I always wanted to have my own lemonade stand when I was a kid. Too bad we lived on a farm miles away from any people.

So, being the young budding entrepreneur that I was, I elected to sell useless household junk to my kid brother in my own "store". It was actually just a blanket on my bed with all of my wares spread out on it, and lots of exciting price tags and "deals".

I thought this was a great idea, and so did my little bother, who wanted nothing more than to have, or at least look at, all the cool stuff he was never allowed to.

After selling him a few items and making a buck or so, my mom got wind of my little store and yelled at me to give him back his money and quit taking advantage of him.

Needless to say, I have a soft spot for lemonade stands, and I try to visit them as often as I see them pop up. Little smiles, eager young entrepreneurs, questionable lemonade... there's nothing like it!

I image many people do the very same thing.

But has it ever occurred to you that, while you're busy surfing for credits on a traffic exchange, you have the ability to make someone's day? Just by "buying a cup of lemonade" from someone's little online store, you can make a world of difference to that person!

There's more to life than money. And there's more to business than profits. Make a connection. Buy something from someone's online offer.

Make someone smile. And make a difference.

I love surfing traffic exchanges, but sometimes it can feel a bit monotonous.

Obviously, traffic exchange owners know this, so they've come up with all kinds of creative ways to keep us surfing and clicking.

But despite all the colourful badges, word games, bubble popping, and dice throwing... I find for me the biggest incentive to continue surfing is simply having a higher surf ratio.

Don't get me wrong, I love most of the cool little games and incentives to surf, but there's nothing quite like being upgraded from a 0.33 credit ratio to a 0.75 to get you surfing like a mad man!

There are several sites that offer dynamic surfing ratios, but I find that, with the exception of a handful (i.e. Hungry for Hits) many of them take too long to upgrade significantly.

That's why I'll occasionally do a one or three day short -upgrade.

That way, you're more incentivized to take advantage of your higher surf ratio. And a nice added bonus is that, when you do happen upon one of those little 1 hour surfing bonuses, it feels much more rewarding!

So, have fun and keep surfing. And if you find your motivation or incentives are lagging a bit, try a quick little short upgrade.

I think that's a question we often ask ourselves, especially when we're online clicking for credits and building a business.

But sometimes we can get totally caught up in an activity that may not even be of any benefit to us.

I believe that there are many things we do online that we might believe are productive, but are in fact a big waste of time.

Like, should I bother collecting so-called "surfing badges" as I'm surfing for hits?

As cool as these badges or "markers" are, I don't waste time with them anymore. They don't reward me with credits, visits, impressions, or money... so why do it at all?

I don't.

Do you have things that you do while you surf that are taking you away from your main goal?

Maybe it's time to quickly re-evaluate and let some of those things go.

Until next time...