Interview with Dan Smith

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

There’s not exactly a straightforward answer to this. I’ve been selling things online with Kyle Hoskins since April of 2003, and running traffic exchanges since shortly afterward. Our first traffic exchange was not very exciting, but we reused the script we developed when we launched TrueViewTraffic in October of 2005. Our business didn’t seriously take off, however, until we started networking more seriously around the time we launched MagnifyTraffic in January 2007. Since then, the activity in our programs, as well as our sales figures, have gone through the roof.

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

TrueViewTraffic and MagnifyTraffic, both co-owned with Kyle Hoskins.

3) Do you currently work exclusively online?

No. Right now, I’m a full-time university student, so most of my work on the websites gets done on the evenings and weekends. Running a “normal” business as a full-time student would be nearly impossible, but the nature of my websites makes it easy for me to do my work when I am available to do it, and let the websites run themselves for the rest of the day.

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

It varies depending on how busy we currently are with promotions and ongoing development, as well as on how busy I am with school and other commitments. Our routine maintenance, administration, and customer support can be done in less than an hour a day if necessary, but if we are in the middle of a big promotion or update and I have more time available, I will often spend several hours a day working on the sites.

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

Right now the number of support requests is small enough that I am happy to answer them myself. If it starts to interfere with my ability to manage the other aspects of the websites, I will outsource it in a hurry.

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

Kyle and I have written the HTML, JavaScript, PHP, etc. for our sites ourselves from the ground up.

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

Right now, just under 1000 new members join MagnifyTraffic each month. We have some really exciting events planned for the second half of March, and we are hoping to recruit at least 2000 new members in March. The numbers for TrueViewTraffic are lower, but we have some big plans for TVT in the works for April or May… you’ll have to wait to hear more about that, though.

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

We do a ton of advertising. We also have some very dedicated members who refer a lot of new users on a regular basis, but promoting our websites is our responsibility, and consistently attracting new members is one of our most important focuses.

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

I’m not much for blogs. I do like to read Jon Olson’s Hit Exchange News each week. Mostly, though, as far as keeping up with new developments, I just read the updates on NetMarketingForum every day and talk to the network of online marketers I’ve met through NMF.

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

Don’t be a freebie seeker. There are a lot of things you can get for free, especially on the Internet, and the one thing they have in common is that they almost invariably cost you more, as far as the value of the time and effort you put in to get them for free, than you would have to pay to buy them with your money. The freebie mentality is damaging and very hard to break out of. Think for a second about the value of your time and energy. If you’re willing to spend half an hour per day surfing on a traffic exchange, but you aren’t willing to spend 50 cents a day (the cost of a $15 per month upgraded membership) to double the amount of advertising you receive from that program, you’re effectively making the statement that half an hour of your time and effort is worth less than 50 cents! If you want to be successful online, you need to be willing to pay for things like advertising, tracking, and design services. I promise you that they will pay for themselves hundreds of times over.