Using Banner Exchanges and Traffic Exchanges to Increase Web Site Traffic

In a nutshell, a traffic exchange is a website that asks you to surf other sites in exchange for credits, which are then converted into "hits" for your site. Most will also sell you credits, so that you can avoid surfing. This is how the traffic exchange owner makes his money, and why you generally don't make any money from these things. A banner exchange works much the same way, except that you are posting other people's banners on your site, in exchange for having your banner appear on other sites.

If you're like me, you aren't all that interested in actually looking at the content of all of those sites. Sometimes, when I surf for credits, I find a few interesting sites along the way, but most of the time, I just wait the required time (most exchanges make you wait at least 15 or 20 seconds before moving on) and then click to the next site. I'm not interested in the content, just the traffic credits. If you and I are not interested, why is anybody else? It seems to me that if I paid for that kind of traffic, I'd be wasting my money. Not only is the traffic not targeted, it isn't even interested!

On the other hand, these exchanges do have a novel feature which makes a few of them worth looking into. Most allow you to enroll other members in your "downline", soft of like an mlm program, and then earn credits when those members enroll more members. If you do this long enough, you eventually have enough people in your downline earning you credits that you no longer have to surf for hits yourself, nor do you have to pay for them. Once that happens, you might as well have the free traffic, targeted or not, because you no longer have to do anything to earn it or pay for it.

Many exchanges encourage you to build downlines, by giving you credits when you refer new members, making the whole process "viral". A few of these actually interest me, and perhaps they'd interest you,too. In my opinion, this one is the best choice for a free viral traffic exchange

This traffic exchange promises to double your money, after a waiting period, when you pay for a monthly membership and buy traffic credits. If it continues to work as it has in the past, this will give me an additional stream of income, plus the traffic. Not a bad deal at all, in my book. Check it out for yourself, and see if it's for you. Please, if you join, be sensible about your expenditures.

#7 - Banner Advertising and Banner Exchanges

Banner advertising was once all the rage, but is waning in popularity. Once the novelty and appeal of banners wore off, click-through rates plummeted. That is not to say that it is no longer effective, but you have to work harder to get those clicks, and your banner has to be appealing and inviting.

If you want to try out some banner advertising, here are a few rules of thumb.

Banner Exchanges

A novel twist on banner advertising, set up to work somewhat like a traffic exchange, is the banner exchange. You earn (or can purchase) display credits for your banners by displaying rotating banners on your web pages, and, in some cases, you also earn credits by referring others to the exchange.

Personally, I don't have much faith in traditional banner advertising, but advertising through a banner exchange is simple, and I am a participant. This particular exchange is very generous in their exchange rate, and allows you to earn credits as other people sign up under you.

Unlike a traffic exchange which would require me to surf for credits, at a banner exchange I earn credits simply for page views and clicks, and I don't have to do anything else, except to find a place on my site to incorporate the banner display. Scroll down to the bottom of this page to see how it looks.