Definition: - A traffic exchange is an Internet based service, offered to webmasters to exchange traffic. I know you're non-the wiser right. Let me explain. Suppose you have a website and you want to increase the number of visitors (also known as traffic,) to your website. You may decide that you need to keep your traffic generation tactics low cost, so you decide to try out traffic exchanges. (T.E.) After selecting which T.E your going to use you register for your free account, during which time you will be asked to register the links to the website you want to promote. Ok. Are we good so far? Cool?



Now that you have registered an account and submitted your website URL's, you are now ready to begin the exchange process. To make a T.E work you must surf the websites of other members in the T.E program in order to earn credits. The credits you earn enable your site to be viewed by other members who are also surfing the system. This increases the number of visitors to all of the websites involved.

In case you are still unsure how T.E generate visitors to your website, consider this, website owners visit other sites through the T.E surf system. As the viewers are all website owners or operators, it is possible that some of them might find certain member sites interesting and thus make note of them on their own sites, sending more traffic their way.

Many T.E allow you to choose what type of websites are shown to you whilst surfing. If you are intersted in information on home business know-how, you would probably select a heading like work at home opportunities or home business tips.

Generally, traffic exchanges enforce a credit ratio, meaning members earn a certain amount of credit for visiting one member site, and each credit is translated into one page view. Ratios can vary from program to program so before registering for a T.E it is best to find out what their ratio is. Try to find a T.E with a ratio of at least 1-1. That would mean for every one website you view in the T.E system, you will earn 1 credit which intern will give 1 page view for your site. T.E also impose a time limit when members are browsing, ranging from 10 seconds to 60 seconds, so each time you click go or surf, a timer will begin to count down, when the timer reaches 0 you will be promted to click to continue to the next website.

The best types of websites to display on traffic exchanges are simple one page websites with little or no graphics. This is because T.E all use timers some can be a quick as 10 seconds, so if your website is ‘cram-jam-packed' with all possible bells and whistles it is going to take a very long time to load, remember, some timers are only 10 seconds long, if your page does not load before the timer reaches 0, chances are the surfer will simply move on. Lead capture pages, splash pages and mini sites all work very well on T.E as these types of pages are simple straight forward and to the point.

Almost all T.E are free, although some offer advanced features to paid members and give you the option to purchase credits. Most T.E encourage members to build a list of referrals, this helps you to accumulate more credits. For example, when a person you have introduced (referred) to the T.E begins to build up credits, you as the referrer, earn a small portion of their credits as a reward for referring them to the system.

To make your surfing experience a little more interesting many T.E now offer various ways to surf the system. Some allow you to play games like solitaire for credits. Some have arcade games, others let you listen to music whilst you surf, there are many interesting option available. Some T.E allow you to email the persons you have referred, through an in house mailing system; this is useful because you can personally promote your products to people who you already have a connection to. Other features included in some T.E are placing solo ads, banner rotation, auto surf and website statistics. All offered to make your traffic exchange experience more positive and rewarding.