Traffic Exchanges? Useful or Waste of Time?

[davepilgrim]

Hi Kurt,

 

My first success with FREE advertising came from using TE's.

 

Would you believe, that I was making direct sales from them selling Clickbank products. This was at a time when most veteran marketers, Top Promoters, and Gurus said that they was a waste of time.

 

This was during the time when Clickbank use to send notification of sales made by affiliates and I got a lot of notifications of sales made.

 

I didn't use no splash pages, no squeeze pages... I promoted the sales page and made sale after sale...

What changed?

 

Did this just stop working (and do you know why) or did you just find more lucrative offers to promote?

[captkirk]

What changed?

 

Did this just stop working (and do you know why) or did you just find more lucrative offers to promote?

 

I found other Free advertising methods that I liked better.   

[affordwealth]

Like anything else online, if you concentrate on one good source and learn all you can about it, so you can share what you learn with others who are wandering, THEY STILL WORK.

 

If you follow what the traffic exchange owners tell you and surf several at a time, you don't begin to see what is there for you. I only use ONE exchange daily and never spend my credits to have my page shown, but I still get referrals for all kinds of projects.

 

The biggest problem is too many people are in such a rush, they never pause to smell the MONEY!

There is a lot in between the smell of money and money in your account. One of the successful but pretty deceiving ways to advertise is to create the smell of money without the way to get to the money. I've seen so many of these "baits" or "mouse traps"  (and, shame on me, was deceived by some) in my long years (on and off) in Network Marketing.

[affordwealth]

By the way, one of the best traffic exchanges I know of is Traffic Monsoon:

http://affordablewealth.com/tramon/tm-as-tex700.jpg

[troysavary]

I find that the traffic from TEs is not particularly good traffic. People surf as many exchanges at once as they can, and don't actually look at anything. There are browsers specifcally dsigned to make surfing many exchanges at once easier. Even with a splashpage that is eye catching, they are still not looking at it. It seems that the only thing most TE surfers will join is downline builders and TEs. I make small commissions from upgraded members in a couple exchanges, but hardly enough to justify the time I spent building them. I am having way more success with MLM companies that have physical products I can market offline than anything I have tried online. Marketing anything other than traffic sources on TEs has been an exercise in futility. Even when I get them to fill out the capture page, they do not respond to any of the emails sent. Traffic exchange surfers just simply tend not to be buyers.

 

Maybe I'll buy a downline builder script and make my own downline builder. That seems to be the easiest way to leverage traffic exchanges.

[captkirk]

I was red hot when I was using Traffic Exchange.

 

And I would be red hot today if I started using them like before.

 

I highly recommend Traffic Exchanges!

[troysavary]

Which exchanges are working? I am finding the TimTech and Legacy exchanges have plenty of people using them, but they are not buyers. They care more about whether or not you have your picture on your splash page than what you are actually promoting. Can you recommend a few exchanges that are active with people who actually look at what is being offered.

[Bruno Duarte]

Sounds like something to give it a try

[Risktaker89]

My strategy in using traffic exchanges has always been building my own list with them.

 

Once they are on my list, my first few follow up emails will be delivering what was promised and my primary program.

 

Subsequently, I will be sending them emails whenever I update my blog to get traffic to my blog. I am not 

good with SEO's thus I find this method better for me.

 

When a new program is launched which I think will benefit them, I will then send out an offer.

 

Usually, I will get sign ups to new programs via this method while only promoting one page which is my squeeze page.

Utilising this method, it takes out the headache of thinking which program to promote next and etc. I get greater

conversions when promoting my own squeeze page.

 

When there are buyers in your list, you will notice that these buyers will be keen to join the programs you promote

and they will usually take upgrades, earning you commissions in the long run.

 

As for which traffic exchanges work, you need to track your conversions. The 2 traffic exchanges which has never 

failed to deliver sign ups for me are:

1. Traffic Ad Bar

2. Hit 2 Hit

3. Ad Master Plus (a hybrid site, I usually surf the traffic exchange to earn enough tokens to redeem mailing credits, I find

the mailer here produces better result than the traffic exchanges)

 

Regarding on how I build my list with traffic exchanges, you can visit my blog here to find out more about it at

http://listbuildingmastery.siterubix.com/

[captkirk]

Which exchanges are working? I am finding the TimTech and Legacy exchanges have plenty of people using them, but they are not buyers. They care more about whether or not you have your picture on your splash page than what you are actually promoting. Can you recommend a few exchanges that are active with people who actually look at what is being offered.

 

Hi Troy, I highly recommend CyberWheelers which I listed in the Program Threads. The site has withstood the test of time.

 

The owner and I use to be members of a similar program when it went offline without a trace... We was red hot with the site.

 

So, the owner of Cyberwheelers started his own site to replace the site that went offline and he has done a great join.   

 

BTW, the site is 100% FREE!

[ChristaW]

I've had good results purchasing banner ads that get displayed throughout the main page and members area on various traffic exchange sites. I'm talking about the standard 468x60 and 125x125 sizes here. Funny thing is that I have got way better results doing that as opposed to the main text clicking areas.

[merry]

I want to add to this discussion that for me, one of the best places for my promotions are TE's Login Ads.

They definitely work, especially if you have a unique page for a new site ;-)

 

As to the regular TE site rotations, in my opinion it is mainly branding, branding yourself and your sites.

 

No, I definitely do not consider TEs as a waste of time,

plus, clicking is sometimes... relaxing :-)

[Darren Olander]

I want to add to this discussion that for me, one of the best places for my promotions are TE's Login Ads.

 

Yep, they have worked well for me too! I guess it is a good thing most people don't purchase these.. more for me

[jminkler]

Yep, they have worked well for me too! I guess it is a good thing most people don't purchase these.. more for me

 

Hi Darren,

 

Really should put more security around your links for tokens in email for this site ....  See my post in "Done with TE" thread

[Darren Olander]

 

Hi Darren,

 

Really should put more security around your links for tokens in email for this site ....  See my post in "Done with TE" thread

 

 

Yes I did reply to you, we use captchas here, just not every time you open emails. 

[captkirk]

Hard to believe lol!

I ain't saying you are lying here. I'm just curious!

 

Heck what were you promoting?

 

While making sales selling  products from the Clickbank Mall, people was buying advertising products and services instead of buying money making opportunities that I thought people wanted.

 

So, I started promoting advertising products and services like I do today... In fact, most of the programs that I promote you can join and use as a FREE member with the option to upgrade if you need or want more benefits and commissions.

[PassTheTorch]

Are traffic exchanges useful or a waste of time?

 

You know, at this point I think they are useless for 95% of the honest people trying to use them.

 

Back a few years ago I think most people would be able to skim some sort of profit from them,

 

but today with all the captcha clicking services, multiple accounts, hiring foreign workers to click

 

etc, has turned this game into a tainted one.  Just my feelings of course.

[Steve Man]

I've used traffic exchanges off and on, and never really got into using them as a main source of traffic. 

 

The repetitive tasks of clicking, and the fact that most TE members are using the exchanges to get traffic to their own sites (and have little to no interest in yours), made them undesirable.

 

 

I know traffic exchanges can work, if you have the write offer on your site.

 

For those who use TE's - what are your strategies for getting the most benefit from

the exchanges?

My strategy is to use a mailer program to promote a Safelist. I also promote the mailer program its self.I use Referral Frenzy and get steady increasing results as each month passes.

[chrystalia]

It depends on what you are advertising, how, and where--all traffic is not alike.

 

All TEs are not alike, either :-).

 

I have been using TEs since they were invented, and now own one, which is a tale in and of itself. Fortunes began life as a perfectly honorable tax dodge. Unfortunately, it became successful even faster than my last tax dodge.  My other half has told me these are two of my very few failings; my refusal to run a business poorly, or run a poor/dishonest business. he's joking, of course, but he's also right.

 

My members report that they are getting signups from the login ads, and the regular traffic, and I offer some really good benefits to my Nekosamas (the life time members)--including an automatic upgrade and freebies in all my future tax dodges LOL. But Fortunes is evolving into a combination play place, wealth redistribution portal, and stealth sales funnel. It's actually rather fascinating to watch.

 

If you have a bright, explosive splash and banners, short timers and fun sites work well.  I use the old school sites--the ones with longer timers and NO games, contests, zubees, etc., to advertise squeeze pages and freemiums, and sites like funguppy and leads leap--free with good paid options. And both types work well for me. On sites like Fortunes I can chat, play games to win cash and traffic, collect zubees, and find the occasional cool, new, free thing.

 

On the old school sites, I can surf and examine programs without distraction. 

 

Of the last 10 programs I joined, I found 7 through traffic exchanges of one kind or another, and the other three through Jackpot Viral Mailers. And in the last year I bought 4 digital information products online--2 I ran into through viral mailers, one I ran into on Traffic G, and one I found on Fortunes while surfing.

 

There are plenty of buyers, clickers, and hard driving types on traffic exchanges--it just takes longer sometimes to run into them.

[alabamachick32]

It's slow but it works.  

[leiana777]

Traffic exchanges for me are for medium - long therm downline build. you need to create a good referral lists with promoting sites and then participate on contest, like referral contest, promoting contests, points ,jackpots, etc...  but is for medium long term.

[matilda82]

TE sites could be very useful if using them in the right way I guess, but still required effort and time.

[cristinz]

You need something that stands out to grab the surfers attention. And the action you want them to take has to be simple and quick - such as opting in or clicking to open a new tab for more info.

[captkirk]

For those who use TE's - what are your strategies for getting the most benefit from

the exchanges?

 

My best strategy for using TE's is by using TE's downline builders to grow large downines in the various sites by promoting only one link.

[waphpowell]

When you have no plan, traffic exchanges are a total waste of time. In order to benefit from them, you need to organize, use effective Splash Pages, and follow up on every lead. Ultimately, you can do very well with traffic exchanges, but it does take time, patience, and practice.