Spend Those Credits Wisely!
Wednesday, December 28th, 2005Most traffic exchanges feature banner and text link advertising as an adjunct to your free membership. In some exchanges, if you can conjure up the right set of words to set folks wondering, text links can be quite valuable. Banner advertising works, too, if you know which banners work at which traffic exchanges. It all comes back to test, test, test, doesn’t it? But even after testing, before spending any of your hard-clicked traffic credits, think again.
Some traffic exchanges, several based on the LJ script for instance, automatically award banner and text link impressions as you surf, or maybe you pick some up from a game or a bonus while surfing. Now, you’re in no-brainer territory. Use those credits for testing.
In exchanges that require you convert advertising credits, which you bought, won, or earned while surfing, decide whether the credit to banner or text credit ratio is worth the exchange.
Where it’s a 1 to 1 swap, keep your credits and forget the banners or text links if they’ll be shown on a cluttered surfbar. But if your banner or link will be shown on the site’s homepage, it may be a good trade. See if banners or text links show up when others advertise the site. Here, even a 1 to 1 ratio may be of value because you’re advertising to a very broad audience, and perhaps to some folks for the first time because you don’t belong to an exchange that another member does.
Obviously, big exchange ratios are attractive, but you’ll still have to decide if the exchange will be worthwhile. Ten banner/text link credits to 1 advertising credit is a pretty good trade, but evaluate the site where you get this delicious ratio:
- Decide where your banner or text links will be placed.
- If they will be placed on the surfbar, how many items are already there? Are there timers, your username, credits earned, credit balance, etc. included? What about the site’s name or slogan? How much clutter is there?
- Will people have to look hard to see your little link? Will they bother? Probably not.
Forget wasting valuable ad credits at that site, even though you’re getting 10 to 1. Remember, with a full-page view, you automatically have the surfer’s attention. Use your ad credits for pages and forget the links and banners.
Using credits for text links or banners can pay off, but you’ll have to test to see how effective they are at which sites and whether a trade is worth the expense. If you do proceed, see how many sign-ups you get from using them or how many sales you make. You can easily track link and banner clicks, as you would page views. Are you getting enough ping for your points? Take an empirical approach to spending credits and watch your sales grow.
Pat Marcello
Opportunity Village Marketing
http://ovweb.net