The oddest thing happened early Sunday morning. I was over hanging out at Twitter – someone was reaching out to see if his followers were real or not so I took the bait and started a conversation. It was short, and has totally nothing to do with this post, except for the fact that I saw another tweet that caught my attention. It was someone’s announcement of their new “traffic exchange.”

In case you’re not familiar with the term, or have not been online that long (a decade?) these are services where you can Get Traffic For Your Website. Almost all traffic exchanges are free to join, with many of them having the ability to upgrade either as you sign up or later.

The fact that I’ve run across both, the Tweet (a bust) and this program mentioned above (potential?) in the same day means the fates want me to write about them.

Yes, way back when, these traffic churners used to be called start pages (or startpages whichever you prefer). The beauty of them was (and still can be) that if you have trouble just getting someone, anyone, to lay eyes on your site, they are so very simple to set up and do just that… put your page in front of someone’s eyes… for free.

The usual arrangement with these types of programs is a “I’ll look at yours if you’ll look at mine.” The potential for sales, with the right page is possible, but I look at them more as “branding” than anything else.

That’s not to say that I haven’t made sales from these services, I have, but generally it’s the phone call or email where someone tells me, “I saw your site surfing and bookmarked you about three months ago and decided to check you out.” (Hey now or later, you can’t beat a client!)

I’ve even had my primary business remembered three years later, just because of the branding capabilities of these little free gems.

The one I’m typing about right now is called TrafficTurn.com and it appears brand new – and new can be very good. Sometimes it pays to get in on the ground floor so to speak.

They offer auto and manual traffic exchange options. Manual, of course means you determine the rate and speed at which the other person’s website loads and you go on to the next. Auto surfing basically runs itself, and can rack you up a ton of points if you remember to log in and “surf.” Conversely, auto surfing also means you can do other things as these websites go by.

So I have a mixed reaction to auto surfing. Great if you’re too busy; bad if everyone in the program is doing the same thing.

But traffic exchanges do serve a purpose (and some people I’ve talked to swear by them). Let’s face it, every website needs traffic – and this type (being free) is a million times better than the “guaranteed traffic” being hawked online (long story but I know of what I speak).

With a traffic exchange you have a captured audience that can be your ticket to multiple signups if what you offer is either 1) free or 2) so unusual they’ve got to open your site and see what you’re all about (thus giving you an actual trackable visitor).

TrafficTurn is free to join, and once you receive your welcome email all you need to do it log in and get your website linked up into their system. Then you start surfing (again choosing manually or automatically).

They also have slight twists to their particular program. You can earn:

o More credits
o Make money
o Sell your credits
o Buy advertising space
o and more.

They don’t even push you to upgrade, but do encourage you to fully explore your potential to upgrade. You just may find that upgrading is the ticket for you.

Other things I should mention include:

o Just a 10 second timer for manual surfing (excellent); and
o 15 second timer if you put it on autopilot.

They will start you off with 200 credits free just for signing up (again a nice perk). And, of course, every time you visit other members sites you are earning more credits so you can have your webpage shown more often.

They even have online games you can play and earn more credits… or cash. I also should mention it’s just one account per member, and that they have many other benefits I have not listed here.

Again, in terms of marketing this is one of those free things to add to your toolkit. Many, many people are on a really strict budget, especially in these down times. Taking advantage of every conceivable way to get free traffic is a must.

Just remember to:

o Think primarily branding when you use their service
o Make sure the page you chose to show loads quickly
o Make your web page unusual, funny, catchy!
o And, if possible offer something they must grab right now for free.

The world works in mysterious ways. I was going to write about the other one I joined yet this one came popping up as a chance to make my point about using all available resources at your disposal.

Many will poo-poo this type of traffic, but with free branding you cannot go wrong. Test every type of system out there, keep the good, eliminate the unproductive. But if you never try, you’ll never know.

Happy surfing!

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I’ve known Melanie Milletics for a while now (list building secrets), and I’ve been hanging onto a notice of hers called, “What is a Magic Blog Post?” for a few days.

Today is the day I made the time to go read (and you should, too).

There are certain vital points she makes that really impact your posts (or your website for that matter) that I won’t rehash, she’s stated them quite nicely. However, I did notice a glaring what I’ll call “mistake” within her post. A mistake I see way too many web site and blog owners make – not coding their click-able links to open in new windows!

Such a small thing, with such huge implications!

When you are reading, and someone mentions a resource or reference to even more information (and assuming you are really interested), ten to one you’re going to click that link (like above) – which is also what I (and anyone else with common sense) is praying that you will do – it’s there to be clicked for a reason.

Yet after you click on it, do you think I want you to disappear for good? Of course not! I want you back to either finish up reading and/or to take the time to look around (use the search bar on this blog), watch the videos (there are even more “how to’s” in the right hand sidebar on a wide range of topics, that’s just one example), and (of course) COMMENT about what you’re reading.

So that simple bit of code – your “target” to open in a new window or blank window is critical.

You work hard to get your visitor, don’t let them just slip through your fingers. The coding is:

target=”_blank”

To see it in action, just right click anywhere on this page outside the framework of the blog itself (in other words pick a “white area” even if it’s colored, but doesn’t have words) and View Source (in IE) or View Page Source (in Firefox).

o  Go up under EDIT on your browser (very top)

o  Choose FIND and type in Milletics (it’s unique and only mentioned once on this page – okay twice but this one doesn’t count there’s no link involved)

o  Now look closely at the coding just prior to her name.

See how the code is put together? See the “target” part?

You can hand code this yourself in HTML or if you are a WordPress blog user, from the what-you-see-is-what-you-get view, just highlight the words, click on the little chain to make the link, and then select TARGET (new window).

Website owners you really need to do this, too.

It’s actually very sad to me when I see someone just willingly giving up their visitor. Don’t make me hunt to get back to you!

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Please COMMENT, we love feedback!

Hopefully you are running some statistical accounting method on your website and/or blog like Google Analytics. By tracking the information in and out of your site, you will also be made aware of pages that either got lost in the shuffle, were eliminated completely but still referenced elsewhere on your site (that you forgot to remove the link to), or pages seach engines like Google (for reasons unknown) expect to be there, but aren’t.

These are known as your 404 page errors, and letting them pile up can be a time consuming task to set straight and (potentially) hurt your standings.

Mostly they are just a pain in the neck to get search engines like Google to stop seeing. In fact, years ago on a completely different hosting server, I did use the cgi-bin (we don’t now). And, even though the hosting had changed numerous times, those cgi-bin 404 errors kept haunting me. So when I saw a recent incoming newsletter about this problem, I figured it’s a good time to give everyone either a heads up or reminder to track these down and eliminate them.

In fact, Mary Peng of Web Analytics World has recently put out an article on how to make the most of those inevitable 404 errors. She writes:

No matter what type of site you may have, 404 errors may cost you something. It might not be money, but it’s costing you something. Retail sites could be losing money. Other types of sites, however, may be losing something just as valuable… pageviews… return visitors… things like that….

The truth is, your site could potentially do that extra 10-25%, you just don’t benefit from it because your visitors are encountering 404 page not found errors. These visitors can be potential browsers and buyers, but once they hit that 404 page, they’ll leave and bring their money to another site.

Within her article, she also suggests another resource that gives you some great suggestions on how to fix up your 404 errors.

You’ll also discover some very interesting and creative ways you can make those dreaded 404 errors more entertaining. Here are more cool ways web owners have created their 404 pages.

So don’t wait too long. Do stay on top of these “lost pages.” Put them to valuable use and never lose another visitor to your site again.

Comments Welcome! Please Add Yours!

The other day while visiting our Twitter, I was struck by how many different posting and contact systems are currently in place to help you Tweet more efficiently.

In our January 4th post, we mentioned a couple:

TwitterBar 1.1
TwitterFeed

The first allows you to add comments directly to your Twitter from the address bar of your browser. It is an addon for your Firefox browser. Extremely simple to add, very easy to use.

The second is a slightly confusing, but ultimately satisfying, way to have a third party recognize your new posts and announce them – automatically – to your Twitter account.

But then I started going down through our lists of followers, and taking notes on how individual Twitter-ers are able to (seemingly) Tweet and get stuff done. Turns out there are a wide variety of tools at your disposal. Some make it easier to post, some are desktop interfaces (versus tabbing back and forth to your Twitter account).

Here’s what I’ve located so far – with short explanations of what each of these services and/or software programs do:

Tweetie
For those who hang onto their iPhones and iPods with a vise-like grip, this tool is an application you can add to make posting and/or answering Tweets easier. This download-able application costs $2.99. For screenshots just click that link.

TwitterGadget
You can add this method of Twittering to your Gmail account using Gmail Labs (here are the installation instructions. What this program does is best represented by a quote from their website, “TwitterGadget is a clean, robust, web 2.0 style client for Twitter.com, designed to submit status updates to Twitter via your iGoogle homepage or Gmail Account.” I invite you to visit and interpret the rest yourself.

TweetDeck
TweetDeck is in beta, but I see an awful lot of die-hard Tweeters using it. It’s designed to help organize the massive amounts of incoming information, as well as allowing you to interface with your followers. Again, a quote from their website is in order, “It aims to evolve the existing functionality of Twitter by taking an abundance of information i.e twitter feeds, and breaking it down into more manageable bite sized pieces.”

TwitterFox
This is also a Firefox addon so installing it (like all things Firefox) is a breeze. TwitterFox “adds a tiny icon on the status bar which notifies you when your friends update their tweets.” In addition, it also has a small text input field to update your tweets.

Tweetfeed (not to be confused with TwitterFeed)
And last (for now) but most likely not least, Tweetfeed, a Twitter activity page that shows live what’s happening on your Twitter. You can customize the setting, and create what they call “Tweet walls” for conferences and events. Actually they state, use it however you want. We’ve added a link to a few TweetFeed examples

I do want you to know that, to date, I’m personally only using the first two referenced at the top of this post. But again, the ones listed are used constantly by Tweeters.

I should also note that TweetDeck (in beta) looks very appealing, but my Kaspersky firewall had strong objections to it. Most likely nothing at all to worry about, but I’m paranoid and decided to wait.

No doubt you’ve heard in the news lately of a few (stupid) tweets made by those (in our government) who should know better. Giving a step by step itinerary of one’s trip through war-torn Middle Eastern countries is definitely a stupid move.

However, in terms of instant communication, once you get the hang of it, Twitter isn’t going down the tubes as predicted numerous months ago. If anything, with all these tools available, mastering and using Twitter may be just the perfect move for you to make this year!

Enjoy!

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