Interview with Scott Martin 3

1) How and when did your online business get started?

I was involved (surfing) in traffic exchanges around 2002. Then I took a break from them and really developed my programming skills and made several web sites in the meantime. Then a little over a year ago I decided I would start building a traffic exchange just for a fun project on the side. To be honest, I didn’t even know traffic exchange scripts existed. I worked on it little by little during my spare time over the past year and then launched it on December 24th 2007. I actually had no business plan at the time and I didn’t expect it to be this big!

2) Which exchange(s) do you own or co-own?

Blue-Surf.net

3) Do you currently work exclusively online?

Yes.

4) How many hours per day do you spend on your exchange(s)?

I wish I knew, lol. Probably 5-6. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but I would say that is average.

5) Do you do support yourself, or do you outsource support?

Yeah, everything I do is usually made by me.

6) How fluent are you with HTML, javascript, and PHP?

Very. =] I’ve been doing this stuff for so long that I could do it with my eyes closed. :P I’m a stickler for standards, scalability, reuseability, and flexibility.

7) Approximately how many members join your exchange a month?

Let’s see… I’ve been up and running for almost 2 months now with 1253 members. So.. 625 a month?

8) Does most of your advertising come from members referring, or you?

Really it’s coming from everywhere right now. My members referring, me bringing in traffic, co-ops with other traffic exchanges, and inclusion in programs and downline builders such as TrafficHoopla and Yorgoo.

9) Are you subscribed to any blogs? Which is your favorite?

Not subscribed to any, but I frequent them enough to be subscribed. I really like TEScoop for traffic exchange related news. I also like HitExchangeNews. I frequent some programming and web design blogs and forums as well.

10) What would be the biggest tip you could give to readers?

Wow, there’s just so many of them. I guess two stand out as the most important. The first would be to use splash pages. I’m surprised at the number of people who aren’t using them. The second would be to surf consistently. Consistent efforts produce consistent results.