I cranked out 22 new TGPs a year ago using a template and some simple code to generate a unique colour and background image for each site. They all look very similar and formulaic, but it's pretty much autopilot, hands off.
So for a couple of hours work and negligible amounts of bandwidth I have a very small network, but it's still profitable... only nets $500-$600 a year but that's still clear profit for a low level of effort.
(There are technical reasons I haven't been able to build it more... atm to trade with external sites they would need to trade with ALL 22 sites, which is impractical...)
I'm rambling, I guess IMHO with a lot of work you could make a nice looking TGP and make some $ from it... but probably not a great equivalent per hour rate... OR, you could find a script/scripts that will automate both thumbing and trading and crank out cookie cutter sites that may not look so pretty and may not make so much individually, but as a network they're profitable and require very little attention.
^ This is easier said than done of course... I've developed my autothumb and trading system over a few years...