What's Hot, and What's Not

by Tim on August 21, 2009

Well yesturday I was reading Hit Exchange News and Jon mentioned Jerry Iannucci's blog. He posted "Best Places to Advertise – July Stats" and it made me realize I hadn't done that in a while. So without further ado, here's some stats.

  1. EasyHits4U - 48,603 views - 357 signups - 0.73 GTR
  2. TezakTrafficPower - 33,385 views - 154 signups - 0.46 GTR
  3. Traffic-Splash - 49,253 views - 194 signups - 0.39 GTR
  4. Hit2Hit - 9,849 views - 31 signups - 0.31 GTR
  5. StartXchange - 126,219 views - 370 signups - 0.29 GTR

What really amazed me with this is that StartXchange was in the top 5. Despite every email I send out having a blurb about subscribing, every member getting an OTO begging (ok, not begging =P) them to subscribe. And then on top of that I get hundreds subscribing from the ad in rotation. That alone is proof that owners sending out emails does not mean everyone joins under them.

What's Not Hot is getting thousands of hits from exchanges that don't produce any results. I was going to list them but I don't feel like getting hate mail today, already had a rotten morning when a bakery told me they wanted me to pay $5 for a $1.25 muffin because I was using a credit card. I've already reported them to Visa and MasterCard as it's against their terms. If it was just me I woulda said ah oh well no muffin. But explaining to my daugther why we couldn't get the muffin really gets me upset.

Disclaimer: These are MY results. Not yours. If you aren't using one of the exchanges above, then try them. But don't blindly use them without tracking. Results change all the time.

{ 18 comments }

Chris August 21, 2009 at 10:10 am

Nice stats. Thanks for showing us whats working for you. I’m a member of a few of these places (including Startxchange =))

I’ll have to put more time into testing some of the other places out.

Thanks,
Chris

Chris August 21, 2009 at 10:11 am

Oh I forgot to ask….

Are these stats for 1 month? or a couple of weeks?

Tim August 21, 2009 at 12:05 pm

Overall.. Not sure how long a time frame ;-)

Jay August 21, 2009 at 10:29 am

Sorry to hear about the muffin incident if it makes you feel any better i experienced a similar incident whilst paying for the cab fare i decided to pay by credit card now bearing in mind it was 6 GBP roughly 12 USD ended up having to pay twice as much however i did manage to get back the money after much ranting. By the way thanks for the stats. It has been mine and others experience of a phenomenon called ‘What the…’, what experience one person has with a particular TE doesn’t mean another persons experience is going to be the same.

Lynn McCutcheon August 21, 2009 at 10:33 am

Good for you reporting the muffin merchant to Visa/MC! I hate when places try to do that. Who carries cash on them anymore anyway? Never me. Places need to adapt to the times or they’ll be out of business in a hurry.

My results for the same time period have been about the same as yours, other than swapping #4 for another TE that starts with H. EasyHits does good but when I look at my detailed stats, Tezak, Splash & StartXchange are more responsive. I’m a happy Tezzer/Splasher/Starter (?) this summer, LOL. :D

Jay August 21, 2009 at 10:38 am

My apologies please feel free to exchange the word experience with results from my earlier comment. :)

Tony Tezak August 21, 2009 at 10:44 am

WOOT! I’m always thrilled when I hear people talking about real results from traffic exchanges! Especially interested when Tezak Traffic Power is mentioned. Tracking your results can give any surfer very valuable information.

Rhonda Morton August 21, 2009 at 11:35 am

Great stats Tim, thanks for sharing! :)

However, risking hostility directed to me, LOL… in defense of the ‘muffin merchant’, if Visa & Mastercard were not charging them insane transactional fees, they would not have to charge $5 rather than $1.50 to break even for the transaction.
I’ve worked in many industries over the years, Retail management the longest & that has always been troublesome to me, like how our financial institutions rake in billions of dollars annually through service charges & then complain that times are tough & increase lending rates, etc!

Well, I’ve said my piece, time to get back to work!
But, now I’m hungry!

Perhaps I’ll “bake” some mffins & put fresh Maritime blueberries in them? aww… Now, THAT IS A PLAN! ROFL

Have a great weekend everyone! :)

Rhonda Morton August 21, 2009 at 11:36 am

haha opps … Forgive my TYPOs in my post! LOL

Tim August 21, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Yeah but rather than not accepting the fee, or raising the prices so it’s within their profit margin, they want to stick it to the man! I mean, customer..

Either way, it’s against the agreement they accepted to be able to accept cards, so if they don’t follow that rule what other corners are they cutting?

Sadhan Kumar Basu August 21, 2009 at 11:57 am

Nice.

Denise Washington August 21, 2009 at 4:42 pm

What program are you getting all these signups for?

Thanks

eirei August 21, 2009 at 4:44 pm

Hmm… Great I think you should do this more often Tim like weekly or monthly :-)

Chuck Bartok August 21, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Great topic.
I have been very pleased with the results from Exchanges similar to your. Quality Members with quality sites.

Our new Focus Society Mastermind Back office allow a very sophisticated campaign and Sales ratio tracking

Stephen C August 21, 2009 at 6:25 pm

Tezak Power!
That credit card thing is against the rules. They are not supposed to be doing that. I know they need to break even, but it’s the price they pay for using the service. I would report them in a heartbeat and tell them so. And tell them you are never going there again, and telling all your friends not to go there as well.

Keith August 22, 2009 at 12:13 am

Hi Tim
I think you have highlighted another problem why a lot of people figure that traffic exchanges don’t work. To get that number of views would take an insane amount of surfing or to buy would cost, I suspect, well in excess of $1,000. Most people just seem to throw a few hundred hits to their site and when they get no results give up!
Oh and that muffin thing…when we had a shop – when someone paid by credit card for a small value item we were happy to take it as they would be happy and more likely to come back and spend some more next time!

Tim August 23, 2009 at 3:26 pm

Yeah it takes alot of work if you were to surf that many pages. But it’s a trickle effect if you re-invest income into more traffic.

Most people figure your income should be around $1 per subscriber per month on your list. So you surf until you get 10 people on the list, and then you’d have $10/month to purchase traffic with in addition to surfing. And it gradually grows from that.

Now I will say I don’t make $1/month/subscriber from my blog, but I probably could if I really pushed it. I don’t plan what I promote and I don’t always post frequently, so it can vary quite a bit.

Mary Bird August 22, 2009 at 1:44 pm

You should have bought $5.00 worth of stuff. That way both you and the merchant would have something for your money.
I live in Canton,Ohio. Merchants ask us to buy $5 worth all the time. I do not want the little shops here to go out of business.
As a consummer, I would be paying $2.00 to drive somewhere farther away. Time is money.
Tim I love reading your stuff. We can all learn from each other. I have had great success in 6 months oby working 12 hours out of 6 days a week working on the internet.( paid my dues did’t I ? )
I fill out the rotators everywhere they have one. Keeping a handy page of links helps too. I use several Avery Classic Presentation Books to keep neat. Also my Rolodexfile. I am 66 and use the Post-it notes daily.

Comments on this entry are closed.

{ 1 trackback }

Previous post:

Next post: