Traffic Exchange Scoop

Folks, I’ve failed a lot. Up until about a year or two ago, I was doing everything wrong. And I think that is why I’ve made it as far as I have today. I’m a big failure who is willing to take a look at my mistakes and learn from them. I had what some would consider a very successful launch with my new website EliteSafelist, but man if you could see all the stuff behind the scenes I did wrong during that launch!

But you don’t have to make the same mistakes. So many experts have already done the hard work for you and laid out a path, all you really need to do is listen to them and follow what they do. It is guaranteed that you will make mistakes, but I’m hoping you can take what I plan to share with you and make less errors than I have. I’ve learned so many things and there is so much information out there that this could be a 7,000 part series and not truly be complete.

I say it all the time and I will continue to say it - 6 months ago no one knew who Solomon Huey was. Anyone can become a trusted a name in this business. Today you could a "nobody" and in a few months time find yourself being recognized by thousands of people!

The concepts of success are simple, but the fact is that most people don’t do them. I know I didn’t! However you’ll find all the people that make money do all of these. What I’m going to do is share with you four simple things that truly helped me change my business overnight. I hope you enjoy it…

1) Have a plan

You want to make more money? There’s nothing wrong with that, but how do you plan to do it? What’s your strategy? Who are you targeting? How much time do you have to invest each day? How much money do you expect to make? How long will it make you money? Do I have the skills to offer this product/service? If you don’t have the skills, do you know someone who does? How much will it cost you to develop?

I finally went to the SWAT Traffic seminar for the first time. Soren Jordensan touched on something that I strongly believe in, and that is to have a plan. If you want to make money, you need to map out a plan for success! Even better, write out a detailed business plan. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I’d rather spend the next 3 months writing out a plan that I know will succeed than spending the next 6 years with little to no success (which is exactly what I did in the past ).

Does this sound familiar? I would buy some product or come up with a "great" idea. Then I’d say, ok I’m going to sell this! I’d put the website together and realized that I had no way to get traffic. So now I need to figure out where to sell it. Now how do I get these people to buy it? Then after awhile, I realize these people don’t even want my product to begin with, I just thought they wanted it!

I heard this quote a long time ago somewhere and sadly I lived by it for many years, "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail."

By planning ahead, you are creating a plan for success. Or maybe as you plan everything, you realize it won’t work. That’s ok, because you have just saved yourself a lot of wasted time, money, and effort. You don’t need to take my word for it, just look at the successful people and watch how every launch seems to be perfect down to the finest detail. That’s not an accident, they planned it that way.

So what’s your plan for success?

Visit again or join my mailing list so you can read the next thing that helped me change my business overnight!

I know I’ve been talking about Traffic Dynamite a lot, but what can I say, it’s the hot topic.

Just the other day I ranted about a lack of value and creativity and used Traffic Dynamite as my example. Now I’m taking their launch as an example again, but this time for something good. It doesn’t mean I like or dislike Traffic Dynamite , I’m simply using them as an example.

The other day I talked about the need to innovate when launching a new traffic exchange. It’s necessary because as a new TE, competition is tough when you’re trying to get people to sign up. When I say innovate, I don’t mean it has to be some revolutionary new concept that changes the TE world. I just want to see something different that makes me want to surf! If I’m interested in surfing, maybe others will be too.

I read the 24 hour update that Traffic Dynamite sent, and out of everything I read, the one thing that caught my eye was a comic that will display every 20 pages. It’s nothing crazy, but it’s a simple idea that made me curious enough to surf their traffic exchange today. It is something that can set itself apart, and makes me think that perhaps it will encourage others to surf as well.

This is a small example of what I’d like to see the traffic exchange industry evolve into. The idea that new and better ideas get introduced into the mix. I think it is especially necessary for the new traffic exchange that is trying to establish itself in the marketplace. It could be Savvy Clicks’ Memory game, I Love Hits’ new member page feature, Blue-Surf’s option for number of page views per nember, or a simple comic. These establish more value to their respective exchanges and make for a potentially better user experience.

Despite some early issues with confirmation emails being received, Traffic Dynamite has had an excellent first day of existence and grown to over 800 active members! To keep the momentum going, they are now giving away cash for every referral! If you are an upgraded member, you will earn $1 per referral and free members earn $0.25 per referral! This will run until they reach 1500 active members.

I’ll be honest with you, if it wasn’t for the fact that I run TEscoop, which is a blog dedicated to Traffic exchanges, I wouldn’t have even joined Traffic Dynamite . I want you to know that this isn’t a rant against Traffic Dynamite . It’s just that this launch exemplifies a problem I’ve been seeing lately, and it prompted me to write about it. The problem I see with the Traffic exchange industry right now is everyone is launching new TE’s with lots of flash and no substance.

The idea of giving away cash for the Gladiator Hits Launch was a nice touch in my opinion. However once one person has a successful launch using a particular method, everyone jumps on the bandwagon. Dragon Surf did its relaunch awhile back and it had amazing results because they were giving cash for all referrals. Once everyone saw what Dragon Surf did, I’ve seen several websites launch with the same concept and mild success.

The reason these ideas were successful in the first place is because either no one did them before or no one did it as well. Once someone comes along and copies the same idea, it doesn’t have the same effect. Launches should be big and it’s ok to use another idea, but please add your own twist to make it special. Being unique is what helps a launch become successful in the first place.

The other problem I’m seeing is a lack of value. I’m going to use Traffic Dynamite as an example, but again this is not anything against them. They are giving away $7 to the first 700 people who join, but I’m not interested in joining for cash … I’m there for quality traffic! The $7 is meaningless in the big picture, because I’m using the traffic they provide to help me make money. This $7, while a great incentive, doesn’t assure me in any way that I’m getting good traffic. You know what really gets me excited about a TE launch? It’s knowing that you’ve done something that will make your traffic convert better than others. If you’ve done that, I’ll make a lot more than $7.

Yes, these old giant Traffic exchanges don’t have much that makes them unique, but they deserve their place for being first to the market. We’ve established the industry standards, and now I want to see innovation and value, so that I know you’re willing to invest as much time and effort into your business as I’m willing to put into surfing at your exchange.

I don’t know if anyone else feels the same way, but I think it is something that all Traffic exchange users should be paying attention to before joining a new TE.

Traffic Dynamite just launched today with an exciting promotion, a $7 cash bonus to the first 700 members who join! Owner Rian LeBlanc is a brand new Traffic Exchange owner, but was assisted by Dan Moses who helped with a fantastic Gladiator Hits Launch. Although the Gladiator Hits Launch was met with some criticism, most will agree that the launch was a massive success.

However the intended explosion for Traffic Dynamite has been a fizzle so far, with some people not receiving their confirmation emails. I have received mine though, so hopefully any issues have been resolved.

Click Here to Join Traffic Dynamite

NewWay2Surf has just added yet another great new feature. Now you can create your own squeeze pages for free inside the member’s area! It also automatically integrates with your favorite autoresponder so you can add them directly to your existing mailing lists.

While creating new features is great, what I really like about NewWay2Surf is that the features they add focus on the thing we should be doing at traffic exchanges - Building our lists!

Steve Ayling’s website, What is a Traffic Exchange will be closing its doors as a downline builder. That means it will still be online, but will no longer function as a downline builder.

Soaring4Traffic is celebrating it’s 1st birthday! Check out their blog and see all of the details. Great prizes are being given away, including upgrades, credits, and cash!

Jon Olson’s Hit Exchange News has experienced a hard drive failure, which has resulted in the loss of data for Hit Exchange News, Hit Exchange Blog, and Doctor Traffic. Work is being done to see if the information can be recovered, but at this point we will just have to wait.

In the mean time, Jon Olson has made several announcements:

• The Hit Exchange Blog will no longer exist and will instead be consolidated into the Hit Exchange News.
• The future of Hit Exchange 101 is still being decided. It might get a complete overhaul or simply go offline.
• The Traffic Exchange Guy Consulting service will not be accepting new clients. It will be eventually come back even better than ever.

It’s terrible to see such a huge loss, but hope is not lost and hopefully others can learn from this experience. It’s more than just "back up your data". This is a lesson of working hard in the face of adversity, looking for the positives and solutions in a terrible situation, and the value of relationships.

The outpouring of support for Jon Olson has been tremendous because of all of the relationships he’s built and the people he has helped over the years. Among those people he’s helped is me as well. A business can fail and be rebuilt over again. However true relationships will be there for you when you need support the most. I hope you are all investing the time to build relationships and friendships with new people, it’s hard to succeed in business without it. And most importantly your friendships will be there even if your business vanishes one day.

Please take the time to wish Jon the best and be sure to learn the valuable lessons that this situation can teach us.

Savvy Clicks has sure hit its stride. Not so long ago it was celebrating it’s 10,000th member, and now it is at 13,000! Savvy Clicks has introduced many unique ideas to its exchange such as the memory game and  bonuses to keep things fresh for members.