TrafficWave Autoresponder Review
If you're trying to figure out if TrafficWave is the right autoresponder for you, make sure that you check out this review.
While TrafficWave was a bargain a decade ago, the autoresponder software field has changed greatly in recent years.
Find out if you should or shouldn't use this system for lead generation and to automate your marketing campaigns.
In this TrafficWave review, I'll go over the pros and cons of their system. I used to be a TrafficWave fanboy, but things have greatly changed over the years. So before you commit to their system, you should fully read this review.
Traffic - it's what every single website owner wants to have more of. Creating quality traffic has always been the main goal for any kind of site - from online stores, personal blogs to advertising sites. Luckily for website owners, there are now a number of Internet tools that can be used to increase website traffic.
One of the most popular today is the TrafficWave.net Autoresponder by Brian Rooney. If you are interested, read on a little more and get a no-nonsense Traffic Wave Autoresponder review.
The Benefits of TrafficWave
Traffic Wave Autoresponder features unlimited ad trackers that let you monitor the performance of each and every ad you make online. This way, you can continue on with ads that bring in traffic and stop using those that are not giving you any hits at all. They let you track online ads, Autoresponder letters and links to help you manage your advertising schemes better and more efficiently. Another great feature mentioned in many Traffic Wave Autoresponder review sites is its Lead Generation Page which can help you generate more leads by exchanging text links for advertising - a smart and ingenious way to get exposure. And last but definitely not least, Traffic Wave Autoresponder also has an affiliate program which gives its users the opportunity to earn money together with the company.
Traffic Wave vs Aweber
Compared to other autoresponder programs like Aweber, Traffic Wave Autoresponder has a much cheaper sign-up fee and they have unlimited campaigns and subscribers - all for the single price of $17.95. Also, they have a high deliverability rate. This info is coming directly from SenderScore.com (Return Path), a 3rd party company that ranks email senders deliverability rate.
SenderScore Rankings
Here's a quick test using my autoresponder IP and an IP from Aweber. These are raw results coming from SenderScore.com
- TrafficWave (IP: 206.222.160.91)
- Aweber (IP: 204.194.223.113)
Scores above 90% are excellent. I've tested out several popular free email providers and some were as low as 72%. Scores fluctuate over time. At the time of writing this, TrafficWave has a score of 93% and Aweber has a score of 97%.
5/2021 Update:
You can also view email reputation using Cisco Talos:
TrafficWave
Aweber
If you're interested in using Aweber, click here.
10/2021 Update:
I've also been using GetResponse. I've included their Cisco Talos link below:
GetResponse
If you're interested in using GetResponse, click here.
Brian Rooney (from TrafficWave) has managed to keep the scores high by enforcing a double opt-in only policy.
At first, I didn't like the sound of that since it seemed a bit limiting. However, after testing out autoresponders for the last several years, I've realized that double opt-in is really the way to go if you want to filter out fake emails.
Let's face it, there are a bunch of people that fill out opt-in forms with bogus info.
Having the ability to deliver a message to people that confirm and really want to receive the email is what I'd like to do - and Traffic Wave will certainly do the job at an affordable rate.
If you're looking for a higher delivery rate, then go with Aweber.
If you're promoting affiliate offers, I recommend GetResponse as they're more affiliate friendly.
Traffic Wave Makes It Easy For Beginning List Builders
When I first started building my list, the first thing that I had a hard time with was creating the actual messages in the autoresponder sequence. It wasn't the content part, it was setting them up in the autoresponder. I've tested out most of the major autoresponders, including Aweber and Getresponse, and it wasn't so easy to fix or manage the sequence.
For example, let's say that you start up a list and you try to do minimal work - creating 1 sequential message per month. Then let's say that you want to add more so messages get sent out once every 2 weeks...then eventually, once every day or 2. While most autoresponders allow that, they don't really make it as easy as TrafficWave does. It's all in the interface and Brian Rooney has made it extremely simple through the AutoResponder Campaign Manager.
TrafficWave Campaign Manager: Automated Follow-up Letters
Once a campaign is selected, you can then add a day after the initial subscription date in the "# Days Delay" column. To edit a letter, you would simply click on the magnifying glass button to the left of the letter name. You'll be prompted with the "AutoResponder Letter Editor" interface as shown below. This will allow you to add and edit content, as well as add tokens, chain autoresponders together, or add tracking links. The tracking links are not automatically created. TrafficWave provides an AdTracker interface to create links to gain valuable metrics from.
TrafficWave Letter Editor: Use a Rich Text / HTML Editor to Compose Your Emails
With all of that being said, it doesn't have a bunch of bells and whistles yet like fancy opt-in forms or extreme tracking reports. That's not a big deal for me. Even when I was with Aweber, I made my open opt-in forms and a lot of the other features were overkill. In business, it's great if you can reach your goals and keep things simple.
TrafficWave Campaign Statistics: Graphs and Tabular Report. Displaying a Campaign with 0 Leads.
Frequently Asked Questions about TrafficWave
Free Online Business Building System for Amplifying Your Income: Get a direct marketing and selling system that includes your own blogging system, lead capture pages, email marketing system, free training, a way to build your own sales pages, a way to get traffic - an all-in-one system, get your free account.
What do you like the most about TrafficWave?
It's the most affordable system that I've used. For the price, it's great for those on an extremely tight budget.
What are the reasons why I shouldn't use TrafficWave?
With a low-cost autoresponder solution, there are some drawbacks. If you're looking to build a huge list on the system, it will work. However, what's important to me is the customer experience.
There are times when I want to use single opt-in. For example, with paid ads in Facebook. The system only allows double opt-in. That means that users need to confirm via email. Not all markets are used to double opt-in and so they don't click on the confirmation link. This greatly reduces conversions in some markets. The benefit of double opt-in is that it reduces garbage leads such as people that add fake emails just to get a free report that you might be offering.
The interface is a bit outdated. Since the advent of mobile phones, updates to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript have allowed web designers to create templates that adapt to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. TrafficWave is far behind and I'm wishing for the day that they dramatically change their interface.
From an email reader perspective, the content can't be formatted well. Newer autoresponder systems allow email publishers to greatly customize the layout of emails using drag-and-drop technologies. Unfortunately, TrafficWave doesn't have the ability to do that. It doesn't allow me to create text-only emails for all email blasts, so I wasn't able to strip out the poor layout.
7/2022 Update:
If you're looking for integration into popular systems, TrafficWave now allows integrations via Zapier. So if you wanted to integrate with Google Sheets, or a more robust CRM, you can do that and bunch more. This feature is huge for TW users. Learn more.
Is the interface mobile friendly?
When I tested it on my iPhone and Android phone, it was a bit cumbersome to use it as an administrator. When I received my test email, the font size didn't represent what I had set in the letter editor. I believe this is due to the signature block within the email template. The CSS can't be changed on it, so it impacts the styling of the email. So even if I add larger fonts, it doesn't show up correctly in my Gmail account.
Can I use it for any business?
While TrafficWave is very popular in the Business Opportunity space, you can use it for any type of business where you can use lead generation. I've had clients that have used to for a real estate business or attorneys that send out client newsletters via email.
Do they allow you to easily import leads from other autoresponder or e-commerce systems?
This is a toughie. In most cases, many autoresponder / email marketing companies are uptight when it comes to importing lists. I've seen some people buy cold leads and try to import them into a paid system. In many cases, you'll have to prep those leads as they'll get a confirmation email to join the new list. If you don't want the confirmation email to go out, that's impossible with TrafficWave since it only provides double opt-in (ie. forced confirmation emails).
What do you think about the business opportunity model? Do they have a good affiliate program?
TrafficWave.net was popular many years ago since it was one of the few, if not only, multi-level autoresponder affiliate programs around. While MLM's have attractive commissions structures, they also have a lot of bad press. I've met several affiliates that switched their promotions from TrafficWave to other systems because of the things that I've mentioned above and because they wanted to stay away from MLM companies. With that being said, TrafficWave is a solid company and they've paid out large sums of commissions.
My Final Recommendation
When I first published this article, I was all for TrafficWave. However, things have changed greatly over the years...mostly with the competition. After publishing this article, I've received a lot of feedback from visitors on how much a well-known competitor, Aweber, has advanced over the years. So I decided to check them out (for the 2nd time).
Their interface is more easy to use nowadays compared to Trafficwave. Another benefit is that many 3rd party services integrate well with Aweber, not so much with Trafficwave. Email marketing systems aren't that easy to switch out of if you want to maintain all of your leads in a single system.
Whether you're a beginner or advanced marketer and you're serious about building an email list with a high delivery rate, I highly recommend Aweber.
If you're focused on affiliate marketing, I highly recommend GetResponse as they're more affiliate friendly and integrate well with many affiliate platforms.
Free Online Business Building System for Amplifying Your Income: Get a direct marketing and selling system that includes your own blogging system, lead capture pages, email marketing system, free training, a way to build your own sales pages, a way to get traffic - an all-in-one system, get your free account.