Issue 250 – Yes, That’s 250 Issues Of Hit Exchange News!
Author: Jon OlsonEvery time Hit Exchange News hits a milestone, I always tend to reflect on how much fun it’s been writing this newsletter since 2003. Heck, it cannot even be called an ‘e-zine’ or newsletter anymore, since it’s morphed into a blog format last year…
I started this ‘blog’ because back in 2003, no one else was writing about traffic exchanges. Sure they were mentioned here and there, but there was no weekly update on the state of the industry as a whole. Seemed like a logical step, write about these cool programs, review them and let the world know how powerful they can be.
Since then, it has seen the industry go through a lot of growing pains. It’s seen the horror stories that were the auto investment scams. It saw the constant battle it takes to educate the masses on this form of advertising. It’s seen hundreds of traffic exchanges come and even more go.
Something else it’s seen. It’s seen the glory. It’s seen the dozens of amazing owners start massive businesses. It’s seen the incredible growth of individual traffic exchanges and the industry as a whole. And it’s also seen the amazing relationships these programs have formed throughout the years from the people surfing, owning and discussing them.
Are traffic exchanges right for you? I think they are, especially if you have been reading Hit Exchange News for some time. They are for the dreamer, the entrepreneur, the person looking to further their business each and every day. They are for you!
So here it is, issue 250. Almost six years in the making and the future is as bright as it ever was. Let’s hope for another 250 and even more glorious moments in the traffic exchange industry!
Thank you very much for being a reader of Hit Exchange News and have a wonderful week!
Jon Olson
The Traffic Exchange Guy
————–
————–
The News
- The BIG news today is the launch of Ewan Chia’s How I Made My First Million On The Internet. What’s so cool about this launch is that when you purchase the book today at noon, you also get a $1894.00 step by step ‘6 Module System’ on how to profit big time from the internet marketing game. This is one of the must read books of 2009 so be sure to get yourself a copy today at noon and secure your bonus system too. (Be sure to watch for an update later today as well to notify you when you can claim your bonuses….)
- e Traffic Freedom celebrated it’s second anniversary this past week and congratulations goes out to one of the best guys in this business. John Marks is having some BIG promotions this week as well to help celebrate, be sure to check them out!
- Traffic Era hit 40,000 members this past week. Now that is an amazing statistic to be sure, but imagine if they JV’s here and there, I bet they could double that total in the next year or so.
- Be sure vote today for your favorite traffic exchanges at Affiliate Funnel’s Surfer’s Choice ranker. This has quickly become the most popular ranking service on the net as the surfer’s are finally getting their say. Combined with the stats to back it up and our exclusive ‘new members joining’ statistic, you can see which exchanges are showing and proving, each and every week!
- Splash Page Hall of Fame – This splash page is EXACTLY what you want when you are looking to stick out from the crowd! Note: Why do I focus on splash pages every week? Simple, you MUST be using them in the traffic exchanges to get results. Get a custom made splash page by clicking here!
———
The Famous Hit Exchange News Top 10 (Disclaimer: These are my top performing exchanges for the past week. Alexa rankings and fancy numbers have nothing to do with how I rank my list. This is based on my results and my opinion, nothing more, nothing less.)
1. StartXChange
2. Traffic Bunnies
3. Top Tier Traffic
4. Traffic Splash
5. Dragon Surf
6. Royal Surf
7. Traffic Witch
8. Max Traffic Pro
9. Hit Pirate
10. Traffic Taxis
Note: Analysis and Tracking by Hits Connect – The Official Link Tracking Service of Hit Exchange News! Sign up today and get your 30% Discount!
Question: Hey Jon, how come I Love Hits, SWAT Traffic and Click Crazey 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. (But we all know how great they are anyways lol)
———–
———–
Deep Thoughts – Jon’s Weekly Rambling
I Love The Nay Sayers!
I started this week’s update with a little history about Hit Exchange News. Something that I have held onto for so many years (and I’m sure I need to let it go one day but not today) is that so many people involved in these traffic exchanges, told me YEARS ago how they would go away, how they would fail, how they didn’t have staying power…The list goes on.
Well, 10 years later, I can honestly say that other than safelists, no other form of online advertising has stood the test of time longer than traffic exchanges. Want some extra proof about how important these programs have become? Check out the two interviews taking place today across the internet.
First we have Tracy Repchuck, interviewing Cindy Battye of Traffic Bunnies. The interview is about woman in online business and how she manages running a successful traffic exchange, her other online endeavors and still has time for her family. Want to check it out? Be sure to check out the interview later today.
And the second interview is 100% traffic exchange content as Robert Puddy is interviewed by Liz Tomey. Robert is going to get asked all about traffic exchanges and how effective they can be when used properly.
Both of these events should have wonderful turn outs, increase the exposure of traffic exchanges, and above all else, once again show the internet that traffic exchanges are here to stay.
So to all the nay sayers, you can continue to stick your nose up at the movers and shakers of this industry, or you can come along for the ride because it’s been a blast so far!!!
————
Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- Last night’s SWAT Traffic seminar was….Just wow!
- Top Tier Traffic hit 12,000 members already. Only a month and a bit into it’s launch.
- Jon Olson’s Twitter news: I change my account name to help my ‘brand’, be sure to check out my new user name by clicking here!
———-
———-
Congratulations on edition number 250 Jon. I really enjoy reading HEN each week, and you contribute so much to the TE industry.
Here’s to the next 250!
Rob
Well done Jon, love HEN and all the information you provide. Keep up the great work.
Jon, it’s 6am EST and I am half way through my mail for the day. The Hen was one of my fav readings per usual but this week more than most.
While my ezine history producing goes back to about the same time as yours, that too has changed to relationship blogging.
Your most important point is the life span of Traffic Exchanges and the fact that even today, way too many users have still not learned you MUST use splash and squeeze pages to make them work exponentially for your promotions.
One day, it will happen as most things do progress with education and we will wonder what all the fuss was about.
Congratulations on your 250th issue and keep them coming.
Wow! 250 Issues and always bringing and still bringing new informations. Congratulations Jon!
Others may come and go, but Jon has been around so long because he provides an outstanding product wrapped in awesome customer service. I have been a reader of HEN for years and even advertised here years ago, so I know what kind of service you get!
Way to go Jon – I look forward to another 250 issues.
Congratulations Jon on 250 may you have many more!
Jimmy Adames
WTG Jon, Congrats on 250!
HEN is an excellent resource for TE users both new and old. It is one of the very few things that I make time for every week.
Thanks for the effort you put into this, and keep up the good work!
Congrats Jon but just a few facts for the history books. At the time HEN was started there was another weekly Traffic Exchange Newsletter alled LinksrusWeekly Traffic Generation News and it started in Sept 1999 on a bigstep.linksrus.com address and moved over to my Linksrus domain April 2002. Proof is the Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/
20020524151902/http://www.linksrus.net/
Here it is in Jan 2004 where it had won a few awards: http://web.archive.org/web/
20040130011338/http://linksrus.net/
Feb 1st 2006 was the last weekly issue after a 7 run. At the end there were 36,763 subscribers. It also ran in the top 20 traffic exchanges every week. So the statement:
“No one else was writing about traffic exchanges. Sure they were mentioned here and there, but there was no weekly update on the state of the industry as a whole.”
is just not true. The GOB network refuses to honor my important contribution to the Traffic Exchange Industry. I think it’s important to note the real history of Traffic Exchanges no matter who it was that contributed to it. You can’t dispute the Internet Archive records. I’m not trying to steal your thunder Jon just making a correction to the Traffic Exchange History because it’s important and because everyone’s contribution in the early years led to the current and past performance and promotion of Traffic Exchanges!
The other fact that should be raised is that the very first Traffic Exchange launched in 1994. Not 1999 when Jon joined his first exchange. The first traffic exchange was called Hitsnapper and it launched in 1994 at this address:
http://www.pavilion.co.uk/mwalker/hitsnapper
By the end of 2002 hitsnapper.com had 100,000 accounts and was extremely busy. It was owned by Martyn Walker the inventor of Traffic Exchanges. At it’s peak it made $10,000 per month and needed very little attention. Martyn did have plans for HitSnapper but he kept being asked to write and modify similar scripts for other businesses which is where the idea for WalkerSoftware began as the first commercial in 2002.
Six weeks later the second traffic exchange started also in 1994 and was known as Nomoreclicking.com and owned by Joep Boekers. Mr. Boekers died suddenly in a tragic automobile crash at a young age and Nomorehits just disappeared in the early 2000’s even after several people including myself tried to contact the family to buy the rights for Nomoreclicking but Joep kept Nomorehits a secret and no one in his family knew anything about it and his passwords for his administrative area died with him. Too bad it had well over 100,000 members and was a very active #1 exchange for a very long time with Hitsnapper being it’s only real competition until the slew of traffic exchanges started opening in 1998 and beyond.
Soon you will be able to read the entire factual history of Traffic Exchanges and it’s related programs and services in a book being written by Rich Morris called Traffic Exchanges Past Present and Future which should be in Amazon and all bookstores this Summer (2009). You will be able to read about some of the past controversial traffic exchanges that didn’t last long like ClickityCash and you will be surprised about who the original owners were of many top exchanges today.
Rich Morris
Traffic Exchange Historian
Hey Jon
Thanks for the mention about Tracy’s interview! I was just soooo happy that so many of your blog readers dropped in too! You guys rule!
If anyone missed the interview and wants to download it – here is the link for ya!
=> http://tinyurl.com/daa8jx
Thanks again!
Rich – there’s a difference. What you did was so off the radar, no one knew about it. I was involved in this business since day one, and never knew you did anything except cause trouble in forums. That’s your legacy man, sorry to say. If you were writing newsletters, I did not know.
As for your ‘history’ lesson, thanks for ‘trying’ to steal my thunder bro, but your about a decade too late for that. My business is already here and working on it daily.
Jon,
Not so. I may have been off your radar then as you were mine. I never heard of HEN until around the 50th issue. You were so into Profit Rally and SFI you didn’t know about half the resources for Traffic Exchanges. Your mentor was Vernon Smiley at ClickityCash and mine was Doug Williams. I’ve been a Lifetime member in Money Legs for years. The big difference between Profit Rally and Money Legs is that Money Legs is still around and it has always paid it’s members.
I had over 38,000 opt in subscribers for my newsletter. I was not off everyone’s radar just the Profit Rally radar I guess as I was a member there as well.
You have not been here since day 1. You started in the late 90’s after traffic exchanges were already established. Say what you want but you never knew that Walker & Boekers were the creators of the Modern Day Traffic Exchange. You didn’t know that Hover Surf has been around since 1996. You missed the most important part of Traffic Exchanges early years. I heard the name Jon Olson the same time you heard of Wes Morris which is what I use to go by at the same time I did at Clickity Cash Forums where the knowledge and a large amount of my readers of my newsletter came from.
No I am far from being known as causing trouble in the forums. I never caused half the amount of trouble that Pat Lovell, Vern Smiley and Steve Sartain caused and are still causing.
1 – Never been a member of SFI bro, nice try.
2 – My mentor was Vern? He used to gift me ‘program’ credits at Webmaster Quest dude. One of those programs I joined from his link to get Webmaster Quest credits was Clickity Cash LOL Wow, you sure know your history.
3 – Where is all this Profit Rally stuff coming from? I was in MPAM since 2001. Thats where I got my start, not Profit Rally.
4 – As for you disrespecting my friend Pat, hey I hope that makes you feel better bringing him, Vern and Steve into a debate that has nothing to do with them. You cause trouble man, I booted you from my forum, WBS kicked you out and you are constantly warned at TMF. History doesn’t lie…
http://web.archive.org/web/20010929042126/http://the-list.cjb.net/