Your Questions Get Answered

Jens P. Berget (jens) Asks:

1. I can see that the amount of people subscribing to your rss is increase almost daily, are you doing anything in specific to get readers to subscribe? (and I am not talking about AWeber and how using AWeber increases the number)

I am using Aweber =P But more specifically, I’ve been adding subscribe forms to splash pages and yesterday I created a “One Time Offer” on StartXchange that let you subscribe. I got close to 200 the first day!

2. How do you get people to subscribe to your newsletter (optin list), do you have any techniques that you want to share?

All my ads to subscribe are in plain English, and honest. People know what they are subscribing to, and I reference the fact that I have experience. People want to know they are subscribing to something that’ll help them.

3. How many sources of income do you have online, and how many streams of income do you have? I know about your traffic exchange and your blog, but do you do anything else online in order to earn money?

My main source of income is StartXchange, and it’s the focus of all my activities. Pretty much everything I do in some way is to get more people into StartXchange, or help the ones that already are there to succeed (like this blog). However that may change in the future ;-)

Ben Asks:

I liked those intervievs You made with other TE owners. Are there coming more of them?

Every Tuesday! I’ve got about 29 more waiting to come alive ;-)

Steve C (schester12) Asks:

Is there any way under the StartXchange rules I can add my downline to my autoresponder list? In general I am looking to combine several lists into one and am looking for a way to do this.

No. The downline in StartXchange isn’t to be used as leads or as a list. You can contact the downline to help them get better at using StartXchange, and mention your list while doing so (which is more effective in the first place).

Ruth Sharp (teehood) Asks:

I kept the info about Aweber Responder Form but I have to say it was mostly over my head. Especially when you started talking about php. So my question is: Can you dummy down that explanation to the adventuring newbie level? (If it’s possible! lol)

If you are talking about the auto submitting Aweber form article, it has been removed as I found out that it was against their TOS. Which is a reminder for us all to review the TOS of your favorite programs periodically. I’d hate to lose my Aweber account!

However I may at some point show in more detail how to auto fill the form, so the user doesn’t have to re-type their info. This I got the green light from Aweber on, and it makes a big difference! (who wants to enter their email 10 times to sign up to one site?)

Jon Asks:

My question is how do you did you randomize you bog to have a different header photograph all the time. Maybe you might consider doing some articles with some suggestions about how to trick out a word press blog.

I use a small snippet of PHP code in the header of the script. The first section is what I load the file names of the images into. The second part just puts it in the IMG tag. Below all you have to edit is the images[] lines (add or remove them as you’d like):

<?
$tlblog_images[] = "LF009779.jpg";
$tlblog_images[] = "LF010662.jpg";
$tlblog_images[] = "LF010856.jpg";
$tlblog_images[] = "900x200.jpg";
$tlblog_image = $tlblog_images[mt_rand(0, count($tlblog_images) - 1)];
?>

Then where you want the photo to show put this code:

<?=$tlblog_image?>

In my case it looks like this finalized. The code is in the style of the headerimg div:

<div id="headerimg" style="background-image: url(http://www.timlinden.com/images/<?=$tlblog_image?>);">
</div>

Cyndi (Cyndi) Asks:

How much does it cost to get started owning a traffic exchange, Not just the exchange hosting but the overall costs?

It depends, do you want to just own a site, or do you want to own a business? I’d say in today’s market, the minimum to succeed is $3000. You want a killer design, killer script, DEDICATED server, a killer advertising plan, and you’ll want to get known by the big shots in the industry. Just remember that the $3000 is the initial investment, you’ll want to keep paying for that server and traffic to keep the activity going =P

Graham Taylor (ironmonger) Asks:

Any suggestions about building members at a new TE, we have about 150 at the moment, but progress is slow. With every one holding referral contests, is there any “twist” that would help.

In your specific case you need a new design and a new host. The design needs to scream JOIN MY EXCHANGE and the host has to be fast. In your case I think your name servers are setup wrong. (should be dns1.midphase.com)

Michael (bsmbahamas) Says:

do you think i should try some co-ops and maybe split test the salespage that
comes after the splash page, that seems to be my bottleneck

I use multiple coops, right now my favorite is TE Blaster. Grab the $77/month one, and use that as a base for your advertising. Also for you I’d recommend a new design too. The new StartXchange design has doubled tripled my activity since using it. There is a clear difference when you have a professional design or a “so so” design. People are way more likely to subscribe or join a site that looks oh so great.

Thanks for the questions all! I hope you’ve gained something, and for those who didn’t ask or if you still have questions, please save them for when I do it again!