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Why I Dislike Surfing Contests in Traffic Exchanges
The main idea behind the creation of traffic exchanges was – you review my site and I review your site. Anything that interferes with the process is not good in my opinion.
I have been writing against surfing contests for years. All they do is burn up huge amounts of credits of members. I immediately pause all of my campaigns in any traffic exchange that has surfing contests. Why should I advertise my sites to see 1000s of credits disappear from my account. Think about this…
I know these are two extreme examples, but it happens as people blindly surf for hours to win a prize in the surfing contest. I was viewing chat in a popular traffic exchane and observed two conversations. One described how he surfed 72 straight hours trying to win a prize in a surfing contest. The second conversation concerned a surfer who actually relieves himself in a bottle by his computer so he doesn’t miss any opportunity to surf in a contest.
How many 1000s of credits do you think these two folks burned up? How many quality views of sites in rotation were there? Unfortunately, there are probably 100s of examples of this crazy surfing pattern during surfing contests. Now I understand how these contests are fun for some surfers, but they are a complete failure for advertisers. Surfing Contests also drive down the results for surfers in these traffic exchanges. Do you really think these folks are clicking on the pages and viewing your offer? I doubt it!
Owners could solve some of the problems with surfing contest by limiting the number of pages a surfer can surf in a 24 hour period, but most will not. These owners are burning off excess credits in their traffic exchange. It also allows them to sell additional credit packages. 
Unfortunately I have not written anything against surfing contests since I opened my own traffic exchange and that bothers me.
Hey Tony,
When I first started up MTP and seeking advice I was told not to do surfing competitions, as they diminished results. Thats something that stuck with me and have seen others say the same since then and even seen the proof myself. It’s a tough job to keep people active in an exchange, but to do so at the expense of results is not the way to go.
I know you myself and several others hold Draws and give rewards for surfing, which some could also say a surfing competition of sorts, and I have even questioned lately if we are hurting the members results with even that The feedback from that question pointed to no, but looking at pages in rotation and the amount that are not even tracked I am not sure how most people even know.
It would be great to see more owners reaching out to their members, like you do at your Wednesday Webinars, and talking about what really matters, which is getting your pages seen and getting results instead of who is awarding the biggest prizes for the day.
Hey William
Thanks for stopping by and making ssome excellent points. Tony
Thanks for the information. I stopped surfing because I didn’t see how it would benefit me with everyone trying to win contest and earn more credits. I don’t see why people would spend that much time just to win a prize. Oh well. To each your own.
I completely agree with you Tony. I also pause my campaigns when they run surf contests. As an advertiser I need people who actually view my ads who are not concentrating on a contest. Keep up the great job here Tony. Tezak Traffic Power is still my favorite traffic exchange. Rock En Roll!
Hi Joe
Glad Tezak Traffic Power is working for you.
Tony
as a new traffic exchange owner i myself was tempted to have contests the ironic thing i actually won my exchange in a contest lol. I had 1 contest when i first started up and that was to help me get members signed up but i noticed many did not return after the contest was over. Leading to me having inactive members with a bunch of credits to show their sites. this in turn only hurt my new members because their sites were competing to be seen by inactive members sites so after 90 days of being inactive i started deleting my inactive members. I try to offer a honest site where real people see your sites not just click throughs looking for fast cash or a prize. The price i pay for this decision is my site grows slowly but at least i know i have real people actually signing up to advertise their site.
Hi Marlene
Thanks for stopping by! Yes it is a constant battle to keep our surfers coming back. I do wish you the best of luck with your TE.
Cheers!
Tony
Totally agree as a surfer. I do not surf for contests. I only surf for prize pages or other rewards. I track much of my advertising so will surf sites that don’t offer much in the way of rewards or even low surf ratios if I get good results. Thanks for a good post
I’m a TE person. I do safelists, but I like my ads short and sweet. Splash and squeeze pages are just that. To the point. I spend hours each day earning my credits and buy when I can afford a really sweet deal. And I make or remake every page as soon as I get the chance. I have nothing against prize drawings in TE’s as long as people only have to surf a decent amount. I want my ads seen, just like the ones that I see.
But I am trying to build a business with TE’s. I have found lately, that I would rather win 1000 credits than $2-5, because I am keeping my mind on my business when I am at my business. It’s easier to get the credits than reinvest the cash.
So maybe I’m not the average person out there who wants to cash in as soon as they reach their minimum payout; Who wants to surf for fun, competition, and socializing. I am doing my best to keep my eyes on the prize – the longterm prize. I’m here to make good money and help others make good money. That’s the living I choose. (And average? Average doesn’t win at anything anywhere anymore! Why would I want to be average?)
I have fun at my business but I don’t want it stuck in the middle of somebody else’s game. Competitive people are serious about the game. When that game is surfing then where did the business go? I’m serious about getting a good bang for my credits. My hands often ache working for them and I sometimes pay money I earned for them. I want to get the most for my business that I can from them. I don’t want them to be pavement bricks for someone’s long distance race.
Owners may do what they see fit to do and I will surf where my credits do me the most good. Laissez-Faire baby, Laissez-Faire!
Hi Brian
Some great points for sure.
Tony
You know that I have ranted over this topic many times. Surfing contests are not advertiser friendly to be polite.
Hi Tony
These are very interesting and thought provoking comments.
I have recently launched my own traffic exchange and can understand the dilemmas faced by TE owners. Naturally, TE owners want an active membership. It would be great if each member surfed but the reality is that there seems to be a proportion of the membership that is relatively inactive. I suspect for the big exchanges, the proportion of inactive members is higher but this is generally taken care of through the absolute numbers involved. For instance StartXchange usually has over 100 members surfing at any given time which sounds like a lot but in the context of its total membership, is really quite a small number.
TE owners use surfing contests to incentivise their members to be more active. Team surfing technically does the same thing as does other variants (eg I Love Hits bracket surfing or Shinelight’s Challenge me surfing or Royal Surf’s jousts). Like most incentives, there are unintended consequences such as the ones you mentioned. For example, I suspect that the members surfing at I Love Hits this week for the Bluray player as a prize are giving little consideration to the websites that flash before their eyes and I have not placed any ads with I Love Hits this week for that reason.
I do offer surfing contests at my exchange but have structured them so that you enter a prize draw on surfing a set number of pages (usually 100 pages) in a set period (usually a day). If you surf more than that, you don’t gain any extra tickets in the draw.
This has turned out to be popular with the members but I suspect that it works because I have a relatively small membership base.
By the way, I heard your podcast with James Holmes last week. Thank you so much for the time you gave to this project.
Some people are going to burn up 1000s of credits because of surfing contests but how many more casual surfer do you think those contests will attract? Is it enough to justify the number of credits wasted by those just trying to win a prize?
[...] Why I Dislike Surfing Contests in Traffic Exchanges | Tony Tezak Says……. [...]
Great post Tony! Agree with you 100%
And Jerry, I think you’re totally right – very tricky balance.
I think there’s a very big difference between Surf Promotions and Surf Contests and maybe that’s not been understand judging from previous comments.
Surf Promotions being the kind of promotions we run ourselves constantly that mostly morphed around the industry these past few years from Traffic Splash’s Surf Rewards, Fast Flipper etc
Surf Promotions like those which reward randomly and anyone can win tend to provide a fairly balanced surf in that you get all types surfing – at least that’s how it works at Splash especially!
I’m very careful about the type of promo’s I do, and encourage our team tro do. In some ways I’d like to encourage a little more power surfing tbh to get the unique hits down cos we’re a bit high at Splash wi nothing to encourage power surfing like teams or brackets or whatever – but I’ve always held back because response rates are more important – plus while Power Surfers are always gonna be there I see far too many exchanges destroying themselves by getting the balance wrong and becoming dominated by Power Surfers only.
I’m never going to run a Surf Contest – ever! That’s what my mentor taught me and that’s what I teach my “students of the dark side” too.
But I’m always gonna run Surf Promotions that provide a healthy lively balance of surfers.
And like Tony, I would encourage surfers to unassign their credits as soon as they see ridiculous surf contests that purely encourage huge amounts of power surfing and give no hope of winning for the “average surfer”
Tony I agree with you 100% in one aspect.
The million dollar question, “Do you want 1 person to visit your site 1000 times, or do you want 1000 people to visit your site 1 time?”
Easy answer there. The problem does not lie in the fact of having surf contests. The real problem, as you do point out, is there is no limitation on how many sites can be viewed in a day.
10 years ago, “unique visitors” was a well known phrase and today has lost it’s meaning for most people out there.
Years ago, I would only join TEs that provided unique visitors. That is something today’s mainstream out of the box scripts left behind.
For a young TE trying to get established, they will get no place by just opening their doors and saying “Hey look at my theme!”
Young TEs have to do something to generate some buzz and create some excitement, while others that have been around for a while, but still not quite established, realize they gave too many credits away and now nobody is surfing. Either way, it is true that it can be at the cost of a lot of some members’ time spent surfing to build credits. It depends on the scripts, and my best guess is that at least 95% of TEs out there now do not provide unique visitors, which is why you get “1 person viewing 1 site 1000 times.”
Surfing contests are used both ways as I just pointed out. I beleive most of the time it is with good intentions, not realizing the harm that can be done. But the truth is, it does not take a contest to have the same negative results. A TE with a small membership and control over how often sites are being seen are not immune to this, and not at thier fault, but the fault of the scripts.
Useful info discussed I am quite pleased to go through this particular post..many thanks for giving us wonderful information.Fantastic walk-through. I appreciate this blog post.
@Paul Coonan – “A TE with a small membership and control over how often sites are being seen” correction –> “A TE with a small membership and NO control over how often sites are being seen”
As a surfer, I found myself getting caught up in the contests, then I discovered, as you stated, my sites were NOT getting the attention they deserve.
I decided some time ago, that I would not, surf during contests. I delete emails without reading them if the subject line indicates a contest.
Now, instead of joining every TE that is involved in a contest, I surf only those that produce results!
Hi Tony,
This is the first time that I have tossed in my two-cents on your blog… WELL SAID!
Carl
Thanks Tony for your views. My reply and thanks is to Paul as well. I agree with you,Paul, 100 % as a fellow TE Owner and not having more control over our script. What we do here is: we allow our members to submit only 5 of the same site. This gives us at least some control. I have found on many TE’s lately.. that I see the same site over and over again. So it really is up to the Owners of those TEs to limit the no’s of the same site, that members may submit.
Thats the only solution I see for the time being.
Hi Geoff
All of my special prizes are given randomly among thos who suf a certain number of page. Also I do lkike the surf promos with other TEs. They seem to go over well with my members.
Cheers!
Tony
Hi Jerry
I am sure surfing contest to increase the activity of members of a TE, but it is too bad their credits are being burned up by the prize chasers. Owners just need to cap the number of pages being surfed during the contests.
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers!
Tony
Hi Paul
Thanks for the comments. A TE from the past Fontoo is relaunching under a new name and Dee has an interesting new idea in it. Dee is capping the surfing time any one can do in a day to one hours. It will be interesting how that works out.
Cheers!
Tony
Hi Donna
You are doing it right -Cheers!
Tony
I totally agre with you Tony. I tend to avoid compeitions simply because peopel go overboard and don not top clicking. I like your suggestion of limiting surfing on competition days, so more of a consistant surfer prize rather then a binge surfer. I do not think there will be surfing competitions at my exchange at all.
Hi Tony,
You make some excellent points in you article why-i-dislike-surf-contests. I am going to follow your advise in pauzing my sites in TE’s with major contests like trafficrush.
In the website field I filled in the address of my adsense profile, a very nice social network. The are also discussion groups on adsense, one of them is traffic exchanges. it would be nice if an expert joined this group. i do not know if you are a member and if the group is accessible for non members but this is the url: http://www.apsense.com/group/101813
I, as a dialup member, would like to see an occasional contest, but with a reduced number of credits to qualify. When 250 credits are needed it would be comparable to 100 for me (and that takes a lot of time. To do 250 would be impossible. Nancy
@Paula van Dun (Webmiep) – Not intending to be argumentative here so please don’t get me wrong.
There is a difference between hosting a Traffic Rush and a typical in-house surfing contest.
The typical surfing contest usually entails “who ever surfs the most” wins. For smaller TEs that is where the issue comes in where you have a handful of people that burn up everyone else’s credits.
Very plainly, a person would miss out on a lot of “real unique” surfers if they paused their sites at a TE hosting a Traffic Rush because TTR brings to a TE many new “unique” and active surfers. TTR members are limited to claiming 5 tickets, which on average will take about an hour to an hour and a half of solid surfing.
The bottom line is, TTR is lots of people seeing your sites, vs., a handful of people on surfing binges, therefore making a Traffic Rush at a TE a benefit.
Hi Tony
As always you make a very valid point.
When I had the time to surf properly the thing that motivated me most was something that Robert Puddy used over at AKH. I think it was something like 50 in 5 or similar? Basically if you surfed 50 sites 5 days in a row you got a bonus.
I also agree that limiting people’s surfing time to 2 hours in a day would be an excellent idea. It will probably annoy the hell out of surfers who want to build up credits, but as an advertiser it’s brilliant.
Like others have said it’s about all about striking a blend of unique visitors and branding of your business. Too many uniques and you don’t get recognised, not enough and people start to get annoyed at seeing the same page again and again.
Andrew
p.s. It’s amazing how much more response a blog post gets when you tell your list about it.
Hey Tony,
You really have hit the nail on the head. I recently acquired Traffic Champions, and very quickly discovered I had a HUGE credit bleed problem. I was seeing 5000, 10000 credits, literally evaporate, in 24 hours. While that might mean high exposure for sites and a boost to Alexa ratings, that was simply unacceptable. I did exactly what you speak of in here: limit sites surfed per day to 1,000. Between that, and making a requirement for any contest winner to have sites in rotation with active credits, I righted the ship.
I do have contests, and I do cross-promote with other TE owners. We’re all sharing many of the same folks here – and I think the problem is, there are just TOO many choices out there. So, we have to focus on quality, not quantity. I make an effort to reach out to every user that contacts me in Support. I invite everyone into my blog. I leave my Skype door open for everyone to chat with me.
As TE Owners, we all need to step up and focus on social networking, not pushing the next greatest program to earn bucks. If we focused more on Service and Customer appreciation, we will build a much more loyal and devoted following in our TEs – which will make the contests we do, more valuable and appreciated.
@Tony Tezak –
Thanks Tony for the comments. Yes I like the way that Tezak Traffic Power distributes its prizes. Its novel and requires the surfer to be vigilant.
And the space suits and mexican hats!!!…..
@Brian Schilling – Hi Brian I especially believe in the service and customer service part of TEs. It is so, so important. Unfortunately some in the TE World only give lip service to it.
Great post. Got me thinking of course and I appreciate your point of view Mr. Tezak.
Of course, I offer a rebuttal to this over at Hit Exchange News to show the reasons why people should love surfing contests.
Food for thought…=)
I do wonder how many quality views are involved with an individual surfing over 33,000 pages in a week for a surf contest.
@Tony Tezak – Again, you dont get it because you dont surf. It’s not all about ‘page views’ any more Tony. And if you were involved in the social aspect of traffic exchanges you would know that.
Stop looking at the numbers. Look at the people.
@Jon Olson – WOW! Jon quite a statement. Yep I do surf, but not 15 hours a day like I used to. Jon, please do explain how 33,000 pages surfed by one individual equals good page views. All it really accomplishes is the burning of members credits.
It was like that 9 years ago, it was that way 3 years ago and it is like that now. That’s why I pause my campaigns during these ‘burn the credits’ surfing contest. I would never allow a member in my traffic exchange to surf 33,000 pages in a week.
I don’t want my members’ credits burned up that way. 
I am looking out for my members 
..and I do talk to my members twice a month in my webinars – no agenda – just a nice informal talk with them
That’s what is so great about this TE World – lots of room for plenty of ways of doing business.
Yes Jon, page views do do count. That’s how we measure response rates for our hard earned credits. Be they bought or earned surfing.
Have a great week Jon!
Cheers!
Tony
@Tony Tezak – Because the relationship Angela made with dozens of other surfers while she earned all those credits. You can’t buy that. You can’t measure that.
You can argue it until you are blue in the face, the world, the internet and traffic exchanges are SOCIAL. It’s not ONLY about page views…
Again, pause your campaigns if you want, but you are shooting yourself in the foot by not being an active member of the traffic exchange community (again speaking of ILH)
‘Credits’ are only one aspect of proper traffic exchange promotion these days. I’m sure you’ll teach that in a few years in your seminars after you embrace it too. =)
Jon, you have a great day
Love ya man!
@Tony Tezak – It’s just opinions man. You and me differ in them, that’s all.
If the TE has 33,000 members there isn’t an issue! In fact, I hope they would taken the time to report all the broken pages!
If the TE has 330 members, issue? Of course!
Ok I agree with you Tony still, I dont think that anyone surfing that much is actually looking at pages and I do think that has an overall effect on results.
If people are surfing that much and chatting then who is looking at the pages?
Not saying that the chatting and stuff is a bad thing either though, I can see that having its place as well, but if the reason for the competition is to get activity up and people active in the chat why not have a chatting competition?
From what I have seen when I do surf there is only a small percentage of the active members that are active in the chat, so what about all the people that are surfing just to get their sites seen, dont they deserve to get people viewing their pages?
Does the person surfing 33,000 pages a week really have time to socialize?
I was never one who participated much in contests or even promos…I am upgraded in a few TEs, buy credits on occasion, and surf when I can. I work a full-time job in addition to my online activities and even taking the time to surf 100-300 pages is sometimes difficult.
But there was a recent contest at a TE where the daily surf minimum was 25 pages. 25 pages? Well, that was doable even for me, so I entered. But then…to break the stalemate in the competition (I assume), the daily minimums started going up. I continued to try, but I finally had to bow out of the contest when the daily mimimums got into the 300-400 range. I just couldn’t do it anymore. I believe the final 3 competitors were having to surf over 1500 pages a day to remain in the contest.
When I do surf, I do take my time to look at the various sites…to see what tools/programs are out there, as well as to glean any ideas that I could use in my advertising. I may be on a site after the timer has expired. So when I’m surfing, it does take time. But to be quite frank, even though I love to surf…I DON’T want to be sitting at my desk in front of a computer all the time! I have a husband…I have a LIFE AWAY from the computer!
Surf 33,000 pages a week? Have a bottle next to you so you won’t have to leave the computer? I’m sorry…NOT worth it.
I fully agree that surfing contests really hurts the advertisers. I can’t see why surfers will click for hours to try to win a couple of bucks. Are our sites being seen??? NO All they see is that little surf bar counting the number of pages they surf.
I noticed with the TE’s that have these contests, my results are very poor, maybe that’s why they aren’t listed as the top TE’s. Owners are more concerned with getting rid of credits or selling more.
Hey, the surfer that p’s in a bottle is gross. I thought only video poker machine players did that. LOL
“Surf 33,000 pages a week? Have a bottle next to you so you won’t have to leave the computer? I’m sorry…NOT worth it.”
In a lot of countries, no it’s not, but in countries where $25 USD converts to $250 to $750, it is.
Thanks, Tony. My wife is in Amsterdam this week and so I’m driving the mommy-mobile and don’t have much time, but I wanted to leave a comment showing support.
Now I will go read Jon’s blog and see what he has to say, but I doubt he will convince me of anything.
I certainly do appreciate all the comments in this debate. That’s what I love about traffic exchanges there is no right way or wrong way to conduct your business. Much room for many ways of doing business.
Cheers!
Tony
Oooops, I forgot – do drop by Jon’s Hen and view and comment on his posting http://www.hitexchangenews.com/news/why-i-love-surfing-contests-in-the-traffic-exchanges/
Cheers!
Tony
I no longer own a surf exchange. There were to many members that just wanted to buy thir credits and not do any surfing, which I did not consider fair to the members who did surf. After all, isn’t that the reason people join a TE? So their site can be seen? So other people will join the same program?
Personally, I do not think any member should be allowed to purchase their surf credits. Banner ads and text ads, yes. The right to have their page be the first shown to all surfers that day, or week, sure.
I no longer surf auto surf programs. They are useless as far as getting referrals for a program, and that is the reason I surf and show my sites for others to surf. I report any site that comes up that cannot be found or has account suspended or something other then a website that could be of interest to me.
One thing that really irks me is when I join a program from a surf site and after I get my referral URL and go to place it on the same TE, they tell me that the site is banned. Then, while surfing, I see the same site in rotation again. Why is it fine for one member to show a site, but it is banned for the rest of the members? Did that one member purchase the right to be the only member allowed to have that site listed?
Most of the sites I am a member of, I have joined at a TE while surfing. I really don’t care for the splash pages people make up for their programs. I have found that most of the time, the splash page gives very little information about the program being advertised. It just looks inviting. I tend to look for the sites that are showing the actual program, then I can open the site and check out the FAQ’s and TOS, along with their offer.
Contests are a waste of time and credits. Some promos are just as bad, but most promos work to bring in new members, not use up my hard earned credits. If you want to have a contest, then have a contest that requires a surfer to open the site they are viewing. This would at least take the member to the actual site and not just use up credits. If they didn’t want to check out what the program has to offer after they opened the site, at least they were at the site and had the chance to make an informed decision. Anyone who does not do their own Due Diligence about a program should not even be joining programs on the internet, or any place else, for that matter.
Hello Tony
I have read both your post and Jon’s and I do agree with both opinions. Surfing contests can and yes they do eat up members hard earned credits very quickly.
I do like to have surf contests for my members as like Jon said the community unites. They become more active and chat with one another.
I do however have a daily surf limit. I also require that there needs to be at least 1 website active and in rotation. I also requires 1 other form of advertising, banner, text ad, and it can even be a second website rotating.
There must be a balance over all in the events. I work my hardest to keep things fair for my members and to keep them active. In no way would I ever want to see their credits wasted and all of their hard work just vanish.
Millie Ganias
@Millie Ganias – Hi Millie
I applaud your having surf limits!
Cheers!
Tony
@Ted Dwyer – Yup, they sure do. She was very active in chat, build a huge base of contacts and was chatting all the time.
@Stan Smith – LOL That’s not a very nice thing to say…
You all might even want to go over here:
http://www.netmarketingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=28939&p=207312#p207312
This dialog is great for TEs
First, I don’t like it when companies decieve you. I have played their games, have won, but must fill out a servey or order something their offering. It becomes a waste of time playing these games. I recieved this from Cael Bailey’s blog.
Never thought about it that way, Tony. They always stress how many views your page will get with so many surfers surfing. But you are right they will probably not slow down to check me out unless I have an amazing offer.
But in defense I believe we are seeing so many more contests because of the lack of interest in surfing anymore.
However, only serious surfers need apply!
This is a wonderful post! So many opinions here, that’s what I love about blogs. I get to take in info that I normally would never see or hear about.
I do agree, the super contests really just drain your credits, with little to no results. It would be a simple solution to cap the credits surfed per day, keep the power surfing to a minimum. This probably won’t happen because many owners need to move those thousands upon thousands of credits just sitting there waiting to be burned.
I think it’s more a balance of how many credits you give away, how cheap you sell them, how many pages you allow your surfers to surf per day. If you can strike a good balance between those, contests might not be so devastating to results.
I do get great results from ILH despite the contests and active chat, but it’s definitely not the norm for me. It must be like the exception to the rule maybe
There’s my 35 cents! Great topic Tony!
@Winter Perkins – Hey Winter, Thanks for stopping by and joining in the dialog.
@Tony & @Jon – I think you both have valid points here, and there just needs to be a balance between good contests, throw a bone out to the members as a thank-you, and then back to the normal business of providing traffic.
What I feel has been overlooked (and I certainly felt this way when I took over Traffic Champions) is that the balance of credit flow vs. inventory is a long lost science. And a very difficult balance to achieve. If we’re going to provide quality traffic, we as TE Owners need to monitor this flow constantly.
When it comes to contests – the winners are the ones I value the most. These are the folks who make effort in earning their winnings. I tip my hat to them for surfing. As a surfer myself, I like visiting other TEs, to see what programs their users are promoting. It helps me keep a pulse on the network marketing industry and allows me to get ideas on what to provide my surfers.
So, where do I stand? Right in the middle. Contests are important…..but not too frequently. I would rather have a dedicated following of 2-300 surfers as opposed to 300,000 folks that are here for the beer.
Tony I agree with you 100%. I have never been a fan of the whole “whoever surfs the most wins” thing and I don’t take part in those contests. If I can remember, I usually pause my ads as well.
Now surf promos, as both you and Paul described, are fine because there it’s usually a drawing for whoever surfs a certain number of sites (usually a very reasonable number). Now that’s something everyone stands a chance to win and people can actually take the TIME to look at sites instead of just mindlessly clicking away so they can beat everyone for a prize of some kind.
Now as far as surfing & chatting goes….I’m opposed to that as well, but I will comment on my reasons in Jon’s blog.
I’ve been asked to read this and another blog on the same subject, and leave comments.
Which I see will be quite easy.
On surfing contests; I can see the need for viewing traffic. What good is a TE with out it?
By the same token. In my marketing class Today, the last video was on loading and crediting a squeeze page.
You say so what.
Well some in class don’t have a lot of funds and wanted to know why they should buy instead of surf?
And the answer Is,put your credits up and watch how fast they go, then think how long it takes to surf for those credits. Your time is better spent making creatives and writing copy.
Now I’m aware there are a lot of people that don’t understand what they are, because they’re to busy chasing that over night millionaire thing. You know opt-in for $20-30 and maybe make $60 in a wk. or two. Then start all over.
I’ll never get it.
I agree with some above a contest is good if you’re limited to time or somesuch a day.
Even I do some surfing. If for no other reason than to get an idea of what is being adverted on that exchange. I have found other ways to earn credits where it matters.
I think about it there are only so many hours, so many days. How many ads do you have running, on how many sites?
Me, I don’t have hardly enough time to check on all I have running let alone surf to power them.
James Hecht
@Ted Dwyer –
LOL now that Ted is a very good question and a very good point (sorry no rhymes today – not slept much overnight lol)
Also, if they’re surfing 33,000 pages in a week are they actually earning anything? How would they find time to check their tracking, make adjustmets to their squeezes or their emails, or their thank you page or whatever.
Yes, there are more ways to skin the TE cat than list building but, however you intend to profit from TE’s you must have a plan.
That plan needs some work other than purely surfing. Surfing non-stop will not make anyone rich! (except unscrupulous TE owners who don’t care anbout their customers success and are just happy for the chance to sell more credits!)
Oops shudda quoted Ted. Sorry.
And I just saw Jon’s reply when scrolling back so looks like Angela is a power house. WTG Angela!
Not everybody can work those hours though and the advice I just gave above is 100% solid for the vast majority, even allowing for exceptions to the rule such as Angela.
Hey Stan
You might be a little surprised then I guess
Jon’s got a different slant and while social surfers are a tiny minority at the moment that minority will undoubtedly grow.
We have a plan in place for it that takes more account of the core market than current social sites do, and will start rolling out in a fairly minor way at first but next year and onwards will be very interesting.
Any business that doesn’t plan for social marketing – online of offline, in TE’s or elsewhere – is most definitely missing a HUGE oportunity. And that is possibly the biggest understatement I’ve made all year. I’m definitely quite good at understating stuff too! lol
I can see both sides of this argument, and I try to mix things up a bit at my TE, with a mixture of promos, contests, prize pages, etc.
What motivated me to post is a thought I had that made me laugh, and this is meant tongue-in-cheek, so please take it that way …. I’ve never surfed 15 hours a day, maybe 8-10 at one point, and I can remember it drove me crazy. So, I wonder if we’re all missing something here, and there IS a point to surf contests. After all, once you’ve been surfing for 12+ hours, doesn’t there come a point when you HAVE to start looking at the sites, just to relieve the boredom?
Like I said, tongue-in-cheek.
Louise
Hey Tony,
I have to say you make some excellent points. I have never really gave it much thought until now but during
surfing contest I’m not surfing to view anyones site but to get to the next prize as quick as I can. Since you shed this light on this matter I think that I will stop being invovled with thethe surfing contest. Seeing this is not fair to others. Thanks Tony.
Good Evening, I do not normally post feedback on web, as I prefer to read only. However I find the post that you have written earlier has very insightful information, and I discover it very informational. I was searching on Aol 4 information on self improvement and discovered your valuable post. Could you post something the same insightful on how to self improve fast? Cheers.
@James Hecht – Hi James, I agree that as an owner my surfing is looking for new ideas or improved old ideas
. I want to see what the competition is doing. Cheers! Tony
Hello Tony,
I’m loving the debate that these opinions are generating. It’s nice to see the flood of comments at both blogs.
I guess I’m of the opinion that there is no right or wrong way to get surfers, advertisers and yes, owners to be more active in the industry.
It’s about taking action and seeing what does or does not work, learning from that process and then moving forward.
I totally agree with Ellyn Weber-Bynum’s comment
“When I do surf, I do take my time to look at the various sites…to see what tools/programs are out there, as well as to glean any ideas that I could use in my advertising. I may be on a site after the timer has expired.”
As Jon Olson would say…That is bang on Ellyn.
Maybe more of us should concentrate on that type of thought and continue learning and growing as owners, surfers and advertisers.
Also, I’m noticing that a lot of these comments are from people that don’t regularly attend conferences ie. Affiliate Funnel, Traffic Exchange Live, Tezak Traffic Power and once again the SWAT Traffic conferences.
I suggest that you make it a point to start attending these conferences and discuss all manner of topics relating to the traffic exchange industry.
Attend these venues, ask your questions, give your opinions and learn. Invaluable education
Hello Tony! Thank you for your true and honest in-put to TE Surfing contest. I know from my experience being new to online network marketing, I use too spend a lot of time surfing and especially during contest.
The one thing I can honestly tell you that I truly regret as I started learning this business is that I found myself “Surfing just to get the Credits!”
I really failed to actually visit and take the time to see what the sight had to offer my business! In the short and long term this had a devastating effect NOT only on my business, but those TE’s as well.
I truly feel that Most of the TE that have these contest, mean well for ALL the Surfers out there. But the bottom line is, it hurts everyone involved.
Thank you and God Bless! Your online friends,
DAVID and LYNNE CROWLEY
@Randy Ritter –
**SWAT – Each Wednesday – 8pm EST – http://www.trafficexchangelive.com/ James will be getting his own room but for tonight go there
@Randy Ritter -
**TE Live – Mon thru Fri at 3pm ESThttp://www.trafficexchangelive.com/
@Randy Ritter – **Affiliate Funnel – Each Saturday at Noon EST – http://www.hotconference.com/conference,82001688
@Randy Ritter –
**Tezak Traffic Power – 1st and 3rd Wed of Each month, 630pm – http://www.hotconference.com/conference,ttpchat
@Randy Ritter –
**TE Live – Mon thru Fri at 3pm EST – http://www.trafficexchangelive.com/
WOW! What a hypocrisy. “I don’t like Surf Contests”
Random prizes that are offered at TTP and every other TE are virtually the same thing as a surf contest, especially when an email is sent to the membership advertising the specific prizes. And, the more you surf the more you win. How is that any different?
I truly enjoy TTP and many, many other TE’s, but it’s no secret that good results are few in TE’s. As always, it’s all of our job to put up an advertisement that gets response and whether or not the surfer is surfing for a contest prize, it’s your fault if they don’t click your ad.
Want better results? Place a better ad, make a better splash page.
Not trying to be offensive or make enemies, just my opinion.
@Jeremy Case – Yeah, I didn’t want to bring that up either. But offering ‘cash rewards’ for surfing is the exact same thing as a surfing contest. Just a different spin on it.
Owners need to get people surfing. Period.
Contests. Rewards do that.
My take is that NETWORKING is now a much more powerful form of advertising then just surfing. You surf, yes, but you can also get involved in chat and grow your network.
Everyone wins when we communicate.
@Jeremy Case – Hmmm.. Dont see it that way
In a contest the winner is basically the one person who surfs the most pages in a given time frame. It could be one day or more. There is no random selection of the winners at all. It is who can spend the most time surfing.
In TTP there is no ‘one’ winner of a surfing contest at all. Quite a difference. I may have a surfing target like 100 pages and yes I do announce the target and the number of prizes involved. The prizes are then given to randomly to members who meet the goal. Really no comparison at all. Yes, if you surf more your chance of winning a prize improves.
Also at TTP you win a bonus prize EVERY 15 pages surfed – every time.
I pride myself in giving lots of prizes to lots of surfers on any given day.
Cheers!
Tony
@Jon Olson – Hi Jon, Thanks for participating! I too believe that networking is so, so important. I just prefer to do it in webinars, skype, yahoo, twittering, facebook. Gave everyone the urls for the major webinars within this post some where.
. It will give you more opportunities to give your take on things. Again, that’s what so great about the net – there are many ways of doing things and nothing is right or wrong.
Look for a blog post about networking forthcoming
Cheers!
Tony
@Tony Tezak –
Okay, so there are 5 or 10 winners for surfing “x” amount of pages to enter the draw.
The point you are making is that surfing contests are a waste of hard earned credits because they aren’t viewing your sites. Just clicking like crazy.
Don’t you think they are doing just that in order to meet the drawing requirements? Any time there are incentives (not just surfing contests) besides getting your site seen, it diminishes credit values. How many keep surfing after meeting the page requirements?
I totally understand your point of view. But I think you are doing what you dislike.
Also, I want to give you credit for even having the courage to start and discuss this topic. Very admirable.
Thanks,
Jeremy Case
Just adding in my two pence worth! Read both sides and I’m definetely in the against surf contests section – contest being based on the number of sites surfed.
I’ve been doing a lot of surfing lately, but am far from being a power surfer. Personally, I really hate the idea of a chat box on a traffic exchange. If members are chatting, they are not seeing your site. Sweeva is the exception, because people tend to chat about the site, as they all see the same thing. So I think the idea that a surfing contest brings in more people chatting just shows that even less people are looking at your sites!! There are lots of other ways to network without taking away from hard earned people getting credits!
Which brings me onto another point. I think most people who use traffic exchanges are advertisers and they have to surf to get credits. We all know people need to see a site several times to notice it, so you need to get a lot of credits! Most ordinary people can’t afford to buy credits and so have to surf for them and when you’ve got a 1:3 surf ratio and you’re only getting 33 credits in every 100, it’s mighty annoying if these credits just get wasted with all these power surfers.
Should there be a limit to the number of sites you’re allowed to see in a day? Perhaps, but it should be high, like 1,500 or something to give us little people a chance to actually build up enough credits!
Surf promotions are a different kettle of fish though, things like extra prizes in the surf bar, the Power Surf Central over at Hit Safari et al, etc, they all just encourage surfers, rather than people just blindly clicking away for hours on end.
If we’re taking the time to view other people’s sites, we want them to see ours properly too!
@Laura B – Hi Laura, Thanks for dropping by and making some nice points! Cheers! Tony
@Jeremy Case – Hi Jeremy, Thanks for stopping by and giving us your opinion. Acutally my targets are pretty low – normally 100-150 pages. Plus I do several a week with no minimum or maximum surf requirements. These folks could possibly get a prize for surfing 1 site.
Cheers!
Tony
[...] also had all ready read through Jon Olsons and Tony Tezaks blog posting regarding traffic exchange contest. The reason I decided to post my own response to it [...]
Let me preface this by saying that I do not surf much anymore, so my opinion on surf contests is minimal, but I do have plenty of opinions on relationship building and socializing to build your business.
One thing I do have to agree with Jon on is that some type of social interaction between surfers is a good thing. This is a relationship business and the more opportunities that you have to talk with others in the same business as yourself, the better your business will become.
If you look at the most popular sites on the internet, most are social networks or have some type of social interaction built into them. It only makes sense that an exchange owner would want to add some type of social interaction between members of their site. Not only will it help them in their business, but it will also keep them coming back to your site.
Well That’s true! It’s good to have a surfing draw instead of surfing contest. Now many exchanges preferred to do it! Also prize pages does a damage in traffic exchanges if they are not used in the right manner! Imagine a TE that has 100 urls in rotation. Surfer X finds a huge cash/credit prize in 15th page and closes the window. Whereas the surfer Y keeps on surfing until the 1000th page to find a huge cash/credit prize. In this case, Surfer Y views a particular url 10 times but the other one did not even viewed other 85 urls.
i sit here and have read all posts and still come to 1 conclusion… in reality promos 3 ways 4 ways blah blah blah…are surfing contests wether it be for prize pages cash upgrades etc… all exchanges do it to get more peeps interested and it is an innovative way to get more involved with even newer exchanges. Lets get real here, more exposure to your biz period and refferals. Yes i agree to some extent that there are some who just surf for the cash and yes the credits get burned up due to that fact…in point those people do not succeed with a purpose directed to there biz. idea is to add to owners exchanges is the BOOKMARK. I use it frequently when i see something that sparks my interests i check it out and yes i do look at others ads in due respect that they do mine… in my opinion it is 50/50 good or bad. If people would take time at i love hits and chat , the interaction there alone is worth the surfing time, ive learned tons of info there… who cares about the bracketts its this tool alone that has helped me and several others build a relationship and trust…isnt this what marketing is about or am i wrong?? Surf ratios are a big factor for me and what that site has to offer for my biz.I am a surfer for credits and exposure and no i dont sit 24/7 at my puter, and yes i do buy credits to some sites, for i cannot surf all my sites i have tons. Least not forget to the top exchanges…we made you what you are today as being an affiliate under you!!! Yes i appreciate you and you are all great, but please give us the same courtesy also. im sure i will be black balled now but guess what…im still going to be surfing and advertising, like the old saying, Opinions vary, its what you believe in that counts. I wish all great day and keep up the good work folks!!
Sorry Tony, for this I’m not agree with you. As a surfer, I’m also still see the site being advertised, although following the contest. And certainly not all offers (when I’m surfing) will I follow. That reason was, although there is a contest so I’ll keep surfing contest more than what is needed is to find the best deals.
I do not surf with my eyes closed Tony.
@Mike – Hi Mike, No need to apologize.
That’s why this big old Traffic Exchange Worldis so great – Lots of room for many views.
Thanks for stopping by. Cheers! Tony
Hi, I was on Carl Bailey site reading his blog and he sent me to your blog. I was glad I checked your blog out. Very good articles and great points. The only surfing contest I have entered was to win some extra credits. I am not upgraded in a lot of sites and I have won two contests and it gives me extra credits to do my advertisement. But I would never spend 7 hours surfing. That is just crazy.
Veronica Smith
Http://veronicasmithonline.com
@Jerry Iannucci – Jerry, when I see contests going on… I go straight to my list of the top sites (as listed by Traffic Hoopla) and start surfing. If any of those on the list are part of the contest (usually not) I skip them until the contest is over.
http://www.Daveylee.com/surfing
I agree with you totally Tony. I’m one who can’t afford to buy credits(at this time anyhow) and I definitely want my site seen and my credits put to good use. I have to work hard for my credits and don’t want them wasted.
I sure messed up the email about the blog posting…the correct link was http://tonytezak.com/sometimes-its-just-time-to-give-back-for-loyalty/ surely didn’t mean to mail about this posting again. Oh well…
Cheers!
Tony
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