The beginnings of List Building:
Although email marketing has been around sense email first became popular it wasn’t until somtime in the mid 2000′s that it really took of as a means of marketing. I believe it was shortly after the very talented Internet marketer known as Mike Filsaime released his ebook called butterfly marketing – named after the popular movie ‘the butterfly effect’.
At that time safelists started popping up everywhere and seemed to be the new fad for building email lists without the need of a website. Also around this time a little php script known as the text ad exchange script first appeared. It borrowed on the idea of the safelist but instead created something called solo ads. This script did not catch on at all. The rave was all about safelists, and so the script was lost.
Well, if you are involved in marketing, you know thats not entirely true. You see the script reappeared in the later part of the 2000′s and from the years 2008 until current have been a huge success for many marketers.
What is a text ad exchange?
A text advertising exchange is actually a very simplistic membership site with the sole intention of members trading ads with each other. Although most have different header images and css layouts, most text ad exchanges look the same from the inside. They are set up in such a way that entices you to click other members banners, click other members ads, and otherwise view other members website.
This is done in a variety of ways, and this is also where the text ad exchange got its name. Inside every text ad exchange is a page called advertise.php. This is where you exchange credits for advertising (or alternatively you can purchase advertising).
Almost all text ad exchanges offer the following features: solo email advertising (this means your email ad goes to every member of the site), banner advertising (468×60), button advertising (125×125 banners), html ads (small blocks of text designed to hold both images and text), text ads (text links with basic text description), footer ads (go on the bottom of all solo ad emails), and login ads (ads that get displayed to members when they log in). Most text ad exchanges also offer hotlinks (prominently displayed text ads with a bright yellow background), top navigation ads (text ads that get displayed directory above the navigation menu) and bottom navigation ads (same as top only displayed on the bottom).
The truth is text ad exchanges are one of the most powerful marketing tools online for email marketing, but there are some MAJOR drawbacks to text ad exchanges.
What are the advantages and drawbacks to Text ad exchanges?
There are so many drawbacks to text ad exchanges I don’t even know where to begin. Lets start with the least important and work our way on down the line. First of all the problem with text ad exchanges, as I briefly mentioned above, they all look the exact same. Sure you may find different headers, and on the ultra rare occasion a marketer that completely redesigned the interface, but overall the designs are the same.
Not only are the designs the same, but they are OLD designs using tables (which may not mean anything to some of you but those who design websites will understand what I am talking about). Tables went out in the late 1990′s and early 2000′s. For me to see a design made from a table in a modern marketing world, is just not acceptable.
Okay okay so lets forget about aesthetics and talk about functionality. Although these sites are called text ad exchanges, they truly are anything but. If you have ever used a text ad exchange before you will most likely realize what I say to be true. They are the greatest place to add banners. I get a LOT of free advertising by adding banners to text ad exchanges. Either kind of banner works, the button or the standard size. Also the login ads work on text ad exchanges. One can put up a big graphic and link to their favorite site and be guaranteed people will see it, notice it and click it. Then of course the solo advertising works. Whenever you can get your emails into someones inbox without spamming them, trust me it works!
However nothing text-like about text ad exchanges actually works. When I add hotlinks, footer ads, text ads, navigational links, or any other form of text advertising, its a complete waste of time. I have never once received a valid lead using these forms of marketing. So basically the entire idea of the TEXT ad exchange fails. Only the login, banner, and email parts of these text ad exchanges actually work.
Text ad exchanges for 2011!
I have spent almost the entire year of 2010 examining text ad exchanges. I have studied exactly what works about text ad exchanges, what doesn’t work, why some text ad exchanges have better results then others, why some sites I sent out an email and get 5 views and others I get 100, and virtually every last aspect of the text ad exchange. Not only have I studied what works and what doesn’t work, but I have completely redesigned the text ad exchanges based on that information.
I have created what I believe is the first TRUE text ad exchange. However not only is this a text ad exchange, but its a viral text ad exchange.
The asthetics of the text ad exchange for 2011
First of all I have completely redesigned the text ad exchange so we don’t have to look at those ugly squeeze pages / lead capture single sale pages. At some point someone thought those types of pages were a good look for “web 2.0″ and thats what they went with. Well with web 3.0 being based largely on viral content and viral social networking and less on design I decided to add an SEO friendly design.
This design is set up in such a way that anyone who uses the script can modify the text and change things so search engines notice it. Also I have included in part of the front page design a spot where members can obtain front page dofollow seo friendly links to their website for 390 days at a time!
Things totally removed from the text ad exchange
I have had all the html and text based ads removed from the script. I have also had all prize pages and contest pages removed from the script. The idea behind these pages is to keep members active while at the same time growing the membership of the site. The truth is these pages are all a waste and do not serve anyone.
The last thing I had removed from the text ad exchange script was the ability to buy solo email footer and header ads. These did serve a good purpose but I have completely replaced these options.
New additions to the text ad exchange
Okay so enough with all the things I took away, lets get to the good stuff – the things I added to the text ad exchange. First lets talk about activity rewards. I have removed all prize pages and referral contests and replaced them with an activity rewards program. The way it works is simple. Each day the most active member gets $1 placed into their account. The overall most active member each week will get an additional $5 placed in their account. The overall most active member of the month will get $25 placed into their account. Accounts can cash out at $50 minimum.
So how do I determine the level of activity? Well I am not going to tell you the specifics behind that. Its a cross between referring members, reading emails, clicking banners, clicking text ads, and logging in to the system. Just because you refer the most people, or read the most emails does not mean you will have the highest activity level – its a combination of percentages!
Another really cool new feature I have added to the text ad exchange script of 2011 is a forced viral inviter. The way this works is, after you create an account at the new text ad exchange and after you verify your email, you are taken to a page where you have a series of choices. You must select one of the choices before you can access the members area. You only have to do this the first time you access the members area. And what are the choices? Well one choice is to click on a facebook like button, another choice is to add and verify a link to the text ad exchange from your own PUBLIC website, and then there is an option to use our recommend a friend emailer. Basically its a bunch of “tell your friends” type options and you must do one to enter the site.
I have also completely modified where the banners, hotlinks, traffic links, button ads, and navigation ads exist so that they are much more effective. Also I have made it so every single ad is displayed to both members and non members.
I have added the ability for members to buy lifetime SEO friendly paragraphs on the front page of the site. Also on the front page of the new ad exchange a frame will popup over the entire page for both members and non members displaying full page ads similar to login ads! Everyone will see these ads who visits the site!
The options that bring this script into the year 2011
Lets face it text advertising in the year 2011 is going to be about 3 things. First of all its going to be about SEO. We have already addressed those isses with all our SEO options and by bringing all the member ads to the public. The other wave of text advertising in the ytear 2011 is going to be social advertising. Its going to be about one person typing to another person recommending them a product or a website.
The Twitter Exchange
Because of this we have had the most advanced option any exchange has ever had developed into this script – a twitter based tweet exchange. All members will be able to spend credits and earn credits posting tweets and having their own tweets posted. You can hand select who you wish to trade with. You can make up to 50 trades at a time. The people you trade with most often are added to a drop down list for easy access!
This is not some fly by night twitter trade script. This is not like any other tweet exchange on the planet. We do not store your twitter information. We give you the ability to accept or refuse any tweets that may not be targeted to your visitors. This is a robust system AND its part of the new text ad exchange script for 2011!
Automated Clickbank Sales System
Thats one of the two AMAZING new features for 2011 text ad exchanges. The other really awesome feature is an automated clickbank sales system. The way it works is you add your clickbank affiliate id to your profile, whenever a member sends out a solo ad, in the footer of that solo ad are random click products and descriptions. 5% of those product links contain free members clickbank affiliate ID, 10% of them contain jv members affiliate ID, and 35% contain sjv members ID.
Because every single solo email contains a clickbank affiliate link, we also have been forced to add an automated membership pruning system. So if a member does not maintain a certain number of points over a two week period, or id a member does not log into the system frequently enough, they are automatically removed from the system. This way the only way you can earn clickbank profits is by being an active member. This also means your ads are 100 times more likely to get read then on text ad exchange website of the past!
The downline Builder
This is actually something almost every marketer is using now. Its called a downline builder. The fact is downline builders have been included in every text ad exchange I have ever seen and the new script is no exchange to that. However, I have added a new option that makes the downline builder of the new text ad exchange a bit more viral then those of the past. This new downline builder displays each members downline on their referral splash page. This is important for a lot of reasons but the most import reason is the only really valid reason in my mind.
The fact is most people DON’T fill out their downline builders. They sign up at all these exchanges and never set up their downline programs. So any potential referrals they would make, get passed on to their upline. Well when you add the downline builder to the splash page, no one wants to advertise their uplines recommendations, so they fill it out just to stop that from happening.
Join Now…
Now I am expecting almost everyone who read this article is saying…. where is the new ad exchange script? Well before you go out searching for the latest and great text ad exchange script it would probably be wisest to see and experience all the new features. To do that you can create a free membership at the first text ad exchange using this new script. After you have a real understanding of the new features of this ad exchange, you can purchase yourself a copy by visiting the sales page for the text ad exchange script. Hopefully you will find it as useful as I have.
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