Everyone loves numbers. It's the reason activity points and levels work great on StartXchange. The feeling you get when you move up a level is super. It's also why I'm addicted to Farmville.
In reality, that's the only reason people like to use traffic exchange rankings. The owners love em because they see they are higher than the other 200 exchanges online. And members love them because the owners usually do some crazy bonus for going up a notch.
Well I recently created a new ranking, but this one isn't based on the exchange, but on the owner. As we all know, there are some owners out there who like to have more than one. But is that good or bad? Well it's a matter of opinion..
Until now! Ok, all kidding aside though, this is just for fun. As Jon Olson points out, there is a flaw with numbers. In that, they are only numbers. They fluctuate daily, weekly, monthly, so what was hot today could be not so hot tomorrow.
That's why it's important to take into consider the owners behind the programs yourself. Do you agree with their tactics? Do they provide good support? Is the site speedy? Are they in for the long haul? Things that these rankers can't really rank.
There are countless exchanges that used to rank high, but had to be removed because the owner just ditched the site. Or exchanges that the owner stops paying commissions on, yet still sells you on an upgrade focusing on the increased commission rate.
Your safe bet over the long term is to stick with people like Jon Olson who's been around forever, does weekly seminars, eats and breathes traffic exchanges, and still to this day surfs. He'll even buy you dinner if he sees you at an offline conference!
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One of the problems I see with the rankers in TE land is that they are all biased.
I think people should use a large, reputable, independent and directly measured tool like Quantcast (I use them on easysurfexchange), getclicky or SiteMeter to look at the traffic. We just need a push to have TE’s use them.
Then use personal conversion numbers to show the best campaigns.
Yeah but even those aren’t accurate because again, it’s just stats.
And here it’s stats TO your exchange not FROM. So it’s real easy to stick your site into auto surfs to get that tracker seeing more people visiting.
That’s why I like the Top script on StartXchange, because it shows members logging in. But again, it’s just a number.
I think the problem is focusing too much on who’s #1, rather than focusing on growing the # of people actually using traffic exchanges.
Numbers are numbers, true.
Everything can be gamed.
All these sources, all biased…
“use personal conversion numbers to show the best campaigns.”
The community would be better off if the people putting time into rankers… would instead invest it in marketing / teaching how to use tracking
But then the problem of lazy people
People want to read a list, not do it right.
Yeah you can’t win either way.
Alllriiight! – now it’s personal.
There’s no hiding behind your site anymore.
Looks like I’m outperforming my TE right now (not sure if that’s good or bad) but I’m off to fix it right now.
See you at the top…
Hehe you were the hardest person to find the name behind it. Sorry if you didn’t want to be “outed”, I just didn’t want to put the wrong person’s name down so I dug until I found the name.
Oh and ranking higher than your TE, there are less owners than exchanges so everyone should rank higher than their exchange theoretically.
Wow, thanks for the kind words man. And I appreciate the comments too.
Ya, I’m worried that people see a number, high ranked whatever, and then decide THIS is the T.E. to use.
They don’t take into account what members think. What the community thinks.
And yea, I’m biased. Of course I am. because I look at everything, not just the numbers. And when someone (like Tim for example) goes and write WEEKLY on his blog and helps his members with great content, that makes me like StartXchange and Tim more. And that’s that something ‘numbers’ will never be able to tell you.
Voting works =) It’s the people’s voice.
I absolutely agree with you guys. Its not in the #s its in how the owner handles their TE. A TE can have all the #s in the world but not really interact with their members at all and therefore they have no idea if their members like their TE or if they are actually active. By active I mean are they actually participating in Surfing Events, looking at the ads and signing up to new sites or products.
I love interacting with the members and the one thing I love more than anything else is the personal support tickets I see thanking me for this or that or telling me how well a start page did. Anything I just love hearing from the members. I love getting suggestions and complaints a like. It tells me where I need to make changes in VH.
Thanks Tim great idea as usual your on the ball.
Did you know that it can be statistically proven that people who eat boiled eggs for breakfast are more like to have an auto accident.
Les
Statistics can be used to prove just about anything. Yet, they are important. Every business uses statistics and TE’s are no different, after all, this is a business.
But, you can’t use statistics alone, because they change all the time. I don’t think there is such a thing as the “Best” TE. One person says “X” exchange is the best and another says “Y” is the best.
I think a lot of it a personal choice. But, I do think most people like the “Personal” touch and this can make all the difference in the world.
As an owner, I try to give that touch. I send out emails to members letting them know if the url to their site is wrong, as an example. I can do this because I’m still a small exchange, I hope I can continue to do this no matter how large my TE becomes. Anyway, that’s my 2 cents.
Hey Tim,
I couldn’t agree with you more. It’s the owner that makes the exchange! Take your exchange make it the best it can be, get 100,000 members before you even think about opening another one at the same time. Otherwise you are diluting your advertising and just going for the money grab without a care in the world for your exchange and your members. (With very very few exceptions)
I realize you just created the owner ranking list just for fun, but what are the ratings based on? Hard to see much of a pattern there.
That being said, your unique activity system and exchange have inspired me since I starting surfing the industry myself. Because I agree that activity is the most important factor with substance and delivery, my members will also have a unique system in place to track and promote activity.
Thanks for the post.
It’s based on the stats from the exchanges the owners are a part of ;-)
Tim,
Of course you will get comments on this topic from other TE owners. Since I don’t have my own TE my interest in biased rankings is sqat. I rely on a few TE owners to bring me a quality product where I can surf quickly and get advertising and monetary results.
As usual, you always bring us a good post.
Dear Tim,
You are very right on the stats thing. After all some exchanges rankings are bogus because there are ways to fool the stat count and it only makes sense that there are a few who use other than honest stat manipulation to survive. Most owners are honest but in the end the only way to tell if the exchange is working for you is with results.
Granted, you can not get good results from just a few shows of a splash no mater how good it is. The truth is that most splashes provide little incentive to click on them and fail. But in the end traffic exchanges like StartXchange can validate a splash. If it does not work well on startXchange it will not work well any where.
The really good TEs are here to stay and that is in the end; proof of effectiveness.
Thanks,
Warren
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