Traffic Exchanges - What a Nightmare

by bt
39 replies
A nightmare at least for me anyway. I know some people have good luck with them but I havn't as of yet anyway. Some people use squeeze pages to build their list and have really good luck that way.

Ok so I have did some research and found what are considered to be the Top Traffic Exchanges, didn't want to waste my time with the low rated ones.

I picked what looked to be the top 2, and so far I have surfed about 500 times on each one. No luck yet and no conversions at all. Sometimes you wonder If the traffic Is fake. I'm not going to give up yet, I don't give up easy when I set my mind to something.

I will post back If I start having success, I am trying several different methods so you never know.

Any of you ever had any success with Traffic Exchanges

Terry
#exchanges #nightmare #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author DavePalermo
    Hey Terry,
    I used a traffic exchange one time a few years ago and they pretty much suck.
    I found the quality wasn't there and decided to start down the road of Adwords.
    Mucho expensive, yes but highly targeted traffic I got.

    Perry Marshall's guide to Adwords helped me a lot.
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    So out of all the sites you visited in exchange, how much stuff did you buy? People sitting in front of their computers, browsing sites as fast as they can aren't qualified, targeted visitors. They're only interested in doing it to get these crap visits to their own sites.
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  • Profile picture of the author George Langer
    I have never had any success with traffic exchanges. The fact is I am not so patient but I think there are better sources of traffic anyway.

    Good luck with your experiment I am curious to see results;-).

    George
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by bt View Post

    I know some people have good luck with them
    Yes - agreed: some people make steady and growing 5-figure (even 6-figure?) monthly profits from them.

    Of course, they're all people promoting things targeted specifically at TE users and starting by building a list from the traffic.

    Originally Posted by bt View Post

    No luck yet and no conversions at all.
    Are you promoting something aimed specifically at TE users, and building a list from the traffic? Otherwise it will clearly be no good at all for you, Terry. There's no point in trying to sell a grand piano in a fish market. To gain from that traffic, you need to have something like the local lobster concession and be offering people free mayonnaise recipes to get them onto your list first, don't you?

    Traffic Exchange traffic is very highly targeted, but it's targeted for the things specifically sought by people who are using traffic exchanges. Namely "traffic"! No big surprise there, I think?
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    • Profile picture of the author Kirk Ward
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      There's no point in trying to sell a grand piano in a fish market.
      Alexa, how can you make a statement like that if you've never tried it? Have you ever seriously tried to sell a piano in a fish market? You might do very well.

      Hammond Organs are another story though. You absolutely cannot sell Hammond Organs in a fish market.
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    • Profile picture of the author lgibbon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Yes - agreed: some people make steady and growing 5-figure (even 6-figure?) monthly profits from them.
      Yes, they are the owners.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gary Ning Lo
      Originally Posted by Alexa Smith View Post

      Traffic Exchange traffic is very highly targeted, but it's targeted for the things specifically sought by people who are using traffic exchanges. Namely "traffic"! No big surprise there, I think?
      Agree..

      Just promote these types of products and give the market what they want.

      Cheers,

      ~Gary Ning Lo
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  • Profile picture of the author RexMapes
    IMHO traffic exchanges can be very useful as a list builder and as the beginning of a sales funnel. They are not a good source of one step or two step sales processes. You need to work TEs slow and steady.

    Disclaimer: I have not attempted to sell a piano or organ either one on a TE. Therefore, I do not feel qualified to expound upon that particular concept.
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    • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
      Originally Posted by RexMapes View Post

      They are not a good source of one step or two step sales processes.
      I actually had some success selling registry cleaners in "08" off a simple splash page.

      The headline was "Make Your Computer Run Faster."

      Are you promoting something aimed specifically at TE users
      As Alexa mentioned, it was something TE users needed.

      The time involved surfing was still too much to make it worth while.
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  • Profile picture of the author biz_online
    Originally Posted by bt View Post

    A nightmare at least for me anyway. I know some people have good luck with them but I havn't as of yet anyway. Some people use squeeze pages to build their list and have really good luck that way.

    Ok so I have did some research and found what are considered to be the Top Traffic Exchanges, didn't want to waste my time with the low rated ones.

    I picked what looked to be the top 2, and so far I have surfed about 500 times on each one. No luck yet and no conversions at all. Sometimes you wonder If the traffic Is fake. I'm not going to give up yet, I don't give up easy when I set my mind to something.

    I will post back If I start having success, I am trying several different methods so you never know.

    Any of you ever had any success with Traffic Exchanges

    Terry
    I think you are right. Traffic Exchanges and Safe-Swaps are the best ways to waste your time and sometimes your money. I'm not sure why people continue to promote these. Most of this traffic is just like you... looking for people to visit their website. They could care less about your offer... because they want you to look at their offer. I have had some limited success with solo ads, but you have to be really... really.. really... careful because there are so many people working together to hype their lists. I usually don't buy from this forum. I use other sources.

    Good luck... and thanks for not being afraid to speak the truth.
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    • Profile picture of the author gjohansson1
      Originally Posted by biz_online View Post

      I think you are right. Traffic Exchanges and Safe-Swaps are the best ways to waste your time and sometimes your money. I'm not sure why people continue to promote these. Most of this traffic is just like you... looking for people to visit their website. They could care less about your offer... because they want you to look at their offer. I have had some limited success with solo ads, but you have to be really... really.. really... careful because there are so many people working together to hype their lists. I usually don't buy from this forum. I use other sources.

      Good luck... and thanks for not being afraid to speak the truth.
      Whoa, what's wrong with Safe-Swaps?

      I gained a few hundred subscribers with an hour or two of "work" per week and was averaging a sale per day for a month, then calmed down on the swaps.

      I started selling solos and some people actually profited from their ads which was pretty awesome!

      As far as traffic exchanges are concerned, I spent 1 month surfing 10 exchanges, got about 30,000 hits, 50 subscribers and 1 sale. I literally wanted to quit every single day that I did it, but it worked.

      The trick was getting referrals into the traffic exchanges. One lady I was working with was getting 100,000 hits per month and 10 leads a day since she had a few hundred referrals in about 20 different exchanges.

      The messed up part was that I was making more money online than her at the time because of the fact that TE surfers surf at TEs because they don't have much money.

      It's not worth the time unless you dedicate your entire business to the TE industry and put your own spin on it.
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      • Profile picture of the author biz_online
        Originally Posted by gjohansson1 View Post

        Whoa, what's wrong with Safe-Swaps?

        I gained a few hundred subscribers with an hour or two of "work" per week and was averaging a sale per day for a month, then calmed down on the swaps.

        I started selling solos and some people actually profited from their ads which was pretty awesome!

        As far as traffic exchanges are concerned, I spent 1 month surfing 10 exchanges, got about 30,000 hits, 50 subscribers and 1 sale. I literally wanted to quit every single day that I did it, but it worked.

        The trick was getting referrals into the traffic exchanges. One lady I was working with was getting 100,000 hits per month and 10 leads a day since she had a few hundred referrals in about 20 different exchanges.

        The messed up part was that I was making more money online than her at the time because of the fact that TE surfers surf at TEs because they don't have much money.

        It's not worth the time unless you dedicate your entire business to the TE industry and put your own spin on it.
        What's wrong is "list burn out!" I don't like paying to get people on my list who aren't buyers. Aweber charges me for the size of my list. If I have 10,000 non-buyers then I'm paying $130/mo. Does that make sense to you?

        When you look at ROI, you have to take every expense into account.
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    • Profile picture of the author mazero
      Thanks for the valued info. I will stay far away from time wasters.
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  • Profile picture of the author kencart
    I have found that free "make money online" products that are accompanied by a simple short video proof (no more than 12sec) in the form of a squeeze page gives some decent conversion. Being brief, bold and to the point in your squeeze page also helps. I have done this before and it works in building your list.
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  • Profile picture of the author KingYoungPimpin
    Originally Posted by bt View Post

    A nightmare at least for me anyway. I know some people have good luck with them but I havn't as of yet anyway. Some people use squeeze pages to build their list and have really good luck that way.

    Ok so I have did some research and found what are considered to be the Top Traffic Exchanges, didn't want to waste my time with the low rated ones.

    I picked what looked to be the top 2, and so far I have surfed about 500 times on each one. No luck yet and no conversions at all. Sometimes you wonder If the traffic Is fake. I'm not going to give up yet, I don't give up easy when I set my mind to something.

    I will post back If I start having success, I am trying several different methods so you never know.

    Any of you ever had any success with Traffic Exchanges

    Terry
    Terry,

    I can only recommend one because it's fantastic.
    I actually had a lot of opt ins and sign ups from Linkreferral.com Free Advertising - web site promotion with traffic marketing and online advertising. website internet advertise for free!
    Set up a FREE account. If you don't have time to browse sites for ranking credits you can pay for advertising and be featured on the landing page for less than $100 buck for 30 days.
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  • Profile picture of the author Outsourcingnerd
    I played with a few traffic exchanges a few year back - surfing a lot of websites to test it off. (it was like 4-6 browser windows open and then full speed ahead).

    I managed to refer a few Hostgator leads, that was it.. not worth the effort lol

    When you see some of the top surfers of those sites, they have surfed thousands of sites every week - I would not be surprised if a lot of that traffic is from bots.
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    • Profile picture of the author biz_online
      Originally Posted by Outsourcingnerd View Post

      I played with a few traffic exchanges a few year back - surfing a lot of websites to test it off. (it was like 4-6 browser windows open and then full speed ahead).

      I managed to refer a few Hostgator leads, that was it.. not worth the effort lol

      When you see some of the top surfers of those sites, they have surfed thousands of sites every week - I would not be surprised if a lot of that traffic is from bots.
      I agree. You can't believe all these claims of "great success"!

      Thanks for being honest!
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      • Profile picture of the author bt
        Thanks for all the feedback Warriors, what a great community. I have noticed that Traffic Exchanges are very saturated with tons of the same products.

        Most of the members are to lazy to make there own splash pages and they just use the pre made Splash and Squeeze pages from membership sites. I am trying a different angle and an trying to brand myself.

        Being original I believe will build credibility with the surfers.

        Now this Is just my opinion but I think that some of the traffic from Traffic Exchanges Is Fake. Now I can't say for sure that this Is true, I just get a funny feeling In my gut. I mean how would you even know, the owners could be using bots.

        If I start to have any success In the next few days I will post back to this thread. I have been going off of that site called Traffic Hoopla. They have a list of the top 42 ranked Traffic Exchanges. They rate the Traffic Exchanges by actual users voting from 1 to 10 scale.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bob Sims
    Terry ! There are pros and cons to Traffic Exchanges as with everything else. The bottom line is what you get out of it that best suits you.
    If you really want some "Great" training that's no cost to you to start, give me a shout.
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  • Profile picture of the author bplaza
    We get traffic from traffic exchangers but mostly it would be irrelevant to our site category. we dont get any benefit.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewStark
    You need to give it 6 months and time to actually see results.

    By branding yourself and building a list you are doing the right thing, be active in the chat features and be sure to track all your results. If you buy credits this will help, and remember to promote something that people actually want.

    At the moment badges and stickers are popular, and the people who have joined my list to get my badge have turned into very responsive subscribers.

    Become a leader rather than being led by others.
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  • Profile picture of the author cjshu99
    Is there anything you can promote on TE's? I realize that these are people looking for traffic to promote their offer, so is that all that works there?

    That sure is a good bit of free traffic and not be able to benefit somehow.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I used to use TrafficSwarm. When i launched an old website of mine in the past, i drove 2,000 visitors to the site in 1 day with TrafficSwarm..... no sales.

    That was the last time i used it.
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    • Profile picture of the author TonyBabb
      I've used Traffic Exchanges very successfully, but it took awhile to figure out what works. Here is what worked for me.

      -I always made my own capture or splash pages and they must be short and very attention getting.

      -Promoting something that helps then get more traffic or helps then with what they are currently doing works best.

      -The more referrals in the exchanges you have the better, that equals to more views for your ads and less time you have to surf.

      -Grab the OTO's and any specials if they are offering a super deal. This will save you tons of time surfing.

      -I've had people surf for me and even my kids loved to do it when they needed some extra cash to buy something.

      -Don't expect immediate results. Build your list and keep working it. I've had people on my lists take months or even years before they purchased anything.

      If you are short on time and money, this would not be the best way to start out. But, if you have the time and develop a plan it can work. Just don't make it your only source of traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author talfighel
      Originally Posted by Randall Magwood View Post

      I used to use TrafficSwarm. When i launched an old website of mine in the past, i drove 2,000 visitors to the site in 1 day with TrafficSwarm..... no sales.

      That was the last time i used it.
      Me too. I used them and had ZERO results.

      I personally think that they are a waste of time. The only people who are doing really well are the owners of the program.
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  • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
    I have made a lot of money using TE and safe list.

    You just need to understand exactly what the members are looking for .. a few have already told you.. traffic. If you can offer them traffic and actually deliver the traffic .. you can make money from these sources.

    I built a list from these traffic seekers. Once you have them in your funnel it is up to your marketing skills to monetize. It is recommended to purchase any upgrades that keep you from clicking. I actually paid my daughter minimum wage to surf for me and she made some money and I actually turned a profit from the OTO in the funnel. But ...

    Les made a very valid point in his post ... The best money I ever made from TE and safe list was when I bought one of each. Each member was automatically on my list. Once I got the owner part down pat .. no more surfing for me lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author lgibbon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Troy_Phillips View Post


      You just need to understand exactly what the members are looking for
      They're just looking to get their own ads seen.
      That's the problem.
      And there are just way too many of them now.
      Just like safelist advertising, you've missed the boat.
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      • Profile picture of the author Troy_Phillips
        Originally Posted by lgibbon View Post

        They're just looking to get their own ads seen.
        That's the problem.
        And there are just way too many of them now.
        Just like safelist advertising, you've missed the boat.
        You could very well be right. I sold both my TE and safe list a few years back.I know the list I had as a TE owner made me some money as did the safe list but the safe list was getting harder as many of the professional safe list users were blocking admin emails near the end.

        I still wonder if one of my best ads wouldn't work on a TE. I offered 200 free emails to my personal email list with upsales for 500 .. 1000 .. 1500. and 2000. At the time I offered these I was adding 300 or better to that list daily.

        As you said .. things do change but I wonder if they have changes that much?
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        • Profile picture of the author Ellrose
          I use several TE`s to build one AR list. That list converts well within acceptable limits.I have also done CPA on a few bigger lists. Nothing to write home about but I do get clicks.
          All in all I don`t think that they are the best answer anymore.
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  • Profile picture of the author Horacioplus
    Traffic Exchanges are full of people looking for the same thing. It is difficult to make find people interested in buying something if they dont wanna spend money! That is why they use Traffic Exchange.
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  • Profile picture of the author cjshu99
    I basically use 2 TE's - Traffic Swarm and Easy Hits4U as they seem to have the most traffic as per Site Analytics and their easey to use. But no results so far.

    Traffic Swarm seems to have a lot of old domains in there rotation.

    They are kinda fun and addictive, though.
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  • Profile picture of the author TrafficBot
    Traffic exchanges IMO has gone by way of the dinosaur-extinct. TE's is old school IM and like most outdated methods you work your tail off to get very little results. Time is the one thing we don't have enough of in this world so don't waste it chasing the dinosaur that is TE's.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raydal
    About 10 years ago traffic exchanges was one of my
    main sources of traffic and main source of income as
    well. But I sold a TRAFFIC product.

    I was a marketing genius.

    -Ray Edwards
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    • Profile picture of the author garys_pdx
      Traffic exchanges like safe lists tend to attract neophytes. If your product appeals to beginners you can use them to build a list that can be churned over and over again.

      The problem is that the majority of people advertising on them are clueless as to how to advertise in them. You have only a small amount of time to get their attention or their gone but the ads are not designed for quick consumption by a surfer.

      Also big may not be better. I'd rather be the only person promoting purple juice on a small TE or safe list than one of fifty using the same duplicated website to advertise purple juice on the #1 TE or safe list.

      Just my thoughts.
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  • Profile picture of the author WebEminence
    People still use traffic exchanges?!! I didn't have much luck with them 10 years ago except with some really tricky and targeted headlines like "Are you sick of Traffic Exchanges?"

    Are like Ray said, if you're selling a Traffic product, you might have some luck with Exchanges because everyone surfing is obviously looking for traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Olson
    Traffic exchanges are very effective and have been for over a decade now. While fads in IM come and go, T.E.'s have remained. There will be nay sayers but the folks that see the results from them have been around a lot longer than most fly by night operations.

    It is what it is, you will never be able to convince the Warrior Forum about how effective these programs can be. Funny though, 15 years later I'm still making a very good living using nothing but T.E.'s for traffic.
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    • Profile picture of the author RogueOne
      Originally Posted by Jon Olson View Post

      Traffic exchanges are very effective and have been for over a decade now. While fads in IM come and go, T.E.'s have remained. There will be nay sayers but the folks that see the results from them have been around a lot longer than most fly by night operations.

      It is what it is, you will never be able to convince the Warrior Forum about how effective these programs can be. Funny though, 15 years later I'm still making a very good living using nothing but T.E.'s for traffic.
      Spoken like a true TE owner.:rolleyes:
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