Image courtesy of Wandering Angel

Website Traffic

If you are selling, you need buyers. You can pay for leads, advertise, create email and forum signatures.

You can give out business cards, optimize your site for organic traffic from search engines and more.

Or, you can experiment with ideas that the “experts” tell you are a waste of time.

OrangeJackass decided to experiment, after learning a few things from a really cool dude named Aatos Poutiainen.

[Update]: The experiment has ended. Result? Too much bandwidth on my ISP! Aatos managed to get 200,000 credits by cascading his links and, because of referrals, he no longer has to autosurf as much. Sooo, the idea is sweet, if you don’t mind putting in a lot of up front work and if you have the bandwidth from your ISP to handle the autosurfs.

I removed all hyperlinks from the article, as they were referral links from the experiment.

System For Free Traffic

“Traffic exchanges don’t work!”

That’s what I’ve read. The reasons appear to be sound, too:

• You Don’t Have Time to Autosurf
• Everyone’s Selling, Nobody’s Buying
• You’ll Get Spammed

Indeed, a few years ago, you did have to constantly click to visit websites in order to earn credits.

As for everybody selling, that may be true but, if you are targeting the autosurfers, you CAN get them to respond!

Finally, it’s not spam if you signed up for it. Annoying, maybe, but not spam.

The key to making traffic exchanges work is to change your perspective regarding the objections.

Then, find a system that supports the Traffic Exchange model.

The OrangeJackass System is simple.

First, understand that you have less than half a minute to capture your prospects’ attention.

You’ll need to create a quick-loading page (or use specially designed pages provided by the product vendor).

You’ll need to find a way to display this page to thousands of viewers.

The process must be hands-free after setup!

Traffic Exchange Pages

Depending on your product, your page can look like an ad, or it can be optimized for autosurfers’ viewing.

The OrangeJackass System initially relies on optimized pages like this:

Make your page compelling enough to invite a click!

Traffic Smarter

With your optimized ad ready to go, you should join TrafficSmarter.com.

This is not a Traffic Exchange site. In fact, the video on the home page

doesn’t think too highly of traffic exchanges. (They haven’t been paying attention to Aatos!)

What Traffic Smarter does, in fact, is allow you to earn credits, with which you purchase “views” on their network.

Traffic Smarter helps you send Solo email ads, which are part of the power of this system.

You get a bunch of credits for signing up.

You earn credits by referring people to the Traffic Smarter website.

For full details, click on the video tutorial link after logging in to your member area.

AutoHits

The next piece to the OrangeJackass System is AutoHits.dk, an automated way to refer people to Traffic Smarter.

This is the way Aatos was able to get over 100,000 credits in his Traffic Smarter account.

That’s a lot of views for his other ads, no?

AutoHits allows you to have up to 10 websites running at one time.

Your first URL should be directed back to TrafficSmarter.com! I made the mistake of using my first credits on my affiliate product.

Learn from my mistake! Until you have enough credits in AutoHits, don’t dilute your efforts from promting Traffic Smarter!

K.I.S.S.

Image courtesy of cote

Keep it simple, surfer! Both TrafficSmarter.com and AutoHits.dk have tools and promotional materials.

The OrangeJackass system can be implemented with a single referral link from Traffic Samrter.

Once you get that up and running, you can focus on promoting your other products and maximizing the tools available.

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If you are an internet marketer, you’ve surely heard that Yahoo!® Answers is a great place to find what people really want to know.

From the screen shot above, I’m not so sure.

Seriously, though, you need to learn how to do proper research on that site, if you’re going to work a niche.

Over on kpfingaz.com, Jay has a nice tutorial on niche research using Yahoo!® Answers.

Take your time to digest this information. Not only does Jay give you technique, he also suggests how you can make use of the results!

While you’re there, subscribe to his blog. He has a wealth of information for affiliate marketers.

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Cybersquatting: Spotlight on a Time-Waster

The Coffee Desk has a great article about cybersquatting.

OrangeJackass found yet another parked domain masquerading as a search portal. This one is search engine optimized for PC games. My wife mentioned it to me a couple of weeks ago so I decided to check it out.

I happened to notice the tagline, What you need, when you need it, and the humorous link suggesting that you make ourpcgames.net your home page. Since I had seen that tagline before, I Googled it.

The Coffee Desk came up in the first position. Go read it. Then come back here.

What is Cybersquatting?

Now, before you hit the roof, let’s clarify the term cybersquatting. According to Wikipedia,

“Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.”

Why Can’t Cybersquatters Be Stopped?

Stephen, the author of the article on The Coffee Desk, acknowledges this in reference to bullet.com:

“If it is not trademarked, it is fair-game. Bullet is not trademarked, so it is OK to sit on without valid legal threat from a bullet manufacturer. Xerox, Microsoft, or Google on the other hand are all trademarked corporate names and therefore cannot be squatted via domain name.”

Of course, the arm of American Law is rather short when it comes to the global Internet.

Why is Cybersquatting so Prevalent?

One of the strategies behind illegal cybersquatting is, essentially, ransom. The cybersquatter has no intention of developing the site; it is merely a potentially valuable web property for the trademark holder. Before the passage of the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, companies had little recourse to claim their trademarks on the web. Even after the law passed, cybersquatting continues apace. Check out these two articles:

• ‘Cybersquatters:’ Invading big names’ domains (CNN September 6, 2000)
  

  If you are a Madonna fan and want to visit her on the web, do not bother logging on to madonna.com. If international travel is your online interest, avoid singaporeairlines.com or klm.org and if you want to know more about your favourite drop, guiness.net and steinlager.com will not help.

• Cybersquatting cases hit record in 2008 (Reuters, March 15, 2009)
  

  Web sites in dispute in 2008 included references to Madrid’s 2016 Olympics bid, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), Yale University, Research in Motion’s Blackberry as well as Arsenal and Johansson, and company names such as eBay, Google and Nestle.

Cybersquatters are Hard to Spot!

Unless you are vigilant, you may wind up wasting time clicking through a link on a parked domain. Don’t look for Google to save you either: they have their hands deep in the parked domain business model! That’s a whole ‘nother story, which I uncovered quite by accident. Here it is: Strange Log Referrer – Advice Please (Comment #11)

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I’ve been a member of IMReportCard.com for a few weeks now.

It’s a community-supported grading system for Internet Marketing products, services, people and business opportunities. The site’s owners hope to create a comprehensive database of every popular Internet Marketing program. They want to stamp out online scams:

IMRC is a community of like-minded people looking to make money online, who are sick of all the scams out there, and who help each other out along the way.

People write reviews and leave comments about products they have used or about Internet Marketers they know personally. Over 2,000 reviews have been published:

I’ll bet there are some shills posting on the site, but if you trust in the wisdom of crowds, visit IMReportCard.com and check out that newest money-making scheme before you jump in.

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It combines a free store filled with hot products, free domain, viral marketing and multiple tiers of compensation. It is free to join, and fun to play with!

Okay, OrangeJackass is a bit nerdy, but really, I had fun creating this post and setting up my affiliate link:

http://www.orangejackass.com/visit/instantplugandpay

That’s right, this pile of cash can be yours, IF:

• You can follow directions
• You don’t sit back and let the “auto-pilot” do ALL the work

Follow Directions - Registration is free and simple.
There is a tempting offer during registration that I’ve never seen implemented before. Trust me, it WILL be copied. (I already have a few ideas …)

Auto-Pilot, my Eye! - nothing is truly, 100% automated, though Instant Plug and Pay comes close. You still have to promote your website and affiliate links. Instant Plug and Pay has an awesome tutorial on using link cloaking and tracking. This is important for the newbies that you’re going to attract. Here is an example:

http://OrangeJackass.com-show.info/for/ippacy3x-blog20091010

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Don’t ask me why I’m posting this. I like funny comments.

The comment:

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ProBlogger Darren Rowse shares the secrets to his success with the Amazon.com Associates Program.

Tip #10 is an absolute gem.

OrangeJackass has a tip, too: If you’re going to depend on links to get folks to your affiliate vendor, you may as well promote the big-ticket items!

The Amazon.com Associates Program may have some of them for your blog.

Go read Darren Rowse’s 11 Lessons I Learned Earning $119,725.45 from Amazon Associates Program.

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Image courtesy of dickuhne

OrangeJackass discovered Webstock: Usability for Evil on SiteProNews.

The post pays tribute to Paco Underhill, author of “Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping” and the sequel “The Call of the Mall”.

Apparently, this bad-ass is responsible for hiding the exits in malls, among other things.

Mr. Underhill has nothing on the Arch-villian of Admen, Leo Burnett, who convinced cereal companies to spend billions on television advertising.

Image courtesy of time.com

Leo Burnett created such icons as the Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy and Tony the Tiger.

Neither of these gentlemen were fit to carry the bathwater of Edward Bernays. Although Burnett invented Tony the Tiger, Mr. Bernays was the one who convinced Americans that bacon and eggs was a hearty breakfast!

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays is considered the father of Public Relations. Wikipedia lists several of his campaigns.

Mental Floss magazine has a riveting article about Edward Bernays in their March/April 2008 issue. Check it out at your library!

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It’s quite amusing to see followers continuing to pour in.

So, in true entrepreneurial fashion, we concocted a potion that we intend to sell. For a limited time, though, we’ll share our Twappuccino recipe right here, for free! Tell your friends! (Apologies to Diane Philips)

Turns out, some other folks have been talking about #twappuccino. Check it out, if you are bored.

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is there a way to combine firefox toolbars to save space?

How-To Geek has a post from 2007 that focuses on Personal Menu.

This must be a real gem, because it was recently updated in July, 2009. It has five stars, too! Two other websites have useful information, too. I’ll note these at the end.

First-time Installation

Here are my before-and-after screenshots:

As with most add-ons, installation is a breeze. After restartingFirefox, the Menu is still present. Click on the Personal Menu icon to begin a series of interactions.

This dialog box pops up:

When you click OK, the next dialog box pops up:

If you are ready, click OK. Otherwise, click Cancel. you can set up Personal menu later, by following the steps described under Changing Options.

Assuming you clicked OK, this dialog box comes up next:

Click the Settings… button to bring up the next dialog box:

I decided to hide everything but the Tools menu, as I use it quite often.

Changing Options

If you closed the Addons window before setting up Personal Menu, either use the handy button provided,

or go to Tools and click Add-ons:

Then, scroll to the Personal Menu icon and click the Options button:

You’ll get a different dialog box than the one shown in the first-time install section:

On the Edit Menus tab, you can move useful commands to the right, so that they will be available when you click on that menu button.

I haven’t played around with the other two tabs. You should visit Merci Chao’s home page for more information. Here are two more screenshots:

Emergency Response Measures!

If you are wondering about that ominous phrase with the red stop sign, it is a reminder for getting everything back by pressing CTRL+ALT+S.

More Ways to Save Space in Firefox

DownloadSquad mentions Personal Menu, Stop-or-Reload, Back to Close and Fission. read more …

MakeUseOf.com uses a pop-up tactic that may annoy you, but the information on the page is useful:

There are ten tweaks and extensions listed. From making the icons smaller to creating vertical tabs on a widescreen monitor, the author has something for everyone! read more …

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