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.
I mentioned last week about how I thought a traffic exchange could even be considered a Web 2.0 type of site. You see, it fits the bill. It’s user generated content, the members decide what goes into it and there is the potential of a lot of communicating between members.
Traffic Era really got a lot of folks thinking when they launched about the massive potential these programs could have, if they embraced the 2.0 way of doing things. This week I Love Hits took it one step further and introduced the ‘ILH Profile Pages’. So what are they?
Here’s an example and while they are still a work in progress, the main idea is for I Love Hits’ members to communicate with each other, use the best social networking sites on the net, and help build their personal brand within the system and outside of it.
I’m pretty pumped about these new pages, and plan on really doing a lot of work with them to create a brand new ‘angle’ in the I Love Hits community. I’m a big fan of personal branding and I hope these pages go a long way in helping people realize the power of their personal network and how important it is in their business!
Have a great week and thanks very much for being a reader of Hit Exchange News!
- I Love Clicks, one of the first and largest traffic exchanges on the net, has closed it’s doors this week. What’s more, on the front page they are trying to sell the domain, script and all it’s assets. That’s fine, but they also say they will not discuss the ‘workings’ of the program. You know, the good stuff like how much does it make every month, how many subscribers, how responsive is the list. What a shame, especially for all us old timers that have been there since day one. This was a one time GIANT in the industry.
- Dragon Surf added dynamic surfing to the program this past week and here is something that has been added to a lot of traffic exchanges but actually helps the members get even more traffic to their sites. Simply put, the more you surf, the higher your surf ratio increases. Surf more, get more. A very simple yet effective concept!
- What is going on at the AMCS traffic exchange service? Rumors had it that all the databases were lost for the dozens of traffic exchanges on their server, and then another side of the coin said everything was fine. You can read more about it by visiting the Net Marketing Forum.
- A big ‘pat on the back’ has to go to 24/7 Traffic Pro for taking the bull by the horns and starting a customer survey. This has been a WONDERFUL trend I have seen this past month in the traffic exchanges and I look forward to seeing even more input from surfers around the industry!
- Congratulations to ‘Brian Rickert’ for winning last week’s copy of Hits, Clicks and Misses. Want to win your own copy of the best selling traffic exchange book on Amazon.com (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!
- Splash Page Hall of Fame – Want to see how to properly brand yourself in the traffic exchanges and build your list at the same time? Check out the latest capture page from Paul Conway! 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
Tell Em Why You’re Mad!!!
I love a good rant! So this week, I’ve got the perfect topic and a wonderful platform on which to spread my ‘fumes’. Ready? Here goes…
This wee saw the launch of a new traffic exchange that was…Well…A copy of any other traffic exchange that has been released in the past few months. Sure, it had nice graphics, a very tempting JV offer, great potential and a new owner that looks to be dedicated for the long haul, but other than that, it was a plain jane traffic exchange.
Now here Jon comes along and releases the ‘Profile Pages’ at I Love Hits which is something new in the traffic exchanges and should increase the awareness of these programs around the internet but do you know how much coverage I got? Nada. In fact, a popular ‘T.E.’ blog that talks about everything that happens in the traffic exchange industry didn’t mention my Profile Pages at all, and of course had their affiliate link pasted everywhere on their blog for that new T.E.
Am I bitter? Not really because I’m always in this stuff for the long haul but here’s the kicker. In a few months, the whining will start that there is ‘no innovation’ in the traffic exchange industry. And how close we are to total collapse. And how we need to change the way we do things or else. Or how we HAVE to find new members that will join ans surf the exchange…
I will then mention people go read this blog post again and laugh because here’s something innovative that could potential raise the stakes in this business, but we are concerned about earning 5 bucks a month from promoting a new traffic exchange.
Ahhh the irony of it all. I’ve come to the conclusion that this industry does not want innovation, they want ‘sexy’ new launches. They want their 5 dollars a month commissions. They want their JV launches. They want all this, but heaven forbid we actually develop tools to HELP our members…That would be shocking wouldn’t it?
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- Traffic Splash announced it has over 26,000 members this past week. All I can say is, wow!
- Funny Contradiction of the Week – A new auto surf investment scam telling people on it’s front page that it’s ‘bringing back the good old days of auto surfing’. I wonder how many millions will be lost this go round?
