What good are Traffic Exchanges?

What good are Traffic Exchanges?

 

The answer to that depends on who you ask. If you ask an SEO expert slash “guru” they will tell you that they are no good at all. SEO depends largely on backlinks, QUALITY backlinks, and TE’s will not give you that.

 

And if you have Google Adsense on your site or blog and start using TE’s expect to have your Adsense account terminated before you reach payout.

 

But if it’s raw traffic you’re after, TE’S may be the way to go. The adserver I use does not seem to mind the use of TE’s and since they sell their ads to advertisers based upon Alexa rankings the value of the ads they place on your site is directly proportional to the amount of raw traffic you have. I saw my ad revenue going way up when I was pushing 1500-2000 visitors/day across my pages.

 

Most good TE’s will pay you to surf. Not a lot, but every penny or fraction of penny still adds up. There are also some TE’s that have chatboxes, which can be a great way to connect with people who have similar interests. I discovered the type of program which has since earned me somewhere between $2000 and $3000 just by babbling in  a TE chatbox. And I also found Apsense itself the same way.

 

TE’s will not help you if you have a product to sell. If you’re marketing clothes, candles, flowers, woodworking, or any similar product, then you should look elsewhere. You will make no new customers via TE’s.

 

But if you are like me, and your main target are people who are interested in the world of GPT and PTC, then TE’s can bring in many new leads and grow your downline significantly. All you need is a referral page, one that shows your reflinks to all your favourite programs. The majority of regular TE surfers are like-minded people so you are advertising to a receptive audience.

 

But remember that the goal of most surfers is get-in-and-get-out. They are probably surfing 2, 3 or more TE’s in separate windows, tabbing back and forth waiting for timers to run out. Your own site HAS to catch their eye in the 10 seconds or so it will be on their screen. Keep large slow-loading images to a minimum, and avoid videos (because you can bet the surfer’s speakers are off anyway) but it still needs to be eye-catching and get what you are selling onto the screen.

 

The most important information, in my own case banners to my reflinks, should be above the fold, or even higher to take into account a probably surfbar at the top of your visitor’s screen. A vertical listing and lots of text may be fine if the person stops to read, but is pointless if he just clicked away as soon as the timer ran out. I have my banner in a table near the top of the screen, minimal written information to get the maximum number above the fold. I “think” that works.

 

However you use a TE you need to remember that it is only one tool among many to find new contacts and build your downline. It can be a useful tool indeed, if you understand the people you are trying to reach.