I have been up all night. My laptop caught a virus. A nasty one. I’ve used several different anti-virus software to remove it. It doesn’t seem to want to leave.
I am not a happy camper.
In fact, I’m pretty angry at the moment.
I shouldn’t have received it in the first place. I was running an anti-virus software at the time. Regardless, I know exactly where I caught the bugger…. Traffic Exchanges.
I had never even heard of Traffic Exchanges until I dove into the online world of building my small business. In fact, I had used a previous one rather successfully until the government shut it down.
I figured with the one I was currently using, there were others surfing the traffic exchange just like I was.
How naive… and stupid.
Since using this particular traffic exchange, I have had all sorts of spam comments trying to come through one of the blogs I loaded on that exchange. Clearly, there are not real people surfing on these Traffic Exchanges. They are merely bots.
False Traffic. Total Sham.
Then yesterday, my Anti-Virus software went nutty. It said it caught a Trojan and asked if I wanted to block it. Well, yea! Apparently it didn’t. I’m really not quite sure what happened there. An hour later I got a notice that my automatic updates were shut off. I tried to turn it back on, but couldn’t. Apparently, I caught the Virtumonde virus and I can’t get rid of it. I am currently running Microsoft’s Malware Extraction Tool. I hope it works. Otherwise, I may have to completely wipe that computer.
Two valuable lessons learned here that I hope you all take to heart:
1. Get an external hard drive to save your precious documents
2. STAY AWAY FROM TRAFFIC EXCHANGES!!
When it comes down to building a small or home based business, you need one thing….. people. REAL people. The best way to do that is network. Talk to people, get to know them and see if your small or home based business is capable of filling their needs.
There are truly no shortcuts. Building a real business is work. It requires talking to people, meeting with people and networking with people. It requires getting yourself out there and known.
No shortcuts.
Real work.
Lesson learned. I hope you learned something as well.
Until Next Time!
Tula Rainwater
http://www.tularainwater.com
Skype ID: tula4gsds
YIM: tula4gsds
6 Comments
December 28, 2008 at 7:40 pm
And odds are you won’t be profitable without owning your own strong base of free, targeted, PREsold traffic. Business Online
December 28, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I appreciate your comment, but I don’t agree. I did just fine with targeted traffic without using traffic exchanges.
If you know something about SEO, blogging, article writing and social networking there is no use for traffic exchanges. Clearly, they are not worth the risk of wiping your computer clean.
By building your OWN list of strong base targeted leads, you can easily build your own targeted traffic. You just have to know how.
Warm Regards,
Tula
December 28, 2008 at 10:03 pm
I am sorry for all of the problems that you are going through. I understand. I once had a trojan that wiped out my entire hard drive. That’s when I learned the value of backing up frequently and I got an external hard drive.
I have never used traffic exchanges. Just never felt safe to me. But it is not just the traffic exchange, it is also the anti-virus software. I know they can’t catch 100% but mine totally missed the boat.
I don’t agree that you need targeted, free leads. In my experience, they have never really amounted to any significant business for me.
I agree with you….people do business with people they know, like and trust. In today’s market, it isn’t going to be leads that puts us over the top…it is taking the time to develop personal relationships and delivering great value to our prospects and clients.
December 28, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Hi Susan,
I agree. You can have your anti-virus software completely up to date, but it will not take care of 100% of the viruses. You can be very careful (as I typically am) and still catch a virus. I just see no reason to increase your chances of getting a virus by the use of traffic exchanges. Social Networking works the best for me and that is clearly what I’ll be sticking to!
December 28, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Good post, Tula.
However, I’ve used traffic exchanges daily the past year and find it a great resource for traffic, building lists, and making sales. The fact is that you can get a virus, malware, spam and all kinds of problems by just using a pc on the internet. Its not the fault of TE, but of bad people.
The key is as you say, back up your system and keep current on your protection software. Because the problem makers will be out there to infect where ever they can. that’s why security is such a big market.
I also think you are very correct in using the many resources of building your online business via SEO, blogging, and Web 2.0 resources. Its all important – learn and use many methods of marketing.
to great success in 2009!
Arvell Lewis
December 28, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Hi Arvell,
I appreciate the fact that you have had sales from traffic exchanges and yes, you can get a virus from surfing anywhere on the internet. My question is this… why increase your chances by doing extra surfing that you wouldn’t normally do?
Let’s pose this question… what are people really doing on traffic exchanges? Very simply… they are clicking from one site to the next waiting for the timer to run out so they can earn credits. The credits they earn places their own website into the rotator of the traffic exchange for others to view. Some people don’t bother with earning credits by surfing and pay money to have their website in the rotator “x” amount of times.
So really, there’s no guarantee that there’s anyone even looking at your site when you submit it to the traffic exchange. There are also bots that make it look like your site is being viewed (point written in my blog about the bot comments trying to post on my blog).
SOOOOO, if there isn’t a guarantee that someone is actually looking at your site, if you increase your chances of catching a virus because you are doing MORE surfing than you normally would and you aren’t making millions using traffic exchanges, then why take the risk?
I simply see no value in it when there are much safer ways to generate traffic and sales. Increasing your exposure to viruses by increasing the number of sites you surf simply doesn’t seem like it’s worth the risk in my opinion. However, I certainly value yours and wish you continued success with your use of TE’s.