Traffic Exchanges For Increased Website Traffic

Despite the services you may have come across online that run this kind of operation look decidedly dodgy. It does actually work if you use the right service. I've been using Traffic Swarm for about 6 months now and I always see a steady stream of traffic from it to the URL's I submit. The system works by either setting your homepage to the Traffic Swarm network or by logging in to Traffic Swarm with the password you receive after signup. Each time you open your browser or sign in, you gain a credit and view 6 links; each with a short description of a particular sites content. If none of the links appeal, click the next button and you are presented with 6 more links. Should you click on a link, you receive anything from 1 to 5 credits. All credits earned go towards the number of times your site link is displayed on the network. Traffic Swarm is now in the top 500 most visited sites on the Web.

How does a Traffic Exchange work and why would I use one?
These are common questions asked by people who own web sites. Making use of a traffic exchange will have benefits for both individuals and companies, but very few people are knowledgeable on exactly how traffic exchanges work. Anyone who owns or operates web sites can join a traffic exchange network easily by signing up. When someone submits a web site to a traffic exchange network, he/she earns points by browsing other sites in the network. Other network members earn points by browsing the site you submit. The net result is a mutual benefit for everyone: all sites in the network benefit from increased traffic. Most traffic exchanges allow a web site to earn a certain amount of credit and maintain a certain credit ratio, which is what determines the number of web sites a person has to look at in order to get one hit on their own web site. Lots of traffic exchange sites give you an option of purchasing an upgraded account that gives you a more equal credit ratio i.e. you have to view fewer sites to get an extra hit on your site. A side advantage is that internet destinations grouped together via traffic exchange typically cater to common topics. Therefore, you might find new sites you want to regularly visit, or at the very least, you can see what is new with your competitors. The best traffic exchange programs can be joined for free and function by encouraging you to build credits by using referrals. They also encourage you to obtain a paid upgrade by offering extra credits and better features. These credits can be used to build an opt-in list by capturing an email address with the name of other persons from other sites in the network. You can also use an auto-responder form, or construct and advertise a catchy looking home page with eye candy, or a splash page to build your list. As you can see, the basic concept of how traffic exchanges work is quite simple.

Who uses traffic exchange programs?
The main users are small business owners or marketers who either want to use the system to get free advertising or to use the exchange program to get a wider audience for low budget advertising campaigns. It is also possible to simply purchase credit from the traffic exchange site rather than surfing the other web sites to earn it. Private persons and internet-based corporations making mutually beneficial visits to each other's websites is how traffic exchanges work. The best way to use a traffic exchange is to build your own opt-in list by including an auto-responder form on your landing page or for advertising using a concise splash page with eye-catching graphics.

I was able to find 146 of these sites. You can easily type "traffic exchanges" into your web brower but I'll list a few of the more popular exchanges for your convenience.

1. http://www.trafficswarm.com/
2. http://www.ilovehits.com/
3. http://www.tugboattraffic.com/
4. http://www.tiptoptraffic.com/
5. http://www.freetrafficbar.com/
6. http://www.shownfind.net/
7. http://www.startxchange.com/
8. http://www.trafficbully.com/
9. http://www.trafficproject.com/
10. http://www.gimmeclicks.com/
11. http://www.savvyclicks.com/
12. http://www.hitsafari.com/
13. http://www.easyhits4u.com/
14. http://www.hits2u.com/
15. http://www.trafficdigger.com/
16. http://www.freeviral.com/
17. http://www.clicksmatrix.com/
18. http://www.trafficg.com/
19. http://www.surf30.com/
20. http://www.xtremehit.com/

That should be enough to get started.

Best of luck to you,
Mike Filsom

Get Free Traffic With Article Marketing

One of the easiest ways to get more traffic to your website is through article marketing. If you write articles that are related to your website and submit them to article directories and free article submission sites, you can increase your web traffic and sales. When you write an article, you will be able to include a link in the resource box at the end of the article. This is what readers will see and when they click on the link for more information, they will be taken to your website. These articles also become available to webmasters, newsletter publishers and your target audience. Your article can get picked up and posted to other websites and in online newsletters, which is an additional way to increase and boost your web traffic. If your article is picked up by other online business owners, this creates a link back to your website. This is called back linking. If someone reads your article from any other website, they can still click on the link and pay a visit to your website. All sales will still belong to you. As your articles increase, so does the opportunity for more online coverage. The search engines will become your friend. Search engines pay attention to reciprocal links (exchanging links with webmasters) and back links. The search engines attach a lot of significance to websites that have a lot of links to them and increased your search engine ranking. So it is a domino effect. The more articles you can write and publish, the more exposure you will receive. If you are selling a product or service online, then your links will pay off and give you more traffic and more traffic equals more sales. Even if your visitors come and browse around your website, they can potentially bookmark your page and come back later. Search engines will also index your published articles and give you higher placement. If someone conducts a search using the keywords that you have in your article, then they can find your article and click on the link to get to your website. So make sure that your articles have the appropriate keywords that describe your product or service. Many online business owners are catching on and seeing the potential in writing and publishing their articles. When someone finds an article that is packed with benefits and information that they are looking for, the chances that they will buy from you is much higher than just a regular reciprocal link from someone else's website. Your articles should be informative, unique and fresh. Make it professional, but humorous. The reader should be able to understand the point that you are trying to make. No sales pitch should be obvious in the article. If you take a few minutes to write one article and submit it to article directories and check the search engines in a few days, you will be surprised to see the effect of one article and maybe, this will give you more zest to write other articles to increase your traffic.

Best of luck to you,
Mike Filsom

Get Free Traffic With Forum Marketing

Very often, entrepreneurs who start out online end up losing money and wasting time trying to get traffic to their websites and I have to admit, I was once there. It’s a fact that I was once a newbie, I once lost over a grand on advertising and even I have even been scammed a couple times. Many have walked the path I have, committed many blunders…some may have even experienced worse but that’s not the point here. What I am trying to get at, is that these mistakes have taught most of us (entrepreneurs) to be smarter, to start thinking "out of the box" when making business decisions.

Today I’m going to show you how thinking "out of the box" can help you get traffic the lazy way & gain exposure to your website with just one or a few forum posts. Yes, you heard it right. Before I tell you about the forum method, I want to set the record straight. I know some of you would like it to be, “Mike, can you show us step by step how to do it…what to say and what to do.” Well, I’m sorry I’ll have to disappoint you if you ask to be spoon-fed. If you feel that what I am about to share with you makes good sense, you’ll be able to do it instinctively. That is the spirit about doing online business. You need to understand that when it comes to marketing, you are dealing with a real human being and not some robot you can feed a few sentences to and it will hand you whatever you desire.

So, why Forum Marketing? The context in which your customers get to see your offer is very important.

Example: If your potential customer is searching on Google, their guard is higher, however, if they know they are searching in a forum, they are less guarded because forums create a sense of community where everyone’s opinions are open for others to criticize.

Visitors in forums are usually there to look for new information as people constantly want to be in the know. They are also there to seek opinions. The trust there is enough that they will be open to other people’s suggestions. Everyone wants to have a say and give their own opinions whether they are competent or not.

So how do you get traffic to your website from forums with just one or a few posts? You get them to give you their opinion. Let’s say you’re in a Yoga niche. You could pose a question like:

“I know some of you may not like Ashtanga Yoga but I also know that it helps to awaken your body’s energy…which camp do you belong to? Do you prefer Ashtanga Yoga or others?”

You will certainly get a heated debate here automatically and you can recommend the exact Ashtanga Yoga DVDs in your forum signature. You can also post again to comment after other people’s replies for added boost. With so much content on your post or topic, it’s like creating a long article of content, not created by you but by the forum users.

What this does is to create new content that Google will easily index (generally forum pages are highly indexed by Google), therefore bringing traffic not only from forum users but also from the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN…and for a long while. When visitor traffic arrives, your signature will be exposed to them, so make sure you use a good headline for your signature.

A few proven signature lines are:
Example: If you’re in a weight loss niche and your post is about a pill called "Y":

Benefit Oriented Signature: Melt off 200% more fat when doing this exercise with "Y"…
Special Offer Signature: Special Offer For "Y" Members of Yoga Forum …
Your Case Study Signature: (People love to read about people, that’s why blogs are so popular) Read My Journey with Pill "Y" and how I got rid of 30 pounds of FAT in 17 days …

These are just the tip of the iceberg for ways to generate traffic. I’d love to hear from you, so please share your thoughts in the comments section below and be sure to let me know your results.

Best of luck to you,
Mike Filsom

http://freeaffiliatetraffic.blogspot.com
http://makemoneywithwebsitefree.blogspot.com