Yep it’s true I am a fraud, at least that was the reaction I got to something I revealed in my interview with James Holmes earlier this week.

Now some of the comments I received were playful and joking around but not all of them.

So what did I reveal?

Well before I get into that I do want to say sorry, but not for the reasons you may expect, you see several years ago now I released a report titled 13 Deadly Traffic Exchange Tragedies.

Since then the report has been read by thousands and has helped many that have been strugling to get better results while advertising in traffic exchanges.

In the interview though I revealed that I did not write the report.

I was actually surprised by the reaction I got after that.

I mean how could I have gone all these years letting people beleive I was the author. How can it be I put my name on something I didn’t actually write.

I must stay up late at nights un able to sleep knowing I have deceived so many right?

Well no not really , I sleep pretty well knowing that the information in the book has helped others, that the ideas where mine , and the person that was hired to write the book wrote what i hired them to write.

My appology isn’t to say I am sorry  I hired some one to write for me, its for not telling you that you can do the same thing.

You see I’m not an english major or writter by any means.

After I completed what was supposed to be my 12th grade year of school, I still had three years worth of english credits I would have needed to complete before I could graduate, which I then decided not to do.

So to say writing isn’t one of my stronger suits is an understatement.

What I am good at though is identifying what my weaknesses are and not letting them stop me but finding ways around them.

I had an idea , I wanted to release the report and instead of spending my time trying to put my ideas into print in a way that everyone could read along with and understand, I found someone to do that for me, some one that is proficient at writing so I could go on with the things I am good at as well.

So I am sorry, but not for what I have done but for what I haven’t done, which is telling you not to waste your time on things you aren’t good at, focus on what you are good at and don’t be afraid to ask for help with those things your not.

Oh and before you ask, yes I did actually write this post.

OK  Stop me if you have heard this one already.

The money is in the …. oh so you have heard it.

Yeah I know its old news, it’s not sexy, it’s not shiny and it certainly isn’t new.

But let me ask you a question.

How are products launched?

I mean every day there is a new super traffic generating push button system, or a new undiscovered secret, that some homeless dude stumbled upon and is now a millionaire.

So you must hear about them all because they magically generate a force that sucked you in and made your browser go there right?

You probably heard all about how powerfull facebook and twitter are for building your business while you were on facebook or twitter then.

What blog were you at that told you how much money you can make by blogging?

Chances are you first heard about all these different methods, were told about all these secrets, and probably even bought one or two of them in your inbox.

I’m not saying none of these methods work as most (not all as advertised ) do.

But when someone launches a new SEO product they don’t rely on SEO to get the word out.

They mail their list, they have their JV partners mail their lists.

Now they may use that SEO, or social media or traffic software to build their lists in the first place, but when it comes time to get the word out on their new product or service they mail their lists.

I have done many different things online, some successfull some not, I have been doing a lot of SEO lately and gotten good results, but no one has knocked on my door saying I’m about to launch a program will you SEO your affiliate link for me?

No ones ever said “hey you surf can you put my launch in your rotator?”

But I have a full Skype list and inbox full of invites saying “hey, I’m going to launch this soon can you mail for it?”

Now again don’t get me wrong I love surfing and its great traffic, same with SEO it is effective. But for fast proven success that everyone with a list recognizes, the power really is in “the list”

What ever you do to get traffic to your sites you can leverage that so much by adding an opt-in form on your page.

And if you don’t believe it works the next time you are reading a sales page or watching a video about the latest greatest product out there take a second to think how you ended up there.

There is some recent hoopla over social traffic exchanges.

What I mean about that is that Jon Olson and several other owners have completely embraced the social side of the internet. They have brought a lot of these aspects into their traffic exchanges and Jon has even published a free report about the importance of social traffic exchanges.

But not every one is convinced that social traffic exchanges are the way to go. In a recent post Bill Carr from Traffic Hoopla stated that the more social a traffic exchange becomes, the less effective it becomes as a hit exchange.

Now there has been some controversy around how hoopla does in fact gain their stats in the past, and I am not going to pretend I know how they get their stats, but I do know their reports for upgraded members do provide lots of information and numbers. I also know that when hoopla comes to town they bring a lot of referrals with them. ( their milkshake brings the boys to the yard )

But I do see one issue with the comments that they posted, this weeks results rate Startxchange and I love Hits in the top  20 sites.  They also mention Sweeva ( which is the ultimate as far as social traffic exchanges go ) as an up and coming exchange.

So The Stats Support Social Traffic Exchanges ?

Well  by hoopla’s stats it looks like they do, even though their post says different. According to Jon though in his response to the above  post, stats do not matter.

Social Traffic Exchanges are about building relationships making friends and connections with like minded members, and you can’t put a number on that.

My Views On Social Traffic Exchanges .

If you know me you a know I am a pretty moderate person, which is funny since when I was growing up moderation was not a word I was familiar with.

My views on this are pretty moderate as well. I do think that traffic exchanges should be just what they are meant to do. Exchange traffic , you look at my site and I will look at yours. Anything that distracts from that diminishes results and takes away from the fundamental principle behind a traffic exchange.

I do how ever see how powerful social traffic exchanges can and will be.

I see social traffic exchanges as a big step into the future for traffic exchanges but I dont see it as the end all be all solution.

I work online I make a living and support my family with the income I make online. If I spend my day socializing and building relationships, I may have more friends be a happier person , and those friends would be more willing to look at a recommendation I have made and possible purchase from me.

To build up that many relationships and network to the level I could support a family of four , would take a long long time.

On the flip side,

If all I did was stay locked away, working on new projects, creating products and so on and not building any relationships, I would be much grumpier, and no one would buy them any way since no one knows who I am.

So I personally think moderation is the key.

Social traffic exchanges can and do serve a purpose but I see them more as a niche within the overall traffic exchange community.  You should be getting your face out there branding yourself and your name, getting to know people, and getting people to know you.

But stats still matter, you need stats, you need information, so you grow your business.  You need to know what is working and what isn’t or if you have holes in your system,  relationships don’t pay the bills.

Balance Your Social Traffic Exchanges

So there you have the two sides on social traffic exchanges, those that think they are not good for business, and those that think they are the new way to do business.  I present you with a third view, my moderate view.

That social traffic exchanges, and traditional traffic exchanges are two separate sub niches living under a larger more general niche. For years we have been talking about how the way forward for traffic exchanges is to see more niche type exchanges coming out, and thats what is happening now. Traffic exchanges are expanding at a huge rate, there are now several different niches with in, the paid to surf ones, the tradition ones, and now the social traffic exchanges.

No one way is better than the other, though some will always argue that their way is the best way, which is natural since people follow their passions.

I am a strong believer that there is no right or wrong only what works for you. So try them out and see for yourself what works best for you. Some one will tell you that your wrong no matter what you do, so just do what feels right for you, use your own stats, since only you can measure  how successful you truly are.

This is why Diane Merriam Rocks

On Saturday mornings I host the Affiliate Funnel Seminar, a free webinar where members and guests of AF get together and we discuss different topics related to building an online business.

Two Saturdays ago we were discussing the different type of rights some products come with and we got to talking about how many resale rights and PLR products etc.. we all had on our hard drives, just sitting there collecting “cyber dust”

This evolved into a conversation about different ways we could put these to use, and why so many people don’t make use of the resale license.

Turned out most thought that they would need some fancy script or membership site software to do it.

So we talked about how easy it is to do, and that any one with a paypal account can put up a page and sell a product.

So whats any of this have to do with Diane Merriam?

Well I posed a challenge to every one in the room and told them that if anyone in the room took a product they had rights to and set up a site like we talked about I would promote it for them.

There were a couple of people that asked for more details and seemed excited about doing this.

But.. Monday came and went, as did Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday and I hadnt heard from any one.

Then Friday came and I thought for sure I would have a message in Skype or an email or support ticket or message in the Affiliate Funnel Forum.

Again though nothing, I was a bit disappointed.  One of the things that has been discussed each Saturdays to the point its almost a Mantra is that it is great to learn but knowing how to do something isnt enough , with out any action nothing will ever happen.

So off to bed I went expecting to rant a bit the next morning, but when I woke up , there it was. A message from Diane Merriam, she did in fact take action.Actually she took it a step further.

Instead of just putting up a product she had on her hard drive. She put up a huge collection of products.

Check it out for yourself at Diane Merriam’s site.

So thanks Diane for taking action and being my newest action hero!

What about you?

Do you have a hard drive full of products that you bought and thought to yourself I will put these up for sale?

Not sure how to do it?

Leave a comment below if you have any questions about getting those products up for sale. Maybe you think no one will buy it? Well you did didnt you?

If you put the site up there is a chance that people wont buy it, but if  it just sits there on your hard drive there is a 100% chance that no one will.

Stay tuned too as I am putting together some videos that will walk through the steps for getting these products up onto a site.

Why I Love Traffic Exchanges!

So why do I love traffic exchanges? I mean I have been working online now for several years and traffic exchanges have been a big part of how I generate traffic.

For many TE’s are kind of like pot, a gateway drug if you will. People try them and either dont like them and get out or really like them and it leads to doing more things.

There is plenty of campaigns that preach “just say no” to using traffic exchanges, but here I am an advid user of them, and perhaps I do have an addiction to them.

Like others, traffic exchanges have been a gateway for me.

They have opened up a lot of opportunity, I have met some great people along the way, and they are largely responsible for me to be able to work from home.

Like I mentioend I have moved on to other ways of driving traffic, have been studying and implementing new ideas so some may ask is it time for me to move on?

And to them I say No!

I see hundreds of new members coming into the exchanges daily they are like I was at one time, lost and trying to make sense of it all.

I get to see the hope and excitment as they learn how to get visitors to their sites and then watch as they learn how to improve their results, yes some turn away and say its not for them, but many come back and give it one more shot.

No matter what it is you are into wether its MLM or affiliate sales or trying to get new people to hear your music , traffic exchanges are a very easy way to get that traffic started.

I watch many move on and become successful in their own ways, but we always have that bond that we started out exactly the same, lost in a world of information overload, finding comfort in the simplicity of clicking for traffic while we learned and developed our knowledge. These something calming that makes it all a bit easier to take in, while you are clicking and thinking and watching what others are doing.

As someone new coming into traffic exchanges, they are more than just a gateway, they are a learning experience, and now as a more seasoned marketer they are a breeding ground for new marketers looking to make sense of it all.

So there is no way I could just move on, I hope that I can be the one that all these new members can look to for guidance such as Jon Olson and Tony Tezak were there to help guide me through the gate way.

If they had just moved on then I wouldn’t be where I am today, and if I just move on then there may  be some one that just surfed their first page today that I can help and I owe it to them to try.

So thats why I love traffic exchanges, I love what they can do, the hope it gives to others, the simplicity of it all, and the possibilities they give me to help others along the way.

If you have known me for a while you have probably noticed a lot of improvements to the blog over the time its been online.

What you don’t see though is the the effects those changes have made.

Everything from getting more traffic, getting better search engine rankings, and yes even some affiliate sales.

Now its no way near as profitable as it could should be but it is getting there.

This blog would probably make a lot more and get a ton more traffic if I didn’t resist against all the information I was given by Mike Paetzold. He has been telling me for years everything I need to do to have a profitable blog up and running.

I always just blew it off as unnecessary work that wouldn’t be worth the time or effort.

Well it took me long enough but I have started implementing some of what he has been telling me to do. Turns out he was right all along ( yes Mike go ahead and say it , you told me so) ,and to top it off  it doesn’t take nearly as much time and effort as I had made myself picture.

It’s a common mistake that a lot of people make and one I normally talk about, but I was a victim of it too!

Over thinking and Over Complicating things. It’s so easy to start thinking of everything that needs to be done and everything that will need to get done that you can easily overwhelm yourself and convince yourself that its too much for you to take on.

Well there are a ton of old sayings that could apply here,

“You don’t have to see the whole stair case, just take the first step”
“whether you think you can or can’t you are right”

or one I often use is “How do you eat an elephant?” to which the answer is “one bite at a time”.

What it all boils down to is not overwhelming your self with everything that needs to be done. Yes its good to have a plan but the best plan in the world is useless unless some one actually follows it.

Luckily for me I didn’t have to do much planning since Mike Paetzold had already laid one out for me. He has told me exactly what I would need to do, but I just got hung up on all the details and staring at the elephant as a whole instead of whipping out my fork and knife and taking that first bite.

Luckily for you Mike has taken all that same information he has shared with me and created a bite by bite audio /video series that tells you exactly where to dig in and where all the best parts of that elephant are.

In his new audio/video course at Profitable Blog Steps Mike walks you through the exact steps to easily have your own profitable blog.

If You hurry you can grab an extremely discounted Price at

http://profitableblogsteps.com

OK now this review may sound biased a bit but it really is because I love this site.  It is going to be hard to hide my enthusiasm as i discuss it because , well it just simply rocks.

So what is TE Command Post anyway?

According to the Sales page it will ” Command Your Credits, Control Your Time And Cash in Cool Commissions On Autopilot, All with Push Button Simplicity!”

Wow thats a pretty bold claim, if you ask me so lets see if it lives up to it or if its just marketing hype.

Well first of all the site was created by Paul Kinder and Scott Martin, Now I know Paul is a great marketer, but he also normally delivers on what he promises, so that right there leads me to believe that there may be some validity to these claims. And Scott is a programmer that understands what TE members need so that is another check in the box. So lets go ahead and open it up and see what its all about.

In the following video I walk you through the basic process of how the site works.

OK so as you can see it definitely lives up to the claim of  “Command Your Credits, Control Your Time”  TECommandPost  has already saved me a ton of time and I have just started using it.

So what about the ” Cash in Cool Commissions On Autopilot” part?

Well this part could possibly be a bit misleading. It does leave out one important detail. You actually do have to promote TE Command Post to make this happen. This should be a given when you look at any site that talks about you making money. We have talked before about there being no big red easy button to making money, that there is and always will be some element of work involved.

But if you do promote TE CommandPost, the rewards are bountiful. There are ( like with most sites) upgrades available and the One Time Offers are really hard to resist if you are a serious Traffic Exchange user. And as your referrals join you will be credited with up to 50% commissions on them.

Then the site works like a downline builder as well, all the TE’s that you entered your user id for are now being shown to your downlines, and all those exchanges have upgrade offers as well. There is also the secondary downline builder for usefull tools that any TE member should need and you will also be credited with commissions from any of those sales.

Now , here is the best part, I mentioned above that Paul is a great marketer. When he writes emails people pay attention and often times they click the links and they join.

Well when his emails go out to the members of TE Command Post, they will have your links in them. Depending on your membership level your link go go down 6 levels. That can work out to be a lot of emails with your links and all you had to do was referr a couple of members.

So yes a little bit of work up front is involved, but once you have done that , the Commissions will come rolling in on autopilot.

To wrap up, yes I think TE Command Post does live up to its promises, it will save me a ton of time every week, and I have already started seeing some of those autopilot commissions coming into my TECP account and other sites that are connected. This really is a must have tool for any one using traffic exchanges.

It’s Saturday morning and my ears are still ringing from last night. No I didn’t go out partying, I took my son to see the Monster Truck Rally last night.

It was held in what has gotten to be one of the worlds smallest indoor arenas, and we had good seats so there was plenty noise and burnt rubber fumes to make it a complete night.

Any way this is the first time I have been to one of these things since I was a kid about my sons age. It would seem I was in the minority there though as everyone seemed to have a favorite truck, or driver, and knew all the different teams and who wore what etc…

I was amazed when they asked a 10 year old kid in the audience some monster truck trivia and he nailed all of it ( along with extremely excited guy on my right that was upset that kid got a free T shirt and he didn’t )

I was surprised at the following this thing had, I was even more surprised after the first run of trucks when the winner just happened to be the last truck on the track and the driver ( who was also a big part of the pre-show ) was out of his truck to claim his victory before the “judges” even gave their score.

After that first event there was some Quad Wars, where “Team Indiana” was getting beat up on by evil outsiders “Team Ohio”

I know I haven’t lived here very long but you would think you would here of a state team of quad racers at some point, but I digress.

Needless to say the results were a bit biased and no matter what happened there were only a couple of people to win every event, these were also the same people that were in charge of the pre show hype and making everything happen.

The sad thing is there were better drivers doing better things than them but I guess they were not good enough to take center stage and “act”

All in all it was entertaining, and that’s what I paid for was to be entertained and more importantly my son had a blast, he didn’t pick up on the quirks of the whole show. And I really wonder how many people there did.

I mean Wrestling has done it for years and the fans still love it , but it makes me wonder if anything is real at all.

Was there a time that there was an actual monster truck circuit where anyone could win, or has it always been a stage act?

Was there a time where wrestling was real?

What about furniture? I know there was a time you actually had to get your furniture delivered, but now that seems to be a dying trend in favor of modular pieces of compressed saw dust with a sticker of wood on it.

No one seems to complain, everything continues on, there was no one last night demanding there money back because it was staged,but is that where it all starts?

Do we as marketers keep pushing to see what we can get away with and as long as no one complains it must be ok?

Do we as consumers just take what we are sold and even when we find out its not what the commercial said just say to ourselves, looks like a was a victim to marketing again?

If that’s the case are we out marketing ourselves? If everyone begins ( or actually I think most already do ) thinking that all marketing is a lie, how to we convince the public when we are actually telling the truth.

Some one could create and market the answer to life, eternal happiness or anything else, but will there be any one to buy it, or will everyone already be jaded by broken promise after promise? Will it end up on late night TV being sold by Billy Mays or on daytime TV being sold by Oprah, is there really much difference between the two?

I