So You Want Your Own Traffic Exchange

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

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

IT – now James has done excellent job with just this one word
Fred – Doug decided to use his dog – everyone on TEland knows Fred
Cows – everyone know that you don’t mess with Mo’s cows hehe
Flash – didn’t you think about Cathy and Jo right away and their name was not used
Horror – Bet Don popped in your head with that scary header he has
Frogs – didn’t Froggy just leap into your head
Krazy –  Only one crazy enough to use Krazy – WTG Kaye
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.

I have one more example that I want to share as it’s kinda impressive what branding can do for a person – you all have heard of TimTech.  Well they just launched a new PTC site and because everyone does know them, they know they have been around and will be around, and because they have branded themselves – I just happened to notice the stats on their main page today at Nerdbux

Total Members: 18973
New Members Today: 1093

Members Earned: $4,683.87

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

brand3

Instant Transfer Problem at PayPal

paypalWell, over the weekend I encountered a problem especially for all of you that rely on the instant transfer from your bank when your Paypal funds are low.  There is an Instant Transfer Problem at Paypal and when you call there is no solution, no answers or at least anything logical that they told me.

This is my story and it caused me alot of grief and many unnecessary hours on hold, time trying to get thru an automated system that wanted to know what my problem was – and it don’t understand that you want to talk to a “REAL” person.

Ok what happened was that I normally I keep an average of $100.00 in my Paypal and the rest I send to my checking like I have always done for the last 6 years.  When I pay things and then there is now enough in there is has always been instantly taken from my checking account until this weekend.  AND no it didn’t matter that my account was a verified account in good standing.

This weekend that option was NOT available – the only option that was available was echeck from my bank or credit card.  Well the echeck would take 3 – 5 business days and I really don’t like using my credit card and it’s only on  there for emergencies.  So I got on the phone and called them.

Now grant you I had to go thru so many loops and run around from so many different support people that transferred me to another person that transferred me to another and finally to a supervisor that had to transfer me to their supervisor to hear – get this – that this is a “new” security system that they have installed to help them with fraud.

So they apologized for this as they see that my account in in good standing and that they would override the system so that I would have instant again.  AND this one supervisor did and for the rest of the weekend this worked great UNTIL today – same thing again.

Again I called to go thru all the same crap again to only hear the same crap again but this time this person said that they could not override the system and tried everything that they knew to try and it was not working and asked him so now what???????

Well the answer I got was that you can try again in a couple hours and it might go thru – see this “new” security puts all the transactions in a big pot and then it randomly picks this one to pay instantly and this one it will not.  By this time I was steaming and said so you are going to put my account in that random pot – someone that has been a loyal paying customer for 6 years and in good standing – that just does not make sense.

So then they tried to tell me that the computer just picks numbers and it’s nothing personally against me.  Well you know me by now as I like to keep things on a personal basis am fuming – so now I’m just a number in your big pot – does matter that you have always got paid from my bank all these years.  I even told them that I can understand you reasoning for wanting to do this and think that the accounts that have ripped you off, not paid you should be the ones in that big pot – not your customers that are in good standing.

So warning – if you rely on instant transfer from your bank – don’t be surprised is this is not available for you sometime – so when you are paying make sure that it’s saying instantly from you bank – otherwise echeck from your bank or this will show as xyz on your credit card.  Being so upset after all this, I went to Google afterwards to see if I was the only one that was having this problem and this is what I found – pretty disturbing if you ask me – from a processor that so many of us rely on. Read this Instant Transfer Problems

I look forward to hearing your comments and your views on the instant transfer problem at Paypal – and am hoping to find some solution

 

Why I LOVE What I Do Online

murphyslawYou know if you has asked me yesterday do I love what I’m doing you might have gotten a different answer as yesterday was just a Murphy’s Law Day – everything that could go wrong sure seemed to yesterday and believe me it was a day that would have been easy to say enough is enough BUT………….

You get up this morning get put on hold with Paypal for 2 hours and listen to all their sales pitches while you hold telling you all the benefits when at the time all you want is a REAL person that you can talk to and find out the answer to your issues.  Finally got an answer that it was a new security measure they added and out of all the account it decided to pick me as one to test – anyhow guess it didn’t realize it picked the wrong Zaney Grandma hehehe

Just got out in time to make it to the Affiliate Funnel webinar and listened to Marci talk about personal branding and get some great tips from her.  But the best part was when she PM me on Skype and said I have commissions to her new product Viral Commando Profits and had I checked lately.  Most of you know me I just keep promoting, promoting and look at my Paypal when I have to lololol  Well that sure made my day.

It’s funny how most of the time when I win promos – members will come and tell me that I won – I just enjoy helping others and promoting Zaney and my other programs that earn me money so much that I forget to look at my commission tab.  You see I have always believed that it’s more blessed to give than to receive and God always knows when the bills are due and the money always seems to be there – I am very blessed that way.

Today is also the day I read mailers and build up my credits so that I can mail out and do my promoting and talking about a surprise – I was reading emails and this is what I saw
A Newbie at Zaney.

I like this site. Why?

Nancy Radlinger, the owner/admin, a very kind woman, always  there  to answer questions. She’s an email away.  You can even chat her on Skype.

Every day you can earn up to  30 cents.

Every day you can can up $ 5.00 by joining  promos.

You can earn referrals and upgrades too.

You will mail everyday with promocodes, ( you need to read your mail)

It has games, hangmans and icons too.

That’s all i can say .

Try joining now and there’s nothing to loose.

Just click the link and join.

See you inside,

Eleanor Untalan

This ONE of the many reasons why I LOVE what I do online and then I’m on a mailing list for another member’s blog and this is what he had to say – check out his blog BigJohnG’s World of Internet Marketing

Picture I should also mention, there is only one TE where I actually bought their cheapest upgrade.  That is Zaney Clicks at $7. a month.  And I only did that because I am getting very close to the payout minimum of $25. in commissions and you need to have a paid upgrade to receive a payout.  So I’ll still get $18. in profit, and enjoy the perks of being upgraded.

Zaney Clicks is also the only TE that I promote.  Not so much because I think I’ll make any commissions from sign ups (you can read the Traffic Exchange page on this site to learn my views on why promoting TE’s is a waste of time), but just because I have become close friends with the owner, Nancy Radlinger, she is very sweet, and I just think it’s the best TE out there right now.

Then I had another member Skype me and asked if this page was telling the truth and I had to chuckle when I seen it Click Here to View and I said yes it is she has earned and been paid 75.00 and is getting close to her next pay out.

So while all this was fresh in my head I wanted to put this in a blog post for a couple reasons – I wanted everyone to see that if you have a “WHY” and keep working doing what you love doing – you will be rewarded.  Also, when you have one of those Murphy’s Law Day – don’t throw up your hands and say this is enough – you just put on your determination smile and keep going, remember you have to get ONE more time than you fall.

Hope that you enjoyed this post and if so would love to hear your comments, your stories, your “why” – now you know why I LOVE what I do online.

Advertising with Traffic Exchanges

dragonsThere are so many that use traffic exchanges for their source of advertising for many reasons as TE’s are easy, TE’s are free join, TE’s gets you referrals, TE’s let you start earning an online income and TE’s work.

Advertising with Traffic Exchanges can be fun and entertaining at the same time and you have to come up with ways that well get you referrals.  Most people just use the same ole same ole main page link and a few people will use the sites many splash pages and even a few will create their own pages but today I ran across a blog of a surfer and member of Zaney Clicks and wanted to share.

Now keep in mind this member is justasurfer (his screen name) and I just love the way that he used a story to tell about his experience with traffic exchange.  This is, too me, a person that took action and came up a unique way to get his referrals links out there and believe me I know he is a MEGA surfer.

So I invite you to check out his blog Website Traffic Control Center  and read his story The Dragon Spoke to Me (A Magical Tale of Traffic Exchanges)  Hope that you enjoy this post as much as I did and Kudos to you Doug – Awesome

Spamming for Referrals

spammingWell most of you know me and that I am a traffic exchange owner but also a mega surfer and I can only go for so long on things that I see is wrong and have to bring attention to what I see happening and thus this post Spamming for Referrals.

Is this post going to be well liked – probably not –  as this is  going to really piss some people off. The first situation that I want to bring out in the open is what I see happening in public CHAT Rooms.  Because I surf so much, I lurk in alot of rooms and it’s amazing how much wheeling and dealing I see going on.  EVERY DAY I watch people swapping links in the chat rooms and it’s I will join any site you want if you join my site so that they can get a referral.

Now I understand that getting referrals are important and pressure is put on lot of people trying to win a referral contest BUT just my opinion this is spamming.  You are adding a link to your profile page and swapping with someone else for their link.  I maybe old school but I feel that the people that are doing this is devaluing the traffic exchange industry.

The idea behind traffic exchanges is that you add your site, surf and view others site in exchange for them viewing yours.  When you are swapping links in public chat rooms you are not setting a good example at all – you are only teaching others to spam.  My personal opinion is that you are putting the message out that traffic exchanges don’t work and you have to resort to this method of getting referrals.  If I am thinking this all wrong, please someone tell me your logic.

One more thing to say on this one is let me ask you a question – if you are getting referrals by spamming in chat rooms – what type of referral are they – to me they are just a number and I don’t know about you but I want more than just a number – I want someone that will be ACTIVE and not just a number.  I want someone that wants to learn, wants to be an active surfer and get results, wants to give the traffic exchange an chance to prove that they work.

Ok while I’m on a roll here – let me touch on SKYPE and I know that I am going to step on lot of toes here but I have bitten my tongue long enough and just need to get this out.  When you add someone to your Skype it should be so that you can get to know the people and build relationships – I’m not saying that once in awhile you can share links BUT how about a Good Morning – how you doing?  I see that you love cats by your site –  let me share a cat story with you,  check out my profile find out what I like.

When you send me this solo ad, that should be put in a mailer or text ad site,  to me that is spamming for referrals.  When you send me a link of a new program that just launched this is spamming for referrals.  I will tolerate that for a few times BUT if that is all that you keep doing you are coming off my contact list.  Either you want to know who I am and work with me OR you just want me on your list just to spam me for referrals.

spamming3So, I just want all of you to know and putting it out here for everyone to see – I will not swap links with you in chat, I will not sign up if you send me a link in Skype.  If you want me to join your program or site then add it to Zaney Clicks. I join new sites all the time BUT I join them from members that are getting referrals the way traffic exchanges are meant to work – adding their site, adding credits and letting me view them inside the traffic exchange..

It’s just that simple everyone – and unless you are willing to do it this way – then don’t you spread rumors that traffic exchanges don’t work because I know they do.  Thanks for listening and will love to hear your opinion now that you have listened to mine.

Are you just a number?

anothernumberIt’s interesting as I was surfing this weekend of the things that I noticed and  one of the things that I saw was people in the chat rooms swapping their links to be a referral for each other and that got me to thinking are you just a number.

When you join a site do you know the person you joined under, do they contact you, do they try to help you if you have questions or are you just a number.  Personally, I want some attention from my upline (person I joined under) not that I want to bug them but want to know that they are there if I have questions.

There are so many times that I have joined different programs and it’s not long I feel I get lost in the numbers and I can understand that as a person’s list get bigger – BUT there are many ways to keep the doors of communication open and one way is doing what I’m doing here – blogging – give your upline a place to go where they can hear from you, teach them something, answer some questions so it helps everyone in your downline 004I054YQm2

The other thing would be your emails – do you send out emails that just keep wanting people to buy or do you try and help the people that are on the other end.  This is one of the ways that I think people don’t do enough and then they wonder why they are not earning money or getting more referrals.  Stop chasing the quick easy money – reset your mind and the money will come.

If you have let your downline become just another number – then maybe you should take a look at your downline again – ask yourself why are they there – did they join because of what you were offering and then afterwards just become another number on your list.

Did they join under you because they wanted someone to teach them, they wanted to be your referral because you presented yourself as a teacher or mentor – well do you?

Or did you join with the intention of just being just a number – you joined just to get a referral to another program or to win a contest and have no intention in giving the program you joined a chance to show you it works.  This happens so often – you join then your upline drops the ball because you were just a number to them – you were not taught how to use the program, you had questions that you couldn’t find the answers, etc. – and what happens after that – you get disgusted and quit – so I’m just saying think about it the next time that you join a new program or someone is bugging you to be a referral for them – are you just a number OR will it benefit you the way it needs to,

That is why it’s important that you back up and remember your “why” and if you don’t know your “why” then stop everything that you are doing until you have your “why”   This will help you understand if you fall into the rut of “are you just a number” OR if you are going to treat this like a business so that you can learn and teach – because if you can do that then the earn follows – just that simple.

Drop It and Forget It

Today I have been going thru my sites and cleaning and it’s amazing how it seems that so many members (me included sometimes) just put a link, banner etc in a site and do what I call drop it and forget it.

guiltyIt was amazing how many banners that I deleted today because the image was now showing and it’s not all your fault as if you are like me you jump in and jump out of sites and see if you need to add credits, banner and text impressions.

Well don’t waste you credits, banner and text impressions on nothing being there – so many times the site might change things – delete splash pages and add new ones and all of a sudden your favorite one is not being seen and unless you checking on them once in awhile – in your mind you might blame the site when it’s not the site’s fault.

Grant you, it’s gotten better over the years and there are scripts that will kick out a bad URL and thank to some members they will report them so that site owner can take them out of rotation.  But let me ask you – how many of you are so busy to get to the next site that you don’t take the time to hit that report button? hmmmmmmm

Well I use to do that when I first started because the word report was like I’m telling on someone and didn’t want to cause problems.  BUT you are actually helping a fellow member and the site owner and that is a good thing.  So the next time you see a page that it says that the site is not available, can’t find site, etc – take a few seconds to hit that report button.

Now I know you are thinking I don’t have time to do that as some sites don’t seem to care what is showing and why should I help them out.  Well there are a couple reasons that I report them – as that is less competition and my site will come up faster in rotation getting the bad sites out.

The other reason is I’m from the old school and if that was my site – I would WANT someone to report it for me so I can make the change.  So I try to do what I would want someone to do for me.

So the next time you are in adding credits, banner and text impressions and have not viewed your sites, banner and text ads – take a few minutes and view them – don’t be one of those members that just goes from site to site and drop it and forget it.

Don’t feel bad either and where I see this the most is in the mailers, text ad sites and even paid to click sites – and that is even worse as the site owner is paying someone to view your site, banner, text and it’s messed up – that does not set an example that I want others to see – how about you?

Get Kranking

man-announce-01-300x300I know most of you think that I just went Zaney again but a friend of mine and I were chatting tonight and he’s been here as a dear friend – thru the bad time, the good times and rode the roller coaster with me.  We were chatting about how many time we both would have like to quit and give up but we didn’t and then he shared this video with me and we need to get kranking.

It’s not easy sometimes to keep going, it gets discouraging sometime BUT the lesson here is not to give up and get kranking.

Bridging the Gap

bridgingthegapThere were lot of traffic exchange owners that wrote blog posts today and one of the comments that I seen stuck in my head and thought I would expand on it and it was
from Carol when she said this “The line between traffic exchanges and ptc sites is blurring.” Just maybe we are bridging the gap

Being a owner and user of each, I would have to say that both traffic exchanges and paid to clicks have been around for years.  Both giving the members what they were looking for traffic – whether it was surfing for credits or clicking for cash.

As with lot of things online, I feel it’s good to see the walls being broken down.  I remember when I first started online – you had te people that loved te’s and that is the only place you seen them.  The PTC people stuck with PTC and never dreamed of entering TE land.

All over you will hear the pros and cons of cash being introduced into the TE’s but actually I think this has opened up more doors actually and it started bridging the gap.  It really don’t matter what source you use to get your traffic as long as you are getting results.

Think about it does it really matter to you if a person wants to click all day for pennies.  Over time I have heard how important the free members are as most will say they are the backbone of your business – as that is where your traffic is coming from because they view more ads vs an upgraded member.

So if it makes a free member happy to get a penny, nickel, dime, quarter and sometimes $1.00 for winning a grand prize. then I say that a happy member is going to be a loyal member.  The thing I see happening is that we are giving that person the opportunity to earn.  Now I don’t know about you but when that person get a payout you know they are going to go tell everyone as this is probably the first money they earned online.

Remembering the first money that I earned online, I was so excited about that payout and I still talk about it with people and am still in that same program.  What did that make me do?  It made me keep doing what I was doing so I could earn more and the more I earned the more I wanted to keep doing.

See I feel that if you can get people earning, they will stick with you – and that gives you the opportunity to teach them along the way to try other things that will earn them more.  If I am making money because of you showing me how – don’t you think I’m going to try the next thing you want to show me that is going to earn me more.  Now I also have some money in Paypal because despite when some thing that change adds up.

So the next time you see people clicking for pennies and are wondering why a person can do that – well get in there and start showing that person how they can earning nickels, dimes, quarters, dollars – it all adds up and sometimes faster than you think.

In conclusion, I do feel that we are bridging the gap between the PTC users and the TE users and I for one am glad.