Traffic Exchange Programs are services that webmasters or bloggers join to promote their sites or blogs and increase their site traffic. The idea behind Traffic Exhange programs is very simple. After setting up your account with any of such program, you have to browse (or manually surf) other member's sites in order to earn credits to enable your sites to be viewed by other members through the system. The more you surf others' site the more site traffic you will get for yourself. If your site/blog is new, traffic exchange may do wonders in sending visitors to your site. But for more wider exposure there are other tasks to be done too such as submitting your site/blog to search engines, open directories and blog directores, making a press release and so on.
Almost all traffic exchange programs are free and encourage users to build their own referral networks, which in turn increases the referrers' amount of credits. Many of them also have paid scheme and offer some special features to paid members and offer credits for purchase. You can purchase credits from others in very low price. Most programs have a 2:1 or 3:2 conversion rate (some even have 1:1 ) which means that each 1 1/2 or 2 pages you see from other members, yours site is shown 1 time. There are lots of ways you can promote your site such as Pay Per Click, Banner Exchanges and Impressions, Start Page programs.
Surfing Process
Depending on the program, you will get between 0.5 to 1.0 credit for every site you visit. There is a timer at the top or bottom frame of the page to compel you to remain at the site for a certain period of time which ranges from 10 to 30 seconds. You are then required to click one of the corresponding images, numbers or mentioned button in order to proceed to the next random site (some like LinkReferral are exceptions). This is to prevent autosurf cheating. You can assign the credits earned among your sites ( in case you have multiple Urls listed) as you desire. You can also find auto assign feature but you have to allot certain percentage (or credits) of your earned credits among your sites. For every visitor you get to your site/blog, 1 credit is deducted until all of your credits are spent.
How much time you will need?
There is no certain time limit. Some of these programs requires 30-45 minutes to complete daily allotment. But it doesn't mean that you have to complete that every day. It depends upon you, how long you want to surf on members' sites in order to accumulate more and more credits. Remember "the more you surf others' sites the more you get site traffic for yourself".
Some tips on joining traffic exchanges and getting most of it:
- Try to get involved in 3-5 good traffic exchanges only. It is difficult and time consuming to keep up with large numbers of programs. Check the list below.
- Before joining any Traffic Exchange Programs it is good to check it's Traffic Ranks (to check traffic ranks visit http://www.alexa.com) and Google Page Ranks. But it doesn't mean that joining only high ranked programs provide you huge traffic. You can also find some of emerging Traffic Exchange Programs promising too.
- If you love to get targeted traffic then join programs with categories available similar to your sites or blogs.
- For those who want most targeted traffic from USA, analyzing the Traffic Exchange site on http://www.quantcast.com prior to signing up gives you an idea about the site's latest statistics based on online users from USA.
- Use multi-tab browser such as Mozilla Firefox. This will help you to open several websites in different tabs remaining within a single window.
- Even if you joined a Traffic Exchange Programs you don't have to surf daily. But it is also necessary to build your credits. So make it a habit of surfing for fun. Surf whenever you feel like surfing.
- Some Traffic Exchange Programs allow you to use 3-5 website Urls. If you only have single website or blog you can provide additional webpages which you think will have tremendous impact at the first sight.
- Some of Traffic Exchange Programs offer credits for making it your home page or everytime your referral start page loads. If it doesn't bother you it is an easy way to accumulate some credits. You can even have your friends or family members do it for you.
- Building downlines is additional bonus for you in Traffic Exchange Programs. Encourage friends, family members and others to create account with your referral. Every account created with your referral is entitled to certain amount of credits for you. But their account should be active and should have some activities after creating their account.
Some Traffic Exchange Programs I recommend
There are many Traffic Exchange Programs available these days. New Traffic Exchange sites are created almost everyday. And the number is still growing day by day. I have listed some such programs (most of which have high Alexa Ranking) which I have been using and getting appreciating amount of traffic.
| Traffic Swarm Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 1,892 |
 Traffic Swarm is one of my favourite programs.It provides Start Page and targeted ads. It is a fully automated traffic-generation system that can send 1000s of targeted visitors to your website, every single day. A must join Traffic Exchange Program. Sign up now! |
| Link Referral Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 5,429 |
 It not only provide you site traffic but also lets you know others' view on your site/blog. By joining, you will be included in the members directory which is visited by the community of over 100,000 members, and thousands of outside visitors on a daily basis. You'll have the opportunity to earn a ranking at the top of your category, absolutely free! Receive valuable feedback from visitors of your website, network with your peers, and give your opinion on other websites in the directory. The more you participate, the more you get in return! You can also benefit with its ad program. I simply love it. Sign up now! |
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Start Xchange Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 8, 747 |
 StartXchange has been around since 2001. With over 6 years of exchanging traffic under it's belt, you can rest assured it'll be here for years to come. By joining StartXchange you'll be joining the fun filled world of traffic exchanges. So create a free account, and get ready for a fun ride of advertising your website! StartXchange has a 3:1 ratio, has a 15 second timer, has 1 referral level, does allow rotators, does not require you to login to surf, has an Alexa rank of 8,747(as of 11/05/2007), and has had 265,744 hits tracked on the last 6 week report. Allows you to build your downline in two ways. Six people are placed in each of two levels below you. The more active you are, the more active the users below you are. Sign up now! |
| Webbizinsider Alexa Ranking as of 05/12/2007: 9286 |
 Webbizinsider is probably the only one traffic exchange programs which don't need you to log in to surf for credits. It has an email feature which helps you to earn credits normally upto 50 credits and sometimes even more. You just have to follow the links it provides on the email sent to you. With simple layout and easy navigation webbizinsider is one of the oldest traffic exchange sites, one of the widely participated and one of the best traffic exchange programs I have ever known. You get 1 credit for every memeber site you visit and instantly a visitor is sent to your site. It only allows one site per member but you can rotate your sites if you have more than one. You can even email your downline weekly with your business opportunities. To receive a credit, you must stay on the page for 15 seconds until the NEXT SITE text appears. Click on NEXT SITE to view the next page and receive additional credits. You will also be given additional bonus credits after you surf every 25, 50... sites in a day. Every new member who you refer to WebBizInsider earns you 100 bonus credits. A great program indeed. Sign up now! |
| TrafficG Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 12,410 |
 It has ratio of 1:1 and the longer surf time of 30 seconds means that you might get more quality traffic, people who browse your site/blog contents. Sign up now! |
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Traffic Pods Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 16, 151 |
The basic concept is that every new member will begin surfing at the first pod in the trafficpods ladder. Each traffic pod in this ladder is made up of 10 websites selected at random from the currently active campaigns in the network. After surfing 10 websites, you will go on to the next pod. After surfing 10 of these traffic pods, you will be given the opportunity to surf a bonus pod. The bonus pod gives you the chance to get a lot of extra rewards but does carry some risk. You will get the opportunity to surf a bonus pod after every 10 traffic pods. Sign up now! |
| Easy Hits 4U Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 28,789 |
 EasyHits4u is a 1:1 ratio traffic exchange site. It has a 30-second timer giving viewers a lot of time to view the sites. It has 5 referal levels. It allow rotators. Its seems to have more commercial sites registered with them than blogs. The thing that stands out is that they pay you cash for active surfing ($0.50 for 1000 sites viewed) Sign up now! |
| Free Viral Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is :38, 267 |
 FreeViral.com is ranked by Alexa as being in the top 1% of all trafficked websites in the world (and that's out of 40 million sites!) Now you can get in on this incredible traffic explosion, Free! When someone signs up from your site, they must first click on your classified ad which will open a new window leading to your main website. They will have to wait a few seconds for the code to appear on a separate frame at the top of the screen. |
| Hit Pulse Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 100, 278 |
 HitPulse has a 2:1 ratio. It has a 15 second timer and 1 referal level. Sign up now! |
| Traffic Echoes Alexa Ranking as of 11/06/2007 is : 273, 548 |
 When I checked its ranking I was in dilemma whether to join or not. But after a week when I checked my incoming traffic sources, I was totally surprised. Because it provided me the most traffic among the Traffic Exchange Programs that week. Sign up now! |
In conclusion, the Traffic Exchange Programs are a great free way to build traffic for your website. It is probably one of the easiest way to get some amount of traffic for new sites and blogs. It is quite helpful in advertising your sites for those who can't pay for the paid advertising programs. It is totally free. There is another possibility of encountering some good sites full of informations you have been thinking of for so long. But there are some disadvantages too. Members of the network who surf your sites (just for credits) may not be looking at your sites honestly. You may feel bored with looking at the same sites/blogs time and time again. And more importantly, there is a hot rumour about the Google Adsense program not allowing its account holders to participate in such programs.
Listed above are not blog-specific Traffic Exchange sites. There are some such sites which are totally dedicated to blogs only. In my next post you will get information about those sites.
