Monthly Archives: July 2013

Maintenance Checklist

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maintenance2When a person is on their computer as much as I am there are sometimes that you can tell when something just isn’t doing what it’s suppose to be doing or you catch yourself saying to yourself wonder why it did that – well I drop what I’m doing and get out my maintenance checklist.

In answering support tickets, I hear so many people having issues with a variety of things and there don’t seems to be any logical reason – well when that happens to me the first thing I do is stop everything that I’m doing and do what I call my maintenance.  Now I know you don’t expect your vehicle to keep running smooth without after a certain amount of miles – you stop and do maintenance.

You computer is your vehicle and even tho you have an anti-virus system on board – it’s like the vehicle you drive – things happen.  After all the miles you put on your vehicle, when you are using that vehicle everyday – you can just tell when something just isn’t right – well that is how I feel about my online vehicle – go by your gut – if it’s doing things that are just not normal and you are thinking why did it do that – do your maintenance.

Maintenance Checklist

1.  Clean all your cookies
2.  Clean your history, all temp files, caches
3.  Run your anti-virus (I know you are thinking I have it on auto to run – well run it again)
4.  Run Malewarebytes
5.  Run Spybot
6. Reboot,  test your computer again still not acting right
7. Do all of the above in the safe mode (when booting up hit F8 and that will get you to the safe mode)
8. Reboot,  and test your computer again

maintenanceNow when I get to this point and it still doesn’t seem to be right then I go and bring out the big guns lololol  Run ESET online scanner.  The last time I ran this after all the other security that I have this program found 2 Trojans and 6 other things that I had no clue what they were – after that cleaning – knock on wood – my computer has been lot faster, has been working great and don’t see those strange things happening.

So hope this helps you to at least know some things to try when things just don’t seem right with your computer.  To keep this handy, I just opened notepad and copied all these things to do so this forgetful mind don’t miss a step and named it Maintenance Checklist.

 

Are you suffering from surfing boredom

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boredomIt’s interesting when you lurk in the chat rooms at what you can listen to and all of a sudden a blog post idea pops up.  While surfing some promos today, I heard people talking about needing more coffee to wake up and that they were having a hard time staying awake so the question popped in my head – are you suffering from surfing boredom?????

If you answered this with a yes – well there could be many reasons why and going to list a few of them here.

Same ole, same ole ads

This can be boring on many sites if the members are seeing the same home page after another – you have heard me preach time and time again – make your page stand out do something different that will wake up that surfer.  Now I know you are thinking well I don’t know how to design pages and not creative – well have you tried?  If you think you CAN or you think you CANT…. you are probably right…….Henry Ford.

One ad after another

Have you ever been on a site and it’s just one ad after another – there is nothing to break up the routine – you are thankful to get to a bonus page as it woke you up.   Personally, when I’m surfing, I need something that is going to make me do something beside click, click, click.

Alot of people don’t agree with having games on sites  but personally I feel they break up the boredom.  On my site I have been testing things and have found that members are paying attention as weekly they have a new Treasured Site to find from clues in the emails and they have a chance to win an upgrade.  Also, I pick a text ad from the site and have them look for it and they have to click on it and send in the name of the site for a chance to get a free referral.

When this first started, I got maybe 5 – 6 support tickets but I’m so proud of my members as those support tickets are up to 50 – 60 a week now.  Now I know some owners are going OMG on that many tickets – but you know what is great to me – that has opened up the line of communication with me and my members and to my surprise I have some really smart “cats” out there (hehe)

So the next time you are surfing, think about it – does playing hangman wake up you up and are you more alert on the next pages that you view.  How about clicking on those frown faces – didn’t they wake you up and surfing didn’t seem so boring afterwards.

Same sales copy

“If you’re not using Manual Traffic exchanges you’re leaving 100’s and 1000’s of subscribers and Referrals on the table.”

How many of you have seen this and think oh no another same ole, same ole site well when I see this I’m am surfing boredom before I even get inside.  To me it tells me that the owner don’t care about making his/her site unique to them and I really don’t care how great your traffic is, what you offer on the inside – having this on your main page sends out a message to others – this is your place to add some excitement – make them want to join and come in and see what you offer on the inside.  JMO

So I ask again “Are you suffering from surfing boredom” think about how you can get some excitement in the exchange that you are surfing or the site that you own.

“You don’t have to be great to get started but you have to get started to be great.” – Les Brown

So You Want Your Own Traffic Exchange

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Well after reading blogs this week, attending the Friday wrap meeting, I thought this would be a great blog post.  So You Want Your Own Traffic Exchange.

questions3There are certain things that should be considered before you jump into owning your own site and this speaking for a TE Owner that learned alot the hard way.

First of all – the name of your site – it needs to be unique – you need to do some research on a theme, will your domain name be different from the zillion that are already out there, will it be easy to brand you or your theme.  Why would someone join your site vs all the other sites that are already out there?  What are you going to do different so that people will want to join your site? Why are you starting your site?  Do you have a business plan?  Do you have money to invest? These are questions that a person should answer before you even get a domain name.

Next in my book – is how long have you used traffic exchanges, how long have you been surfing.  Do you know the TE language?  What is a framebreaker?  Do you know how to get around in a cpanel? Can you explain to someone what your surf ratio is?  Have you compared memberships on other sites?  Do you know the difference in credits earned and hits delivered?  How well do you write ad copy, know HTML, any designing skills, good public relations person, etc.  I could keep going as when I started I sure did not know the many hats that a person had to wear.

Before you think that traffic exchange owners have it made and are just rolling in money – think again.  It’s very hard work – and something that I didn’t keep in mind is that that the internet is open 365 days a year 24/7.

Yea I know most of you think that things run smoothly because your favorites sites are always there for you BUT believe me things do not happen at a convenient time – they are going to happen on your spouse bday, on your kid’s graduation, your kid’s or grandkid’s wedding day – these are things that you need to consider before you tie yourself down.

The other thing is how techie are you?  Are you going to be able to fix things when your site has problems or will have to hire someone?  I know this is lot of questions but you need to think about all this and more.

I personally have been thru all the above and more and really don’t want to see anyone else go thru all this and not know.   Being a surfer for many years, researching, reading everything I could find  and even doing admin work on TE’s before buying,  I really thought, I was ready and then made one mistake after another – the major one buying an existing TE with the name Zaney Clicks – sure didn’t think that one out – where is the freaking theme for a name like that.

Oh I can laugh about it now but believe me there were many tears shed before I got to this point and alot of “what were you thinking”  BUT by accident a friend of mine found some cats one day flipping up in the air and said he thought of me as they were Zaney looking and now you know the rest of story on why cats rule on Zaney.

zcheader

The bottom line here is buying a domain, adding hosting and throwing up a script is not the way to launch a traffic exchange.  So you want your own traffic exchange – do your homework, research and planning that it takes and be prepared to put in some very long, long hours OR if you don’t want to do that have a nice bank roll for outsourcing – you are going to need it.

If you are wanting to open your own and would like to get the script that I have then you can just click this LFMTE and be on your way

 

Branding – is it worth the time

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brand It’s interesting when I first came online and started learning, I had a friend of mine tell me that to make it online you have to learn to sell yourself, brand yourself and at the time I thought right – who is going to want to know about me.  Well I learned fast that he was right and I have some examples today that I’d like to share and then you tell me – Branding – is it worth the time

You know it’s funny as actor/actress have been doing this for many years when you think about it and it don’t necessarily have to be your name – example when you hear these lines does an actor/actress come to mind

I’ll Be Back – right away you picture Arnold in the Terminator
May the Force Be With You – didn’t Star Wars pop in your mind
There’s No Place Like Home –  didn’t Dorothy pop in your head from the Wizzard of Oz
Go Ahead, Make My Day – Can’t forget Clint Eastwood
Beam Me Up Scotty – can’t forget Star Trek

Well you can do the same thing online and I have been watching many people in the traffic exchange industry to the same

Flash – didn’t you think about Jo right away and no name was not used
Splash – bet the dolphin popped in your head right away
Tezak – and bet you are a tezzer now

Now I could go on and on with examples – you don’t necessarily have to use your name to brand yourself – but you do need to have something that will make people think of your of your site right away.

 

So think about it some and then leave me a comment – Branding – is it worth the time?

brand3

Promote, Promote, Promote – Does It Pay?

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promote2So often I get asked how do I earn money online and what is it that I do that causes me to get so many referrals, earn commissions and grow my sites.  The bottom answer is promote, promote, promote – Does It Pay?

Well I have some examples that I would like to share with you and some of the mistakes that I have made and what I have learned over the years.  First of all I hear so many talk about not having their own program so don’t know what to do and that was my first excuse that I used.  Well the first thing I suggest doing is find a program and become an affiliate for the program.

Now I’m not just saying join a bunch of sites and throw out your referral links – I’m saying find a program and yes it can be a traffic exchange, a product someone has created or a program that is something that will benefit others.  It took me many years to get this thru my head but finally that light bulb went on.

I know most of you have seen the page that I created and plastered it all over – and this is why I tell you all the time do something that is going to be different, something that will pause the member when they are surfing, and yes I also use mailers but everyone got to see this page Hot Flash Hits .

Now for all of you that grab a referral link and pop it in here and there and add say 1000 credits to it and then think wow well this site didn’t work – well after watching the hits that this page and anything that I promote gets 1000 is NOT enough these days to get you the results you are looking for.  The problem that I see so many doing is giving up before doing all they can to make it work.

You see when I believe in a program, I keep at it – promote, promote, promote – does it pay?  Yes it does and all I can say is find something that you really believe in, learn that program, and then get out there a do everything you can think to do to tell people about that program.  It can be a splash page, a blog post, a video, sending out solos on the mailers and safelist, etc – try it all – track what you are doing and your will soon find what works for you.

resultsYes I said YOU, I can sit here all day and tell you what I am doing but what is working for you may not work for you and what you find that will work for you might not work me me or anyone else.  BUT if you don’t do something – take action – you will NOT get results.  So stop making excuses, stop blaming everyone that you are not earning money – get out there and take some action.