Traffic Exchange Membership Numbers
This has been a topic brought up numerous times, regarding numerous exchanges. Sometimes people wonder why I Love Hits is so big, and StartXchange is so small, or any other exchange for that matter.
The reason is simple - some exchanges purge membership data and only count the number of member accounts that are currently saved. Others count the total number of people that have ever joined. And some count the number of active accounts within the past month.
There really isn’t a right or wrong here. For example, I Love Hits is going to reach 100,000 accounts created soon! That’s great! Jon clearly outlines that it’s NOT the number of active members. He isn’t using this as a gimmick claiming there are 100K people surfing or anything.
StartXchange utilizes the “number of accounts on file” method, which is why it’s almost at 40,000! And if you were paying attention, you’d notice that it’s almost come to a halt in growth on the counter. In reality we’ve averaged 60 new members per day!
The growth of StartXchange is not being hindered, but rather I’m making it much easier to leave if you want! If you notice the StartXchange newsletter has an easy unsubscribe link with your username and password passed into it. This helps prevent spam complaints, because if you don’t know your username or password, or even have to login (which is against email standards) to unsubscribe, most people will just click the report as spam button rather than going through the process.
So, before you go comparing exchange A to exchange B based on the number of members they claim, make sure you know that you are comparing the same TYPE of numbers against each other. A pretty cool way to compare exchange size is the Top Traffic Exchanges list.. This bases rankings off the number of unique members logging in! (which some day I’ll beat Traffic-Splash!) =P
October 6th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I’m the first. Woohoo!!!
Don’t worry, you’ll beat Traffic-Splash someday :)
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:05 am
I’ve often wondered what percentage of members are active surfers. As the owner of a miniscule exchange compared to StartXchange (or most others for that matter!). I think the most I have had surfing in a 24 hour period is about 5% if my maths are correct.
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NJS Reply:
October 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Maybe 3-5% - lol - I wonder how the TE experts and gurus in this area can make someone surf happily and build up his own market with time - Surfing is really boring sometime -haha
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Yes you are right - total member numbers is not really matter - total number of active members on day after day, week after week, month after month or even year after year basis is what really important for ranking any TEs.
By the way http://www.startxchange.com/top/ gives really useful information - but why not for all the TEs ???
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Hi Tim, this is the first time I post a comment in your Blog. I am spanish and I love your site much more than Traffic-Splash.
I think you must be very proud of your site, for me is one of the best and I surf in it everyday.
Tim, have a great day and greetings from Spain.
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:10 am
You have a great exchange Tim but lets be real, Beating traffic splash is going to take a miracle! In my opinion they are the best on the market! New post on my blog is a must read.
Timothy Millars lastest blog post..Blogging for Traffic?
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Great post, I did not realize that there were different ways to determine the size of a TE. Big or small StartXchange is still the best.
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:14 am
Number of Active members and Number of NEW Active members are what I’d like to see from every TE.
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October 6th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I prefer “real” membership numbers myself, since they give you a much better idea of how active the traffic exchange is.
Anyway, StartXChange is one of my favorite exchanges, and I think custom script and custom features that no other traffic exchanges have is a strong plus.
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October 6th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
This is kind of disappointing to hear. I belong to i love hits, it’s one of my favorites. But, I think that ALL TE’s should only list their current & active members. From a users point-of-view, the number of members is one very big reason to join. After all, the more members, the more people to advertise to. It’s disheartening to know that a TE can boast tens-of-thousands of members, when maybe only a few hundred are active. I don’t know about others, but it makes me wonder if it’s worth upgrading in any of them after hearing this.
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October 6th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The true size of a traffic exchange is the number of shows your URL gets average over 7 days. If your URL has on average of 100 hits over 7 days (700/7=100 per day) then this is a large traffic exchange. Using this as the true size then; startXchange is one of, if not the biggest online. You should consider a pro membership if you surf these large traffic exchanges.
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October 6th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Yes, I agree, 100,000 members joining any program is a milestone. I have the greatest respect for Jon Olson. Anyone who can keep a TE running as long as he has, and do it as well as he has, knows what they’re doing. Maybe, TE’s should only post current members, like newspapers do, and then break those down into active & inactive. As a hopeful future TE owner myself, loool, I think this would be better for the users. But, the down side is it could fly in your face, I guess.
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Jussi Reply:
October 6th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
I think number of members joined is a valid number. Somehow those members have found the site and usually it is trhu promotion. And although the owner is hopefully doing promotion, others are aswell. I love Logiscapes TE’s and prefer them above all else. I am getting okay conversion rates thru them and that is also why I’m usually promotion only them on other exchanges unless I have some time relevant campaign.
And the bigger the TE the bigger the number of people surfing even if it is only 3-5% surfing.
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October 6th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Must be a reason that big exchanges like hit2hit,akh,ilh dont want to get listed at top traffic exchanges?
Many are hiding their stats and if a traffic exchange have 50k,100k,500k members, does not mean its an active exchange.
Its all about results, if we get signups. I get more signups from small exchanges then the big exchanges. The alexa ranking also show how active the traffic exchange is.
Good,bad,small,big, result matter, even its sx,tera,lot,ilh and i think its the members right to know how the exchange are doing, see their real stats, not fake stats.
Its very impressive to get 100k members anyway, congrats to jon also that he admit that its members that have joined, not the membership base.
Kjell
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October 6th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Looking at the top list, we don’t have far to catch Traffic splash.
size may matter to a lot of members, but more important to me is a T.E that allows it’s members to control their own credits; and how, and when, these credits are used. as StartXchange does.
I do Not have a problem w/ any of the top T E’s, but as mentioned above.
Tim has done a great job, & for that reason I’ll be here for long time.
Dave
P S I only use about 15-2o T E’s now. as aposed to 40 before; don’t know how anyone can keep up w/ that many.
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October 6th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Numbers…
Active members, a little less that 10% for ILH. And while that may seem small, let’s look at what ‘active’ means…
Active means logging in within 30 days. Go back a year, and those numbers almost quadruple.
As an exchange owner, it’s my responsibility to keep members active and to keep the results coming in.
It’s very hard to do in this day and age because more exchanges are about clocks and team surfing than actual results.
I try to make ILH the best possible service and because of that, it’ll always be around.
There is one number that I find is critical…And it’s not Alexa (Alexa is a garbage way to rank a traffic exchange)…
It’s new users per week.
How about all traffic exchanges release that information? That is the real telling stat of how hard a traffic exchange owner is working their program. More eye balls, means more results for members. More results means a better traffic exchange.
100,000 members or 10,000 members. Who cares, I wanna know how many owners bring in every week!
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James Vest Reply:
October 6th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Is 10% about average for most TE’s or are there statistics for this. Just curious, not trying to stir up anything.
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Jon Olson Reply:
October 6th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Between 5-10% I would estimate is the average. It’s higher at SWAT Traffic for me, it’s closer to 15% there but has been much easier to manage because it’s only a few years old….ILH, 7 years old LOL
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Kjell Reply:
October 6th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
at lot the active is over 40% because i delete members that dont use lot so i will never get 20-30-40 ooo members, but its not importent to me
Kjell
October 6th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Anyone can justify anything with numbers. People get into trouble all the time manipulating numbers.
I am a marketer and what matters to me are results. Not how pretty a site, not how many members, not how many freebies just results.
I am going to invest my time where I get the best results.
With the tracking I have done over the last two months I have had more clicks on my splash page and signups from the clicks with StartXchange then any other.
I super surf Traffic Splash and ILH both. Have tried exactly the same splash pages on all 5 of the super surf and always get a better return at StartXchange.
Argue numbers and who is bigger but results is what counts.
Oh yes Traffic Splash might get splash when you pass it by. Paul get the towel ready.
Bo
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October 6th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
I agree with Jon. The number of new members have a lot to do with TE effectiveness.
New people tend to watch the surf bar more closely, getting used to the environment and watching how the prize pages fall. This would also explain why new exchanges seem to get better results.
After a person has been a member for a while they tend to add the exchange to their normal rotation in a tab and therefore pay much less attention to your sites.
People talk a lot about Traffic Splash…While its true that I have gotten a huge number of hits to my sites from there, the sign-up ratio is almost nil. I have a much better response from other exchanges.
Testing your results, with unique links, across the different exchanges that you use is paramount to getting the most bang for your buck (or click). If you’re not testing, you’re wasting much of your time…And yes Tim, StartExchange has always been one of the best. =p
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October 6th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Gary - very good point. Tracking is crucial because someone might get great results at Traffic Splash but poor results at StartXchange or vice versa.
There is no science too it LOL I’ve been trying to figure it out for years. You have to use which programs are performing best for your business.
It’s just some people get better results at different programs.
I’ll tell you this though, you are in great hands with Traffic Splash, StartXchange and ILH. All three of us are very dedicated to getting members the best possible results.
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October 6th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
One thing which all exchanges should do is tell you how many people are surfing at the same time. This way you know others are looking at advertising.
If an exchange has many thousands of members and only a small percentage actually surf then what are the rest doing. Are they all paid up members with no need to surf on a regular basis? I think not.
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October 6th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
80/20 rule
80% registered members are saved. 20% of it active.
Blog Tactics lastest blog post..Halloween Blog Tricks And Treats
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October 6th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Good conversation this stirred up…
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October 7th, 2008 at 1:58 am
I think the best criteria is how many members surf regularly, saying at least 500 sites/week (it’s just an example), week after week. A very few TEs’ owners have in view this kind of loyalty. Most of them give big bonuses for a short term or for the new members. But i wonder how the old loyal real active members are rewarded. Only they can be counted as active member, and not those who are come and go, or those who surf a lot saying a week/a month and then disappear. Tony Tezak is just one of this kind of loyal surfer, very well known by us, and if you have a look on his stats he’s not on top in any TE (maybe i’m wrong), but as a loyal surfer i think he’s between the best of the best surfers. Ok, i have to rcognize i’m not yet so old in any TE, but i know some surfers who surf regularly since 3-5 years, or even more. They are my good examples, and i think the owners have to consider them as active.
My friendly regards,
Erzsebet
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October 7th, 2008 at 5:38 am
This is the thing that boggles my mind, alot of people want results so why not just promote top 10 exchange instead of 100.
I think if we narrow the top traffic exchange to recommend as a whole, the results will be even better instead of getting sales here and there and inactive subscribers from hundreds of traffic exchange.
Traffic Splash is growing worse than a blackberry bush, so keep sending people over there or Traffic Roundup or AKH or ILH or Startxchange.
To me numbers are irrelevant, it’s how its manage and the quality of results I’m getting.
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October 7th, 2008 at 6:00 am
[...] I talked about Traffic Exchange Membership Numbers, and today I’m going to talk about Active Surfers! It may come as a shock to many, that not [...]