Traffic Exchanges – Do They Work For You?

Traffic exchanges, also known as struck exchanges and start exchanges, are extremely basic methods of driving traffic to a website. Being in a traffic exchange is like remaining in a club. You surf, utilizing a specially created”surf bar”distinct to the traffic exchange in question, and see the other club member’s sites.

How do traffic exchanges work?

Each time you view a site you get a credit, or a point, and these are exchanged for visitors who see your website. Normally there is a “ratio” included and – for free members – it is often one return visitor for every 2 sites that you view.

Most exchanges are complementary to join but many have a “pro upgrade” choice where you can get a better view/return view ratio (say 1:1) for a regular monthly cost, normally a few dollars a month.

The big majority of members in the typical exchange are complementary members. Traffic exchanges are much reviled– there are many who will tell you that they don’t work.

Among the main factors cited for this is the fact that the majority of the traffic exchange members are members of the exchange primarily because they are currently promoting a business opportunity or item of their own.

Whilst this is probably true it does not necessarily imply that they will not have an interest in exactly what you are promoting. If you are providing either an informational product or any kind of tool which could be utilized to enhance a currently existing organization then the members of traffic exchanges might very well be an excellent target market for you.

For example, if you have an e-zine newsletter targeted at online marketers, then traffic exchanges might provide you extremely abundant pickings indeed. One of the most typical mistakes is to sign up for an affiliate plan and then use the standard website that features the program on traffic exchanges.

This is a waste of time as the exchange members will not have enough time to view the typical details abundant affiliate website. It is also likely that there will be numerous others promoting the exact very same site on any given exchange– so your website will blend into the background and will have a little bit if any, impact.

Tips and tricks

However, just by following the guidelines below you can utilize traffic exchanges to develop your opt-in list and after that follow up later on with your affiliate offerings.

1. Do not use the standard page that came with your affiliate programme

It has too much information and will puzzle viewers. There are probably numerous other people promoting this page. You need to stand out in order to be successful here.

2. Use a specifically created gateway page unique to you

Keep it clean and uncluttered Focus on benefits. Five or 6 bullet points only. Make it as simple as possible and stand out from the crowd.

3. Use a pop-up or pop-in for focus

The visitors should see at the first sight what’s important and what’s not!

4. Hand out a complimentary bonus offer for signing up

For example a totally free e-book or a free report. Or maybe a totally free newsletter. However, I would choose something they can download because there are already to many newsletters I think!

5. Collect email addresses for following

Feed them into an autoresponder. Put them on your newsletter list. That’s how you can convert your visitor into a paying customer. If you want to know how to use an autoresponder check out this article!

6. Personalize your gateway page for the exchange you’re using

Have a special message for your visitor–“Traffic Swarm user benefit … ” “Webmaster Quest bonus offer …” That will help to gain attention.

7. Monitor your results and don’t lose time with exchanges that don’t provide

Check your numbers and see what works and what doesn’t.

8. Do not persevere with an ineffective campaign for too long

Let your project run for 4 weeks max and after that experiment if you aren’t seeing results.

9. Advertise on a variety of different exchanges to make sure a wide variety of visitors

Don’t waste hours every day clicking on traffic exchanges– they are only one approach for growing your list and you need to be using a number of different techniques.

However, using the above rules, it needs to be possible to achieve double-digit signups to your opt-in list or newsletter every day.

Conclusion

As you can see, traffic exchanges can work if you know how to use it! I believe that if you follow the guidelines above you’ll have no problem being successful!

I’m using EasyHits4U as a traffic exchange program and I’m very happy with it (See here my review).

Are you already using traffic exchanges as a traffic source? Which program are you using? Let me know by leaving a comment below!