Well I certainly hope not considering designing them for others is a significant portion of my income, however after 3 days into to the launch of Tony’s next generation traffic exchange “Tezak Traffic Power” I must admit, I’m a bit worried.

A quick look at this screenshot from my aweber new subscribers report tells the tale tells the tale better than words…

As you can see, I got a HUGE spike in sign ups when TTP Launched.  I can only imagine what those numbers would have looked like I had I remembered to log in a assign more impressions when the first batch ran out.  What’s really killing me is that an ad that was a flop as a squeeze page, is on fire as a trimmed down list ad at Tezak Traffic Power.

What surprises me even more is that in all the buzz around this new exchange there’s been very little mention of how powerful the list ads feature at ttp is.  I’ve honestly never seen a free to use program like this that does so well at bringing in fresh leads.  With over 5,000 people actively surfing ttp in just the first 3 days it doesn’t look like this lead source will be drying up any time soon.  Knowing that Tony has teamed up with affiliate marketing powerhouse Paul Kinder and technical mastermind Tim Rash I have no doubt that this feature will continue to drive in the prospects for years to come.

So to Recap, Here’s the REAL long term benefits as I see them…

• List Ads

• Tony Tezak

• Paul Kinder

• Tim Rash

• Paul Kinder’s famous customer care team we all love from Traffic-Splash (yep, they’re on board too.)

• A Uniquely powerful next generation Traffic Exchange script

No Matter How you look at it, Tezak Traffic Power is a winner, and my new not so secret weapon for increasing my opt-in rate. Hats off Tony, Paul, Tim and the team… you guys have really out done yourselves.

Still on the fence? Try out the list ads at Tezak Traffic Power before you make a judgement. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at your results.

Mrs. Jonckheere currently owns 3 traffic exchanges, my favorite of which is Ace Biz Traffic.  Maybe I’m a sucker for a super hero theme, or maybe it’s the numerous ways to win credits.  Ultimately, I think it’s the fact that Toni is constantly seeking ways to improve results for her members.  Ace Biz is one of the few Traffic Exchanges to offer unique prizes like jewelery, and it seems every time I log in some new aspect of the exchange has been tweaked or adjusted.

I love an active admin, and a friendly and active admin is even better.  If you haven’t logged in to Ace Biz Traffic in a while, go give Toni a visit and have a look around.

Visit Toni’s site here.
Interview with Toni Jonckheere on Tim Linden’s Blog.

Since the first website traffic exchange went online nearly a decade ago, We have seen countless variations of the original manual traffic exchange model. As competition among an ever growing number of exchanges heats up, innovation is at an all time high.

Traffic exchange ranking systems on the other hand, have essentially remained the same. In most cases the rankings have been based on some organizations stats and figures, maybe some opinion thrown in for good measure, while we the surfers put blind faith in the stats and experiences of these 3rd parties.

Last week marked the beginning of a long overdue change in the way exchanges are ranked. The hardworking team over at Affiliate Funnel launched their brand new member based ranking system for traffic exchanges. Affilliate Funnel members can now rate each exchange listed in the AF database with a score from 1-10. At the end of each week, points are tallied and the best of the best rise to the top.  Truly a useful tool and a welcome addition to this already powerful free downline builder.

Now, anyone with experience in the exchanges will tell you, no ranking system should dictate your advertising focus. Rather you should track your own results and promote in exchanges that give you the best results. But until now, there has never been a better starting point for your tracking efforts than the top sites in the AF ranker. Why? Well, it only makes sense that sites receiving the most votes would have the most active members using them doesn’t it. I mean, why would you vote for a site you don’t even use? So it’s safe to assume that if you promote in a site that ranks high at AF, there should be a lot of eyes waiting to see your ads. More eyes = more possible conversions wouldn’t you think?

So, If you were under a rock these past couple of weeks and have yet to check out the new and improved Affiliate Funnel, go ahead and have a look here. Don’t forget to Vote!

Let’s take a moment to look at 2 strategies they’ve implemented and how they can relate to your online businness.

1. They’ve created a spokesperson or mascot that we instantly associate with their product.
2. They’ve created a mental association linking a common phrase uttered by cell phone users to their product.

All of this fits under the label of branding. I cannot stress enough how powerful effective branding can be for your business. Look at any multi-billion dollar company in the world today and I guarantee you will see heavy branding incorporated into their advertising efforts.

So what can we learn from these highly successful comapanies? What do they know about branding that we can incorporate into our own advertising?

The power of repeated exposure

It’s quite obvious that the ad department at Geico auto insurance saw the value in pounding their british gecko’s image into our heads eh? Do you recall when they first debuted their gecko campaign? The little guy spoke only 2 words… “well hello”. By the end of the month we all recognized that gecko even if we weren’t quite sure what he was trying to sell us. In fact, I don’t think the folks at Geico intended to do anything other than branding their mascot at this stage of their campaign.

We can duplicate this strategy quite successfully with traffic exchange marketing. A splash page, branded with your image,logo or name, in constant rotation in several high traffic exchanges can achieve a similar effect. If you’ve been surfing the exchanges lately, I’ll bet you recognize paul kinder’s face when you see it eh?

List building

I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who makes better use of list building than the pizza delivery industry.
When you order a large pepperoni, delivered to your door, Your address is instantly added to that pizza shop’s mailing list and you’ll soon find their advertisements in your mailbox. Usually right when you get home, hungry after a hard days work.

Add on opt-in form to the page you’re advertising, and you’ve now combined 2 powerful marketing strategies into your advertising. This is really all you should be focusing on when utilizing Traffic exchanges anyway. I mean, do you really expect to close a sale in 10-30 seconds? It’s doubtful. Instead, concentrate on branding yourself, and building your mailing list. Then you can build a relationship with your list. If you take a patient approach, and stay honest. You won’t have to do much “selling” at all.

In the coming weeks, I will be adding a bunch of step by step instructions to help you accomplish these tasks using your own custom built pages, however if you’re in a hurry to get started right away, I can point you toward an excellent set of free tools to give you a jump-start.

Head over to Affiliate Funnel and grab a free membership. You’ll get a quick loading splash/lead capture page which will help you to build your own mailing list, while branding your image in the exchanges. Once inside, You’ll find several other benefits included in your free membership as well.

Remember, the effects of branding don’t happen overnight. The sooner you get started, the sooner you can reap the rewards. Best of luck to you!