The HIT MACHINE Traffic Report!

"TRAFFIC NEWS BLOG"

• It is January 2009.  "The US economy is completely in shambles.  All my friends working in the banking industry in Charlotte, NC as Vice-Presidents will soon be delivering pizzas to each other part-time in Hondas they sell to each other full-time.  Yet my overall electronically delivered product sales are holding steady!"  (Dave Vasser)   What is going on when people won't buy a $28,000 car made in Detroit but will buy a $12 eBook made in someone's den?  They are looking for hope.

• One thing that seems to be selling very well lately is bandwidth.  When a traffic exchange webmaster has one marginally successful traffic exchange the next thing you know they are launching another and then another and then another.  All of them are pretty much cookie cutter versions of their original site.  I'm not trying to tell them how to run their businesses but...seems to me that multiple versions of the same exchange where the only differences are the button graphics, a few seconds on the timer and different promo graphics is a page out of the "Department Of Redundancy Department" operating manual.  Why not concentrate on doing one thing and doing it well?  It would be great if exchange owners worked on improving their existing traffic exchanges instead of just endlessly cloning them.  If a new exchange has new redeeming features like TOP TIER TRAFFIC that is one thing, but if there are no improvements beyond window dressing then why should we as surfers be impressed?   A perfect example of someone doing it exactly right is the long running STARTXCHANGE.  Tim Linden is developing new dimensions for his exchange all the time.  A true innovator who doesn't stand still.  I'd rather surf one innovative growing, improving, evolving exchange than four different versions of the same script.   

• BEWARE OF TAINTED TRAFFIC EXCHANGE RANKINGS!  These "rankings" might be colored in a couple of ways.  First, a NEWSFLASH!  Some traffic exchange owners also own some of the traffic exchange ranking services.  Naturally they will tend to favor their own exchanges and those of their buddies.  They can't help it.  Don't let it fool you when every now and then they throw a bone to someone who is not in their inner circle just to make it look like the ranking is on the level.  I'm suspecting that these ratings are a case of the tail wagging the dog.  We surfers are the dog.  Second, I take exchange rankings based upon "votes" with a grain of salt the size of a deer lick block.  George W. Bush got elected twice as president of the USA.  I rest my case on trusting rankings based on voting. 

   

  SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?  I find that some products work better on some exchanges than others.  So TRACK your results and find the exchange that works best for each of your pages.  My number 1 ranked exchange might not perform as well for your product or sign up pages because too many others are promoting the exact same thing there as you.  A #1 rating from me means it is working best for me.  Someone else may be flooding an otherwise worthy exchange with the exact same promotions I'm using and that of course dilutes results.  If you don't have time to spend on tracking then the next best option is to SPREAD your traffic around by surfing lots of different exchanges.  I haven't quite figured out why yet, but I often have better luck with some of my older products and sign up pages on newer exchanges.  

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• Love it or hate it, website audio is here to stay!  Audio works.  It is great.  What bothers us mostly though is visiting a great looking and otherwise very professional website only to have someone come on talking about their business who has no business talking.  We've been hearing one man lately who has a decent enough voice, but his scripting makes him sound ill prepared.  The website looks great but sounds bad.  They might be a great web designer, or a very accomplished and skilled marketer, but you could never tell it by listening to them "uh and um" their way through their message.  

• To put it bluntly, a bad audio message can ruin an otherwise top notch website!  In these cases we just can't wait to click out and are too busy looking for the mute button to read the message! 

On the other hand there are some very well done audios and videos!  These are done by professionals.  We suggest you try a professional voice artist instead of recording your own. 

Face it, you don't like the sound of your own recorded voice do you?  We have a professional voiceover artist all set up for you!  Minutes2Riches now offers professionally produced web audio!  Just click HERE for more information.  It costs way less than you think! 

We believe a professionally produced voiceover will be the least expensive component of your website and yet one of the most effective! 

• Have you ever thought about how silly anyone doing their own commercials looks on TV?  Dr. Z's Chrysler commercials come to mind as a good example.  Or how about those local furniture store and car sales managers in your town?  That is pretty much how you sound doing your own audio on your website.  And you've been wondering why nobody signs up? 

• Of course there are good examples of a business person doing well in their commercials.  Dave Thomas of Wendy's comes to mind.  But if you'll recall Mr. Thomas didn't talk that much and a pro did most of the talking while professional actors and production people made him look capable for the brief moments he was actually on camera.   

Here is your chance to STOP running off visitors with an offensive or unprofessional audio message as you drone on.  Go with a pro!  Click HERE! 

• First the 12 Daily Pro debacle nearly shut down Stormpay earlier in February 2006 with government investigations into the financing of Ponzi schemes through the payment processor.  (See more below on 12 Daily Pro.)  Then in May  of 2006 Paypal, the unquestioned #1 payment processor, reinforced their terms to avoid a similar fate.  This Paypal terms reinforcement effort resulted in a few good things.  All reputable exchanges are changing their terms to bar any program with any Ponzi or pyramid scheme type activity and especially the surf for cash sites that require an investment to earn money.  The general consensus was that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck.  Paypal's new policy meant long hours were spent by exchange owners carefully reviewing every link advertised on their exchanges and removing anything remotely Ponzi or Pyramid related.  It also caused many exchange owners to reexamine their own programs to remove any possibility that their site could even remotely be perceived as a Ponzi/Pyramid/MLM/Get rich quick plan.  Some exchanges went so far as to eliminate multi-level downlines and have gone to a single level referral downline.  We thought that move might have been an overreaction since no investment was required and no money was paid back for those in your traffic exchange downlines.  You can not blame the owners for being overly cautious and taking every action they deem necessary to protect their business because plainly put, without the ability to accept Paypal many exchanges would fail.  We've never invested in Ponzi/Pyramid programs and have always warned people about them not being a wise investment, so we were happy about most of this.  Now the bad side of Paypal's terms enforcement!  Some people are getting hurt that probably don't deserve it.  On June 11th we received word via the Lots More Hits Newsletter that "FUNNY FARM TRAFFIC" had their Paypal account frozen and could not receive Paypal payments at that time.  The newsletter printed the following statement attributed to Paypal in relation to the action against Funny Farm's account.  "We regret to inform you that we cannot overturn the limitation on your account. Due to the violation of PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy regarding "Pyramid, Multi-level Marketing, and Get -Rich Quick Schemes", your account has been closed for the operation of an Auto-Surf program..."  We never saw anything Funny Farm did in their operating practices that remotely resembled autosurfing for cash, Ponzi or Pyramid activity.  This may only be the FIRST legitimate and reputable exchange to have this unpleasant experience, or it could be the end of it.  Who knows?  We are not saying the following infraction is what happened to Funny Farm, but one thing exchange owners need to watch out for is allowing autosurfer referral links on their sites.  Paypal could interpret this as promoting autosurfing for cash sites and this alone is a violation of Paypal terms.  Paypal has always frowned on MLM activities of any sort, so this is nothing new.  The Paypal suspension of Funny Farm will have exchange owners scrambling to protect their exchanges and their Paypal balances.  So expect more changes to come and a few exchange owners to just give up and throw in the towel as the webmaster of Surfing Jockeys did on June 16, 2006.

• Doug Williams was a pioneer in the traffic exchange business and one of the most successful exchange owners ever, having created four of the top 50 exchanges and numerous successful moneymaking programs.  We received word on May 25th, 2006 that he had died of a heart attack the preceding evening.  Our thoughts are with his family, co-workers and close friends who will surely miss him.  While we never met Mr. Williams it was apparent from his outspoken emails that he was quite a character and those are the type people that folks miss the most.  I for one will actually miss his emails which I  always found entertaining and informative, even when he was on a rant about some of the stupid things people do in the exchanges and in business in general.  The exchanges he started were Viral Visitors, Lemming Run, Clickaholics and Viral Class Ads.  He also built several other successful online businesses such as MoneyLegs and a web hosting division.  We wish we could thank him for all the hits over the years.

• In early February of 2006 the auto-surf for cash with investment required outfit known as 12 Daily Pro.Com was for all practical purposes shut down when payment service Stormpay froze the 12 Daily Pro account.  With investigations in progress by Attorney Generals in at least two states, GA & NC, and probably other governmental entities as well, I'd say it is finished.  Ms. Charis Johnson owned it.  She lived in an apartment in Charlotte NC.  If she actually knows how to invest money to make up to a 44% return every 12 days, which is what her site promised to pay, then why did she live in an rental apartment instead of a mansion in the affluent Southpark or Ballantyne communities with the rest of the Charlotte investment wizards?  Perhaps thousands of people lost a lot of money on 12 Daily Pro.  The major TV news networks and local stations in the USA covered the story bringing bad press to the exchange industry in general.  The fallout from the 12 Daily Pro debacle brought the FBI, FTC and who knows who all down onto Stormpay and shortly thereafter Stormpay discontinued everything except their auction business.

   

  The Traffic Exchange Directory has compiled a list of known Cash Scam/Ponzi Exchanges.  You can check their list by clicking HERE. 

• Click Silo was the first traffic exchange I joined in 1998, and the exchange with my second largest downline.  I didn't know much about what I was doing back then, but I liked their simple and reliable design.  In July 2004 the service just vanished.  The "Vanishing Exchange" has always been a reality of the traffic business, but usually it's a newer exchange that just never made money or has so many technical problems it isn't worth fixing that vaporizes.  When an apparently old standby exchange like Click Silo goes belly-up maybe it is a sign that the business is changing.  Thanks Click Silo for all the hits over all those years!  (sniff...sniff..)   Now NO MORE HITS has vanished too!  It really is hard to believe that these two great war-horses of the traffic exchange industry weren't somehow profitable or at least salvageable. 

REMEMBER:  Every traffic exchange you join has a "catch all" expulsion clause in their "Terms of Use".  This clause usually states that they have every right to expel you, ban you, suspend you, keep all your credits, your entire downline, any cash you may have accumulated and you can do absolutely nothing about it.  By joining you agree to their terms which clearly state that you have no recourse should the exchange close your account.  They don't have to give you a reason!  Losing the time you've invested building a downline and surfing for credits is bad enough, but losing cash would make it even worse!

PLEASE, keep the previous paragraph in mind before investing more money than you can afford to lose in any "surf-for-cash" traffic schemes.  It's a gamble in the truest sense of the word and should never be considered an investment.  Just ask anyone that had thousands "invested" in the now defunct programs.  They'll tell you the same thing, only they won't use such nice words to do it.  One top ten ranked autosurf-for-cash program, Cashits closed on June 22nd, 2004 citing "falling growth" as the reason.   

"Don't ever risk more than you can afford to lose!  Instead of risky surf for cash schemes, which are little more than a Ponzi scheme, I think your money would be better spent buying Pro-Memberships in top rated exchanges.  That way, it is actually tax deductible as a business expense and you know that you are at least getting something of value for your money!"  (David Vasser)      

Lately the fastest growing traffic exchanges have followed the lead of Mystical Maze and have combined gaming with surfing.  Many find the maze game addicting!  That equals fast hits for the credits you earn!  They have just revamped the maze game.  It appears that the size of the prizes for finishing a maze has diminished somewhat, but it is still fun and you still win hits. 

Another of our favorites is Raging Bull.  What makes RB so appealing is that by surfing only at Raging Bull you can also win credits to other excellent traffic exchanges.   Even better, you are GUARANTEED to win once every 20 pages.  This is a totally new concept.  New surf bonus partners are added frequently.  It is easy to surf and even easier to win!  Of course in order to win the free credits, you need to be a member of all the exchanges where bonus credits are awarded.  So with Raging Bull, you surf one exchange but you'll earn credits in up to eight exchanges, counting Raging Bull.  Sweet!

Traffic exchange signups into our downlines have dropped off recently.  This means only one thing, that the traffic exchange market has become saturated!  Exchanges are failing at a record rate.  About the only way to get any traffic signups lately is promote the newer programs.  This tells us that there are fewer new people coming into the traffic exchanges.  It has gotten very tough to get new signups for the older top programs like Hitpulse.  Which is a shame because Hitpulse is a dang good exchange.

The reasons are many.  A few include the fact there are over 1,000 exchanges out there, the SPAM explosion of the past several years has turned some people completely off to the Internet altogether, collapsing pyramid and "high yield income producing" scams like Shared Profits with Blake Prater cooling his heels in FEDERAL PRISON, saturation of the older Internet markets such as the USA, Canada and UK, cheaters using software that turns manual exchanges into automatic exchanges, and the well publicized Federal Trade Commission investigations into a few self appointed marketing "gurus" who gave web marketing a black eye such as Frank Kern who was banned for life from the Internet yet seems to show up here and there. 

However the primary culprit is that, in general, the Internet access growth spurt is over in developed nations.  On average 50,000 new users were logging on each day for the first time from 1998 through 2002, but that figure is now much lower.  The growth of new users is now in mainly third-world nations, the former Soviet republics and remote areas where Internet service was not previously available.  Another reason for the slowdown is sputtering economies.  People who are out of work or are underemployed just can't afford to buy new computers or to keep expensive high speed Internet access for very long.  Nor can they afford to buy your product or participate in your program.

"As the current job loss trend progresses in the USA, the USA will have a negative Internet growth for the first time!  Negative growth means more people abandon the Internet than log on for the first time.  Some are abandoning the Net for reasons that are not economic, including being fed up with SPAM emails and all the other stuff that, for lack of a better word, is just plain crap.  It is happening right now and will continue until the U.S. economy rebounds." (David Vasser)  

However the Internet is far from going the way of CB Radio and 8-Track Tapes in a business sense.  Billions of dollars are spent in online transactions.  Each successive Christmas is always the most successful ever for online retail sales.  The Internet dating and introduction services coupled with the seemingly unstoppable growth of sites like eBay and Amazon proves there is still life online year round.  Home video rental giant Blockbuster saw their earnings wither when the online Netflix service began renting customers all the videos they could watch for one set fee per month.  Now Blockbuster has been forced to provide the same "all you can view for one price" service.  Meanwhile Netflix has developed their new system to deliver movies via the Internet in video files directly to the customer completely cutting the Post Office out of the loop.

Online based US Insurance companies Geico and Progressive capture a larger share of the auto insurance market each year.  There is also room for the new Esurance online car insurance company.  

So, with all this growth in Internet sales totals on the retail and services side, how do we bring new life to surfs?  The solution is simple!   Bring new people into the traffic exchanges.  Whether newbies or existing Internet users.  I'm talking about recruiting totally fresh surfers!  Sites with games like Top Surfer, Share Traffic and Mystical Maze go a long way toward recruiting and hooking new surfers.   But, that isn't enough.  We encourage you to use every tool you have to recruit new people into the exchanges and into your traffic downlines! 

Newsgroups, safe-lists and even search submission are all good ways to educate non-users about the benefits of using traffic exchanges.  That is exactly why this site is indexed with search terms like "traffic", "hits", "website development" and "webmaster tools". 

Traffic exchange users can only sell to each other and recruit each other into programs for so long before it just becomes a big circle of the same people doing the same things with the other same people over and over.  Get out there, recruit, educate and share your experience!

If everyone only knew the fact that Google and other search engine giants rank search results partly on the amount of traffic going to your site, that would help.   In short, a higher traffic ranking means a listing closer to the top in the search results returned.  When you can accomplish that at no cost just by surfing, using traffic exchanges becomes a no-brainer for webmasters and marketers. 

"Hit exchanges work.  But with more new people coming in they would work much better!"  (David Vasser)  

We welcome your suggestions and comments about how to bring more new people into the traffic exchanges.  Perhaps you've thought of something we didn't!