Really Smart Deals Blog

How to Add Your Banners to RSD

Add/Edit Banners

Here is where you add your banner ads for approval into our banner
rotations.

Banners that are submitted to the Really Smart Deals Site Rotation are also viewed on other Traffic Exchanges and on Websites across the Net!

We have a banner “rotator” code for Members to use on their Websites and blogs. This code “rotates” Really Smart Deals Member Banners and brings additional banner credits to the Members who promote Really Smart Deals banner ads on their outside Sites.

Banner advertising is huge across the web. You can visit almost any Website and find a banner advertisement somewhere on their pages!

On your side bar Menu, click on Add/Edit Banners:

OR:

On your Members Tools page click on Add/Edit Banners:

As a free member you are allowed to add 15 banners in the size of 468×60 to our Really Smart Deals Site Rotation.

This is where your banners are seen on the surf bar of RSD.

As long as you have banner credits in your account your banners will be seen.

Add/Edit Banners:

Click on the AD NEW button.

This screen will open:

Here is where you add your banner information

Add your description. (a short description of your banner for your records only)

Add your Image URL (only .gif, .jpg, .jpeg, or .php are accepted)

(You can host your images on: http://photobucket.com or
http://www.thecraftmeet.co for free!)

Now put in your Destination URL-this is the site or item you want displayed when someone clicks on your banner.

We only accept banners in the size of 468×60 into the Really Smart Deals Site Rotation.

Do NOT check on pause.

Now click on the green S

That will save your banner information.

The red X is for deleting the entire banner ONLY.

Your banners are then submitted to the Really Smart Deals Admins for approval before they are added to the Banner Rotation.

You must have banner credits available for your banners to be seen.

To get more banner credits to your account you can do that a few ways.
Free Banner Credits for referring new Members to Really Smart Deals!

1. When you refer a new member and the new member is active. ( surfs 25 or more sites) you will receive Really Smart Deals Credits!

2. You can convert your hit credits or text credits into banner impressions.

3. You can always buy more banner credits

4. You can up grade your account from a free member to a pro member and get banner credits added to your account every month.

5. Surf!

We have a great new tool that you can use to easily see which banners you have added to your Really Smart Deals account and also check your statistics of: how many times your banners have been seen and how many times they have been “clicked on”!

If you have any questions regarding adding Banners to Really Smart Deals, please submit a Support Ticket and we will do our best to help!

How to Add or Edit Websites

Before adding urls to Really Smart Deals, you need to make sure your browser will allow “pop ups”.

Here are directions on how to allow Pop Ups from Really Smart Deals:

To set your Pop-Up Blocker: Please click on your browser’s “Tools”, then click on “Pop-up Blocker Settings”, and add
www.reallysmartdeals.com to your Blocker Setting.

This will allow our site verification window to “pop up” when you submit your url’s to the Really Smart Deals Site Rotation.
We do not allow sites with “pop-ups” in the Really Smart Deals Site Rotation or Sites that “break” our surf bar frame.
This is where you list your urls. (Stores, Websites, Auctions)

On your Left side Navigation Menu:

OR:

(On your Members Tools Page)

You have a 2 different ways to add your urls.

The 1st is the URL Quick Adder

To use the Url Quick Adder drop down menu:

1. Click on the black arrow.

2. Now choose what auction site you sell on from the Drop Down List that appears after clicking the black arrow:

(Not all Selling Sites are listed. But we do accept requests!)

3. Click on the Add button to the left.

3. You need to enter only your item number where it says “Website ID”. Each selling site is a little different. If you need help identifying your item number, please contact your Site administrator, or place a Support Ticket in Really Smart Deals and we will help you.

IMPORTANT: please do not use the entire url when adding items to Really Smart Deals

using the Quick Url Adder. Use only Item numbers from your selling site.

4. Select the Category of the item you are adding where it says “General”.

5. Now click on the timer for how many days the auction is

running and/or how long you wish the url to be active. 7 days is a standard for Auction Listings, but you may select a longer period of time (up to 31 days) if the item you are listing on Really Smart Deals will be active longer, such as a Store or Website Listing.

6. At the bottom click on “Save Urls”. If you do not save your items, they will be lost and you will have to repeat the entire process.

Please do not put your store name in the website ID

*******
STORE LINKS GO HERE:

You will find this area just below the Quick Url Adder:

Instruction to Add Links

1. Click on the [Add New] box to Add New Sites into rotation for *Viewing*. This is where you put the full link (url) for auctions, auction stores, website store, blogs, etc.

EXAMPLE:

http://reallysmartdeals.com

2. Add your full Web Address starting with http:// where the Red Arrow is pointing to

“URL”.

3. Next select your item or Website’s Category in the Area where it says “Category”(the Blue Arrow points to where you can click to have the drop down list of all Really Smart Deals item and site categories appear).

4. Click on the Timer and select how many days you want your url (links) to stay in rotation. This is important. (Green Arrrow)

5. After adding your URL, selecting a Category and the Time you wish your item to be active on the site, you must click the Green “S” to SAVE it.

Or, you may select the Red X (Blue arrow) to delete the url if you have made an error or an item you have listed has been sold.

5. You may also check the “Pause” Box to stop delivering credits to your websites.

This is what your entry will look like once you have saved it. Each url submitted is reviewed by the Really Smart Deals Administration before it is allowed into the Site Rotation. Once approved, your url will begin receiving views from other Really Smart Deals Members.

6. Click on the Green “E” Icon to Edit your Sites.

Note: If you only enter your site into rotation one time, it will get far fewer hits than if you enter it multiple times. You may submit the same url up to 6 times as long as it is entered using at least 2 different categories.

Because all urls entered into the Really Smart Deals Site Rotation have an expiration time set, once that time has been reached, the url will be deleted from the site and you will need to resubmit the url or enter a new url to replace the expired entry.

The next section will help you enter your Banners into Really Smart Deals for their viewing.

How to get started on Really Smart Deals

Now that you know what a Traffic Exchange is and how it works to help you drive traffic to your Web Site, let’s help you get started on Really Smart Deals.

You will need to become a Member of Really Smart Deals by going to our Site here: http://www.reallysmartdeals.com and click on the Menu where it says

“Sign Up”

You will open this page:

There are no lengthy forms to complete. Just choose a user name, one that you can be identified by in the Site and in our Newsletters and enter an active email address where we can send you your Really Smart Deals Membership information. (Please make
sure you carefully read the User Agreement and our Privacy Statement!) Important Information.

All new Really Smart Deals Members are registered as Free Members. This gives you an opportunity to try the site before you decide if you would like to upgrade your account to one of our Paid (Pro) Memberships or remain as a Free Member. We will explain the difference in our Free and Paid Membership Levels more thoroughly.

You will receive an email from Really Smart Deals at the email address you registered with-why it is important to use a valid email address!-containing the information you will need to know on how to verify your Really Smart Deals account and how to log in to your new account.

Follow the instructions in your email to verify your email address and use the log in information that is also provided there to begin using Really Smart Deals.

Each Member has a Site generated password assigned to their account when they first register. You may choose to either keep that site assigned password, or change your password to something you like better once you have logged into your Really Smart Deals account.

To change your password, click:

on your left Menu bar or:

on your Member’s Tools Page.

You will be taken to your Profile Page:

Please make sure you jot down your new password somewhere safe! But, it is good to know that if you forget your password, Really Smart Deals will remember it for you! Simply go to Really Smart Deals log in page:

Enter the email address you registered with and leave the password field blank. Your password will be send to your registered email address and you can come back to Really Smart Deals and log in!

Now that you are a member of Really Smart Deals, what do you do first?

Most Traffic Exchanges-including Really Smart Deals-require that you surf a few pages to become an active Member of the Exchange. We ask that you “surf” 25 pages to activate your Really Smart Deals account.

What is “surfing”? In the Traffic Exchange industry it does not require water or a surfboard! We refer to viewing pages that are in the Traffic Exchange site rotation as “surfing”…so activating your account is very simple!

At Really Smart Deals, you will need to find:
on your left side navigation menu or:
on your Really Smart Deals Members Tools page.

Either of these links can be clicked and you will be taken to the Really
Smart Deals Surfing Area.

At Really Smart Deals we have 2 Surf Bars which you will see at both the Top and Bottom of the page once you have entered the Surfing Area. Let’s just talk about how you surf for now and we will cover more details about the surf bars as you become familiar with the surfing area. Here is how you make the pages rotate on Really Smart Deals:Please locate the shopping tags which you will find on the Top Left Side of
the Surf Bar when you first enter the surfing area:

Everything that happens once you begin surfing is based on a “timer”. Each Traffic Exchange is set up differently according to the Site Owner. The timer determines how long you view a page in the Site Rotation. On Really Smart Deals the timer is set for 10 seconds per page for Free Member Accounts.

Under the words: “Choose to Shop” you will see a colored price tag and 4 different colored tags to the right.

On Really Smart Deals we have what is called “Hover Surf”. This means you do not have to click your mouse each time you wish to turn the page on the site. All you need to do is find the color tag that matches the one on the left and point your mouse arrow on that matching tag and the next page in the Site Rotation will be visible.

Once the next page is viewable, you will see numbers counting down from 10…

Once the timer has counted down to zero, the shopping tag images will appear again and you can match the colored tag on the left to the one that is the same color in the row of 4, point your mouse at the matching tag and you will see a new page and the timer will start again.
This is viewing pages or also known as “surfing”.

Every 5 pages, the tags will move to the bottom surf bar. This is a feature Traffic Exchange owners use to keep the pages looking interesting to you! But they continue to work the same.

The next section on the Surf Bar you will want to know about is to the right of the tags. For now, we will concentrate on the area called “This Session” as you can see indicated by the red arrow.

“This Session” number keeps track of how many pages you have viewed in the Really Smart Deals Site Rotation during this “surfing” session. Once that number has reached 25, you will have activated your Really Smart Deals account and can now enter your urls and websites into the Really Smart Deals rotation!

At this point you have joined Really Smart Deals, verified your account and become an active Member of Really Smart Deals!

The next section of this lens tells you how to add your urls, banners and text ads into the Really Smart Deals Site. Once you have done those steps you will begin receiving Traffic to your Store Items, Auction Listings, Websites or whatever shopping related sites you are promoting.

This process will feel a bit strange at first, but if you continue to use Really Smart Deals to bring Traffic to your items for sale, you will soon become familiar with the process and it will not take you long to do!

How to Get Started on Really Smart Deals

Now that you know what a Traffic Exchange is, how it works to help you drive traffic to your Web Site, let’s help you get started on Really Smart Deals.

You will need to become a Member of Really Smart Deals by going to our Site here: http://www.reallysmartdeals.com and click on the Menu where it says

“Sign Up”

You will open this page:

Follow the instructions in your email to verify your email address and use the log in information that is also provided there to begin using Really Smart Deals.

Each Member has a Site generated password assigned to their account when they first register. You may change that to something you like better once you have logged into your Really Smart Deals account.

To change your password, click:

on your left Menu bar or:

on
your Member’s Tools Page.

You will be taken to your Profile Page:

Please make sure you jot down your new password somewhere safe! In case you forget your password, Really Smart Deals will remember it for you! Simply go to Really Smart Deals log in page:

Enter the email address you registered with and leave the password field blank. Your password will be send to your registered email address and you can come back to Really Smart Deals and log in!

Now that you are a member of Really Smart Deals, what do you do first?

At Really Smart Deals, you will need to find:
on your left side navigation menu or:
on your Really Smart Deals Members Tools page.

Either of these links can be clicked and you will be taken to the Really
Smart Deals Surfing Area.

Under the words: “Choose to Shop” you will see a colored price tag and 4 different colored tags to the right.

Once the next page is viewable, you will see numbers counting down from 10…

Once the timer has counted down to zero, the shopping tag images will appear again and you can match the colored tag on the left to the one that is the same color in the row of 4, point your mouse at the matching tag and you will see a new page and the timer will start again. This is
viewing pages or also known as “surfing”.

Every 5 pages, the tags will move to the bottom surf bar. This is a feature Traffic Exchange owners use to keep the pages looking interesting to you! But they continue to work the same.

The next section on the Surf Bar you will want to know about is to the right of the tags. For now, we will concentrate on the area called “This Session” as you can see indicated by the red arrow.

At this point you have joined Really Smart Deals, verified your account and become an active Member of Really Smart Deals!

Why use Really Smart Deals?

I know it is difficult when you are an online seller to see what advantages there really are to using a Traffic Exchange for your business. It seems like such a large time investment and what, if anything can YOU or your business gain from using a Traffic Exchange?

Personally, I was always a little skeptical about using Traffic Exchanges for my business. In the past, I relied on the Selling Site where I was listing my items for sale to do the marketing/advertising for me. But the “times they are a-changing” as someone once said and now it is even more true.

Selling sites normally are about getting Members and getting them to list their items for sale. If you make sales, that is great with them and most sites will do what they can to advertise. But most selling sites who charge listing fees, receive their fees no matter if you sell your items or not. That is where their profit comes from, and there is nothing wrong with that. Businesses are in business to make money. The little “catch” to that is, you may have listing fees or store fees regardless of whether you have made any money (as in selling your items!) Businesses are in business to make money, but so are you!

Speaking from personal experience only, I joined the online selling community in 2005.
Having some experience with customer service and direct sales but none with online selling, I did not realize that even though it is a different platform than face-to-face, or over-the-counter, YOU are still the most important part of your success formula, no matter what other “tools” you have available to you!

So, what does all that have to do with Traffic Exchanges? and why you should use them?

These are the reasons I personally think using a Traffic Exchange is an important part of your advertising plan:

#1. Traffic exchanges are (for the most part) either Free to use or have low cost upgraded Memberships. (We all like the “Free” part, right?)

#2. Traffic exchanges: deliver Traffic (page views) to your Website, Affiliate Message, Items for Sale, Selling Site or whatever url you are

promoting. Traffic/Page Views help with your ranking in Search Engines.

#3. Becoming a Member of a Traffic Exchange means that you are joining a “community” that is populated with other like-minded
individuals who desire the same results that you do.

#4. Activity is the KEY to making a Traffic Exchange Membership work FOR you. This is what “evens the field” in a Traffic Exchange compared to other forms of advertising. Yes, there are Paid Memberships in Traffic Exchanges but that usually just means those individuals don’t have to work quite as hard as a Free Member does, but on most Traffic Exchanges, even those who have a paid Membership must surf (view urls/pages) to keep their own urls/pages in the site rotation. This is an exchange of efforts. I see your page and you see mine.

#5. You can pick up marketing tips from viewing other member’s sites and pages! Maybe someone has a nice “Splash” page or Website Design or an item for sale you just can’t resist! Presentation, including images, Item Titles, item descriptions, can all help you “hone” your selling techniques.

#6. A little competition can go a long way towards motivation! Really Smart Deals has a Surfing Competition every week! Our Top 10 Surfers receive the most recognition since they have made the most effort. However, we also now recognize ALL of our Members who surf at least 25 pages during the Weekly Surfing Competition!

#7. Membership has it’s rewards also! You can earn bonus credits in addition to your regular surfing credits that can be applied to your
sites, banners and text ads, and even recognition (and sometimes bonuses) just for referring others to Really Smart Deals!!

There are a multitude of Traffic Exchanges to choose from and it can benefit you to be a member of more than one Exchange. But there are only a few niche Traffic Exchanges geared towards bringing Traffic to real online sellers of real products.

Really Smart Deals is a niche Traffic Exchange.
Our site pages are filled with wonderful items for sale from terrific sellers who list their items on a variety of selling sites.

I hope this little article will help you in some way to understand a little more about Traffic Exchanges and how they can actually help you grow your business.

This post presents only my own personal views why I believe Traffic Exchanges should be a part of an online seller’s Advertising Plan.

Using a Traffic Exchange does not guarantee your business’s success. But they are one more Tool that you can use to help deliver traffic to your site(s) and items for sale!

What is a Traffic Exchange?

A Traffic Exchange, according to Widipedia is: “a type of website which provides a service for webmasters in exchange for traffic. It is similar to the autosurf concept with the exception that traffic exchanges usually use a manual rotation.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_exchange

That is a description of Traffic Exchanges in general…a Traffic generating system that allows you to receive exposure and traffic to your web site, banner ads, and even text links by viewing the sites and ads of other people.

There are many benefits to participating in a Traffic Exchange:

* They’re an inexpensive – often free – method of generating targeted traffic to your website.

* You will start seeing an increase in traffic almost immediately. No waiting for weeks or months to see results, as is often the case with other forms of advertising.

* They can be a great way to test ad copy for use with other, more expensive forms of advertising such as Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns.

* Depending on the rules of the particular Traffic Exchange Site you are using, you can build a “downline” by referring others, which allows you to earn additional site credits. If you build an effective downline, over time, a large portion of your traffic can be generated by the efforts of others and not harm their efforts in any way.

* You will gain exposure to other sellers products and services, which may give you excellent marketing ideas for promoting your site.

One of the absolute best ways to get free – or very cheap – targeted traffic today is by participating in a Traffic Exchange!

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