Talk to Travis

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Last week I talked about time management in regards to traffic exchanges.  This week I’m just going to offer a few general time management tips.

Email – I used to check my email on and off throughout the day.  Now I make it a point to only check it once in the morning, and once at night.  It’s amazing how much time this saves.  After I started doing this, I was suddenly able to meet all of my goals for the day and still have time left over.

Outlook – I have started using Microsoft Outlook alot lately.  I have found it to be very helpful.  I use the calendar to shedule reminders.  I schedule both re-occurring things such as updating my blog, and one-time things like a program launch.  Every day when I open Outlook, I see what I need to do that day.  Then, throughout the day I periodically get reminders to complete specific tasks.  You can choose how early Outlook issues a reminder.

Outlook & Email - As I stated above, I know only check my email twice a day.  This however only applies to my general mailboxes.  I have set up a special address which I’ve configured with Outlook.  I ONLY use this address for communicating with JV partners, and customers.  I do not use this address at any program.  That way I know if I get any mail, it will be something important.  Outlook saves me logging in to check that account throughout the day.  Whenever a mail is received at that address, Outlook notifies me.  Then I can easily open Outlook, read the mail, and continue with my work.

Organization – In addition to Outlook, I also use a white board, and a legal pad.  I use the white board as a to-do list.  These are the projects which are my top priorites.  When I find myself with free time, I glance at the board, and know right away what needs worked on.  The legal pad is for projects that I will work on much later.  As I complete projects, and my white board becomes clean, I’ll flip through the legal pad and pick whatever I consider to be the most important project.  Then I add it to the board for another day.

These are some of the things that work for me, but they may not also work for you.  If none of these suit you, don’t worry.  There are plenty other methods out there.  Just Google “Time Management”, and you will get millions of results. 

Here is one such application that I just found through Google.  It’s called Stickies.  This basically allows you to use computer based Post-It notes.

One last recommendation that I’d like to make is to check out All About Time Management.  This free resource contains 3 reports by Sunny Suggs on time management. 

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Here is a free copy of Time Management of the Stars.  If you want to save it to your computer, just Right Click and choose “Save As”.

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Last week in the SWAT conference room, we were discussing the prblems which hold most of us back.  The most common problem faced is time management, or lack thereof.  Many of us expressed feelings that we aren’t achieving as much success as we could due to a lack of time.

After the conference, I decided to write this weeks blog post about that topic.  This was originally going to be all about time management in general.  However, once I started making a mental outline, I realized that there was going to be a huge section just about Traffic Exchanges.  So, I have decided to make this into my first 2 part blog series.

Here are a few questions you should ask yourself to judge how well you are managing your time in relation to Traffic Exchanges:

1 – Are you surfing too much?

I understand that the whole allure of Traffic Exchanges is that you can use them to generate free traffic, but there is a better option.  I have recently started buying a large portion of my traffic.

I will give you a real life example of how I decide if buying traffic is my best choice using my website Networking – The Evolution.  I know that the average value per signup is roughly $2.60 (Total Sales/Total Signups).  By tracking my splash pages with Hits Connect, I also know that they convert at 0.75% at Promo Lotto (Total Signups/Total Page Displays).  I can buy 10,000 credits for $49.97 at Promo Lotto.  From those 10,000 credits, I can expect an average of 75 signups (Hits X Conversion%).  Those signups should generate an average of  $195 (Expected signups X Avg signup value) making me a profit of roughly $145 (Expected sales – Credit cost).

In this example, it would be well worth it for me to buy credits rather than surf.  If I knew that I was getting good conversions at another site, but it’s credits were too expensive, I would be better off surfing.

2. Is it worth the ammount of time you’re spending?

I have been on a surfing team at Traffic Era ever since they opened.  This week, I finally accepted the fact that I was giving away too much of my precious time, and resigned.  I really liked me teammates, and enjoyed surfing and chatting with them.  However, a requirement for my team was 4000 surfing PV each week.  That meant that I would have to surf just over 5 1/2 hours a week.  That is more time than I can commit to surfing, especially all at the same TE.  I was not getting more important work done because I was spending the time I should have been using on it at Era.

3. Are you maximizing your surfing efforts?

There are a few things you can do to make the most out of the time you spend surfing. 

3a.  Set a surfing schedule.  Surfing For Success offers an online Surf Calculator which can help you devise a surfing plan.  Using the Surf Calculator, you can set up your optimal surfing scheduled based on your goals.

3b.  Use tabbed browing.  Tabbed browsing is a feature that allows you to view multiple webpages in one window.  There are many different opinions on tabbed browsing.  Mine opinion is that surfing 6 TE’s at a time is what works best for me.  Surfing with six tabs allows me to generate hits very fast, but it’s not too much that I can’t pay attention to the pages I’m viewing.

While surfing using tabbed browsing, I employ a piece of software called Quick Tab Change.  QTC allows me to surf 40% faster.  This is because the software allows you assign a “Hot Key” which changes the tabs for you.  I use the middle mouse button.  I know it’s hard to believe, but simply using the middle mouse button, rather than moving the pointer to the next tab each time dramatically increases the rate at which I generate credits.

3c.  Super Surfing.  When you surf 5 top TE’s at the same time, you get a higher surf ratio.  The minimum is 10%, but they often raise it.  I choose to surf these TE’s when the Super Surf bonus is high.  By doing this, I can rack up tons of credits in a very short time. 

Here is an example from this morning.  In one hour I earned over 1750          visitors,  worth $15.94 across 6 TE’s.  I’ll list the TE, my member level, the Super Surf bonus, how many credits I earned, and how much it would cost to buy those credits. 

Advertising Know How – Free Member, 100% bonus.  160 Credits = $2.55

Dragon Surf – Gold Dragon, 10% bonus.  255 credits worth $2.54

I Love Hits – Heavy Weight, 150%.  651 credits equal to $4.65

StartXchange – Free Member, 100%.  172 Credits that would cost $1.72

Traffic Splash - Pro, 50%.  316 credits valued at $3.15

As I mentioned earlier, I surf 6 TE’s at a time.  Today I chose to surf HitsBooster Pro in addition to the Super Surf TE’s.  I have a Platinum account, and earned 224 visitors worth $1.33

I will never completely quit surfing TE’s.  They are a great place to keep up with new programs, and get ideas.  I will however be slective about where and when I surf, and optimize the time I spend doing it.

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Here is a free copy of All About Time Management.  If you want to save it to your computer, just Right Click and choose “Save As”.

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