This week I have read many blog post about traffic exchanges and they are have just been excellent and so got me thinking about all that was said and thought I’d put in my 2 cents on this subject. Traffic Exchanges – the Good, Bad and the Ugly
Traffic exchanges have been around for long time and will be around for long time as they are an great source of traffic. There are many great features with the traffic exchanges, the scripts are better, there are some great owners out there and they are giving people online earning that they have never had a chance to have.
Marcy did an excellent post on Old Time Traffic Exchange Marketing and loved the post and yes things do change over the years – sometimes for the better and sometimes not – this happens in life all the time.
Then James came along with the best analogy that I have seen lately on traffic exchanges in his post Coke VS Te’s and he is so right – just because one person may like one soda more than another – they are still Sodas – same goes with TE’s.
Then Cathy wrote Where Is The Traffic Exchange Industry Headed and after all these well I feel they are here to stay – and also feel that there are some great owners out there that are bringing in some great suggestions, ideas, and are creative in what and how they run the sites.
Guess I got carried away on the good and I could keep going but I also want to touch on the bad – as some of the things that I do see is that people come in with sales pages that are a mile long and put it into rotation and wonder why they don’t get any signups. Also I see many promoting the same page as everyone else – you have to stand out.
You need to change your way of promoting in traffic exchanges – think of them as a billboard that you see when you are going down the interstate – and what would you put on a page the would grab someones attention as they are traveling down the road. So the next time you are bitching about no results – look at what you are using instead of blaming the traffic exchange. The traffic exchange is here to bring eyeballs to your billboard and they work very hard to make sure the traffic will get to your billboard.
Now the ugly – there are some traffic exchanges out there that could care less and all they are concerned about is if you stop and buy something from that billboard and really could care less if you every stop in again. There are some traffic exchanges that are just thrown up and the owner does not maintain his traffic and the next thing the traffic has moved to another site where the traffic is flowing.
You will be able to spot these exchanges and can do it by tracking what you are doing and also just by the site itself – if you login into a site in June and on the members pages it says Merry Christmas – well guess what – that site owners is not one that is maintaining a steady flow of traffic and could care less if you stop by or not.
So in conclusion, traffic exchanges do work, they are here to stay and I personally feel they are improving. That is my scoop on traffic exchanges – the good, bad and the ugly.
HAHA Nancy next time dont hold back Seriously dont be so reserved……
great post I like the view of the bad and the ugly. Christmas in July is a nice concept if its done intentionally not because the owner is gone.
rock on and great Post thank you for posting and reading.
Well I really held my tongue on this one and will leave it for another time but you know me can only keep my mouth shut for so long lolololol
I think it’s great that any topic can bring out such passion in a group of owners. Another way to find an active traffic exchange is to see who is interacting with other owners. If you never see or hear from an owner, then they probably are not around.
This is true on both counts and it’s amazing how many owners do that – they put up a site and then they take a couple months off and expect to be rolling in money when they get back
This reminds me, I’m not doing nearly enough to cross promote with other owners, a lot of times, I catch myself being more worried about getting seen than actually getting in with other owners and surfers and socializing.
Good point Gary and yes that is easy to do – a site owners has to wear alot of hats in this business
Great post Nancy… I knew you would..lol I love how this subject has got alot of owners talking. This can only be a good thing!
Yea it was funny when you said that as I had already started writing – sure was great to see all the blog post today about TE – we are getting the word out it seems.
Hi Nancy,
What strikes me is that so many new members are doing just that: Adding home pages and sales copy straight into the exchanges. Lately, I’ve had to inform people that their site doesn’t work in frames or has popups so can’t be included.
This is usually due to them using the home pages for the products they are promoting like Avon, Jerky, home made soaps, teas, etc. like you mentioned in Cathy’s post. And since they just joined very recently, it’s a little hard to help them understand on the fly from a support ticket.
Since we are getting and depend on brand new surfers/members, I believe that serious owners should have at least a minimum explanation for these new members on the members’ home page what works in TEs and what a splash page is.
Preferably in a bolded area or bolded type that the member can’t miss!
Okay, that’s an action item for me with my site: An email right at the start explaining splash pages too!
Okay, that’s my $2.00 (2 cents doesn’t buy what it used to! LOL)
~Brian R.
Well great comment and I know that you see many support tickets and for most that surf now the popups are useless when people are using no script.
Thanks for your $2.00 (2 cents) and you can come by anytime.