Issue 142

One To Click On by Jon

Welcome to the new issue of Hit Exchange News!

Ahhh, another week has passed in the wonderful world of traffic exchange advertising! I have been closely monitoring stats in this business for over 4 years now and I can tell you this, there has never been a more active time in the industry.

Surfing is way up, new members are joining everyday and Hit Exchange News subscribers are increasing each week as well (welcome to HEN everyone!). The only difference I have seen is the number of traffic exchanges being released. There is no more copy cat scripts being launched every single day, and the newer programs (like LinkCrews) are completely unique and have huge pre-launch hype surrounding it.

So now all we need is another new exchange from Logiscape (more on them below) and maybe even from....Yours truly? Hmmmm. Any ways, enough of my ramblings...

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

FYI by Pat Marcello

Program Review -- TrafficBloodHound

Things the make you go...Hmmmm

Advertising Options

The News

• Logibucks? Starting September 1st, all cash earned from the popular Logiscape programs (TS25, Hit Pulse, TrafficPods) will be converted into Logibucks, which looks to be essentially Logiscape money. More will be known I'm sure in a few weeks, but this may be the end of 'cash earnings' at Logiscape.
• Hit Sense, an older and at one time very popular traffic exchange is being put up for sale. The owner has said that they are going in a different direction and have not been able to tend to this program in the past year or so. Who will be the next owner?
• Where's Top Surfer? This popular traffic exchange has been offline and online this entire week. There is rumors that the members area has been changed and this is the reason for the problems with the site.
• This Week's Splash Page Hall of Fame Entry is this page! Sure, it's great to see that Robert Puddy can cross his legs, but what this does is get people to log in directly to their AKH account and surf immediately.

  
  
  

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

Does it make you surf more?

I asked a question in Net Marketing Forum this past week and I'm very curious to find out what other traffic exchange surfers think of this tactic some exchanges use.

Have you ever been surfing StartXChange for example, and noticed there are like 40 surfers in the system while you are viewing pages? Did you expect more surfers? Or do you think that is a lot? But more importantly, does it make you surf more or less?

I mean sometimes I see the number of surfers very low, at like 5 or 6. I have my own feelings about this, but what does it do for you and your time in that program? Some people may feel that 35 surfers is too low (I think that's about industry average, even though some owners won't admit it), but I enjoy surfing when I know the number of people in the system.

Please go over to Net Marketing Forum and have your say! Does the number of surfers at any given time, make you surf more or surf less!

------------------
Are you tired of getting little or no results from the traffic exchanges? Learn exactly how to build a successful business using the traffic exchanges directly from Jon Olson! Check out the Traffic Exchange Guy Consulting. Space is extremely limited, only 1 spot left for the month of August.

FYI by Pat Marcello

Bravo Focus 4 the Future

You may or may not belong to a traffic exchange that uses the Focus4theFuture (F4F) site checker, but if you do, you may have been frustrated when trying to get the site approved when sites first started using it. I know of one person who tried 10 sites and couldn't get them through at first, but that's an isolated case. As the glitches are worked away, I still say that the benefits of the site checker far outweigh the frustration.

Actually, I see the site checker as a very GREAT thing. Don't you tire of running your adware/spyware protection program? I know I do, I just found 163 ugly things today alone. (I hadn't run it in awhile. My bad.) And I don't know about your system but mine takes hours to run a full scan. Then, it's running in the background and pffft!!! Forget working with graphics. I was thinking it was finally time to open up the old case and install as much RAM as I could afford.

But maybe I won't have to. I really hate untangling all the wires and labeling them so that I can put them back where they belong. Feh! Who needs that?

That's where the Focus4 folks (Richard Taylor and Robert Puddy) come in. The F4F site checker keeps out adware, spyware, viruses, and my most aggravating kind of site--the dreaded framebreaker! Grr. These horrid sites just waste my time, and I often wondered how people can be so rude. Now, I know it's because they obviously didn't check all the sites in their rotators and only the first pages passed.

F4F isn't against rotators, but allows only a few--those that check the pages as they're added to the rotator. Most of these are free to use. It was a bane to me, as I have a server-side rotator program that I paid for, but oh well… I use that for non-Focus sites. It's no big deal, really. Everyone has PageSwirl (if you don't, you should), and it's allowed plus a few others.

But in my very humble opinion, I'm a happier camper because of the F4F site checker. There's nothing like smooooooth surfing. Is there? I'm seriously considering ONLY surfing F4F sites. But I know the program is new. A few bugs may still need working out, so some will disagree, but whoa...

I think you guys rock!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pat Marcello has built some great relationships with her downlines and tries to communicate with each group at least once a month. See the programs she supports at OVMarketing!

Program Review - Traffic BloodHound

So with all the hype surrounding LinkCrews, newer exchanges may get lost in the shuffle. I was surfing a program and saw a jaw-dropping splash page for a new exchange called Traffic BloodHound. I decided to give it a whirl because I have not seen many new programs launched these past few months.

Good news, bad news. Bad news first, they offer sign up bonuses of 50 credits. Which translates into very slow traffic delivery. This script that it is on, can deliver traffic at a great pace but with the bonuses traffic delivery is slow. This problem hopefully will be fixed soon.

Now for the good news. I love these PHP Lite scripts. They are one of the better scripts I have used online and are underused in my opinion. Want proof that these scripts are amazing, check out Funny Farm traffic.

But back to Traffic BloodHound, the site design is fun, the splash pages are amazing and the script is very easy to use. Given some BIG promotions and getting rid of the sign up bonuses, this program can be a hidden gem in the rough.

Uptime: 4.0
Features / Bonuses: 3.5
Site Design: 3.5 out of 5.0
Customer Service: 3.5 out of 5.0
Ease of Use: 3.5 out of 5.0

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

Have a look at Traffic BloodHound by clicking the link!

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

• Were you ever a member of MPAM? Do you remember this??? Hmmm....
• Check your URLs in TS25, mine were all removed overnight. Hmmm....
• Pet Peeve of the Week - Traffic exchange owners who do not respond to customer service requests. Hmmm....

Advertise with Hit Exchange News

Affordable Advertising, Targeted and Very Effective!

Why should you advertise in Hit Exchange News?

We offer highly effective ad space for a fraction of what other e-zine's charge. Hit Exchange News is a 100% unique content e-zine (no recycled information here folks!) With dozens of new subscribers each week, H.E.N. has one of the most dedicated and loyal subscriber lists online.

Ad Space is sold extremely quick and for ONLY $49.97, it's the best bang for your online advertising buck!

We also offer banner ads for only $9.97 that deliver unlimited impressions each month. This is not average e-zine advertising, because this is not an average e-zine! See what Hit Exchange News can do for you!

Click Here for more information!

And don't forget, H.E.N. Super Packs are the ultimate in online advertising! Check them out and save BIG!

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