Do Traffic Exchanges Really Work For Home Businesses?

Traffic exchanges, which are also known as hit exchanges and start exchanges, can be a very easy way to drive targeted traffic from other business opportunity seekers. 





Being in a traffic exchange is a lot like being in a club. You surf, using a specially designed “surf bar” unique to the traffic exchange that you are a member of, and view the other member’s websites. Every time you view a website you receive credits, or points. You can then exchange your credits for visitors who view your website. Normally there is a “ratio” involved and for free members it is often one return visitor for every two websites that you view. 


Joining A Traffic Exchange


Most exchanges are free to join but many have a “pro upgrade” option where you can get a better view/return view ratio (say 1:1) for a monthly fee, typically a few dollars a month. The large majority of members in the typical exchange are free members.

Traffic exchanges can work to get great business partners, but the marketing has to be done correctly. One of the main reasons cited for this is the fact that most of the traffic exchange members are members of the exchange primarily because they are already promoting a business opportunity or product of their own.

While this is usually a fact, it does not necessarily mean that they will not be interested in what you are promoting. If you are offering either an informational product or any kind of tool which could be used to enhance an already existing business then the members of traffic exchanges could very well be an excellent target market for you.

For example, if you have software aimed at online marketers, network marketers, home business owners, etc... then traffic exchanges could offer you very rich pool of prospects indeed.


Common Traffic Exchange Mistakes



Common Traffic Exchange Mistakes 


One of the most common mistakes marketers make is to sign up for an affiliate offer and then use the standard website that comes with the program on traffic exchanges. This is a waste of time since the exchange members will not have enough time to view the typical information rich sales page. 

It is also likely that there will be several others promoting the exact same website on any given exchange so your site will blend in to the background and will have little, if any, impact.


How To Use Traffic Exchanges


You will see many members using the same marketing materials, while some may get leads and signup, most won't.  You can be profitable just by following the guidelines below and use traffic exchanges to build your opt-in list and then follow up later with your offers.

1. Don’t use the standard page that came with your affiliate program. 

It has too much information and will confuse viewers. There are probably many other people advertising this page.

2. Use  your own customized squeeze page with bold headlines that stand out.
  • Keep it clean and uncluttered.
  • Focus on benefits.
  • Five or six bullet points only.
  • Stand out from the crowd.
3. Most traffic exchanges won't allow pop-ups.  

This also frustrates the members.  Keep your scrips to a minimum so your page will load quickly and the surfers can see what you are offering.

4. Give away a free and awesome lead magnet for your perfect prospect for signing up.

  • A free e-book.
  • A free cheatsheet.
  • A free resource report
  • Free software
  • Free Resale Rights Products

5. Collect e-mail addresses for follow up with valuable content.

  • Automate them with an autoresponder.
  • Give away subscriber bonuses, tips and real valuable content.

6. Customize your squeeze page for the traffic exchange you're using.

Have a special message for your visitor which usually gets their attention when surfing–
“Traffic Swarm user bonus….”
"HerculistPlus user bonus..."

7.Monitor your results and don’t waste time with exchanges that don’t deliver. 

Use URL trackers, Banner tracking software and other tools to know where your traffic and conversions are coming from.  Use split-testing to know what works.  Many traffic exchanges provide these tools with your free membership.  

8. Only use traffic exchanges that get results.

Traffic exchanges will come and go over the years.  There are some great traffic exchange platforms that have thrived for decades.  Don't use that don't produce results.  If most of your traffic is bots, it won't help you generate revenue.


9. Advertise on a number of different exchanges and safelists to ensure a wide range of visitors.

There are many types of traffic exchanges and not all of them will produce the same quality visitors and leads.  Some exchanges combine solo advertising, PPC type advertising, text advertising, banner advertising or link promotions.  Test Everything.

Evergreen Traffic

Using the rules above may help you see double digit sign up and leads daily.  Follow up with email marketing and funnel your subscribers to other marketing assets like your social media or blog.

Traffic Swarm Using Traffic Exchanges

Boost Traffic To Your Webpages With Free Website Hits




I am getting a lot of questions from active members in my downline that they don't see the use of using traffic exchanges because they spent a lot of time surfing for credits.

A good traffic exchange can deliver a huge traffic swarm. The more traffic exchanges you join, the more your link, banner or even squeeze page is seen and the more chances you have in selling your product, your services or subscribe members.

In network marketing there are two items very important, a product or a service and members (downline). If you don't recruit members in a membership program then you'll never get commission out of a matrix and you’ll never sell yourself or a product.

Whether you are promoting as an affiliate, MLM or your own product this free traffic works. Wouldn’t you like your product to be seen by as many potential customers as possible? You can only achieve that by advertising your product to people from around the world. Off course when you have enough money you can spent a lot on traditional advertising but will your product  be seen by your target audience?

Traffic exchanges are used extensively by people that are operating in Internet Marketing. It is also a fact that less than 10 percent succeed in this industry. If you target your product, which aims to those failing marketers, than you’ll have a great chance of succeeding in selling your product or service.

Programs that say you don't have to recruit, you don't have to sell are in my opinion will not last too long, unless you are paying them to recruit for you.  Everyone wants to have attention and everyone in business relies on more than one customer or more than one product to sell. 

Off course recruiting is not relying on traffic exchanges solely, you can recruit in a different ways, but fact is that you’ll get your first sign ups out of frustrated or failing marketers.

I have been taught that I have to surf for credits (as a free member) for about 20 minutes for each exchange on a daily basis. I have subscribed to about 42 traffic exchanges, so in my case it would be 14 hours of surfing on a daily basis.

There are tools out there that can load multiple traffic exchanges at once and reduce the time to spend on surfing.  I use TrafficBrowser Software.  I also use the 15K Hits A Day system which cuts my surfing time down to less than 2 hours per day.  Check it out here.  It takes some time to set up, but once it is set up you get 15,000 website hits daily with less than 2 hours of surfing.

Members that sign up under you will deliver you credits and therefore you don’t have to surf that much anymore.  The more traffic exchanges you use, the more URL’s for programs you can use (FREE members are limited in displaying URL’s) the more exposure you get for this. As your traffic and profits increase you should upgrade to scale your business.

And if you use more than one source, traffic exchange, advertising or marketing techniques you can really earn a passive and residual income from the traffic swarm you create on autopilot.

Increase Your Website Value By Generating A Mailing List

Generate A Mailing List With Traffic Exchanges





A mailing list of permission based customers is a valuable asset for any business, especially a small business.  To increase your business and website value you should have a stream of repeat customers that you can share the latest products or recommendations with.  You should always provide your customers with information and products that will help them reach their goals (not yours) thus creating a win/win relationship with your mailing list.

Do you have a mailing list that you refer to often? If not, is it because you do not know how to properly build your mailing list? Most people who are trying to develop a mailing list are unsuccessful because they do not know exactly where or how to start. They go in too many directions and end up putting in a lot of time to only get a very few amount of responses.

A traffic exchange is one of the best ways to build a mailing list. List generation via traffic exchange is very popular, and should be tried out by anybody that is looking to develop a mailing list. A lot of people are scared to trying a traffic exchange site because they are not exactly sure of how it works. But there is really not much to it.

A traffic exchange site receives submissions from website owners or affiliate marketers who are looking to increase traffic, and in many cases put together an opt-in strategy.  They will be able to sign up for a traffic exchange network that will allow other interested parties to view their site. But when you submit your website, you also have to visit sites of other people in order to increase their traffic.As you visit sites, your pages will then begin to get more traffic from other people. This works for everyone involved by increasing the traffic on each site.

In order to use traffic exchange programs to increase your list generation odds you will want to join up with a program that has other sites similar to yours. So for example, if you are trying to drive traffic to your site which is about home improvement, you will want to make sure that the traffic exchange program has other home improvement related sites. This way you will not only be increasing your traffic, but you will also be garnering traffic from people who may be truly interested in your site.

Your list generation strategy will come into play when you start to get a lot of traffic. You will then be able to compile a list of all the people completed the opting form your site and add them to your list. This is relatively easy to incorporate into your site, and will go a long way in making your list generation strategy successful.

Another benefit of using a traffic exchange site is that most of them are free. This means that you will be able to drive a lot of traffic to your site, while also finding a way to improve your website value. A traffic exchange site is one of the best ways to get instant traffic to your website without having to shell out too much money.

Almost all traffic exchange programs encourage people to get referrals. These are the same people that you have add to your mailing list.

Overall, traffic exchange programs are a great way to develop mailing lists and add value to your website. A traffic exchange program can be used for free, and will definitely increase the traffic to your site, as well as help you develop your mailing list.