FastEasyTraffic September 10, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentCombine expert programmer Tim Rash with the marketing phenomenon that is Paul Kinder and what do you get? Fast Easy Traffic. The name says it all and appears to be the foundation of anything these two are involved in.
Surfing here at FET is not only fast and easy, but actually a bit more entertaining than your average exchange. Memorable, and often hilarious quotes load in the surf bar mixed with the occasional news item and pearls of wisdom. The surfing is clean, the credits plentiful and… did I mention fast and easy?
Fast Easy Traffic has a ton of popular features in place including surf and chat, a first page auction where members can bid their credits for the coveted daily start page, and the ability to transfer credits between members.
FET fits easily into what I consider the “best of the best” category of hit exchanges. Already delivering traffic on par with exchanges 2 to 3 times it’s size, Fast Easy Traffic is a gem and not to be overlooked.
My Rating: 8 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
eTrafficFreedom
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentETrafficFreedom is a fully featured traffic exchanged running on the ever popular LJ script. There may be many sites offering the same features, but owner John Marks must be doing something right as the traffic delivery here has nearly doubled over the course of this summer.
Promoting ETF is made especially easy as the promotion tools here are plentiful. Aside from a wealth of splash pages and banners, Mr. Marks provides members with html ads, forum signature ads, and pre written emails. Members can earn up to 30% commissions on referrals upgrades and purchases, as well as a percentage of referrals credits earned from surfing. Members also have the option to mail their referrals once every 10 days.
Those who prefer to buy credits will be pleased with E Traffic Freedom’s very reasonably priced ad packages. The hits come in nice and steady ensuring some great daily exposure for your biz.
If E Traffic Freedom continues to grow as it has this summer, it may become one of the premier exchanges to promote your business. I’ll definitely be back for an updated review later on this year.
My Rating: 6 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
Link Crews
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentLink Crews runs on a unique, custom script and appears to combine some of the best features of traffic-swarm and logiscape sites like TS25 into a powerful advertising medium.
As a free member, the goal here appears to reach the #1 Crew. While surfing, you work your way up from the bottom, advancing to the next crew by viewing a certain number of sites. Making it into the higher crews, gets you an increased surf ratio. This program uses a “tokens” system rather than credits, but essentially you start out with a 4:1 ratio and as a free member you can work your way up to a 1:1.
The surfbar is quite unique, combining Traffic Swarm’s classified ads approach with a more standard surfbar. You begin with a small thin surfbar which gives plenty of space for member ads. Once the timer has expired, the surfbar extends to about the average size you’d see elsewhere, and you are asked to choose one of 3 sites to view next.
Credits are assigned in the form of campaigns, very much like you’d see at the logiscape exchanges. You have a considerable amount of control here as you can not only set your total visitors and max daily visitors, but you can also set the campaign to start on a specific date and time.
Link crews management has done a fine job of delivering traffic consistently thus far, and it looks like everything is in place to keep the hits coming in down the road. At nearly 23,000 members, this site is just coming into it’s own.
My Rating: 6 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
Magnify Traffic September 9, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentMagnify Traffic does a great job of distinguishing itself from the hundreds of other traffic exchanges online. From the moment you log in, Magnify has a distinctly different feel, yet it’s layout is focused and simple to navigate.
The team at Magnify have taken huge steps to ensure members return to surf daily, and offer some generous rewards for those who do. Rewards come in the form of surf ratio bonuses. Some of which are good for the remainder of the day, and some you get to keep the next day if you log in and surf again.
You can always depend on Magnify Traffic’s dependable traffic delivery as well. You would think with all these ratio bonuses going around, credits would begin to back up. Quite the contrary here as the hits have been rolling in nice and steady all summer with no sign of slowing down.
If there’s one thing I find lacking at Magnify, it’s text links. Sure, there’s a common belief that text links are worthless, but I for one have always loved the ability to convert credits to text links. It’s a great way to test short n’ sweet ads and I’ve had some great results from these things in the past. Maybe resident programmer (and co-owner) Dan Smith will incorporate text links in the future.
All in all, Magnify Traffic is a quality program that I can feel comfortable recommending to anyone.
My Rating: 7 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
Hit Pirate
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentIs that Captain Jack Sparrow in the top right corner of this site? Can’t tell for sure, but one thing is certain… owner “Captain” Jack Schafer is no stranger to the traffic exchanges.
Hit Pirate has been delivering the page views since late 2004, and continues to fare well considering it’s lack of exposure as of late. The affiliate toolbox here features a treasure trove of promotional tools, and with Mr. Schafer offering some generous commissions, (up to 50%), it’s surprising we don’t see more Hit Pirate ads out there.
This click exchange is rather newbie friendly as well. The sidebar has links to some Hit Pirate specific training as well as some general TE tutorials as well. This is something not enough exchanges take the time to do. I believe many owners have forgotten what it was like to be a newbie. Respect To Captain Jack for not neglecting the land lubbers.
Emails from the captain are rare, and while some would prefer less emails in their inbox, I personally like to hear from the TE owners once in a while. Even if there’s nothing much to report, it’s real easy for surfers to forget about you in this community of program hoppers. A little reminder from the admin once in a while would surely make the activity at Hit Pirate even better.
Bottom line, Hit Pirate is a clean, well managed exchange, that could use a bit more promotion. No Reason this couldn’t be one of the best with a bit of a push.
My Rating: 5 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
Traffic Swarm
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentWith a membership of over 500,000 Traffic Swarm is the biggest Traffic Exchange online today. But do big numbers like these mean better results?
Well, you can’t deny the potential for monstrous exposure in a program of this size. Getting that exposure however is not as simple here as you may think. Traffic Swarm’s method of advertising member pages requires the user to write a brief classified ad. While surfing, members choose from a set of 8 classified ads, clicking one starts the timer and loads the corresponding member page. Now, many will argue that most people would just click all of the ads, regardless of the classified itself, in an effort to gain as many credits as possible. I’m sure many surfers do exactly that. However the surfbar is not the only method in which hits are delivered at Traffic Swarm.
Another method to earn credits at Swarm is to add their search box to your website. The search box is linked to the directory of Traffic Swarm member ads. Hits coming in this fashion are possibly the highest quality hits you can get anywhere as the user was specifically searching for your site or product. In a situation like this, the best classified ad will most certainly get the click.
Traffic Swarm also lets you earn credits by adding their link box to your site. This is similar to google’s adsense and like in the previous example, members with good ad writing skills get the most clicks from these ads.
So Traffic Swarm has put together a program that offers some impressive exposure for your site. Thanks to the search box, and link box, your ads are not limited to the Traffic Swarm surfbar, but could easily be found on member sites all over the web.
My Rating: 9 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
Traffic Punk September 8, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentA slick, clean design and all the standard features we love, so what happened to Traffic Punk?
This was once one of my favorite exchanges to surf. You used to see ads for Traffic Punk everywhere and the traffic was top notch here. Over the last few months, this hit exchange has been on a downward slide.
While surfing Traffic Punk lately, I’ve had the distinct feeling I was the only one surfing. Most of the ads in rotation appear to belong to the owner. Traffic delivery is dismally slow, only picking up for the occasional double bonuses. Come to think of it, the only time I see an e-mail from this program it’s usually just a reminder about a double bonus and these are few and far between.
There’s really no reason this site couldn’t be a top performer again in the future, but it’s going to take some serious effort by the owner. Hopefully we’ll see an attempt to generate some interest in this program again sometime soon, but as it stands, this is one program that’s lost it’s edge.
My Rating: 3 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
247 Traffic Pro September 7, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentThe team at 247TrafficPro have been on fire this summer and activity seems to be increasing by the day. Lets take a look at some of the new additions and see how this exchange stacks up to the competition.
This summer marked the beginning of the Hover Surf craze. Made popular first by the gang at New Way 2 Surf, it was quickly imitated by tons of exchanges looking to cash in on the buzz. 247 Traffic Pro reacted quickly, looking to please members who preferred to hover, they developed a customizable version of the hover surf feature made it an optional feature at their click exchange. But they didn’t stop there…
Looking to reward loyal surfers, 247TrafficPro turned on their “keep the next day” progressive surf ratio. Surf long enough, get an increased surf ratio. Come back and surf the next day and your increased surf ratio remains in place. Surely an incentive to surf daily, but with all these extra credits being earned, won’t member credits begin to stockpile?
Apparently, the 247TrafficPro team was aware of this possibility and quickly developed their “Activity Points” feature. Rewarding active members with points for doing “the most regular tasks on 247TrafficPro”. Each week, the top 5 members based on points win the weekly jackpot. The jackpot contains credits, banner and text impressions, referrals and even a bit of cash.
So the activity is high and the features are full of potential, so why are my results here not consistent with other active exchanges. I can’t answer that question, but if the fellas at 247TrafficPro can, I think they’ll have a real powerhouse of a hit exchange on their hands.
My Rating: 5 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
Nexus Exchange
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentThe first thing to grab your eyes at NexusExchange would be the colors. This thing is purple. Definitely stands out in a crowd, but is this exchange as unique as it’s color scheme?
Nexus celebrated it’s 3 year anniversary last month, surprising considering there doesn’t seem to be anything unique about this exchange at all. Aside from some relatively cheap credit packages for sale, This could easily be one of any number of LJ Script based traffic exchanges with a new coat of paint.
You’ve got your 3:1 surf ratio for free members, with 2 upgrade levels which can get you up to a 1:1 surf ratio. Free members get a 10 second timer, where an upgraded membership gets you a faster 8 second timer. Not much out of the ordinary to see here.
Now, This is not to say that this exchange cannot do well with this model. It’s a common one simply because it’s been proven to work, however in today’s competitive TE community, it’s going to take some heavy promotion to bring in the membership necessary to keep the stats up to par, and lately, Nexus Exchange seems to be coming up short.
Customer service here is certainly above average and that goes a long way with me. It’s always good to know someone’s behind the wheel.
All in all, I think Nexus Exchange is a clean, well managed exchange that has yet to find it’s edge. When you consider that there are hundreds of traffic exchanges online today, Nexus is definitely above average. Just not top 20 material just yet.
My Rating: 5 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
WebCentreSurf September 6, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentWebCentreSurf? Yep, I’m a fan. This is an exchange that stands out from the rest and has no trouble delivering a steady stream of hits.
So what’s different about WebCentreSurf? Lets start with their credit transfer system. Through the private messaging system, you can contact either your sponsor, your downline, 100 random members, or the entire list of “opt-In” members. (currently over 27,000). With each message you can attach credits from your balance. But you see, that’s not even the cool part. You can create an “external credit link” which you can use outside of WebCentreSurf. This gives you the opportunity to offer some of your credits as a “bribe” to someone to sign up under you.
I have to also mention the addictive nature of the surf game here. Much like the game show “who wants to be a millionaire”, surfers are subjected to a series of trivia questions, all multiple choice. With each progressing question, you have the option to either cash out or risk moving on to the next question. An addictive way to win credits and if you know your stuff, you can grab some truly ginormous amounts of credits here.
If you fancy an upgrade, you’ll be pleased to find that along with your increased surf ratio, you also get the surf timer reduced to 10 seconds. (15 seconds is the norm here.) On top of the bonus credits you receive you also get a free solo ad to the entire opt in list as well.
When all’s said and done, WebCentreSurf is a solid advertising resource and a regular part of my own surfing routine. Definitely worth a test run if you’ve yet to promote there.
My Rating: 7 (out of a possible 10)
Disagree with my Rating? Login to Affiliate Funnel and add your own ranking now.
