Briefly for those who don't know, a traffic exchange is a membership site where you view other members sites in exchange for them viewing yours. There are many forms of exchanges. Traffic, banner, startpage and autosurf exchanges all help generate traffic to your site for free. For almost all new online marketers, traffic exchanges are the first place they start, so if you have a product targeted to "newbies" traffic exchanges are a great place to market it.
Warning: Google adsense does not allow traffic exchange traffic. Unless they changed it sense the last time I checked. Read the rules carefully with any paid to promote program also.
One important thing to remember. You are marketing to other marketers. No one I know of surfs traffic exchanges for fun. Everyone on a traffic exchange is clicking for credits, not looking to buy. They may make a purchase if an ad catches their eye, but don't expect high conversion rates from traffic exchange traffic. The chances that a surfer trying to build up credits will stop to surf through your site are also slim. This is where splash pages come in.
A splash page is a one page ad telling about your site or business opportunity. Great for affiliate marketers. This is where you presell. Your splash page should be eye catching and informative, but not lengthy. Remember you only have 10 to 30 seconds before the timer runs out to capture their attention. I recommend your splash page link always open in a new window and you state that on the page. I personally hate having to go back to my exchage page and login again, but that's just me. Some gurus recommend that your site break out of the frame and disable the browser's back button. I don't like to be bullied and have never purchased from a site that refreshes everytime I hit the back button.
Most traffic exchanges have a free membership option. Free members get less traffic and don't get most of the extra goodies the exchange offers, but read the terms carefully. I found one exchange, I won't mention the name, that required paid members to surf 60 sites a week to remain active. The idea of paying for a membership and then having to work to remain a member just rubbed me the wrong way.
Upgrades come in various shapes and sizes. You may have three different upgrade options with three different prices. Some are a one time fee, others are recuring monthly. My advice jump on the one time fee and steer clear of the monthly fee. If you are going to buy traffic on a monthly basis there are much better deals out there than traffic exchange traffic.
Most exchanges will give you bonuses for refering new members. When your downline gets big enough you won't have to surf anymore to get a steady stream of traffic, but some exchanges have a minimum surf requirement, again read carefully. Now some of them will even pay money for referals. A few give you traffic and cash for surfing. You can earn money while advertising your site. What could be better than that?
Learn to use traffic exchanges effectively and you can build a surge of traffic to your site plus pocket some cash without making a single sale. Yes you read it right. Choose the right exchanges and you can make money without making a single sale. Not a lot of money mind you, but money is money.
You will find a lot of offers for cheating software. Don't use it. Most exchanges have numerous anticheat features. You will get caught and you will get banned. A lot of exchange owners own more than one exchange, so if they recognize your name or email address you could be banned from all their exchanges and they will pass your info on to other owners in the forums. It's not worth all the hassle just to be lazy. Follow the rules and traffic exchanges will treat you right.
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By: Femi Tunde | 15-06-2008
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