Issue 251 – How Not To Run A Traffic Exchange…
Simple works!
Something that always seems to good in this business is simple solutions for traffic exchange advertising. For example, some of the splash pages I have created or gotten designed for my business have always been extremely simple, to the point advertising messages. I try to translate this into all my businesses and even this newsletter.
I’ll be honest. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed and get confused very easily when it comes to this online marketing stuff. So the tools and businesses I seem to get attracted to are straight and to the point. There is a message in this little rant slash article too…Keep it simple!
Traffic exchanges are as basic as it gets. I mean it’s as simple as looking at my site, I look at yours. And that is one of the reasons I feel they have exploded and stood the test of time. So how can you capitalize from this?
In everything you do, try to make it as simple as possible. For squeeze and splash pages, make them clean, easy to follow and even easier to act upon. For any business you set up, do not add too much ‘stuff’, keep the layout and members area very easy to navigate. Setting up a blog? Same thing, sure it’s neat to stick stuff everywhere, but you should still always keep the layout simple and easy to read.
Remember, simple works in this business…Have you simplified your online advertising?
Thank you very much for being a reader of Hit Exchange News and have a wonderful week!
Jon Olson
The Traffic Exchange Guy
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The News
- This week we have lots of milestones and first up, I wanted to congratulate Mr. Guido Nussbaum from Traffic Witch. He just announced that TW hit 10,000 members already. This is wonderful news and another reason why Traffic Witch was one of the best new traffic exchanges launched last year. Well done sir, great stuff!
- Hit 2 Hit reached 40,000 members today as well. What a wonderful achievement and I wanted to congratulate them on a job well done. I do still maintain that if this site had a complete re-design, it would be even bigger than it is now. Still, 40,000 members makes this a ‘must advertise in’ traffic exchange. Congrats!
- I’m getting new IPN work done on I Love Hits this week. And just to let everyone know, you may want to log in within the next 24-48 hours to check out some of the offers at ILH. I messed up the IPN and nothing has been shown to new members since the updates, so you never know what you may find when you log in….Stay tuned!
- 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 – 20 million page views anyone? StartXchange is bragging and we LOVE it! 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!
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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. Traffic Splash
2. Royal Surf
3. Dragon Surf
4. StartXChange
5. Traffic Witch
6. Traffic Bunnies
7. Traffic Taxis
8. Hit Pirate
9. Max Traffic Pro
10. Top Tier Traffic
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)
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Deep Thoughts – Jon’s Weekly Rambling
How Not To Run A Traffic Exchange Part 1
There’s a little rant going on in NMF today and it got me looking at different traffic exchanges around the net. The misconception around the net is that you can buy a script, stick in on a shared server, click for a few hours and then be in business for yourself.
I’m not going to get into how wrong this thinking is, I mean the proof is in the pudding, look at all the failures we have gone through in the industry. But here’s a tip, one small thing a lot of owners can do when they are starting out.
Stop saying you have 1 or 2 people surfing right now, and if you have less than 1000 members….Do NOT give out membership numbers. Nothing turns people away from seeing you have been online for 2 years and have 500 members. Trust me on this. It’s a clear sign that you are not following the oodles of free advice around the net about how to properly run a traffic exchange.
For whatever reason, people still keep letting the world know that 116 people have joined their traffic exchange since 2006. Keep those numbers to yourself, when you hit let’s say 1000 or 2000 members, then let the world know. This will attract new members and shows growth in your program.
What can you put in place of ‘numbers’? How about links to your customer service? Let your prospective members know you are dedicated to helping them in their advertising. I guarantee that is much more effective then telling people you have 35 members in your traffic exchange!
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- According to Mr. Morris, HEN was not the first weekly traffic exchange newsletter.
- Have you been attending the free Affiliate Funnel seminars? Hundreds of people are coming every week, be sure to attend one and you’ll get hooked =)
- Rants, Raves and everything in between, have you checked out Net Marketing Forum lately?
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Related posts
Tagged with: best traffic exchanges • free traffic exchanges • new traffic exchanges • traffic exchange management • traffic exchange news • traffic exchange reviews
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Thank you Jon
I really appreciate it 
Thank you members of Hit2Hit for being a member. I am so grateful you are.
Thanks again Jon
Hi All, yes keeping your splash pages simple works. I’ve just been rotating a simple page about the free upgrade you get with Intellibanners and have had over 700 ppl sign up in 2 months with enough upgrades to pay for half the TE’s I use. Even if I am only half as successful for the rest of the year then I will easily cover my TE upgrade costs. It really is that SIMPLE. SIMPLY TE’s work when you use them properly
Hi
I agree with you about splash pages and Hit2Hit.
Keep It Simple – and although Hit2Hit could do with a revamp I think that’s just what they’re doing.
Either way it’s a great Site!
Clutter Confuses.
Thanks Jon.
Cheers
Jo-Ann
Blue-Surf passed 10,000 members this week, too!
The traffic exchange industry is absolutely huge and as of late the competition is getting so stiff!
This is good for owners and surfers alike!
Happy Thursday Jon and loyal HEN readers!
Personally, I love some of the bells and whistles that makes certain pages pop but I believe simple is best when you want to get your point across especially on a splash page.
Of course, it all comes down to testing what is working and what’s not and then taking it from there:-)
Jimmy Adames
Yeah, I’ve always found it odd and amusing when a TE has a notice that “1 Member is surfing right now”. That’s me, I’m the 1 person. Which makes me realize – If no one else is here why am I?
See that sucks. I should have known that Scott. Not sure why I didn’t my fault.
Hi Jon,
Great stuff this week. Nice to recognize that HEN wasn’t the first weekly traffic exchange newsletter but of course The Internet Archives do not lie. It shouldn’t be according to Rich Morris it should have been according to the Internet Archive Wayback machine. There is a big difference between someone claiming something and a reliable resource proving it. However to be fair HEN is the largest and longest running Traffic Exchange Newsletter and one of the oldest.
Great seeing Michael Kelly’s Royal Surf in the second place of Hen’s Top 10. Another example of a traffic exchange started by someone else and the new owner out doing the first owner. Good Job Michael.
Rich, if your ‘newsletter’ was weekly, where are all your archives, you mailing list to join to get on it, your content, not just a list of TEs? You may have written about traffic exchanges, I did too, on a site called ‘The List’ (here’s the link from 2001, a full year before yours started to mention TEs…. http://web.archive.org/web/20010929042126/http://the-list.cjb.net/ ), I even reviewed Urgle on it. But it wasn’t a weekly newsletter. Ahhh well, like you said the Way Back Machine doesn’t lie….
Well, I think HEN is the only TE newsletter worth following. I’ve always said you do a very professional job with it.
Thanks!
Tracker Mo
Oh Rich makes a good point there. I’d completely forgotten that Michael wasn’t the original owner of Royal Surf because it was (just) before my time in TE’s that Michael took it on.
I joined as member 336 when Michael relaunched. Not sure who the original owner was (have a feeling it’s one of two people who are both famous owning several small TE’s) but they certainly didn’t do a lot with it and Michael has defintely, most definitely, done a fabtastic job ever since!
btw, if the original owner reads this and takes that as an insult – well it certainly isn’t meant that way. I have no idea of the circumstances at the time so I’m not passing judgement. Not my style.
And yes Mo, even better point very well made.
Still arguing about who had the first TE list hmmm …
Well, I never made one, as I was busy making lists of sites that paid in 2000. Sites that gave away free shares, that paid for emails, or to view.
Here was one of my get paid to surf pages from 21 October 2000 …
http://web.archive.org/web/20010119092900/www.megastoreonline.com/surfing/index.html
Here is a lookback at the get paid for emails list:
http://web.archive.org/web/20001020211633/www.megastoreonline.com/email/index.shtml
Here is one for companies giving away free shares :
http://web.archive.org/web/20001020222422/www.megastoreonline.com/free/index.html
And here is a page that featured websites adding cash to your account :
http://web.archive.org/web/20001001050546/http://www.megastoreonline.com/megabucks/index.html
What I find truly amazing is that nearly all these sites are no longer online.
We also had our own submitter :-
http://web.archive.org/web/20010309211030/www.megastoreonline.com/submit-www/submit.html
You will find many of the internal frames pages are not available , due to our SE robots controlling visitors for SE optimisation at the time (250,000 new visitors per month – $0 spent on advertising – no spam emails ever sent – not bad ) :-
Here’s a nice frames page we used :
http://web.archive.org/web/20001001034357/http://www.megastoreonline.com/index.html
We even had a top one with a back and a forward button, plus open site. Just no timer or credits awarded. Ah well, close – but no prizes for that. We also had a bottom frame with bonus options on it.
You may notice on the top of some of the pages that you can alter page background color to suit.
Ah, those were the days, I would find new surf sites as they were being built, as soon as the first few pages came online. refmaker, maxref and other member sites put paid to this type of fun.
After they got big we could all find and even add them, then we all ended up with 1000s of memberships and a computer full of banners that wouldn’t load.
Thats when I gave up, it simply wasn’t fun anymore.
Finding TE’s put the fun back into it for me, wonder how long it will last this time.
Steve
Sorry there are no gaphics or background pictures, I guess they were never saved by the look back machine.
The thing is, I was building a new site, then after spending 18 months building my new site Megastore.org.uk, with over 500,000 pages and 10,000 websites lined up, I collapsed from exhaustion and didn’t switch my computer on again for 3 years.
It is simply amazing that 6 months after doing so ,I owned sites with 100,000s of members, a CFD site, a payment processor with subscriptions, a contextual advertising website, plus 125 odd other websites.
Amazing.
I almost forgot the survey one :-
http://web.archive.org/web/20010224094559/http://www.megastoreonline.com/surveys/index.shtml
and of course the directory . It had all of Clckbank on one page !!!
Iit was very good for that time and made a lot of money – the fast links to each area still work even on the web archive …
http://web.archive.org/web/20010121140100/www.megastoreonline.com/directory/index.html
Exploit every article you compose by embedding a attractive opt-in form in your signature box. Incorporate a high perceived value bribe and start creating a large subsciber lists to market to on an ongoing basis.
Great seeing Michael Kelly’s Royal Surf in the second place of Hen’s Top 10.
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