Do Traffic Exchanges offer the solution to your traffic needs?

Hundreds of thousands of internet marketers, including newbies, wannabies and even the guru's want more traffic to a website and unless it's a discussion about something, eg earth warming and / or a social issue, the majority of us are hoping that those who read what we put out there will also buy what we sell. In other words, we want traffic, as the saying goes, more traffic means more sales. However, we need to have targeted traffic, otherwise all the traffic in the world won't convert into sales... which brings me to the heading of this article.

My personal experience using traffic exchanges is that those who use traffic exchanges don't buy!! There are obviously those who sign up for free memberships to other exchanges and seemingly so-called free money making programs and it then becomes a challenge to convince the new member that the inevitable one time offer is really a one-time offer, as well as a really good deal...... and who knows, maybe one in a thousand may take it further... or so it seems to me.

I think the challenge in being successful at promoting anything is to find the audience looking for what you have to sell, in other words a targeted audience and if you offer the solution to what these people are looking for, you can expect a decent conversion rate, than if the traffic, no matter the quantity, ends up being directed at an audience that is not looking for what you offer.

The frustration I have with traffic exchanges is that an extremely small percentage ever buys and actually pays for anything. It is probably only a way to get your name out there for people to recognize your existence and as one of the ways to build your brand. If you think you're going to be making money using a traffic exchange, start taking Prozac to handle the disappointment...!!

If anyone has a different experience (provided you're not the owner of a traffic exchange), please help me to understand what I'm doing wrong. I am quite happy to change my mind. The question as to where you find the best audience lies in finding those who want what you have, which is a subject whole books of hundreds of pages have covered and which seems to boil down to an optimized website enjoying organic, search engine directed, traffic.