There is an ongoing debate whether using traffic exchanges for marketing purposes is worth your time and money.  After advertising via traffic exchanges for almost 2 years, I feel there are plenty of positives which give this type of advertising merit.  So much so that in August, my business partner and I started a traffic exchange of our own, Hot Flash Hits.

Hot Flash Hits is a manual traffic exchange.  For those of you who may not know what a traffic exchange does, let me explain:  A traffic exchanges is a membership website set up on the premise - you view my site and I will view yours, thus exchanging traffic.

Recently there has been a big push for traffic exchanges to become more social.  This has happened by some traffic exchanges adding a chat feature, social media connections, and the ability to share sites via social media buttons.  In my opinion, this is a valuable trend in the traffic exchange industry.  Members are no longer mindlessly surfing for hours but are interacting with other members.  This makes for a higher activity level among the membership base.

So as an advertiser, what value can you get from using a traffic exchange?  It's all about Branding, List Building and Networking with others.  The networking part has become so much easier now with all the added features for connecting with other members.  Use the social media information to start building relationships and forming friendships.  Then jump in the chat and start having conversations with other members, not selling, but real conversations about nothing to do with your business.  This is Networking at its best.  List building can be accomplished easily by offering viewers a free gift for opting in to your list.  The hardest part is finding a valuable free gift the viewers want.  Now for Branding - start building your online presence.  There is no easier place to do this than by using different traffic exchanges.  You can use banners, text ads and splash / capture pages to build a brand for yourself.  You have the capability to brand yourself to any product or service.

All and all - traffic exchanges can be a valuable piece to your marketing puzzle.  When used correctly, you will build your brand, network with others and build your list.  All essential ingredients to marketing any product or service.