Here's to the TE's

I finally did it.

Last week I got an article published in HEN Issue 274 and today I finished my website's Web Traffic Page. I started in mid-May of this year and originally expected to be celebrating completion by summer solstice but it ended up taking until early October. I completed a page on each of the traffic exchanges I think are worthy of being on my site. After I finished the page on FastLaneTraffic I made some final touch ups, uploaded the site to my web host, and promptly went over to Kate's Pub and got drunk.

I understand the law of the Universe that if I want something, I must make a valuable contribution. My goal was to make an information resource where people could find all the stats to all the traffic exchange programs that matter in one place, presented in a user-friendly standardized way such that once the user knew how to find a specific stat for one TE, they could easily find that stat for any other featured TE.

So here's what I had to do: Get a new copy of the template for the TE. Do four document-wide search and replace functions. Figure out which social networks the TE owner has profiles on. Research the levels of memberships and their costs. Find out what activity requirements the member has to meet to keep their account. Fill out data on hit ratios, referral info, commissions, and other details. And finally, when I'm completely done affix the current date to the end. I had to do this 65 times.

This has to be one of the most difficult project tasks of my life. If I had known in mid-May that it was going to take this long I'm not sure I would've had the strength to get it done. If at any time I sat and thought about all the work that needed to be done I became overwhelmed and was unable to do anything. The only way I could work was by single-mindedly focusing on the very next task to be completed, and only that task.

I'm the type of person that likes many diverse activities throughout my work day. I study German and Mandarin as well as other languages. I am trying to build a twitter following. Not only do I have have this blog I have been neglecting but other websites of mine that I'm really excited about developing further like Unofficial FAQs and Cool Webpage of the Week. I like flying around on the flight simulator. I miss expediting for ChaCha as well as playing Eve Online. It all had to go on the back burner, I was afraid to do anything else while the TE pages were unfinished.

I'm glad to be done with this project and hope this work will provide some returns for the rest of my life.