Traffic Exchanges

I have been researching and writing about free traffic and traffic exchanges for the last 2 weeks. Just looking for free ways to generate traffic, and traffic exchanges seemed to be popular.

The traffic you get will be largely untargeted, but as a source of additional traffic should you consider it? You should go to Internet Marketer's Club and download the reports on Traffic Exchanges, then you can make your own decision.

Surprisingly, traffic exchanges is MLM in that you only explode your income when you grow your downlines. Like all MLM, the marketing system they use is very effective. In some ways, MLM is a little like affiliate marketing. By which I mean you build a list, and you refer a product or service to your subscribers. Potentially, traffic exchanges allows you to get a lot of exposure for your website. In truth, I did not think that it is very effective. Most members will be surfing for credits, and will not pay very much attention to your webpage. Even if you use a splash page, repsonse will be minimal. I have a text ad which was shown 2000 plus impressions, and I got one click out of that. For banners, zero clicks so far from 2000 plus impressions.

I wonder if being in a traffic exchange will improve you Search Engine Results, or help you rank in Alexa.

Still, they are very many people who are keen to join MLM. Just remember that traffic exchanges isn't free, you still have to invest your time and effort. At least an hour every day in order to earn enough credits to get your webiste shown.

If you are interested in traffic exchanges, these are the better ones:



> Dragon Surf
> I Love Hits
> Advertising Know How
> Traffic Splash
> Start Xchange

The reason I list these 5 exchanges is because you can surf all 5 exchanges at the same time and get additional credits. They have additional promotions and contests for extra credits almost on a daily basis.

Here are some resources that helps you figure what traffic exchanges are and how they work. Like I said, it's also MLM and to grow your business, it has to be more than free traffic.

> Affiliate Funnel
> IM Success Formula
> Home Income Team



As a starting point, this site is very helpful, lots of resources, tutorials and articles.
> http://www.easy-viral-traffic.com/



I also have some free ebooks for you at Internet Marketer's Club.

Retail Marketing Blog

I love retailing, it's my passion, it's what I'm good at. When you manage a retail store, you are responsible for millions of dollars in turnover every financial year. It's being in the hot-seat, and every little thing that goes wrong ends up on your plate. It's having an answer for every little hiccup that happens on your watch. It's your people going to you whenever they face something that can't be resolved. It's suppliers wanting your attention for your purchases, and promotions.

Yet, I find it so rewarding. No because you're the man, but because there is some much you can do for so many people. When you focus on people, you can help them save money, provide their daily necessities, create some excitement for them, even entertain them. You also provide a career for your people, and when you give them a mission, it brings meaning to their life. They are working to create something that is bigger than themselves.

Retailing is about people. Yes, it's very competitive, and you fight for every dollar sales you get. It's being a hard-nosed businessman. But it's also about the soft touch. A friendly word, a little encouragement, these go a long way.

Search Engine Results

I just decided to do a search on my website "Internet Marketer's Club" to see if it shows up in search engines. Imagine my surprise when I saw the results! The search engine ranking as follows:

1. Google - #2 on page 1
2. Yahoo - #1 on page 1

My site has only been up there for 2 months. In Yahoo, it was competing with 3 million other sites with the same keywords! I just had to send an email out to my friends telling them about this.

On another note, on Saturday, our #1 local newspaper wrote an article about bloggers in Sabah. Apparently, there was an gathering of about 200 bloggers from all over the state. I didn't hear about it until I saw the papers. Much as I enjoy hearing about local bloggers, I don't see the point of having an off-line club or assoication of bloggers. But I did manage to contact 2 of the organisers, if this goes ahead, I might sign up. I think more people involved on the internet the better.

EZINE ARTICLES

I


This is nice, to be recognised. I wonder if people will actually read my articles. Can the articles still be found over time? There are probably hundreds of thousands of articles by tens of thousands of authors. Not to mention so many niches.

Still this has been a venue that hundreds of people use to achieve success. I'll take all the help I can get. I found something interesting at the ezine forum. Check out Todaybooks.com, you can buy books online, or you can sell your books. That is, you submit your finished book to them, they will feature and market your book for you. This site has got a good page rank, and you don't have to market and sell your book.

The downside is that you only get about 20% of the sale price. Which isn't a lot since the highest sale price was $10, and books usually go for $5. Not a lot considering the effort you put in, but having someone to do the marketing side of things might be a factor.

Still, this seems like a viable alternative, if you only want to write.

INTERNET MARKETER'S CLUB

I have just had another article published in EzineArticles.com, so I'm rather pleased about it. Article writing is kind of fun for me, this one is "3 Tips To Write An Original Article". I'm a slow writer but since I've only started in July, I'm cutting myself some slack. What with trying to put my website together, and learning about the various aspects of internet marketing.

Now I need to work on traffic building through search engines and directories. But at the rate this is going, I might just do a blitz with PPC. That will have to wait until I install my auto-responder.

I still haven't gotten my auto-responder yet, installing it will probably be trial and error time again. It's pretty amazing how I'm just doing everything this way. The guys I signed up my web hosting already had to come and save the day once already. Since this is only the 2nd month I've ever tried to build a site or even touched a cpanel, that's not too bad.

Right, this month's objective is to build traffic.

MONEY MAKING REPORT

The Most Revealing Money Making Report by Kidino, "Making Money With Name-Squeeze, Adwords and Affiliate Programs".

This highly informative report is actually a case study on how Kidino promoted "Desperate Buyers Only" by Alexis Davis. You seldom see case studies in internet marketing, even if you were to buy a internet marketing guru's books. So I am pleased that Kidino revealed so much. I have spent most of my career in management, and case studies is just about the best way to study any topics.

This is a free report at http://MoneyClicking.net.

Here are his tips on the things you should consider before promoting any product:
1) Who is the product for? Who is the target market?
2) How to find a different angle? How to find yours?
3) Building your Landing Page.
4) Presenting the offer.
5) The auto-responder message.
6) Getting traffic and creating ads.
7) How you can improve your stats.

Not only does he show you the auto-responder e-mails that he used, he included his adwords campaign. He takes you through the entire process from the start of the program, and let's you understand the rationale in the process.

Blog Review

I've been busy with my website. It's my first, so you can imagine how long it takes to get it set up. Where I'm at, it's hard to find expert help. I have many friends who are in the IT industry, dealing in hardware and software. The funny thing is, none of them are involved in internet marketing. I find that so amazing! Sure, their company has a website, but they out-source it. With the number of IT graduates, the number of people involved in internet marketing is just a drop in the ocean.

I've been looking at this blog, and I'm sorry to say that it looks horrible. Even my postings don't make sense. So I'll have to be more focused henceforth. Frankly, I would just like to start over.

For starters, I've seen some really killer themes in blogger. I wonder how they do it. I see the same thing in wordpress. I think you have to know how to do CSS, which frankly is beyond me... at the moment.

Working at home is great! But you do need to keep at eye on the time. I can spend hours on the internet, the next thing you know the sun's gone done. I just have to get out more, make more appointments, have lunch with friends. The downside is I have to spend my time explaining what it is that I do. Everyone thinks that having a website is it. Wished it was that simple.