Many will say that Website Traffic is entirely a Numbers game, that is true, but it can often be interpreted as meaning the greater the number of hits, the greater the amount of signups.

Sadly this is very rarely the case. In this article we are going to explain to you what you should look for in a Traffic Exchange, and how it will benefit you if you take on board our key points with a view to achieving success with your marketing efforts on Traffic Exchanges.

What Is A Traffic Exchange

To understand how to fully benefit from using a Traffic Exchange, you must first gain an understanding of what a Traffic Exchange actually is!

The roots of Traffic Exchanges trace back to the mid 90's, right from the time when the internet adopted a graphic user interface, website owners were looking for ways in which they could increase the traffic to their websites.

The earliest popular forms of Traffic Exchange were link exchanging with other website owners, and the use of banner exchanges. The culture of the internet was very different in those days, one of the key traffic drivers was the default homepage that would be shown to a computer owner when they connected to the internet and opened their browser window, and it was from this that the first Homepage Exchanges were born, websites where you could set a default link as your browser homepage, and each time you opened your browser window you would be presented with a website belonging to another member, in return your website would be shown to other members when they opened their browser window.

Homepage exchanges evolved through the late 90's, adopting timers to ensure members spent some time viewing your website before they would be credited.

The next logical step became what we now know as the Traffic Exchange. A website where anyone can register as a member, then enter the details of their website, open up a surfbar and visit the websites of other members, in return getting visitors back to their own website. A simple & effective solution which revolutionised the way in which anyone could grow their website traffic.

What Do All The Numbers Really Mean?

We stated earlier that the numbers with Traffic Exchanges are not always as they seem. We are going to explain to you just why this is the case, and what you should look for with any Traffic Exchange in order to be able to get the best possible results from it.

So the common numbers you will come across on a Traffic Exchange are the Surf Timer, Credit Earn, Hit Delivery & Member Count, just what difference do these figures make to you as a marketer?

Surf Timer

The Surf Timer is probably the single most important element of any Traffic Exchange, it is ultimately the most definitive factor over how high a quality the traffic you receive will be, now we will explain to you just why it is plays such a vital role in the quality of your traffic.

First up, an indisputable fact, Traffic Exchanges were more effective ten years ago when they had surf timers in excess of 20 seconds. Some will argue that the longer timers were due to most internet users having dial up connections so the sites took longer to load, or that there was less competition in the sector, the reality is that comparatively modern websites take only a matter of a few seconds less time to load than the average website did 10 years ago, so the internet speed argument has no grounds, websites were designed to be less complex in order that they would load faster, higher internet speeds have simply made it more viable for every website to be much more complex by design than they were in the past without it having an impact on loading times. As for being more competition, yes, it may be true that there are now thousands of Traffic Exchanges all fighting for your custom, and this has been used as a deceptive marketing tactic by many a website owner, to lure members just like YOU in to believing that a shorter timer can benefit you.

FACT: Longer Timer = Better Quality Traffic. Some will say this is a myth and come back with responses like "I surf multiple Traffic Exchanges at once so it doesn't make any difference?" or "why should I surf with that timer when I can get the same amount of hits from a Traffic Exchange with a shorter timer?", and for that our response is to go back to what we established earlier, a Traffic Exchange is a place where you ADVERTISE a website, and this is achieved by you visiting the websites of other members, both you and them are using the service with a view to gaining signups and/or sales, so YOU have the expectation that the other members will take the time to view YOUR opportunity, is it really unreasonable that THEY should also expect YOU to pay some attention to THEIR opportunity?

Beyond the basic principles of what Traffic Exchanges are for you also have to look at another definitive fact which is the key reason why Longer Timers Are Better. At it's heart, the internet is essentially an Online Shopping Mall, the big difference being, rather then having a couple of hundred physical stores, there are billions of opportunities all under one roof, now when you got out to a Shopping Mall and see a new store, what do you do? You go into the store and take some time to look around and see what they have to offer, if you have no intention of buying you will move on to the next store, but it's human nature, the longer you spend within a store the more likely it is that you will ultimately make a purchase, whether online or offline, this is something that simply doesn't change, buying habits are part of our human make up, so if someone spends longer viewing your website it is a proven fact they will be more likely to signup or make a purchase.

We understand that time is a precious commodity, but the reality is a PATIENT Marketer is a SUCCESSFUL Marketer!

Credit Earn Ratio

The credit earning ratio on a Traffic Exchange is something which the majority of members look upon as a definitive factor when deciding whether they will signup and also whether they will purchase an upgrade. It is something which can have a large amount of significance to the way in which a Traffic Exchange performs.

Most members that join a Traffic Exchange do so based on the combination of Credit Earn & Surf Timer Length. It may be seen that the 2 go hand in hand, when presented with a Traffic Exchange with 0.5 credit earn and 5 second timer, and another with 0.5 credit earn and 10 second timer, you look at it and think the one with the short timer offers you greater benefit as you can earn twice as many hits to your website for the same amount of time spent surfing. However, we established earlier that the Surf Timer is the most Important aspect of a Traffic Exchange in defining the quality of the hits you receive, so the reality is the site with the Longer Timer Length will be in a much better position to bring you better results than that with the shorter timer length, the Credit Earn Ratio has No Bearing on the Quality of the Traffic you receive. You always have to remember, it's not just about you. When you surf on a Traffic Exchange you are doing so as you want to have the best chance of getting signups and sales, that is exactly the same reason why the other members are using that site, members that surf on a Traffic Exchange with a longer timer regardless of the credit earn ratio are typically those that truly understand how to market effectively and it is far more likely that these will be the members that will signup and/or buy from YOUR Site.

It's always going to be the case that Traffic Exchanges will offer increased Credit Earn and Reduced Timer Lengths to those members that upgrade, they pay to get that privilege, and when you part with cash for a premium service that is the whole reason for upgrading in the first instance, typically members that pay for a service are always going to be the ones that pay the most attention to all the opportunities they are presented with.

Hit Delivery & Member Count

Hit Delivery and Member Count are probably 2 of the most abused figures you will find in the world of Traffic Exchanges, we are going to explain to you some key facts that you should consider when it comes to these figures.

How many sites does a member surf on the average Traffic Exchange when they are NOT given an INCENTIVE to surf a greater number of pages?

Typically enough to earn them 100 visits to their website, so without incentive to do so most members on average would typically surf between 100 - 400 pages to reach their goal with how much Traffic they want to receive back to their site.

What happens when a Traffic Exchange offers incentives for members to surf a greater number of pages?

The owners a breed a culture where their members lose sight of the fact that the primary purpose of the site is supposed to be to earn TRAFFIC to their own site, and instead members pay less attention (if any at all) to the sites they are presented with, and surf the Traffic Exchange purely for the purpose of reaching the goal to achieve their reward for the incentive.

Put simply, it DAMAGES the quality of the Traffic you receive from the site, and it artificially inflates the Hit Delivery figures for that Traffic Exchange

What is the relationship between Hit Delivery & Member Count?

When a Traffic Exchange is in it's infancy the average hit delivery per website will typically always be at it's highest, this is due to the fact that a few members will typically surf a greater number of sites in order to earn a good amount of credits in anticipation that they will get higher amounts of exposure as the membership levels at that site grow.

What most people don't realise is that after a Traffic Exchange has become established the average hit delivery will level out. We established earlier that the average number of sites which a member will surf without incentive would be enough to earn them 100 hits to their site, or 100 - 400 per day dependant on the credit earn ratio of the site in question. What this Really means is that whether a site has 100 active surfers, or whether a site has 10,000 active surfers the number of hits you receive from any Traffic Exchange in a single day will always be between 100 - 400. Anything higher than this is usually an indicator that incentives are being used to falsely inflate the traffic figure, so the credits you works so hard to earn are simply being WASTED to make the Traffic Exchanges hit delivery statistics look better!.

What this all ultimately means to YOU as the member of a Traffic Exchange is that by surfing on sites which don't incentivize their members to surf ridiculous amounts of pages every day you will ultimately achieve Much Better Results, after all, your time is a precious commodity, do you really want to be wasting it on Traffic Exchanges where large numbers of members don't pay the blindest bit of attention to the opportunities you are promoting to them?

How Do You Earn Money From Traffic Exchanges?

This is the main reason why most people use Traffic Exchanges, to make money from them, but there is a massive cloud over what is the best way to earn from the use of a Traffic Exchange, for that it requires another step back to their roots.

Traffic Exchanges used to be entirely about the Traffic they generate, nothing more, nothing less, so with that the focus was always on using the promotional power of the traffic generated to bring signups which in turn generate sales, so when you use a Traffic Exchange you should always use it to promote your top earning program.

So first and foremost, your money maker with a Traffic Exchange is going to be the programs you promote on it, that's where the basic principles of internet marketing come in to play. When you promote any program online the key to success is patience and persistence, if you promote a program for a week or two you may get a few referrals and possibly some sales, but most likely it will be a complete failure, whereas, if you promote a program for a minimum of 3 months you will get a true indication of it's potential both in terms of getting signups and for generating sales. If that program delivers for those 3 months, carry on and promote it for another 3 months, if you jump from program to program you will never allow any of them to reach their full potential, the most successful online marketers will push the same programs for YEARS and they do so because the more they push the same program, the greater the long term return for them becomes.

So the primary income source on a Traffic Exchange will always be the programs you choose to promote on it, but in addition most Traffic Exchange programs also feature affiliate programs, this is where you have the ability to make money directly from the Traffic Exchanges that you use.

To make the full benefit of these Affiliate Programs you must adopt the approach we detailed above, promote your affiliate links with patience and persistence for a minimum of 3 months, we guarantee you will see the benefits that come from this, and it will also reinforce the fact that you are promoting over a long enough time scale to establish a level of trust from the owner of the site in question as well.

Typically Affiliate Programs offer greater return when you upgrade your account, we hear it time and time again, members say they don't upgrade as they can't afford to, but our question to you, if you really want to make a serious income from using and promoting Traffic Exchanges can you really afford NOT to upgrade?

Sometimes the amount you can earn from an affiliate program can be a difference of HUNDREDS of dollars from a SINGLE sale just from being free as opposed to being Upgraded, we've been there ourselves many a time, kicking ourselves as the amount we lost in commission through not being upgraded could have paid for the cost of upgrading!

So what about Traffic Exchanges that Pay For Surfing, can't I earn a living from them?

As we already established earlier in this article, when websites offer incentives for members to surf it damages traffic quality, it breeds a culture where members will surf purely for the incentive and not for the advertising they are receiving, so really from a marketing perspective earning cash from surfing is absolutely NOT an effective or productive means of earning from use of Traffic Exchanges.

If you have intentions of earning from a Traffic Exchange purely from surfing for cash, stop and think about the maths involved.

How many hours do you have to spend surfing just to earn a couple of cents?

How long will it take before you are able to reach payout minimum?

If you do reach payout minimum, WHERE do you think the Money is going to come from in order to Pay you? Seriously, most traffic exchanges that offer cash for surfing either remove the feature or fail completely within their first 6 months of being online because the maths involved simply doesn't add up

For any business to succeed it has to make SALES, in order to get sales on a Traffic Exchange you need to have Marketers, in order to get Marketers to use a Traffic Exchange and make purchases you have to Deliver Results to their advertising campaigns. So when the basis of a Traffic Exchange becomes earning cash for surfing, primarily the results from advertising will be poor, this means that the site will struggle to attract serious marketers, and in turn it won't generate any sales. No sales means no money to pay members, so the hours you spent clicking for pennies over periods of weeks or months have a total value of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

If you want to earn in the world of online marketing you NEED to work for it! There is no such thing as getting money for nothing!

Do Something Different

One reason why Traffic Exchange surfers claim not to be a fan of sites with longer timers is that they don't want to spend time viewing the same sites they see everywhere over and over again, that brings us on to our key point, if YOU are fed up seeing the same sites over and over again when you surf, why don't YOU do something about, break the mould and do something different?

Whilst affiliate programs always offer you default tools you can use to promote their opportunities, the effectiveness of these tools can be heavily diluted within the first month of those sites being online entirely due to the reason that people get fed up seeing the same promotional material over and over again.

Now it has been proven that on average people will view a website 10 times before they signup for it, but you can combat this trend by creating your own promotional materials. You can increase your chance of getting signups on a program infinitely by doing something different, create your own unique web pages with content to draw people in, use your own facts and figures as marketing material, don't sell the benefits of what someone will get if they join for Free, sell the benefits of what they will get if they Upgrade their account, your premium factual content will be a major contributing factor in whether a member first of all signups, secondly whether they use the program, but most importantly it can make someone decide whether they will remain free or whether they will part with their cash and make a purchase!

Track Your Results

If you are serious about earning online, you want to be using factual information to dictate your marketing campaigns and derive what are your best sources, how often do you see statements like "********** is the best Traffic Exchange", "I love surfing at **********", "I always have fun at *********", the list is endless, but the point of the matter is, amongst all those statements, where is the proof that they actually deliver anything? The fact is 99% of Traffic Exchange surfers don't track their results.

Now let's make a clear differentiation, by tracking your results we are NOT meaning for you to track how many hits your opportunity receives from each Traffic Exchange, as to be quite honest, those figures have no real meaning other than to allow you to measure the levels of genuine activity from these sources (remember we already discussed a site with genuine activity should not deliver over 400 hits a day for it to be the best quality traffic). What we are referring to is the Conversion you get from those sources, how many of those hits are actually resulting in signups to the opportunities you are promoting.

Conversion is the most important thing you can monitor in any marketing campaigns, and it's something that can help you to shape your future marketing campaigns by identifying the key sources where you are generating signups. How much better will it sound when you put in your marketing campaigns that "******* brought you *** signups and $*** in commission", it's a vital part to your successful marketing campaigns!

A Final Summary

We already know a great many of you will have read this article and think that it's all just nonsense and continue wasting 8 hours or more clicking every day for a couple of pennies, good luck with that. We created this article as we identified the NEED to educate those of you that are really SERIOUS about learning about the tried, tested and proven way in which we have been earning ourselves from using Traffic Exchanges practically since they were invented.

You always have to remember that first and foremost a Traffic Exchange is for ADVERTISING. If you can harness that power, you will truly succeed, the best traffic quality will always come from those Traffic Exchanges which offer the Longest Timer lengths and the fewest surfing incentives, remember that volume isn't everything, 20 quality hits is better than 200 low quality hits no matter what way you look at it!