Wednesday, March 02, 2005

To be “Free” or “Not to be Free”…ya, that IS the burning question!

Ok. Lots of screaming headlines and sites out there: “FREE!” Join this free, that free, this gives your free stuff, that free this and something else free whatever. Except, when you join (free), hello! You find out that is isn’t. I joined one tonight that just stepped on my last poor frazzled nerve, hence this post.

My pet peeves:
“Free information!”…then they send you a bunch of sales literature. Like, yeah, that is supposed to be free. This goes for so-called e-books which are nothing more than e-book-a-sized sales brochures.

“Free to join!”… then you find out you have to pay something to get any real value from the site! That is NOT free thank you anyway.

“Free Advertising”…only to discover you have to invest a jillion hours or your entire lifetime performing tasks at their site to get any of that free advertising. Time is money you know. (Most of them then offer paid packages…lol, now, this is NOT free.) This is what I joined tonight. Loads of promises that looked really good only to find I will have to devote my entire waking existence to working this site to actually benefit from it! (Unless someone figures out how to do this while sleeping…really and truly.)

“Free Trial Offer”…only to discover that the time period is ridiculously short like 3 days, 7 days and etc. IT TAKES A MINIMUM OF 30 DAYS TO SEE RESULTS in any kind of promotional campaign. Trust me in this one. I have had my first site http://www.xtreamsurf.com/ online and aggressively marketing it since 7/04. I am really just now seeing the fruits of all that campaigning. People are just know saying “XtreamSurf? Yeah, I heard of that.” (or me, Cherie Halliday…lol.) One of my favorite sites that truly offers a free 30-day trial is at FastAds Submitter:
http://www.fastadsubmitter.com/g.php?r=10 . You get 30 days to try it out. You like, you keep. Not, leave. Doesn’t get any simpler than that.

You get my drift. There is “free” and then there is really free. If something toted as being free ends up requiring you either spend loads of your time to achieve or pay money to get, it is not free.

Why do sites even bother offering free anyway? Simple: to get you to join and try the product. You try, you like, it works, you then want more, you buy. Cool. I am with that all the way. I do exactly the same thing on my free traffic sites! People join free, get lots of credits to run their sites to try it out. They like they stay, maybe purchase something (this helps pay all the “stay-in-business” bills for sure), everyone gets something from the initial “free” offer.

So, there is “free” and then there is actually free. How do you tell the difference? This is fairly common sense thinking. A site which makes you spend an inordinate amount of time performing tasks to build up credits is not free. A site which gives you upfront credits to advertise is free. A site which once you join “free” then requires a payment to benefit from the program: not free. A site that is “free” and delivers the initial goods free, is.

Bottom line: look, read, analyze. Ask yourself: “Does this site deliver?” Depending on the answer you stay or flee. (also called “voting with your feet.”)
By: Cherie Halliday
http://www.xtreamsurf.com/

Monday, February 28, 2005

Traffic Exchanges: Part 4, surf options

XtreamSurf runs on a script which allows for a number of surf options. It is both an Auto and manual surf site. It also allows for cash bonuses for certain surfing options as well. While it is not an actual "paid-to-surf" site, but, you can choice to surf for a little bit of cash and is intended to be an "extra" incentive for the power surfers.

Auto surfing means the sites rotate for you without you having to click on them. Basic members receive a 5:3 exchange meaning for every 5 sites you rotate you receive 3 back in return. While the timers do vary, the standard timer is usually 15 seconds for credits only. The timer increases for surfing for credits and cash and then surfing for cash only.

Manual surfing means the sites only rotate when you click on an icon to load a new site. Manual surfers have less time required to view sites than the Auto surfers. You have the paid options available as well, all on shorter timers than the auto surf.

When you put up your sites you also can choose where you want them to run! Some people swear by manual surf and that is the only place they want their sites to be shown. Since we do give you a generous allotment of credits, it is recommended you allow your site to show on both surf bars as you never know who is going to see your site, who is going to buy your product or sign up on your link. The choice is completely up to you.

Also, there is no difference between "manual" credits and "auto" credits. Credits are credits. You use them to show your sites on both surf or just one or the other.

Whether you choose to manual or auto surf, surfing is what makes the entire system work. The more people surf, the more the sites are rotated, the more they get seen. The more they are seen, the better the chance of a sale or sign up.

by: Cherie Halliday
http://www.xtreamsurf.com