Issue 114

One To Click On by Jon

Welcome to the new issue of Hit Exchange News!

As some of you know, last month I was on the road to take part in the Focus 4 The Future No Limits seminar in Charlotte, North Carolina. That weekend did something to my opinion about online business. As it changed the way I looked at how I conduct my business.

Before I was involved with the exchanges I was in the music business (even before the pizza flipping). The golden rule of the music business is to grow your network. Be seen as much as possible, go to the events, hand out business cards, shake hands, get your face known. All these networking tips and tricks were en printed into my mind from the day I left college to the day I left the music business. Guess what? The same tips and tricks should be applied in any business, especially the 'internet business'.

I'm not sure what happened when I got online. Maybe it was the comfort of sitting behind my computer and being able to work in my boxer shorts (what a visual huh?), but that 'networking' mentality had left me. Let's be honest, it's not for everyone to get out and shake hands with potential partners and clients, but it is part of any business. With internet business, we forget that. And because of that trip to North Carolina, it took me 2500 miles and two blizzards to remember it.

The Focus 4 series is just beginning. There are events planned throughout the entire year of 2006 and I urge you to take part in some of them. It is the biggest eye opener I have had in my online career. Get out there and meet your fellow entrepreneurs! Take a step back from your 'comfort' zone and take one step towards increasing your network.

Thanks for reading this week's issue of Hit Exchange News!

Jon Olson
The Traffic Exchange Guy

Want to have your say? Do you agree, or disagree? Why not visit the Net Marketing Forums and join a community of REAL people, building ideas and businesses...Together!

In This Issue

The News

The HEN Top Ten

Deep Thoughts

Tony's Thoughts

Program Review -- True View Traffic

Things the make you go...Hmmmm

Advertising Options

The News

• Want to make $100 with a traffic exchange? I can't remember of such a huge commission ever being offered by a free traffic exchange but it looks like Advertising Know How will lead the charge. If you have not logged in a few weeks or have not joined this program yet, there is a huge affiliate commission being offered to members that targets first time users to the program. How much can you earn? $98 for anyone that you refer and decides to take advantage of the one time offer.
• Be sure to check out the new and improved Net Marketing Forum. Well it's not really new and improved, but thanks to John Farrar of WolfSurfer.com, we've got a brand spanking new logo. Come by and check out the most active forum in the traffic exchange industry, we've got some great new features and even more hot topics and discussions. Remember that magic word....Network!
• This Week's Splash Page Hall of Fame Entry is this little gem! Basically if you rotate through the splash pages you will find three different pages. All using humor to the best of it's ability. The first splash that had me on the ground laughing was the 'This Is Fluffy' picture of a mean looking dog bent on destroying the world. Hilarious. The next had a picture of some kid with his head in the toilet, with appropriate ad copy to go along with it. And finally, a classic picture of the great 'Mr. T.' All these pages were promoting Profit Rally and each of them are very well done. Great job!

The HEN Top Ten results are based on traffic statistics (unique hits, traffic flow, hits delivered, traffic quality) and a touch of good old fashioned 'opinion'. The industry changes just like in the real world, so an exchange may not be on the list this week, but will be number 1 next week! Discuss this week's Top 10 list in the Net Marketing Forum!

Enjoy this week's list!

Analysis and Tracking by HitsConnect.com - The Official Link Tracking Service of Hit Exchange News! Sign up today and get your 30% Discount!

Hey Jon, how come I Love Hits, Click Crazey and SWAT Traffic are never on the top 10 list? Since I own them, I feel it would be a conflict of interest to place it on any of my rankings. If you want to see how well they are performing each week, please check TestHoopla top 20 weekly ranking!

Deep Thoughts - Feature Articles

Deep Thoughts by Jon Olson

I'm not sure what else we can do? I use 'we' to describe anyone that has ever discussed the importance of self promotion. Or that has talked about the benefits of using splash pages. Maybe they did some seminars about how to effectively surf and use traffic exchanges. Why am I not sure what else to do? Simple, I surf these things for hours each and every day and guess what I see?

Affiliate pages!

75-85% of every web site I see is a generic affiliate page that some poor soul thinks is going to generate a referral. As blunt as I can be, please, for the sake of your precious time and money, stop promoting these pages. I have been over this so many times, but still 75-85% choose to promote XYZ Affiliate site!

Grab yourself a few graphics by doing a search on Google, set up and design your own splash page. Upload your picture, stick your name everywhere you can, join a forum, but do not promote someone else's business without any benefit to your directly. Your most important asset in this business is your name. Use it to your advantage!

Hey, if you are not good at web design and do not know how to create a splash page, no need to worry. There are dozens of great services online that can help you out. For a small fee of between $15-$30, a professional can design a splash page for you. It could be worth much more to you in the long run and if you could increase your awareness online by spending a minimal amount now, it's a lot easier to brand yourself down the road.

If anything, the message in this is to be pro active, not reactive. Get the ball rolling and get yourself a splash page or two. The biggest problem facing this business is the attitude that traffic exchanges do not work. Why is there an attitude like such? Simple, people promote an affiliate page, put their time and effort into promoting it, and then 3 months down the road have nothing to show for it. If you are promoting yourself as well as an affiliate program, you are doing your business a world of good. PLUS, combined with a splash page, you will be getting real results from your surfing!

I recently created a brand new service called TrafficExchangeGuy.com where I have begun to enroll clients into 'traffic exchange' education and training. It's the first of it's kind consulting service with one goal and one goal only, to get people results in this business. I've been at this for 6 years now, and I am so positive that 2006 will be a huge year for the exchanges. I hope you share the excitement many of us are feeling. Be sure to check out my new site if you have tried this business but have not seen the results you expected.

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Need a unique splash page created for you? Be sure to check out Hit Exchange Survival Kit's Splash Page Design service!

Tony's Thoughts by Tony Tezak

How to Use Your Computer like a Pro

Learning how to use a computer in this day in age is absolutely necessary. Nearly everything you do offline can be done on a computer. You can do much of your banking, paying bills, shopping and purchasing almost anything from automobiles to cleaning products to booking your cruise online.

So, let's cover some more simple, but necessary things. A few words on maintaining your computer.

As I have said before, your Computer is a lot like a car. If you don't maintain your car by changing the oil and oil filter, check your other fluid levels and check the air pressure in your tires, you could end up with problems. It is the same for a computer.

A computer needs to be cleaned too. Periodically, you should clean your caches in your browser, scan disk, and then defrag your computer. These processes will keep your computer clean of clutter and files that are getting out of place on your computer.

First we will discuss 'How to Clean Caches'. We will go through the process for three browsers: Internet Explorer {IE}, Netscape {NS} and finally Mozilla Firefox {MF}.

In IE you need to go to your browser and look at the top and find 'Tools'... click on that then scroll down to 'Internet Options', 'Find Clear History' and click it. Now that was pretty easy!

In NS, you go to 'Edit' at the top of your browser, click on it, then select 'Preferences'....next on the left side find 'History'..click it. You will see two buttons 'Clear History', click it. Then there is the second button 'Clear Location Bar', click it. That's it!

In MF, look at the top and find 'Tools'....click it and scroll down to 'Options', click it. You will find 'Clear Cache Now', click it. That's all you have to do.

Now when someone says 'You need to Clear your Cache' you know what to do.

How to scan Disk - To Scan Disk, go to 'Start' > then to 'Programs' > then to 'Accessories' > then to 'System Tools' > you will see 'Disk Cleanup'. Click on it. The process takes a little while so do not get impatient. This enables you to clear your disk of unnecessary files.

How to Defrag - To 'Start' > then to 'Programs' > then to 'Accessories' > then to 'System Tools' > then click 'Disk Defragmentor' > then click 'Action', and finally click 'Defragment'. Again, this will take awhile so do not get impatient. The more surfing you do, and the more files and downloading you do, especially where there has been a lot of graphic viewing, the more often you should defrag.

Finally let's shut down our computer safely. Do not just turn your computer off. Whenever you are ready to shut down your computer, go to 'Start' and at the very bottom you will see 'Turn Off Computer'...click it....then click 'Turn Off'.

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Tony Tezak is the author of Hit Exchange Secrets and webmaster of Traffic Edge. A traffic exchange enthusiast for years, Tony has become one of the most well known personalities in the business and arguably one of the most successful. If you do not agree with this review or would like to comment on it, please be sure to visit the NMF and have your say!

Program Review - True View Traffic

Arguably one of the most innovative traffic exchanges to be released in quite sometime, True View Traffic has got some decisions to make. The first decision, it could become another 'good idea' and exist in the ever saturated world of traffic exchanges. Or it can rise above the chaos and develop it's concept into a very solid business model. Either way, the members have spoken and they enjoy the concept. That is the hard part.

True View Traffic does something that has not been attempted in this business. The closest model I can come to compare it with is the ClickThru.com Bonus credits which web masters can stick in their web site to get people to 'hunt' for the graphics. Now True View works in a similar fashion but instead of searching for bonus points, you are searching to the answer of a question posed to you by whomever owns the site. You see, without answering the question correctly,you do not earn page views. It could be as simple as 'what's the name of this web site?' or maybe as difficult as 'what is the phone number for the support staff?'. Just some examples of the fun one could have with this model.

A unique concept, however this program is plagued by a very confusing surf bar which takes away from the idea of getting people to look at your site. Improvements are being made but this is still an issue for many users. A brand new design has helped very much and with the right promotions this could be the sleeper hit of year. The question is, how much will this program allow itself to grow?

Uptime: 5.0
Features / Bonuses: 5.0
Site Design: 3.5 out of 5.0
Customer Service: 3.5 out of 5.0
Ease of Use: 1.0 out of 5.0

Overall Rating: 3.5 Mouse Clicks (Rating out of 5.0)

Have a look at True View Traffic!

Things That Make You Go...Hmmm? (A 'Different' Look at the Industry!)

• Don't you just love the web sites that try to load a short movie when you are surfing? They usually tell you to wait 7 seconds before surfing to the next site, meanwhile it takes half a minute for the lousy thing to load? Hmmm....
• My Traffic Vault has a new owner. Hmmm....
• Is it just me, or is there an increasing amount of dirty humor e-mails associated with Christmas this year? Hmmm....

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Comments and Suggestions

That's it for this week folks, thanks again for subscribing to Hit Exchange News. Next week we will continue to bring you useful information and late breaking hit exchange news.

If you want to see anything addressed, looked into or discussed, please let me know. This is your e-zine with content that YOU want to read. I value your input and look forward to talking to each of you! Drop me a line here or visit me in the forums. We're building a professional community in there and we'd love for you to join us!

And finally, if you know of anyone that would like to receive the News, please feel free to let them know about HitExchangeNews.com as I appreciate all the extra promotion I can get *s* !!!

Have a good week everyone and may the CLICK be with you!

Jon G. Olson
Publisher / Editor - HitExchangeNews.com