Interview with Cindy Battye

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

Around Feb 2006 I was diagnosed with cancer. I had always been quite active, and suddenly having to sit around and let my body recover from surgery and chemo.. and radio.. and more surgery – I had to do something to keep busy! (No sorry {awwww} faces here… or i’ll have to come over there and slap you!)

In August 2006 I fell in love with the idea of owning a website. I was undergoing chemothrapy at the time and had little energy for anything else… I had no idea about anything to do with creating a website – I actually thought HTML was an abbreviation for Hotmail…lol.

Well.. when I was thinking about what kind of site I would like to have, I fell upon a really lame traffic exchange (too lame to mention). I got to thinking that traffic really is something that people want and need – so… I started TrafficBunnies!

Like I said – I knew nothing. I found out about this forum, came in and abused a few people – got all offended and didn’t come back for 6 months. In the end, Paul Kinder stayed friends with me and nudged me back to NFM… lol. I met up with a few more people, apologised to the people I had been stupid to and actually started to listen to their advice! And.. what do you know? It works!!

Back when I was 29 and diagnosed with cancer it seemed like such a HUGE and difficult challenge, when in actual fact it proved to be the opposite. It gave me time to sit back and learn a new skill and find something that I am super passionate about – and now that I am cancer free (woot!!) I am enjoying running a business online, something which I would have never imagined I could do before all of this.

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

I am the owner of TrafficBunnies, but I get loads of help from the fabulous Deedee Medcoff. She really is my hero :)

3) Do you currently work exclusively online?

As of Jan ‘08 I do :D It feels SO fine! I appreciate every person that chooses to use Trafficbunnies, because now I am able to do things that I never imagined possible. My husband and I are planning our first ever overseas trip to go to the Focus Seminar in DC (August) and it is the first time that we have ever allowed ourselves to dream and plan something this huge. Like Jon says, it really is an adventure! (aka Olson, paraphrased…lol)

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

Umm.. too embarrased to say! Roughly between 10-12 hours. Sometimes up to 14. Most of the time that I am home I am working – I hate housework… lol – this is more fun! Since I am working from home, I don’t need to be in front of the pc 24/7 – I can still spend time with my hubby and kids, do the hobbies that I enjoy and get to the gym.

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

Support? I am assuming you mean help with administrative matters? Well, like I mentioned before – Deeds is really my saviour. Doing the long hours can get a bit wearing – and maintaining a healthy balanced lifestyle is only possible because of her. I can’t rave about her enough.

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

LOLOLOLOL! OK – I really have tried! I can do ok with HTML – only because I use Frontpage – so it’s kinda cheating. But, I can usually find things if I search hard enough, and have picked up a trick or two. I have a programmer who does all of the php programming, he is wonderful, but like most people will know – if you find a good programmer you don’t share the source, so my lips are sealed (I don’t wanna share him…)

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

Our membership has been exploding! We hit 5000 members end of December, and are now over 8000 less than 2 months later. In February so many wonderful people got behind our promotions and in one week we had 798 new members join – in one week! You smiling yet? I dunno – I thought it was exciting at least.. lol

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

Hmm.. that is a tricky one. It’s getting a little more even now. Up until the start of this year it has been about 90% me, 10% members. This year it has changed considerably, now roughly 60% me, and 40% members.

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

Umm.. I do more forums than blogs. I drop in occassionally to tescoop.com – I find that is always entertaining. I should try and be a good girl and do the blog thing a bit more.

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

Only one? Gosh! I have two :)

a) FOCUS! The biggest key to doing well online is to sit down, away from the pc if possible, get a pen and paper and set some goals. Set a yearly target and then set monthly and weekly (daily if needed) goals to get where you want to go. Richard Taylor and Robert Puddy helped me a lot with discovering this. If you get excited about every new thing going around you will find it difficult to succeed in any of them. If you have a weekly traffic target to your (single) project, then you can work out what it will take to get you there.

b) Do what you love! For me, coming up with fun promo’s playing with pretty pictures and networking is my thing. I just LOVE it! You need to find out what you are good at, then work out how you can use that skill to benefit you – and set you apart in the traffic exchanges. There is a lot of talk going around about branding – but if it’s just a photo and your name, I personally don’t think it’s enough. Get your personality out there – don’t be shy, we all want to know that there are real people that we are dealing with!

c) Quit promoting standard affiliate links. Make them your own! And – what you can’t do yourself, outsource… lol – you are not expected to be supergenius! I keep hearing all of the so called te guru’s saying it like a broken record – and yet.. people are still promoting standard affiliate links! If you want your advertising to get noticed it needs to be noticable.

d) Brush your teeth. Yeah, sure – we work in our PJ’s… but that is no reason to forsake good dental hygiene… :P

Sorry! I thought up 4. Thanks for the chance to share this info :D It was kinda theraputic!!! haha.

All the best!
Cindy