Traffic Hoopla has been one of the largest and more successful ranking services and downline builders for the traffic exchange and safelist industry since 2002.  That’s a really long time!

I just got a chance to check out their latest creation called List Hoopla which is dedicated entirely to safelists and viral list builders.

You can check it out here:
http://listhoopla.com/r.cgi/260

As you probably know I post my own safelist rankings here on my blog every month.

What is the difference between List Hoopla ranking and my own?

According to the Hoopla website:

“Overall Rankings are determined by a composite score from raw hits, primary conversion rate, secondary conversion rate, new visitors, bounce rate, unique hits, unique percentage, and commissions paid.”

While I just rank by the number of sign-ups I received.

Which is better?  Well, it doesn’t really matter.  The purpose is to find new advertising sources that you are not already using and then track them to find out which ones work best for you.  I even spotted a few new mailers on the List Hoopla site where I was not already a member.  I just joined them and I am looking forward to seeing what kind of results I get next month.

List Hoopla is also a downline builder which is something I don’t offer (yet).  So if you join make sure you fill in your referral IDs so can start building your downlines in the top ranked List Hoopla sites.

Click the banner below to join List Hoopla today!

Happy Thursday!

This one is for all you traffic exchange surfers out there (you know who you are).

Today I am teaming up with Shane Bost to help him celebrate the 1 year anniversary of his traffic exchange SiteXplosion.

To help kick off the festivities Shane is giving away a free iPad 2 and a couple of Flip video cameras to a few lucky surfers.

How do you win?

You simply need to login to SiteXplosion and surf 100 pages using today’s special promo code to be entered for a chance to win.

Since today is my day I get to share my unique promo code with my readers.

Here is the promo code: 7F8DCCB9F6

If you are not already a member of SiteXplosion I recommend checking it out.  Shane is one of the better traffic exchange owners to come around in a long time and his exchange is quickly moving up the ranks to become one of the most effective traffic exchanges out there.

Have fun and enjoy the prizes!

Click Here to join SiteXplosion

I have come to the conclusion that safelists and viral list builders don’t work so this will be my final update.

Wait for it…

April Fools!

Ok, that was weak.  We all know safelists and viral list builders rock.  I will keep posting my stats every month until they stop rocking which I suspect won’t be for a very long time.

Did you hear that Viral Mail Profits had a relaunch last month?  That’s no joke!  In my opinion Viral Mail Profits is the best tool to manage all of your safelist and viral list builder mailings from one location.  They have now added their own mailer to allow you to send your ads to other Viral Mail Profits members.  I don’t have any stats to share this month but the results have been very good so far.

The latest viral list builder just launched a few days ago from Michael Coursey.  I’m talking about My Viral List Profits.  This one is so new I haven’t even had a chance to test it out yet.  I do have a special promo code that you can use if you want to test it out for yourself.  This is an exclusive promo code so don’t go sharing it with everybody you know (ok, you can share it with a few people).  Use promo code “safelistexclusivecode” to get 1000 credits, 1000 banner impressions, and 1000 text ads.  It’s only good for the first 100 people who use it so don’t wait too long to use it.  Enjoy!

Ok, let’s get to the stats…

Last month I picked up a total of 191 subscribers just from advertising my squeeze pages on safelists and viral list builders.

Keep in mind that I have upgraded memberships at most of the safelists and viral list builders which often allows me to send more ads more often.  So your results with some of these sites may vary.

For years people have been telling me to try Viral URL but I resisted because it’s not credit based and I don’t care about link cloaking and viral ad bars.  But their “Gold” membership allows me to email 3,000 random members every 3 days.  That doesn’t sound like much but the results speak for themselves.  I think I will be sticking with Viral URL for awhile.

As far as the credit based sites, I am sure Stefan Berg will be happy to see that The Lead Magnet is on top once again.  Way to go Stefan!

As a matter of fact, almost all of the new viral list builder sites have been kicking butt lately.  It’s nice to see something new taking place in the industry that is actually working.  If you are not a member of any of the new viral list builders listed above do give them a try.  They are very simple to use and the results have been great.

That’s going to do it for this update.  Keep in mind that all the stats that you see above are a result of my own advertising efforts with my own ads.  Your results may vary but you’ll never know it unless you are tracking your ads!  You can get a free link tracker that will show you which ad sites work best for you from TE Toolbox.

Click here to receive a free copy of Safelist Marketing Tactics

Hello again!

Sorry I haven’t been updating my blog as often as I would like.  I’m still around, I just haven’t had much time to write.

But today I am ready to rant!

Yep, welcome back!

So, lately I have been spending way too much time on Sweeva.  Frankly, i’m addicted.  Whatever.  In case you live under a rock Sweeva is a social marketing site / traffic exchange.  So by using it you are not only getting your site seen by other marketers but you are also getting to know a lot of other marketers socially who are promoting their own sites.

I guess recently it has really started to bug me to see how many talented Internet marketers I know are out there promoting illegal pyramid and ponzi schemes.

I know.  These programs have been around even longer than I have.   It’s not like I haven’t seen hundreds of them come and go over the years.  But it’s interesting now to finally see the faces and talk to the people who are promoting these programs in a social environment such as Sweeva.

Ok, for the record i’m no angel.  I’ve been known to bend a few laws in my time.  If I am in a hurry I might go a few mph over the speed limit.  I probably play the stereo in my car louder than I should and I might even admit to having a few mp3s on my computer that I didn’t pay for.  Hey, I’m like a modern day Jesse James.

Let’s be realistic here.  The police probably aren’t going to break your door down and haul you off to jail for promoting an affiliate link that might not be entirely legal, but does that mean you should do it?

As long as nobody gets hurt, right?

Wrong.

People do get hurt.

Money doesn’t just magically appear.

No program pays out more than it takes in.

The only way for you to make money in these programs is for other people to lose money.  Your success can only come from someone else’s failure.

Am I the only one bothered by that?

No, i’m not a lawyer or a judge.  I can’t pass absolute legal judgment over every site out there.  But if you are not selling a product or service and the only thing you are offering people is a money making opportunity then chances are it’s either an illegal pyramid scheme or an illegal ponzi scheme.

What’s that?  You program offers a product or service?  I guess that makes it legit, right?

Of course it does!

In fact, Bernie Madoff would be a free man right now if he had only thought to provide his clients with some ebooks and a rotating banner ad on his blog.

You can dress it up anyway you like.  If people are spending money on these things with the goal of making more money back then slapping on a worthless product or ad credits isn’t going to make them any more legit.

It’s frustrating to me though because sometimes I just want to grab these people and tell them what they are doing is wrong… but I can’t.  Who am I to tell them what they should or should not promote?  Right?

Look, if you have the money and you want to gamble it on one of these programs I don’t really care.  Maybe you’ll get lucky and eventually make a profit.  Congratulations on your wise business investment.

My problem is with the program owners and the people who use these programs to prey on newbies who don’t know any better.  The people who only care about making money and don’t care where it’s coming from.  To me that is more than just breaking the law… it’s just wrong.

What?  September already?

Somehow we managed to survive the blistering summer heat here in the midwest.  If you believe in the summer slow down then now is the time to start promoting again because the busy season is about to begin.

So what’s new in safelists?  Not a whole lot.

I did join Quality Safelist which is the new safelist from Michael Coursey that launched about 2 months ago.  The results have been decent but i’m not blown away.  There’s only about 2,200 members right now though so hopefully it will continue to improve as the membership grows.  Mike has been in this business for a long time though so you can bet Quality Safelist will be around for awhile.

I am being told that there is a new viral list builder getting ready to launch tomorrow.  I can’t say anything else about it right now.  You’ll just have to check back here tomorrow after it launches.

Ok, let’s get to the stats!

These stats were obtained by promoting my rotating splash pages for Safelist Marketing Tactics on all of the top credit safelists and viral list builders.  I had been promoting the same two splash pages for awhile but I just added a 3rd new splash page about a week ago.  I’m not sure if the new page is converting as well as the others but overall the results this month have been pretty good.

“Clicks” is how many people viewed my splash page.  “Action” is how many people clicked the link on my splash page to go to the main site.  “Sales” is how many people joined my site.  CTA and CTS are “clicks to action” and “clicks to sale”.  I ranked these safelists by sales but it is also important to look at the other numbers to determine how responsive each safelist really is.

Looking at the stats.. List Joe is back on top!  Even though State of the Art Mailing System brought me a lot more traffic I think List Joe got a nice little bump this month because they have been offering random credit multipliers for every email read.  I’ve been earning as much as 50 credits per email which is pretty nuts but worth taking advantage of while it lasts.

As you can see Quality Safelist just managed to creep it’s way onto the list.  While it didn’t generate a lot of new sign-ups from me you can see by the numbers that even though the membership base at Quality Safelist is still relatively low they are definitely some active members there.

That’s about it for this update.  Keep your eyes peeled tomorrow for the new viral list builder that is getting ready to launch!

And of course, don’t forget that the stats above are my only personal stats.  Your results may vary.  The important thing to remember is that you will never know how good your ads or advertising sources are unless you track your ads!  You can get your own free link tracker from from TE Toolbox.

Hello July!

Yes, I should have posted this yesterday but things got a little bit crazy with my relaunch of Safelist Marketing Tactics.  It calmed down a bit last night but at that point I decided it would be a better idea to shut down the computer and watch Star Wars instead (it had been a really long time since I last watched Star Wars or shut down my computer).

Last month I mentioned that I would be testing out a bunch of new safelists.  I’ve got the results from those but I decided that I would do some individual safelist reviews to give me something else to post about later this month.  So keep your eyes peeled for those.

If the new safelists were good enough you will find their stats below.

I had a comment last month from someone asking for reviews of safelist solo ads.  Now that the new Safelist Marketing Tactics site is up and running I will try and spend a little extra money this month on advertising and let you all know the results.

Ok, here’s the stats for June.  These numbers are the results of me promoting three different splash pages for my Safelist Marketing Tactics website.

“Clicks” is how many people viewed my splash page.  “Action” is how many people clicked the link on my splash page to go to the main site.  “Sales” is how many people joined my site.  CTA and CTS are “clicks to action” and “clicks to sale”.  I ranked these safelists by sales but it is also important to look at the other numbers to determine how responsive each safelist really is.

I guess this kinda ruins my surprise but one of the new sites I was testing, State of the Art Mailing System, has jumped right to the top of my list safelists.  I won’t say any more about it until I do my full review but obviously this is a site worth joining.

Not much else has changes except I would like to welcome AdTactics back into the top list.  It’s not as high as it used to be but I sure won’t turn down 5 new sign-ups.

I guess that’s about it.  Keep your eyes peeled for the new safelist reviews and some safelist solo ad reivews coming up later this month.  In the mean time, make sure you are tracking all of your results.  Those stats you see on this page are the results of my efforts promoting my pages.  What works best for me might not work for you.  The only way to know for sure is to track your results.  You can get a free link tracking from from TEToolbox.

Welcome to June!  It’s a new month and that means it’s time for me to dig out my safelist stats from last month and see what are the top safelists right now based on my current advertising campaigns.

Not a lot of news to report for last month.  I did weed out about half a dozen smaller safelists that I had been using which were not producing a lot of sign-ups.  It was hard because most of these safelists were still bringing in a few sign-ups every month but as my list of safelists that I use daily continues to grow I find myself having less time to focus on the sites that are bringing me the best results.

That means I now have some free time to test out some newer sites and to retest some sites that I haven’t used in a very long time.  While I don’t have stats for them yet you can expect to find List Zillion, State of the Art Mailer System, and Reactive Ads in here next month.

Speaking of newer sites…  There are a lot of good programs out there that go right over my head because I can’t always distinguish them from all of the junk.  If you know of any safelists or viral list builders that are working for you but you haven’t seen me mention here feel free to post your referral link in the comments.

Ok, time for the stats.  Over the last few weeks I have been promoting my splash pages in Sweeva and have gotten some really interesting feedback.  I decided that instead of just advertising one splash page in my safelist ads I would put three of them into a rotator and advertise that instead.  I’ve been doing this for the last two weeks.  So far so good.  All of the splash pages that I am promoting on these safelists are being used to promote my site Safelist Marketing Tactics.

“Clicks” is how many people viewed my splash page.  “Action” is how many people clicked the link on my splash page to go to the main site.  “Sales” is how many people joined my site.  CTA and CTS are “clicks to action” and “clicks to sale”.  I ranked these safelists by sales but it is also important to look at the other numbers to determine how responsive each safelist really is.

Not a great month, actually.  List Effects managed to hang on to the top spot again but just barely.  Everything else seems to have either stayed the same or dropped slightly.

As usual I should point out that these are my own personal stats from  promoting my own personal splash pages.  These numbers are only meant to be a guide to help you decide which safelists and viral listbuilders are worth trying.  Your results will probably be different from my own so the only way to know for sure which sites work best for you is to track your own results.  You can get a free link tracker from TEToolbox.

Happy Thursday!

You know I have been working in the safelist industry for a long time and to be honest, it’s not always that exciting.  Well, today I am really excited!

My good friend Paul Kinder and Troy Wray just released a new program which is possibly the coolest safelist tool I have ever seen.  It’s called Viral Mail Profits.

We all know that time is money and being efficient is the key to any successful
marketer, especially when it comes to keeping your list builders and safelists
working to their highest potential.

Viral Mail Profits does this for you!

Imagine this…

* One place to manage all your emails
* One Place to save all your emails
* No more saving random swipe files
* No more time wasted looking for your login details
* No more wasting time logging in to all your emailers just to find out you
can’t mail for x amount of time
* No more missed mailings because you forgot you could mail.
* No more time wasted setting up tracker links
* No more signups missed, because you don’t know which emails convert best.
* No more money lost, because you don’t know which mailers are just plain useless!
* And too much more to mention here…

Viral Mail Profits is truly the one and only place that is designed to discipline
you and is designed to make you take action… and that my friends is what
we all need.

* You save time
* You’re more focused
* You make more money!

If you use any safelists or viral list builders you simply gotta try Viral Mail Profits.

Click Here to Join

This had been bugging me for a long time.  I finally figured it out and thought it was worthy of a blog post.

When sending emails with Aweber you are presented with two boxes where you can put your email… one for html and one for text.  For years I have been just been using the text email option figuring that text emails are going to be the most accessible to the most number of people.

Aweber has a neat feature for tracking the number of times the links in your emails are clicked.  The problem with this is that it turns all your links into these big ugly tracker links that nobody wants to click.  I also like to include a signature in my emails with links to this site and my Twitter so those end up getting converted too.  But if you send html emails you can fix this!

Here’s how you do it…

From within the Aweber html editor highlight your URLs and click the “link” icon at the top of the editor.  Then paste your URL in the “Link Text” and “URL” boxes and click “Apply”.  This will tell Aweber that your URL is a link and it will also display it correctly when you turn the link tracker on.

For about a week I switched and started sending html emails instead of text emails.  The stats were great.  I could even split test and find out which headlines got the most people to open my emails.  However, sending only html emails boosted the spam detector up to 2.7 because apparently spammers are known for sending a lot of html emails with just an image and a link.  Not horrible, but not great either.

I finally found the solution in of all places… on the Aweber site!

It seems that the trick is to create your email in the html editor first and then copy and paste that email into the text editor.  You don’t have to worry about people receiving the same email twice.  Aweber will send both the html and text emails but the end user will only see the version that their email program supports.

So there you go.  Now you can send out your Aweber emails with all the fancy tracking features, your links won’t look like crap, and you can assure that your emails are being delivered to the maximum number of people.