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Traffic Exchange Primer
by F. Terrence Markle ©Copyright 2004

Traffic exchanges are everywhere. A traffic exchange is 
a clever way to get hundreds or thousands of visitors to 
your website. The concept is very simple and the exchange 
process is easy to put into action. First, you join a 
traffic exchange program that includes individuals with 
websites to promote. Next, you set up the website you want 
to promote. Finally, you visit the websites of the other 
members and they visit your website in exchange.        

There are both free and paid traffic exchanges. Some of 
the exchanges are good and some are not so good. They come 
in two basic flavors: manual surf and automatic surf. In 
the manual surf mode, you have to visit a website for a 
minimum period of time and then click on a button to visit 
the next website in the rotation. In the automatic surf 
mode, the websites are visited automatically for a specific 
period of time before the next website is displayed. The 
order of website visitation in both the manual and automatic 
mode is controlled by the traffic exchange webmaster.  

A rotator or randomizer can be used to display the member 
websites one after another in either the automatic or manual 
surf mode. The rotator will display a different website in 
an order specified by the traffic exchange. In the auto surf 
mode, the rotator usually displays websites for a specific 
time period that usually ranges from 15 seconds to 60 seconds. 
The randomizer, on the other hand, will randomly select the 
website to be displayed. You earn credits as you view more 
and more websites.

A traffic exchange will expose your website to many Internet 
users on a worldwide basis. As a result, the exchange can 
possibly give your website a lot of hits. Visualize the 
traffic exchange in the same manner you would view a TV. The 
exchange provides you with websites to view similar to 
watching TV commercials.  

The basic traffic exchange program works on the "credit" 
principle. You earn a full or partial "credit" every time 
you visit another member's website. In turn, you lose a 
full credit whenever another member visits your website.  
The typical exchange allows you to earn from 0.5 to 1.0 
credit for every visit you make to another member's website.  

You can usually obtain credits on the traffic exchange by: 

* Viewing the websites of other members
* Referring other individuals to join the exchange
* Purchasing credits from the exchange's webmaster.  

If you purchase credits, you generally have a higher rate of 
conversion of credits earned and/or purchased versus credits 
used when you receive visits from other members. You have 
greater control over how you use your earned credits when you 
pay to receive credits. It is possible to get a display 
rate of your website that exceeds 1.0 for every 1.0 credits 
you earned or purchased.  

As an example, in the basic free mode you might have to use 
2.0 earned credits to display your website 1.0 times to other 
members. This is a 0.5 exchange rate. Depending on the 
traffic exchange and the number of credits purchased, you can
increase the exchange rate up to about 2.0 displays of your
website to other members for every hit you receive.

Some exchanges offer a sign-up bonus (free earned credits) 
to encourage you to join their traffic exchange. This enables 
you to start getting visitors to your website immediately.  

You have the ability to enable or disable your own website 
for viewing by other members. If you enable your website, 
other members can view your site and thus consume your account 
credits. If you disable your website, other members cannot 
view your website and you conserve your credits. This allows 
you to continue to surf the other member websites and build 
up your available credits for use at a different time.

The traffic exchanges specify whether or not you can have 
multiple websites for display. However, you can only display 
one website at a time if you are permitted to have multiple 
websites. You can specify how many of your earned and/or 
purchased credits can be applied to each of your websites.

Most exchanges have a referral program where you can earn 
credits for the people that you refer to the traffic exchange 
program and their surfing activity. As a bonus, you may 
receive a certain percentage of their earned credits. Your 
downline levels may be unlimited or limited depending on the 
traffic exchange structure.

Most traffic exchanges earn money from the "purchase credits" 
feature they offer and from advertisements. In general, an 
exchange member can specify whether or not they want to see 
popups, adult or erotic websites.

Most traffic exchanges have restrictions associated with your 
use of the exchange. For example, exchanges generally specify 
whether you can or cannot have: (1) popup windows, (2) message 
boxes, (3) inappropriate content or adult material, (4) break 
out of frames, (5) site rotation, (6) URL or domain forwarding 
and (7) more than one account.

Furthermore, the traffic exchange may be able to delete your 
account if: (1) your account is inactive for a given period of 
time or (2) your website is causing problems for the exchange 
system.
 
Some exchanges let their members sell their earned credits 
for cash back to the traffic exchange. The rate of conversion 
from earned credits to cash is controlled by the webmaster of 
the traffic exchange.  

Your website design and the time it takes for the website to 
load are very critical when using a traffic exchange. Your 
webpage will never get viewed if your site takes 15 seconds to 
load and the exchange rotates the websites every 15 seconds.  
You want to have at least a 10-second viewing window to give 
the surfing exchange member time to respond to your webpage 
presentation.  

Keep your website clean of unnecessary clutter. You want 
your visitor to make a quick decision whether to ask for more 
information or pass on your offering.  

Make your displayed website short and simple. Do not send 
your visitors to the sales page on your main website. Provide 
a killer headline followed by supporting bullets and ask for 
their name and email address. Don't make it complicated.  

Put the lure on the fishing line and give your visitors a 
chance to say "yes" to your presentation. You need to get 
your message in front of your visitor quickly. Capture their 
name and e-mail address. You will have plenty of chances at 
a later time to market to your list.

Traffic exchanges can bring you a lot of traffic. It will 
take some work but the increase in your own opt--in list 
will provide constant inspiration. You should consider the 
benefits gained from traffic exchanges if you have the time 
and proper motivation.
  
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Copyright (c) F. Terrence Markle – All Rights Reserved
F-R-E-E course on building a high-quality targeted list
"How To Build Your Own Opt--In Mailing List" at:
http://www.QuikSystems.com/OIC/OpInCourse.htm
F-R-E-E Ezine on building your targeted list at:
http://www.QuikSystems.com/EzineSub.htm 
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