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Advertising Tips - Making The Most Of Traffic Exchanges

March 11th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

There are many different ways to promote your web site on the Internet. One of those ways is with traffic exchanges. Unfortunately, most people don’t know how to effectively take advantage of traffic exchanges so that they bring real targeted visitors to their site. In this article, we’re going to take a look at what traffic exchanges are, how they work and how to most effectively use them. Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ll have a solid game plan for using traffic exchanges to your advantage.

So, what exactly are traffic exchanges? Well, they’re sites that people register with in order to get their web sites seen by other people. The way this works is actually quite simple. You sign up with the site, submit your web site to the exchange, and then you view other people’s sites. For each site you view, you get a certain number of credits. For each credit you earn, you get a certain number of views to your own site by others. The goal is for people to see your site, like what they see and hopefully purchase your product or service. In theory, this incentive based form of advertising should work fine. But there are problems.

Each site you view, depending on the exchange you belong to, must be viewed for a minimum amount of time. This time varies anywhere from 10 to 30 seconds or longer. While it may seem that this actually makes it better for the site owners, keeping people at your site for a minimum amount of time, it’s actually the reason why most exchanges don’t work for most people. Because most members are constantly watching the clock, once that timer goes off, they’re off as well and on to the next site. It’s rare that anybody sticks around long enough to read a 20 page sales copy. Because of this, most people have very little luck with traffic exchange advertising.

However, there is a solution, and it’s a simple one. Instead of using traffic exchanges to bring people to your long sales page, put up a very short squeeze page to give them a free report, preferably on how to generate traffic with traffic exchanges. Most people really need this info. Then, in the report, you can pitch your main product, as long as it’s Internet marketing related. As you can guess, traffic exchanges are not very effective for promoting non Internet marketing items. Most of the people who use them are either promoting an Internet marketing product, or if they’re promoting something else, they’re going to need info on how to use traffic exchanges effectively.

By using traffic exchanges in this manner, you stand a good chance of actually getting people to purchase your product or service.

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How To Make Traffic Exchange Programs Work For You!

March 11th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

What do all websites need to be successful? Traffic! Do you know that one of the cheapest, easiest and quickest ways to generate traffic is by using traffic exchanges?

The way they work is that you earn credits by surfing other peoples websites. Your earned credits are then used to show other people your website. To join, you need to submit your name, email and website. Your website will then go into rotation with the other websites that have registered with that particular traffic exchange.

When surfing on a traffic exchange there is a counter that counts down a certain number of seconds and when the counter is done you have to click on a number to move to the next site. They operate on a credit system and you get credit by spending time on a particular website. Your credit gets reduced when another member of the exchange visits your website. Increasing your credit gives your website a more effective and wider reach.

A good tip is to use a multi-tab browser. This will allow you to surf many exchanges at the same time by running several websites in multiple tabs while only one window is open for viewing in your browser. The Firefox Browser and newer versions of Netscape will let you surf multiple exchanges at once.

Here are some more tips on how to get the most from traffic exchanges:

1. Try to use only about 3-5 good exchanges. It is difficult to keep up with too many and this will allow you to focus your efforts on productive advertising.

2. You must take the time to surf and build up credits. Plan to stick with it for a couple of months at least.

3. You can also advertise your traffic exchange referral links from one exchange to another and build your downline while also getting more free credits.

4. Do not just use your main website on the exchanges. Advertise additional pages off of your main website page that have special offers or other related services.

5. Be different and offer something for free, such as an ebook, software, etc. There is nothing wrong with being nice and offering people a free gift for visiting your website.

6. If your offering a network marketing or affiliate program then do yourself a favor and create your own opt-in form. Something new will attract more attention.

7. Leave the selling for another time. Try and get as many emails as possible and then worry about making the sale. Offer a newsletter related to your website.

When determining what traffic exchanges to use it is important that you are able to promote multiple URLs. You want the capability to promote other services or programs other then your main one. Since you will be using a number of traffic exchange programs you can promote one traffic exchange on another exchange. This will make it easier for you to get free credits by referring others. Do not forget that you also may want to be able to promote any affiliate programs that you may be involved with.

Some of the free traffic exchange sites may only let you add a few pages, but you can get around this by changing the ones you are promoting at any time even though it is more work. If a traffic exchange program is sending visitors to your website then the extra work is worth it.

As with any other form of advertising on the internet you have to do some research to determine the best traffic exchanges for your needs. Here are some helpful tips for finding good quality traffic exchanges:

1. Find out which ones rank high on Google, and also in the paid ads. A traffic exchange site that is worth your effort will be able to afford to get a high search engine ranking and be able to pay a lot of money for paid classified ads.

2. Use Alexa.com and check the rankings of the exchange sites. If a site has a high Alexa ranking, then they probably have lots of traffic. If you join that traffic exchange then you now have your website appearing on a highly visible site. For example, Trafficswarm has a high Alexa ranking.

3. You can try to find reviews online, but that may not be a good idea since people are going to promote a program because they want to sign you up through their referral link.

4. Select exchanges with many members and try to determine whether the exchange already has alot of websites that are similar to yours, if they do then move on!

5. Try to use traffic exchanges that have categories available for you to place your website in. This will give you more targeted traffic.

The real key to free traffic exchanges is that you do not have to upgrade or spend any money to buy credits. You can always stop using them if you do not get any results.

A good traffic exchange program that is free should be able to get you some results, if not then do not waste your time!

Even if you do not get lots of traffic, your site is being seen by real people and this helps to get your website and name in front of as many people as possible so that they may remember your website in the future.

For your website to be successful it needs to be seen by as many people and as many times as possible.

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How To Use Traffic Exchanges To Help You Market Your Home-Based Business

March 11th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

Many people use traffic exchanges to try and generate traffic for their home-based business . Yes, they may get lots of views from these traffic exchanges but that is just about it. Just views, no sales. The problem with traffic exchanges is everyone is busy advertising their own business instead of looking for new businesses. So basically you have too many advertisers and no buyers.

In order to use traffic exchanges effectively you must cater to the advertisers. You must offer something that appeals to the advertisers in the traffic exchanges. So here is a simple solution. Create a subscription webpage offering a free course on how to produce better results from traffic exchanges. Then on your thank you page, where you thank them for signing up for your free course, you then present whatever product your home-based business is selling. Or whatever you you are trying to market. It could be a subscription to your newsletter or a free e-book with your links in it. Use your imagination, a thank you page is a great way to market your product. When you have your webpage setup, start to market your course on the traffic exchanges. As for the content for the free course, just relay the same information you learned from this article.

This is very effective. Also if you do not have the tech skills to create the two pages above, you will have to hire someone. It should not cost much since this is very simple to do. This is one of the many different techniques you can use to build your home-based business .

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Generating Traffic Through Promotional Exchanges

March 10th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

There are many ways of generating traffic to a website these days. And more techniques are currently being developed to help webmasters get the visitors they need to sustain their growth. Traffic is especially important to affiliate marketers, as it is only through them that they can make sales and earn good income.

One good method to consider is promotional exchanges or simply, traffic exchanges. This is the process of pooling your resources together with an individual or company so that you can maximize the number of visitors that you can direct to your own website on any given day.

Traffic exchanges can be done in three ways. These are through:

1. Link exchanges
Link exchange is simply publishing the URL of your website to another. And you are supposed to do the same thing for the website that you have partnered with. By doing so, both of you are practically sharing your visitors with each other. While not all of the other website’s visitors would come and check your website out, there would definitely be a good number of them that would notice your link and visit. It is always best that you exchange your link with a website that is related to yours, more preferably with a higher page rank and better popularity.

2. Banner Exchanges
Banner exchanges primarily works the same way as link exchanges. However, banners prove to be more effective than simple link exchanges. Banners can be created with eye-catching graphics and images. On the other hand, links are nothing but text ads that can’t be embellished with colors and pictures.

3. Ad text exchanges
Ad texts are the ones you see on most websites labeled as ‘Sponsored links’ or ‘Google Ads’. Right now, there are several websites that offer services like these. But unlike Google Ads, you don’t have to pay for anything to have your website listed on the ad text links that are distributed over participating websites. All you have to do is to publish the advertising texts on the pages of your website and your site is guaranteed to appear on others. You can say that this is the free version of Overture or Google Ads.

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How to Monetize Exit Traffic and Exchange Traffic, and Banner Ads

March 10th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

Exit traffic is traffic that is created by adding a pop under to an existing web site, and putting your squeeze page on that pop under. There are generally two ways to purchase pop under traffic. You can participate in an exit traffic exchange, where your squeeze page will be shown on someone else’s web site each time you show someone else’s ads on your web site. If you are getting a lot of traffic, then an exit traffic exchange can be a very powerful source of traffic. If you are not getting a lot of traffic, then you are probably better off simply purchasing the exit traffic.

Two things are extremely important when using exit traffic. One, you will again have a very low conversion rate, so it is important to track effectiveness by the number of subscribers gained at what cost, rather than focusing on conversion rate. Two, exit traffic views are generally very limited in time, because the viewer has not intended to go to your site. Therefore, you want to quickly capitalize on the time you have, and simply gain the subscriber. You are not trying to sell him anything today. You simply want the subscriber.

What is the best way to do this? I have found that the best way to capitalize on exit traffic is to keep the squeeze page extremely short and targeted.

For example, the headline might read:

Don’t Forget to Claim Your Free Report Before You Leave This Site!

At that point, you do not even need any more script—just the opt in box.

Banner Ads

Banner ads are ads that are generally shown on a network of advertisers’ web sites, and have lost popularity over the last few years due to a decreased response rate. However, because of that, banner advertising is not as prevalent, and I have heard that some marketers have been using them with renewed success in recent months.

Once again, as with exit traffic, safe lists, and traffic exchanges, the response rate is quite low, and effectiveness should be measured in terms of cost per subscriber.

Because I have not personally used them, I cannot offer much advice, except that you should not write them off without at least considering them, and perhaps trying them out.

Be sure to get a professionally designed, good-looking banner before you get started, and be sure to test everything you do, just like you would with any other advertising.

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Traffic Exchanges - Are They Valuable?

March 10th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

The internet today abounds with traffic exchange programs. Many are using the lure of it being a great avenue for free advertising. The question remains, are traffic exchanges a valuable tool for the internet marketer?

If you look at traffic exchange programs from the viewpoint of an outsider, it would appear to be mainly for the new marketers. Individuals who have no capital and are just venturing into online marketing for the first time and don’t intend to draw any serious income do in fact use these traffic exchanges. One argument is that since everyone using traffic exchanges are those new marketers with no real stability, a lot of what is on the exchanges is not valuable.

New marketers usually go for the programs with the lowest startup costs and are easily replicated. With this being said, you do see a lot of the same programs recycled on the exchanges. Another argument is that since all the new marketers are using the same program, the exchanges have no value because you cannot draw new business.

I have found that the traffic exchange programs can prove to have some value. They are a great avenue to see what types of opportunities are drawing in the new marketers. This can help you develop a great product that can rival what is currently available. Even if you aren’t intending to use the traffic exchange for the purpose of posting your site, you can use it as a great brainstorming session. Keeping your options open and exploring what different ideas are available can help you improve a system or develop a new one. This, in turn, can prove to be very profitable for you in that you create a great product.

The new marketer is very anxious when starting out. Using the traffic exchange is not always a futile effort if you are trying to get your product out. If you truly have a product that is largely unknown to a new marketer, their naiveté to the industry could cause them to look for help. When your site comes through on the exchange, it could be the answer to their prayers. Granted, the traffic exchanges may not be the best way to drive targeted traffic to your website, they do prove to have some value to the experienced internet marketer in generating new ideas and just putting your name on the “newbie” scene. Keep in mind that when a new marketer sees the same name over and over again, it really sinks in and they in turn will see that name out.

I will say that traffic exchanges that are automatic (i.e. do not require click-through for credit), are very dangerous. Since these programs to not require the user to acknowledge they see the site, there are no guarantees that anyone sees your site at all. Using these sites really does not have a value in my opinion. Try to stick to the click-for-credit traffic exchanges and your experience may be more worthwhile.

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5 Free Ways To Get Targeted Traffic To Your Website

March 10th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

Did you know that… it is a well known fact that only about 5% of people succeed when it comes to Internet Marketing. What ever the niche a lot of Internet Marketers lose money then lose their way. One of the main reasons of this failure is the lack of visitors to their websites.

Thousands and thousands of entrepreneurs have the same problem, that is getting targeted traffic to their WebPages. The problem is when a lot of people are staring out they can not afford to do a pay per click campaign or take out expensive solo ezine advertisement.

Also they think that getting to the top other the search engines rankings will get them traffic. While getting to the top of the first page on Google will help you to get traffic that alone won’t guarantee you plenty of traffic.

So what is the solution how can online marketers drive traffic to their sites with out going broke. Well there are a few ways to drive quality targeted traffic to ones website.

Method One: Article Marketing

Article marketing is where you write articles on any subject that you are an expert on. You must make sure the articles are well written and have no spelling mistakes.

At the end of the article you can add a little paragraph about yourself and put a link to your site. this is so when others read your articles they have a direct link to your website.

This is a very effective way of generating targeted traffic to your site. for example if you are a golf expert and you sell golfing items online from your site, you can write an article on golf. Making sure you put a link back to your and that’s how you can get traffic from articles.

Method two: Forum Marketing

Marketing in forums involves you making post in forums these posts could be about a subject you an expert in or you could ask a lot of questions.

The more you post topics in forums the more other people get to know and trust you and you start to build up relationships. To get website traffic from forums you must go to your profile and fill out your signature.

A signature is a block of text maximum of four lines where you can place a small ad with a link back to your website or affiliate site.

Method three: Traffic Exchanges

A traffic exchange is where you surf other peoples websites in exchange you get visitors to your website. The exchange rates can vary from one traffic exchange to another. Normally it is around every two sites that you visit you get one visit in exchange.

This is not as effective as the previous methods and it is a bit time consuming but it does work.

Method four: Free Classifieds

Placing advertisement on free classifieds is not as effective as it once was. Because it is free millions of people place ads and not a lot of them get read but it is a way to get traffic and you never know you’ll always get the odd visitor from the classifieds if you make your advert stand out.

Method five: Press Releases

Press releases can give your site an initial flurry of attention when it is published.

Your press release must be well written though and should not seem like a blatant advert. They do work and it helps to get your site noticed

These are just five very effective ways of generating targeted traffic, all these methods are free and they do take a lot of work. But the rewards are great.

If you do not have a very big budget, these methods are ideal to send people to your lead capture pages or offers. While some of these methods are more effective than others you should try to do all of them especially if you are stating out.

So if you are on a budget and you have something to sell or an affiliate site to promote, why not take the first step on getting quality visitors. Remember the first step is the hardest everything after that just gets easier

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Traffic Exchange Marketing Will Work

March 10th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

People who use traffic exchanges do so to bring traffic to their websites. The one thing you need to keep in mind though is that not all the people viewing your website will be interested in a business. So when you are building your marketing pages, you need to construct your offers towards traffic exchange users because they are there for traffic generation purposes just like you.

I use specific lead capture pages that cater to specific traffic exchanges and my offer is to help that user earn a certain amount of money per day with what they are already doing…surfing!

I am amazed at the number of websites in these exchanges that are super long with a ton of content. Considering the 10-30 second timer, that user won’t be on that website long enough to do any good. You need something direct and to the point that catches the user’s eye.

They also use the main website and not a lead capture page. If you are doing that, you are throwing so much money out the window. You MUST capture that readers name and email so you can properly follow up with your well written auto-responder messages. Remember, it takes a someone on average 7 times to see an offer before responding. Follow up is critical!

You also need to track your lead capture pages so you can track your conversion rates and see where to properly invest more time or to purchase credits from a particular exchange.

You do not have to use one exchange at a time. Use CrazyBrowser or a similar program and you can have several tabs open at once with each tab being a different traffic exchange. I usually surf the top 10 exchanges 200 times each which is approximately 2 hours. Then I’ll choose 10 more exchanges and surf each of those about 100 times. I usually do this Monday thru Friday and on Saturday and Sunday, I surf myself silly. It is so worth it as long as you remain consistent!!

Happy Surfing!

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What is a Free Traffic Exchange?

March 10th, 2008 by slanier

CLICK HERE FOR A LISTING OF THE HIGHEST RATED TRAFFIC EXCHANGES

A free traffic exchange offers webmasters the ability to promote their websites or affiliate marketing campaigns for free, or at very low cost. The idea is to surf around other members websites, and for each viewing, you get so many of your own URLs and banners added into the rotation for other members to view. There are hundreds, if not thousands of free traffic exchanges online today. The trick is to find the ones that work best for you. Not all free traffic exchanges are created equal and the most active ones are not necessarily the best ones for your needs.

Free traffic exchanges are a great marketing tool for a variety of reasons. The most obvious reason is that you get lots of people looking, and hopefully clicking on your website or promotional pages. But there are hidden benefits to free traffic exchanges you may not have even considered.

Search engines love free traffic exchanges because of all the incoming and outgoing links they generate. Plus the rapidly changing content is another reason the search bots love these things. Exchanges that have more content also generate a higher pagerank, and therefore more traffic, and increased memberships. The key is to find exchanges that are very active and have lots of members. The more members they have, the more potential customers you get looking at your offer and your chances for sales conversions are that much better. But bigger isn’t always better.

Some free traffic exchanges may convert sales like crazy for one person, and be a complete waste of time for another. If everyone were promoting the same website or affiliate program is the same traffic exchange for example, then chances are you would not make many sales. Even if you were promoting the #1 thing on the internet, if everyone promoted the same program, your chances are much lower that someone will purchase through your website or link to make you any money. Also, when people see the same ad over and over again, they get desensitized to it. Don’t fall into this trap. It’s one thing to try and sell a very popular product/service/ebook etc, but it’s another thing when a million other people are trying to do it too. Competition is a good thing, because it validates your market, but too much competition is tough and it’s time to move on to something else.

We all know clicking on ads in a free traffic exchange can be very boring, monotonous and can take a lot of time. That’s why you need to make the best of your opportunity or you will just be wasting a lot of your time and effort on something that just isn’t working. If you have your own niche website, then you already differentiated yourself from the pack. If you are an affiliate marketer, then you need to find products/services that everyone else isn’t promoting, especially within that particular traffic exchange.

One way to use free traffic exchanges to your advantage is to join a few at first, and see if your sales pick up. If your sales aren’t doing well, then test out a few more. When you do find a few traffic exchanges that appear to be generating sales for you, then narrow those down until you find the one, or two that are working. Now concentrate your efforts on those because they’re the ones you want. At least for now anyway. Things may change, so keep an eye on your campaigns and if sales seem to be falling off, then it might be time to change your offer or find another traffic exchange that could pick your profits up again.

As I mentioned, your individual promotion is everything. If you’re trying to promote something everyone else is, I don’t care what traffic exchange service you’re using, your sales conversions are going to be very low, or nothing at all. You cannot always blame the exchange. Sometimes you have to look at yourself and think if you’re doing all you can to make sales.

If you’re going to be using multiple free traffic exchanges, and I recommend that you do, your first priority should be to pick up a multi-tab web browser. Many of these browsers are free and run on PCs and MACs. The tabs feature allows you to have one web browser open with multiple tabs each going to a separate website. You could easily put 5 or 6 of your free exchange sites in these tabs, and earn credits for all of them at the same time. So instead of surfing for 1/2 an hour or an hour earning 200 hits for one exchange, you could earn 200 hits for 5 exchanges in the same amount of time. This is a huge time saver and multiplies your earned hits by 5X or 6X.

Getting free traffic to your website is a lot of work. If you don’t have the money to spend on full blown PPC (pay-per-click) campaigns like Google AdWords, free traffic exchanges are a great way to get the traffic you need.

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