Get more traffic for your website – that’s what we all want, right? Yea, me included. So we search online for possible solutions, especially ones that are free or low cost to fit a newbie’s budget.
For this article, I’m talking about your own blog website, primarily. Not those of you promoting who knows what scheme or “quick cash” program.
Often, what we find is something called a “traffic exchange site”. It might be called something different, like a place to get “hot leads”, but, when put to use in a useful way, it can actually be a good tool.
Why is it Called an “Exchange Site”?
The idea is, you visit other people’s sites, and they visit yours. The length of time one stays on the other site varies from 10-40 seconds or so. In doing this, everyone should benefit from more site visitors.
But keep reading…
My Initial Unimpressed Experience
When I started looking at sites that promised “more leads”, I was looking for, well, more leads like everyone else. So I signed on looking for:
- People to click on my links, or
- People to add to my mailing list
- People to do ANYTHING to create potential money making activity!
I was frustrated and unimpressed. Seemed like such a huge waste of time, energy and money. I was like everyone else. I had some kind of “thing” to promote, and couldn’t figure out how to promote it.
That is, until I figured it out.
How People Are Using Traffic Exchange Sites
Generally, when you sign up for any of these sites, and if you are new to them, you’ll see your dashboard and have to figure out how it works. There are variations:
- You will be able to share a link to the site (your affiliate link) and capture the email address of the person who signs up using your link.
- You will be able to obtain traffic to whatever website or page you would like. How this happens varies greatly.
Usually you’ll notice that most other users are promoting their “get rich quick” programs. It’s just plain crazy. Nonetheless, you’ll think, at first, you should do that too.
But don’t do it. It does not work. There is another way.
The problem is, people look at each page they see for the least amount of time possible and move on. Few people, if any, are signing up or doing anything else. PS The same will be true for you…
What I figured out
Eureka! I finally figured it out (but be sure to read the next section – it isn’t perfect).
I have a blog.
If I can increase traffic to my blog, it may rank higher in Google, especially if the traffic is of worthwhile quality. For me that means primarily from North America, since that’s where I am located, along with a few other bits of criteria.
So, if I share links to varous blog articles scattered throughout the traffic exchange sites, I get visits to different pages on my website, hopefully improving my ranking.
Take Caution!
Why caution? The downside is that visitors from traffic exchange sites are typically only on that one single page for anywhere from 10-40 seconds, and then they leave.
Google has a statistic called the “bounce rate”. The bounce rate is calculated by taking the total number of one-page visits to your website and dividing it by the total number of visits made to your site. But if visitors “bounce” away too quickly and are not engaged with the site, that becomes calculated into the equation. It is best, if possible, to keep the bounce rate below 70%.
Therefore, if you have visitors from exchange sites only, it can cause the bounce rate to be higher.
Read on for a solution…
How to Use Traffic Exchange Sites to Your Advantage
Steal My “Cocktail Mix”
I’ve created a sort of “online cocktail mix” that works very well, and I’m going to share it with you here. Do these two things first, if you haven’t already:
- Sign up for easyhits4u.com, which is free and can stay free, if you like (but once you get started you will likely want to be a paid member – this site has a lot to offer). I have selected this site because you can set the page view time for those surfing your website to 40 seconds, which is pretty good.
- Sign up for Wealthy Affiliates, which will also be free to start, and read below as to how it works in the mix.
Here’s how it works:
- List your website blog pages on easyhitsforu.com . They have a “page surfing” feature. If you are in North America, you’ll want to access advanced settings, then set your linked pages to be surfed in North America and for the longest period of time, which is 40 seconds. (there is a little more to using the site, but this is the basis for this article).
- Within Wealthy Affiliates, giving and receiving comments is a part of the program. For every two comments you leave others, you can request a comment on any page of your website (that allows comments). These page visits are generally longer because members of Wealthy Affiliates participating in commenting will read all or part of the page content AND leave a decently written comment (you get to approve it/reply and put it on the page – a huge bonus which shows page interaction).
- Note: Be sure to spread the potential page visits out across your site, not just to the home page.
The Bottom Line
Traffic exchange sites can be an extremely useful tool for the affiliate or network marketer when used in conjunction with other online tools and resources.
Rather than simply try to push out a “get rich quick scheme” to people, give them some useful information – like a blog – and you will have more success. If what you are trying to pitch is worthwhile, just talk about it as part of a blog post.
Want to get started but not sure how? Try Wealthy Affiliates for free. There’s a whole community of people who can help you out.
I am still a bit on the fence about traffic exchange site. I do not want the same story happened again with the back links. I actually just signed up with easyhits4u but right before I am putting my site there the warning sign popped up about Google Adsense and it is violating google’s terms. So, I stopped from there. Did you see that warning? Should I still just do it anyways?
Yes what they mean is if you have Google ad words on your sight Google does not want you to use a traffic exchange site to enrich your earnings. Otherwise you are fine.
Sounds good. But at the end, the most important thing to do is to create quality content. I totally agree, if you you have a rich and helpful content, visitors will mostly browse and stay in your website even for how many minutes. Happy to know these possibilities. Thank you for posting!
Thanks for your insight!
This is the type of articles I’ve been looking forward to seeing for along time, as a business owner, it is good for you to know how to relate with your partners and help each other. These traffic exchange sites are very resourceful and they are all easy to access, thanks for this, it’ll help me progress my website.
They can be resourceful, but some take more time and money than others. I’m really just getting started, but will be reviewing them slowly over time. Thanks for your comment.
It makes a lot of sense seeing all these here. To be honest, what you shared here is good to see and it makes perfect sense to see that traffic can now be exchanged. This would heap a load of work off website owners seeking traffic especially for individuals that are just getting started like me. I like what has been shared here and I must say that I would not mind to get right into this straight away and see how it can affect my website in growth
Thanks for your insight.
I know we must be caution. When I started online I was not aware of all these details. But now I’m starting to absorb what’s the route we should take to reach success online. Thank you very much for suggesting us these two platforms. And how to make the most of them. I’ll join both easyhits4u and Wealthy Affiliate and follow your instructions. Thank you!
Thanks for your comments!
I found this article really useful as I’ve signed up for a traffic exchange (traffic ad bar) but was worried about the bounce rate. And also I read somewhere even if I had lots of hits on my website it wouldn’t make much of a difference to my ranking, it’s all about content, keywords and backlinks apparently! But I’m just starting out so I’ve no idea!
What do you think?
Thanks
Katie
I’ve also tried traffic bar. Easy4u has a simpler ease of use plus the ability to allow a 40 second surf time. Of course, you need to offset with a program that also offers quality comments like Wealthy Affiliates.
This is ingenious! I have been working on ways to rank my youtube videos higher in youtube and have come across a few exchange sites, but I always take caution before signing up. I had no idea this was available for blogs too! It makes sense now that I came across you article tho! Cannot believe I didn’t think to check this tool out sooner. I love that your article gets down to the point, outlines an action plan, and shows how to implement it without charging a fee or offering a free membership (with billing information, of course!). Thank you for sharing your secrets and helping your readers succeed in this cruel, harsh line of business we call affiliate marketing! Cheers.
Happy to help anytime, Ashley!
Wow! happy to know traffic exchange sites are out there. I will certainly visit the ones listed in your post. I am a somewhat newbie at blogging and this article will help drive traffic to my website. The article is well written and easy to follow. Has this traffic exchange benefited others for driving traffic to their website?
I use them everyday… no lie. Feel free to reach out if you want to talk.
Definitely, a great idea to help boost the traffic of your site and I have to commend this wonderful idea and it’s I’ve to have come up with it. By the way, deciding if this is the best option for your business is where the work lies and looking at the downside, you can’t be so sure the visitors will stay on your site for that much time, and having google record bounced traffic off your site all the time can’t be too good
Yes traffic exchanges can work if you have a certain strategy and know your way around. For beginners who may not know how to manipulate it to their advantage it may not reall ywork. I like you recommendation of easyhits4u where you can set the time someone visits your site to at least 40 seconds.
Traffic exchange sites can be very helpful, if the right one is being used, I guess. I have really learnt a lot from this article that has covered a lot about traffic exchange sites. I am a member at wealthy affiliate, and currently partaking in the traffic exchange program, though partly as I am yet to create my own website and request for comments. Haven gotten enough exposure and information about traffic exchange sites, I will be sure to use one or more later on, when I must have finishing creating my website, to get traffic to my website.
This answered the question, I have been secretly asking myself. Are traffic exchange sites worth it? I just imagine a community of preachers wanting to preach to each other without anybody listening. A scenario where everybody is a sales person is what I see. I appreciate your cocktail mix though, I think it brings a good balance to my concerns.
Knowing the current Google algorithm. Google uses the duration spent reading an article or on a site as part of the ranking criteria. Having multiple people visit your site for 10 – 40 seconds will really badly impact your article’s ranking. Google will think the content on the article does not give the audience what they are looking for and therefore, downgrades your article. Traffic exchange sites just doesn’t do it for me.
Hello there, thanks a lot for sharing this beautiful piece of information here with us. I must say i really did enjoyed going through your review as it contains valuable informations one needs to be aware of. If you you have a rich and helpful content, visitors will mostly browse and stay in your website even for how many minutes
Great input Marsha,
I’ve been wondering a lot about traffic exchange too, I’m not a fan of it as I believe content creation is always the best policy but it does intrigue me as many people seem to be into it and for good reasons too, 40s is longer than I’ve ever spent on a random website! Do you think Google will penalize us if our bounce rate keeps increasing?