Are Web Traffic Exchanges Worth the Time and Effort? (A Reaction)

I have been slacking this past week and as such, I've been really trying to challenge myself to bounce back. So I took a little break here and there.. hey, I'm human too.. sometimes the real world catches up and you encounter issues that you deem are more necessary. Well, I haven't been totally back on track since slacking off.. LOL! But since then I have blogged about a cause to support a childhood cancer research foundation, some real life local news that seemed interesting -- at least to me they were -- and an original self-help article that was inspired from a newsletter I'm currently subscribed to. And now this...

Huh? What's this about? Well, I'm a web traffic exchange user, have been for a year. I'm not totally addicted to it, although surfing some traffic exchanges (TEs) is part and parcel of my daily schedule. I have not been surfing as many TEs as I used to. I have mainly chosen a few ones that I truly like and ones wherein I'm still upgraded at. Hey, I even have a lifetime upgrade at one of them!

Well, an associate shared a link to an article with the same title mentioned above -- for which I just added '(A Reaction)' as I will be sharing my own views about said article. Well most of us perhaps already know what a web traffic exchange is. For those who don't, a traffic exchange is a program that you can join -- FOR FREE, yes most of them are -- wherein you view some ads to earn credits so that your own ads will be viewed by others as well. The ratio on most sites vary, but an associate advised that 3:1 sites aren't usually worth the time.(3:1 ratio means you view three sites before your site can be viewed once.)

The personal opinion of the author of the article is that TEs aren't worth the time, effort or money that you need to put into them. It could be one way to get an increase in traffic numbers, but that there are definitely better ways to increase your traffic. As I mentioned, I've been a TE user for at least a year now, and I'm sure others who have been using them longer would violently object or react to the claims of the author. I, however, wouldn't totally disagree. True, advertising on TEs has somehow helped in "branding" me as I now use personalized splash and squeeze pages. And time and again, I have "met" some surfers on chat who would mention that they have seen my ads around.

However, there is the point that most of the visitors that your site will receive from TEs will not be targeted. And what you ultimately want and need are targeted visitors who are out there seeking exactly what you have to offer. A really good way to find targeted visitors is to consider other avenues wherein you could bring your site -- featuring your products and services -- to others searching for specific keywords. Therefore, undertaking an SEO campaign wouldn't be such a bad idea. You see, you spend time on surfing different TEs. Some of that same amount of time are also well spent on improving your site so that it gets searched better via the different search engines. In this day and age wherein competition is tough, we can't totally dismiss the various other ways of increasing web traffic. Putting effort into SEO is an effective long term plan. It does take time, effort, patience, persistence, perseverance, and many other terms you can come up with. If you're itching for a quick scheme, this is not the way to go, but you'll be thankful in the long-run if you did consider it.

Perhaps some gurus out there would disagree with me, but this is my personal opinion. Besides, I'm convinced that there are marketers out there that are not totally dependent on TEs alone. And that some who have already made it don't totally just rely on TEs for their income. I wouldn't be surprised if they too have other sources of income outside of TEs. 

 

 

Tips to Get Repeat Web Traffic

Here are some tips on driving repeat traffic to your website. Take note and follow as many as possible. Web traffic as you know is crucial to all online businesses. 

1. Update the pages on your website frequently. Stagnant sites are dropped by some search engines. You can even put a date counter on the page to show when it was last updated.

2. Offer additional value on your website. For affiliates and partners you can place links to their sites and products and ask them to do the same for you. You can also advertise their books or videos, if these products relate to your industry and are not in competition with your own product.

3. You can allow customers to ‘opt in’ to get discounts and special offers. Place a link on your site to invite customers to ‘opt in’ to get a monthly newsletter or valuable coupons.

4. Add a link to your primary page with a script ‘Book Mark or Add this site to your Favorites’.

5. Add a link ‘Recommend this site to a Friend’ so that the visitor can email your website link, with a prewritten title, “Thought you might be interested in this”, just by clicking on it.

6. Brand your website so that visitors always know they are on your site. Use consistent colors, logos and slogans and always provide a ‘Contact Us’ link on each page.

7. Create a ‘Our Policies’ page that clearly defines your philosophy and principles in dealing with your customers. Also post your privacy policy as well so that clients know they are secure when they visit your site.

8. Create a FAQ page that addresses most of the doubts and clarifications about your product or your company that are likely to be asked. This helps to resolve most of the customers’ doubts in their first visit to your site. 

8. Ensure that each page on your website has appropriate titles and keywords so that your customer can find their way back to your site if they lose the book mark.

9. Never spam a client, who has opted for newsletters, with unsolicited emails. Later if they decide they want to ‘opt out’ of the mailings, be sure you honor their request and take them off the mailing list. They may still come back if they like your products. But they will certainly not come back if you continue to flood their email box with mails they no longer wish to receive.

So You Want to Increase Web Traffic : 7 Surefire Ways

Internet. Business. Profit. To fully integrate all of these words into one successful venture you will need another word... Traffic. Every article you will find about making your site or company successful would always include the importance of generating  online traffic.

So, we all know that in the core of it all, web traffic is the most essential thing to a successful Internet based business company. Aside from ensuring that you have a great product to sell, and you have your company’s internal organization well taken core of, it would be time to get to the nitty gritty of things, generating web traffic.

If you already have a site and you think that you're not getting the traffic that you're supposed to be getting, then it's time to rethink some of your practices. If you want to succeed in this very competitive business, you should always be a step ahead of your competition. Increasing your web traffic flow should have been done starting yesterday.

Timing is essential, that’s an old adage known to everyone. But in generating web traffic, you should always be on your toes and be a day ahead of everyone. Never think of today and tomorrow as a starting point for making your site traffic laden, it should always have been yesterday.

To help you out in generating more web traffic to your site, here are some seven surefire ways to increase your traffic starting from yesterday.

1) Invest in good advertising with search engines

Google’s Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture provide great advertising schemes that are truly popular and ensure great web traffic. Although this surefire way to increase your web traffic would cost some money. While some would shy away from spending money to increase traffic, it is imperative in this case to do so because Adwords and Overture are the topsearch engine advertising ways to increase the needed web traffic to your site.

I must admit that I have yet to try PPC advertising. I would probably need to save and allocate some budget for it. But if it will yiels results, then it would be worth it.

2) Exchange or Trade Links with other sites

Exchange links with other sites to enhance your web traffic. Both of you will benefit from your combined efforts of driving more traffic to both your sites.

Try to partner up with sites along the same or similar niche that you are in. This adds to your site's reputation. Commenting on forums and other blogs also helps in this regard.

3) Use Viral Marketing

Viral marketing allows you to spread the word about your company and product with little or no costs. This is a marketing method that can be quite sneaky; you can attach your company’s name, product or link to a certain media such as a funny video, entertaining game, an interesting article or a gossip or buzz. With this method, people get infected with the creativity and entertainment of the medium that they will pass it on to many people.

4) Search and use proper keywords or keyword phrases for your site contents

Search engines look for certain keywords that they would show in their results page. In doing so, having the right keyword and keyword phrase is a must for your site to rank high in searches. You could write your own content or you could hire someone to do it for you. I would suggest you learn the basics and do it yourself. It's not that hard. You can visit my main site for more info regarding this. IAmRaincrystal

5) Write Articles that can lead traffic to your site

Submit articles to sites that would contain the same subject that your site deals in. If you sell car parts write press releases and articles about cars and car parts. Attach your site's description and services at the end of the article as well as the link to it.

6) Join forums and form online communities

Capture a market and show your expertise and credibility. When you form a good foundation for your site, people will trust you and your site and will pass the information on to many people they trust. Traffic will certainly increase because they know that you can provide what they need.

7) Lastly, Offer newsletters.

If many people know what you are about and your existence is shared with many others, you will find a loyal traffic that can provide you with more traffic through recommendation. If you arouse the curiosity of your customers they would be motivated to help you with your traffic.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!