Traffic Exchange Programs - Are they worth your time?
Author: Martin Thomassen
Maybe you know the feeling. Sometimes I have been sitting in front of my pc for some hours. Third cup of coffee, all emails read and responded, checked all my stats; What to do now? Write an article? Send an ad? Read some more on a subject I could work a bit on? No! Not now! I'll just play a little game of solitaire! Happens to all of us, doesn't it?
You could just open a game and start playing, but you could do as I do! I open a multi window browser, start a few traffic exchange programs, one of them with a solitaire game (while surfing) and start gaining credits so my pages will be displayed in those programs as well.
What I am doing is using pay per click (they pay with credit points) programs to be able to promote my sites and offers. You have to keep the page you are viewing active for 20 or 30 seconds and can go on to the next page. Most programs have a 2:1 or 3:2 conversion rate, meaning that for each 1 1/2 or 2 pages you see from other members, you may show yours 1 time. Pay per click, banner exchanges and impressions, start page programs, there are a lot of ways you can promote your site and/or offers.
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Personally I really like these exchanges. I see other websites and in addition to earning free traffic, I get ideas for my website, I find all kinds of free stuff, I see all the latest offers and sometimes I find a program that I really like and join. And as I said before, I play a game of solitaire while surfing for hits.
You are doing your things, doing business, chatting or who knows what you are doing. And at the same time you have some traffic exchanges programs running. People like to know some SECRETS, here is one: most people do not really want to surf for hits. I did not, most likely you don't either, BUT people who really surf (if even only 1 hour daily) are greatly rewarded. I receive several times a week 50 or 250 free hits from trafficswarm, 200 free banner displays from one of the other), 200 from webbizinsiders etc. etc.
As a lot of people are lazy, when they have some money, they buy. The traffic exchange programs have to reward people who actually surf and they do! If I would have to pay all the free traffic I get with surfing one hour a day, I would have to pay about 15 dollars a day. Not much, but remember, I run these programs with a multi page browser, I play my games and at the same time I do my things on the internet! Do not underestimate this! When you are starting, this can be one of the biggest resources you can find!
How to use traffic exchanges
Join some programs, submit your url's and start surfing. It's that easy. Most programs offer a starting bonus, so you start with some credits. Some programs give you credits when you use them as your start page, each time you open your browser, you get credit points. Most programs let you introduce more than 1 url and let you choose from categories where you want to surf and where you want to display your url's.
There are people who join autosurf programs. You start the program, it surfs pages and you can go watch tv or play with the kids. I do not like this. It's cheating and the other people using these programs do not look at your site either, so why do it at all? Well, maybe these people just do it to increase their traffic stats and rankings. I could imagine that. Some of these programs give you 2,000 or more credits just to join them and that is a nice (temporary) boost of the traffic to your site. Nobody looks at it, but you got your traffic.
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--------------------You can use a multiple windows browser. Now this is one I like. It's not cheating (I think) because you actually have to click through the windows, but you only do it more effectively. When something grabs your attention, you will still read it or at least take a look at it. This way you increase your credits about tenfold. At the same time I am playing solitaire in one of these programs, Topsurfer, to give the programs time to load their pages. Topsurfer offers bribes as well. Members offer up to 1,000 or more credits if you sign up with other programs. I accepted some bribes and found some interesting programs at the same time. You can play games, surf for money, surf for banner impressions etc. and most programs offer something interesting. An other example of a program offering something extra would be the Greenlist, which is a safelist, with traffic exchange and a free autoresponder.
Downlines
As you know, I am always on the look out for programs for ebiz beginners, people who want to start their homebased business without spending a cent. This month I came across 2 others which I am evaluating at this moment. Both of them urge you to start with PTR (Pay to Read emails) and after a few days in their program they want you to join traffic excange programs. I am sure that the next step will be to join them in some free to join affiliate programs etc. What is the foremost interest of the people promoting these programs? Building DOWNLINES! Pay to read emails (PTR) and the exchange programs are interesting for them because they work automatically if they have a large enough downline working for THEM. Of course, some of these people really are legit and want to help, but most of them are just interested in building their downlines and I would keep away from them.
PTR doesn't work, it will make you a few cents at the most in a few months. But if you have a big enough downline, that's another story entirely! I do not recommend starting with PTR. It will not make you enough money when you are starting and it will cost you a lot of time. But traffic exchange programs ARE interesting in my view. Apart from seeing sites and getting ideas for your own, you can use some additional features they offer, you can present your own offers and if you can get your downline to grow... That would be nice as well.
Important things to keep in mind when dealing with traffic exchange programs
I almost never promote my main site, but use little offers and promotions in stead. Just for the same reasons as I do not use my main site to promote in ads, safelist or other places. You have only seconds to get the attention of people who are surfing, so the site you promote should load within seconds, have a catching title, offer AND opt in mechanism urging the reader to ACT NOW. Most homepages are not designed that way. Most affiliate pages neither. The most effective way to use these programs is writing or using simple sites with a good (free) offer and a sign up form. You can show the url to your site on that page, that works ok, but the main tactic should be to have them sign up, collect their email and start an autoresponder series (each of course signed with your name and url). Remember that people surfing these traffic exchanges are people just like us, surfing for credits to be able to promote THEIR site as well.
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---------------------While surfing these programs, you should take some time first and REALLY take a look at the sites that are promoted. You will see a lot of sites that do not even load in the 20 seconds they have! You would not want to make that mistake! Others have too many colors, caracters or pictures. I do not like music, nor pop ups, but take your time to see what are the sites that attract YOUR attention and why. And learn from it. I have a very simple ad running on some of these programs that is giving me good results, and when you see it, you will notice that it is very, very basic and simple html that I used. You can find the url below.
Are traffic exchanges worth the time you invest in them?
Yes, they are. We are people just starting our business and we can use all the free promotion we can get. Use your time effectively and enjoy it! You have seen some ideas on this page, maybe you can come up with some others and use them in a new, inventive way. For those who are interested in my 1000 hits a day: you can visit it and subscribe, but for your convenience I have setup a page as well here at my site: hits: which you can use if you do not want to wait for the autoresponder series.
Actually, that would be more handy, because these autoresponder messeges are often refused by your mail program and seen as Spam. Just browse the page and pick out the things you want and like (free autoresponder, multi window browser, listbuilder or whatever you want). Of course you will find a list of programs as well and can start in my downline if you want....
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About the Author
Martin Thomassen is an economist and system analyst who took to the internet to apply his knowledge in this area. Ebiz Setup Tutorial - Starting a homebased business for beginners.
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