With Hurricane Earl approaching my area, I've been doing the normal hurricane preparations. Things like buying food, water, batteries, and bringing all the outside toys inside.

Right now I'm being told that it could just be tropical storm conditions, but there is a chance it could move more inland and cause more problems. There could be power outages, and it's possible for roofs or buildings to be compromised. Ouch.

So what do we do as small businesses, when our entire business is on our computer? Well for one, I now have a laptop so I'll be packing that in the car, but it doesn't have all my valuable files on it. Those could easily be destroyed with a nice tree through the house, flooding, etc.

That's why it's crucial to have backups. And not just backups to an external drive, but to a remote location. It's dreadfully easy these days too.

I continue to recommend Jungle Disk (note no affiliate link here) because you can have it backup to Amazon S3 (which keeps multiple copies of every file in a way that it's near impossible to lose). Or you can have it backup to Rackspace which also is redundant but I'm not sure how much because I never read into it =P

The point being, I know that if my house were to be destroyed my business wouldn't. I could easily download any file necessary to continue. It would be difficult enough dealing with any kind of  destruction but to add on top of that loss of important business documents or even family photos would just add to the devastation. Don't let it happen to you!

Just remember to do it BEFORE a disaster is coming your way, as it does take time to upload files to these remote locations. I have about 600GB of data that took 3 days initially to upload, and I have a full 20Mbps upload speed. Most internet connections have a high download speed, but a much slower upload speed.

If you are around Traffic Exchange Live you'll know that I've started to work with Jon Olson on SWAT Traffic. He was talking about adding something cool to keep people excited about it.

This is one of the most difficult parts of running a traffic exchange. There are hundreds of traffic exchanges so keeping your traffic exchange exciting is half the battle.

Well we came up with this idea to have everyone on SWAT split into two teams: Cops & Robbers. And throughout the week each team has the opportunity to score points, and at the end of the week a jackpot is split between the members who scored those points.

The really exciting part is when randomly while surfing two surfers are put up against each other in a foot pursuit. The cop has to catch up to the robber, or the robber has to run away.

Plans are still in motion for some cool stuff, but the core fun is in place now. The key to winning the foot pursuit is noticing that you are in the foot pursuit. If you don't notice it's real easy for the other person to catch you or run away.

This is one of the reasons you should be in Traffic Exchange Live. While Jon and I "run the show" we love seeing people network and spark ideas. So come on in and chat, you might leave with something awesome for your business!

This has come up in Traffic Exchange Live on a few occasions. It's something that most people agree on: They don't like it when companies give away their personal information, especially their email address.

Yet at the same time members will ask for their downline's email addresses, some even get upset when I say I can't. That's because my Privacy Policy states I won't rent, sell, or give out your email address. When you sign up you are trusting me to keep your information secure.

Some exchanges make it a practice to give you personal information about your referrals when you sign up. Not everyone has the same view as me, so remember to read the privacy policy when you sign up. If there isn't one, or it doesn't state clearly that your information is kept private, you'll have to decide for yourself.. Is privacy really your policy?

So to those who aren't happy that I protect my members from potential abuse, I apologize, but I will not change my policy. I do give ways for members to get in touch with their downline without giving out personal information. I understand that talking with your downline is good, but I really think it's not cool when companies give out my information, so why would I do it?

Banners used to be a really hot commodity, but they kind of went out of style for a while. Recently they've been getting a comeback!

Carl Baily of Instant Splash fame came up with a simple idea, a sort of viral splash page with banners on them called Banners and Bucks. Your banner, your upline's banner, and an upgraded member's banner.

It's a simple idea, kind of like Buckets of Banners (Steve Ayling) but rather than randomly swapping around banners and assigning credits, Banners and Bucks has your banner always showing on your referrals pages and your pages.

Now I'm not going to claim to do this all the time, because it's really easy to forget about banners when you focus on splash page hits, but they can be great for branding!

We hear all the time that it takes many views before someone is willing to sign up or buy something. So having banners plastered all over the traffic exchanges helps you brand in addition to the splash pages. So when the splash page comes up, there is recognition already!

Of course the biggest problem is that most people don't have banners. That's where AdKreator comes in, it's a tool you can easily create banners with. If you are branding yourself to build a list, you'll want to have your name and/or photo on the banner. That way people will recognize you on the banners and splash pages.

So there you go, a few tools for your box to help you with your business. It can seem tedious but when you add it all up you get a well oiled machine!

This comes up periodically in discussions, and it came up again recently. The discussion over whether a traffic exchange is the owner's mailing list.

Originally there was no argument. Hands down, traffic exchange owners didn't email the members about anything other than announcing new features.

Slowly more people started coming from other areas of marketing, and started building traffic exchanges with the sole purpose of having a list. Some might argue that it's not the case, but really it is. They use it like any other website just to mail out about the next thing they release.

What started to happen was owners using their members as a list started making a ton more money. And owners who started a traffic exchange because they love the idea, the concept, started mailing their members more and more.

And now here we are today, where it's really difficult to tell the difference. It's the status quo. The normal thing to do.

But is it the right thing to do?

When you look at any main stream services you don't see them emailing users daily. You rarely see them emailing about anything. When was the last time Facebook sent you an email to get you to join another site? How about Twitter? Or what about your web host, auto-responder company, etc?

This concept of emailing the membership offers is generally happening on internet marketing related services.

At one point there were indications that the exchanges emailing offers actually had produced higher results than those that didn't. The thought was that the members were used to being sold to, so they naturally were more willing to take offers seen inside the exchange.

But then there's the age old question that if the owner sends an email recommending a product: what happens if that's the exact product you are trying to sell inside that exchange? Won't people sign up under the owner? Won't you be wasting your time?

Well ironically that's not always the case. Take my blog for instance - it's setup as an offer inside StartXchange. One of those offers that can show up when you log in, and it even has their information pre-filled in the form. Well guess what, I still get people who sign up to the blog daily after seeing in inside rotation on StartXchange.

The same thing has happened on product launches that I have promoted. Members promoting inside rotation get signups  even after I email to the same members. It's logical, not everyone reads the emails. And not everyone is willing to join right away. Remember that 7 rule, something like it takes 7 views of an ad before someone is willing to buy?

Well it could be that the owner's email warms them up to the idea of joining. It could be that they really want to join under someone else and not the owner. It could be so many reason, I don't really know.

In the end what I personally try to do is use my blog for any launches and keep the exchanges to service updates. But I don't mind the occasional email for related partner services. So in other words, I'm on the fence =P

These teams are rocking these days, and I decided it was time to get the teams on StartXchange rocking again. So I'm introducing something new..

The ability for team leaders to email the entire team!

Now of course, following the Privacy Policy, your Team Leader won't have access to your email address. Instead they have a page where they enter the Subject and the Message to be mailed out. They also have the option to include credits with the email.

Worried about spam? Well don't worry! Your Team Leader will only be able to email you once every 24 hours, and obviously if they spam the team the team will leave. In fact there is an easy get me out of the team link in every email they send. Use your feet, and leave the team if you don't like what they send you ;-)

If you already have a team NOT on StartXchange: Then I want you! This isn't a team for promoting StartXchange, this is a team for surfing together. So if you are in one of the teams that promote a service together, check to see if you're being represented in the StartXchange teams!

You can brand your team further by being on the team list, but you also get a percentage of all the credits earned by your team from surfing. So you can really get some extra traffic to your team as a whole. And now you'll be able to continue to motivate your team in a whole new way ;-)

Team Leaders, you can find the page to email your team by going to your team page, clicking edit, then mass pm. I know, I gotta make it simpler to manage your team with less clicking.. Sometime soon!

It's been a while since I've connected with other traffic exchange owners like we did recently. I forgot to count how many where there, but there was a variety of newbie owners all the way to veteran owners in one room chatting.

We discussed a few topics that are relevant to our industry. Things like the dreaded pay to surf, traffic exchange associations, and other fun stuff. Anyways - if you are an owner fill out this form to be notified when we do it again. Note that I do filter out that list to owners only, so don't bother if you are trying to fake it.. I've got something better:

Tonight we're meeting in the TELive room at 6PM EST. This is open to anyone, there is no charge. We are looking for anyone who is enthusiastic about traffic exchanges! This isn't any kind of "club" or "GOB" meeting, we really do enjoy people with differences in opinions to come in and chit chat.

Far too often people forget that it's OK and even GOOD to disagree on topics and discuss them. As long as we are civil about it, and get into personal attacks, it can be a lot of fun. And so far we've been very successful at it!

Our owners meeting we had a variety of people come in, and there were disagreements but great discussions around them. And yeah there were things we agreed on too, and there might even be some fun things in store as a result of it.

So - come by tonight if you get this message soon enough, if not that's OK. We'll do more of them, and we are trying to do them at different times so different people can come. This time it's at 6PM, rather than the normal 8PM. Let's get chatting in the TELive room! (you can come by early or late btw)

Today we initiated something in Sweeva, with the goal in producing quality rather than quantity in traffic. The idea is simple, if you surf 10 pages every day you get a bonus that increases every day.

So 10 days from now it's 10 times the bonus, as long as you view 10 pages every day. Simple to achieve, but small enough where you can take your time and actually check out the sites you are viewing. No rush, take your time!

We hope this will create a shift, get more people actually participating and interacting with the sites in rotation. If we all do this, then it'll make using Sweeva even better. The results and feedback have been great, but we want to make it even greater!

If you aren't currently surfing 10 pages per day on Sweeva, start today!

Teams are great. People love working together. I wish I had someone working with me in my office with me. I know we "aren't supposed to" mix politics and religion with business, but this really sums it up great:

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!" Proverbs 4:9-10

The problem with teams is that there is always a team leader. The positive with teams there is always a team leader too. But if that leader is bad, or were to disappear (it happens all the time online, for legitimate reasons too!), or even just went another direction than you wanted, you have nothing you can do about it but start all over.

So.. Introducing.. a VIRAL Team Concept!

Here's what you do.. ALL of you now! Create your own team!

Whaaaat? I know crazy right? But think about this.. If you are all signed up under each other in the matrix, then if you are all building teams you'll all benefit from it.

Take Traffic Wave for example.. You start by building a list teaching people how to use Traffic Wave. The in's and out's of auto-responders. They are now auto-responder kings. Or at the very least they know how it works. You walk them through the entire process, join their list, make sure it's write. Pure hand holding.

You teach them how to make a list that does the same thing. You teach them how to emulate exactly what you did. Not copy & paste your emails, let them write them in their own style. But the same topic.. How to use an auto-responder, how to use it to build your business, etc.

Then teach them how to go offline, online, anyline and get people on that list. Teach them about auto-responders, why they need them, how to use them, etc. Then teach them how to do the same thing and emulate again.

See the idea here? You don't have to get everyone promoting Traffic Wave either. The magic is that you can teach real businesses offline how to use a list. I say this all the time, and I know at least one person is doing it, but restaurants LOVE this kind of stuff but they don't have anyone teach them or know that you can do it for $20/month..

They get approached all the time by companies who want to charge HUNDREDS to do the same thing. It's easy picking. You can also teach people online who already have the internet marketing drive to do the same thing.

Getting a healthy mix of both you'll fill those levels up faster than you can blink. OK not really, but faster than only promoting to people who each want 10 more people under them without doing anything but promoting to people who also want 10 people under them. The math doesn't work.

Get people who just want the AR in there! The way a matrix works, they don't have to promote it for you to fill all the levels. It will fill it in as needed.

So there you go, each of you build your own team. Don't have your prospects know your team leader's name, only have them know YOUR name. Same with them, don't have them tell their prospects YOUR name, have them tell them THEIR name.

You can keep your team leader, bounce ideas off them as you build your team. And same for people in your team. But quit teaching all your prospects your leader's name and being forgotten yourself! Quit building someone else's list, and BUILD YOUR OWN!

PS. I've got an ebook coming. If I get 200 comments from 200 different people on this post I'll give it out completely free to everyone subscribed to my blog.

I really can't get enough of the feedback about Sweeva, but the best thing is when something awesome happens to yourself. I know, being selfish right? I'm human too, so when I get great feedback on my pages in Sweeva, it gets me excited.

Recently Dave Schubert commented on my ad "I'm in. Congrat's on getting past 10,500 Tim. Time to update the ads." I totally forgot about the ad mentioning the 10,000 subscriber mark. Pretty cool!

But not only that, all the feedback on your page increases subscribers. Now you've got real people for the first time looking at your ad, seeing great feedback from other real people LIVE. Is that not the best testimonial?

Some people are really misunderstanding this as a simple review site. Yes, getting tons of "good" "ok" "bad" comments isn't helpful (you can delete them from your page), but the fact that people are looking at your site and giving feedback, even if you don't agree, is a big step.

Previously with traffic exchanges you had no clue if anyone even saw your page. You had no way to reply to any negative thoughts either. No way to win over new users because you had no way of knowing!

On PageSwirl's blog Dan Moses posted his splash page received negative feedback because the page didn't have links. Problem was, the member was trying to click the image not the text link. He explained the links were at the bottom, and the person joined all 4 sites!

A traditional exchange you'd never even know the person was clicking somewhere else. We all think we are geniuses and made the perfect page, but you really have no idea how many people are having trouble with it.. Until now!

If you've been sitting on the fence about Sweeva, why not hop on over and give it a shot. See what all the fuss is about! You get to be there LIVE with the very people you are trying to build a relationship with and get on your list, or buy your product. That's huge!