Blog Traffic Exchange-Promote your blog

 

If you have followed my previous post on Traffic Exchange Programs then you must have now some idea about traffic exchange programs. If you haven't and are interested to have a go at it then Click Here. In my previous post about Traffic Exchange Programs, I have written about some general traffic exchange programs. If you have already participated in such programs then you must have surfed more general websites and lesser blogs. General in term that they include both general sites and blogs. But this post totally focusses on some good blog specific traffic exchange programs available, which are there completely for bloggers and not for general websites.

Unless you are willing to spend fair amount of money on advertisements and online promotions, its always better to participate in blog traffic exchange programs to promote your blogs. (Blog) Traffic Exchange Programs are very helpful for new blogs to get noticed. It also helps medium sized blogs to get more readers. In most cases, a typical blogger would work hard and spent hours (and hours) authoring or searching for contents for their blog(s). But worst thing of all is to realize that visitors dropping by to their Blogs are very sparse and few.

How do these programs work?

The most basic principle of the Blog Traffic Exchange Programs is very simple - "You view other member's Blogs and in return other members view your Blog". You need to earn credits in order to get blog traffic exposure. You will gain these credits by visiting the blogs of other community members. When you have enough credits your blog will be placed for rotation and your credits will get reduced each time other members visit your blog.

There is 1:1 or 2:1 surf ratio, meaning that for each blog (1:1) or each two blogs (2:1) you visit provides you a visitor for your blog. Minimum surfing time for a blog ranges 20-30 seconds. After that you have to click on matching numbers or image to move on to next blog. Most of Blog Traffic Exchange Programs also allow you to buy credits from other members and also run paid programs. These schemes are for those who don't have enough time to surf other members blogs and are willing to spend some money for visitors in return.

Requirements

Registration is totally free. You don't have to pay anything. The most basic requirement is that you own a blog and all you have to do is create your account and submit your blog for approval. Some Blog Traffic Exchange Programs require you to initially surf member blogs and reach a certain credit limit before your blog is approved or placed for rotation.

Top Blog Exchange Programs

Here are some top Blog Exchange Programs available and working well at present in the order of their Alexa Ranking. Click on the Alexa Ranking next to the Traffic Exchange Site listed below to check its Alexa Ranking while you are reading this post. While I was preparing this article a well known Blog Traffic Exchange program Blogazoo was not available and another Blog-clicker was also not quite working. So I have not included them here.

Blog Explosion
Alexa Ranking as of 11/17/2007 : 23,215 Blogexplosion is like a web traffic generator for your blog. It is a blogging community where people can find and read your blog, get your blog reviewed or even chat with other bloggers all around the world! You visit other peoples blogs and in return they visit yours hence increasing site traffic to your blog. You are required to wait for a minimum of 30 secs to surf a member blog in order to earn a surf credit. After that time you will then need to click on a matching number and then you'll be taken to another blog. The surf ratio is 2:1. They have multiple features useful for bloggers. You can add multiple blogs. You can find a blogmark option for you to bookmark good blogs as favourite to view anytime later. They provide useful Blog Explosion stats on how well your blog doing within their network. You can get your blog reviewed by other members . You can add banners to promote your blog with clickthrough reporting! It also runs interesting Contests and Games. You can earn daily Mystery Credits (bonus credits) while you are surfing. You can participate on monthly contests to win thousands of free visitors to your blog plus Monthly Traffic Lottery. Battle of the Blogs contest is interesting. If you have some extra money to spend, buy traffic credits for a low price. There are even more things to do. You can specify certain categories you would like to see or else don't like to see. You can even block blogs that you don't want to see next time. May be you will love to chat with other bloggers on the site with the "BlogExplosion Shoutbox!" For this, all you have to do is sign up and get your blog listed. You will have to wait for 48 - 72 hours before your blog gets approved. After you have successfully created your account you can start surfing right away, before your blog(s) get approved, and accumulate credits. Sign Up Now
Blogmad
Alexa Ranking as of 11/17/2007 : 45,958 They say BlogMad.net is a blogger's fun site. It is relatively a newcomer. It has had a real successful marketing effort that has driven up its traffic quickly. Many of the users are very passionate and surf seriously resulting a great deal of hits generated every day. Bloggers earn credits by surfing other member's blogs and are rewarded with credits. The credits are then used to get traffic back to their own blogs or to play different games on the site. Bloggers can use various features of blogmad to boost traffic to their blogs. The site is full of games and other funny things. It allows upto 4 blogs per account. This has a 1:1 ratio. The surf timer is 25 seconds. After 25 seconds you have to click on the matching number to visit another blog. And the process continues. You get a signup bonus of 25 credits for signing up plus 1 credit for every referral you get to sign up through your referral code. There is also bonus for every surfer level you reach and random bonuses which appear while you are surfing. You can exchange credits for banners to be displayed on these sites and get even more readers from a different spectrum altogether. Getting your blog approved in blogmad is relatively fast even if your blog is only a few days old. Sign Up Now
Blog Soldiers
Alexa Ranking as of 11/17/2007 : 138,961 Blog Soldiers is a Manual Traffic Exchange designed to generate visitors to your blog(s) for free by viewing other members blogs in return for credits. There are several ways to earn credits. The easiest way to do so is start surfing after you log in and view other members websites. Each visit earns 0.5 credit to your account which can be applied towards showing your blog(s), showing your banner(s) or showing your text link(s). While surfing you earn letters which spell out the name of the next rank. When you earn all the letters for the rank you are promoted and you will earn Credits, Banner Impressions and Text Links. BlogSoldiers now offers 50 bonus credits for new members, massive new incentives for referrals. You can only have one membership but can earn from referrals 5 levels deep by encouraging new members in signing up. Minimum surf time per blog is 20 seconds. After 20 seconds you have to click on the matching image to view another blog. It is 2:1 ratio traffic exchange and conducts regular surfing contests where the top ten surfers win 500 to 100 credits each. Plus a bonus system that kicks in as you are surfing sites. Sign Up Now
Blog Advance
Alexa Ranking as of 11/17/2007 : 263,575 BlogAdvance is a community built by bloggers for bloggers. They claims of having a tireless and friendly support team and provide you 100% satisfaction. You earn credits or cash (if enabled) by Manual Surfing, visiting Paid To Click Ads, referring others to the site with your Referral URL, or playing the Jackpot Slots. Random rewards are also given each day when you login to your Member Area. They offer a wide range of services for those looking to make some money as well. You can buy ad space and generate a hefty revenue for yourself. They offer free banner advertisements for those members who join the forum as well. The surf ratio is 1:1 and like a few other programs, they give you free bonuses points when you log in or surf. Initially they only gave 0.5 credits for one blog viewed but now you will get 1 credit per blog viewed. Minimum surf time required per blog is 20 seconds. After 20 seconds you have to click on matching number to view another blog. Like Blog Soldiers it is relatively small Blog Traffic Exchange Programs at present. Sign Up Now

Conclusion

Blog traffic exchange programs are good way to get traffic to your blogs. But if you were surfing other sites just to get your credits, don't you think that other surfers do the same? Most of the members surf for credits and are more interested on accumulating credits. Which means they don't stay long on a particular blog with some exceptions.

Like everything these programs too have positive and negative aspects. It is upto you which one you want to agree with. There has been lots of debate on the technical issues of these programs. Almost all of the blog traffic exchange programs have flaws in technical side. They even take long time then expected to approve your blog or answer your simple queries. Some of the programs have less member blogs and poor rotation system. So after surfing few blogs you come up against the same blog(s) you have previously surfed. Manual surfing is also time consuming and tedious.

So I would like to suggest you not to spend all of your time trying to earn credits after each and every posts just to let other pass by your blog. Instead use these programs occasionally and only after posting a quality content, which you think can make a impression on others at first sight. Which in turn increase your reader base and returning site visitors.

See Also

Traffic Exchange Programs-Easy way to get site traffic
Make money through your blog
Resources for finding content for your blog
Submit your site to search engines

Traffic Exchange Programs - easy way to get site traffic

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. If you love to get targeted traffic then join programs with categories available similar to your sites or blogs.
4. 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.
5. Use multi-tab browser such as Mozilla Firefox. This will help you to open several websites in different tabs remaining within a single window.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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!

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!

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. Sign up now!

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.