How Do I Get Traffic To My Site?

Maybe you've been asking yourself (or others), "How can I let people know about my new contest?" or "How do I get traffic to my site, period?" or for those who learn by example "How do YOU get traffic to YOUR sites?" I hope you've gotten some good responses, but you probably haven't, or you wouldn't still be reading. Well, there are some very good ways out there, and you know I'm all about the free, so here's my advice (also free). Traffic Exchanges. Very simple concept, but used with a twist (stay tuned below for that tidbit). Here are the sites I'm currently an active member of, illustrated with banners (for the visually-stimulated) and explained using Pros/Cons lists (for the logically-minded):


Pros: decent timer, lottery ticket for every 8 pages, chance to win real cash, additional bonuses, credits for reporting sites that break the rules, nice upgrade price
Cons: ratio is a little low without upgrading to pro so you wind up promoting banners more than sites



Pros: decent timer, nice visual surfing interface, addictive prizebar, chance to win real cash, nice upgrade offers if you catch them, additional ways to earn credits other than just surfing, great quotes and/or helpful advice at the bottom of every page
Cons: new front-page GUI makes site-navigation less user-friendly, text ad feature has yet to work in a manner that makes using text ads worthwhile (show too fast so that credits are quickly diminished)



Pros: earn real cash while surfing, poker game for chance at bonus credits, can choose target or exclusion countries for your ads, homepage text ads option gets great results and is a cheap bargain, super-cheap upgrade price ($10 for 3 months)
Cons: can be painfully slow, high timer, had trouble at first with the poker game not crediting correctly, limited audience



Pros: fantastic user base to advertise to (over 90,000!), earn real cash while surfing, attractive site overall, new bonus pages in rotation, ongoing competitions, good ratio
Cons: so-so timer, anti-cheat mechanism can be annoying (match the gibberish word or do a math problem), bonus pages can easily be missed if you're not paying attention



Pros: best real-cash ratio, large bag of free credits just for signing up, great banner/text credit conversion ratios
Cons: so-so timer, site navigation can be confusing, sidebar text ad monitor not working, site has been completely down a couple times



Pros: speedy fast timer, lots of blatant bonus pages (every 15th), decent upgrade offers if you catch them, easy sidebar site navigation, ongoing daily credit contests, part of super-surf network (addtl credits for surfing specific other TE's at the same time), great surfer base/lots of members to advertise to
Cons: *warning - side rant* They post your login/password in every email they send. I contacted them about this procedure and their only response is that it produces more logins/surfers daily, and it may in fact, however, I think it's unsafe to have your password posted in plain text so often (especially if you use computers in public places), so I changed mine to a random password that I don't use for anything else, and I don't have to worry about forgetting what it is because I see it every time I read an email from them (usually daily). *end rant* ratio is a little low lending to using banners more than sites


Well, there you have it, my traffic story. The order they are listed above is how I open them, and I surf them all simultaneously. In firefox, I have them each bookmarked in a single folder and just click "open all in tabs." I move down the line, using the faster timers (trafficsplash, freetrafficlotto, trafficbunnies) to fill in the gaps. In a couple hours on a weekend, I can build enough credits to have my sites and banners seen throughout the rest of the week while I work my day job (hopefully one day able to quit because my internet marketing has taken off so wildly!).

These are, however, in no way a Top 5 (or even 6), they are just the ones I use because they work well and provide me with the service I need. I've been very tempted lately to try a couple of the other larger networks out there, just to see something new - I'll keep you posted and let you know if/when I do.

Best of luck and hope you had a Happy Halloween (I went to bed early and slept like a baby - it was great!)

Excellent Ways To Promote Affiliate Banners

I posted recently about two traffic exchanges which are just about the best out there. However, I've recently stumbled onto similar sites which also give you cash money for doing the exact same thing!


The first is HitTactic: Hit Tactic Traffic Exchange
- The site is slightly slower than the rest, but since you're getting paid, you have time to wait. I usually open all my traffic exchange windows in tabs and just cycle through. I recommend getting a couple with short timers to fill space, and a couple with longer timers but better perks (like HitTactic) to ensure you're making dough!

The second is EasyHits4U: Easy Hits 4 U Traffic Exchange
- I can't say enough about this site! Great member base (65,000+), fast, great site coding, and even more cash per site surfed than HitTactic! They pay out through Paypal or E-Gold, which is a sweeping new concept where all money earned/payed is backed by a real gold standard (~just like America used to be~).

So check them out and promote your site and/or your affiliate links, affiliate banners, partner sites, contests, etc... today!

Banned From Entrecard

a.k.a. Entrecard.com sucks!

Well, yet another site is added to the suck list, as my account has been deleted from Entrecard. Graham, the admin claims I have been dropping on a site that doesn't exist, and therefore must have been breaking the TOS. Here's a copy of the message he sent to first alert me to the situation on Sunday:

Greetings,

It is my unfortunate business to inform you that you have been caught with your hand in the cookie jar, so to speak. You've been dropping daily on a widget that doesn't exist.

You have an ultimatum.

You can tell us how it is that you are dropping on a widget for a site that doesn't exist, and more specifically where. Most likely a widget farm of some sort, with multiple's people's widgets pulled and displayed on a single page. We'll thank you for the information and give you a bounty.

Or, we can simply remove your account for illegal activitiy and send you on your way, banning you.

Please choose the former and give us some information, otherwise we'll have no choice but to keep the integrity of our network intact.

It disgusts me that he claims he'd give me a bounty for reporting some whacked out page that enables cheating, when I took part in no such activity, yet otherwise I'll be banned. What a crock!

I sent the only explanation I could think of, for why it was happening, which apparently wasn't good enough for the monkey admins over there. Two days later, on Tuesday, I got the notice of account deletion:

Your account 'Something From Some Unfamous Body' on entrecard.com has been deleted. The administrator gave the following reason:

illegal drops

Please contact support@entrecard.com if you have any questions regarding this action.

So be it. I can't imagine they understand any legitimate reasons for why things happen on their servers. They are so worried about "cheating" because inflation got out of control (because their initial "plan" didn't work). They tried to stave off the inflation with a new pricing model, but only caused confusion and frustration, losing some of their major websites/users. They were able to kill 40,000+ credits with a single swoop (15,000 was from The University Kid's contest, and countless others were from Joe Tech's Slot Wins), and instead of just deleting the credits that shouldn't have been there from some server error, they deleted the entire account!

Good riddens Entrecard, R.I.P. (or not!).

P.S. If you advertised on my page, you'll probably have to message support to get your credits back because their system doesn't automatically resolve those things when sites no longer exist on their servers!!!


Happy Tuesday!

Scratch Your Way Into Prizes

It only makes sense (to me anyway) that a site named getburied.com would create a scratch card.


_{Click the image above, or the link below to try your luck!}

This fun free new way to win EntreCard Credits seemed a little sketchy to me at first, especially when it said I won 10 credits on my first play. However, within the next 30 minutes or so, I'd received a return message and the credits from my win into my account. Too cool!

The site admin says he's added some additional prizes and changed the odds to make it easier to win, so there's never gonna be a better time than NOW to get in on the action. Who knows, maybe soon he'll feature ad spaces or link love as prizes too!

P.S. If you've never heard of EntreCard, you should check it out. It's a great way to get quick traffic to any site!

Good luck to all!

Entrecard Contest Addiction

(His Artwork, Not Mine)

It seems that every Entrecarder has been infected with the contest bug lately! It has been said before, although it had nothing to do with Entrecard at that time, that there can be only ONE - in this case I'm referring to VikingBlogger's current EC-credits-contest-to-beat-all-others.
Apparently, VikingBlogger purchased a couple thousand credits and they are burning a hole in his pockets, so he's decided to hold the largest giveaway in Entrecard history - 20,000 credits!

If you're a blogger and don't know about Entrecard, you need to get on board. If you're already a member, then you'll understand the significance of this contest, and you'll participate immediately.

For anyone else, not encompassed by the former two categories, I hope you didn't waste your time reading this post. :-D But thank you for your readership!

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Rather than create a whole new post for a related concept, here is an Entrecard link-paradise:

T h i s - I s - A n - E n t r e C a r d - D i s p l a y - W a l l - M a d e - F o r - E a s i l y - R e c o g n i z i n g - Y o u r - F a v o r i t e - E n t r e C a r d - D r o p p e r s.

C l i c k - O n - E a c h - L E T T E R - T o - J u m p - T o - A n y - O n e - T h a t - L o o k s - G o o d - T o - Y o u.

J o i n - E n t r e C a r d - A n d - S t a r t - D r o p p i n g - O n - T h e i r - W i d g e t s - N o w.

B e - A - P a r t - O f - A - W a l l .

Enjoy Entre–Hopping!!!