Like you I get alot of emails and this subject line caught my eye today and I’m going to change the names of the person and the site for this blog post BUT I really thought this was something that needed to be addressed so that other owners don’t get this bitter taste.
I do not know if you know me, but I’m (Site Owner So-So), known as (username). I’m a surfer like you. I started surfing for about 7 or 8 years and I gained some experience.
One of the things I learned was that the surfer should not want to grab everything at once. Rather, he should select some good TEs and programs to promote and surfing.
That’s how I bought and I created and maintain the (Site Name).
But it is very sad to note that few (very few) members promote our TE. I surf every day in many TEs, from the chieftains to the lowliest TEs and … to my sorrow, not even see a single splash promoting our TE.
I see many members here promoting other TEs, I see it constantly, including TEs that offer nothing, and awards that the surfer has to compete with thousands of other colleagues, with miserable ratio.
But … is a right of everyone, I can not disregard the taste of anyone.
So I’m seriously considering changing everything around here. Back to the TE quality traffic only, offering the usual commissions, no travel and all that amount of prize pages, bonus and other benefits.
All Traffic Exchange, as indeed any business, you need money in circulation: inputs and outputs. When only one side overlaps the other is a sign that something is wrong, so they are necessary steps in this direction.
Sorry for the long email, but it is very unpleasant to be used only for profit … and nothing more.
One hand washes the other. Think of it always.
Thanks for your patience
Site Owner
Well you know me, I responded to his email and this is what I wrote him back……….
Just read your email so thought I’d go see what you were doing at my site
and was surprised to see the results that I seen and could understand why
you are not seeing your pages. I have a few things that I have learned and
going to share them with you.
ONE it’s up to the owner to do the promoting – 90% of the results that you
get to your site is from what YOU as the owner is doing. You have to stay
active, keep your site out there and DO NOT count on everyone else doing
it for you – it just don’t happen.
TWO – when I signed into your account you only had ONE link in rotation
promoting your site and yet 4 others promoting another site – the first rule is
to get them to your SITE first and then promote to another site.
THREE – you didn’t have any banners or text links added and you need to use
every resource out there as you never know what is going to make that person
finally click – you have to keep the name of your site in front of them even if it
is just adding the site name as a text as which I did for you and assigned your
text links.
While I was there I add all three of your banners and some appeal to some more
than others and that is all that you should be promoting – YOU and YOUR SITE
The other thing that I have done is created a rotator of all your splash pages
and even set up tracker links for them – now you can use it where ever you want
but what I like is that I don’t have to chase all over now to see where my pages
are being seen – as it tells me in the stats.
Here is the rotator that I created for you (link to the rotator that I created for him)
so it’s up to you right now – if you are going to give up which it sounds like
you are ready to do – or just get back on that horse of determination and get
busy promoting you and your site.
The best part is that with this ONE link (as this is what I do with my site’s
stuff) I only have to add the ONE link and it just rotates all my splash pages
and I find that I don’t need as many credits this way – yet my site is being seen
and I know it’s being seen by the stats.
Good luck and hope that this helps you out – want to discuss this more
you can add me on Skype @ nancyradlinger
Well as I see and hear this alot – thought I’d make a blog post about this situation as I know lot of people have felt this way, been in these shoes and it gets hard sometimes to get up one more time and keep going.
I have to agree with everything you said here Nancy. As an owner, you have to totally shift gears and think like an owner, not a surfer. I know, easier said than done, but it is a totally different mind set. Traffic exchanges are always evolving and yes the trend now is that most surfers are out there for credits and cash. They will surf as many pages as they can for one or the other. As an owner, you have to have something for all of your members. You have the responsibility to promote your business everywhere possible, with whatever means are available. Especially if you are new and just starting out. You can’t depend on your members to advertise for you. It is an added bonus when they do and I still get excited when I see our members helping us promote. I wish whoever this is the best of luck. As my partner always says, you have to promote, promote and promote some more. It never ends.
Thanks Jo and I agree and it’s really hard to sometimes change hats from surfer to TE owner and I think we all have gone thru that at one time or the other I know I sure have.
Hello dear Nancy,
G-R-E-A-T POST! I shared it on TW, FB, and SU.
Thanks a lot for sharing this real life example of working as a TE owner.
Philippe
Thanks Philippe and always enjoy seeing you and thanks for all the shares.
Bravo (standing up clapping)
Nancy it is fantastic that you cared enough to write an in depth response.
You have totally hit the nail on the head – many owners open a site and expect
everyone else to promote it when they don’t even promote it themselves.
An owner has to assume he or she is the ONLY one promoting the site.
And YES, like you said- promote your site first —
as you build your site, you will have the opportunity to market other products.
I would add, if you consider your site a business, then act like it.
You don’t see Coke advertising for Pepsi – at least, I never have.
If you want to be an affiliate marketer, then close your site down and
be the best affiliate marketer online.
And lastly, there is nothing which aggravates me more than a whiny owner.
I bust my butt every day trying to engage our members and build the site.
If you are over there whining wanting someone to build your site for you, then
you might as well close it down, cause I can guarantee you your members
don’t like it either. Usually when I receive letters like that I just click the DELETE MY ACCOUNT BUTTON.
Thanks Cathy and you are right – I don’t see Coke promoting Pespi but most don’t consider what they do online a business either – yet they expect to have all the benefits of a owner but don’t want to do the work. I have even seen grab the money and take a hiatus for a few months and then come back and expect to continue running their site and then don’t understand why there is NO activity.
I know we all get discouraged and we feel like that we get kicked in the guts sometimes by the horse we ride but I’m country gal and you have to get back on one more time than you were kicked off to finally win the battle.
Good Post Nancy… We, as owners, can not expect members to promote our business for us… When they do promote us, they are promoting for their purpose, whether it be for credits or commissions, not ours… This is just a bonus for us! Promoting our business is our job, as owners, to make it grow for our members. Until an owner realizes this, they will not be successful.
I agree Marcy – it is our job – one of the many hats that an owner has to wear – it’s goes under that category of advertising and every business has to do it where they like it or now.
Great post, Nancy! Now this is what I’ve been preaching for ages but it just don’t seem to sink in for some owners. Being an owner is more like a game to them. Kinda like young children who beg and beg for a puppy then once they get the puppy and play with it for a day or two they grow tired of it and expect Mommy to feed it and take care of it.
It’s time for owners to grow up and take care of that puppy! It’s YOUR puppy and YOUR responsibility to take care of it. Don’t expect your members to take care of YOUR traffic exchange! I don’t take care of Walmart, I just shop there. It’s Walmart’s job to bring in shoppers, lol.
Thanks Jon and awesome comment and analogy – that is just perfect
Hi Nancy,
How very kind of you to help this person, and my reaction and response is the same as the other TE owners……it’s a job, a very hard job, but you must promote You first! That is everywhere you go and then some. Great advice from a very caring person!! Kudos to you!!
Thanks Patty and I do try to help and encourage others as I know it’s not easy sometimes to find the positive – but they are there and I keep trying to show everyone where they are.
OK tread lightly James
Nancy you are amazing the kind words that you sent to that owner and the time you took to share your thoughts are huge.
with that said here comes the more evil Side or ( the dark side )
with traffic exchange scripts being so inexpensive the every dollar you spend to promote a site is even more valuable than ever. I have and never will say “why are you not promoting me” as an owner I will grow the site at all cost but that’s the type of person I am
I want to grow and thrive at all cost. Some of us work pretty crazy hours. To keep up with others in this business is not enough keeping up sucks jumping ahead is where the fun is. Work till your hands hurt and your back aches because you have took charge of your business and sat there at the PC till you got what you wanted done.
don’t complain that members are not promoting you complain cause you just cant do no more.
give 100% and see the results multiply at an amazing rate.
want to grow and win give 100% so few are it should be easy to do well
Send you hate mail to James ( at) diasmediaworks.com or try it and kick butt
great post Nancy and thank you for doing it and giving 100%
James Dias
Thanks James and actually I don’t think you were that evil – you just stated facts and how an owner should be looking at their investment – and I really think alot of people forget that – they just forget it’s a business and part of running a business is advertising.
Like some have said – word of mouth is great but I feel you have to earn that and when you do it will come. Word of mouth on here is seeing others promoting you at least that is how I see it – that is their way of patting you on the back and telling you they are happy with what you are doing. BUT that is not going to happen until your are making them happy.
Great post Nancy! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us.
I totally agree with Cathy. Even tho I sometimes get discouraged, it is my business so I do the work. I find that when I make time to surf/promote daily I see more people promoting my site than I realized and that gets me stoked to promote even more.
Thanks Jim and you are exactly right – me too – when I find a member promoting – I start thinking already what am I going to do now to get more people’s attention and I pay attention to the page they used and try to make it better – that is just what we all need to keep doing.
Great post Nancy and you have more patience than I do LOL.
I will never understand why owners promote everything else, but their own site takes a back seat. That just makes no sense to me, yet I see owners doing this day after day, despite how many times they’ve been told this. To me that tells me that they don’t have enough pride in their own site.
If you are a surfer that decides to open a traffic exchange, you MUST make that transition from surfer to owner…..promote YOUR site and ONLY your site FIRST.
And yes YOU the owner are solely reponsible for growing it. It is NEVER the member’s responsibility.
I’ve said that so many times I’m actually sick of hearing myself so I’ll just shut up now LOL.
Thanks Jackie and I agree and usually delete these emails but for some reason today I decided to take the time and follow thru and just see what they were doing and how they were promoting and you are right – I see this from many, many owners.
In fact, just the other day I was doing some checking and found an owner still promoting sites she had sold and didn’t even have any links in for the sites that she owned – so I fixed it for her as that is how many people will say a site is not working, they don’t get any referrals, etc.
Had I gave up the first time I felt discouraged, SST wouldn’t have lasted a week. While I can understand this disgruntled owners point of view of how frustrating it is when you aren’t getting the results you want for your site, I also can see where it is up to the owner to both, promote his/her site like no one else in the world is promoting it and if they want to see results even faster, possibly bribe the membership to help advertise. Also the way I see it, if an owner is truly out there busting their butt, eventually there will be members that see that determination and love for their site and want to help them succeed. 🙂
Gary
Thanks Gary and I think all site owners get discouraged sometimes and feel what they are doing is not working – but all it takes is a Skype message and someone noticing something that you did, something you said or a member sending an email thanking you for something you did or even better yet seeing them get referrals, earn money etc – that is the “WHY” we do what we do.
Sounds to me this person needs to learn internet marketing and especially how to use TEs. Just buying something does not bring you results. Very nice of you to do his work. Hope he learns from it.
Thanks Xarah and this is true – sometimes it just take people longer to switch hats from surfer to owner – user to owner etc.
Great Post Nancy!
Way to do tough love~and you are so right in all that you said in this post. To widen the scope a bit if you don’t mind your rule doesn’t just apply to TE owners every single marketer out there can take a winning lesson from your post.
Promote you first then what ever business you want after.
Good one lady and thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Susan Boston
Thanks Susan – and you are right – I remember when I first came online I had a guy from the UK that had an advertising business and said that if I was serious about earning online then I was going to have to believe in myself and market “me” – well I laughed at him and said yea right. Well guess what – he was right – you have to believe in what you are doing, brand yourself, let people get to know you, help others, and always be willing to learn, learn, learn. If you develop yourself with these skills, then the money follows – so many time I see people so focused on the money that they forget their “why” and you really have to go back and look at your “why” are you here.
This could be another whole post that I plan on doing someday because your “why” defines how you present yourself, leads you to what you will be doing, etc. – just a quick examplhttp://zaneyclicks.com/Blog/wp-admin/edit-comments.php#comments-forme is if MONEY is your “why” then you are more than likely going to be a program hopper looking the that fast and easy money
Hi Nancy.
This is an awesome post, thank you for sharing. I admire you for your patience and helping this TE Owner. I too hope he will take your advice to heart and learn from it.
Yes I totally agree with you and everyone here ( I read all your post’s ) that it is
up to the Owner to Promote their TE, or Their Own Program first and foremost.
Also, on another note, he should provide plenty of great looking splash pages, banners, text ads for his members, so they have something great to promote.
I always get excited when I see our members promoting “Us”, it makes my heart sing, but that’s just and extra bonus I didn’t expect. We love paying commissions 🙂
I am amazed, at times, when I join a TE ( to get more exposure for my sites) how little promotional material they have available, that immediately gives me a clue to their site. They have a great splash page, and then nothing on the inside.
I enjoy giving other TE’s and good programs, exposure on my TE’s, if they are serious about their business and I feel our members would like them too.
Well there is my 2 cents worth.
Thanks Monika and the comments have just been awesome. That is a good point about providing plenty of material for people to promote – I find it amazing to find some sites only have one splash, one 468×60 banners and most don’t even have a 125×125. It’s really not that hard these days to either make splash pages yourself and there are plenty of talented people out there to hire. I know I started out on Fiverr and found many talented people there. Since then many people are promoting right on the TE’s so makes it real easy.
I know some of you are thinking that you can’t afford to hire someone – well I thought like that in the beginning also – but you know what – if you are looking at YOUR site as a business – then you need to invest in your business. When people see you believing in YOUR Business – then they are more apt to pay attention.
You are right about us getting excited seeing someone “promote” us – and yes does make your heart sing, makes you want to try harder and harder and gives your the answer to your “WHY”
Thanks Monika for your 2 cents
Nancy,
I am so happy to have read this, and you are so right!
Never count on others for your success or blame them for lack of it!
Thanks for your expert wisdom!
Christy
Thanks Christy and good point as I also see so many blame others all the time and my mom always told me when you point one finger at someone – you are pointing 3 back at yourself.
Hi Nancy,
As usual wise words from the great woman herself! It is really unfortunate that so many owners online, and not just TE Owners, seem to think that success is going to happen overnight and come easy. It takes time, money and work, and work some more to get your business to grow. It is no different than a brick and mortar store, but for some reason people do not look at it that way.
I have to agree with all the advice you gave to this person, and it is absolutely the job of the Owner to grow their business…NOT the members! If they choose to that is great (or gravy), but they have their own things to worry about.
I am back in school and one of my classes right now is on critical thinking and talking a lot about Leadership and what it takes to be a great leader/Business Owner. Perhaps people should read about leadership and what it really DOES take because it seems that many are quite clueless.
Here is the last of my 2 cents worth! Being an Owner you MUST be a self starter and passionate about what you are doing…motivate yourself, be determined not to fail, keep a positive and winning mindset and use visualization! Visualize where you will be in a year, 2 years, or 5 years from now then make it come to fruition!
Here is a great quote I will leave you with that is totally awesome!
“You gotta want it as badly as you want to breathe…when you want it that much you will succeed!”
Marilyn Martin
Thanks Marilyn and maybe it’s easier for me as I had an offline business for 30 years and you do learn some hard lessons especially about the one of selling yourself, building that trust, and the rest will come. When you have something else that someone else is also selling, you have to always find what makes you different and unique from every other xyz company out there.
I agree with you totally about my business and pour my heart and soul into what I do as I love waking up everyday and do what I do – and I’m constantly working on ways to improve – almost feel guilty as someone should not be having so much fun and enjoyment working hehehe Love the quote
Hiya Nancy,
I have to also agree, linda and I are out there not in as many te’s as we’d like everyday, but we still get out there and promote our site, yes we have other things we promote as well, but we still make sure that our site is getting seen as well. At first, I have to be honest I was thinking as a surfer instead of as an owner and was discouraged at how many members we had and then while surfing how many ads for our te I wasn’t seeing, but then I realized hey wait a minute, if our members don’t see us promoting then why should they?? I may run out of credits at most te’s and not be able to get back to a certain te in a while, but I do what I can and as does linda and now also our business partner to work with our members at getting our site out there, recently I have seen so many more of our members out there promoting our te as well and it really makes me feel a sense of accomplishment 🙂 I know we have a long way to go yet to be competing as a top te but we are doing our best 🙂 Keep up the awesome work at your te and your blog, we love zaney clicks 🙂
Your Friend in Success,
Michael Champion
MYT-BEAR2 CO-OWNER
Thanks Michael – yea it’s not easy sometimes and it is hard for someone just starting to realize that while being a surfer – you think that it would be easy to run a TE and don’t realize there are things that happen behind the scene that 99% of the surfers never know about that a site owner has to take care of so that those pages keep being seen. We all have been there and learn everyday.
I enjoyed reading your post, Nancy and I support your statements and observations 100%! It is up to us to make our sites of value to others and to drive traffic to them, PERIOD! Good job with the post and I’ll watch for more in the future ,,,
Thanks Randy and nice to see you comment – love to see owners getting involved
Great Post Nancy!!! Bravo!!! I have done the same thing you have. I have 2 Rotators actually One has all my Surf Promo Splashpages in it and the Other One has my Main sites and the regular affiliate splashes in it. I promote those 2 Rotators every where. Recently getting them changed out cause of the New Rotator Mod but I love it. I can see where my sites are getting seen more and where I am getting results as well a Which Splashpages are getting results. All of this info tells me where to spend more time/money advertising, which splashpages to use more and which need to be changed out.
Heck most of us TE Owners dont just promote in TEs either. We use Social Media, Downline Builders in every kind of site you can think of, Paid to Clicks, Co-Ops, Banner Co-Ops, Safelists, Viral Mailers, I can go on and on.
If YOU want YOUR Business to Grow then YOU should step up and do something so it will.
Dont point the finger at others. Members will choose to promote the programs that bring them money. Why would they promote anything else?
The other thing is If YOU dont Keep your members Active and Traffic Moving, WHY would they NEED to promote your site? The main 2 reasons people promote TEs 1. Referral Contests w/cash prizes 2. The site is Moving a LOT of Traffic and they want downline members who will help build there traffic as well as a site thats moving traffic is a sight thats selling traffic and therefore the members earn commissions (again income related). Not to mention a busy site also means more exposure, more signups to programs they promote and again therefore, More Income.
Anyway think Im making my point here. ALL of us are online to make money. So if YOU are not making sure your TE is a VALUE in one way or another to your members then No they wont promote it.
So Theres another way you can change how your site is growing. Offer a Referral Contest or Bonuses and Offer your Surfers something to make it worth their time to Surf and keep your Site Busy.
Excellent Post Nancy, and I agree you went out of your way to explain some things to that owner as well as not dither around but came right out with the honest facts. You also went that extra mile and Offer your contact info should they like to ask questions and get more advice.
You get the Good Deeds TE Owner Award (Clap Clap)
Thanks for Sharing this 🙂
Thanks Kaye – you had some excellent points there and am so happy to see all these comments – I have even learned some new things from reading all the comments and in my point of view – that is what blogging is suppose to be about and accomplish – thanks to everyone that has made that possible.
As far as helping that owner – that’s just me as I remember being there having some of those same thoughts, some of those same fears, some of those same questions and sure wish someone had taken the time to help me and NOT tell me in a webinar one day – “yea, I can help you but will cost you $200.00/hour and I also remember how that made me feel and I never, never want anyone to feel that.
I am and have always believed what goes around comes around AND also believe in treating others like you would like to be treated but guess some would call that “old school” – maybe so but I would rather be known for that and be approachable then to think that I’m better than you are and good way to slam the door in your face is tell you – yea I’ll answer your questions for $200.00/hour
Nancy, Would you believe I have been in TE’s since 2002 and never used a rotator or tracker? By accident I came upon your post explaining the process. I guess you never stop learning online !
Now I’ll be doing more effort to get referrals, but with positive results.