Should You Use Traffic Exchanges To Promote Your Blog ?

I recently received an Email from a reader telling me they were using traffic exchanges to get new readers to their blog.In the Email they went on to say most of their traffic came from traffic exchanges so they felt it was quiet successful.Having previously been involved in affiliate marketing and having run a very successful blog on affiliate marketing I'm very familiar with traffic exchanges.

Traffic exchanges are one of the top forms of promotion for affiliate marketers so i have seen the pros and cons involved.In this post i will give you a brief outline of the pros and cons but before you even consider using a traffic exchange their is one major factor that you must recognise.If you use AdSense on your blog using traffic exchanges will get you banned, The use of any traffic exchange is strictly banned by AdSense.



What Are Traffic Exchanges ?

The idea behind a traffic exchange is quiet clever at first look.You open an account with a traffic exchange website like Traffic Swarm and submit the URL address of your blog with a short description.Now you click a Surf Websites button.Once you click the button you are brought to a website which you must stay on for 15 seconds, after the 15 seconds you click Surf Websites and go to another website for 15 seconds and so on...

Lets say for example you surf through 20 websites, then 20 other people who log on just like you did will go to your website for 15 seconds.This is all controlled by a credits system, when you visit another site you earn credits and when another user visits your site you loose credits.

Pros And Cons

I hope i got the idea of how it works across and it does look foolproof but like everything there is more than meets the eye.

*You can not use AdSense on your blog if you use traffic exchanges
*Most traffic exchange surfers open the traffic exchange in a new window so don't even look at the sites they are surfing
*You are not getting a target audience - Most of the traffic will not be interested in your blogs subject
*Premium members are given extreme preference - Premium members who pay a monthly fee get free credits and the best traffic with a longer timer
*The traffic is not real - The traffic you receive is only on your blog to get credits.The rate of return visitors will be almost zero with the time spent on your blog rarely passing the 15 seconds.
*As you can be sent to any website there is a danger of being sent to a website that could infect your computer.

As you can see i am totally against the use of traffic exchanges and not trying to hide it.I had some success with them when they were new and exciting but they have run their course.You will get traffic but it will be useless traffic and you will have to waste hours building credits, time that could be spent improving your blog or working on S.E.O. and other blog promotion methods.

What Are The Options

If you would like to check out some of the traffic exchange sites here are a few of the most popular.
(Note you can build credits from affiliate links - These are NOT affiliate links)

Traffic Swarm
Smiley Traffic
EasyHits4u

Remember you can get all these tips sent directly to your email and stay a step ahead.Its a quick and easy service Provided for Free by Google.Just fill in the Email form below the post.If you need extra help on this or any tutorial just leave a comment, I love comments and feedback so this Blog is Do-Follow - when you comment here it helps Your Blogs Google rank !

This was probably not the most fair post i have published as it's very one sided.But blogging is about opinions and in my opinion using traffic exchanges to promote your blog is an absolute waste of time.They can still have limited success for affiliate marketing but even that is diminishing.

Do you use traffic exchanges ?

Have you a different opinion on traffic exchanges ?

Do you want more info on the subject ?

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