According to a study done by Yale University, the twelve most powerful selling words in the English language are:
01. DISCOVER
02. EASY
03. GUARANTEE
04. HEALTH
05. LOVE
06. MONEY
07. NEW
08. PROVEN
09. RESULTS
10. SAFETY
11. SAVE
12. YOU
Yale University will probably never conduct a study on the most powerful selling words in porn. Nor will one find true statistical results on the marketing capabilities of specific text ads in the Internet sex trade. Adult webmasters are rather secretive when it comes to sales copy and the non-adult world would rather demonize us than analyze our vocational practices.
Sex aside, you are ultimately in the advertising business. The long understood truth in advertising is that the product changes but the rules never do. No matter what you're selling, you're still selling. You're creating a need and a solution with your advertising text. You have to make people want to buy your product because of your words. Whether you're composing informational paragraphs or short, snappy text links, each word you use should have power. A TGP gallery thrives on it's advertising. Here are some clues to mastering text links and ad copy:
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Don't lie. Nobody likes it, especially sponsors who will dump you for misrepresentation. A free trial is simply that. You can't advertise your sponsor's free trial as "FULL ACCESS. COMPLETELY FREE!" You can't lead surfers to a softcore site with a text link that reads: "Hot Fucking Now!" The fact is that the best way to sell a product is to describe it accurately but creatively. That free 24-hour trial would be best served with text that says: "SEE IT FREE for one day!"
Keep it short. Words may be powerful but you're trying to keep your surfers horny. You want them to come to your gallery yet you want them to exit to your sponsor page while they still have a hardon. Even with galleries that are story/narrative in nature, you need to keep your text to a minimum.
The keywords one uses to sell teen content are quite different from those used to sell BDSM content. Know your market and it's language. You won't do well promoting a bikini paysite with text that promises "Nasty, Slutty Babes!" Those who love bikini babes will be turned off by such demeaning terminology. A better promo would be: "Busty Bikini-Clad Beauties!"
Check your gallery text for spelling and grammar mistakes. A misspelled word can kill a sale. Nonsensical text is a waste of bandwidth. Double-check your copy. Are all the words spelled correctly? Does your ad make sense? An exception to this rule is when one makes a gallery where punctuation/spelling errors are intentional such as an amateur site. The idea being that such a gallery will feature amateurish touches like misspelled words.
As far as actual application of sales text to your gallery, there are two types: Text links and other.Text links are words nested within a hyperlink tag on a webpage. Text links should be short, no longer that five or six words. A text link should contain power words like those listed at the top of this lesson. Two of the most reliable text links are: "Click Here" and "Don't Click Here". When you make a text link be sure you are following the TOS (terms of service) of your sponsor. Also make sure you are following the rules of each TGP to whom you submit your gallery. A text link that does not clearly name or describe the site it links to might be considered a BLIND link by gallery reviewers and adult sponsors.
Other text you use on your gallery can be whatever you want. Some gallery makers use text as a narrative for the gallery. They describe the events depicted in the thumbnailed image series. There are webmasters who are good at writing effective page titles for their galleries. Still more gallery builders are specialists at sales text that promotes the sponsor's paysite. All three techniques can be applied to a gallery as long as it's done minimally.
The TGP gallery maker needs to be concise with their sales text or links. A TGP reviewer might decline a submission if the text is too ad-happy.
Text sells. Text gets indexed by search engines. Studies show that more surfers click on text links than they do on graphical banners. Used wisely, words make money!