Quote:
Originally Posted by Toby
Think of it as the 30 second ads that play when you view a video clip on CNN.com or other mainstream sites. The skim are essentially ads for trade partners. Based on how productive the traffic you send to the partner their script returns traffic to you accordingly, and vice versa.
With niche TGPs it's very difficult to build traffic without using skim, unless you already have another high volume site to feed it.
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Toby as I run TGPs I see your point. However as a sponsor, I also have to support JD.
If a surfer sees a thumb he likes, and clicks on it, he wants to see the gallery. If he gets another site/link, he may well give up. That's lost traffic to the sponsor - and potentially a lost sale to you. It's impossible to do the math as we don't know the number of guys that give up after one, or two (or three) clicks. But as a stab - if 1000 surfers click a thumb and 40% (?) see another link/site and 75% give up then the sponsor has lost 300 views of his gallery - and over time that could mean a lot of lost sales for both of us. Not only that you are using our content to your benefit as we don't see that entire traffic the content generates.
However I do see the need to get more traffic. The link trades work no doubt. That's all I have at GI/UF/PFN. But with no skim whatsoever. Interestingly I recently swapped using my own made up galleries to almost all FHGs. The impact on SEO was profound as all my SEO hardwork was lost. My Google visitors to GI alone dropped by 50% as my rankings dropped. Swings and roundabouts as my hosting costs dropped too but sales didn't!
Finally, as a sponsor, it's fair to say that all my best affiliates over the years have been totally skim free. Sadly most have gone (who remembers vixena.it and the like, even dare I say Classic Ladies).