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The Nuts And Bolts Of Traffic Exchanges
Author : Anna-Marie Stewart
Traffic Exchanges. What are they? How do they work? What do they do?
First of all, a "Traffic Exchange" is exactly that, a way to exchange traffic, a way to get visitors to your site. This happens by you visiting sites, in exchange for pageviews to your site.
There are LOTS of Traffic Exchanges out there. Some good, some bad, but most of them work in basically the same ways. You join, visit sites, refer others and build up credits.
There are 2 main types of Traffic Exchanges (there`s actually a few more types of exchanges, but these are the ones we`ll concentrate on here):
Manual Surf and Auto Surf.
With manual surf, you have to click on a button to get to the next site, with auto surf, you can sit back and watch the pages change automatically, without having to lift a finger. Nowadays, the trend seems to be that the exchanges offer multiple choices for surfing: manual, auto, different timers (15, 20 or 30 seconds before next site). A lot of them now offer games while surfing, as a chance to earn extra credits.
Traffic Exchanges give out credits and bonuses in a multitude of ways. Some give bonus credits for signing up, or for referring others, or even while you`re surfing the exchange, after you`ve visited a certain amount of sites. Almost ALL Traffic Exchanges give you a percentage of the credits your referrals build up, so it`s always a good idea to build a good downline in them. Some exchanges let you use your credits in different ways too: buying banner impressions, lottery tickets, referrals, scratchcards, just to name a few
One thing to take serious note of is the timers, and how long it actually takes your page to load, If you`re using a 15 second timer, and your page takes 20 seconds to load, people won`t see it before it`s time to click on to the next site. The best pages to use in Traffic Exchanges are small, fast loading, attention grabbing so-called "splash pages". You can link to the page you want people to see from the splashpage, or add a box where people can request more information via email. If you can make your splash page interesting enough, then getting people to click a link on it shouldn`t be too hard.
If what you need is a ton of quick hits to your sites, use autosurfers with 15 second timers. You can still get signups/requests for more info IF your site loads fast enough, and really yells out to the viewer. If you want your site to actually be seen, with maybe better signup rates, opt for the manual exchanges and 30 second timers. This forces people to stay at your site longer, which in turn could make them pay more attention to your site.
Be aware that a lot of Traffic Exchanges don`t allow the use of popups, rotators or re-directors on whichever site you`re promoting, as they are very hard to keep track of and can include very unsavoury stuff such as a virus or even porn. It`s ALWAYS a good idea to use a popup killer when you`re surfing the traffic exchanges. I personally use a program called KillAd, which is brilliant in terminator mode....hehehe. Apart from the risk of reaching "nasty" sites, popups can really drain your computers resources, making it sluggish and slow.
Most Traffic Exchanges these days have both free and paid options, where the paid option is basically just an enhancement of free, making it easier to gain credits and referrals, although some of them DO allow you to earn a commission on referral upgrades.
In closing: You will most likely come across "cheat programs/software made specifically to cheat the traffic exchanges.They work by racking up credits for you, without you having to actually USE the exchange. Whatever you do, DON`T use them! Apart from the fact that you`ll most likely lose your accounts in the traffic exchanges, can you imagine if everybody was using them? Nobody would see any sites, and nobody would get any results.
Above all, keep all your promotional efforts honest.
Anna-Marie Stewart
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna-Marie Stewart has been involved with internet marketing since 1999. She has always tried to help people "make a go of it" online, by sharing her own experiences with as many people as possible. She now publishes "Not Just Another Ezine" a FREE weekly newsletter at http://annamarketing.com - dedicated to helping newbie and semi-pro internet marketers avoid the pitfalls BEFORE getting burnt.
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