Issue 252 – How Important Are Surf Timers?
Last week we discussed simplicity and how important it was in traffic exchange advertising. This week, while we do keep the ‘simple’ theme, this is an important topic that we have touched on in the past but since last week, I have been thinking about it a lot.
Traffic exchanges work on a timer. Click an image, a new site loads up and then after a certain amount of time, another image appears to for you to click it and load the next site. Very straight forward. However, in the past week, I have really started to think about how important is the ‘surf timer’.
In past issues of Hit Exchange News, I have argued that 10 seconds is the lowest I would set my surf timers in my programs. The reason? I used to feel that this is a time where the advertiser gets his / her site seen for long enough and the surfer can still surf at a good speed.
But the question now comes up…Do surf timers matter?
Look at some of the best performing traffic exchanges online and you start seeing 6 second timers. Why is that? I have a theory and not a lot of people may agree with it. When these things started, 30 seconds were the norm. Affiliate pages were also the norm. There was no such thing as a splash page back in 2001. As time moved on, traffic exchange advertising embraced the quick loading splash and squeeze page.
Timers started to drop. First it was 20 second timers and now the industry average seems to hover around 10 seconds. Results have soared as more people use the quick loading page, so the length of the timer seems to have not mattered as much as what people promote. It comes down to the ‘simple’ things…A quick loading splash or squeeze page that sticks out like a soar thumb.
However, the poll I started in Net Marketing Forum, clearly shows people are content with a 10 second timer. So I have to now ask Hit Exchange News…
How important are surf timers for you in choosing where to advertise?
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
- Traffic Splash is doing some very big things to celebrate it’s approaching milestone. 50,000 members are right around the block. In fact, they may hit 50,000 members later today. So to celebrate, they are giving away a dollar per new referral and also doing a massive 500 dollar a day surf promotion. It’s a great week to get involved and active at Splash!
- Over 7000 new traffic exchange surfers joined the top 10 exchanges in the Affiliate Funnel ranker. This should get every reader of Hit Exchange News very excited about the HUGE potential they could have by promoting in these programs….*Golden nugget*
- 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 – So who wants 500 bucks? Traffic Splash’s new contest is going to be big and here’s the splash page to prove 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. Dragon Surf
3. Top Tier Traffic
4. StartXChange
5. Traffic Bunnies
6. Royal Surf
7. Traffic Taxis
8. Soaring 4 Traffic
9. Max Traffic Pro
10. Traffic Witch
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 2
Emails! Please stop telling me who won the surfing contest yesterday. I could care less if ‘makelotsofcash’ is the top surfer in your weekly event. If you are going to send me this information, add something else.
Every email I get in my inbox, I would appreciate two things…Something to buy, or some cool new feature at your program. Weekly listings of who won what, bores me. So much so that I can almost guarantee it’s hurting the effectiveness of other owners trying to send emails to their members.
Give us something of substance, or stay out of my inbox. Especially to the owners who come to SWAT and AF seminars and continue to NOT sell to their list. This drives me nuts. I’m sorry folks, but these ‘who won’ what emails are hurting the industry as a whole.
Before I get the whining and complaining about ‘I do not pitch to my traffic exchange’, that’s fine if you dont want to market to your internet marketing mailing list, but at least come up with something new to talk about. Get creative, add a new feature, write and article, do something instead of telling us who won the surf contest last week….
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- LOL I wonder how many hate mails I’m going to get for that blurb above?
- Rockstar Platinum event is taking place in Las Vegas at the end of the month…Free dinner to any traffic exchange surfer or owner that comes. My treat as always =)
- I have finally discovered the first must have tool for traffic exchange advertising. All other tools and services pale in comparison, this is a must have….Coffee!
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Related posts
Tagged with: best traffic exchanges. traffic exchange news • free traffic • how important are surf timers • surf timers • traffic exchange advertising • traffic exchanges
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Interesting thing to talk about. I wish I was in SWAT last night. FYI on my last heatmap test, 77% of my conversions filled out the subscribe form after 30 seconds. It was only advertised on StartXchange which has a 10 second timer. So if you grab their attention, it doesn’t matter (this page had a video).
Hi Jon.
As a surfer I prefer 10 second timers or less. I believe if we are using traffic exchanges correctly then that should be enough on both sides of the court to score a win.
Jimmy Adames
I like the idea (that some sites employ) of receiving a different surf-ratio based upon your timer preference. Fair is fair.
~Rusty
Hi Jon,
I prefer 6 second timers, loads of banners and text links bonuses, hundreds of new and fresh eyeballs and fast moving traffic.
Massive exposure is what matters for me, not a surf timer.
Besides, tracking tells me that 6 second timer works just perfectly!
Cheers!
Andrew Levin
How important are surf timers for me in choosing WHERE to advertise?
It’s not the timer that counts (pardon the pun), when I’m deciding WHERE to put my pages. I have to surf there to get my exposure, but the main surfing concerns are: 1. how easy is the surfing-can I easily recognize the graphics to click on? (and are they easy enough to not strain my eyes), 2. are the security questions unambiguous enough for me to answer without researching?
, 3. are there enough features to offset low surfing ratios so I don’t spend hours just trying to get 100-200 credits for one day. Timers don’t matter if you can’t click on the right image or security question with near 100% accuracy. They work in combination with your credit values to determine how many credits you can rack up in the time that you can afford. So navigation and accuracy comes first, then comes your time/money budget for surfing.
P.S. If a site becomes popular despite my clumsiness with it, I will make an effort to overcome that if that’s where the exposure is.
Hi Jon,
Good post, in the past I agreed with you that 10 seconds might be the lowest we should go, however after some research of my own, its really not about the timer so much as what’s being advertised…the old theory, you have 2-3 seconds to grab attention, and if you do they will stay longer anyway…:)
Ray
P.S. Thanks for the mention this week.
Hi Jon,
I like the six second timers myself. Since most people surf in tabs, they aren’t seeing anyone’s site for the full 10 seconds anyway. People see each person’s site for about a second and it either catches their eye or it doesn’t. (I liked the sticking out like a sore thumb comment. lol.)
As I see it (from the surfers point of view), the only difference the timer makes is in regard to how many other exchanges you need to surf at the same time so you don’t have to wait on any. That would seem to be 3 for 6 second timers, 4-5 for 10 second timers, and 6-7 for 15 second timers. I much prefer the faster timers because I don’t like having to surf so many at once.
Call me crazy, but I would rather surf them one at a time with a 2-3 second timer. That is probably TE blasphemy (lol), but people are only getting their sites viewed for that much time in exchanges now – regardless of the timer speed.
I would actually be able to pay more attention to the pages if I was surfing each exchange one at a time for 2 seconds, then I can currently by surfing in tabs. The continual changing of tabs is too much of a distraction.
It seems to me (again from a surfers point of view), that surfing in tabs is just an extra needless step (necessitated by longer timers) for people to try and do what what they really wanted to do in the first place – view each page as quickly as possible, decide if they are interested and move on.
I don’t know whether or not it would cause too much strain on people’s servers to have 3 second times, but if the trend to shorter times continues, we will all be surfing them one at a time before long anyway. Sounds good to me.
)
Best wishes!
J. Michael Frye
Hey Jon,
I find 10 sec is a happy medium between surfing and advertising. Although many folks use tabbed surfing I just feel that I get some fair eyeball time on my splash page with a 10 sec timer.
Since I buy most of my traffic I would like to see a sliding scale for purchased hits based on the respective TE’s timer.
If I buy 1000 hits for $10 on a 10 sec timer maybe I should only have to pay $7 on a 6 sec. timer. Likewise, perhaps my tracking would convince me to pay $12 on a 15 sec. timer.
And when it gets down to 2 sec …. you can pay me
Thanks for the cool topic.
Cheers,
Paul
Hey Jon,
You got my opinion last night. Timer length does not matter for the effectiveness of the traffic exchange, it is the number of new members and where those members are coming from that matter most. That and the skill of the advertiser.
Consistently, some of my best advertising resources by conversion rate have been in traffic exchanges with lower surf timers. In fact, my best performing ad resource, which is technically a traffic exchange, doesn’t have a timer at all.
Someone mentioned last night that TV ads cost more for longer spots, I think the implication is that they are worth more, which may be true for that medium. Traffic exchanges are a different medium however and they are not like television ad spots in that regard. A good splash page can convey your intent in just a couple of seconds quite similar to a good billboard can do the same as you are diving down the highway.
Just one man’s opinion.
Michael Coursey
As a seasoned “newbie” perhaps I can add something of value. I have quit using many TE’s because the timer has counted down before the page has ever loaded, whether it is a 10 sec or especially 6 sec site. I was earning more credits by clicking on blank screens than by viewing ads. If this is happening with me it must happen with others. Why would I want to advertise there.
I use Firefox with tabbed browsing, the PC that I use to surf has a gig of memory and 128m video. I would expect the pages to load quicker, but they don’t.
My results have been better at sites where the timer is longer, at least at those I am more confident my page is even seen.
Thanks for the post, very helpful.
John
If I am surfing for credits then I want the shortest timer I can get.
If I am advertising I want the longest timer I can get.
In both cases I am fine with a 10 second timer. Even with a 10 second timer sometimes a page is still loading when the 10 seconds are up and I am on DSL. With 6 seconds everyone would have to have a fast loading page or be dead in the water.
Thanks
Bo Tipton
The Ornery Marketer
Dear John,
The use of firefox and other tabbed browsers create the situation that the effective surf timer is actual plus or minus 15 seconds regardless of the program setting.
There is also the response time of the server and load time of the site on a particular script. One example is Hitsafari, the load times very depending on the website. The surf bar timer is 10 seconds but in reality the time it takes from surf to surf can very from 15 to 30 seconds. In fact when I surf it even though I am only surfing 6 sites at a time the surf bar (about 50% of the time) is not ready for user input so I pass it up until next round. This could be the fact that hitsafari is really drawing a lot of surfing these days. I put up with this timer aberation because I get my best results from surfing this traffic exchange. This is not the only exchange that has this timer problem, The host can adjust the CPU % a program gets on a shared sever and this can really slow response time. Some hosts are charging for a single user server even though they have more users on the server due to dual core tech. servers. The idea here is one CPU processor per user. However this is not the same as two servers. In practical application the results very but never quite reach the productivity of separate servers. This is a bit technical but as they use the same bus paths at some point there is a degrade in productivity under full load. What this all means is that if such a set up is used with heavy user programs on the same server the webmaster finds himself in the position of balancing CPU percentage.
Thanks,
warren
Warren –
loved your comments about the actual time it takes to surf a site – that’s the type info that weighs in on my decision process when considering what TEs to surf and advertise. If the timer is sloppy & erratic and I’m having trouble, then others probably are too and won’t be surfing much.
Jon –
glad to see you bring up the subject of timers again. It is true from yours and comments of others, hardly no one views your site for the length of the timer anyway! You’ve got 1-2 seconds to GRAB someone’s attention or they are gone – myself included.
Regarding not having pages load within the span of surf timer, that advertiser is not paying attention! You better be using fast loading pages with ONE attention getter aka ONE message & ONE call to action else you’re wasting your time and credits!
I think TE owners should post contest winnings on a blog – send out news no more than 2 times a week – if you have something to say!. Stop filling my inbox w/so many emails! I can subscribe by RSS feed to your blog & get updated news anytime I want. Let the users decide when to retrieve the news! You post worthy content – the users will come.
Keep up the good work Jon!
Thanks,,,George Culp
Great comments everyone, I love reading them and seeing the different opinions. There are some very good points on both sides of it.
I am a co-owner of EasySurfExchange.
We utilize a 6 second timer.
I am starting this post with that info so it is in the open and I am not called out as being biased.
I believe that the surf timer is a feature of the exchange based platform for one reason and one reason only:
To force enough time to allow a pageload. Nothing more.
Back in the day on old modems and with long ass pages it was 30 seconds, then 20, and now the accepted standard is 10.
The move to 6 is simply the evolution of broadband and the utilization of splash/squeeze pages.
Those advertisers who do not load in 6sec or less need to rethink the medium they are advertising on and the presentation they give. Chances are if they are not utilizing pages that work in 6sec they are getting shitty results anyhow, regardless of the timer at any exchange.
It is on the advertiser to utilize a message that is effective in the medium, not on the service provider to force look time. The provider needs to allow for a reasonable pageload and nothing more. the ad needs to make people stop.
With the introduction of tabbed surfing and the base ADDness of the human species, most people have music, games, email, etc on the go anyhow. … that long timer, if you didnt catch attention … just counts down in the background anyway.
With all that said, there is a problem with going smaller.
Percieved Value
On that front, I think that rather than selling the timer, just ignore it. Don’t mention your timers, sell on other features.
If you do have to sell on the timer, sell the fact that people can get 10 credits a minute, the people looking for the timer stats will eat that up.
Long story short timers do not matter, and as pageloads get faster they will get smaller. Eventually we will have no timers… not autos, you’ll still need to click, but the countdown wont matter.
Mind ya I think that’s a long way off, and goes hand in hand with my dream of instant internet.
Ian Bakewell
http://www.easysurfexchange.com
Do away with timers. It won’t matter. We all have been told to surf 4 or 5 exchanges at 1 time and the majority of us do. By the time you surf your 5 and get back to #1 over 10 seconds have passed unless your not looking at the pages at all.
The only thing that matters to me when I advertise is where do I get the best results. Timers can be 1 second as long as I am getting sign ups. Lately that has been IloveHits, PromoLotto, TrafficPunk, TopTierTraffic, TrafficDynamite and FreeTrafficLotto.
Rich Morris
I agree that timers are only important to ensure that the site is actually loaded.
With such short timers perhaps the time has come to consider adding script that does not count down, but rather it ..
WAITS FOR THE PAGE TO LOAD !!!
Now build me a TCNTE scrpit with that in it and I will be first in the queue to change my scripts.
Or maybe 10th, lol
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