As humans we believe this. And in some aspects this is true and in others this couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Example One: I have a dollar and that’s good but 10 would be better. ( I agree)
Example Two: I have one traffic exchange making a dollar BUT 10 would be better ( NO!)
See in example two there is a broken logic and we are going to break this down so you can see the logic:
1 traffic exchange VS 10 traffic exchanges
Effort
If you have one traffic exchange 100% of your marketing efforts go to project and 10 te’s only get >10% because of the time it takes to change gears.
Time
one hour surfing for one traffic exchange = 10 hours surfing for 10 traffic exchanges
Cost
cost is a huge factor Items you pay for like: Script, graphics, hosting, and your monthly ad budget, all factor in. or with 10 you can pay 10 times that.
Members
It’s a fact what there is only about 3 - 4 degrees of separation between traffic exchanges and the members. Keep this in mind that if you have a unique traffic exchange that offers great service and a good value People will upgrade.
But if you have 10 the traffic exchanges they are not going to be so unique and the customer service is going to suffer and the value will also suffer
ROI
This is the most over looked factor in the traffic exchange industry. Now I’m not going to debate top of the mind advertising or exposure.
But I will say this the average TE will not make it at all. Sorry it’s a fact that over 50% will not make it to a year.
Lets say you get away with only spending 1000 dollars in the first 2 months of opening a traffic exchange.
That’s $10,000 if you opened 10 traffic exchanges.
Imagine if you doubled you efforts and focus on just one great traffic exchange. You could and can earn 2 to 10X the amount you could if you had 10 with little focus and effort placed in them.
ASK yourself this would you buy one $10,000 car or ten $1,000 cars? Which one is going to be the best for you?
But that is Just my traffic exchange 2 cents.
James
The IT Dude
One of the better 'practical' traffic exchange posts I've seen. Focus your effort, get better results!
ReplyDeleteVery good evaluation and I like the car comparison! Thanks for your TE two cents
ReplyDeleteJon and Debrah
ReplyDeleteThank you both so much. focus seems to be a great word to use. but is not often enough yet
I agree with you, I never thought about the cost and promotion you need to put into a quality TE, you have a very good point. My first thought was that with 1 or 2 TE's you can give the support time you need to take care of your members, with 10 you would either not be able to keep up or would have to hire a support team to handle the load.
ReplyDeleteIn any case great point and great post.
As a developer and vendor of Traffic Exchange software, I've seen many, many people make this mistake and become un-focused. 1 is good, 2 can be good, but 5, 7, 12?
ReplyDeleteYou're spot on, James: More is not always better, unless it's more focused on your customers or their needs.
Michael Cost = time or money and to do it right you need both I Love the Idea of one or 2 but they need to have their own NICHE.
ReplyDeleteRich
Thank you sir. Good sites and software are grown. You cant launch a new new site just because you had a slight change from the old idea. Thanks Again Rich For the amazing software.
It's about time someone tells it like it is. Your points are well worth reading.
ReplyDeleteRecently a TE promoter signed up on my site and asked for a reciprocal top level position. The amazing thing was that this owner listed 10 TE sites for me to choose from - all showing Alexa rating in the millions - which shows that they were all startups. I told him exactly what I think of his ludicrous idea.
The proliferation of traffic exchanges by people running multiple sites before they have one with at least 50,000 members is giving the Industry a bad name. Members go from site to site without any success because nobody is surfing the sites they are in.