WHC Internet Marketing Guide
Traffic Exchanges
Traffic exchanges are advertising systems that reward you for using the system with credits toward having your ads displayed to other members.
They generally have very low click-thru and conversion rates. Many people find that traffic exchange users generally aren't in a buying mood when they're using the traffic exchange. Because of this, traffic exchanges are best used to drive people to "squeeze pages", where people sign up to get access to a free resource. Once they've signed up, you can email more information and offers to them.
I'll discuss two that I used to participate in:
* Instant Buzz: The good thing about Instant Buzz is that its toolbar just sits there in your browser displaying little text ads while you do your regular web surfing, so you earn credits for the display of your own ads without having to take time out from your regular activities.
The bad thing is that since your ads get displayed to people while they're busy browsing other sites rather than looking at ads, they often go completely unnoticed, and click-thru rates are very low.
* Traffic Swarm: The good thing about Traffic Swarm is that members only earn points when they're looking at ads, and get even more points when they click them, so your ads are going to be seen and clicked.
The bad things are that:
- You have to spend time surfing the ads to earn displays of your own ads (except for points you buy or earn by referring other users).
- People are likely to click your ads just to get points even if they have no interest in your product.
* Amazon.com best sellers displayed using CaRP Evolution with expanding reviews powered by CaRP's "Expander" plugin.