Hello all!

Several of you have been asking for the ability to control update scheduling in Traffic Travis, so last week we rolled out a new feature that gives you more control over how often each section of your projects update!

Now you can control the My Site, AdWords Competition, Search Rankings, Dashboard Image, Backlinks Count and Traffic Potential information to each update independently either Never, Daily, every 3 days, Weekly, Fortnightly or Monthly.

This feature means you can get information more often about the areas you really care about, while letting you reduce the frequency of the other sections, reducing your overall Internet usage (and chance of getting blocked by the search engines!)

To adjust the settings for existing projects, edit the project settings and click on the Update Settings tab.

Similarly, to adjust the settings for new projects, click on "Update Settings" on the New Project dialog.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Let us know in the comments!

Hello all,

As part of our ongoing development and improvements to Traffic Travis, our free SEO software, we've added a few new and important features recently that we wanted to let you know about:

Fully white-labeled reports

Although we've allowed you to brand your reports with your own logo since the first release of Traffic Travis v4, we still included Traffic Travis at the bottom of any exported reports.

As of the latest update, Traffic Travis will no longer be mentioned on any reports created in the professional version of Traffic Travis v4, meaning your reports can be fully whitelabeled!

This means your reports will be even more professional; you can present them to clients without any indication they were generated using Traffic Travis!

Automatic detection of Google External Tool problems

Traditionally when Traffic Travis starts experiencing issues with the Google External Tool, it's up to our team to detect it manually, which might take anywhere between a couple of hours and a day. We've now automated Traffic Travis to alert us from the moment you start encountering noticeable issues, so we can investigate and determine straight away if we need to release a fix. You'll also receive a message letting you know that we see there's a problem, and that we're looking into it.

This means that you can receive updates sooner, and keep using Traffic Travis as much as possible.

More natural timer delay

We've improved the way Traffic Travis interacts with search engines; we've updated the way the "timer delay" setting (which you can access in the File > Program Options > Internet page inside Traffic Travis) works, to reduce your chances of getting banned, and speed up your results. 

When you now enter a timer delay into Traffic Travis' program settings, we use that as an indication, and randomize the timer slightly so the search pattern appears more human to the search engines. The randomization means you will be far less likely to get temporarily blocked by them, and can continue getting results with no issues.

As part of this update, we've also adjusted the timer delay field so it requires a minimum of 1 second delay, and can have a maximum of 20 seconds; we recommend a delay of 6 if you have no proxies, down to 3 if you have more than 3 or 4 proxies.

Traffic Travis Referrals

It's now easier than ever to share Traffic Travis, and you can earn money for doing so! 

Click on the "Share Traffic Travis" button in the top-right hand corner of Traffic Travis; from here you'll be able to enter your ClickBank ID, and get an affiliate redirect you can share with friends and workmates, to let them know about this awesome tool! If any of them then upgrades to the professional version, you'll earn $50 commission!

The share tool also lets you post the affiliate link straight to FaceBook, to make things as easy as possible.

In order to create a share link from Traffic Travis you'll need a ClickBank account; it's free, and you can get started earning commissions as soon as you've signed up!

Thoughts? Suggestions? Let us know in the comments!

Hello all,

This Monday (February 20th, EST) Traffic Travis is getting a "big" change. Because it affects how Traffic Travis will update, and may cause a small issue for a number of you, we wanted to let you know about it.

This latest update will switch Traffic Travis to using a 'silent' updater. 

What this means is that when Traffic Travis gets an update in the future, it will download a small 'patch'. Then, when you click the yellow 'Install the latest version!', or if you restart Traffic Travis manually, the update will be automatically applied when Traffic Travis reopens, instead of asking you to click through the Traffic Travis installer.

What does that mean for you?

Once the update is installed you will:

1. Save time, since you no longer have to click through the Traffic Travis installer every time there's an update
2. Save bandwidth, because download sizes are now a lot smaller
3. Save hassle, because updates are more reliable

How to update

On Monday, when the update goes out, you will receive the normal 'Install the latest version!' button. 

When you click this and run the update, Traffic Travis will say Traffic Travis will now be uninstalled. This is necessary, so that we can reinstall Traffic Travis with the correct settings needed for this new update. It will not affect your databases. (However, we recommend regularly backing up your databases anyway; to do this, go to Help -> Open DB Folder in Traffic Travis).

Once the update is installed, Traffic Travis will now include the 'silent update' feature, to make updating smoother and easier for you. 

Possible issues

Although we've tested this on several different machines and versions of Windows, switching to this completely different method of updating may still cause a problem for a few of you, so we wanted to pre-empt a couple of questions:

I installed the Monday update, and now Traffic Travis won't start (Windows complains that TrafficTravisV4.exe can't be found)
Please download the installer, run it, and make sure you've chosen to put Traffic Travis shortcuts on at least one of: Start Menu, Quick Launch or Desktop. Otherwise the shortcuts in those locations will be pointing to the wrong place.

I installed the Monday update, and now Traffic Travis won't start (Other reason)
That's frustrating; you'll need to uninstall Traffic Travis then do a full install by downloading the installer.

I installed the Monday update, and Traffic Travis is now asking for my registration key
A couple of customers may be asked to re-enter their registration code after the latest update. Just enter your registration code and you should be able to continue without any issues!

Traffic Travis complains my registration key has been used too many times
Please contact Traffic Travis support and we'll reset your registration key as quickly as possible!

How can I change the start menu/desktop/quick launch icons?
You can now change these options from the Program Options menu inside Traffic Travis.

If you do encounter any issues, or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact Traffic Travis support.

And, if you haven't already, you can download your own copy of Traffic Travis absolutely free!

Isn't it nice when things just work?

If you use any SEO software besides Traffic Travis, you may have noticed that a few stopped working in the last couple of weeks.

You probably also didn't notice that Traffic Travis continued with almost no issues.

Google released an update to some of their tools in about the third week of January. We’ve heard it’s affected the ability of some SEO tools to check keyword rankings, keyword research, PageRank information and SEO information.

Even Travis was hit – the Keyword Research tool broke for a couple of days, but was promptly fixed.

Traffic Travis was otherwise unaffected, so we figured this was a good time to tell you how we make sure Travis stays up-to-date, and manages to keep giving you accurate SEO information (and how it mostly avoided problems with the latest Google change)

When something breaks

Every so often something in Traffic Travis breaks. Here’s what usually happens:

1. A module in Traffic Travis stops working
   99% of the time this is the result of a Google change.
2. Issue tracking kicks in
   We can never predict what, where or when a Google change has occurred, we have some automated methods for tracking this however that is not 100% so we also rely on support emails and our in house staff message direct to the developers raising issues.
3. We fix it
   Traffic Travis developers take a look at the incoming reports. A developer will aim start working on the problem within a day.
4. We give you an update
   Once the fix has been made and tested we release the update to you
5. Travis updates
   Travis downloads and installs the update; everything goes back to normal, as if nothing ever broke
6. Everyone’s happy again

When the latest Google update broke the Keyword Research tool in Traffic Travis, we found out, fixed the problem and sent you an update within just three days.

Your time and website is valuable, and you need to have access to your information as much as possible. So if something is affecting all Traffic Travis customers, our aim is to release a fix within days or hours, not weeks.

It’s worth repeating: if something breaks, we want to fix it in days, not weeks.

Three things in life are sure...

They say “There are two sure things in life: Death, and taxes”.

If we could change that for the Internet, it’d be “There are three sure things in life: Death, taxes, and software bugs”.

Even when there isn’t a major update to be released, we still update Traffic Travis every week with various fixes and tweaks.

Remember: we’ll continue to provide regular updates, at absolutely no cost, for the life of Traffic Travis 4.

Google’s latest update

So why was Traffic Travis less affected by the Google changes than some other SEO tools?

Travis is different.

It comes down to the way Traffic Travis downloads ranking and SEO information.

To ensure you get the most accurate results possible Travis enters your possible keywords straight into Google's tools, and then reads the information they give back.

However, there is a downside to the method Traffic Travis uses – because Travis enters the info straight into Google, you could get temporarily blocked if:

• You have a lot of keywords in your project
• You have your search delay set lower than 3-4 seconds
• You are also using some other SEO software on the network to do Google searches (this includes multiple copies of Travis running at the same time on your network)

If you do get blocked, Travis will stop what he's doing and let you know. If you open your browser and do a Google search you'll also get a message that you've been blocked.

Don’t worry though: this only affects your searches – it has no effect on your sites.

If you do get blocked, we recommend checking the list above, then waiting 30 to 60 minutes before trying to use an SEO module in Traffic Travis again.

If you still run into issues then increase your search delay in the program options, or invest in 4-5 good proxies. We don’t recommend using free proxies – we’ve had several customers who have hit issues with those.

Making Travis Trustworthy

A number of you have commented on the accuracy/trustworthiness of the rankings provided by Traffic Travis - sometimes Travis will tell someone one rank but, if the person searches Google themselves, or use some other software, they might find a different rank.

We take this issue seriously (we want Traffic Travis' results to be as trustworthy as possible!) but you also should allow for some differences.

There are many factors that can make the results look different. The most common reasons are:

• Your proxies are located elsewhere in your country (or the world)
• You are logged into your Google Account while searching
• You’ve waited a little while since you’ve searched with Traffic Travis

Because of various Google features such as 'search personalization' and localized search, each of these reasons can cause differences in the ranking you see when you search Google manually.

We take all information that Traffic Travis provides very seriously, and our developers work hard to make sure all reports, including ranking information, are processed correctly and give you the most accurate details possible.

So what happens next

So the next time you use Traffic Travis remember: we’re here to make sure you are getting the best of the best.

We’re serious about SEO and PPC – we want to make sure you get the best information you can get so you can continue to outrank your competitors.

And if something stops working, don’t hesitate to contact Traffic Travis support. We look forward to helping you out!

If you don’t yet have your own copy of Traffic Travis, you can grab a copy absolutely free from our homepage.

Hey everybody!

Today we're pleased to announce that we're bringing all the great research and site management tools of Traffic Travis Version Four to you, for FREE!

Yes, available from our homepage today is the Free Edition of Traffic Travis Version 4!

Go even deeper than Traffic Travis V3 and get closer site analytics, more in-depth keyword research, and more intense SEO optimization than ever before!

As the free edition, there are some restrictions compared to Traffic Travis Version 4 Professional; these include:

• A maximum of 5 projects
• A maximum of 100 keywords per project
• A maximum of 5 keywords per search in the SEO Competition, Domain Research and Keyword research tools
• No custom logo on exported PDF reports
• Some other restrictions on search results in certain tools
• None of the exclusive professional bonus webinars which teach you some really amazing link building, email marketing and SEO secrets!

We've determined that for 90% of users, these restrictions won't be a problem; however, if you really need more than what Traffic Travis v4 Free can provide, remember that you can purchase Traffic Travis v4 Professional for just $97.

To make sure you don't have any difficulty changing to Traffic Travis Version 4, here's a video showing you how to use the Project Migrator, to get your projects from V3 to V4!

We're also a little sad to announce that you will no longer be able to download or register for Traffic Travis v3. However, we will continue to support Traffic Travis v3 for customers with existing TTv3 Free or Pro licenses, and we will continue to release bugfix updates for a little while yet!

To get your copy of Traffic Travis Version 4 Free, download it from http://www.traffictravis.com/register

Enjoy!

Kind Regards,

The Traffic Travis Team!

P.S. Just remember, if you want even more sexy data, you can get Traffic Travis Professional Edition for just $97 at http://www.traffictravis.com/professional