Issue 212 – The High Cost of Low Cost Traffic Exchanges
Issue 212 of Hit Exchange News. It’s time for my yearly ‘rant’ and ‘rave’ about the traffic exchange industry and how far it’s come in the decade since Click Thru first came online. You know, after 212 issues of this e-zine one thing has remained constant in this business…The people!
I have met the best people in the world through these programs, from my ‘GOB’s’ at Net Marketing Forum, to the big boys at the offline seminars, this industry brings together the best of the best in online marketers. It’s not easy and it’s an uphill battle at times, but the traffic exchanges seem to breed winners and winning mentalities.
So here’s another feather in the cap to the traffic exchange industry. Keep generating the hits and developing some of the leaders of today and leaders of tomorrow in this industry. We’ve come a long way but 10 years later, we are still the most reliable and stable form of free traffic generating online!
Jon Olson
The Traffic Exchange Guy
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The News
- I Love Hits hit 90,000 members this past week. At this pace, we will hit 100,000 members in a few months. Now this does not means 90,000 active members, but 90,000 people have come through the doors at ILh since it launched in 2001. Not too bad for an LJ script, a funky design and a cartoon boxer huh?
- $1000 is still up for grabs! Traffic Wonderland is in it’s final days of the 1000 dollar giveaway. This hot new exchange has become the sleeper hit so far of 2008 with over 2000 members in only 7 short weeks. This is not to be missed folks!
- Alive Hits will be changing ownership int he next few days. Sam, the original owner, has chosen to leave his post and find new management to take over this very solid traffic exchange. Good luck to both Sam and the new owner of Alive Hits.
- Rumor has it that Jennifer Herold and John Guanzon will be releasing ‘New Way 2 Surf’ in the next day or so. Be sure to stay tuned for reviews and news about this proposed ‘revolution’ in the traffic exchange industry. This T.E. surfer is eagerly awaiting to see what they have in store for us.
- Congratulations to ‘Keith’ 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 – DeeDee Medcoff is one of the most well known T.E. administrators on the net. And this splash page sure does help her branding!
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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. StartXChange
2. Traffic Splash
3. TS 25
4. Traffic Swarm
5. Traffic Bunnies
6. Dragon Surf
7. Easy Hits 4 U
8. Magnify Traffic
9. Hit Safari
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
Where Does It End, How Low Do We Go?
Disclaimer goes here: Yes, I know I Love Hits and SWAT Traffic are some of the lowest priced traffic exchanges to both upgrade in and buy credits. But the kicker is, I have never lowered the prices ever in either program, in fact I have even raised prices in SWAT Traffic. End disclaimer.
Rant time. There’s a new program out in the traffic exchanges this week that brags about being the last ‘affordable’ T.E. to upgrade in. Of course, it costs a buck or so to be an upgraded member. I’m all for free enterprise, but wow. Is this what this industry needs? An already dirt cheap form of web site advertising, going even lower in price points?
I for one cannot understand this marketing move. This has been known to kill industries since day one when we start to lower and lower and lower the prices. Let’s put this into perspective, an upgrade at I Love Hits is $9.97 (or even lower if you took one of the offers) that’s roughly 33 cents per day to be upgraded in a traffic exchange with over 90,000 members. Not a bad investment I would think.
Now this program comes on talking about one dollar to upgrade, and at least half of that goes to a payment processor for service fees. The owner is left with 50 cents roughly. It would take a whole lot of upgraded members to make that exchange profitable, which means less money for the owner to advertise, which means less new members coming into the program to look at your sites.
Hey, maybe I’m making a big deal of of nothing so please do voice your opinion below. And even better, tonight’s seminar at SWAT Traffic will be on this topic. A hot topic maybe, but something that needs to be talked about.
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm…
- Only a few more days at Affiliate Funnel’s Laptop giveaway. Win a lap top PC, a digital camera or a Sirius radio from the wacky owners of AF.
- Hey UA, we are still waiting for Dealer!
- Wow! I love Traffic Asylum!
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