Issue 177

One To Click On by Jon

Welcome to the new issue of Hit Exchange News!

177 issues of Hit Exchange News. Wow, that's 177 weeks (I've missed a few I know) that you have allowed me into your inbox. Thank you very much as I am honored and quite thankful for this opportunity.

I go on these speeches every few months, and I thought it would be another good time to sit back and chuckle over the past 8 years plus of traffic exchange history. It's always funny to me to think how many times these programs get ridiculed, slammed and misunderstood in all areas of internet marketing. Yet, they have survived longer and grown more steadily than any other form of free / low cost advertising on the net.

Hmmm, interesting. The exchanges are still here. After all these years and continue to grow week after week. I mentioned this before but I Love Hits had over 700 people join a few weeks ago in just 7 days. That's amazing! Especially since ILH has been around for so long.

Anyways, this my bi-monthly 'way to go' to every single traffic exchange surfer and owner on the planet. You folks continue to blow away the competition and keep this industry strong. Here's to another 8 plus years of web site traffic bliss!

Thank you very much for being a subscriber and enjoy 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

Program Review -- Soaring 4 Traffic

Things the make you go...Hmmmm

Advertising Options

The News

• My traffic exchange, I Love Hits is sitting on a brand new server today. We upgraded our server this past week and increased the speed of the site. Everything should be transferred over and so far it's been a huge improvement. Special thanks to the guys at GMD Hosting for helping me with the transfer and Simon Kelly for again fixing the 'boo boo's'...
• Steve Sartain of Clicks Matrix announced this week that he has become a 50% partner in Hit Harvester, one of the oldest traffic exchanges on the planet. Time will tell if he can resurrect this program into the industry leader it once was so many years ago.
• A brand new traffic exchange was launched this week that shows a lot of promise. Soaring 4 Traffic is owned by Ray White, one of the most active exchange users in the past year. Ray developed this program with the help of Dan Moses so it should do very well. Very nice layout makes this program stand out from the crowd.
• This Week's Splash Page Hall of Fame Entry is this page! It should cause a bit of an uproar with exchange owners who are not secure with their exchange, but the main thing, is that is could get people talking...Stick out like a soar thumb (S.O.L.A.S.T.)!!!

  
  
  

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

What Is Your Findabilty Factor? by Dan Moses

Today I am going to introduce you to a new term within the Traffic Exchange niche online.

It's called your "Findability Factor".

Findability Factor (FF): How many page views does it take to find some form of advertising for your Program or product while viewing websites through out Traffic Exchanges (TEs)online.

Naturally, the lower the amount of page views the better. And it doesn't have to be just a splash page, or your website. It can be Banners, Text links... someone else endorsing you or your program. Pretty much anything that relates to your program and advertises it in some way.

In other words, if someone were to open up, let's say, 10 of the most popular Traffic Exchanges and started to view other people's websites (surfing), how long would it take them to find something that advertises your program.

Now keep in mind, to test this effectively you will need the help of a friend... because most TE's won't allow you to see your own sites, banners, or text links while you surf other websites.

I just tried it and found DragonSurf in 14 page views, 4x4Hits in 16, and TrafficAtTheRaces in 22.

So, I could say according to 10 TE's DragonSurf has a Findability Factor of 14. Now that's good.

Also, not all TE's are created equal... so for me what I might consider to be a good TE might not be the same as you. A good way to determine, in my book, is how long the program has been online, how many members they have, and how fast their traffic is delivered.

Another way to determine what's a good TE is to test your conversion rates, sign ups or sales... then take the top 10 from that group and find your Findability Factor from them.

Of course you will want a low Findability Factor from the best TE's that produce results. Not to mention I bet the reason why you've been getting such good results from those programs is because of your low Findability Factor.

Now let's dive into the...

7 ways to improve your Findability Factor!

1. Start an affiliate program

If you have thousands of affiliates promoting your program through out the TE's... then you'll definitely have a low Findability Factor.

2. Buy traffic in the TE's

If you're going to have a low Findability Factor then you're going to need your sites seen often and a great way to do this is by buying traffic (credits) in the TE's.

3. Upgrade (which = more traffic) in the TE's

Naturally, if you upgrade in the TE's you will not only get a large amount of credits each month, but your surf ratio will go up and that means the more you surf the higher amount of credits you'll receive.

4. Surf as often as you can.

This really helps. Many TE's will show your sites more if you surf often. In other words, the more active you are... the more traffic you'll receive and the lower your Findability Factor will be.

5. Use the Banners and Text links

This is a great way to lower your Findability Factor because you can get more for your credits by exchanging them for banner and text link impressions. And remember your Findability Factor is based on how often your program is being seen, not how many times they see just your site.

6. Manage your TE accounts every day

Many people slack in this area. You will be surprised how many credits sit in people's accounts that aren't being used up. You need to manage your TE accounts every day and every time you surf. It's simple really, just login and see how many credits you have available... then apply them to your Sites, and trade what's left for banner and text impressions.

7. Build your residual traffic by referring others to TE's

Unfortunately, it seems many of the TE owners have taking away their 4-6 level downlines and are offering less and less in residual percentages from the people you refer to their TE's. This means we get less in the way of residual traffic.

But there's still hope because with so many TE's to choose from... you still can find many of them that will allow you to build large downlines and earn residual traffic.

Having large downlines will lower your Findability Factor quickly because every time you login to your TE's you'll have credits ready to be applied that have been earned from your downline surfing that TE.

In Conclusion:

My good friend Jon Olson just recently coined a phrase TEBA (traffic exchange brand awareness). Which means you have to get your name known and keep it in the minds of the surfers to truly be successful in our TE niche.

Findability Factor is a simple way to gauge this.

I challenge you right now to go and ask a friend to open 10 of their favourite TEs and find out how low or high your FF is. Then ask them again in one week and see if you improved it. Don't forget you can find out where your competition is at and the chances are good you will have a number to beat.

Dan Moses allowed me to place this article in my newsletters and I really wanted to thank him for doing so. Dan is the owner of PageSwirl.com one of the most popular site rotators on the net and a slew of other great traffic exchange related products / services.

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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.

Program Review - Soaring 4 Traffic

This is a brand new traffic exchange that was launched this past week by longer time T.E. enthusiast and user Ray White. Ray has got all the things in place to turn this into one of the better new exchanges to be launched in quite sometime. The site design is good, the game plan is good, there are just a few things that seem to be holding it back.

Traffic flow. New exchanges should be lightning quick when it comes to traffic delivery, but Soaring is quite slow. The reason? Sign up bonuses. The freebies people get when they sign up for this program is dragging traffic delivery quite a bit.

That being said though, the right tools are there. With a steady marketing and advertising plan, this traffic exchange will continue to grow. It's only the first week, but it should impress a lot of folks over the next few months.

Traffic Flow: 3.0 out of 5.0
Features / Bonuses: 3.5 out of 5.0
Site Design: 3.5 out of 5.0
Customer Service: 4.5 out of 5.0
Ease of Use: 4.0 out of 5.0

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

Have a look at Soaring 4 Traffic by clicking the link!

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

• I never know if Smiley is throwing jabs at me or not in his newsletter. No matter when I meet the guy I'm still going to give him a high five! Hmmm....
• Traffic Dodgems is coming...I was told this week that a 'Dodgem' is what I called a bumper car. Hmmm....
• This will make the warm and fuzzies mad...Robert Puddy is about to launch the GOB forum of all GOB forums... 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!

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

Jon G. Olson
Publisher / Editor - HitExchangeNews.com