News at StartXchange.

Tim Linden (the owner of StartXchange) decided to make his program even better than it was.

He changed timer's time from 20 to 15 sec. It allows all surfers to earn more credits per hour of surfing.

For example, today I was on the level 8 of the program.

During the hour I surfed 140 websites and got 140 X 0.43 credits = 60.2 regular surfing credits.

In addition, I earned twice random credits (16 and 22 accordingly).

All together I earned 98 credits per hour, that allow me to display my website 98 times.

Tim also introduced and implemented the idea of monthly teams' competition in surfing and referring.

Now there are already more than 15 teams with experienced team leaders.

Teams are competing for jackpot credits (they are equal 5% of total credits surfed by all teams).

The best surfing team gets a half of jackpot, and the best referring team gets the other half of jackpot.

Then the credits are divided equally between members of the winning teams.

Teams competition makes the program even more dynamic than it has been before.

Every team has its own private forum, and it's a team leader's responsibility to motivate and to teach members of his team how to win the competition.

Every member of StartXchange is free to join one of the teams (some teams already accept people only by invitation) and to participate in teams' competition.

I believe that rules of teams' competition must be substantially revised to make it more effective (see my comments in the StartXchange's Forum), but it will be done anyway after the results of this month will become known, and members of the teams will give their suggestions.

I want to remind my readers that StartXchange has been recommended here even before last changes, and that we consider it a must for every advertiser.

I am going to Italy for several weeks, my laptop will rest at home.

If you are still interested in earning money and getting tons of free traffic, use the links on the right to join Free very good programs (Free Ad Report is highly recommended by many people).

Please post your comments and your suggestions how to improve this blog.

I'll review them and answer everything as soon as it is possible.

Health and Success to everyone.

My nephew needs your help! Millions of other people need it too!

This year my nephew published a book "Battleship of Fools".
You can find it in many bookstores, including Barnes & Noble.

Here is an important quote from the book:

"Joshua has a dream of building a world free of fools".

Both my nephew and I have this dream too, but I don't think that you can help us in this matter here.

Let's be more realistic and practical!

Let's assume, that right now my nephew wants to advertise his book to get back money he has spent for its publishing.

Let's assume, that he can spend $50 in October for this purpose, and that he can also surf 10 hours per week.

Finally, let's assume, that my nephew has decided to build his advertising campaign this month on the basis of Jon Olson's Hit Exchange News (see http://www.hitexchangenews.com/issue146.php).

Jon Olson says, that "The HEN Top Ten results are based on traffic statistics (unique hits, traffic flow, hits delivered, traffic quality) and a touch of good old fashioned 'opinion'.

The industry changes just like in the real world, so an exchange may not be on the list this week, but will be number 1 next week!

As usually, Jon gives names of the 10 best traffic exchanges and the 5 exchanges, that are close to the best.

Than, being a very generous person, he suggests:

"Enjoy this week's list!"


My nephew is a very simple guy. He is an award-winning film director/screenwriter, a software developer and a mathematician.

He has no experience whatsoever in advertising and marketing, and he has never before read a newsletter of a respected person of the traffic exchange industry.

So it is no wonder, that he needs a lot of help in understanding how to enjoy Jon Olson's list of best traffic exchanges.

My nephew understands, that traffic statistics, mentioned by Jon, simply prove that all 15 exchanges are reliable. They show websites of members accordingly to how many credits each member got from surfing or buying credits.

My nephew knows, that there are 3 ways to use traffic exchanges for advertising:

--to buy credits to display your website at the traffic exchange

--to surf at the traffic exchange as a free member

--to become a paid member of a traffic exchange and to get more credits than a free member for surfing the same amount of hours.

My nephew considered buying credits, but did not find any information about prices for 1,000 credits for programs on the Jon's list. Sure, he can spend his precious time and find them in all 15 programs, but is it necessary to do it?

Is it important to buy credits in one of the first 5 programs on the list or any one of the 15 programs can be used.

Is it correct to buy credits where they are the cheapest (among the 15 programs on the list) or is it better to buy credits in the first several programs?


If, as Jon Olson says, any traffic exchange can change in a week, does it make any sense for a person with a limited advertising budget to pay monthly fee to upgrade membership in the program?

It looks like surfing as a free member is the only obvious simple way to advertise my nephew's book.

However, it only looks simple.

There are 15 programs on the list. My nephew has only 10 hours available for surfing per week.

How should he surf? Should he learn how to use "tabbing" and surf all 15 programs?

Should he surf only the first 5 programs, because they are the best?

Should he be concerned with how many credits he earns to show his ad (website) in every program, that he surfs in? If yes, should he surf only in the programs where he can earn maximum number of credits for showing his website?

As you see, there are many questions in this post.

I ask Gurus and everyone else to answer them and to comment on the post.

I will specifically ask Jon Olson to help my nephew and others by instructing them here how to "enjoy his list" in the most effective way.

Hope he will be gracious to respond.

Here is an information from the latest email from Tim Linden, the owner of StartXchange:

"The Upgraded Experience

For $14.95 a month you can more than triple your traffic on StartXchange!

1) You'll receive 1000 credits each month
2) You'll receive 3 times the credits for surfing
3) You'll receive random referrals
4) You'll receive 4 times the referal credits
5) You'll receive double the random prize credits

All this for $14.95?? Upgrade Today!"

I strongly recommend everybody to sign up to StartXchange using the link on the right and to Upgrade your membership. It will be a very good investment.

StartXchange - a must for every advertiser.


It is easy to notice, that StartXchange (SXC) is recommended by all services that rank traffic exchanges. SXC is always #1 on the Tim Linden's Traffic Exchange List. Tim is the SXC owner and programmer, and he knows very well why SXC is #1.

Jon Olson in the latest issue of Hit Exchange News (#145) placed StartXchange in the second place.
Traffic Hoopla always has SXC among top traffic exchanges.

However, from hundreds of thousands of advertisers only 18,000 are members of SXC.

It seems to me, that there is a problem here. Thousands of people are not in SXC, because they don't understand the program and don't know how much they can get using the program effectively.

Some of them believe, that a program with a 20 seconds timer will always bring less earned ad views per hour than a program with a 10 or 15 seconds timer. So they reject use of StartXchange on the basis of this erroneous belief.

The purpose of this article is to give the most important information about StartXchange.
The program has so many details, that it does not make sense to tell about all of them in one short article.

First of all, I'd like to stress, that StartXchange has extremely good anti-cheating provisions.

The design of the surfbar, its movements (from top to bottom of the screen and back), movement of vital information on the surfbar (including shapes that should be matched by a surfer) from left to right and back make external cheating impossible.

Necessity to watch for appearance of winning credits in the middle of the screen keeps surfers' attention on websites of other surfers, minimizing internal cheating.

StartXchange is unique in awarding credits to surfers. Credits are awarded directly and also depending on the level, a surfer is in.

There are 15 levels now. They are built on the 1:2 approach.

Level 1 has 1 member in it.
Level 2 has 2 members.
Level 3 has 4 members.
Level 4 has 8 members.
Level 5 has 16 members.
Level 6 has 32 members and so forth.

A level of each surfer is determined on the basis of how many websites he surfed, how many people referred, how many dollars (if any) he paid for upgrade or credits, how active he is in the forum and, finally, 500 points are given for reading SXC's newsletter.

It is better to be on the top of the members' hierarchy (in levels 1-6).

Why?

One of many reasons is the fact, that StartXchange uses a Non-fixed ratio of websites viewed by a surfer to credits earned by him.

On levels 7 or worse a surfer might earn only 0.43 credit for viewing one website.
However, he can earn 0.53 credit or more on levels 6 or better.

It is also important to be aware, that every surfer gets credits from several sources, namely:

--direct surfing (roughly 50 credits per hour for a free member or a Gold member and 100 credits for a Titanium member)

--random credits (5-30 for a free member, 10-60 for an upgraded member)

--surfing bonus (20% for levels 6 or better, 10% for level 7 and worse)

--credits from surfing of members of your downlines.

StartXchange has two downlines. One downline consists of your personal referrals. Another downline is generated by the program. It includes 6 members on two levels below you. For example, if you are on level 6, you'll have 2 members of level 7 and 4 members of level 8.

Finally, you can also win 100 credits in daily drawings of Complete-A-Word routine.

Now it is easy to understand, why it is better to be on the top of the members' hierarchy.

First of all, you'll get more direct and random credits, moving to the top.

Usually random credits are delivered within an hour, so it makes sense to surf not less than an hour, or several times in 1 hour installments.

Secondly, the better your level is, the more credits you are getting from your downlines and the better is your surfing bonus.

The more you surf per day, the more words you complete during surfing, and your chance to win 100 credits is better.

Taking everything in consideration, it is clear, that StartXchange allows every member to earn a very substantial amount of credits per hour of surfing, especially to upgraded members.

The monthly cost of upgrade to a Gold member is only $6 and the cost of upgrade to a Titanium member is $14.99.

A Titanium member who surfs 2 hours daily, can earn more credits at StartXchange than at any other traffic exchange I know.

I'd like also to stress, that SXC is a very user friendly program.
Everything is explained in details in training materials and in the program's Forum.

Members of the Forum are very active, both moderators and members of the Forum are very supportive.

I am a member of many top traffic exchanges and surf in all of them regularly.

However, from my personal experience, StartXchange is the best of them and it is a must for every advertiser.

Does the Hit Exchange Report's selection of best traffic exchanges helps advertisers?


Last two weeks the Hit Exchange Report placed LinkCrews on the second place in an overall performance (after TS25).

The report is produced weekly by Traffic Hoopla, and it shows Top 40 traffic exchanges for the period of last six weeks.

As I've mentioned before, two other well known reports of best traffic exchanges are
being produced by Tim Linden and Jon Olson.

Only Traffic Hoopla charges money for its reports.

All three services select best traffic exchanges on the basis of tracking of activities of exchanges and analysis of statistical data.

Each service uses its own group of statistical indicators for selection of best exchanges.

Traffic Hoopla states, that its reports combine "The power of statistics and critical thinking together".

It suggests: "Use the report to plan and organize your hit exchange advertising.
The point of our testing is to reveal top performance. Make adjustments.
Pay careful attention to cautions and warnings."

It is also saying: "If you are a subscriber to the Hit Exchange Report by TestHoopla.com, you don't have to worry about whether cheating is possible or not. Cheating is not possible in any of the hit exchanges in Top 40."

As I am convinced, that with any degree of "critical thinking" LinkCrews should not be recommended as #2 best traffic exchange, I sent today the following email to the Traffic Hoopla's support:

"In the latest report you placed LinkCrews in the second place after TS25.

Would you be so kind to answer the following questions:

---what is the purpose of recommending LinkCrews (it is a worsened version of TS25 and its monthly fee is considerably higher than any of traffic exchanges, including TS25)?

---what particular indicators convinced you, that LinkCrews is better than WebBizInsider, Traffic G and Hit Safari?

---do you believe, that currently used by you indicators for selection of best traffic exchanges allow fully objective evaluation of exchanges from advertisers' point of view?

---what is your opinion about additional indicators suggested by me in the blog "Best Traffic Exchanges" http://besttraffic.blogspot.com ?"

My email was received by Bill Carr (one of the owners of Traffic Hoopla).
He declined to answer my questions.

It is well known, that all three services, mentioned above, do not use
indicators, related to resource effectiveness of traffic exchanges.
Monthly fees, and time required for surfing to earn certain amount of credits to show surfers' websites, are totally ignored.

In this particular case LinkCrews is a new program.
It is modeled on TS25.

The Hit Exchange Report shows, that statistical indicators of LinkCrews are worse than TS25.

I've shown in this blog, that LinkCrews anticheating provisions are worse than in many other traffic exchanges.

Finally, LinkCrews monthly fee for a Titanium member is $39.87 (a record in the traffic exchange industry) versus $24.99 monthly fee for a Platinum member in TS25.

Taking everything in consideration, it follows, that LinkCrews should not be recommended to advertisers at all, as in all aspects it is worse than TS25, and it has no positive features different from TS25.

If Traffic Hoopla really is ready "...to make adjustments. Pay careful attention to cautions and warnings", why is it that it's owner refused to discuss relevant questions about selection of best traffic exchanges?

Does he know, that after the first month since the launch of LinkCrews number of its paid subscribers decreased more than 10%? Is not it a kind of warning that should be taking in consideration before recommending a program?

The statement "Cheating is not possible in any of the hit exchanges in Top 40." is totally false.

WebBizInsider was #1 in Hit Exchange Reports for many weeks. However, many marketers know very well, that its daily limit of credits can be easily received without looking at websites of other members and clicking on tabs.

My analysis in the previous post shows, that LinkCrews has no anticheating provisions against "internal cheating". As I mentioned above, this is one of the reasons, why the program should not be recommended.

I am very disappointed, that the owner of a well known service for selection of best traffic exchanges does not care about needs of advertisers and about ways of improving the service.

Anticheating provisions - one of the most important indicators of traffic exchanges.


Traffic exchanges are build on the assumption, that members will look with interest on websites of other members.

However, many members of exchanges have no desire to do it. They only want to get enough credits to show their own websites.

This situation creates cheaters.
Cheating can be defined as a process of earning credits for display of your websites without looking on websites of other members of an exchange at all or with any degree of interest.

There are two major types of cheating:

--cheating using software or some specifics of a traffic exchange (external cheating)

--cheating in the process of surfing (internal cheating).

Cheating using software or some specifics of a traffic exchange is popular, especially where there are no anticheating provisions in a traffic exchange.

I've already mentioned before, that many members of WebBizInsider have been using some specifics of its script to earn daily limit of credits without actually looking on other members' websites.

Finally, internal cheating is the most popular way of cheating, as it does not require knowledge of software or specifics of an exchange's script. It is only a question of attitude during surfing.

Now, let's suppose, that a traffic exchange has no anticheating provisions whatsoever, and that everybody knows it.

In this case an advertiser will be tempted to earn maximum amount of credits
without looking at websites of other members of the exchange.

However, earning a lot of credits will not do him anything good, as nobody will look on his websites too.

It is clear, that a traffic exchange without anticheating provisions is not functional. The better are anticheating provisions, the better is a traffic exchange.

Now, let's see what anticheating provisions are.

First of all, they are measures to prevent use of any automatic devices (software) for surfing.

In StartXchange it is a requirement to "Match The Shape" of several items, in TS25
and others it is a requirement to click on the highest digits.

The idea is to make sure, that a real person is surfing.

In WebBizInsider and other programs an "external cheating" is simply limited by establishing daily credit limits.

Prevention of "internal cheating" is considerably more difficult, than prevention of "external cheating".

A purpose of anticheating provisions against "internal cheating" is to make a surfer to change his attitude to websites during surfing.

Some people believe, that it can be done simply by increasing time of displaying websites.

For example, in Scary Traffic a timer is 60 sec. This is supposed to be a good anticheating provision, but in reality many surfers hate it, even though they
earn 11 credits for every website they view.

Why? Because surfing is too slow.

Usually, 15-20 sec timer is good enough in combination with some efforts to keep a surfer alert.

Such tricks, as moving lines with important information from top to bottom and back, or from right to left and back force a surfer to keep his attention on the whole screen.

StartXchange has a 20 sec timer, and in the program an important information is moved from top to bottom of the screen and back, and also from right to left and back.

In addition to it, surfers are kept alert by:

--an opportunity to earn extra credits for completing a word

--messages about earning bonus credits (in the middle of the window)

--real time information about their status on the exchange (sites viewed, rank, level, goal indicator, etc.)

Can these measures be effective in changing a surfer's attitude to websites of other members?

No doubts about it!

If a surfer is alert, and he views all parts of the window, and the timer is not too fast, a surfer has nothing better to do, than to look at websites of other members.

In some way it is comparable with TV advertising.
You are watching a movie, and you have no interest in any ads.
However, an ad appears, and if you still look at TV, the ad can easily catch your attention.

In my opinion,StartXchange has the best anticheating provisions.

On the other hand, LinkCrews has very bad provisions against "internal cheating" due to the following factors:

--surfers' attention is concentrated on the bottom of the screen

--timer is only 10 sec

--there is a fierce competition in real time for a place in crews and tokens earned (it is dramatically increased by choosing a Non-fixed ratio).

It is interesting to notice here, that LinkCrews is modeled on TS25.

TS25 has a 15 sec timer, important anticheating lines in TS25 are moving from top
to bottom and back, and TS25 is using a fixed ratio of sites viewed to sites shown.

TS25 is also using a system of randomly appearing bonuses. These bonuses represent a very substantial portion of total credits, earned by a surfer.

As a result, despite a competition to be in the best syndicate, surfers in TS25 are quite relaxed and have more time to watch websites they surf, than in LinkCrews.

From the point of view of anticheating provisions, LinkCrews is worse than TS25 due to the choices (see above) the authors of Linkcrews have made.