A Convergence of Sorts ...

Over the last few months, I've stepped up my work in "Internet Marketing" as opposed to politics.

Among other things, I administer a traffic exchange -- an interesting kind of marketing site operating on the principle of "I'll look at your site if you look at mine" (with differentials in that swap that the site owner can monetize).

The other day, I was thinking about traffic exchanges -- in particular about the king of all traffic exchanges, StumbleUpon -- when it occurred to me that TEs are actually a perfect platform for political junkies.

A little research revealed that I wasn't the first guy to have that idea. Back in 2007, a company launched three political traffic exchanges. They seem to have disappeared very quickly. I can't say for sure why, but I think undue compartmentalization was likely part of the problem: The three sites were Republican Surf, Democratic Surf and Independent Surf.

Better to let all the parties, ideologies, etc. mix it up a bit, don't you think? People have at least as much fun following and critiquing "the enemy" as they do reading the stuff they agree with. And they want people who don't agree with them to read their stuff and be persuaded.

So ... check out Soapbox Surf. It's not quite ready for prime time yet (this is the first time I've used this particular script and I just opened up shop this morning ... "under construction" as they say), but if you're interested in showing off your political blog, candidate web site or whatever, and are willing to look at other people's offerings (or cough up cash) for the ability to do so, it's already getting the job done.