(This is a re-post from our original blog)
The Basics
Traffic exchange programs can be a very effective way to put your website in front of thousands of potential customers. They are perfect for promoting business opportunities, blogs, products, services, and more.
When you use a good traffic exchange program to it’s fullest potential, you’re going to get some great results. The problem is that many people do not use them to their fullest potential and quickly give up when the money doesn’t start pouring in.
News flash! You cannot simply put your website home page into the surf rotation and call it a day. This is probably the biggest mistake you can make besides not tracking your ads, which I’ll get to in a bit. You only have a limited amount of time, usually just a few seconds, to get your message across to the surfer.
If your website is taking 8 seconds to load and the timer of the traffic exchange is set to 8 second views like us, then obviously there is a major problem. Honestly, anything that takes over 3 seconds to load is asking for trouble. It really doesn’t matter if the surf timer was set to 15 seconds or even 30 seconds. If you have a slow loading page no one will ever see it or even care when it does finally load.
Splash Pages
This is where splash pages and squeeze pages come in. I don’t want to get into too many details about these right now but if you are not using one of these types of pages to advertise on a traffic exchange then you are simply not using traffic exchanges correctly.
Every single page in rotation should be a splash or squeeze page with the exception of maybe a blog or a super fast loading and attractive home page. These pages load lightning fast, have high-impact fonts/graphics, and instill curiosity in the visitor.
Ad Tracking
Another major problem that I have seen is people not tracking their ads. You will never know how well your ads are doing without tracking them. There are plenty of 3rd party ad tracking services out there and we even have one built in to our exchange!
The concept is to take at least two different splash pages and set them both up for tracking. It’s important to use the tracker URL when promoting these pages. Go to your favorite traffic exchanges and add your tracker links to the surf rotation. Again, remember to use the tracker links! That’s all there is to it.
Now you will be able to see which one of your ads is getting the most hits/conversions. Use the ad that gets the most hits and continually modify it until it is converting at an acceptable rate. Trackers also have some other great uses which include testing to see which exchange is producing the best results for you.
Alternative Methods
Last but not least there are banners, text ads, paid emails, and solo emails. All of which are perfect for added exposure. The more of these tools you use, the better the results are going to be.
Participate in the banner and text exchange programs and not just the traffic exchange portion. Putting the banner and text ad code from a traffic exchange on your website can really help with the amount of targeted visitors you receive.
Build your downline! This is a very worthwhile method of building a steady stream of traffic to your website over time. Almost every traffic exchange I know of has their own splash pages, banners, and text ads that you can use to build your downline in that program. Advertise those links on other traffic exchanges or anywhere else for that matter! Downline members can and will pass up hits to their sponsors when they surf.
If you have 100 members in your 1st level downline at TrafficSpawn and each of them surfed 100 pages that means you would earn 2,000 hits without even doing anything! That is why it’s so important to build your downline before you start advertising your own business in most cases. It’s all about a steady flow of traffic and not random spikes of it. You might even make a decent amount of money from your downline members purchasing traffic and upgrading their accounts! A win/win situation.
Closing
There really are no secrets when it comes to getting good results with a traffic exchange. All it takes is a little effort on your part. You get what you put into it, as with anything else in life.
Good luck! I hope some of this information was useful to the newer members.