Thumbnail gallery post
Encyclopedia
A thumbnail gallery post (TGP) is a common type of ad-driven website
that provides links to free
Internet pornography
. In affiliate marketing
terms, TGPs are the affiliates that drive new traffic to the product producers, paysite
s. Paysites offer free hosted galleries (FHGs)
in an effort to attract paying customers, and it's these FHGs, as well as chains of TGPs that a TGP links to.
to other TGP sites.
These trades are reciprocal: by looking at the referrer header
of the HTTP requests, a TGP owner knows where their traffic comes from; a site that doesn't provide enough visitors will be excluded from further trades.
Both of these traffic trade schemes are therefore susceptible to cheating: a trader can use so-called hitbots to create bogus traffic from his site to another, in order to get good traffic in return.
Scripts that automate the maintenance of a TGP, manage traffic trades and protect against hitbots are readily available. Some of these are even free, financed by an occasional redirecting of surfers to a site under the control of the script's programmer, or by advertisements directed at other webmasters on the gallery submission and traffic trade pages.
images and may not link to TGP sites. Most TGP sites do not allow TGP2 galleries to be listed. The concept received little approval among web surfers and high traffic levels were never achieved.
owners produce and host ready-made galleries known as free hosted galleries for use on these fake TGPs.
Many sponsors
also provide webmasters with TGP templates which feature rotating galleries of the sponsor's sites. All a webmaster has to do is link the site using their referral code and surfers are provided with freshly updated content (often changing with each reload).
window, opening new windows or, specially on Microsoft Windows
systems, installing spyware
, adware
or dialer
s (for instance by having the user download a trojan horse
fake codec
such as Trojan.Emcodec.E
or exploiting browser bugs
), changing the home page and adding bookmarks. It is therefore advisable to visit these sites only when Java
, ActiveX
and JavaScript
as well as other scripting languages have been disabled in the browser and the system is fully patched. Users who are infected with potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) and other malicious software usually end up with a variety of issues, like modified host
files, endless popup ads (originating from the user's own computer) browser redirects, etc.
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that provides links to free
Gratis
Gratis is the process of providing goods or services without compensation. It is often referred to in English as "free of charge" or "complimentary"...
Internet pornography
Internet pornography
Internet pornography is pornography that is distributed by means of various sectors of the Internet, primarily via websites, peer-to-peer file sharing, or Usenet newsgroups...
. In affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
terms, TGPs are the affiliates that drive new traffic to the product producers, paysite
Paysite
A paysite, in pornography jargon, is a website that charges money to become a member and view its content, and often produces original adult content. They can be contrasted with "free-sites", which do not charge a membership fee. Most paysites offer "free tours" which allow non-members to view a...
s. Paysites offer free hosted galleries (FHGs)
Free hosted gallery
A free hosted gallery is a web page of sample content which is provided at no charge to affiliates of subscription websites . Affiliates promote these galleries to web surfers in order to drive web traffic to the paysite; every subscription sold generates a commission for the affiliate...
in an effort to attract paying customers, and it's these FHGs, as well as chains of TGPs that a TGP links to.
Traffic trading and TGP scripts
TGPs employ a variety of schemes to trade traffic with other TGPs; signing up for these trades is usually easy and free for other TGP owners. Perhaps the most basic trade is to linkHyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
to other TGP sites.
These trades are reciprocal: by looking at the referrer header
Header
Header may refer to: Computers and engineering* Header , supplemental data at the beginning of a data block** E-mail header** HTTP header* Header file, a text file used in computer programming...
of the HTTP requests, a TGP owner knows where their traffic comes from; a site that doesn't provide enough visitors will be excluded from further trades.
Both of these traffic trade schemes are therefore susceptible to cheating: a trader can use so-called hitbots to create bogus traffic from his site to another, in order to get good traffic in return.
Scripts that automate the maintenance of a TGP, manage traffic trades and protect against hitbots are readily available. Some of these are even free, financed by an occasional redirecting of surfers to a site under the control of the script's programmer, or by advertisements directed at other webmasters on the gallery submission and traffic trade pages.
TGP2
The success of the TGP format forced some adult webmasters to rethink their role in promotion of commercial sites. Some webmasters believe that TGPs saturate the Internet with free pornography. A new format for organizing previews was tried. This format, named TGP2, limits the exposure of the surfer to free content in many ways. For example, no more than 12 thumbnails are allowed per page, of which only 5 can link to images (and not directly, but to pages with images and ads) and the rest must link to signup pages. Per the standard, TGP2 galleries only include softcoreSoftcore
Softcore pornography is a form of filmic or photographic pornography or erotica that is less sexually explicit than hardcore pornography. It is intended to tickle and arouse men and women. Softcore pornography depicts nude and semi-nude performers engaging in casual social nudity or non-graphic...
images and may not link to TGP sites. Most TGP sites do not allow TGP2 galleries to be listed. The concept received little approval among web surfers and high traffic levels were never achieved.
Fake TGPs
Some websites appear to be TGPs, yet all or most of the featured galleries belong to the same webmaster and promote a limited selection of commercial websites. Such fake TGPs often contain links to other fake TGP sites owned by the same group or individual. PaysitePaysite
A paysite, in pornography jargon, is a website that charges money to become a member and view its content, and often produces original adult content. They can be contrasted with "free-sites", which do not charge a membership fee. Most paysites offer "free tours" which allow non-members to view a...
owners produce and host ready-made galleries known as free hosted galleries for use on these fake TGPs.
Many sponsors
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
also provide webmasters with TGP templates which feature rotating galleries of the sponsor's sites. All a webmaster has to do is link the site using their referral code and surfers are provided with freshly updated content (often changing with each reload).
Circle jerk (CJ) TGP
These sites look like TGP sites but end up sending users on a 'circle jerk' of blind links. When users click on a gallery link provided by a TGP, they will be unwillingly redirected to another TGP instead. Many legitimate TGPs do this to some extent, either by having some links redirect to other TGPs, or by having all links do so a certain percentage of the time. CJ TGPs almost never have any real content. The method of earnings for these sites are selling large volumes of traffic, non-adult sponsors (who sell virus protection, adware scanning, privacy protection, web history cleaning software) and adult sponsors.Security concerns while browsing CJ sites
Many CJs attempt to trap the hapless viewer by resizing the browserWeb browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
window, opening new windows or, specially on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
systems, installing spyware
Spyware
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
, adware
Adware
Adware, or advertising-supported software, is any software package which automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements to a computer. These advertisements can be in the form of a pop-up. They may also be in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the user during...
or dialer
Dialer
A dialer or dialler is an electronic device that is connected to a telephone line to monitor the dialed numbers and alter them to seamlessly provide services that otherwise require lengthy access codes to be dialed...
s (for instance by having the user download a trojan horse
Trojan horse (computing)
A Trojan horse, or Trojan, is software that appears to perform a desirable function for the user prior to run or install, but steals information or harms the system. The term is derived from the Trojan Horse story in Greek mythology.-Malware:A destructive program that masquerades as a benign...
fake codec
Codec
A codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of "compressor-decompressor" or, more commonly, "coder-decoder"...
such as Trojan.Emcodec.E
Trojan.Emcodec.E
Trojan.Emcodec.E is a trojan horse that is mis-represented as an audio and video codec for Windows-based PCs. It exists in various variants with names such as Media Codec, Ecodec, Imediacodec, IntCodec, Pcodec, SVideocodec, Video iCodec, QualityCodec, Vcodec, Zip Codec, zCodec, ZCODEC and began to...
or exploiting browser bugs
Software bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
), changing the home page and adding bookmarks. It is therefore advisable to visit these sites only when Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
, ActiveX
ActiveX
ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
and JavaScript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
as well as other scripting languages have been disabled in the browser and the system is fully patched. Users who are infected with potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) and other malicious software usually end up with a variety of issues, like modified host
Hosts file
The hosts file is a computer file used in an operating system to map hostnames to IP addresses. The hosts file is a plain-text file and is conventionally named hosts.-Purpose:...
files, endless popup ads (originating from the user's own computer) browser redirects, etc.