I always seem to be complaining about something or another in the traffic exchange industry. I’m the first one to whine about the lack of creativity and cry foul when someone doesn’t agree with me right away (I’m working on that…Really I am). Yes folks, I’m a bit of a head case…But hey, I wear my emotions on my sleeve…

Something I LOVE to do is give high fives to people that make a difference in this business and today I want to focus on 3 people (groups of people) who have in the past few days, made my world a little better in this business.

Jeff Parker at Traffic Fugitive who on Monday decided to keep the momentum going with our little charity (check the last blog post below for more information on that…) So what Jeff did, which was great he said for every 100 page views that the membership does at Fugitive, he would donate a buck. I love it! It created awareness for his program, the charity and for an owner doing good in this business.

Tony Tezak came up with one of the coolest ideas I have seen in recent memory this week as well. His ‘Letter Ads’ at Tezak Traffic Power are a very smart idea simply because he is using a ‘game’ in his surf bar for an advertising opportunity. Everyone, program owner, advertiser and surfer, all benefit from this and I love seeing these kind of new additions to the business. Great stuff man!

And finally…The people at Traffic Exchange Live who dealt with a grumpy Jon on Monday afternoon but then got to talking yesterday and I think the first ever ‘T.E. Summit’ is now in the works. These people are the cream of the crop in this business and I love seeing their ideas come together. We’ll see where the ‘Summit’ goes but I’m excited…And it all happened from people ‘networking’ and discussing things. Funny how that works huh?

Even though I’ve been kind of glum this week (offline stuff, trying to close on my house sale, etc…) it’s been a GREAT 3 days in the traffic exchange industry. Let’s keep it going and see what other cool things we can come up with!

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It’s another 365 days gone into the history books in the traffic exchange industry and while we are still going strong, this past year was a real wake up call for a lot of owners. In this post, I hope to stir things up a bit and look back at the year that was in our beloved industry.

This past year we saw a huge push towards the ‘social surfing’ movement. With the launch of programs like Sweeva and the ever growing popularity of in-surf chat at exchanges around the net, the ‘social’ aspect of doing business was very prevalent.

We saw a change in mentality. The future is very bright for this movement and while a lot of people in the industry, like Traffic Hoopla, do not agree with me on the social front, we are seeing brand names being built and surfers becoming ‘famous’ in their own right, just by being active. It’s pretty exciting but that’s not all that happened in 2010.

Newcomer of the year award has to go to Carl Bailey. The owner of Instant Splash quickly became a fan favorite and his blog is one of the most read and commented on sites in the traffic exchanges. His programs are top notch and he has a fantastic outlook on business in the industry. I personally cannot wait to see what he has up his sleeves in 2011.

The traffic exchange of the year goes to Sweeva. I know, I co-own it but when I sat down to write this article I asked myself which program made the most noise this year. Lots of names came up like Traffic Swirl, EasyHits4U and the like but in terms of bringing something new to the table and igniting a fire in everyone’s behind…Sweeva did it. Please do comment if you disagree, because I don’t want this to come off like I’m bragging. I’m just trying to be honest =)

We saw a big change in how the ‘big boys’ do business. A few years ago, there was a whole lot more joint ventures, new launches and basic community between the bigger and more active programs. Now we are seeing more ‘surfers’ uniting. I see a lot of communities being built and surfers working together. The whole ‘team’ mentality was very popular this past year and while I think the idea was good, to work with like minded people, a lot of the promises left something to be desired…

I suppose that’s the way the cookie crumbles and I say kudos to the surfers. The people that are the life blood of this industry, 2011 will be once again your year to shine.

2010 is done. It’s been a fun year and I am very excited about 2011. Both I Love Hits and StartXchange will be celebrating their 10th anniversary in 2011 and lots more milestones will be reached.

What do you have planned for 2011? What do you want to see in the traffic exchange industry? Here’s to a great 2010 and an even brighter future in 2011!

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