To All Traffic Exchange Owners – Through The Eyes of A Surfer

It’s really strange how the current events of today can turn into something positive – as most of you know I had server issues today and a person just don’t realize how this effects your day until it happens BUT I always try to find a positive and thus why I’m writing this post and gearing it to my fellow traffic exchange owners – through the eyes of a surfer.

What does a person do when their sites are down, their blog is down etc. – you get out there and visit other sites – surf as much as you can and I have to say it was quite an interesting experience and would like to share a few things that I noticed while surfing as a surfer today.surfing traffic exchanges

I’m not going to mention which sites I surfed but I will tell you some of the things that I did see and some of the things that just drove me nuts – I made notes so I wouldn’t forget to mention them all and here goes……….I ran across a splash page that like to drove me crazy – it blinked so bad that all my eyes could do was just jump all over the page to the point that I never did read anything on that page – what a waste of credits.

Do some of you like to test my eye site – I really had a hard time focusing my bifocals enough on some sites to be able to match the icons and the ones with dark images on a dark background – wow they were hard to pick the right ones.  Now some of them may have been cute but why are you trying to make them hard to tell the difference – that is not making your site very user friendly.

Now I also seen some pages  that ran in behind the chat box – never got a chance to see your ad – because I couldn’t read it all – do you ever test your pages?  Yes, it was sites owners and not a promo for a product.  AND while I’m on a roll here some of the sites with the loud videos made me jump right out of my seat – well I don’t know about you but I’m sneaking up on 60 and you could have given me a heart attack – so I muted the sound and didn’t hear one thing all the video said – if I did that – wonder how many others are doing that.

AND come on – why do you add pages to another site that I have won something – click here – are you that desperate to get people to your site that you have to try and trick others – well I’m sorry all that did was just made me tune out your site.  I want to see you tell me why I should click and come to your site – don’t play those games with me.

The other one that disappointed me was the Bonus Pages and how cluttered some of them are – it was even hard to know it was a page giving me a bonus.  There was one site that I have to say made me feel honored to get that bonus because that is what they said on their bonus page and that was all – you know those pages are designed to thank your surfer for surfing the amount of sites they did – it’s not a page designed for you to put promos on – after all shouldn’t that be put in rotation like the rest of us do.

AND I know that I can be brain dead sometimes as my granddaughter tells me to wake up my brain sometimes but really – you want me to click here for a free $20.00 – you want me to click here for more info and not tell me why or what you have for me – well what are you hiding, what are you being so secretive about and why do you have to  hide your products name, your sites name or even your name – hmmmmmmmmm

The other thing that I seen is long, long, long word searches – holy crap I would have had to surf all day to fill in all those letters and why for 10 credits – wooooohoooo thank you but no thanks – remember I’m there to feel special – I want you to thank me for surfing your site, for being an active surfer – if I don’t feel that way why bother to come back.

surfing traffic exchangesThere were some positives – it wasn’t all bad – I did see one site offering to reward his members for promoting them – if he seen them promoting – wow that caught my eye and I wrote that site down as I thought that was so cool.  Now you are going to ask how would that site owner know – well that was the other positive that I seen out there – pages with YOUR mug shot on them – now that told me that wow that person must really like that site, having good luck with that site and if I know that person – what do you think I’m going to do – I’m going to go check it out and see WHY he or she is promoting that site.

NOW the one page that I am going to show you that really impressed me because it was unique, this lady put herself out there, and I know she is an active surfer in alot of sites and why do I know – well she told me by this page that she did created and I have to say she did an awesome, awesome job and want to share it here with you Click here to see this site now

Oops one more thing……..back to the site that did impress me today with the bonus page I was going to leave you message through your contact /support BUT you know what I looked and looked and couldn’t find out how to contact you – do you have your doors closed to your members?????

So………….out of negatives do come positives – I’m challenging all other site owners out there – take a few hours and surf – I don’t mean to put up 5 – 6 tabs and just click, click, click – I mean surf – study the sites that you are seeing, study your site and look at it through the eyes of a surfer – I really think you will be surprised.

35 thoughts on “To All Traffic Exchange Owners – Through The Eyes of A Surfer

    • Oh I think we all get so busy running the site that we forget to take a look through the eyes of our members – after all that is why we all are here doing what we are doing. I know I’m going to change some things

  1. You put your finger on something very important. Many have still not learned to do a clean site with good information about their product or service. Many pages have most colors and weird pictures, and as you say “all my eyes could do was just jump all over the page to the point that i never did read anything on That page” Some need to learn something about marketing and how to attract their customers.

    Anette Hultman
    Anette Hultman recently posted..Use Easy Delight In Your Kitchen – Save Time.

    • Thanks and actually I was relieved when that timer was up on that page and can’t tell you one word on that page – my eyes never stopped jumping around the page that whole time – really opened my eyes

  2. Nancy,

    I love your blog, “In the eyes of a Surfer”, a lot of good information. Some of the things you mentioned I had the same experience. I agree TE owners should surf a little to see how they could improve their sites. Most of the sites that I like to promote I look for support and being there for their members. If they are not there for the members I will not go back there anymore to surf.

    Oh yes, the sticker page was Awesome. She is a very talented and sweet person. She is also always there to help people.

    It was so good to see a TE Owner evaluations . Thanks for all the good info.

    Veronica SMith

    • Thanks V for the comment and I know you have been having some of the same experiences and probably put the bug in my ear to surf and really take a closer look and see things through the surfers eyes – thank you for giving me an eye-opening journey

  3. Wow Nancy, you sure said a mouthful there about through the eyes of a surfer. I can tell ya, I like listening to my own music on my computer and surfing but lately I have had to listen to nothing but silence. Why? You might ask. Just like you said about these shirt tail tuggers that are so desperate for your attention that they must think they have to add a automatically playing video with them blaring out who they are or some stupid question like have you ever wondered how to make money online? What an idiot. Now, I have my mute button on when I surf, so this goes out to all you idiots with those automatic playing videos……I never heard anything you said. Real professionals setup there videos for after a person signs up to their contact form so they can find out more information. I would like to know who is teaching these idiots to create a video on the front page and have it automatically start playing. Anyway, theres my 2 cents in. Listen to Nancy, she is a professional and knows what she is talking about. Put a video on your front page but make it work only if the person signs up to get more info and make it go to the next page….automatic playing video sites do not belong in a 3 second add in a PTC site or on a surf site. They only belong in email marketing or search engine searching. Get with a professional to learn how its really done. There,,,you heard it from Me…….Dave Supertechy.

  4. Good to hear you didn’t waste the day because of your own server issues.
    You took a negative and turned it in to a positive. That is what active owners do…. nice job.

    I agree all owners should actively surf, not only their own sites, but other sites
    to get a true feeling of the surfing experience.

    Great work all around Nancy!
    Catherine White recently posted..Mini Referral Contest

    • Thanks Cathy and as I have gotten older I do try and find the positives – for 25 years I lived in all the negativity and had enough – there are always positives – sometimes you have to look harder to see them. Thanks for the comment.

  5. Another great post Nancy and I agree on some of these pages with the flashy and bright colors sometimes give me a headache. I must say though that one of the sites that I ran into yesterday really made me wonder why they were advertising it had only a sales letter on it and it was long. Im sitting here wondering who or what surfer is willing to read all of this while surfing. Yes you can open the page in another tab but man really a 2 page sales letter in small print.

    I think some of these ideas everyone has sent you should be put in an email to all admins. Maybe then we can make surfing a little better.

    Thanks,

    John

    • Thanks John and yes another good point that I forgot to write down the small print – I really have hard time reading that these days, but was blaming that on my aging body lololol

      • Well I am not a spring chicken myself at 44 i feel some days like im pushing 70…..lol…. My other main issues are the random script errors i see all the time and on a few sites they have been there for a few days. You would figure the admin would get these fixed.

        Ok off to surfing and advertising have a great day.

        John

        • Oh to be 44 and know what I know now – but I’m sneaking up on 60 – don’t feel it well somedays I do lolol Yes you are right – it’s like they never look at their sites and just do the behind the scene work

  6. The problem is that some people never do look through the eyes of a surfer. You can tell this by a site’s home page that is cluttered with ads, results of some referral contest, and other information that would be useless to a newbie to the TE world. Imagine a person who has never used a traffic exchange coming straight from Google. Since there is no info on what the site they are visiting is or what it can do for them, they will most likely bounce away. A few weeks ago I found my own member’s area becoming cluttered and confusing, so I wiped the slate clean and completely redid the entire page to make it more surfer friendly. A lot of owners/admins out there do need to take a look at their sites with a surfer’s eye. If you are incapable of doing so, ask a friend to do it and report back to you.

    • Oh I agree Don and yes we are all guilty cluttering up our pages – I’m working on the redesigning but am so slow with coding but am getting there – like the idea of getting feed back from a friend – it needs one that will be honest with you as they will see stuff that you don’t even see.

    • Thanks Joe for the comment and I know we are all guilty of the things that have been mentioned but we are so busy doing the behind the scene stuff that we forget to walk in the front door once in awhile

  7. Love the fact you got some time to soul surf

    The things we learn are what make us better everyday
    Learning what you can see at other site a lot of time can translate to
    Good results to your own site we often make it hard on ourselves by not taking a step back and making needed changes I glad to see you had the chance to.

    Great Blog Post and thank you

    James Dias

  8. Nancy Great Post! I actually talked to another owner about unreadable splash pages. After our conversation last week i told him I was going to talk about this subject at my next NLA (Net Learning Academy) lesson. I do hope all of you will attend Thursday at 7:00 pm est and get in on the conversation. It wont be me with a power point presentation.

    This will be a discussion about promoting the wrong way and turning off potential customers and how to do it right.

    Great Post!
    Krazy Kaye Towne

  9. Nancy, I love reading your posts because I always learn from them, and this one is no different. You did an excellent job making your points, and I am sure there are many people doing just as I am after reading this and saying to themselves – Wow I had been thinking that too! You took it one step further and shared your thoughts and feelings about it and I just wanted you to know that I learned a lot from this post! Thank you, thank you!
    Carol McCrow recently posted..My Huge Stress-Relieving Secret – Hidden In Plain Sight

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