Reminder: Ranger Stations are only available to (level) and above...
this is a feature of our professional membership.
What is a Ranger Station?
In a nutshell, a Ranger Station is a special setting you can apply to sites
on our traffic exchange. This setting has two side-effects: The sites
always show in the same order, and they show together to a user.
Let's touch on how the traffic exchange normally works, and the power of
this will become a little more evident. Normally, our traffic exchange
runs what we call "2-way level loading". That means that surfers will
run through the active member list in order during surfing, and will see 1
site from each member (providing they have credits, of course). Now
each member has a record so that their sites are shown equally: each time
their account is called, it advances to the next site in the user's list.
To illustrate normal level loading, let's talk about an exchange
containing 3 eligible users, each of whom has 2 sites to show: if no one
else was surfing, a user would see the following:
User 1's first site
User 2's first site
User 3's first site
User 1's second site
User 2's second site
User 3's second site
In reality, other people surfing will affect what the user sees.
Sheer coincidence will mean that some users see User 1's first site many
more times, while others see User 2's site many more times. It all
balances out, which is why it's called 'level loading'... users and sites
will both be pretty equivalent over time. In a level-load, every user
and every site within a user's table will get a proportionate amount of
hits, and the order will seem random to the user.
Since surfing is a visual activity, and you have, at the very most, 30
seconds per page to get your message across, it's hard to convey a
sophisticated message. Also, repetition of a message, with small
variations, is known to be more effective advertising. This led us to
the concept of Ranger Station.
A Ranger Station affects the surfing sequence in both dimensions: The surfer
will see the same user again, and will see pages in a specific order.
Going back to the example above, let's look at the change in surfing
sequence if 2 had his sites in a Ranger Station. The surfing sequence
would change to this:
User 1's first site
User 2's first site (Ranger Station trigger)
User 2's second site (Ranger Station terminus)
User 3's first site
User 1's second site
User 2's first site (Ranger Station trigger)
User 2's second site (Ranger Station terminus)
User 3's second site
So, in 8 hits on this exchange, user 2 got extra hits because of the Ranger Station. This does mean more users will go through your site over a
given time period. This is part of why we have the pro requirement:
pros get more monthly credits on their anniversary, and so can afford the
greater expense of the greater traffic volume.
The other thing to note is that other surfers will not interfere with
display order when the viewer is in a Ranger Station. Sites in a
Ranger Station always show in the exact same order each time.
Should I put all my sites in a Ranger Station?
Generally, no. Ranger Station work best for a group of related
pages... maybe 2-4 pages describing the same thing different ways (like our
intro pages), or a few related sites (like different clicks-for-cash sites).
Will a user know they're in a Ranger Station?
Not unless you tell them.
How many pages can fit in a Ranger Station, and how many Ranger Stations can I
have?
You can have up to 8 pages in a Ranger Station. How many you may have is based on your upgrade level. A (level) may have (count)
Ranger Stations, and a (toplevel) may have up to (count) Ranger Stations.
What do I do, in what order, to build a Ranger Station?
Get all the sites you want in the Ranger Station approved. To keep
them out of rotation, mark them as 'exclusive' sites.
Go back to the Manage Sites page after the sites are approved,
and click on 'Add Ranger Station'
Pick the pages you want, in the order you want them
Important! Do NOT pick the same site twice
Once you've saved the Ranger Station record, make sure that only
the first site is non-exclusive
That's it... once a user pulls the first page from your Ranger Station, the
will see all your pages from that Ranger Station in order. Even if they
stop surfing, or switch between auto and manual surf, they will continue
through your Ranger Station before moving on to the next user.
What if a site gets warned or paused?
As long as the first site in the Ranger Station is not warned or paused, all
eligible pages in the Ranger Station will show. Warned or paused pages
will simply be 'skipped over'.
If the first site gets warned or paused, that blocks the whole
Ranger Station.
Can I use credit assignment on Ranger Station pages?
Yes. When a site with assigned credits reaches a 0 balance, it is,
in effect paused. So the only thing to be careful about is that the
first site doesn't run out of credits before the follow-on sites do, or you
will be stuck with non-displaying sites.
