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!
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.
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!
- 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.)
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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Flip Your Downline, Fill Your Funnel!
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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!
