IM Faceplate: a new contender in social media

Another social media site? Aren't there enough of them? I'm sure that's what you're thinking.

That's exactly what I thought when I got an invite to join IM Faceplate. But after joining and having a look around, I realized that some real thought and consideration had gone into the site design.

One of the nicest things about IM Faceplate is the ability to have multiple options for posting:

• live RSS feed from your blog(s) and Twitter account
• shout-out feature
• submit articles
• link to your YouTube account
• groups, discussions
• referral program and 'facepoints' for activity
• etc.

Check out IM Faceplate today, I'm sure you'll agree it's here to stay:

Super Word of Mouth: The Facebook of Marketing

In just 6 short months, SWOM - Super Word of Mouth - has grown in membership to a very impressive 117,000 members, and counting. That's quite remarkable for such a young site.

• SWOM is built on the idea of a marketing community for old and new alike
• Share your ideas, experiences and also your favorite places to do business
• Ask and answer questions at the Open University
• Make as many contacts as you wish, there is no daily limit
• Best of all, you are paid for your activity! (Unlike Facebook or Twitter)

The points you make for your activity can be used to pay for your membership. You don't have to be a paid member if you care not to, however free accounts have reduced functionality.

I paid for my first month (in May), but since then, with the points I've made from 'Swomming' (as they call it), I've paid for my June, July and August membership. The monthly is $25 and well worth the investment, if you have enough time to be a 'Swommer' and network yourself and your biz opps there.

Click the image below to visit SWOM and join for free.

Email solo ads are a viable option with ListJoe

I joined ListJoe about a month ago, and a few things impressed me immediately: first, the site was simple, clean looking and easy to navigate. Second, the credits system is superior to most other credit-based traffic sites out there. I'll explain with some comparative stats:

EasyHits4U: 1/1 ratio (view an ad, get 1 credit)
Traffic Ad Bar: variable ratio (view an ad, get 3 or more credits)
Traffic Swarm: variable ratio (view an ad, get 1 or more credits)
State of the Art Mailer: variable ratio (3-5 credits usually)
Sweeva: 2/1 ratio
ListJoe: 10/1 ratio, variable up to 40/1 ratio

So as you can see, the ListJoe value is very high. Assuming you sign up you should take advantage of their "10,000 credits for $7" offer, it's well worth it.

Click the image below to sign up:

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Traffic Exchanges: get your site seen

One of the numerous ways to advertise your business is to join a Traffic Exchange, or 'TE'.

These sites operate on a very simple principle: "show me yours, and I'll show you mine".

By viewing other users' sites, you gain credits that go toward displaying your sites. The more sites you view, the more credits you earn. This is called "surf to earn". But if don't have the time to surf (and it does take time), then most TEs also offer the option of purchasing your credits. Either way, you can ensure that your sites get viewed.

I've been working with a number of TEs for a few months now. Some are very good, and some not quite so good. Rather than concentrate on the TEs I've found to be less effective, I shall focus instead on the ones that have worked well for me.

The biggest downside to TEs is that a significant percentage of users are there simply to gain credits and are not interested in anyone else's products. This has led many to criticize all TEs as being a waste of time. However, I have found a few of them to be worthwhile as they have resulted in clicks and conversion. My current favorites are listed below.

1) EASYHITS4U
EasyHits4U has been around for a long time, in Internet years. The site was established in 2004 and currently has over 280,000 members, with thousands added daily, so it won't be long before they surpass the 300,000 mark.

EasyHits4U is my current #1 choice for a number of reasons: i. ease of use; ii. multitude of options, iii. clean, professional looking site. With a free account, you get 1 credit per view on a 20 second timer, if you upgrade to a paid account (only $7/month), you get 1 credit per view on a 15 second timer.

One of the nicest features at EasyHits4U is the Easy Splash Maker, which works with styled text and allows images and links to be placed in your splash page.

Click the banner below to visit EasyHits4U:



#2) SWEEVA
Sweeva is one of the newest TEs, but has gained popularity at a swift pace, with more than 18,000 active users. This TE distinguishes itself with a very clean and simple interface, and is set up like a roleplaying game in that you have level ups, ranks and experience points. This makes "Sweeving" quite fun. Another distinction is that a live comment feed has been joined to the surfing portion of the site, allowing users to comment on the effectiveness of others' campaigns.

After you have some points, then you need to place a bid for the site you want viewed. If the bid isn't high enough (e.g. if you bid only 5 or 10 credits), your site will not get viewed. Successful bids start higher, around 80 to 100 credits will guarantee multiple viewings.

Click the banner below to visit Sweeva:



#3) TRAFFIC AD BAR
This was one of the first TEs I joined, and though it doesn't look quite as professional as EasyHits4U or Sweeva, I do find it a worthwhile TE to be part of. A nice feature of the site is the "Level Ladder" which shows quite clearly who the most successful members of the site are.

Click the banner below to visit Traffic Ad Bar:

Website Tester: get paid to review websites

Website Tester is a completely free program (so they say) that is in pre-launch. Registered users will get paid to submit their opinions on various websites. They can also build downlines to collect commissions. The site promises to be multilingual, which is welcome news for non-English speaking countries.

Many thousands have joined already, and there are 2 categories of sign-ups:

• Team - this is your downline of direct referrals.
• Group - this is your downline of everyone who has joined after you.

I joined Website Tester about 2 months ago, and the results of my promotion are very promising indeed. My team is currently at 151, and my group is currently over 100,000. These numbers will supposedly yield a potential income of over $2,300 per month!

Website Tester launches at the end of August, so join up ASAP. Click the image above to visit the site.