In the week that Legacy Hits was selected to join the elite band of “nerd surf” traffic exchanges, we take a look at Marcus Wahl who launched Legacy in October 2011.
Joining Nerd Surf is a massive boost for Legacy and will help the site reach the next stage in its development.
However it wasn’t all plain sailing for Marcus, but he learned fast and quickly made good on his early mistakes.
Read his story below…
Legacy Hits co-owner Marcus Wahl is someone you might reasonably describe as “rather eccentric.”
When he first brought his traffic exchange to the world I think it would be fair to say that he had no real idea of what he was doing.
He seemed unable to focus on anything for long enough to give it a chance to work and, as a result, the early version of Legacy changed more often than the English weather.
It was, quite frankly, an ugly site and more than a little confusing. One thing I could never get my head round was a little character which appeared everywhere on the site – a robot carrying a medical bag. It is one of the oddest things I have ever seen in a traffic exchange.
I didn’t hold out much hope for Legacy Hits and gave it six months at best. Other people I had spoken to in the industry were equally pessimistic about its future.
But Marcus had a little more to him than a lot of people, including me, gave him credit for.
His brightest move was that as he was experimenting as a new traffic exchange owner he kept coming to the daily TELive seminars, hosted by TE big shots TimTech and he wasn’t shy in asking for advice. He didn’t always seem to listen to the advice but that never stopped him asking.
I remember in one of these conferences that TimTech’s Bill Gorcsi gave Marcus some very blunt advice on why the design did not work and offered some cool suggestions on a possible direction to take.
Three heads are better than one
This time Marcus was listening and the current design of LegacyHits began to take shape. He also decided that running a TE on his own was not a smart move so he approached two people with an intimate knowledge of the traffic exchange industry to come on board as partners.
What happened next was a remarkable transformation in both Marcus – newly partnered with Ken Locatelli and Rodney Hage – and LegacyHits.
The robotic medic was booted far into space, and was replaced with a unique custom design which has transformed Legacy into one of the best looking traffic exchanges in the industry.
Not only that but Ken, Rodney and Marcus work amazingly well as a team and they work tirelessly to ensure that LegacyHits is promoted absolutely everywhere.
It is now almost impossible to spend any amount of time in the traffic exchange industry and not get to hear about LegacyHits.
Comical videos
TimTech’s Jon Olson paid the three owners one of the best compliments possible recently when he said: “These guys from Legacy are doing better at promotion right now than we are.” High praise indeed.
Not only is the site looking great but their splash pages are amongst the most memorable in the industry…and they are everywhere.
Marcus is also a prolific creator of (often comical) video splash pages where one day he jumping off a ladder and another day he is playing with fire.
This ‘Visit Legacy’ video is a spoof of the long-running splash page for StartXchange.
Here Marcus took a very well-known advert from the traffic exchange industry and made it his own:
Video credit: MCWahl1/YouTube
Now look at the StartXchange ad to see what I mean.
Click on the image below to see the StartXchange video (opens in new tab):
Marcus is well-known for his funny videos.
This is a still from his “Legacy Hits is on Fire” video:
For the “Legacy Has High Quality Traffic” video he jumped off a ladder and only a well-executed landing roll saved him from doing himself an injury:
Marcus said one of the problems facing a new TE owner is coming to grips with the fact that there is much more to running a TE than you might ever imagine from just surfing a traffic exchange.
He said: “It is a misconception that a traffic exchange is an easy source of income.
“Perhaps as a surfer you run around and see the final products of people’s work but these final products can be the result of year’s of work.
“Also people should not be misled into thinking that once they open a traffic exchange, people will flood in. There are too many exchanges out there for that.
Unleash the passion
“TEs have flooded the market, so unless you are prepared to spend more money and more time then anyone else, how are you going to be competitive?
“To sum up, if the passion is not there then launching a traffic exchange is not a good idea.
“For me I liked traffic exchanges quite a bit and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to make sales in them
so my passion for them grew.
“If you can do it, then I do suggest having your own program, but keep in mind that it needs to be planned and it’s not going to be easy.
“If you are going to launch a real program, which is a real business, then you should be prepared to put a lot of time into it just as you would if you were starting your own business in the offline world.”
Planning is key
Marcus said having two business partners has made a huge difference in how LegacyHits is run and allows them to put more planning into organizing all-important promotional strategies.
He added: “I have discovered that there is much more planning than I expected in owning and operating a TE and I am happy to have an interaction amongst the three of us to come up with ideas.
“The promotional aspects of a traffic exchange are a huge and ongoing project and this can never be overlooked.
“So far the highs for me are our very first yearly upgrade sale and the first lifetime sale. It is true that you never forget your first sales.
“The lows are that things can sometimes move very slowly and that is when that staggering fact of just how many TE’s are out there comes into mind.
Life’s work
“Getting accepted into Click Track Profit (CTP) and then being invited to join the nerd surf community were two other huge highs for all of us at Legacy Hits and when I first heard that Jon Olson was going to support us then I felt very proud indeed.
“Getting the support of Jon and the everyone at TimTech was a real milestone moment for us all.
“We have put a ton of work into making Legacy what it is today and it can only get better and better as we continue to put all our efforts into it.
“At this time, Legacy is literally our life’s work for the three of us and we would not have it any other way.”
So Marcus, sorry for doubting you in the beginning and let’s hope that Legacy grows even bigger and better in the months ahead. And congratulatons, once again, at getting into the nerd surf team.
“Brrr, it’s a little cold out here!”
Finally do I have a favorite Legacy Hits video?
Of course I do.
My all time favorite is this one…enjoy.
Video credit: MCWahl1/YouTube
Twitter: andrewstark
Hi Patrick,
I have to agree with you in saying that Marcus has done a fantastic job with Legacy, and I even took up him on a credit deal knowing that he will have lots of eyeballs this weekend with the combination of new nerd surfers and vault / key surfers.
It highlights that hard work is required to become an overnight success, and it’s so refreshing to see owners who promote their own business rather than sitting back and expecting affiliates to bring in all the new members.
Andrew
Andrew Stark thinks you may like this post too..You Are Fired…
Twitter: chattopatrick
Hi Andrew. Yes indeed…overnight success takes time and effort.
P.
Patrick Griffin thinks you may like this post too..The Remarkable Transformation of Legacy Hits and its eccentric co-owner Marcus Wahl
Great post Patrick about Marcus and Legacyhits. Marcus has emerged as a great co-owner of Legacyhits whih, when he approached myself and Rodney about joining him I was a bit hesitant. I seen the sight when it had no design at all and then the first attempt was terrible. The second attempt was doable so I decided to join Marcus and Rodney on an adventure that I knew deep down that we as a team could accomplish a lot and we have and still are not done. I brought experience to the team and surprisingly enough Marcus actually listens to me every now and again,lol. I have been using traffic exchanges for 13 years now and have seen a lot of new ones come and go. I knew as many did that if Marcus continued to go it alone he would have failed. Rodney and myself first told Marcus you have to change the script that you are using as the Walker Script aka: Ventrin0 had no support and was very unreliable. We convinced Marcus to go with the LFMTE script and a brand new design. Well the design idea really was Bill Gorcsi’s with Rodney and I telling Marcus he needed to listen and take Bill’s advice. Now that Legacyhits is a part of Nerd Surf we are well on our way to our goal of the top 10 list at least on the traffic exchange list which we believe is the fairest TE ranking list. We have many more improvements in mind but, are going to let the changes we have made sink in first before implementing the new ones we are planning. Legacyhits will be here for the long haul ads the three of us grow together.
Ken
Twitter: chattopatrick
Hi Ken,
Thanks for such a great and informative comment.
The design and script change were vital elements which needed to fall into place.
Now just keep up the momentum and we will see where you guys are in a year’s time.
P.
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