Initial Observations

So I've now been using NoMoreClicking for almost a full 24 hour period. What do I actually think of it?

Slow. Tedious. Painfully boring.

But it generates so much traffic.

The hardest part at the moment is trying to decide what program to try next. I've seen a few that interest me, but I'm not entirely sure I want to travel the PTR (Paid to Read) email path. My inbox is struggling with the spam load as it is. Adding more on top of that and then actually having to weed the ones that will earn me coin from the ones that are just unsolicited isn't exactly an endearing prospect.

So I'm looking at other options that are around. At the moment, I'm thinking that the best and most likely way for me to earn some coin is with referrals to the various programs. I can sign up to an autosurf program, but thats not exactly going to make me much coin. Just generate a lot of traffic for my websites.

Which leads me on to an observation about the traffic.

Like pretty much every webmaster, I put counters on my sites so I can gather easy traffic data without having to parse through endless logs. Its SOP for pretty much everyone. The counters are different. I prefer to think of them as bugs, but that suggests spying, which its not.

Anyway, since signing up to NoMoreClicking and generating a whole heap of traffic to this blog, I've noticed a trend. Its very rare that people using the service actually look at or read the page thats opened. In fact, its so rare that I don't think any single person thats seen one of my sites in their rotation has actually read even the front page presented to them.

The other thing I have noticed is that the same sites get shown to the same people over and over and over in a single session. The person may not even be watching what they're looking at, just getting the same info over and over.

So my initial observation about the whole AutoSurfing world boils down to one thing. Its not so much about advertising as it is about generating traffic. For example, right now I'm typing this in to the browser while I have a seperate browser window scrolling through the adverts. I'm not giving it my undivided attention, but I am glancing at it now and then if something catches my eye.

And there lies the point. The flashiest website is going to be the one that catches more eyes, and therefore gets more real hits from people that open the site up outside of the rotators frame. This leads me to some interesting conclusions about this whole marketing strategy.

Here is a simple run down of how it works.

AutoSurfing is simply a framed web page with a counter on it. When the counter expires, another site is loaded in the main frame. The counter ticks down, then another site is loaded. Wash, rinse, repeat adnauseum.

For every two sites you visit this way, you will receive 1 credit back. A credit is essentially a bartering tool. You can use it to generate traffic to your site or you can save them up and sell them back to the Traffic Exchange site (or even other people.) For ever one credit you spend, you can get one view of your site. By assigning credits to your site, you're guaranteed to generate large amounts of traffic. Some of whom might be interested in your content and decide to stick around.

Of course, the obvious use for this is to generate traffic to an online web store of some kind. You do need to have the patience to sit there and keep track of your rotator window. There are some dodgy sites that break the frames or start trying to throw popups everywhere and so on.

The services are not stupid, but they are most definitely basic. Looking at all the various options out there, I can see why people would set themselves up doing this. Its not a dumb way to make money at all. It is a lot of effort if you're running the site, but it is a good way to earn coin.

However, being the schmuck that sits there with the rotator window open is probably the slowest way in the world to earn coin on the side. It won't be me much longer I think.