So 2011 has been a interesting year in the Traffic Exchange world. A lot has changed and opinions have become a lot more divided about certain topics. I wanted to write a post to let you all know how I feel the year went and what my opinions are to the changes and happenings.

Towards the beginning of the year a lot of exchange owners came together to talk about how to push the industry forward. A lot of things were talked about and some people did not agree on some of them and others after a moment of thought agreed.

You see we all talked about a lot of different things and what it mainly comes down to is the fact that nowadays there are so many exchanges coming online and a lot of them are run by people that do not know how exchanges fully function.

It is a bad belief that exchanges can just sell or give away endless credits and promise the world but this in reality is not the case. I understand why this happened. I mean to have an exchange now it needs to be different. It needs to be better than the rest. However by giving away the world maybe some surfers or members whatever you want to call us might see it as a good thing, it really isn’t.

So I open an exchange and someone else who has one is giving away 200 credits for joining and a 2-1 ratio. I know I will make mine better I will give a 1-1 ratio and 1000 credits. Heck I will even sell credits cheaper than them, give my upgraded members 1-1.5 and throw in 5000 credits with an upgrade. That makes mine better doesn’t it?

Well hopefully you can all spot why so many get it wrong. If you have a 1-1 ratio or higher for everyone there is no way you can deliver any more credits than the 1-1 (I have a 1-1 ratio exchange and I get asked all the time why don’t I sell credits. The answer is where would I get them from) Even on a 2-1 a 1000 pages surfed means 500 earned by the member. That leaves the exchange owner with 500 left. This goes to selling credits, bonuses on surfbar, contest prizes, and those you get for being upgraded. There is not loads to play with like many think.

This is why so many have gone wrong, this is why so many exchanges die. This is why some of those new ones out there are a JOKE. Even the small things like giving 200 credits for joining can kill an exchange. You see at a 2-1 ratio you are banking on every member who uses those 200 credits surfing at least 400 pages to pay it back. What about the people like me that laugh and then join them, use the 200 credits and never go back?

Anyway that is my reasons for exchanges promising the world, Everyone has to be better than the others.

Then we have the reduced surf timer. Some people will argue that computers have sped up, pages load quicker, or a shorter timer is enough time to see a splash page. I just want people to think a moment. All those new members that only just found traffic exchanges. They do not know what a splash page is yet let alone that they should be using one. Wait no problem. There is training for that, But how many go.

I am not in favour of reduced timers for this reason. You see some exchanges boast about bringing in 400 members a week. But does the exchange get any busier? There is not 400 more people in these exchanges every week. Members are going as fast as they come in in most cases. One of the reasons I believe is because new people are not given a chance to succeed as the reduced timers only benefit the few that are doing it right? Some will argue that people should learn to do it right.

Yes but how many will right away. I am a big believer in people should see some results from the start and then learning improves the results. Too often people see no results. That is why most go.

The only reason timers were originally reduced was so exchange owners could deliver more traffic FACT (Even I followed suit when every one did)

Then we have the massive surfers. Do not get me wrong. A lot of people gave me stick for saying I didn’t want power surfers. You got it wrong. I dont want people surfing 3000 even 7000 pages a day (have a look at top surfers etc in some exchanges and see the numbers) It is not effective for advertisers. Power surfers create poor results from traffic.

Surfing for cash or cash prizes in surf. Fact it brings in a lot of new members. That is why exchanges do it. However is a exchange that is full of people basically being bribed to surf really good for results. Those people surfing their 1000 pages a day for a few cents or those surfing eyes peeled to the place where hopefully the $1 prize will appear. Are they part of the reason results have dropped. When was the exchanging of traffic suddenly not enough?

So social was the next big thing. Now I want to get something straight from the start I WAS NEVER AGAINST SOCIAL like some have said I was or am. I am against chat while surfing (Hey some of you may have seen me in the chats monitoring whats going on) So I was in the chats but am against them, A Little bad of me some say. Well lets put it this way. The reason I am against chat in exchanges is that it is a distraction away from the main point of exchanges. An exchange was born to exchange traffic with others doing the same.

Anything on the surf screen that is not the advertisers things is a distraction. Some will even still say it is not a distraction to this day. However the definition of distraction is anything that takes away from the original thing.

Heck the main argument at the time was social is good, you can build up friends and referrals etc from it. Yes you can, however I am a believer that this is wrong because the advertiser has either purchased credits or exchanged their time surfing for them. Most referrals from the chat come from people asking about advertised programs.

I would like you to look at it this way. You buy credits to advertise program x and it displays. Someone on chat pops up and says that looks good, oh anyone here got a link. Oh yes someone says and there you go, boom they got a referral for being social. However should that not be your referral, you paid for the adverts?

Maybe it’s just me. But I see it as I rent a shop and pay rates etc, I would not be happy someone stood outside my door pinching my customers.

But back to the me against social. Can I point out that chat is social yes. But it is not the only social thing is it. This is what I got stick for this year, I was against chat so im against social. No I am against one form of social. I love twitter, I love tweeting about sites I see, I love Facebook. I love Sweeva and the way you can comment on pages you see, I love all that social stuff so just to put record straight Im not against social :)

Conferences and conference rooms was the next big thing. Yes I put together TEHangout, Now I just want to say now. No it was not put their as competition for other rooms that have conferences. Its main reason for being there was for me to have a room where I can do conferences and help sessions for my members (This is coming in the next few weeks)

When I put my room together I noticed that other popular rooms have schedules etc and becoming pretty full. Now I remember back to the day before Skype as such or before I used it anyway. But all us owners would hangout while we worked in a room, we networked, we bounced ideas off each other and I thought, Lets not have a set schedule lets open the room up for people to just hang out in :) It was ment as a nice gesture, You could hang out whenever you was free.

Heck even my first session I held in my room about my program changes I got some stick for it clashing with a conference in another room. Crumbs can people not decide where they want to go.

Anyway these are my main points of the year, I have had a big rant now lol.

You all know how i feel and yes a lot of this did annoy me. However the matter of fact is a lot of people will be reading this thinking what a load of old moaning and a few will be thinking when they think deep, Steve has some really good points.

The matter of the fact is that a lot of owners met up because it is a plain simple fact Traffic Exchange results have dropped in the last few years and we met to discuss what we could do to change that. We all agreed there was an issue and we all agreed on some of the things that us owners did that help change the results but when I took the bull by the horns and made some changes, Did anyone follow (A few smaller exchanges did) Most just sat and watched. You see we created power surfers and when they complained about the changes everyone jumped to keep them happy instead of thinking big picture and future results. The result no real change in the results of traffic exchanges.

Now Yes I got very upset with the stick I got this year when all the time the people that really know me know I love Traffic Exchanges and the changes was done to help the Traffic Exchange industry. In general tho you can not change the world on your own.

Some people have changed the way their exchanges are going and hats off to them. I might not like the route they take etc but if it works for them then good on them. I wanted to change things my way so after the hurt and upset this year brought. I knuckled down to work. You see I love Traffic Exchanges and I am damn sure not giving up on them :)

I have set my plan out for 2012 I know which way my business is going and I am really excited and looking forward to it.

I have a lot of free tools and resources that are there to help the Traffic Exchange user. A lot have no hidden agenda either, you dont even need to give an email address or download anything (My TETips as an example) you just read the info online.

I am going to use my Hangout room more to help members etc but mainly I am going to teach and educate people and try get Traffic Exchanges going back upwards :) I feel that it is an owners duty to give some education or help back. We should not be satisfied with the number of people that go because we do not help them learn the right way. Some maybe happy but every single member that does not come back because they did not understand or did not get results because they did not know makes me feel that I have failed them.

I hope you all have a plan, I hope your all excited about 2012 and I hope that whatever route you take you have all the success you desire. I will look forward to some of you joining me on my journey to a better year.

We have a lot planned and a lot is already in progress. You may have noticed some big changes already but there are more to come :)

To end the year and welcome in the new one I decided that you should all be spending your money on celebrating and enjoying it :) so I decided that I do not want to do my New Year specials this year (In fact you wont see as many specials from me next year, I am going to have the constant low prices all the time)

So instead of the special offers this year I wanted to give you some things :) You see I have a lot of free tools out there that a lot of you have not picked up yet….

Not just do I have sites that are Traffic Exchange membership sites or places you have to buy etc but I also have plenty of tools and resources that are free for all Traffic Exchange users so here they are :)

What Is A Traffic Exchange – This is not only a great info tool to help new people who do not know what a Traffic Exchange is but also if you click the link at the bottom you can grab yourself for free (No upsell etc) a copy of the page with your referral id’s in :)
Yes it is a really cool downline builder too that really is 100% free to use and so easy to set up, just signup and enter your id’s and click save we give you all the links and hosted tools you need. This is perfect for you to promote to non Traffic Exchange people and build your downlines :)

If you have not yet joined What Is A Traffic Exchange Yet you can do so here http://www.whatisatrafficexchange.com

TETips – If you have not checked out my Traffic Exchange tips then you are really missing out too. I created this site because people asked me all the time, what do you do to make Traffic Exchanges work for you. Well after about 8 years online with Traffic Exchanges now and an owner for 7 years I have a few top tips and these can be found 100% free too.
In fact you do not even need to enter your email etc on this one, it really is just there to read completely free… No one time offers no email address required just read them online.
Plus with this great site you can also join at the bottom and get your own copy filled with your user id’s so you earn the downline and cash commissions when people you share the tips with join the sites :)

Yes TETips really is 100% free too and a downline builder too, Made completely free as a giving back some of my wisdom to Traffic Exchange users around the world so you all can make money.
Grab the tips here http://www.TETips.com

What Is A Splash Page – So everyone found out what a Traffic Exchange is and found out on my tips that they need a splash or squeeze page yet nothing much online really explained what a splash page is. So yet again I thought lets give something back so I created my free resource What Is A Splash Page. Its a simple read online report that also requires no email address or has no login offer and yet again is free for you to share with your downlines etc :) Just use your Splash Page Maker affiliate id at the end of the referral URL and earn commisisons when the people you share it with join up to make splash pages :)

Read the free report here at http://www.whatisasplashpage.com

So we have a few cool free resources there but how to I really connect with my downline is another question I got asked a lot.

So I put together the totally free TEHangout – a online connference chat room where you can go and hangout, organise to meet your members there or even hold your own conference if your an exchange owner.

Yes if you have a Traffic Exchange and want to hold a conference for your members then you can do so here, Also if you know an exchnage that doesnt have a conference and you would like them too then why not suggest the TEHangout room as a place to do so :) its free remember.

Check out the room at http://www.TEHangout.com

I hope you enjoy the free sites and things I put together for you all and really start to use them this coming year, You can really use them to your advantage and build some good downlines and cash commissions with them. They are free and thats what they are there for so use away….

Have a really happy new year and thank you for being a Steve Ayling customer, friend and part of my online family, best wishes to you all, your all great :)

OH wait I forgot, I said free things so here you are, Grab a free week upgrade at Traffic Dodgems using this very special link (IT now has a really cool 5 level downline structure. Yes get 5% of the credits 5 levels down. Have a look what downline credit % your current exchanges give you. At a lot your lucky to get 5% on the first level so here you really can build up some massive traffic)

Grab your free week upgrade here http://www.trafficdodgems.com/members/7days.php (You need to be logged in first or signed up if your not a member) http://www.TrafficDodgems.com

Regards

Steve Ayling

The way this works is that after surfing 15 pages your dodgem car runs around the track and depending on which car it runs into determines how many hits you receive. But thats not all any more. Every time someone you introduce surfs and wins at the dodgem track you get 5% of the credits they win.

Ok that is how it has always been but, now it goes down up to 5 levels. Now you earn 5% of the traffic the people your referrals introduce and 5% of the people they introduce too.

Can you see how powerful this can be. Even if you only introduced just one person and they introduced a few who introduced a few. Up to 5 levels of them are earning you 5% of the traffic. Pretty cool yeah?

Have a look here…

Look how the number of people can build up, and they are all earning you traffic to your sites.

If each of them earned just 100 hits a day and you got 5% that would be 5 hits from each of them :)

There is no better timme to login to Traffic Dodgems and introduce a couple of others….

This year they are slightly different in the sense that they are all priced at 50% off

I have also gone for smaller packages to make them more affordable in these hard financial times

Check out this years offers here http://www.steveayling.com/holiday

As others use my banner exchange program they need a good banner to make people click.

I have had banners from lots of designers in the past but nothing comes close to the quality you get from a proper banner place. Do not under estimate the power of a good banner.

I have fount Banners Mall to be the best place, the designs are great and the support rocks too :)

On top of that I have negotiated you a discount. Visit the site from this link and use the code “buckets” to get 20% off your order.

Tags: banner design, banners ads, banners mall, banners mall coupon code

Today (Make it all weekend) you can get 50% extra surfing bonus when you surf Traffic At The Races at the same time as the core 3 commando surf exchanges :)

Make sure you have set up commando surf, you only need to do it once and there is a link in the members area to setting it up and also to the core exchanges.

Also while your in races click on downline builder and add your id’s to the core exchanges as your downlines links are actually pulled from the downline builder so you might get some referrals :)

Have a great weekend

Tags: commando surf, traffic at the races

Electric Cigarettes or Electronic cigarettes as they are also known are cigarette shaped electric devices that look like real cigarettes and give out a water vapour that looks and feels like smoke. They contain nicotine so that they can replace normal cigarettes.

My friend was a 15 a day smoker and started off using these Electric Cigarettes when I bought him one, He said he would try it and started off by using them alongside his real cigarettes.

He said the best bit was a few puffs on that and he no longer fancied a cigarette meaning while working on his computer he could have a few puffs without going outside.

It was quite amusing at first as I don’t think he realised how much he was using it instead of smoking real cigarettes. I was talking to him on-line and said how long have you been working now, He replied with 6 hours. I asked him how many times he had been outside for a cigarette and he was shocked. He said “Steve I have not been out at all yet” So from the first few days he was replacing 5 of his 15 cigarettes with the Electric Cigarette and then as he tried ore he was able to replace 10 of the 15.

Well today is a big day, you see I got a message this morning thanking me for introducing him to them as he now only smokes Electric Cigarettes and I had such a smile on my face that I had to write this.

I think now is the time to start him on the medium nicotine Electric Cigarettes and then mix in a few low nicotine ones and finally some no nicotine ones. I am pretty sure that he will be able to stop smoking completely using these.

He buys his Electric Cigarettes from the UK website http://www.ElectricCigaretteShop.co.uk

They save you a fortune and do not contain all the bad chemicles that real cigarettes contain

Tags: ecig, ecigs, Electric cigarette, electric cigarettes, electronic cigarette, electronic cigarettes, vapour cig, vapour cigarette

Mass Viral Traffic System is a really cool site where you simply visit 7 links and then add your site to the top, as it goes on your site gets more and more hits :)

Check it out now and see why we say it is one of the easiest ways to set up a constant flow of traffic to your site. It takes just 5 minutes to sign up.

Check it out today here

I had a good look into it and decided we can accommodate 125×125 banners. So good news is that you can now order spots for 125×125 banners :)

The prices are as follows

$5 for 7 days
$15 for 30 days
$120 for a year

You do not need to be a program owner you can simply add your affiliate URL in :)

You can purchase banner spots by visiting this link

The Traffic Exchange Genius that is Mr Paul Kinder celebrates his birthday today and while most would be out partying Mr K has set up a really cool promotion.

Surf Traffic At The Races at the same time as the 3 main Commando Surf Exchanges and get 47% bonus at Races. We are not doing upto 47% we are going to give you 47% all the time you surf today :)

The login page spots are for big adverts 500×300 (I can resize if needed)
These are real prime position spots and for a year while I was redoing all my auto responder emails I have been using these spots to promote my other products etc (Its where most of my referrals come from when I JV with other people at launches too)

Now I have my products in my email series these spots are not needed as often so I have now put the spare weeks where I am not promoting other peoples stuff for sale :)

There is no rotator, once you buy a spot yours is the only advert there for a whole week :) Maximum exposure to everyone logging in :)

Prices are as follows on the following sites

Traffic At The Races
Traffic Dodgems
Buckets Of Banners
Raining Traffic
All $20 for 7 days (Per site)

Splash Page Maker
Traffic Alternative
Responder Series
TEBlaster
Traffic Alternative
All $10 for 7 days (per site)

Order today from the links under the login page ads or by clicking here

These are available on
Traffic At The Races
Traffic Dodgems
Raining Traffic
Buckets Of Banners

Do not miss out, there are only 5 slots available at each exchange and you can have a subscription if you like so if you do not grab one now you may have to wait a long time.

You can order from the link under the banners at each exchange or by clicking here

BUT Wait big gasp

I have added badges in Traffic Dodgems while surfing…
Yes I know some will be shocked and think it would be the last thing I would do but I have had a few chats with a few people and thought about it. You see, I am against being forced to surf a certain number of pages Ie contests where you have to surf 200 to enter etc

However with badges they have no value, there is no benefit to collecting them, there is no reward at my sites for doing it, there just there for the people who are surfing to collect if they so wish, no pressure no need to get them.

What I have done is make them active at 50,100,150,200 and 250 pages and not as high as others like 1000 or even 5000 pages.

So at Traffic Dodgems badges are easier to collect :)

You can grab 10,000 Banner impressions or 20,000 Text Link impressions for a super low price of $4
or go large and get 30,000 Banners or 60,000 Text Links for only $10

login to Raining Traffic right now and grab yours

I am not trying to start a price war or anything like that, It is done for a very good reason.

As you may know I have been focusing on sites like my What Is A Traffic Exchange to bring new people into the business and the Traffic Exchange industry.

As part of this work I have been targeting different areas with different sites and my Traffic Dodgems site has been targeted at people that are used to purchasing things at a slightly lower price so I have changed the sites prices to reflect this :)

So if your looking to get in front of new people that have come to exchanges to learn, find new ideas, join new things and build new partnerships then now is the time to get into Traffic Dodgems :)