One of the most daring changes to Traffic Exchanges was to move the timers back to THREE seconds. The idea was the hope it would bring growth from advertisers willing to spend dollars to get their promos out there in front of hungry eyeballs. What it did was bring a scream of dramatic protest from surfers, that all TEs should lower their times.
The faint at heart Traffic Exchange [TE] owners caved in.
Numbers excited these TE owners. If they could show large growth in
memberships then that would attract even more people to join them.
Joint surfs were added to the mix. More bonus cash was now in the
works for penny surfers. The sites took a hit for looks. The unique
factor was no longer important. Copycat or cookie cutter sites began
to show up in the hundreds.
Owners and their admins, where they could afford them, sank beneath
the load of winner updates and meeting payout schedules Then there
was the continuing round of surfs to manage.
The numbers increased, as they hoped but the income did not. These
new members were not interested in upgrading or investing in their
future or the future of any specific TE. All they wanted was a Friday
payday and an owner who paid them faithfully.
The Faint At Heart Meet PayPal
The penny screams were suddenly coming from the owners. Paypal
shut them down, without remorse or explanation; at best, claiming
their TEs were operating illegally. The dream of TE ownership had
become a nightmare of why? They gave their members what they
wanted how could that be illegal?
The end results were horrendous. Increased server loads, a ton of
penny surfers with no intent to ever upgrade. They wanted what the
owner was willing to pass to them as their right – cash for surfing at
no cost to them, the members, except for their time to surf.
The realization there were online laws the TE owner must obey backed
with the fact, no money in meant no money out meant TOS changes.
Terms of Agreement (TOS)
changes were necessary to meet the updated, legal demands of
payment processors as owners chafed under the heavy fines the
FTC had lowered for supporting scam business owners. When
many of the new, and some of the older well established TEs,
could not meet the demands for commissions earned payment,
they became the pariah to their penny surfers. It was too much,
many of them closed their doors.
The Weak-at-Heart TE Owner
They exist today. Many believing they have to give their members
everything they expected. These TE owners forget they are the
owner, they are leaders. They pay the bills and they get closed
down if they forget to watch the sites they allow or support.
As business leaders, it is imperative they set the standards. If a
prospect or current members disagrees then the door that
brought them in is open to remove them.
One of the hardest lessons has been the first rule of business,
no money in, no money out. Thus the first change is cash has
to go. Paying the freebie surfer to use your TE is breaking the
Trust laws. It is illegal to pay someone to surf. Then there is
the other more important part – you will soon be too broke to
continue this action and be forced to close your doors.
I have seen grown men come close to tears as they made the
decision that cash for surfing has to go. Their database of their
membership sank almost immediately, It hurt. But just for the
moment, as they soon realized that loss of membership was
the freebie penny surfers who could be replaced.
Here is the thing about penny cash surfing sites. It keeps the
paying members away. Sure some of the penny surfers will
upgrade or buy credits or even promote TEs, BUT they are
not the majority nor do those few pay the bills.
The feedback about penny seeker sites has been strongly
negative. There is no way an advertiser will join and upgrade
to Three-second timer penny surfing sites. They want their
ads seen. This message also comes loud and clear, from
other owners you might want to join in joint surfs. Impossible!
It is apparent from their remarks, they do not want their sites
spoiled by filling their membership ranks with penny surfers.
There is the fear of bots as well as a heavier server load. No
one wants the bother.
Feint Business Owner Reality
The life span of penny feeding cash sites? The average is two
years max. Many of them rushed to close their sites as soon as
PayPal started their house cleaning of apparently illegal sites.
Many owners determined to stay afloat in spite of PayPal, who
will not make the change from cash surfing, who strongly believe
they are legal in their operations, are traveling a dangerous road.
Their time is limited as new payment processors deny them or demand
high account funding accompanied with huge operating costs. And they
do not understand why.
There are hundreds of cliches to decry the blind following the blind, or
even those too blind to see. Those cliches do not matter. What does is
will your business be here tomorrow – next month, next year? Will you
go down a penny screamer supporter, too weak as an owner to make
the changes necessary that could turn your future around?
Business online is just like business offline. It involves a series of
checks and balances that help determine the ROI on daily operations.
It is either bringing in enough cash to create momentum, or it is not.
Are you strong enough to face the reality of your business venture?
Can you make changes that might cost you some of your current
members in order to build stronger? To bring in a healthy return on
your time and investment? Time to replace the penny surfers rather
than be a penny surfer TE owner?Time to take charge, be the leader
your members need?
Time is of the essence. If you did not start change yesterday, then
today is a very good time to begin taking a serious look at restructuring
your business in order to keep it around for the long term.
Till next time …
Your Editor
Fran Klasinski
Skype: fran.klasinski
Why not subscribe to Fransfranticmarketing so you do not miss the
coming posts? Look top right. It is so easy. You can do it, now.
© 2017, Fran Klasinski. All rights reserved. on republishing any parts of this post, you must supply a link to the original post
All the TEs give prizes in cash or credits for ads, would be a good idea to reduce this prizes?
I see in my site how the awards are to the same level with my income, and in this case I can say that I don’t have a business, I have a hobby!
Hi Paul …
It is a sad day to say our hard work on TEs is reduced to having a hobby.
Can we blame it on ‘penny surfers’? Not exactly. They answered the call
of owners who thought they had the perfect way to build their TEs.
Imho– ditch the cash prizes. It takes a lot of pennies to save enough
to upgrade, or buy credits, or banner and txt links Those are the items
that create sales and commissions. That help members become paid, happy,
clients ready to promote your te and might even upgrade.
Thx for the question.