The pulse of the traffic exchange industry and the random ramblings of Jon Olson (that's me!)
I've been writing Hit Exchange News since 2003 and have been involved in the traffic exchanges for over a decade. Enjoy the 'news', and thank you so much for making this THE must-read traffic exchange blog on the internet!
I’m the first person who whines and complains that nothing happens in the traffic exchange industry. And this week, there has been LOTS happening. So much so that I should have been glued to the computer and taking part in these amazing podcasts that have been hosted by James Holmes.
I have been on the road and FINALLY got back to take part in these live interviews. From Robert Puddy to Tim Linden, a lot of very interesting owners have had the hot seat this week and it’s my turn tomorrow at 3pm Eastern. I’m listening to Guido Nussbaum right now (owner of Traffic Witch) and it’s been a wonderful interview so far.
Long story short…
Jon Olson needs to sit in front of his computer more when these kind of great events take place.
In other news, I wanted to congratulate Louise Venison and her program Hits Booster Pro for celebrating it’s 2nd year online. This has been one of the most responsive traffic exchanges in the past few years and Louise manages this program better than most owners out there. Congrats to her and her entire team!
And yes, finally I’ve got some news as well…
I Love Hits’ Bracket Surfing week has been very active because this week we are giving away a brand spanking new Blu Ray player…
The winner of Bracket Surfing this week will take home a brand new player for their home entertainment needs and while I don’t do these ‘big prize’ giveaways very often, I do enjoy the activity boost they help create. Just a little fun competition that should spice things up at I Love Hits…Good luck to everyone!
Phew….Busy week huh?
If that wasn’t enough, tonight at 8pm Eastern there is another ‘Townhall Meeting’ however this time it’s being hosted by Mike and Jerry at Get Referrals Fast. This should be a HUGE event and a must attend for everyone looking to build some active and responsive downlines in the traffic exchanges…
It’s great to see everything happening and I’m very excited to read the feedback from the podcasts as well as this week’s Bracket Surfing competition. Drop me a line below =)
A few years ago, there was a guy named Rich Taylor who was very active in the traffic exchange community. Not trying to get all sentimental and stuff but I do think Rich was a major reason that I became branded as a traffic exchange expert simply because he pushed me to find my niche and really excel at it.
Rich Taylor was a pioneer in this business and one of the first traffic exchange owners who used ‘themes’ with his businesses. Anyways, long story short we started a traffic exchange consultation gig together and one of the ideas we came up with was the 3:1 surf ratio. Surf ratios in the traffic exchanges have always been a hot topic and well, some people swear up and down that programs shouldn’t give any less than a 1:1 ratio while others have gone as low as 5:1.
The 3:1 surf ratio was adopted at every program I owned and was consulted on and for years and it’s been fantastic, it was a very healthy ratio for the program and savvy surfers really understood why we kept it at a 3:1. But in the time and era of the cash for surfing epidemic (and yes I think it’s the worst thing to happen to traffic exchanges in years) we need more ways to entice surfers to view sites WITHOUT relying on cash for surfing.
So I have made a pretty big change in the way I do business with my cornerstone traffic exchange I Love Hits.
I have raised the minimum surf ratio for Light Weight members from a 3:1 to a 2:1. So now for every 10 page views in I Love Hits, you receive 5 hits back instead of the old 9 page views for 3. Now a few things before I get the tomatoes thrown at me…
I have been monitoring the surfing at I Love Hits for quite a few months and we can mathematically sustain this ratio thanks in large part to Bracket Surfing. Raising a surf ratio is VERY hard to do when you have a balance to maintain in a program but today I’m going to give it a shot…
Let’s see how it goes. If traffic delivery plummets, I’ll have to bring it back to a 3:1. But something tells me, with the added bonus of Bracket Surfing and the vibrant community at I Love Hits, this will do nothing but increase surfing.
In other news with I Love Hits, I am in the process of adding IM Faceplate to our Profile Pages. This is to give members even more networking opportunities for themselves and their businesses. This will be up and running very soon.
