John Bell

The absolute best is Google Analytics.. and it's free, surprise! Although I'd only use it inside your site because the data in it is very useful and can get highly diluted if you use it on splash pages too, generally I would use one of the many tracking sites. LFMTE sells a tracking add-on now so many Traffic Exchanges now have full featured tracking so finding a decent tracker is the easy part, just be careful about the stability of the server the tracker is on because if their server goes down then all your links will be going to a blank page... test around, try several, and stick with the one that seems to fulfill most of your needs. As far as what do you use? I use my own (Affiliate Toolbox) for link tracking, and analytics for internal site tracking (goals / flow)

Yea I've been thinking about switching to going that route and just grabbing like a 6 month or year sub instead of monthly so I don't have to cry when all the subs go out each month lol

I guess I also should add here.. I can see where people think it'st he same people using all the sites but that is obvioulsy not the case or why are we advertising at so many of them? We will all see a lot of cross over because we are smart enough to know to reach different markets - but the top % of core users of any type of site will not be the same as the other.. ..the only exception to this and the point where I would argue that there ARE too many is in the case when it is the same owner releasing the same site after site after site and just moving their same members on to the next OTO - sites owned by the same person will tend to have mainly the same core (if they're smart enough to be using a funnel) and although that is great for the site owner, I do think as an advertiser it really loses it's luster on their product when you are spending money to advertise to almost the identical market on 6 different sites when you could reach a 10% larger / shifted market just by spending that money on a site someone else owns instead

I'm with Stefan here - if you put the time into ANY advertising avenue, you'll get results...

I've found I actually get better results often times from smaller sites - and on the point of there being "too many" or whatever that's all malarky.. if there were too many then none of mine would be making any money.. seems silly but it's true, I get growth every day on my mailers so that's a huge signal to me that they are doing just fine, in fact I personally would like to spend more money on my mailer campaigns but It's hard for me to even find some that I feel are worth it (low value - price vs results).. Sure there are tons but just like we see in the traffic exchange, there may be thousands of them but there are always room for more good ones, people are craving better places to spend there money on and if we don't have some crappy ones in the mix then we won't be able to well which ones are good lol

I don't like any of those extras, all that crap just gets in the way of what I am wanting to do, in my opinion.. I can't stand getting 3 Login Offers then see some guys login ad then have to search through a sea of banners to find my info I'm after... The steal the site thing I thought was new then I joined more mailers and found it every.. I did it one time and it felt like so much more work than it was worth.. I really dislike things that get in the way of what I'm trying to do, and selling all these extra ads is all just stuff that gets in my way.. things that make me less likely to want to continue using a site (although I know login ads ARE effective, but they still annoy the crap out of me)

Yea what Maria said, new sites always react the best because the information is always so recent, as they age some choose to keep the list pruned (I block email addresses after just 1 bounce or 30 days of unopening) while others just let everyone on so they can have a big number to put on their sales page.. ...this isn't to say the new one is always better, many are years old and have excellent results, but one thing you can almost always be certain from a new one is active email addresses

Any one that gets my clicks I like - I keep upgrades at about 10-15 and just rotate through each money drop the lowest converting and try something new I wouldn't say any particular one is better than the other, as long as they have a constant stream of new members coming in, the results are usually there and for my advertising strategy when it comes to mailers the only thing that matters is conversions.. beyond that the obvious things, like not getting a verification email and then waiting a week for the support ticket to get my account verified clearly won't get you any sales, neither will if I get frustrated because because it takes 30 seconds for the page to load or the navigation is confusing, and having a bunch of oto's or login offers are a good way to make sure I stop logging in to your site too

From a surfers perspective, what motivates you to log in and surf every day?

Building Downlines in Traffic Exchange is by far the most efficient way to use them.. I get 10k hits to my primary rotator every day from sites I don't own and haven't bought credits in over 6 months... those credits didn't come out of thin air, they came from having referrals

Didn't you just say in another post you were doing 33% ratio? On the topic though (ignoring that it's blatant spam) a 33% ratio is a bit rediculous, but then again so is 30% commission.. seems like a waste of time imo with so many options out there it's easy to find one that is much more competitive and still effective

This is totally a trick question - many traffic exchanges have totally seperate markets and can get completely different types of response from the same ad. Either one of two things would be your best bet imo - one is to just pick one, and cater to it, and the other would be to try a ton of them and see which your ad works best at.. Honestly the first option is more effective in my experience.. As far as the timer debate which seems to never end... you have three seconds, this has been researched to death it's not a theory it's a fact.. if you can't capture the attention in three seconds they are gone.. stretching the timer out just means now they are going to get distracted and do something else.. The longer time will cause a small segment of people to stare at your page longer because they are board, this could in theory cause increased results due to the fact that they are staring at it for so long, but the difference I'd suspect is undedectable.. I seem to get about the same results from certain ads regardless the timer speed, there's a massive list of things that come in to play on the ad's effectiveness long before the timer do, and really it's our job as advertisers to try and increase our targeting to who we're advertising to, rather than the site trying to change it's market to fit our ads.. meaning you aren't going to go to Comcast and tell them that they need to change the ScyFy channel to only show Sports so that your Sports related ad performs better there..

I agree with some of these points.. I would love to make my sites mobile but really there is zero demand from it - I have yet to see a site in rotation on any traffic exchange while surfing that can really handle a mobile environment, and if the sites aren't advertised to that market - then really I am doing a disservice by putting them there - nobody is going to click on a splash page and fill out a registration form with 25 different things from their cell phone. As far as technology goes - absolutely. If you're not moving forward then you're moving backward.. and if you are reading this thinking that means if you aren't moving backwards then that must mean your moving forwards? wrong! If you aren't moving - you're moving backwards lol - you can quote all these old Dinosaur "TE's" all day long if you want but I wouldn't even call their technology that far behind, their design is dated but they have features most of these TE's can't even begin to come up with on their own. The #1 Issue with the "Traffic Exchange Industry" (besides trying to lump all these different types of sites into one category) is everyone just following eachother all in a line. One Traffic Exchange does something, then another, then another, then another.. every one keeps doing the same things with the same features and using them the same ways - the reason why some succeed and others fail is simply by breaking out of line and doing it your own way. Join the top 5 "Traffic Exchanges" from any top list and you will find vast differences - and in that you will see why they are the top 5 - not becuase they are following someone elses lead - but because they are the ones whose lead is being followed. When it comes to surfing for pennies - I don't really give a crap. Traffic Exchanges are based on reward mechanisms right down to their DNA - before you surfed for pennies you surfed for credits - it's the exact same thing. The major difference however, is where you go from there. Telling your members that surfing is actually a means of earning income from your site, is where the problem stems - you are doing such a massive disservice to your members and also your advertisers by reinforcing that message - your members can do better and simply helping them SEE that will not only build endless loyalty, but also very active and successful surfers - and lets be honest people who are finding success with their business are ALWAYS looking for new tools and resources to help them grow their business even more - it really is a win win situation. Take that member and tell them instead that they make money by surfing 500 pages a day, then not only will they feel betrayed when they realize that there is so much more to it then that, but the people they are advertising are getting little result.. and this isn't opinion, it's fact. The games and the badges, stickers, mouse points, stamps and whatever the hell else are just mechanisms for motivating people - it's what you are motivating them to do, and what you do from there that defines what happens next. Want to use this to create activity and nothing else? That's totally fine, do your thing... I own a business and I am successful with my business because I can help my affiliates become better affiliates, and I can help people who came because they thought they could earn a few cents, instead earn a few dollars - and that is how I succeed. The only thing of REAL value you can give away is your knowledge and support, just giving them a few cents and calling it a day is a recipe for failure and I'm not about racing to the bottom. The Key things from this I guess I want to say is - do it your way, and focus on what you can do to elevate your members as much as possible, give them the most you possibly can to help them succeed, and they will never forget that.