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!
Warning: This isn’t a warm and fuzzy post. There won’t be ‘high ways’ and ‘way to go’s’ in this thread. In fact, I may lose a few friends because of it but you know what, I have always spoken my mind and well, today is no different. If I tick you off because of it, maybe, just maybe there is some truth to what I’m about to write.
Here goes…
Internet marketing sucks! The entire industry, the entire thing is set up to get the little guys to always be ‘donating’ to the big guys lifestyle…Let me say that again…The industry is set up like this;
Big guy gets his buddies to help launch a new product. The product is nothing new. Rarely has anything been done in the internet marketing world that actually helps and trains new marketers, it’s usually re-hashed advice that you can find in any marketing or business book at Amazon.com.
His ‘buddies’ hype it up and send emails to you, where it’s promised to be a revolutionary service, it’s a must have product, and you would be silly not to take action on it.
The big guy makes thousands upon thousands of dollars, and him and his buddies usually meet up at an offline event and laugh about how stupid people are to buy their products….And they are going to do the same thing in a few months again.
Am I just talking out of my rear end?
Nope, I have been there. I have been to those events, I have heard the conversations, I know how these people think. Heck, I was in that little circle of friends a few years ago. I might have even been one of those scum bags in the conversation. Sad really…I was caught up in the glamor and glitz I suppose and wanted to be ‘one of the guys’.
But here’s the worst part, this will never change. Whenever someone says ‘you can make money easily online doing this….’ people will flock to it. It’s not just internet marketing too, it’s in the traffic exchanges, it’s in the paid to click world, it’s in the MLM game…It’s everywhere.
How do you avoid these schemes? I can only think of one way…Educate yourself! Go to Amazon.com and buy a few books on ‘making money online’ or marketing in general. Read for yourself, learn the techniques from people that actually walk the walk.
I mean the big guys will be the first people to pitch you a product on ‘social media’ but then don’t even have a Twitter account. Seriously, they are about selling you stuff, not about educating you to fend for yourself in the marketing world.
Again, my advice, avoid the schemes like the plague and EDUCATE YOURSELF! Amazon.com is the best thing to ever happen to my business and it can be for you as well. The more you learn about how this game works, the better off you will be. Arm yourself with ‘marketing knowledge’ the right way….Read a book or two!
I’m back from Las Vegas! What an incredible experience and even though I went there with one agenda, new opportunities arose from hanging out with some of the movers and shakers of the internet marketing industry.
There is so much power to attending these live events, I cannot even begin to describe how much they can help your business. If you ever get a chance, make sure you attend an event, it truly is a life changing experience.
This was seminar number 9 for me and I plan on going to a whole lot more. What’s even better, is the attention we got, Robert Puddy, Soren Jordansen and myself when we all said in unison…
“Yes, we all own traffic exchanges and YES they really do work!”
It was a shock for many internet marketing professionals who have been force fed to rely on ‘article marketing’, PPC marketing and other highly effective yet demanding forms on online advertising. You see, we have something that the rest of the internet wants…And we have limitless supply of traffic.
The trick to using this limitless supply though, is leveraging the traffic. DON’T USE generic affiliate pages, use a squeeze page that grabs your viewers attention. DON’T SURF for hours on end without a direct benefit for you, branding, list building, etc. This is critical!
As time goes by, expect massive things soon from our attendance in Las Vegas, we’ve got some very cool stuff in store for the traffic exchanges. More bang for your click, guaranteed!
Thank you very much for being a reader of Hit Exchange News and have a wonderful week!
- I Love Hits hit a milestone last week and I’m so honored to announce that we have hit the 100,000 member mark! Special note for everyone that loves to put ILH and me down, this does NOT mean 100,000 active members, this means 100,000 users have joined the system since it started. Still, I consider ILH to be a medium sized exchange with plenty of growth still in it, with 400-500 new members joinign every week, the future looks very bright for the old work horse!
- StartXchange continues to knock down competition left and right by adding it’s new ‘Surf N chat’ feature. While not a new feature to the traffic exchange industry as a whole, it’s new to StartXchange and cements them as one of the most active exchanges in the net.
- Traffic Gold Rush is almost at 5000 members. Heh, not too bad for an exchange that is only a month old. It’s kind of funny to me to see these programs that have been around for years and years and cannot reach 5,000 members and Mr. Conway does it in a month. Still not convinced this thing is here to stay? I am!!!
- Want to win your own copy of the best selling traffic exchange book on Amazon.com, Hits, Clicks and Misses, (actually, it’s the only published book about T.E.’s on the planet), simply post a comment about this week’s issue of HEN! Congratulations to ‘Rob’ for winning last week. Be sure to send your mailing address to me so that I can ship you a copy (hitexchangenews at yahoo dot com)!
- Splash Page Hall of Fame – TE Profits is one of the best examples of HOW to promote in the traffic exchanges. Great stuff! 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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Deep Thoughts – Jon’s Weekly Rambling
I Love Twitter! Twitter Loves Me!
If you haven’t been living under a rock, then you have heard of the wonderful world of Twitter. This is the first 2.0 service that I really embraced, I mean sure I used blogs and Facebook but Twitter had something I just fell in love with from the start.
Think of it like text messaging on the web. Short, simple messages that let your ‘Twitter list’ know what you are up to. What’s even more exciting about Twitter is the neat little applications that have been created because of it.
Soren Jordansen’s Tweet My Blog in a wonderful little tool that lets you notify the ‘Twitter’ world about a new post on your blog. And that’s just one tool, there are hundreds of these cool little programs to help you get out there more in the world of the ‘Tweeps’.
Want even more proof that you should be involved with Twitter, aWeber just added a Twitter service that let’s your email list know when you have sent a message via aWeber itself. Wow. That’s right, this thing just got released and should be massive for both aWeber and your Twitter account.
Don’t delay, be sure to get involved with Twitter today…Oh yeah, and be sure to join my ‘Twitter team’ too =)
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- For the record, Mr. Smiley…I’m a 330 lbs, not 380. Thanks for caring about my weight. Nice to see you think someone’s weight has anything to do with success online. But I appreciate the hate, it keeps me going =)
- Special thanks to Franscisca at Hit 2 Hit for acting on all those reports I give in the Owners Forum at NMF. Thanks so much, it’s good to know they are not being reported in vain.
