Who said creativity was gone in the traffic exchanges?

I love it, these are the days that I am so proud to be a part of this industry. No, it’s not another traffic exchange being launched. No it’s not a new rotator or tracker being released. What it is, it’s creativity!

Cindy Battye’s Traffic Bunnies has been doing big things for me lately. It was ranked Number 1 last week in The Top 10 as it drove dozens of new subscribers to my sites and chances are, it’ll be ranked pretty high this week…

Never one to ‘slow down’, Cindy released her brand new ‘Bunny Game’ in Traffic Bunnies yesterday and let’s just say, addictive isn’t giving it the credit it deserves. It’s a whole lot of fun and another great example of doing something different in this business.

It’s unlike anything you have seen in the traffic exchanges before simply because it’s a complete custom job. That’s right *gasp* it’s something that Cindy invested in to create for her traffic exchange.

THIS is why the traffic exchange industry will continue to grow and prosper, because we have new stuff like the Bunny Game at Traffic Bunnies being released. Creative ownership is a must, and when owners go out of their way to create something like this, I will always rave about it in Hit Exchange News!

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

- A completely re-brandable traffic exchange? Yes, another prime example that creative owners are not a thing of the past as Easy Surf Exchange has flipped it and made their entire traffic exchange re-brandable. Such a cool idea, and a first in the business. Instead of a downline builder IN the traffic exchange, the entire traffic exchange could be considered a downline builder. Great stuff!

- Big changes at Traffic Punk this weak. New script, new design, new features and a whole lot of new excitement. I always thought the Punk design was cool, one of my favorite looks in the industry but this new look is even better. And yes, while it did change from a TCN to an LJ Script, I understand this change and the past exchanges that have made the jump. Looks great, surfs great!

- As I mentioned a few times this week, there is a massive Super Surf session taking place every day of the week along with this weekend. 100% surfing bonuses are going on right now at Advertising Know How and Dragon Surf tomorrow and then all 5 Super Surf traffic exchanges on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a great time to get clicking!

- 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!

- 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 ‘Kaye’ 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 – Like Traffic Splash’s squeeze page / splash page combo, Easy Surf Exchange has a great look and a very powerful pitch. 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 Splash
2. Dragon Surf
3. Traffic Bunnies
4. StartXChange
5. Traffic Witch
6. Hit Pirate
7. Top Tier Traffic
8. Max Traffic Pro
9. Royal Surf
10. Hit 2 Hit

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

Coffee Stains And Traffic Exchanges…

Weird title huh….Here’s the funny thing, I just noticed my lovely new white t-shirt that I purchase a few days ago, full of lovely coffee stains and the odd dash of curry paste. So what do ‘coffee stains’ have to do with traffic exchanges and how to get better results from them…

A few years ago I made a decision. The decision was to never work for anyone else ever again. The entire concept of waking up, sitting in traffic for two hours, to get to a dead end job and dress up like a penguin in a suit…Urgggh that’s my personal hell. So I came online, with big dreams, no money and an absolute addiction to coffee!

What did online business allow me to do? Be comfortable. I am absolutely at peace when I’m sitting in my office, sipping some Starbucks and listening to my dog snore behind my chair. This is my ‘comfort zone’!

How can you find your comfort zone with your business? You will feel pressured when you are trying to get your business off the ground, but never second guess that little voice in your mind. 99% of the time, it’s right. Your gut instinct will tell you when something feels good, and other things are too good to be true.

It’s very important to find your ‘zone’ in this business so you can plan to get there. Me myself, it was the absolute desire to never work for anyone again. I had a brand new baby boy that I had to care for, so that’s pretty motivating in itself and I wanted to be around him as much as possible. Traffic exchanges allowed me to do this. That’s why I am so passionate about them.

Will traffic exchanges be your comfort zone? Will they be part of your marketing plan? Only you can decide that, the big thing though is to always do what you feel is right. Listen to your gut instinct, it rarely lets you down…

Now time to find some Tide to get these stains out…

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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…

- Top Tier Traffic have over 11,000 members…After only 5 weeks.

- Last night’s SWAT Traffic seminar…A whole lot of Rick Rollin’ and Olson singing *lol*

- Did I ever mention that I LOVE TWITTER? lol

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Related posts

• Issue 297 – Social Networking On The Traffic Exchanges. Something You Should Be Doing More Of… (8)
• Issue 284 – Are The Traffic Exchanges Too Complicated? (3)
• Issue 303 – New To Traffic Exchanges? Here’s Your First Checklist… (16)
• Issue 302 – Two Of The Best Weeks In Traffic Exchange Land… (6)
• Issue 301 – Widgets Are Here But Will Hit Exchange News Be? (12)

I’m back in the saddle once again. I’m home after a two week hiatus and travels across the continent. It’s been a very interesting couple of weeks in the traffic exchange industry and I have quite a few strong opinions on what has taken place during this time. Be sure to check out my ‘Deep Thoughts’ section in this week’s issue.

As promised in the last issue of Hit Exchange News, R. Tom Worthington has won a copy of Hits, Clicks & Misses: The Traffic Exchange Experience. Please remember, I’m giving away a copy of this book each and every week to a reader that simply posts a comment about the newsletter.

Speaking of contests, have you seen the new contest from Affiliate Funnel? For the first time in traffic exchange history, we’re giving away 3 grand prizes of a laptop computer, a digital camera and a satellite radio receiver. Be sure to check out more details about this new promotion and if now was not the best time to get involved with AF, I’m not sure what will be. This is huge folks, and it’s only going to get better from now on!

It’s great to be back and writing Hit Exchange News. I hope you have a great week and happy surfing!

Jon Olson
The Traffic Exchange Guy

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The News

- Traffic Bunnies reached quite a milestone this past week as it hit 10,000 plus members. Congratulations to the newest 5 figure membership exchange on the net, and a very good one at that. Cindy has been working like mad on her program, and it shows. Here is an exchange owner that ‘gets it’. Way to go Bunnies!

- Traffic Wonderland is a brand new program and one I think has some very big potential. I have talked with the owners and these guys have got some big plans to make this program a huge success. How’s this for a jump start? They already have over 1200 members in a very short time. Some exchanges cannot even reach 1200 in a year, and this program did it in about a month. Not too bad for two brand new people to the traffic exchange industry.

- It’s been a few weeks since it launched, but Nexus Exchange looks and feels amazing. Here are another pair of owners that have been working non stop for years to make their program the best it can be. Congratulations to both Aaron and Eva for all your hard work. This new layout and design looks amazing!

- Splash Page Hall of Fame – Blue Surf’s been making waves lately and this personalized splash page is just what the doctor ordered!

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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 Bunnies
4. TS 25
5. Dragon Surf
6. StartXChange
7. Magnify Traffic
8. Traffic Punk
9. Royal Surf
10. Traffic Era

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

The ‘Potential’ Death of the Traffic Exchanges

If anyone can remember the fiasco we had a few years ago about the ‘auto surf’ exchange, this will almost sound like a repeat. The reason being, is because I see so many similarities between this new issue and the auto surf exchange argument.

It’s the 5 second timer!

More and more, exchanges seem to be lowering their timers to under 10 seconds and some have even launched this past week from some pretty well known exchange owners that have a 5 second timer from day one. I know, I know…This is what is going to happen after the exchanges went from a 30 second timer, down too a 10 second industry average.

But where does it end? At one second? No wait, I’ve got a better idea, how about a no second timer when you don’t even need to surf, just set it and forget it…Oh wait, that’s already been done. Auto surfing anyone?

I do think this is going to seriously hurt the industry. As someone who spends hundreds of dollars a week in traffic exchange advertising, I am concerned that this is catering to traffic delivery, rather than giving me (an advertiser and surfer) a viable and effective form of advertising.

I’m sure we will continue on this path though, and heck, maybe I’m even concerned about something that’s not that big a deal. But being in this business since 1999, I cannot help but feel we are heading down a very dark path when it comes to going below a 5 second timer. And it’s coming, give it a year or so…

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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…

- Over 13,000 members and a brand new look! Magnify Traffic has been doing amazing things this past year, and this is just icing on the cake!

- John Marks and I met when I was in Toronto. I talked his ear off for a good hour and a half about FFA pages….LOL Just kidding. Hey man, great to meet you again!

- Anyone remember Urgle?

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Related posts

• Issue 303 – New To Traffic Exchanges? Here’s Your First Checklist… (16)
• Issue 302 – Two Of The Best Weeks In Traffic Exchange Land… (6)
• Issue 298 – Social Browsing Is The Game, Sweeva Is It’s Name! (13)
• 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! (9)