In Issue 274 of Hit Exchange News, Rodney Lewis has a lengthy (in a good way) article titled "Consistency Counts". Go read it, and then come back for my response!
First I want to say - great article, and thanks for taking the time to write it! You've gotten the attention of many owners, whether or not they publicly say anything =P
I agree with you on the whole targeting thing. It really would be great to do some fine tuned targeting. The biggest problem with that is numbers. For example take ILoveHits which has over 100,000 members. How many people in that exchange are even surfing in Kansas? And how many drive BMW's? And how many are mothers with 3 or more kids? A small fraction I bet. But then combine all 3 and you might have maybe 3?
Right now we don't have enough members to target that far down, so imagine if someone purchased 1,000 hit package expecting to get 1,000 moms with 3 kids driving a BMW in Kansas. So while it's technically something that could happen (but we'd have to require people fill out complex surveys to know them) it's not achievable yet.
So I will agree with you that we can start taking smaller steps in that direction. I tried it years ago, having categories for sites, but it didn't work at that time. Maybe it's time for me to think about targetting again with StartXchange!
As for the inconsistencies bit. The reason StartXchange says it's not a money making scheme yet has commissions, is people think they can get paid to surf, convert their credits to cash, or that the goal of StartXchange is some how making money. No, it's for advertising your website. Even with that line on the signup page itself, people will send in a support ticket irate that they aren't earning any money for surfing. No kidding!
OK so that's my thoughts on his article. I have more but I won't bore you =P Just wanted to note that I planned on making a video showing how to customize those free squeeze page templates into something you can advertise with. Well I'll do that tomorrow hopefully. So you still have a chance to get your squeeze page templates!
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Yes, I agree with you 100%, Tim.
I agree with you. How ever I am just learning how to make money on the internet
Getting “targeted” visitors” from free traffic exchanges
would be like finding gold in your own back yard.
Although many sites have category directories, I don’t
think any surfers ever use them, simply because they have
no incentives to do so.
And even if they did surf directories instead of random
pages, it still would not make it targeted visitors. TE
Members surf for traffic and not for products and services.
You can only get “targeted visitors” from search engine
delivery traffic. Maybe it’s about time someone design
a search script that TE owners can add to their traffic
exchanges that would use the the data base the text and/or
directory of all the members using the script.
There you go, Tim. Don’t forget where to send the royalty
checks.
@James said: “Members surf for traffic and not for products and services.”
Not entirely true! My members surf for products on a regular basis. We’re WAHM niched so yes, members surf for traffic but they also surf for products and services. It’s an awesome business to be in!
Thanks so much for the exposure Tim! I’m eternally grateful! You rock!
One tiny correction: “Consistency Counts” is the name of the article, while “Voices of the Industry” is the name of the section of HEN featuring articles by different guest writers.
-Rodney Lewis
oops! I thought it was an odd title for what you were talking about LOL
I don’t think we are there yet where targeting will work with traffic exchanges. I think we are getting closer then we were a few years back but I tend to agree that most surfers are just surfing for traffic.
If anything would work it would be targeting by Country not category and even then it would only work on the larger 50,000 plus exchanges.
But I did enjoy reading Rodney Lewis article and look forward to reading more from this man!
Does Rodney Lewis want to turn TEs into the sort of business that Google is?
All would become paid only. The service would be outside of the budget of the ordinary beginner.
Targeting would have to be paid for and would the majority want to pay for those who want it. Most of us want to reach a large audience across the world.
I tried free classified ads and because I live in the UK the American ones always redirected me to the one or two English ones. I did not want to advertise just in England there are far to few computers in England compared with America. Too few people are interested in what I have to advertise.
If I must target I would prefer the US than any other target.
I just don’t want it.
As Tim says everyone would have to fill in a lengthy profile. Has Mr lewis any idea how many people would be needed to process all this information.
No! Give me the TEs as they are where I can be a free member when I only have a small budget and pay when I have enough coming in to afford it.
Some of the top traders and gurus would never have got started without free TEs, safelists, and cheap e-zine advertising.
I for one do not want to see them change.
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