The traffic exchanges are a funny little industry.

And yes, I said it. Little.

Over the decade plus that I have been involved with them, I have seen bickering, in-fighting and essentially bad attitudes towards so of the prominent players in this business.

And yes, I can point the finger directly at myself because I tend to open my mouth first and then think about what I’m saying after.

But this is getting to be silly, simply because we are just the tip of the ice berg in potential for these programs. We are a fraction of the internet marketing community with massive opportunities ahead of us.

So why all the drama?

I think we are worried that the pie isn’t big enough for all of us, so we ‘defend’ our territory instead of reaching out and working with others. And yes, I am guilty of this practice too. However it’s time for a change.

Last night’s TE Townhall meeting was a wonderful example of like minded individuals coming together and sharing their stories, concerns, ideas and so much more. We need more of that!

Let’s continue to work together, find new ways to promote each other. To promote the traffic exchanges as a whole and I guarantee you this, the pie will be big enough for everyone to get a slice. A real big slice indeed…

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

- Big changes took place at TE List this week as Tim gave the owners much more control and responsibilty on how their exchanges are listed. Good stuff and the more power you give to the owners, the better =)

- I Love Hits had quite the hiccup this week but please note, everything has been fixed (thanks once again to Mr. Tim Linden). For about 20 hours, members were not earning credits for their surfing. It was a bug and was fixed and to compensate I bumped up the surfing bonuses to 100% to help folks that missed the credits. I do apologize for my blunder.

- Pay Pal threw quite the monkey wrench into the traffic exchanges a few days ago. Their IPN system stopped working and you may have seen your upgraded accounts get downgraded because of this. It was an error on their part and it has been resolved. If you are a traffic exchange owner and want to know how to resend your IPN’s, check out this thread that explains how to resend the IPNs.

- 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 – Ad Kreator is quickly becoming an industry favorite and for good reason! 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. Max Traffic Pro
2. StartXChange
3. Traffic Witch
4. Traffic Splash
5. Tezak Traffic Power
6. Dragon Surf
7. Carnival Clicks
8. Hits Booster Pro
9. Farm Traffic
10. Traffic Taxis

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 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

For over a year now, aWeber has been sending me nasty little emails, telling me to not promote their service within I Love Hits. They say my program creates untargetted traffic and they do not want any part of it.

All these messages are automated and of course, they don’t even bother to see where the traffic is coming from. I actually send people to aWeber from two avenues. The first, my autoresponder messages, recommending the program and the second, from my tutorials WITHIN the I Love Hits members area. Which again, recommends people to practice list building and shows them towards aWeber.

After a little back and forth this week with their ‘customer service agent’ I have just about enough….

“Thank you for getting back to me.

When someone signs up for your program do you recommend that they
use ilovehits.com in conjunction with their AWeber accounts?

Please let me know.”

Are you serious? One look at my stats and I send about 20 people a week to my aWeber referral link and of those 20, at least one of those viewers ends up signing up for aWeber.

Guess they don’t want my business. I’m kind of done trying to ‘validate’ traffic exchange traffic. The last thing I need to do is to get into an argument with my list host about what I consider to be un-targeted or not. I know how powerful these programs can be, especially for list building.

It might be time for a change.

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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…

- Host Monster seems to be the most reported site of the week in many traffic exchanges…

- Cash Clicking has got a new owner. Someone who is from the PTC world…

- “Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

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Related posts

• Issue 303 – New To Traffic Exchanges? Here’s Your First Checklist… (17)
• Issue 297 – Social Networking On The Traffic Exchanges. Something You Should Be Doing More Of… (8)
• Issue 294 – The Birth of TE Teams & I Love Hits Is Bananas (8)
• Issue 293 – Ocean Swelling, I Love Hitting, & Random Acts of Traffic Exchange Goodness… (13)
• Issue 288 – Three Cheers For Creativity (8)

Does anyone remember the entire auto surf fiasco? I sure do. I also remember the bubble game, gifting program, cycler, doubler and randomizer fiascos too. These little fads did a lot of damage to the traffic exchanges because the exchanges used to be flooded with these ‘risky’ programs and a lot of people lost a lot of money in the process.

2008 and you could imagine my surprise when a well known traffic exchange decides to launch their own version of a randomizer. I won’t mention it by name here because I do not wish to give it any extra promotion but it’s a very sad day for traffic exchanges when one of our own decides to go this route.

I am asking for all surfers, owners and everyone who has ever used a traffic exchange to stand up and demand that these kind of programs do not get any support at all. They have done nothing but hurt our reputation and yes, they do flood the exchanges from time to time, so if you see one, talk about it, discuss it, report it, and let the owners know you do not want to see these things in rotation.

Have a great week and thanks very much for being a reader of Hit Exchange News!

Jon Olson
The Traffic Exchange Guy

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The News

- Blue Surf announced this week that it had hit the 5,000 member mark. Not too shabby for a brand new traffic exchange in this day and age. I just wanted to thank Scott from Blue Surf for creating something new, unique and fun for surfers. A custom script can go a very long way.

- I’ve got a good feeling about Traffic Taxis as a traffic exchange to watch this summer. It was not ‘launched’ in the general sense of a big promotional release, but with it’s solid design and responsive owner, it has the potential to be a very solid addition. Let’s see how things go.

- So you wanna own a traffic exchange huh? For any would be owner, I highly recommend reading this very ‘eye opening’ post at Net Marketing Forum . Fellow owners and surfers alike offer some great input on why someone would want to own and operate these little programs.

- 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! Congrats to Jesus Moreno for winning last week, if you can send me your mailing address to hitexchangenews at yahoo dot com, I’ll get you your copy shipped a.s.a.p.

- Splash Page Hall of Fame – This is one of the most creative splash pages I have seen in recent memory! 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 Swarm
2. Traffic Splash
3. Traffic Era
4. TS 25
5. Traffic Wonderland
6. Dragon Surf
7. StartXChange
8. Easy Hits 4 U
9. Traffic At The Races
10. Max Traffic Pro

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

Creativity – And Why It Should Matter To You!

I got an invite today from a couple of traffic exchange owners and they let me in on a brand new program they will be launching in a few weeks. When I heard it was a new traffic exchange, it got me worried about what this thing could possibly bring ‘new’ to the table. Wow, I was blown away!

Here’s what they did…They used creativity to build their new program. They took a stock LJ Script (the same base script that I Love Hits is on) and completely edited it to fit their needs. The thing has some wonderful features that you wont find anywhere else and here’s the best part…It should show people what CAN be done when you use a little bit of creativity.

Great, how does this help you. Hopefully it gets you thinking about what you have at your disposal right now, in your marketing arsenal. Once you see what you have, try to find new ways to do the same thing. Maybe it’s a different design, maybe it’s a new headline, maybe it’s a complete make over. The main point is to do things differently!

There’s a wonderful book I like to read to help with creative thinking, it’s called ‘Thinker Toys’. This book has helped me so much in looking at a product or service and seeing what I can do with what I have to make it more interesting, make it stickier and more attractive to my members.

I’ve always been a big fan of sticking out from the crowd, and now more than ever I feel it’s one of the most important things you can do for your business, especially in the traffic exchanges!

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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…

- I got a sneak peak at a brand new traffic exchange that will be launching in a few weeks. get ready to be blown away…Wow!

- Hoopla keeps throwing digs at my top 10 list, and say over and over again that it’s just my opinion…Ummm yeah, has anyone else seen the big red sign that says it’s an opinion?

- Rumor has it that a new commercial traffic exchange script is about to be released into the market…

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Related posts

• Issue 303 – New To Traffic Exchanges? Here’s Your First Checklist… (17)
• Issue 302 – Two Of The Best Weeks In Traffic Exchange Land… (6)
• Issue 299 – Sweeva Feeva Is Here! And It’s Only Been 9 Days… (20)
• Issue 297 – Social Networking On The Traffic Exchanges. Something You Should Be Doing More Of… (8)
• Issue 295 – Cash For Surfing Is Here To Stay…Whether We Like It Or Not! (10)