Traffic Exchanges

[private].[/private]Here’s one of those fancy headlines that copywriters use . . .

“91% Are Failing On Traffic Exchanges. What Do The Other 9% Know That You Don’t?”

5 Tips That You Can Use Today To Join The Top 9%!

Traffic exchanges never made any sense to me.

I mean, I understood how they worked. I just didn’t see how they could be very effective.

In case you’re not already familiar with traffic exchanges, let me give you a quick summary. (I’ll refer to traffic exchanges occasionally as TE for short.)…

Traffic exchanges are built around the philosophy of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”.

Or more specifically… “You view my site and I’ll view your site.”

My thinking was this…

TE users are there to promote their site, not to buy my product. Why would I want to have my site seen in that environment?

And then one day the proverbial light bulb went off over my head.

The bottom line with traffic exchanges is that I could still get my back scratched. It would generate more traffic to the site, it was just a matter of what I could do with that traffic.

And once I got inside the head of the typical traffic exchange user, it was easy to construct a campaign that worked. You can do the same by adhering to the 5 simple steps below.

Step 1: Is your site a good fit for Traffic Exchanges?

If you’re already spending a few thousand dollars a month at Google, then you may not want to spend any time on traffic exchanges.

But if you’re just getting started or you’re still on a relatively “cheap” budget, then traffic exchanges should be among your first options.

Ideally, your site should be of interest to the general public … to the “average Joe”.

If you’re selling a specialized new tool for industrial plumbers for example, you can skip right past traffic exchanges. That’s far too niched and targeted.

Step 2: What Should your Landing Page Do or Say?

The # 1 mistake on traffic exchanges is using your home page as the landing page.

Right behind that mistake is using a long copy sales letter as your landing page.

I’m not saying you should never send people to your home page or that you shouldn’t use long copy sales letters.

Both are fine. Just not on a traffic exchange.

Here’s why…

All TE users are focused on one thing … earning more “credits”. (Or whatever term is used for that specific TE.)

The TE user doesn’t have the time to sift through your home page and decide where he wants to go next. He wants to earn more credits.

She doesn’t have time to read your long copy sales letter. She wants to earn more credits.

So if you shouldn’t use your home page or a sales page … what’s left?

You use a “squeeze page”. The only purpose of the squeeze page is to generate a lead. You want their first name and email and that’s it. The more information you ask for, the less likely they are to give you any information at all.

You will then follow-up with them in the days to come to establish a relationship with that person. You can generate 5% to 20% conversions off your lead generation list if your follow-up emails are effective.

Step 3: Avoid This “Kiss of Death” Mistake

Your squeeze page should be focused on one thing and one thing only… to generate a lead.

There should be NOTHING ELSE on the page for them to do. Nothing.

No other links to your site.

No banner ads.

No Google AdSense ads.

There should not be any confusion on their part or any decision to make.

By giving them one and ONLY ONE thing to do, you will dramtically improve your chance that they will actually perform that step.

The more options you give, the more likely it is they will do NOTHING.

Step 4: Which Traffic Exchange will give you the best results?

You can have success with any number of different TE’s if you follow the tips in this article.

But the one TE that you should always start with is TrafficSwarm. If you can’t make it work with TrafficSwarm, then you’re probably wasting your time with the rest.

TrafficSwarm gets more new users each month than most TE’s get in a year. You have a database of nearly 500,000 users to tap into.

TrafficSwarm is unique in that it is the one TE that is closest to a “real world marketing” environment.

Let me explain what I mean by that.

Virtually all other TE’s have a “forced page load” system.

That means your page is simply loaded into another viewer’s browser. They didn’t ask to see your site …it’s simply the one that’s next in the rotation.

Let me ask you … Is that what will happen in real life for your site?

Will your site magically appear on users screens as they’re surfing the web?

Unless you’re marketing efforts are based solely on pop-up or pop-under advertising, the answer is NO.

With TrafficSwarm, the page you see has 4-8 ads and you only click on the ads that interest you.

So it’s good for you as a surfer in that you’re not wasting your time on sites that hold no interest for you.

But it also means you’re getting people looking at YOUR site that have clicked through on your ad. They actually ASKED to see your site!

After all, that’s how it is in the ‘real world”, right?

People will see an ad from you and decide whether or not they want to click-thru to see more. That’s how TrafficSwarm works and is one of the main reasons why it should be your first choice with a traffic exchange.

If you’re already using anotherr traffic exchange, don’t abandon it. Simply signup for TrafficSwarm and use both together and see for yourself which one works better for your site.

Step 5: Make your time spent as valuable as possible

The common practice with TE’s is that you can sign-up for a basic free account and then Upgrade to a paid membership for added benefits and easier, faster ways to earn more traffic.

You will want to upgrade as soon as possible with your favorite TE in order to maximize the time you spend surfing.

Let’s go back to the original back-scratching analogy.

Have you ever worked out a deal with your spouse, dating partner, or even your kids where you would scratch their back for 10 minutes if they would scratch yours for 10 minutes?

What if you could pay a small fee every month so that every time you scratched for 10 minutes you would get 15 or 20 minutes in return?

THAT is why you want to Upgrade asap with your favorite traffic exchange.

The upgrade fees are usually very affordable, running about $20-$30 a month.

And upgrading will ensure that the time you spend surfing … the time you spend scratching the back of other sites … will result in max benefits back to you and your site.

At TrafficSwarm for example, you automatically receive 2,500 credits each month as well as the ability to earn well over 3,500 more credits over what a regular free user would earn with the same amount of surf time.

So that’s 6,000 extra credits you can grab for just $30 a month. Those are credits you’d be giving away as a free user.

The rewards might not be quite as high on other TE’s, but the upgrade fee is usually well worth the small extra cost. It just makes sense to make your time as valuable as you can for a few extra dollars a month.

As an Upgraded Pro user, you’ll also go from 10 URL’s to an unlimited amount with TrafficSwarm. This gives you an incredible opportunity to do split-testing on your ads before rolling them out to paid campaigns.

(Split-testing ads is something you can’t do on a “forced page load” type of TE system.)

Summary:

Folow the steps outline above to market specifically for traffic exchanges.

But keep in mind that basic marketing and advertising principles still apply. You MUST grab your viewer’s attention and offer them something that answer’s the question “What in it for me?”

Also, be sure you don’t get lulled into the mindset that traffic exchanges cannot work because it’s just people clicking or viewing for credits. With that mindset, no one would do advertising on billboards or television or rado either.

Why?

Because people aren’t driving down the highway, watching tv, or listening to the radio to see your ads.

But they still work, don’t they? (If the ads are done right.) The saame applies with traffic exchanges.

And finally … don’t try to re-invent a new “traffic exchange wheel”.

Use a simple ONE STEP squeeze page to generate leads and you’ll find that you get the best results with traffic exchange surfers.

Don’t let the fact that so many people on TE’s are having little success intimidate you either. By following these simple steps, you immediately will jump ahead of about 75% of the people you’re going up against.

If you answer the “what’s in it for me?” question, you jump right to the top 9%!