Issue 270 – How To Properly Mess Up An eMail Promotion…
A few days ago I decided to send a mini-promotion to my list at Affiliate Funnel. I was pretty happy with the copy too. I thought I did a good job at crafting the email and it was one of my better promotions…
At least I thought.
I may have been doing this ‘marketing’ stuff for a decade but I’m kind of new when it comes to Clickbank. So I put the wrong ‘hop link’ in my emails when I was promoting Magic List Bot. Of course, my good friend Soren Jordansen pointed it out to me…A few hours after…And got a good laugh at my expense. Heck, I even laughed at myself when I had realized what I had done.
You know what though? There is a lesson that I learned. And that is double check your emails. Never mind the fact I was a bit slow when it came to Clickbank links and all, but if I would have re-read my email a few more times, I would have spotted the error. Instead, a proof read is all I did and well…Let’s just say Magic List Bot might have a few more sales this morning, without an affiliate, thanks to yours truly.
Folks, this is a prime example of why you NEVER let Jon Olson get a hold of any technical on your web site, promotions, or servers. I will mess it up…Sadly, I will mess it up!
(But if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at…)
Lesson learned.
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
- Elite Surf Club launched this past week as a joint venture between Royal Surf, Blue Surf and Traffic Witch. Think of it as Traffic Era teams meets Super Surf meets Reward surfing. It’s a cool little joint venture where surfers can earn big bonuses and cash, just by surfing. Personally, I love it when owners get together and build each others business. Good things happen when you get together with your peers.
- Easy Hits 4 U is now offering commissions! They already paid out a few cents for referring new members, but this is a new service they have for their splash page builder. Sell an upgrade at their splash page builder, get some cash.
- Pro Click Exchange got a HUGE make over this past week. Ray White of Soaring 4 Traffic is the owner of this older program that was once a ‘pro-only’ model. It’s been tore down and rebuilt and it looks GREAT. Should do well considering who the owner is, Ray knows his stuff!
- Notice: Cast your vote today for your favorite traffic exchanges at Affiliate Funnel’s Surfer’s Choice ranker. This is YOUR voice and YOUR opinion on what traffic exchanges you feel are the best in the business. Be sure to vote every day and get your opinion heard!
- Splash Page Hall of Fame – Remember that whole ‘T.E. specific’ splash page thing I talk about every now and then? Here’s EXACTLY what I’m talking about! 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. StartXChange
3. Max Traffic Pro
4. Traffic Witch
5. Traffic Taxis
6. Tezak Traffic Power
7. Dragon Surf
8. Farm Traffic
9. Traffic Swarm
10. Soaring 4 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 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. (But we all know how great they are anyways lol)
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Deep Thoughts – Jon’s Weekly Rambling
A Free T.E. Script And Why I Think It’s A Horrible Idea…
The cream will always rise! A lot of us have been saying this for years. No matter what script a traffic exchange is put on, no matter how much a new owner pays for the script, the cream will always rise. The best traffic exchanges continue to grow and the bad ones well….The bad ones just seem to collect virtual dust.
I have maintained for years that the owner is what makes or breaks a traffic exchange. Good ownership, means a good solid program. However there was a thread on Net Marketing Forum this week that got a lot of people scratching their heads on why someone would even consider launching a new script that costs…Zero.
I’m all for the ‘freemium’ model, heck I’ve built businesses on that same model, however this isn’t about the ‘free traffic exchange script’, it’s more about the mentality of what this brings. You see, people still think you can throw a commercial script online, press ‘surf’ and you are in business for yourself.
There is no structure, no training, no marketing plan, no end goal in sight, just a script….
Imagine the new T.E. owner, realizing that to compete in this industry they are going to need to spend thousands of dollars on custom mods, custom graphics and custom features. Explain that to someone who has just spent a big fat 0 on the script and you get another bad exchange collecting virtual dust.
Stephen Carr (a regular at Net Marketing Forum) said it best…You need about $10,000 to do this properly these days. Not only that, you need the NETWORK of people to help you build the exchange. This is getting more and more competitive and YES there is still some great programs being released but I guarantee you, they never went on a free script and they have spent thousands to build it…
Some people may think this is another ‘big guy stopping the little guy’ article, and if you want to think that, I can’t change it. What this really is about is reality, and to compete with powerhouse traffic exchanges, you need a powerhouse strategy and the budget to make it happen.
Quick nugget before I sign off…Thousands of surfers come online and into the traffic exchanges each and every week, this is a HUGE market for people looking for tools, services and techniques for getting the most of their advertising. Cater to that market, find out what they want and provide it for them. The world doesn’t need 500 new traffic exchanges, but it sure could use new traffic exchange related services…
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- Now that Elite Surf Club is out, wonder how long it will now take Royal Surf to pay out commissions?
- Logiscape is releasing Hit Silo, first time I saw it, I thought it was Click Silo being reborn…
- Issue 270….Geez I’ve been doing this stuff for a long time.
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Related posts
Tagged with: affiliate funnel • click bank • email promotion • magic list bot • traffic exchange news • traffic exchanges
Filed under: Uncategorized
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Hey Jon,
Thanks for the mention, even if it was in your thing that make you go hmmm.
But I thought you might have been a little more excited. After all, you recently said something to the effect that if Logiscape ever offered commissions, your life would be complete.
Oh, well. Always enjoy your ramblings, and as for the free TE script thing … I agree that this would be about the dumbest thing to do. But, I won’t go into detail since I just posted my little rant on your forum.
Tyler – Ya, thought you guys would put it onto your current programs. But what’s funny, I honestly thought you had purchased the ‘Clicksilo’ domain for a second. I was pretty excited just cause ClickSilo was one of my all time favorite.
Then realized it was ‘Hit Silo’ LOL
Hi Jon,
Thanks, much appreciation for the mention of Pro Click Exchange, took a long time to decide which direction to take it and another massive amount of hours to get it to where it is now.
Kudo’s to the programmer, the guy can literally do anything I can throw at him.
Still have more planned, much of it ready to go now, but we really wanted to wait before bringing it out.
Oh, by the way, I know a surf club where all the owners pay commissions really quick..its called Power Surf Central..
Thanks again Jon,
Ray
Well, we actually looked at putting a commission structure into our existing programs, but there are a lot of issues with introducing commissions so late in their life (3 of our 4 exchanges are about 5 years old or older). Plus with the integrated logibucks and everything that goes with it, it was just too complex.
So, it is hitsilo to the rescue! … at least for all the commission junkies out there
Guess you won’t spill much, but is it a new TE with commissions?
Ray – Ahhh ya, looks great man. Very very cool new look.
Free TE script, would just be bad. With walker dropping their prices to $69, i think, for a script, IMO, there has been a large number of people buying these scripts, and expecting people in the forums to do it all for them. Yep, I was one of those idiots that got a TE before knowing the truth about running it, but well, now things are picking up. My hope is that if a TE script is released for zero dollars, it won’t impact the TE industry negatively in the eyes of the surfer.
Click Silo, That brings back memories. Alas it was one of my favorites also.
Walker dropping their prices just brings the inexperienced traffic exchange owner out of the woodwork with no idea what it takes to run a successful traffic exchange. If a owner cannot commit to spending a decent amount advertising their exchange they are never going to amount to anything anyway. There are already hundreds of useless Walker exchanges with less then 100 members that don’t make enough to pay their hosting.
Those exchanges won’t hurt the experienced owner that understands what it takes to run a successful traffic exchange. Walker already sold over 500 copies of their script and out of that there are only about 15 really good Walker exchanges from owners that get it.
This is not a hobby it is a business run by professional business owners. Many people do this for a living and the ones that don’t shouldn’t have a traffic exchange.
I hope to launch my new exchange next month. I looked at many scripts but none of them had exactly what I wanted so I took the best of each exchange and will launch on a custom one of a kind script with one of the best designs seen in awhile. I used my extensive experience owning 5 exchanges in the past to develop a very useful exchange that the beta testers using my exchange so far have really enjoyed!
I agree 100% with Mr. Olson. It’s the owner that makes a good traffic exchange not the script but I still wanted a script that had the most requested features my members have asked for over the years. I think many people will be surprised and happy with my newest exchange. It has the custom mods, the custom design, the social networking interface and commissions.
Good issue Jon, that’s why your one of the best owners in this business. You tell it like it is!
It’s not a job Rich, it’s an adventure =)
You’re right Jon, I won’t spill the beans just yet. But yes, it is a TE, and yes it will have commissions.
The only thing I will say is that it goes against what most people have come to expect from Logiscape … in other words, we have done our best to strip bells and whistles rather than add them (but of course it still has that special “something” that makes all our exchanges unique).