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It’s been quite a while since anything in Traffic Exchange Land has excited me, hence the “long pause” between posts. But this past week has been packed full of changes, huge announcements and more excitement than the year combined I think. If you’ve had your nose to the grindstone, and your ear NOT to the ground… you’ve missed a lot this week. Have no fear! I’m wrapping up all the big announcements in a nice little bow for ya. Ready?… Here we go!

Traffic Exchange Updates

Team surfing at Traffic Taxis

Ok, so a couple of days ago, David Foley unleashed a brand new feature at Traffic Taxis… Team Surfing. Team surfing is all the rage now, and I can promise you, you have not seen Team Surfing like this. It’s like Team Surfing on steroids…. way cool! The good news is, teams are still forming, so you have the perfect opportunity to jump in now and get your team together. If you like Team Surfing at ALL, do this. You’re gonna be amazed at how the popular feature works at Taxis. This is NOT your grandma’s Team Surfing folks. I sound sort of like an infomercial right now, but trust me, keep your eye on this one. It’s gonna be huge.

James Holmes takes over SWAT Traffic

Yes, you heard me right! James Holmes is now the owner of the beloved SWAT Traffic! A huge congrats to James first off… he’s been looking to get into TE ownership for almost a year now, and I can’t think of a better place for him to let his ideas flow. SWAT has been one of my favorite places to advertise for a long, long time, and I couldn’t be happier to know some really awesome changes are coming. James Holmes hosts a popular radio show and always has his feelers out in the industry. He has some super exciting changes in mind that I think will really skyrocket SWAT’s activity and membership! If you’re not already a member of SWAT Traffic, now is the time to get in there. If you are… keep your eyes peeled because you won’t want to miss what James has in store for us.

Sweeva introduces The SOTD

As if Sweeva could get any cooler right? Well now you can purchase a Site Of The Day slot! Sweevers earn 100 experience points daily for viewing the SOTD, which means… everyone is viewing it. It’s a full 30 second view, so plenty of time to get feedback, sign ups, subscribers, etc from your page view. This is a bit like a Start Page BUT even people that don’t surf Sweeva daily are logging in to get their 100XP daily for viewing the SOTD, so you’re reaching a wider range of people with that slot. Jon & Tim are even considering sending out a daily mail to Sweevers introducing the SOTD, so you could be directly in the spotlight, in everyone’s inbox… can we all say awesome?!

Start Xchange modifies Team Surfing, Get’s Into The Fall Spirit

Start Xchange has had their Team Surfing feature for a long time now. Tim made it even better this week with the introduction of some really cool new actions Team Leaders can take. There are new team competitions, team leaders can now appoint someone else as leader, disband the team, and more. If you haven’t tried Team Surfing at SXC, now is the time to spread your wings and do so.

Tim also put up his new Fall Surfing Icons, which isn’t huge news… but it is fun and festive no? I’m so ready for fall! Beautiful leaves, chilly nights, sweatshirts, hot chocolate, pumpkins, Halloween… oh yeah bring it on!

Must Have Tools Updates

If you haven’t heard by now, TE Toolbox is now owned 100% by Jon Olson & Tim Linden, and Affiliate Funnel is owned 100% by Paul Kinder & the KRM Team. No beef, no scandal or gossip to go along with this split. It was a business decision that allowed them to focus on these 2 programs that we know and love, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. Great move guys, huge huge thumbs up!

TE Toolbox goes Unlimited, Slashes Prices & Dumbs Down

TE Toolbox is one of my absolute favorite helpers! I am a stats junkie lol I can’t get enough of them, and pure stats have saved me countless wasted hours and advertising money. I’d be lost without them! I track EVERYTHING. I track my splash/squeeze pages in every TE, Safelist, I track clicks on my blog. Yes, if you click here, I know it… I see you

I was super excited to hear about the changes happening in TET right now. They now have an Unlimited Plan option (umm yes of course I have it being the junkie I am), which means you can have unlimited sites in your rotators AND create unlimited trackers. The Unlimited Plan is surprisingly cheap so if you’re a tracker junkie like me… gotta have it! The other upgrade plan prices have been lowered too. They were already extremely affordable so I was surprised about the drop in price, but who doesn’t love to save more?

TET can be a bit confusing to use too, even for me. The great news is, Tim is working on simplifying TE Toolbox overall, 3 cheers for simple! The advanced features will still be there for the more techie folks out there, but for us that have no clue what to do with all that, our lives will be made much easier. If you’re not tracking your ads, you’re wasting money pure and simple. There’s never been a better time to take the plunge and start keeping stats!

Affiliate Funnel, bringing back the Magic Sauce

Affiliate Funnel is my other must must must have tool. I have learned so much there that I’ve been able to give Google Search a much needed break from me. Paul Kinder even attended this Saturday’s AF conference, and oh how we missed him! William Brant does a fantabulous job of hosting AF’s weekly seminars, but for a while now the magic has just been lingering under the surface. The good thing is, they’re aware of this, and they’re working super hard to bring back what we all love and miss.

AF is even sending out surveys to ask us what we love most, what we miss, what we think needs to be improved. If you missed the mailing with the survey link, just click below to take the survey and give your input! You even get a couple of really nice bonuses for submitting your ideas… so you’ll want those. You need to be a member to take part in the survey of course, and if you’re not a member yet, you can join by clicking this link here.

Click Here to participate in the Affiliate Funnel Survey

I am super psyched knowing that Affiliate Funnel will be back in full force and back the program I know and love so much. You will learn more in their AF conferences than you will from any ebook available to us… trust me… save your cash, hop in a conference!

Holy Cow that’s a lot of updates!

Whewwwwwwww I think I covered them all! Just when there was so much talk about the industry being dead, someone shakes the snow globe and we’re right back on track! There’s been so many announcements this week, it was a bit hard to keep up. I hope having them all here in one place is easier to digest, and gets you as pumped up as I am for the future. I’m literally on the edge of my seat (more like office chair), waiting to see what happens next. Things are heating up here, and we all benefit from that! Finally… some much needed change and progress. Kudo’s to all the Change Makers out there in TE Land!

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No, no… not that kind! Get your minds out of the gutter. A hot topic anywhere I go lately seems to be the importance of building relationships with people, instead of just focusing on the sale, the lead, the signup. If you’ve been around the Internet Marketing world for long, you know that the focus has been on how to get those clicks, get those sales, signups, whatever it is you’re trying to gain from your advertising efforts. It’s been interesting for me to watch Social Networking grow and become part of our everyday life. Slowly, but surely the trend is moving towards the importance of relationships and just how much of an impact social networking can have on your internet business.

If you know me at all, you know I love to chat and network. When I first started, it was purely to get my name seen… that’s it. As I got more into it, I realized it’s partially about that, but that’s not the point of social networking. The point is to build real relationships. Sure I can add a ton of people on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, whatever… and I can shove my referral links down their throats the first chance I get. What’s the point?

If you add me as a friend on Facebook, and the very first thing you do is send me a default copy and paste email saying “Hi I’m so and so, I make tons of money with (insert any program here). Join under me and make tons of money too!”… you know what I do? I remove you just as quickly as I accepted your friend request. Nothing pisses me off more… how obnoxious and annoying can you get?! If I wanted to be bombarded by advertisements, I’d be watching TV or I’d be surfing… I wouldn’t be on Facebook and Twitter. I love new Twitter and Facebook friends, but let’s at least get to know each other before you tell me to join something. That’s all I’m saying.

In the last Affiliate Funnel Seminar, Jon Olson shared a story about attending an offline marketing event. I found it hilarious because apparently it was full of younger business professionals wanting to know what the ROI (Return On Investment) was for Social Networking. How do you calculate the ROI of building relationships with people? How do you put a value on a developing relationship. That, to me, shows the blatant lack of human connection in the Internet Marketing world. You don’t begin a relationship with the mindset of “What do I get out of it?” You begin a relationship with the purpose of getting to know another human being, connecting on a personal level, building a bond from shared interests and values.

These relationships are so important, even on a just a human level. We all crave companionship, even the “loners.” For me, it’s about knowing I have people in my corner, having people I can chat with, bounce ideas off of, give me feedback on whatever it is I’m doing. I love it! Here is a perfect example of just how important it is to focus on building the relationship for the sake of building the relationship…

The lovely Lynn M.

Yesterday I officially posted to my blog for the first time and sent it out into the world. A good friend of mine, Lynn McCutcheon of Lynn M Dot Net (and a wonderful blogger if I do say so myself) actually included a little blurb about me and my new blog in her own blog! I am subscribed to her blog via email, and yes I read it every time… because it’s just a great blog, and hilarious. I was surprised to see that she took the time to include me, even made me a quick little banner to link to my blog. How sweet right?! <3 THIS is what networking is about. The link and blurb of course… awesome, but the real value to me was that she thought about me. She supported what I’m doing without me even asking. Lynn is in my corner, and it means a lot. You can’t buy that kind of support, you can’t put a value or ROI on that type of relationship. This to me, is exactly what Social Networking is about. Building friendships and finding great people to have in your corner, behind you every step of the way. You can spend $1,000 on advertising, advertise on 100 different websites, and you still will never be able to replace that type of personal relationship.

So it’s been established I’m somewhat of a Social Networking junkie… it’s ok, not a bad vice to have.  A new site came out today called IM Faceplate. I actually wasn’t going to join, but then I found out that it’s all about social networking, so I folded lol  That’s ok too! It’s a free service, and it has some really cool tools on the inside. It’s essentially a mashup of the best parts of other social sites, but condensed into one place. You can follow people, they can follow you, you can post articles, integrate your optin lead capture form, your RSS feed, your website links, photo… pretty much everything. So if you’re a fellow junkie, check it out by clicking the banner below, and be sure to follow me! I do follow back

Cheers to Social Networking! Get involved, get to know people, and by all means, please, PLEASE keep the link harassment to a bare minimum. Take a chance, just say hello!

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