Traffic Exchanges...

I have been in and around internet marketing for the better part of ten years now, and just like everything else, there have been many changes over the last decade.

I got my start online selling a physical product. I saw the potential to earn online, but didn't really know how to go about doing it. I had already started to learn html through a personal site I had built on a free hosting site. It was fun, and it inspired me to go big time.

I got incorporated, found a wholesale product and distributer, and went to building my online store. A couple months later, Modern Gift Market was born. http://web.archive.org/web/20031228140505/http://moderngiftmarket.com/ I still own the domain, but the store no longer exists. The archive is from December 2003, so it was a year old at the time.

Once I had developed the site, I quickly realized it wasn't a pond with frogs... build it and they will come. Quite the contrary, I built it and no one came. So, I learned how to market on the internet. I did a lot of personal contacting (social marketing) because being in off line sales thats what I was comfortable doing. Things began to pickup, but it still wasn't enough. Thats when I discovered traffic exchanges.

Guess that was a pretty long intro to get to the title, but I felt it important to give a background leading up to my use of traffic exchanges. I sold a lot of products through traffic exchanges back then. So much so, I got tired and frustrated with my house becoming a warehouse, shipping products, order new products, being out of stock on something someone wanted... it was becoming a nightmare. I ended up expanding and doing live shows on the weekend, and ended up with a permanent booth at an 'antiques' shop. Thankfully the wholesale company I was using sold out. It was a heck of an experience, but an exhausting one. I did however learn the power of traffic exchanges and online advertising and decided I would steer my business in that direction.

By this time I had gotten to know a couple owners and was actually 'working' as an admin for one particular exchange and owner. It was unique in that it was custom built in Perl. Not a scripting language used much anymore, but this made it and the features of it quite a bit of fun and was productive for owners. There was an old YABB  forum attached to the exchange, and I spent alot of time there getting to know the members and helping with problems and concerns. I also participated in a lot of affiliate programs. They were quite successful in the exchanges. Though I didn't make a lot of money, I was hooked on affiliate marketing and traffic exchanges.

Back then there were only a handful of quality exchanges. Traffic Hoopla was there ranking the top ten... and Web Biz Solutions was there...  I met a lot of great people through WBS, but in 2007 the owner unexpectedly stepped down and left it all to a very good friend and partner of mine. He was at a loss as to what to do, so I joined forces with him to keep the exchange alive and prospering.


To Be Continued...

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