What Happened to Creativity?

Posted on August 19, 2017 by Nancy Radlinger

This popped into my head today as I was going through my emails and thought it would make a great blog post – What Happened to Creativity?

First, for all of you that don’t remember what the word means, “creativity” is the use of the imagination or original idea – now did you see the word Original.? THAT means created directly and personally by a particular artist; not a copy or imitation.

Now I don’t know about you but I DO NOT even open emails with these headlines:

Claim Your Login Spotlight Reward
Cross Promo with XYZ Site
Our Surf Timers Have Been Lowered
2 Day Credit Special

Usually, these are default headliners and I feel owners are just being lazy and keep sending out. Now think about it – You have to pay money for that spot in the Spotlight Logins. Do you really think that sending out all these emails with the same old headline are going to get members excited about logging in and taking a look at your ad?

Now I don’t know about you but I believe, if you are going to run a business, you would want to stick out… be different… AND give members a REAL reason to login to your site… hence this blog post!!

I think I’m on a roll here… there other headlines that don’t get opened are the ones that sound too good to be true or are full of spam words. You can Google to find out about this OR this blog post that I found very interesting…

438 Spam Trigger Words to Avoid And Why Context Matters More

So I’m going to ask once more… What Happened to Creativity? I am hoping that bringing this to YOUR attention will spark some creativity. I’m looking forward to opening up my emails and see some of this YOUR creativity.

Oh and while you have your creativity on a roll – the same can be applied to TEXT ads – give the people a REASON to click that ad, click your email.

Yeahhhhhhhh I see that mind going – Zaney Clicks needs some text ads – so let me see what you can create!!

Square Banners 101

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Nancy Radlinger

After spending hours of cleaning up the Square Banners, I thought this would make a great blog post Square Banners 101. In this post I’m going to show you how many people waste impressions and in some sites waste, piles of money as you have to buy the square banner impressions.

If you are not sure what a square banner is, it is just that… square.. and it measures 125X125 pixels. Most sites will have these for you to use in the Affiliate Toolbox. If the site does not offer this, contact the site owner and tell them what you need or just make your own.

Now many of you are trying to put a 468×60 in where the 125×125 square banner goes. When you do this, people can’t read your banner… thus wasting impressions and money – here are some examples

Also Photobucket has changed its terms… people who were using Photobucket to store their images… can no longer use Photobucket for free 3rd party hosting. Photobucket defines 3rd party hosting as the action of embedding an image or photo onto another website. So basically what they want you to do is pay a monthly fee now to host your images and anyone that has not paid you will see an image like this

Now if are experiencing this – there are a few things you can do and that is sign up to the monthly upgrade at Photobucket. The other thing is that you can go to your Photobucket account and save the images to your computer and then upload them to your own domain’s site. A third option is to get a cheap domain and get a $2 yearly hosting package from some hosting (Maderite does this) and store all the photos there and use your own link for these banners… I suggest that people buy their name domain… twofold purpose and hang the jpgs and gifs and pngs there and if you upload the graphics to the root of the domain… it is simple…. domain.com/graphicname.jpg

One more thing that you should pay watch when designing your own banners are the colors – a dark text on dark background is very hard to read… also just using different colors won’t work for people who might be color-blind… saturation is also important…

AND I remember when I first started I thought that the flashing was eye catching until I got a ticket from a member letting me know that every time she saw my ad – it gave her a migraine. (also can trigger epileptic seizures)

So keep in mind when you are designing… just because you CAN get fancy… most of the time you will find the K.I.S.S rule applies.

What Do You See When Surfing?

Posted on March 22, 2017 by Nancy Radlinger

judgingcat While I am one that surfs many sites – today I was just thinking (scary thought
huh?) what do you see when surfing? I bet if asked each of you would have
a different answer on what they see when surfing.

Since I am well over due for a blog post, I thought I would put it out there and see what others are really seeing. There are many reasons that a person surfs , most surf to earn credits to get their sites seen.

This post is to try to get you to pay attention to what are you really seeing
and do you really know what you have seen. Now if most were honest bet
the main thing that you watch are the icons and making sure you are clicking
the right ones – come on I know I’m guilty of that sometimes as my mind
wanders and stop paying attention.

But when I’m really paying attention there are things that I look at – like –
which sites are being shown and who is promoting and taking action.
Then I also pay attention to the banners and text ads to see if there is
something there to make me want to click and what was it that made me
want to click. Plus I’m always looking for new ways and ideas to promote
Zaney Clicks and surfing wakes up my creativity.

223983781438059586_OQ73fQx9_b Now I know most of you get that page what was the last site you seen? How many of you get it right and how many of you don’t. I know lot of people don’t like that mod but I really think that is great as it does help to wake you back up from just the click, click, click and not really paying attention

And yes I have missed those questions and why I know they do make me pay attention more after missing one – the next time is comes up don’t it make you feel better when you get it right. Well this not only is good that you were paying attention but then you are not viewing ads like you wish others are viewing yours.

Well it amazes me that I have no clue what I’m going to say when I start and
then all of a sudden I have see that I went on and on – oops. But one other
thing to sum all this up – just don’t click, click, click to earn that penny, nickel,
stamp, helmet, trophy, chef hat – really pay attention to your fellow members ads.

Leave a comment and let’s hear what do you see when you are surfing – don’t
be shy as your feedback will be very helpful to others – no matter how long
you have been doing this – we still can learn new things – teach me something

comments2

Making your text ads work from lessons I learned

Posted on December 8, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

It’s interesting how many times I hear that text ads don’t work, I never get results from text ads and let me tell you they do work with some tweaking. Here are some things in making your text ads work from lessons I have learned

Over the years, I have watched text ads and headliners to solo ads and I can tell you there is a trick to all this that I discovered. One when you are viewing ads – that text ad is competing with other things on that page and it has to jump out at you and say click me.

Now if you are viewing ads and you just see another sites name that really don’t excite me as I already know what I’m going to see when I click. So kinda boring don’t you think????

Now what if you put some pazazz, excitement, curiosity in that text ad – you need to give the person viewing ads a reason to click that text ad. Here is a few examples …..

Cheaper than a gallon of gas
You will be tempted….
Adult Coloring Books!!!
You Afraid of ALIENS ?
There Is Life After PAYPAL
Close your eyes and make a wish
Not Surfing Here? Big Mistake!

These are just a few that I picked out to show you – the first one is surely a way to catch someone’s eye without putting in a price. 2nd one – tempted on what – click and see – so simple huh? Adult Coloring Books – well that made me click and they are really Adult Coloring Book – awesome books – great Christmas gift. You Afraid of Aliens? well I had to click that one just to see who was being clever lol.

And with all the downers going on about Paypal – the next one was hope and let you know that this might have been a stumbling block but life does go on – very good one. Close your eyes and make a wish – again clicked that one just to see what I could wish for. AND if you have a site that is working for you – thought the last one was very clever with the reverse psychology.

So the next time you are adding your TEXT ADS – stop and think about what your a adding and ask yourself will someone click on it. Making your text ads from lessons I have learned is not that hard – just put a little thought into it the next time you are just going to add a site name – you will be surprised

Oh one more thing – since you don’t see your own text ads when viewing ads – here is another things I learned the hard way – my whole ad was not being displayed. The normal amount of characters are 30 including spaces. Here are a few examples of what I have seen

This is your chance to Earn a
Free Pros Going Now. Limited T
Social Networking with Free Cl
Get Paid 0.5 Cents For Every E
Our Unique Software Will Pla

So make sure that the site you are adding your text ad you know how many characters you are allowed so that others are seeing what you meant to say. Just so you know Zaney Clicks lets you add 40 characters plus spaces.

I really am going to shut up – one more tip. If you are not creative then do like I do – get inspiration from reading emails for credits and then pay attention to the ones that caught your eye and make a swipe file (secret) a swipe file is a text file that I have in notepad that I swipe from someone else and put my twist on it. There are many, many places to add to your swipe file – magazines, newspaper ads, billboard ads, other text ads, facebook ads and even twitter.

Are You Guilty?

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

As I was working online today a few thoughts popped in my head and thought I would go over a few and see Are You Guilty too.

We have gotten into this fast pace world so much online that we don’t seem to have patience anymore – we want it now, we want faster timers, we want, we want, are you guilty. Well it’s not easy to admit but I found myself falling into this trap and forget that life happens, things break, and there are humans behind these screens – not machines

As you all know, I’m a big surfer as I like to get the sites all over and do you log into a site and think to yourself wow that is a great offer – buy, buy, buy and the next thing you realize that you broke your budgeted amount you had put aside for the month – are you guilty. Again, I am – I have come to the conclusion that I’m shopaholic – not that I go out to stores and spend, spend, spend but I sure like clicking that buy button especially if it’s a great deal. Will I stop – no – but I do have to watch closer on what I spend.

Have you spent hours surfing a site and are so excited about moving on to the next one because you have a set amount of time put aside in your schedule for surfing – then realize that you forgot to assign your credits, banner and text impressions – are you guilty – again I am and I think instead of going back right away and doing it I tell myself that I will do it the next time around – hmmmmm do you know how long my stuff is not getting seen because I didn’t take the time to follow thru before I left the site – are you guilty

Well this one gets me all the time and I miss out on so much free advertising – when I do remember to assign everything – I still am rushing on to the next site that I forget about the bonus in the surfers rewards – are you guilty. If you are like me, but the time you remember oh crap I didn’t collect the surfers rewards – it’s too late as the site has already reset for the day.

One more before I call it a nite – are you so waiting for the next set of icons to come up that you just glance at the site and then click. Then are pissed at yourself when you get to the next page and it ask what was the site you just seen and you go oh crap – I just looked at that page and pick what you think you saw to come find out you are wrong – are you guilty? You would not believe how many times I yell at myself – yea I said yell – you can ask my cat as he takes off to the other room – poor cat.

Well would love to hear how many of you will admit and comment on this one as all this is NOT easy for admit because in our mind we are superwoman and superman and can’t admit to costly mistakes like this – are you guilty? Well I was until tonight and thought – you know if I do these silly things – bet there are others.

Don’t know about you but I have hard time shutting the brain down when I go to bed and thought of one more that is important. When you signup at a new site and you are so excited about getting in there to click the required pages that you just check that box that says I have read the terms – are you guilty. Yep me too and will even take it one step further – how about jumping to add your sites and start surfing that you don’t even look the site over – the members page, the FAQ’s page or even click any of the other buttons to find out about what the site is all about – are you guilty. Yea this is hard one to admit but I have kicked myself in the hinder so many times later when I realize that I am missing out on some awesome features that the site is offering.

My view on K.I.S.S (keep it simple stupid)

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

Well most of you know that somedays I can surf alot of pages and view a lot of ads that are out there and I want to tell you something that I learned the hard way. Here is my view on K.I.S.S and for all that don’t know what that stands for – Keep It Simple Stupid and no I didn’t come up with this as I don’t like calling someone Stupid – my version would have been Keep It Simple Sweetheart – altho I look back on some of the mistakes that I did over the years and guess sometimes stupid just does fit.

Ten years ago when I first got online, I soon realized that there were some things that I was going to have to learn or have lot of money in my budget and that was designing splash pages. Well since the latter was not there at the time, I started looking around learning how to make my own pages.

Am I a designer??? NOOOOOOOOOOOOO Do I like to play around with making something different than the norm? Yesssssssss Because of the later, I started experimenting with different programs and ohhhhh it was like turning a kid loose with a new toy.

So let me tell you some of the BIG mistakes that I made and why I want you all to learn to K.I.S.S. One of the first things is finding out there is a whole world of fonts out there and ahhhhhhhh so pretty – but guess what even tho they are fancy and cute – you only have a short amount of time for a person to read what you want them to read.

If they can’t read your fancy font – you might just lost a referral or even a sell. K.I.S.S. Yea, I said the same thing but it’s soooooooo cute but I quickly learned that cute didn’t get me results. So I found a plain, simple font and started using that and wow that sure made a difference in the clicks on my ads then.

Well I know you have seen pages with all the bells and whistles – flashing light, bright colors, and yea I did the same thing. My thinking at the time was that the flashing was going to catch someone eye more that just K.I.S.S. – well I was wrong. What wound up happening was that people were leaving the page faster because it hurt their eye and even had some told me it gave them headaches.

When I heard this I was shocked as I just thought I was making my page stand out – keep this in mind on your banners and splash pages that blinking can give bother some people and they won’t even look at your page no matter how many hours you put into making it.

Now I’m not saying that you should just design a plain black and white splash – what I am saying is that you don’t have to go overboard on the designing. What I learned is that when you put too much into how fancy you can make your page sometimes your actual message you were trying to convey gets lost.

So the next time that you feel like being creative – go to Google and look up some of the well known businesses and click on images for that business. Remember, it’s the message that you want people to know – not how fancy your page is. One more thing to keep in mind is the loading time for your page – with faster timers these days – another reason to K.I.S.S.

Why Zaney Clicks Uses Mixed Character Codes

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

It’s funny when I get asked these questions and I chuckle to myself – the first thought that pops in my head is because it is me just being Zaney hehehehe

But there is a reason why Zaney Clicks uses mixed character codes. For all of you that don’t know or don’t like to copy and paste them in for a code – let me tell you the rest of the story and my thinking.

Zaney Clicks is not just a traffic exchange and if you have read other post about the site then you will know that Zaney Clicks is a teaching site. In my own Zaney way there are things that you are learning and most of the time don’t even realize it but by routinely seeing and doing things YOU LEARN

What are you learning by seeing and using mixed character codes – you are learning that it is easy to use them, you are learning the crazy combos that can be used, you are learning to use some characters on your keyboard that you forget is there.

Now why in the world would I want you to learn to see, learn, and use these mixed character codes. It’s to get comfortable with them enough that you will NOT be so scared to make them up and use them as passwords like I was when I first started.

When I first started online, I wanted something that was easy to remember and so I used something that I was going to remember for me and it was just 7 character word. Then I learned how easy it was for hackers to crack passwords.

So then I started using letters and numbers and you guess it – there is actually Cracking Password Hacker Tools – I know crazy huh? So now you know why Zaney Clicks uses mixed character codes. If you want to read more about this then go read about it here Password Cracking

So the next time that you use one of Zaney Clicks mixed character codes – you know the rest of the story. Yea I know what is going thru your head how do I keep track of all these mixed character passwords – well I use RoboForm

Prizes in Traffic Exchanges

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

Well this is going to be a little rant as I think lot of people have lost the “why” you join traffic exchanges. Traffic exchanges are simple – you look at my site and I will look at your site – they are an advertising platform. The prizes in traffic exchanges are being offered as an incentive and thank you for visiting a site and looking at the ads that are being shown.

Some traffic exchanges offer daily and weekly prizes in their sites again as in incentive and thank you for coming to their business to view other members ads. NOW the rant sometime things happen – prize pages conflict, codes are typed wrong, the server didn’t reset and the list goes on and on and I know all of you know what I’m talking about.

Well when this happens for one it means that the people behind the scene are human and we make mistakes – it does not mean that we are trying to cheat you out of your “prize”. What gets me the most when people think this – to me as an owner this is like a slap in the face. These are not just prizes that come with our business, they are prizes that site owners have to BUY that we give to you as prizes.

If you are surfing a traffic exchange just for the prize incentives then maybe you should reevaluate your “why” did I join this site. If you spent more time sharing the site you are in instead of focusing so much on the prize incentives that they offer you would be making lot more money.

Example you join a health club and you are loving the results you are getting and that club offers prize incentives for referring a friend. As a prize incentive they may offer you 15 minutes in hot tub, discount on massage, etc. Now where are YOU going to benefit the most – yes buy telling your friends and explaining the benefits. The same works in traffic exchanges. While the 15 minutes in the hot tub may feel awesome after a long day – wouldn’t it be nice to have a friend to share that with.

So for all that is reading this I ask you to go back and think about your “why” did you join the site or sites that you are member of. AND the next time that the prize incentive was not there right away – remember “why” those prize incentives are there also.

Learn to be patient in this instant world that we live in as there are still humans behind the scene and have feelings still. Everyone leaving me a comment, I will give you 100 Food Game Gold as a thank you for taking the time to read and comment.

Reasons to Own and Operate Your Own Business

Posted on March 9, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

Years ago when my ex and I first got married we both lost our jobs and our of necessity started our own business. Since the divorce, I have continued to have my own business and going to share reasons to own and operate your own business.

Freedom would be my first reason as being owner and operator you get to be that boss (the person everyone hates). You get to wear many, many hats and if like me learned a lot the hard way but I would not change a thing. You do have to find the balance in work/life and that can be hard sometimes when you are trying to build your business.

As I have gotten older, I have narrowed down my business plan to working with my traffic exchanges, mailers and doing affiliate marketing. It’s funny how in this online world there are still people that think they know how you should run your business and like to make it public or let you know you are doing this wrong and that wrong.

Another reason that I enjoy having my own business, what most don’t realize is that this is “MY” business to run as I see fit – that is what I love about this country that gives us this privilege. There are going to be times that people don’t agree with how I run things but it is still me that pays the bills, put in the hours, and does all the work behind the scenes and bend over backwards to make you all happy.

When others like to give their opinions that is just what it is their opinion and should not be put out there as guidelines or “rules” as to how the business is run because they are not a partner nor do they pay any of the bills that go along with your business.

That is another reason that I love having and running my own business – I am proud of my online business, I work very hard in my online business and believe that I offer great services. Over the years, I have developed many, many friends and customers and I do bend over backwards to help them and would not trade that for anything.

You know it’s funny as the more competition happens in all business these days it sure seems the more some like to try and dictate how things should be. Having been around the small ma and pa businesses for over 30 years now, I have learned that you just can’t beat old-fashion service. You have to learn to keep your emotions under control no matter how pissed you get, how over the coals someone want to rake you, and think about what is best for the business. You are NEVER going to make everyone happy, your are NEVER going to have everyone agree with decisions you make – but you do have that right to make them.

Does it get hard at times yes it does but I sure would not trade it as the rewards out weigh the bad – the satisfaction you get from helping others, the pride you get from seeing what you created work and people that love your business. One of the best thank yous that a business owner can get is seeing someone else promote them and for all the pages that I have seen – I would like to say thank you, thank you, thank you.

And the most important reason would be YOU, I really do appreciate all of you putting up with me as I know I come up with some pretty Zaney ideas sometimes and I do love the feedback – good or bad – we keep growing the business together. AND as always you can Skype me @ nancyradlinger leave me a message in support – I do answer all my messages.

Why You Should Leave Comments on Blog Posts

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Nancy Radlinger

It’s interesting years ago when I started blogging cause I had no clue what I was doing and do not consider myself a writer but I was told to write as if I was talking to someone as that is really what you are doing. Now let me tell you why you should leave comments on blog posts.

After visiting to lot of blogs and reading the content, I was always too shy to leave a comment – I thought people would think that I was stupid (which they probably do anyway, so who cares), I really didn’t know what to put as I was learning and the list of excuses goes on and on yea I had them all believe me.

I’ll go back and address the feeling stupid part – as that one is a hard one to get over but I was told by a mentor once and that has stuck with me “there is no stupid comment or question”. If you have the question in your head and are thinking it then there is probably someone else thinking it too. Don’t believe me type into Google Search your question or comment – you will be mighty surprised what comes up.

Now the best part about leaving a comment is the branding that you are doing and most don’t even realize that you are. Just like anything else you do here online – you need to keep you, your services, your products in people’s face and this is great way to do this.

So you are thinking that I don’t know that much – I’m just learning well guess what you know more than the person that is joining right now or even in a month. And yes people find these post months later and read them – in fact I have even gotten referrals from post that have been year or two old. What better way to show others that you are out there and as far as learning – I’m still learning daily and another thing that I so enjoy about working online.

AND what a great way to learn about others that already like the same things that you do – think about your blog as a neighborhood get together – the author has invited you and others – you all are a bunch of strangers till you start yaking with each other and find out that you have things in common.

Well this is all that you are doing when leaving comments on people blogs, you are yaking with people that you have things in common with – so don’t be shy – get out there and start yaking.

You could be missing out on opportunities and not even know it – sometimes you meet your best friends, clients, paying customers in the strangest places – stop peaking over the fence – get out there and comment on blog post and unlock even the key to YOUR success

Zaney News & Blog

Category Archives: ramblings