 Learning Corner Included in this section will be internet, e-business, website and other technical related articles. I welcome your article submissions, so feel free to email me with your Learning Corner contributions! Here is the Learning Corner article for this issue: Exchange Your Way to Web Traffic! Part 2 - Automate and Rotate by Cathy Carlton In "Exchange Your Way to Web Traffic! Part 1 - Getting "Start"-ed", you were introduced to the concept of start page exchanges. Just for a brief refresher, using a start page exchange involves the following steps: Step 1: You join the start page exchange -- usually for free Step 2: Set your internet browser home page to the surf url Step 3: Enter into the exchange control panel the url you want to promote Step 4: Surf away in your spare time and earn credits and bonus credits. Step 4a: No time to surf? Buy credits and let others surf away! Step 5: Promote your referral URL to earn referral credits. step 6: Enjoy increased website traffic, sales, sign-ups, etc. Hopefully, you are already taking advantage of some start page exchange programs. Now, I'll let you in on some ways to use these programs to your very best advantage. Let's say you have several opportunities or websites to promote, but your start page exchange only allows you to promote a single url. Many of these programs also limit or disallow use of pop-ups, so you can't double up that way. Besides, you don't always have programming control of many affiliate or MLM websites anyhow. So what do you do? Well, you could create a basic website with descriptions and links for all of your programs then enter the url for your multi-offer website into the start exchange control panel. That is certainly an option for some of us, but remember, you only have 10 to 30 seconds to grab the attention of fellow surfers. Most start page exchangers remain on a page only long enough to get their credits. Unless you can describe each program in a line or two, this simply isn't very effective for use with start page exchanges. This could be a solution for use with more leisurely visitors, such as those responding to an ezine ad. Again, most people don't have the time or skills to code such a page. Don't worry! There IS a way to deal with this situation, without having to code a website or have ANY technical skills! The first and simplest solution is the webpage rotator. A webpage rotator program allows allows you to enter multiple url's into a control panel, then you simply set your start page or home page to a single "rotator" url. Each time that rotator url is visited, a different url from your control panel list is displayed. Simpler programs just rotate from one page to the next, while others allow you to prioritize your urls to get more visits to some websites than to others. There are a few start page exchanges that provide rotator functionality for free. This easily resolves your multiple website promotion woes. The concept of the website rotator can also be applied to use of startpage exchanges. There are several programs which provide a homepage or startpage rotator. You simply enter the surf url for all of your startpage programs into a control panel, set your browser homepage or startpage to the rotator url provided. Each time you open your internet browser, a different startpage surf url is displayed. This allows you to "spread the wealth" across all of your startpage exchanges. You can also find programs which enable you to open multiple surfing sessions in a single browser window. This lets you rack up points faster by getting multiple views in a single 10 to 30 second time slot. There are several programs that offer completely automated surfing within their own startpage exchange. Once you define the url to promote, you simply open the surf url and go about your business. Some automated surf programs allow you to enter multiple auto-surf url's and rotate among them each time you open their automated surf url. Either way, the surfing is hands-free, allowing you to gain website hits with little or no effort. For the startpage fanatic, how about launching ALL of your startpage programs at once? There are actually several programs which provide a single control panel into which you enter all of your startpage exchange surf urls - or simply your userid. Once defined, you open a single link and all of the startpage programs you defined will launch at once - automatically! This is the ultimate hands-free traffic building experience. Okay, so what are the pros and cons here? Well, the rotator is an excellent tool for multi-site promotion....when they are working properly, but that's true of ANY program you join. Otherwise I don't see any problems with this for either the website url or for surfing url. There are distinct advantages to being able to enter ALL of you startpage exchange url's in one place - forced organization!!! If you have trouble keeping track of your url's, the multi-program control panel is for you! Many of the programs that offer this feature also provide an automated means for referrals to sign up under you from a single site. This saves a tremendous amount of time, effort and money on downline building. Remember, the more people in your downline, the more traffic YOU earn for doing NOTHING!.... In a world where everyone is in a hurry, who WOULDN'T love totally automated surfing?!........Well, this is just my opinion, but I think the more people that automate, the less valuable the hits become because fewer people are actually VIEWING the websites. If you just want to make your hit counters look good, that's fine, but if your purpose is to actually SELL a product or BUILD a downline, you need QUALITY hits. Hey, I'm not saying that EVERYONE using automated surf routines will start-up and walk away, but I suspect there are quite a few people who do just that. I personally LOVE startpage exchanges. I prefer hands-on hands-down because I get to see other websites. In addition to earning free traffic, I get ideas for my websites, I find all kinds of free stuff, I see all the latest offers and, yes, I occasionally find a program that I really like and I join it. That's because I'm actually reading the website!! My purpose here is simply to give you some of the information you need to make an informed decision when choosing startpage exchange programs for your website promotion. There are many other combinations of features being offered. Some programs combine start page exchanges with banner and exit exchanges. It could take months for me to list every program and their features, by which time half the information would be obsolete!! Things change quickly and there are new programs released daily. Take time to research the best program for YOUR use. For your convenience, I'll list a few programs in the resource box below. As I stated earlier, though, there are HUNDREDS of programs to choose from. Just hit the search engines and see what you find. Happy surfing!!!.......... ©copyright 2002 - Cathy Carlton <<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>> Cathy Carlton is the owner, publisher, admistress and webmistress of Carlton's Corner ezine. Feel free to visit carltonscorner.com for internet, e-biz, website and publisher information or to subscribe to Carlton's Corner. <<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>> Rotators: eBiz Rotator - Free & Paid options Free option gives 5-site rotator; 15-page rotator for $12/month Build Referrals - Free & Paid options. Advantage Plus members get a 40-site home page rotator, 40-site webpage rotator, campaign tracker, autoresponder, search engine submitter, customizable referral site for only $5/month. This is my personal favorite! Automated surf programs: Traffic-Freeway...BRAND NEW! AutoHits HitsOverload Multi-program auto-surf: PCPresents Visit my Business Builders webpage for more traffic generating ideas. <<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>><<*>> Use the "BACK" button on your browser to return to Carlton's Corner...... |