Traffic Exchange Tips

You belong to a great traffic exchange and surf there every day. Yet, this week, you seem to be amassing a huge backlog of credits. And next week, you’re a regular credit tycoon. What happened? And when is that surplus going to move?

Sometimes surfing slows down in an exchange for one reason or another. The holidays are a good example of when this might happen because people are busy and don’t have time to surf, while you’re a dedicated professional and continue to surf your allotted time day in, day out. But when those credits build up, don’t grouse about it! Think about performing a bit of magic.

Of course, I’m not talking about prestidigitation. I’m talking about using credits for other purposes than hits to your site. I don’t have to write about using them for text link or banner impressions. I’m sure you do that already. But have you thought about selling your credits for cash? You can do that at AdvertisingKnowHow, TS25, and Carnival Clicks, and there are many others.

But if you can’t sell your credits, or even if you can but won’t get much for them, what about using them to encourage your team? You may have a downline of 50 people, but a small percentage of them will be active. Reward those members for staying active by shooting them some credits I sometimes hold contests for my downline members, offering hundreds of credits for the one who surfs the most or recruits the most new members. Transferring of credits is possible at several exchanges, including StartXchange, Traffic Soldiers, and Share Traffic, among others.

OK… you can’t sell them or give them away. Now, what? How about offering credits to customers? “Get 500 credits to TheBestTrafficExchangeLikeEver.com when you buy a copy of my ebook, Online Marketing Explained.” I’ve done something similar to that, but now that I’m thinking about it. Hmm… Seems like a good idea. I’ll have to take my own advice on that one.

Or, you may be able to give credits to your downline members when you send them an email. You can do that at WebBizInsider very easily, as well as at WebCentreSurf. In fact, the option is directly on the pages where your emails are written. I don’t see how people can expect me to open their mail if they’re not enthused enough about the program to spend a little on it, you know? When this option is available, I always add some credits when sending emails, even if I’m reaching into my own stash and not using credits from a surplus.

Anyway, see if any of these options are available at the exchanges where you’re planning to sell, award, or transfer credits. If you don’t see a policy in Terms and Conditions or FAQs at the site, email the traffic exchange owner and make sure you’re not doing something that could get you tossed into the paper shredder at TheBestTrafficExchangeLikeEver.com. Owie!

Hopefully, if you’re experiencing a surplus of credits, the traffic exchange will get members surfing again, and your surplus problems will be over. I saw this very situation at Traffic Soldiers and Traffic Roundup this year, but as great owners, Pat Lovell (TSoldiers) and Stephen Ayer (TRoundup) got the members surfing again by addng interesting new features to their programs and greater surfing rewards. In a short while, credits began to fly as they had always done before. Yet, when you do have a surplus, don’t whine. Get out there and figure out a way to capitalize on your treasure!

 

 

Why do you need referrals in a traffic exchange? The truth is that unless the exchange is rewarding you for recruiting that downline, you’re probably wasting your time.

Why?

Because of the people you recruit, only a few will remain active members and surf the exchange regularly enough for you to earn credits from their efforts. Recruiting can be wasted time and money. Of course, most traffic exchange owners don’t want you to know that.

However, don’t rule recruiting out entirely! It is definitely worth recruiting in some exchanges. StartXchange, Mystical Maze, ILoveHits, AdvertisingKnowHow, Surf 4 the Earth, Click Crazey, Traffic Roundup, Hit Pirate, Traffic Soldiers, Nexus Exchange, and most recently WebCentreSurf all pay commissions on what your downline spends, if you upgrade your membership. OK, so you probably won’t upgrade in every exchange, so pick the ones that you get the best results from and plunk down your $5 - $10 a month. Concentrate on promoting the commission-paying exchanges that you upgrade in. Then, every time someone in your downline buys credits, for instance, you get a percentage of the amount they spend.

Another good reason for getting referrals is if the traffic exchange has a good downline builder. Let’s say you belong to most of the programs in the downline builder and you may want to join the rest. It’s never mandatory that you join all the programs, but the more you join, the better chance you have of someone in your downline joining a program in the downline builder under you. Just don’t go joining programs that mean little to you and that you will never be active in. What’s the point?

Of course, earning money for recruiting is a very good reason to work on building a downline. Most Pro Exchanges, such as MoreActualVisitors, GoneClicking, and Traffic-Exchange-Business, pay for referrals that you gather in various amounts.

But just earning the money and walking away isn’t very productive. You need to make contact with the people you’ve recruited as soon as possible. Send them a private message, if that feature is available at the site. If not and you have their email address or instant messenger ID, send them an email or IM message. Tell them they’ve made a good decision by joining the program. Let them know what help is available at the site, if they should need it. Offer your assistance and give them ways to contact you including email address, telephone, and IM user name(s). And direct them to the downline builder. But the most important part is that you make a friend. You may be surprised at how many programs that friend will join with you. The best way to build a strong list is by helping people.

Never make the mistake of trying to sell them on the latest greatest new program or even your own product in your message. First, that’s spamming and you could lose your membership in the traffic exchange. Second, how would you like it? I certainly wouldn’t. But a person who sends me a welcome email and takes the time to thank me for being part of their downline earns my respect and I will remember his or her name the next time it pops up on the surfing screen. And if I reply to them and make a friend, there’s a great chance that they’ll remember mine.

Networking, people. It’s ALL about networking.

 

Pat Marcello is all about helping people learn the ropes of online marketing. Check out her web site OpportunityVillageMarketing or write to her at admin@ovweb.net. 

In the past year, there have been numerous changes in the traffic exchange industry. Some have been more popular than others, but overall, webmasters seem to be turning to members for answers. The best webmasters are putting their members’ suggestions into play, and some are coming up with great innovations of their own. Here are a few of them and where you can find them:

Adding Pictures to Your Splash Pages for Branding Purposes:

10KHits4UNow, AdvertisingKnowHow, ILoveHits, GamingHouseHits, StartXchange, Nexus Exchange, Traffic Soldiers, and all of the ZWAZ programs (Clickaholics, LemmingRun, ViralVisitors, ViralClassAds, and TsunamiGOLD) offer this feature, though this has been the norm in the ZWAZ exchanges, rather than an innovation. It’s important to have your face associated with a product or site you trust. That way, people begin to trust the product because you’ve put yourself ( a real, live human) behind it, leading to more sign-ups or sales.

Full View Bonus Points:

I only know of one exchange offering this–More Actual Visitors. The ability to add up to 2.5 credits to the number of credits the surfer normally earns, so that folks won’t move to the next tab, open another program, or minimize the window while your site is on deck is very cool. At least, you can be sure your site will be seen and evaluated for the full viewing time.

Paying Commissions for Downline Spends:

Several exchanges added this feature, which is very cool, too. Imagine your downline member going pro in an exchange, and being paid a commission each month. You’ll probably get commissions on any purchases, too, but policies at each site vary. Find these features at Traffic Roundup, StartXchange, AdvertisingKnowHow, ILoveHits, and ClickCrazey that I know of, but I’m sure there are others. Some sites, usually the pro exchanges, like More Actual Visitors, Gone Clicking, and Traffic-Exchange-Business pay for referrals and always did, but it’s nice to see other exchanges rewarding folks for their downline gathering efforts. AdvertisingKnowHow and ClickCrazey stopped giving credit rewards for downline members’ surfing when they came up with this feature. I don’t think it’s hurt either members or the exchanges.

Float-In Surf Bars:

AdvertisingKnowHow and ClickCrazey also came up with floating surf bars. This allows more of your pages to be seen without the extra border at the top or bottom of the page. The float bars come in from all angles, and are also a great way to thwart cheaters. The only drawback is that they tend to hide under flash pages (scrolling down to the bottom of the page often solves this problem) or the surf bars totally disappear when the page is not found. Yet, this happens so infrequently, it’s not really an issue.

No Charge Advertising:

When Nexus Exchange opened last year, their policy of only charging credits for unique views was well-received. In the same vein, WebCentreSurf recently started charging for banner and text ads only when someone clicks on them–another great innovation that surfers hope will catch on.

Power Hours:

ILoveHits has always had them, as has Raging Bull Traffic. Last Novemeber, TS25 came up with its own version of the power hour, whereby you could really stack up the credits when the site doubled or tripled what you would normally earn for one hour each day. Only upgraded members got notice of when the hour would arrive the following day. This worked so well that TrafficPods offered the feature both in January and it’s going on again, at least until February 15.

Overall, I’d say that 2005 right into 2006 has been a great time for traffic exchanges. I have no doubt that there are other exchanges that offer features that are outlined above, and if so, I apologize to those owners. (If you are such an owner, contact me at admin@ovweb.net and I’ll be sure to update this page with your information.) However, owners that aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in the industry and aren’t making changes to suit members’ needs may find themselves without members. I mean, come on… So many traffic exchanges, so little time.

 In a recent poll over at Net Marketing Forum, surfers were asked how long they surf each day. The results varied from zero minutes to four hours or more. Can you guess where the majority of surfers fell? Yep. Four hours or more. The next runner up was one to two hours.

Wouldn’t you rather surf less and benefit more? I mean, there are so many other things to do in a marketing day, right? You need time for writing blog posts, posting classified ads, FFAs, taking care of referrals, setting up the next big deal with Ghod of the Internet, whatever. Surfing is great, but there’s a more efficient way to go about it. You just need to arrange your day and plan which traffic exchanges to use. 

Of course, I’m sure you have your favorite exchanges and some of those probably produce results for you or you wouldn’t like them. But are they the best exchanges and are they the ones you should be spending your time working?

You can find many “Top Ten” reports online. Some of them claim to have scientifically tested the sites. Others provide a list that’s an opinion based on their own experiences. Neither would be my go-by. Yet, a combination of lists will show you which are the best exchanges, via comparison.

Exchanges that show up on all lists should obviously be tops in your surfing line-up. But what about the ones in between and your own favorites? 

Score them.

Put all your lists together and aside from those exchanges that appear on every list, give one point for each time one of the remaining exchanges shows up. You’ll see which of those have the highest scores when you’re through. Some of these or all of them should be your second-tier traffic exchanges.

That’s all you need! Why go for third-best? You’ll have more than enough to make up your daily surfing schedule.

Take the top twenty-four exchanges and divide them into four groups of six. Surf them for the length of time you feel comfortable surfing after you’ve reached 50 sites, but surfing all day is a waste of energy. Plus, if you have been surfing more than twenty-four exchanges, you’re probably wasting effort that could be better spent surfing the “24” longer.

But even if you want to cheat and push an exchange out of the scored 24 that you don’t particularly like to surf, and add something that’s already proven to work for you, hey… it’s your 24. Never kick a winning thoroughbred out of the stable.

Yet, cutting down the number of exchanges you surf really does work. Richard Taylor of co-founder of RX2 Central, Inc. and partner in ClickCrazey and Focus4theFuture has said many times that the finite number of surfers online today all frequent the biggest traffic exchanges, and I have no doubt that Rich is right. Consider that someone has to see an offer seven times on average before they buy or sign-up. Isn’t it better to surf exchanges that most of us belong to, just so that your offer is in the face of the whole surfing population with higher frequency? Just try this for a week and track your results. I think you’ll continue the plan.

Love to hear your comments after you’ve tried it.

Pat Marcello has been a freelance writer for the past 16 years and owns OpportunityVillageMarketing. Her own blog, OVBlogger.com, reports the news from the world of online marketing.