it. TGP reviewers hate that. If you want your galleries to get listed on TGPs then buy a domain, a hosting account and shell out the dough for your own content.
Other than sponsor content on TGPs, there’s almost no limit to the sites you can create without paying a dime for content. Well, you can’t build a paysite with your sponsor’s images but there are sponsors that let your create your own tour pages for their paysites and you still get to use their free content.
I’m not telling you to refrain from buying content unless you are a paysite operator or gallery webmaster. I’m not recommending that you build a hub/feeder site with only sponsor-provided doodads. What I’m trying to show you is that at the moment, you have access to limitless amounts of free content. So limitless, it’s crazy!
Visit the Sponsor Listings at Cozy Frog. We have ten categories of sponsors and a preponderance of them give their affiliates free content to use for marketing. It’s all there for a simple agreement and no cost to you. All you have to do is use it wisely and often!