When using traffic exchanges, it is imperative that one use a URL tracker. I learned this the hard way, please don't make my mistake.
Tracking is important because:
One can save an enormous amount of time by checking a tracker account to see what te's are providing the best traffic as well as which accounts need to be replenished with credits.
Tracking can also keep you from getting your credits robbed by unscrupulous owners (there are a few out there, most are honest and very helpful).
Take my friend, Carol, for example. By using a link tracker she discovered that she only received 8 hits in an entire week at one exchange--nearly 200 hits had been removed from her account at that te! Even more alarming was the fact that her te account showed that she had received those hits when her tracker account said different.
One may assume that the tracking device was in error, that is not entirely impossible, but it is quite unlikely when her tracker stats for all the other te's matched with her account stats in each other te.
Tracking is important! Do it!
My second tip for today is optimize your traffic. Traffic Exchanges are great for building email lists, referral bases and networking in general. With this in mind, you can begin optimizing your traffic, saving yourself a ton of time and effort in the future once you take the time to set up.
Decide what your most important goal is. Are you trying to build a downline of referrals? Are you promoting a product? Are you trying to collect optins and/or leads? Whatever your goal, you will need to decide what pages & banners are best suited for each exchange.
Some banners may get more clicks to the exact same program in one te, while a different banner linked to that same page gets almost none at that te and rocks socks in clicks at other te's. Once you figure out which banners, splash pages, sales pages, and lead capture pages are getting the most traffic in te's, then you know which pages to use when you are ready to start paying for advertising. Why spend money on trial and error when you can use literally hundreds of te's free of charge to perform your trial and error work?
My third tip for the day concerning traffic exchanges and advertising is NEVER EVER limit your advertising to te's. Use any kind of advertising you come across--but use the tracker, if the advertising you find isn't bringing you traffic, then don't waste time there, move on. The object of the "game" is to get seen--make sure YOU get seen while your promotions are getting seen.
Brand yourself! That is my final tip for the day.
Many te's provide the option of uploading your photo and often adding your own banner and/or textlink to their in-house splash pages. Doing this allows you to build referrals to allow you to earn more credits/page views while letting people become familiarized with you.
Many people turn to online marketing because they hate--yes, that's a strong word, but it's true--dealing with the public or being on the phone...most of all, people tend to hate selling. Guess what? Any program that says there's no selling or advertising involved for you to make money is LYING. Brand yourself and don't be afraid to network and talk to people.
Stumble It!
