Issue 303 – New To Traffic Exchanges? Here’s Your First Checklist…
I started in this business in the late 90′s. Back then, we didn’t know what we were doing. All we knew is that to promote our pages, we needed to click. And click we did. Sometimes I found myself spending the majority of my day in front of the computer but it was all worth it because back then, results came at you from every angle.
Time has changed but something that hasn’t in the decade plus that traffic exchanges have been around is the growing number of surfers. You see, any given week can introduce a few thousand new people to the world of traffic exchanges and a recurring question that comes up from new surfers is where do they begin…
Here’s a quick little checklist I highly recommend every new traffic exchange user to check out, and even some of us veterans can get a good refresher from this as well.
First, the big thing I stress is that this isn’t a rush.
Take your time and LEARN everything you can. If someone is telling you that you have to become an expert in this, don’t listen. Be comfortable with everything you do in the traffic exchanges but also with any business or service you join. I made the mistake years ago by joining every new opportunity I saw while surfing and well…It didn’t do me any good, it just used up the limited funds I had when I was starting out.
Second, you don’t need much in way of tools. You need two BASIC tools when you are starting out and that would be a list building auto responder and a splash page / squeeze page creation software. That’s it. Sure there is other things you will want to get down the road but let’s remember, if you keep it simple and very manageable, you will feel a lot better about your time online.
Please note: This is CRITICAL. Do not spend extra funds on stuff you don’t need when starting. Autoresponder and splash page maker, that’s it for now. Grow into other tools when you are ready.
Third, you should be a sponge. This means going to the forums, asking questions. Attending the live seminars and ask questions. Poke around at the popular blogs and see the terms and definitions that are used in this business. Heck, if you have a question about a specific program or traffic exchange, ask the owner. If the owner doesn’t respond, they are insane and you should run away from programs like that. Savvy owners and people who give a damn WILL respond to you. So here’s my PLEA…If you do have questions about traffic exchanges, ask me whenever you want. This is my direct email jon at hitexchangenews.com.
Three simple steps but it helps. Keeping things simple at the start will help you manage your time in the traffic exchanges and get into a pattern that fits your business. When we complicate it (and trust me, sometimes this business loves to throw wrenches at you) I feel that we are not as productive as we can be.
Take your time, use two simple tools and be a sponge.
Not that bad huh? But the hardest part and this is where most new surfers fail is that they give up too soon. Remember, building a solid relationship with your list and building your personal brand as someone people should look to takes time. It won’t happen overnight but keep your page in front of people and practice good list building, the results will come.
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
- Sweeva blew past the 15,000 member mark this week and is only few accounts away from 16,000. I guess the iPad giveaway contest really peaked people’s interest but what I’m seeing is that this program is slowly being built OUTSIDE of the traffic exchanges. I think this whole social browsing thing might just catch on…
- There’s a new contest taking place that gives you the chance to build your downline in 5 different programs and gives you a chance to win some cash prizes as well. Nice to see a bunch of like minded folks get in on the joint giveaways even if all the programs are from the same company LOL Hey it’s KRM and they started this whole giveaway gig so more power to them.
- Important 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 – While surfing Sweeva during the past few days, this page has stuck out the most and for good reason. It even won a few trophies as well! 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. StartXChange
2. Splash Page Surfer
3. Web Biz Insider
4. Traffic Splash
5. Soaring 4 Traffic
6. Easy Hits 4 U
7. Hits Booster Pro
8. Traffic Witch
9. Traffic Era
10. Traffic Swarm
Note: Analysis and Tracking by T.E. Toolbox – The Official Link Tracking Service of Hit Exchange News!
Question: Hey Jon, how come I Love Hits and SWAT Traffic or Sweeva 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 Ramblings
Video Rant – It’s Time We ALL Supported Who Supports Us!
Note: Enjoy this week’s Deep Thought. I made a video instead of typing my thoughts. Hope you guys enjoy it and please do comment below and let me know what you think about this topic. It’s pretty important to me, that we discuss this =)
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- After coming home from my first offline non-internet marketing seminar, I can say…It’s so sad to see people younger than me, already trapped in the mind set that traditional marketing is the only way to build businesses.
- Speaking of returning to my old habits of attending offline events, I read two amazing books this past week. I highly recommend Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh and Rework by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson. Amazing messages behind both books. One is that customer service RULES and the second is to…Keep it simple!
- “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook…” – William James
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Tagged with: affiliate funnel • auto responder • best ranked traffic exchanges • best traffic exchange • best traffic exchanges • free traffic exchanges • free web site traffic • i love hits • jon olson • list building • net marketing forum • new traffic exchange • new traffic exchanges • online business • online marketing • personal branding • social browsing • splash pages • squeeze pages • sweeva • top 10 traffic exchanges • top ranked traffic exchanges • top traffic exchanges • traffic exchange • traffic exchange book • traffic exchange industry • traffic exchange news • traffic exchange rankings • traffic exchange reviews • traffic exchanges • traffic splash • traffic wave • twitter
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Here here! Great rant, and I totally agree. TrafficWave has been amazing since I made the switch. You can tell that they actually DO care about you and your business. That’s hard to find on the net today.
I think (and this is just MHO) that many people are scared of change. It’s uncomfortable…. but to me, that’s what makes change exciting.
One of the best quotes I’ve ever heard is…
“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.”
The funny thing is it wasn’t said in the context of business… but it fits so well, not only in business but in daily life. Change is uncomfortable, but its necessary in all areas of your life. Adapt or die, change or get left behind.
I personally love to feel wanted, I think we all appreciate being wanted. Traffic Wave definitely makes me feel wanted. Again, great rant!
Yeah absolutely.
See for me, this change happened over a year ago when I was given the cold shoulder by ‘the support’ at the other program and I use the term support loosely.
Traffic Wave has gone above and beyond the call in my opinion. That kind of treatment, you can’t buy. It’s in their DNA.
Still, it’s not recommended across the industry…The other one is.
Jon
Excellent post, thank-you Jon
When I first started a few years back my mentor “Kevin Anderson” taught me exactly what you said “you only need 2 things to start your business” A way to build and capture your list and a way to Brand yourself using squeeze pages or splash pages.
At that time Robery Puddy was launching ISPG and I bought in the lifetime membership, a service I still use daily.
Thanks Jon for all the years of sharing your knowledge with us.
Millie
R.I.P. Kevin Anderson, a legend! That man was ahead of his time in this business.
Thanks Millie, appreciate the kind words.
Hi Jon.
Great video on your Deep Thoughts for the week.
I left the big guy and joined TrafficWave way before some in this industry joined and in all honesty I initially joined TW for the income opportunity.
At the time I had an account at both and quickly the income opportunity became secondary because I love the ease of use at TW and dropped the big guy and I am happily still with TrafficWave.
But, if I was just starting out and knew that TW catered to the traffic exchange industry while the big guy didn’t then it would have been a no-brainer to join and promote it.
Jimmy
You know I don’t own a TE, so the change for me wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t “want” my business. I think a) TW’s absence of tier increase payments, and b) the fact that ANY business would disregard a large portion of their supporters and customers really pushed me to try TW.
About the only thing I DO miss is the detailed stats, but I’m sure TW will only improve their user experience over time. They’ve been extremely helpful and friendly, so I can live with a tiny bit less detailed stats.
I am not at all shocked at the membership numbers coming out of Sweeva, proof positive money talks.
What you do not mention is that the on line stats at Sweeva are in fact down from the beginning, as many soon tire of the worthless patter and ass-kissing to anyone with a trophy-which can of course be bought.
The real news of the week was the Launch of SplashPageSurfer- though far from a smooth release Matthew Graves once proves that the old fashion values of giving fair return will always win out.
No 3:1 at any of Matthews sites, and I think he just might be the most successful in the world-or very close second.
The only other TE with as many members is EsyHits4u – no 3;1 there either.
Even though he did not pay one dime in commissions the 1st week brought about 4000 new members and his Launch Partners, of which I was honored to be one as well as you Jon- also gained I am sure many hundreds of new members.
Yes- This comment may not be about your Video as I refuse to watch yours or anyones- I speed read and find video to frustrating-get to the point.
As usual I am making an ass of myself on the issue of 3:1 surf ratios- and will continue to do so until the industry either drives me out of business-or the business learns from people like Matthew and EasyHits and TrafficDelivers etc examples.
Our members report much higher conversions then at 3:1 so I shall forever say they are only of benefit to owners and not members
Come on Jon join the other Crazy Canucks and get on board! (for those not in the know Matthew Graves,Jon Olson and myself are all Canadian
I think Traffic wave is a mixed bag.
The owner, Brian is personally involved in the community, which is great but their program in many ways remains stuck in 2001 and Im not into MLM.
As for company X, aka “the big boy”, there are ways to promote them in the traffic exchanges without using their bandwidth, which is their main complaint about promoting in the TEs.
At least with company X, they spend good coin on their site and program development, keep it up to date with design standards and don’t rely on users to create and submit promotional materials like Traffic wave does.
Maybe if Traffic wave spent money on themselves, I would spend money with them.
In my opinion, Get response is also a great alternative.
Ryan, in my years of surfing the TE’s I have not seen a huge influx of ‘big boy’ advertisements.
In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen the front page advertised here.
The bandwidth argument they pull is bogus.
Congrats on another milestone @Sweeva, hooray!
I guess I need to get caught up @NMF. Sorry I have missed you guys @TE Live the last couple days, I have got some major offline stuff going on this week and next and have been working straight thru the night a lot lately and, conversely, I have kind of turned my sleeping schedule upside down without having meant to. Which may be for the best with this heat wave down here (being asleep thru the worst heat of the day lately) but sorry it’s caused me to have to miss TE Live still. Things will settle down again soon tho.
Loved the video and watched the whole thing even tho it took me twice as long as it was lol – some of us techy people have been talking about Google having issues with all their apps lately and I have been having trouble with YouTube for two or three months now and it’s almost completely unwatchable for me. Which is really irritating because (as y’all from TE Live know) I don’t have cable and I basically watched YouTube like most people watch TV every day, and I haven’t been able to do that in months now. But I love the concept of your video commentary!
As for the video subject – absolutely agreed. As y’all know I had Traffic Wave accounts before that I let go and wouldn’t have had another one had they not so welcomed and put the red carpet out for TE people. TW staff’s responsiveness to TE owner needs (which I have directly experienced a couple of times now) has been nothing but stellar.
I do wish they would bring a few functions in the system more up to date as I feel TW is a little behind the times in some areas, and I wish their overall mailout delivery time would improve to quicker – but overall still very happy with it and frankly, if they had blog broadcast available I probably would no longer keep an “other guy” account at all. Well, I might just to have the security of two systems in case one goes out, but really there would be no need if TW added the same type blog broadcast function the other guy has to their system. Since my blog is one of the main three things I promote that part is kind of important to me, but is really the only reason I haven’t moved everything completely to Traffic Wave.
But yeah, definitely, all agreed with you on all points. And in fact, indirectly anyway, TW is now one of the three primary things I promote actively and regularly (the others being the blog and my exchange of course) now that I have limited my active promoting to those + Get Referrals Fast, which primarily promotes Traffic Wave. Jerry and Mike and Jay just made it so much easier to promote with GFR and I love promoting it.
I also think Traffic Wave is just a super tool for new people and so much easier than “other guy”. Some other owners don’t agree but many do, and my experience teaching people how to use Traffic Wave has been easy as pie – whereas I can’t see that it would have been as easy to teach “other guy” to those same folks. (Of course now I can send people to Jerry & Mike to learn how to use their TW too, even better.)
Overall I am super pleased with Traffic Wave and will likely continue to keep it high on the promotional list indefinitely. Sure, it has room for improvement but it’s not like “other guy” (and any system) couldn’t stand improvement in some areas – but the great thing about Traffic Wave is I know that the improvements we in the TE industry would like to see will likely come about someday, and any concerns we have will be met, BECAUSE Traffic Wave has been so open, welcoming, and directly communicative with us.
And to be honest it feels kind of good to be able to put my support behind a program that has actually welcomed us all and made it clear they WANT our business and are open to our needs. I mean, heck, you can promote ANY program and say “this is a great program” and it probably is a great program – but with Traffic Wave you can go several better and share so many good bullet points about how supportive they are of people involved TEs and related programs, that’s a HUGE bonus.
Anyway, yeah, I’ve gone on too long here but hooray for Traffic Wave. For anything about it that could stand improvement, I don’t really have any complaints because (A) it works satisfactorily enough for my needs and (B) I haven’t had to fork out money out of pocket for it in months so it’s basically free – and I still have less than five direct referrals. So that’s just not a bad deal at all.
RE your convo up there with Ryan – I seem to remember that most of the flak you got from “other guy” was not because of their affiliate links being rotated as TE pages or banners but because the link was in one of your tutorial pages. That was just plain silly of them to complain about that – you would think they would WANT people to teach and refer newbies to their system.
Which just again gives people good reason to refer newbies to Traffic Wave and teach them how to use it instead. When “other guy” slammed you because your tutorial page link was attached to a traffic exchange’s domain, they basically just shot themselves in the foot and gave the entire industry good reason to go somewhere else where we all were wanted and welcomed. *shrug*
Holy cow, I just caught up on the situation @ NMF that spawned your video commentary.
I have been dragging my heels about moving my “other guy” list totally over to Traffic Wave mainly because of the blog broadcast feature… but after reading what I just did, I think it’s maybe time for me to look into moving 100% to TW and ditching “other guy” for good. That’s a bunch of crap, what happened.
My other lists there aren’t very big so if I lose some, eh, and hopefully I won’t lose too many blog subscribers in a switch…. but since I have everything else at Traffic Wave now + my TE list + all the Get Referrals Fast stuff, it’s probably a good time to just chuck all the rest and consolidate everything @ Traffic Wave for once and for all now.
I can “blog broadcast” manually for now whenever I write a new post, I reckon.
Thanks for the HEN post/video today, Jon, obviously gave me something to think about that will hopefully be a very positive move for me to make, going full-on 100% with TW now. And save me some cash every month too.
I was using the big guy (if that’s what they’re considered as), and it to me was very difficult to learn and the support wasn’t great either. I moved to TW and have been very pleased, I know that I’m just a small fish in a huge pond, but TW has the support and features that I need. I’m staying put at TW..great post and video Jon.
Think we have been connecting psychically. Have done blog posts and our GRF seminar covered how to get started using traffic exchanges and building your business free with a 5 Day Plan.
Hi Jon
Great post once again.
My guess is that TE owners have established policies around content and as long as it complies, that content can be promoted.
It is good to hear that TrafficWave is working with and promoting itself to the TE industry. Its a great tool.
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