Buddy Blog

The anticipated switch from AlertPay to Payza took place this afternoon, and the transition seems to have gone very smoothly.

I logged into the new Payza back office to find all my transaction history and e-wallet balance perfectly in place. The new back office is also sleek and easier to navigate.

New payment buttons have been provided for vendors/merchants, and I’ll be updating them on the TE Profits site this week.

In followup to last week’s post… AlertPay management is NOT throwing in the towel.

I had a nice conversation via email with one of the original founders who indicated that Payza is part of a new strategic partnership that will bring in additional senior personnel with experience in the online payment processor field.

So it appears that the original management has not given up. Rather, they are committed to the future success of AlertPay (now Payza).

As it was explained to me, the rules for 3rd party payment processors to accept credit card payments have changed substantially and there is a massive underwriting process for compliance. The Payza team is working on this aspect as well as additional funding options to work along side credit cards in the coming months.

The founder also hinted that another big announcement is scheduled for later this month.

Stay tuned…

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I recall when I first opened an account with AlertPay to start a new business. It took about a week to transfer funds from my bank into my AlertPay e-wallet. I funded my e-wallet with $8 and never had to add any more of my own funds to grow my business.

That business was the $5 Franchise under the umbrella of the Online Business Alliance. It was a wonderful business and community (and I still miss it).

Anyway… my little investment grew by reinvesting profits from the sale of a $5 ebook, which funded all my other business centers in the $5 Franchise. Now my AlertPay account continues to turn out profit every month, all from that first $8 used to fund the account.

Sound familiar?

It’s the same model that TE Profits is built on, and what I call the “Funded Proposal.”

With the proper business plan and marketing plan, coupled with focus, you can turn a one-time payment into residual income.

(But this blog post is about AlertPay… so let me get back to the point.)

A fundamental requirement of any business is the ability to accept payments from customers, pay expenses, and draw profits. The most critical aspect being the ability to receive payments from customers. After all, that’s what covers expenses and profits.

When AlertPay added the ability for customers to pay INSTANTLY and DIRECTLY to an online merchant using a Credit Card… without the need to first establish an AlertPay account and get it funded through a delayed process… my business exploded.

AlertPay became my preferred e-wallet over all others for its convenience and reliability.

Well, times change.

Last October (2011) AlertPay ran into a very serious problem with Credit Card transactions, and business practically stopped dead in its tracks. The AlertPay problem extended well beyond TEP upgrades to other established residual income. Customers who were funding subscriptions in affiliate programs using their Credit Card via AlertPay had their subscriptions lapse, which decreased residual income in the market for obvious reasons.

This created a liquidity problem throughout the entire marketplace. The cash flow “economy” slowed down in a way that touched everyone, even if they were not using AlertPay. That’s how BIG this problem has been. Everyone has been affected.

Despite all their promises to restore Credit Card payment services, AlertPay has failed to deliver. The best they have done is to allow some people to used a Credit Card to fund their e-wallet, and that option does not appear to be working well either.

Has AlertPay given up the quest? Did they throw in the towel?

You decide.

Yesterday they announced a new partner and name change to Payza.

You can read more on the AlertPay blog here:

AlertPay is Becoming Paza

In a PRweb press release it was announced that MH Pillars has acquired AlertPay.

MH Pillars Acquires AlertPay

In any case, AlertPay as we know it will be gone. The infrastructure is moving under the new owners, which they suggest will be a seamless transition. We will all want to keep a close eye on the move this month, as it may adversely affect payment buttons as well as existing subscriptions in affiliate programs such as Traffic Wave and TE upgrades.

Being the forever optimist, this change could be a good thing in the long run… if the new owners are able to once again establish the ability for new customers to easily and directly make purchases using a Credit Card to fund their online business.

How This Affects You and TE Profits

AlertPay is no longer the exclusive provider of online payments for TE Profits. You now are not required to have an AlertPay account in order to upgrade your TEP membership or receive TEP commissions.

In order to accomplish this, the disbursement of commissions from TEP will no longer be automatic on the 15th of each month. To receive a payout, you will need to submit a support ticket and let me know where to send your commissions. Options are AlertPay and PayPal at this time.

If you wish to upgrade your TEP account, you can still do so automatically if you have funds in your AlertPay e-wallet. Just use the payment button on the upgrade page in your TEP back office. If you prefer another payment method to upgrade, contact me and I will make arrangements for you.

The demand for the TE Profits upgraded membership continues to be very strong. I receive support tickets and emails daily from members who want to upgrade but have trouble with the AlertPay process. It’s actually a good problem to have, because it illustrates what a real value the TEP upgrade is for our members.

I will continue to do my very best to make upgrading and getting your commissions on those referral upgrades as easy as possible.

To All Your Profits,
Scott

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Banner advertising is one of the most often overlooked forms of advertising in Traffic Exchanges. A good, eye-catching banner can be just as effective as a splash page when used properly.

Viral Banner advertising sites have become a very popular way to get massive exposure for your favorite banners. Usually, when these sites launch they grow very quickly. Partly because they are so easy to set up, and partly because they are exponentially viral.

I just had word from Clint at SuccessQUIK today about a new viral banner advertising site with a unique twist…

This new site, Cash In On Banners, provides you a way to leverage a one-time $10 payment into endless streams of $10 commissions directly into your PayPal or AlertPay account!

First, the $10 is well spent even without the chance to earn cash because the one-time payment gives you additional hands-free advertising. Within minutes of joining and upgrading, my banners were already getting exposure and clicks in the system… even before promoting the new site!

I won’t go into too much detail here because most TE marketers have seen these before and know how they work. Simply put, when you advertise this site you are also advertising your banners along with banners of your sponsor. When your referrals promote this site and their banners, they are promoting YOUR banners as well. This goes several levels deep.

You have to prime the pump to get it started, and then it’s possible over time to literally get a million or more views of your banners.

Plus… you can add more than one banner. Free members can add 3 banners, while the $10 upgrade allows you to add up to 6 banners.

The upgrade is explained inside the members area, but  here is a screenshot explaining the benefits of the upgrade:

Payments are member-to-member with no administrative fees. You keep 100%!

In a nutshell, let’s say you have four CIOB referrals who upgrade.

The first and third referrals pay you directly. The second and fourth pay your sponsor. (The system does this automatically.)

Now you have been paid $10 twice for a total of $20.

But your referrals now also send you their second and fourth referrals. When they do, you have received an additional $40 with no extra work. Those four “pass up” sales are now your referrals and you continue to earn when they pass up their 2 referrals.

Bottom line is you get a ton of extra hands-free advertising for the one-time payment of just $10… and you earn it all back with just one upgraded referral. After that, it’s all gravy (and it can add up to a lot of gravy!)

To Join:

Log into your TEProfits back office now.

Go to the Referral Builder and scroll down to the Essential Tools section.

Find the Cash In On Banners link and join via your TEP sponsor.

Add your CIOB link so your TEP referrals will join via your link.

Finally, send a promotion to your list and add your CIOB banner with affiliate link in your banner advertising in TEs. Keep an eye in the CIOB back office for new splash pages they will be adding very soon. Advertising this CIOB system will be a great way to earn viral traffic and commissions while also advertising your TEP banners.

This is already starting to grow viral very quickly. So the faster you join and get a few referrals, the faster your banners will be seen and you can start cashing in with banner advertising!

We are living in the “Information Age” thanks to the Internet.

Got a question about a particular word or subject? Fire up Wikipedia in a browser window.

Looking for a solution to a problem? Just Google it.

You get the idea. Free-flowing information on ANYTHING is right at our fingertips. No more dictionaries, encyclopedias or trips to the library.

So how does all this information turn into millions of dollars in sales and profits for savvy Affiliate Marketers?

For the most part, it’s no different from the processes we use in our TE marketing that is taught in TE Profits…

Traffic + Conversion = Income

You need traffic, and you need a way to convert that traffic into sales.

But when it comes to the traffic aspect there can be HUGE differences. With Traffic Exchanges (TEs) we are driving traffic to our website pages to offer something we know they are already interested in. In our case, that’s more traffic and an easy way to convert that traffic to income.

We already know that TE surfers want traffic, right? And if you’ve watched the Fast Start Training Videos, you’ve seen how building your TE downlines builds massive traffic. In my case, more than 4 million surplus traffic credits!

This is called “targeting” as it puts the right offer in front of the right audience.

What about all that other traffic on the net?

You know… where you don’t have to surf to drive people to your website. Traffic that LOOKS for YOU on the net rather than the other way around?

To answer that you need to know a few other essential things. What information are people looking for, and what types of things are they buying?

If you know those things and have something to offer them (like an existing information product that pays you an affiliate commission), getting traffic to your website becomes much easier.

Sunny Suggs has just released a new set of training videos where she reveals the strategies she has personally been using to tap into the flow of information on the net and cash in with Affiliate Marketing.

I have just watched through these videos and learned a few new things myself. The video showing how to sort through all the available products on ClickBank to find something worth promoting was eye-opening. You can also watch as she sets up a new website complete with a WordPress blog in just minutes!

It’s a total of more than 10 videos where you watch over Sunny’s shoulder as she goes through the proven steps to select an affiliate product, set up a new website, and monetize the site for hands-free income.

You’ll get videos on:

*  Deciding what affiliate products to promote
*  Setting up a website (WordPress blog)
*  Placing ads
*  Getting easy traffic, and more

Sunny even shows where to get pre-written content you can use to attract information seekers to your blog through the search engines. (That’s a super affiliate trick I’m going to apply at my personal marketing blog.)

The best part is this training is totally free. Check it out!

PS. I do not normally recommend things outside of the TE niche, but these are strategies you can use to build your list and promote Internet Marketing products (even Traffic Exchanges) to your list. I think you’ll find the videos on setting up a lead capture page to give away “bait” to build your list of leads particularly helpful.

Newbies!

We see that word used extensively in advertising. Sometimes it has a negative tone to it because people who are new to online marketing know so little about advertising. That’s to be expected. They are at the beginning of their learning curve.

And… it’s a lot to learn!

However, the fact is that we ALL were newbies at some point. I started out knowing NOTHING about traffic, or traffic exchanges, or affiliate marketing. Fortunately I’m a quick learner. But it is also easy to forget what it was like to be a newbie.

The recent improvements in TE Profits are with the newbie in mind. More basic training to get you past the initial learning curve so you can start getting traffic and advertise effectively to that traffic as quickly as possible.

To accomplish this, the focus of the Crash Course is on TE advertising alone. Yes, I also use email advertising and, in fact, it can even be more effective than TE advertising when done properly. But TE advertising is easier to learn, and an opportunity to get the fundamentals of marketing under your belt before branching into other advertising resources.

Here’s the CRITICAL UPDATE for our newbie Crash Course system:

TrafficHoopla is being replaced with TE Hoopla in the Fast Start Guide and Crash Course.

This change will NOT affect the Traffic Report at this time. If you are using the TEP lead capture system and follow up emails to promote the Traffic Report, no change is necessary.

This change WILL affect the Fast Start and Crash Course training only. Updating the training is my #1 priority and I hope to have it completed during the first week of January. When the training material is updated, the Crash Course will promote your TE Hoopla link.

Log in now and add your TE Hoopla link in Step 2 of the Fast Start Guide so you will not miss any referrals when the change is implemented.

Also…

List Hoopla has been added to the Pro Referral Builder in TE Profits. If you are an upgraded member of TEP, be sure to add your List Hoopla referral link in the Pro Referral Builder.

The free TEP system and training is tightly focused on success with Traffic Exchanges. The Pro and Partner memberships take you to the next level with training on email advertising, list building, and more profits.

Read… Learn… Act!

Take action. Start 2012 with a clear plan of action to grow your business into the future.

Happy New Year!
Scott

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BREAKING NEWS…

And another example of why there is no such thing as autopilot income.

Watch this video to find out what all the hoopla is about.

It includes breaking news that affects ALL members of TE Profits and how we are going to turn this to our advantage in 2012 and beyond!

Stay tuned. Your TEP training and Crash Course will be updated again to reflect the new changes announced today by Traffic Hoopla.

Embrace change. It’s a good thing!

To Your Prosperous New Year,
Scott

PS. After leaving this post I received the public announcement from Bill Carr about the Hoopla changes. This is quoted from the Hoopla email…

What we are doing is continuing with Traffic Hoopla as the best entry, the Grandaddy of all traffic builders, and in reality, an excellent intro to online advertising.

1st Join is now the current Top 5 Traffic Exchanges.
Want More? TE Hoopla is listed, and includes Top 42.

2nd Join is now the current Top 5 Safelist.
Want More? List Hoopla is listed, and includes Top 21.

3rd Join now offers more advertising sites, various kinds.

Click the link below for more detail:

http://traffichoopla.com/news/big-news-list-hoopla-live/

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Merry Christmas, or depending on your preference… Happy Holidays!

I just want to take a moment to wish you the VERY BEST holiday season and let you know I’ve been thinking about you every day. I’m hard at work to make TEP your absolute best resource for generating more traffic, and converting that traffic into profits for you.

If you have logged in this past week you may have noticed some changes to the menu in your TEP back office. The menu addition makes it much easier to navigate to the Fast Start Video Training.

When you click on Fast Start Videos, you can quickly navigate to TWO sets of videos. One set is in the TEP back office for members only. The other is in the Crash Course for non-member prospects. (The Crash Course videos are a bit shorter.)

On the Fast Start Video page (above) you will see a short preview clip illustrating how I have built up nearly Four Million Surplus Traffic Credits!

With the Crash Course funnel in place, the next step is to enhance it with new marketing material… PLUS incentives to get more prospects watching the videos. Feedback on the videos has been fantastic. They convert extremely well.  So a few incentives should have a huge positive impact as more prospects follow through and complete the training.

The challenge (as usual) is finding good, quality bonus incentives. I spend up to $100 each month on new PLR/MRR products and have a hard drive full of potential things we can use. So there is no shortage to choose from… but I’m very picky.

Santa has gifts and bonuses for both Free and Upgraded TEP members. But don’t despair if they are not under your TEP tree by Christmas. He left your gifts in good hands (with me) and I’ll pass them along to you shortly.

For now, please enjoy this new video I created JUST FOR YOU…

Best Wishes,
Scott

P.S. If you are in the mood to do some surfing this season, be sure to check out the fun at TE Christmas…

Go Here for details: http://trafficexchangechristmas.com/?referer=thedragonfly

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- Update at 8:30 pm CST –

The QUIK domain names have been restored to their
rightful owners. All the QUIK sites are back on line!

Earlier (about 7:30 pm CST)…

In just the past hour or so, all of the QUIK site domain names began pointing to a server owned and operated by a known group of cyber terrorists.

Clint and his team are aware of the problem and working to get it resolved as quickly as possible.

If this is just a DNS hack, the QUIK sites are still secure and full service should be restored when the name servers update and propagate across the internet.

Please do not email me or send in a support ticket on this matter. I understand the concern, but there is little we can do except wait patiently and give Clint and his team time to correct the problem.

I will post an update as soon as we learn more about the exact nature of this cyber attack.

Clint has set up a Twitter feed here:

http://twitter.com/safeadzone

Thank you for you patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Scott

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We’ve been having a good discussion in the Team Forum about updates for the autoresponder email series. You can catch up on the discussion in the forum:

http://the10kteam.com/TeamForum

The more I think about it, the more I realize that one of our best-kept secrets in TEP is the email newsletter. It is the very first “product” I created when I started marketing in Traffic Exchanges. That email series alone was responsible for all my signups and sales… long before adding the Traffic Report and the TEP membership site.

Countless hours were put into writing the original series, plus untold hours in keeping them current. Lack of proven emails to deliver to targeted prospects is perhaps the #1 thing that holds many people back from using an autoresponder to build a list of leads.

The TE Profits Newsletter contains 25 content-packed emails that cover a wide range of topics on Traffic Exchanges and Marketing in general. Having the rights to use this email series as your own is truly a remarkable value for TEP upgraded members. Some other marketers outright sell rights to their email newsletters for upwards of $27 alone.

But to get to the matter at hand…

The letters in the follow up series have been updated again to reflect the new Crash Course. As an upgraded member you can import the current letters and automatically be promoting the new Crash Course to your leads right along with the Traffic Report.

To download a summary of the updates, click HERE for a zip file containing the changes.

We also have a new graphic to incorporate into new capture pages under development for upgraded members.

To update your TEP followup email series, or to download a zip file containing the full series of 25 updated letters…

Log into your TEP back office and go to “Pro Lead Capture” on the Pro Member Menu.

You can download the updated emails and edit your letters manually, or you can simply use the same import code in the instructions to over-write your existing letters.

I’ve just updated mine in TrafficWave. It was easy.

If you need help updating your letters, please stop by the forum and ask. You may find that someone else has already asked the same question, and it will save me a lot of time rather than to answer each question individually.

But honestly, it is easy. No need to start a new campaign or change anything at all. Just use the codes on the Pro Lead Capture page to import the updated letters into your existing teprofits campaign.

One last thought:

READ THE LETTERS!

Before TrafficWave had the automated tokens feature, all TEP members were required to manually edit the links in the 25 emails. Some members actually appreciated that because it forced them to read the informative content. The automation of tokens is helpful, but don’t let it make you lazy when it comes to your education.

To Your List Building Success,
Scott

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I’m going through the original email series (25 letters) included in the lead capture system to deliver the Traffic Report and promote your core programs in TE Profits.

It may take all weekend to get through them, but I hope to knock them all out in about a day. (Why does everything take longer than we want it to?)

After the emails are updated, I’ll let you know so you can import the updated letters if you want to. You will be able to just import them right over the original letters and the tokens will remain in place.

But I will also be uploading them all in one zip file as a bonus download for Pro and Partner members. You get PLR rights to edit the emails any way you choose. You can even use them in any autoresponder you choose.

This will help anyone who wants to build their own lead capture funnel by providing a proven series of emails that converts prospects into referrals and sales on autopilot.

I also am including links to the new Crash Course in the original TEP email series. It’s very easy to edit your existing email to include a link to the Crash Course right this very minute!

Letter #2 is perfect to introduce the videos because that letter promotes Traffic Hoopla.

You can replace the “proof” link with your link to the Crash Course.

I also suggest removing any link to AATE’s from the Post Script (at the bottom of the email) and replace it with a link to the Crash Course.

A copy of Letter #2 with these changes is available to download in zip format here. The zip file also includes an example promotion email you can send to your existing subscriber list.

Simply unzip the file. Then open the text documents and review them.

You can use letter02.txt as an example of how to edit your Letter #2. An example of how to link directly to your Crash Course is provided in the file.

You can also send a broadcast email to your existing subscribers to let them know about the Crash Course. Use newpromo.txt as a guide to create a new letter to broadcast. Add a subject line like “New! TEProfits Just Got Even Easier…”

When sending a note to your existing subscribers, I recommend linking the email directly to the Crash Course. No need for them to opt in. They can subscribe for the five reminder emails after they watch the Welcome video.

Have a great weekend!

To Your Surfing Success,
Scott