A couple of great traffic exchanges recently ordered promo videos and RealHitz4u maybe joining them soon. None of them are Ventrino traffic exchanges but we can’t hold that against them, variety is what makes this industry so much fun!
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I will leave it to you to work out which is which!
Tags: internet marketing, Music, splash page, traffic exchange script, video
An open letter from Jake to Albert.
Dear Albert,
I decided not to respond to your sarcasm and threats for these reasons:
- It is not one of ours. Check the top of the invoice, it has a different company name
- Calling me a cupid stunt does not incentivise me (Edited for family readers)
- I am sorry “file permissions are incorrect” does not make any sense to you. There is no need to let me know if you find a better way to say it
- I do not like you.
I was going to leave 4 out as its getting personal, but it is in direct response to your question why I do not respond to your messages instantly. Perhaps if you were Kimberly Stewart asking me on a date you’d have better luck.
If you are truly tired of living in Jerk City, If you don’t want every day to be a walk down Asshole Avenue, then learn to be civilized, learn to be reasonable. Or don’t as there is no point sending ducks to eagle school.
Regards,
Jake
Beth, Owner of Elevated Traffic receives the last free promo video. It has been great fun doing these and I want to thank everyone for their kind comments, and those not so kind as they too have been a great help!
You can also save the files to your disk by right-click save-as: elevated-HQ
See How to add a video to your site for instructions on how this can be added to your website.
Tags: internet marketing, traffic exchange, video
There are hundreds of ways to add video to a WordPress blog, Flash Video is a good place to start. If all you want is to embed a Youtube then Smart Youtube from Vladimir Prelovac reduces the complex to the ridiculously simple. If you can find the V on your keyboard then you will master it in a nano second.
But what about a website? Raw HTML? Where do you go for that?
I guess I should create a video but until I do here are a few pointers that have worked well for me. The process from 30,000ft up is:-
- Locate the place in your HTML you wish to add your video
- Paste in the video code
- Save the file
If you are an HTML webmaster guru this will be elementary stuff. All you have to do is decide which flavour of video player you are going to offer your visitors. I tested a few and like flowplayer although their demo videos were broken when I tested them!
How to install flowplayer on your website
- Download from the free version http://flowplayer.org/download/index.html
- Create a folder off the root of your website and call it flowplayer
- Upload these files to the new flowplayer directory you just created
- flowplayer-3.1.5\flowplayer\example\flowplayer-3.1.4.min.js
- flowplayer-3.1.5\flowplayer\flowplayer.controls-3.1.5.swf
- flowplayer-3.1.5\flowplayer\flowplayer-3.1.5.swf
The version of flowplayer you download maybe different but the principle is likely to stay the same.
That’s all there is to the installation so let’s see how we can use it in our web page. Much of this depends on how you prefer to edit your pages, if you do not know how to edit HTML then search Google for HTML tutorials, there are many companies offering top quality training with free books and videos to get you started. There are plenty of free editors available too, so if you are starting from scratch google for free html editor too.
Ready to integrate video in your web page
Now you have installed your flowplayer all you need to do is add a few lines of code. First add the Javascript file in the header.
<script type="text/javascript" src="flowplayer/flowplayer-3.1.4.min.js"></script>
Which should look a bit like this when you’re done:-
Locate the position in the HTML where you would like your video and use an Anchor tag and another line of Javascript.
<a href="http://www.yourdomain.com/this-will-be/the-path/to-your-video.mp4" style="display:block;width:346px;height:193px" id="player"></a> <script type="text/javascript"> flowplayer("player", "flowplayer/flowplayer-3.1.5.swf"); </script>
Alter the size of the video to suit your page design and make sure you keep the ratio between the height and width the same so that it doesn’t distort the output.
Download an example
Click here to download everything you need to get started. This uses flowplayer 3.1.5 so don’t forget to check their website for updates and new features at flowplayer.org
Tags: Javascript, PHP, video, web design
Randy Fountain of www.trafficspeedway.com was the first to get his files to me and the following video is the result. Thanks Randy for rising to the challenge! As of right now I am still open for one more free video then I am going to have to concentrate on making enough to cover the winter bills (Brrr, anyone else here in the UK? I have had enough and already wishing I was back in South Africa!).
Randy gave me an idea of the music he wanted but this was the closest cc I could find. If you would like to find your own www.jamendo.com is a good place to start.
This is my first attempt. I felt it was too long and I’m sorry Randy, I just don’t like that style of music.
So I decided to try another. This one is shorter, just over 30 seconds, so images move faster, and the music is more “traffic like”, at least to me!
And this is the final, a little longer than the second and my favourite.
Of course Randy can choose for himself which is best. Click here to download all files.
Lessons Learned
As a novice I expect to make a few mistakes. If you decide to have a go at this and want to a video put together make sure the images you send are no smaller than 640 x 480 but 1024 x 768 would be much better.
How to take screenshots and videos?
If you are not sure how to take screenshots or do not have any suitable software you may find Jing useful. It’s free and from the same people who make Snagit and Camtasia. Jing can be downloaded from www.jingproject.com. The video’s Jing creates are crisp and in small files but if you want to play them on your PC/Mac you will need to grab a swiff player, www.globfx.com of a good player also free of charge. You could convert them, most converters cost a few dollars, but there a few free too.
Whats all this about a FREE promo video then?
Well if you have not been lucky enough to enjoy one my newsletters then now is the time to join! Go to www.ventrino.com and click the subscribe button (I know I know, I should have it here in the blog…. I’ll sort it when I get less time).
In the last newsletter I promised to do a couple of free promo videos (see http://bit.ly/a7BLjX for the original post), here’s the email if you are interested:
Hello,
Stats in the blog and the LTE page have gone wild. If you need to
generate interest in a product then video has to be the in-thing right
now. All I wanted was some ideas and I certainly got that -
with over 30 comments in just a few hours!
Updated Video
http://bit.ly/aRsh60
I have taken on-board your comments and made a few adjustments. The
pictures now change a tad slower. I have reordered a few and added the
“Impact messages” suggested by Jose and Ron, The Godfather (Did I say thanks
Ron?).
Producing a video for you
The surprising, yet delightful, response means there may be more demand
than I expected. So to help me out I have a suggestion, if you want a
video read on:
Can you create a screen shot? If so can you crop it and keep
the picture at a high resolution? If you can then put together a number
of images you would like in your video (about 10 will do, no more than 20).
Can you create a screen recording? By this I mean a snippet
of some kind of video action that you like on your website, perhaps one of the
surfing games. If you can great! Put one together and save it as
an avi. If you don’t know where to start download a trial copy of
camtasia snagit (an excellent program that makes complete graphic novices look
good). I will only use 5 or 6 seconds of each video so the files you
send do not need to be more than 10 to 20 seconds each.
If you can do all of the above and stick it into a single zip/gzip file of
no more than 100mb (so be lean on those 10 second videos) and then use
www.wikisend.com (or similar service) to send it to me.
Your instructions to me
I will produce a video for the first two to
arrive that have enough to produce a decent video. Include a readme.txt
file with your preference of music genre and also a number of impact
statements you would like to see in the video.
I want to practice more
After the first two free video’s I would like to continue to make them free
but, well, she who must be obeyed will not see it that way,
especially as it cannot be done during my normal working hours.
Therefore if you would like a video and don’t make it into the first two I
propose a charge of $37 when you supply the images/video and $57 when you
don’t. If interested you can order from this link:-
https://www.ventrino.com/billing/cart.php?a=add&pid=69
Limited to 5 for now
Apart from the two free videos I am going to limit the sales to 5 so that I
do not get swamped with requests. Perhaps I flatter myself that as many
as five people will want one, but just in case (and ummm, well if I do then I
will have to put the price up for the next five eh?),
Kind Regards,
Martyn
Tags: internet marketing, promotion, traffic exchange, video, web design
The Ventrino LTE Manual Exchange comes with a number of high gravity ClickBank links. These were added so that there is something to see with some viariety to get you started. I expted people would delete them and a few of their own prior to launch. However I was asked if they could be updated to use the owners hop link, which they can. Here’s how it’s done:
Run the following code in your SQL viewer or phpmyadmin, whatever you prefer, but replace your-clickbank-id-here with your ClickBank ID.
UPDATE links SET link = REPLACE( link, 'ratemyop', 'your-clickbank-id-here' )
Don’t change anything else, make sure you do not disturb the ‘ otherwise it won’t work.
The code will replace all of the “ratemyop” entriies with your ID instead.
Tags: Affiliate Links, ClickBank, MySQL, SQL, traffic exchange, traffic exchange script
The Ventrino LTE Manual Traffic Exchange Script promotional video has been released. The LTE script is a basic script offering an exciting new concept for manual traffic exchanges. The LTE script is the only exchange to cache multiple requests which means it can handle far more traffic than ordinary exchanges.
If you want to build a list fast there is no better way than with a Ventrino Script and now you can for a fraction of the normal price.
Use promotional code LTESPECIAL for a 40% discount – available to the end of March.
Update Feb 22
A slow version as requested by a few people. I have not made up my mind defo on this yet but I think I still prefer the fast one :) I am working on one with impact statements right now, thanks to Jose and Ron, The Godfather….
Update Feb 23
First files for the free video came from Randy Fountain of www.trafficspeedway.com and I have been having great fun looking for music to suit his chosen genre. Would be vice for someone to ask for Punk, Heavy Metal or even some decent Viking War music, not sure if Sabaton have any Creative Commons releases but that would certainly cause the kids to complain!
Tags: LTE, traffic exchange, traffic exchange script, video
I have used Data Center’s ever since the concept of dedicated servers has existed. A good data center is the key to a successful shared hosting service, ultimately your reputation depends on their ability to respond to problems when they occur.
I have always wanted more from a data center than just good equipment and good service. Why could they not proactively respond to service alerts? It would make sense as the kind of support personnel you need are right there in their office 24/7.
Some data center’s offer better service for an additional fee but this is no real improvement when you consider that you still have to manage the service. Sure you get immediate phone access, sure they provide “personal” attention but you still need to spend time working with them to get the problem fixed.
Proactive Support
Proactive support is the business of monitoring the services provided by your server and resolving situations either before or as soon as possible without the need for customer intervention.
For example, if the load on a server begins to threaten a service a member of support is notified and then takes the necessary action to solve it. As a dedicated server customers this is all I need in a neat package.
And there is only one company that offers this kind of support: Liquidweb
If anyone knows any others then please tell me their story.
An example of Liquidweb’s proactive support received this morning:
Hello,
This is a Liquid Web Monitoring Notification only, and requires no response
from you. Sonar Server Health Statistics and Monitoring Services are fully
explained here: http://liquidweb.com/services/sonar.html. If you would like
more information, please reply requesting it. If you would prefer to stop
receiving these notifications, please reply with “Disable”.For information about this and other services on your server, visit the Liquid
Web Knowledge base: http://kb.liquidweb.com/Our monitoring service detected that named was unresponsive on your server. We
were able to log in to your server and get the service responsive again.The following actions were taken to prevent this from happening again:
named unresponsive due to servers load, found much of the load to be from
mysql and mysql was set to the default, blank, configuration. Added the
following configuration based upon the servers memory.[mysqld]
max_connections = 250
safe-show-database
skip-locking
key_buffer = 128M
max_allowed_packet = 1M
table_cache = 256
sort_buffer_size = 2M
read_buffer_size = 2M
read_rnd_buffer_size = 2M
myisam_sort_buffer_size = 64M
query_cache_size= 32M
max_heap_table_size = 48M
tmp_table_size = 48M
thread_cache_size = 8
wait_timeout = 30
interactive_timeout = 300[mysqldump]
quick
max_allowed_packet = 16M[mysql]
no-auto-rehash[isamchk]
key_buffer = 96M
sort_buffer_size = 64M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2M[myisamchk]
key_buffer = 96M
sort_buffer_size = 64M
read_buffer = 2M
write_buffer = 2MRegards,
John VanBuskirk
Monitoring Team
Systems Administrator
Today a forum member posted comments from twitter support after they refused his API application:
Hello,
We apologize for the inconvenience, but we do not allow personal branding of Applications with Traffic Exchange URLs. I should also inform you that all of our external links from tweets are tagged “nofollow,” as such, tweeting from that source will not improve your search index ranking. If you are using that webpage as a landing page while you build a separate application, I recommend changing your APP URL to one that describes your application or organization appropriately, if your application is legitimate we will reconsider your suspension.
Regards,
Brian
API Support
I find these comments somewhat curious, although I do not know what question was asked by the traffic exchange owner their reply is reminiscent of the Stormpay “autosurf” fiasco a few years ago where all traffic exchanges were demonised by association.
An esoteric group of authorities have now tainted an entire industry, a popular one that has existed for a long time, because they don’t like it or perhaps see it as a threat. Google, Twitter, Blogger and sadly even the SEC to name a few.
What is so different between twitter and traffic exchanges? They both encourage people to share ideas and websites, albeit in different ways. Traffic exchanges have not sprung up overnight to make twitters life difficult (not that they could) and have been serving a growing number of customers since the early 90′s. It begs the question why twitter believe they are a legitimate application and a traffic exchange is not?
What does “legitimate” mean, does this mean a traffic exchange is illegal or are they referring to what a traffic exchange maybe used for?
A user can add a link to illegal content in a traffic exchange, but they can do the same on twitter so what’s the difference?
There is one obvious difference, for every succesful traffic exchange their is a proud owner making a profit, something the two owners of twitter have yet to achieve. Each traffic exchange owner has an emotional connetion to their business and consequently does everything in their power to keep it legal. I bet the ratio of passionate owners to users is a lot healthier than twitters!
Tags: traffic exchange, twitter
A new business model for the Internet
I’m not sure how many times I have heard those words. As someone involved in Internet startups on two sides of the investment fence they send a chill down my spine. Usually voiced by someone who thinks they have found the next eBay or Amazon killer application. Do you see many sites threatening their dominance? Its like suggesting Bing is the new way to Google.
Occasionally some old fashioned hogwash is regurgitated and described as “the new new Internet business model” or words similar to that. A couple of weeks ago newspapers announced they were going to start charging for access to read articles on their website. It makes you wonder who makes these decisions, surely no one who actually surfs the net could possibly think their material will be worth squat if it cannot be shared by Internet users such as bloggers and twitter publishers. Who will ever know they wrote anything behind their paywall?
They tried this before too. One of the papers announcing this new move is one of the papers that failed in 1999! What short memories they have or are they not mentioning because of the bad karma it would bring? Who knows. The only thing we know for sure is this won’t work. Why? Well if they hide their text behind a paywall Google won’t index it. If Google don’t index it then no one will know they wrote it. If they allow just Google through like the idiots at Expert Exchange then all you need to do is click the Google Cached link beside the link and you have the full story for free. End of.
If they could provide a compelling reason for people to pay up and read, en masse, they may have found a new business model, but honestly, the only reason I read papers online is I don’t like ink on my fingers.
Tags: internet marketing, news, online sales