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Traffic Exchanges Considered Black-Hat!

by Graham Maddison
10 replies
I visited Ezine Articles recently and noticed one of my old articles had been suspended ...previously live but now not!

I contacted them to see what the problem was...this is their reply together with an excerpt of my article.

-----------

"Your article "Stop Dithering, You Need to Act Now!" is considered
problematic due to the content in the article body on traffic
exchanges.

"When you start to promote affiliate products, many of them have a
pre-designed splash page hosted on their website. You will be given
an affiliate link which you can place in advertisements either by
using pay per click advertising such as Google AdWords, or by using
free traffic exchanges. Using this method, enables you to earn money
without the necessity for a blog or a website. You should exercise
caution however, when using the pay per click method as this can cost
you quite a bit of your hard earned cash. Make sure you budget
accordingly. As a starting point, I would concentrate on using the
free traffic exchanges to advertise. I would recommend this in all
cases -blog - website - splash page."

We cannot allow content that is descriptive of or in any way
advocates the use of Black Hat marketing as it is considered an
unethical marketing practice. Please ensure that any descriptive or
encouraging content regarding this type of internet marketing is
removed from your article and links prior to resubmission.

You may view our Editorial Guidelines for more information on this
topic:

EzineArticles.com - All Editorial Guidelines

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I never knew traffic exchanges were considered "Black-hat"
#blackhat #considered #exchanges #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author Izaya
    Banned
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    • Profile picture of the author pdrs
      Originally Posted by Izaya View Post

      Whats more surprising then Ezines stupid rules is that people still use ezines.
      or traffic exchanges
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  • Profile picture of the author munchsoul
    Yeah, traffic exchanges aren't a good place for traffic - as it's not targeted as users are just viewing your pages to earn the 0.01 cents, they rarely care for what you have written on your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author cooler1
    They've got that wrong. Did you reply back to tell them traffic exchanges are not BH? Ezine support is usually great, so they probably will sort it out.
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    • Profile picture of the author Graham Maddison
      Originally Posted by cooler1 View Post

      They've got that wrong. Did you reply back to tell them traffic exchanges are not BH? Ezine support is usually great, so they probably will sort it out.
      No, I haven't. I thought I would see what the consensus of opinion is here first. Thanks for advice though.
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      • Profile picture of the author Matthew Shane Roe
        Originally Posted by munchsoul View Post

        Yeah, traffic exchanges aren't a good place for traffic - as it's not targeted as users are just viewing your pages to earn the 0.01 cents, they rarely care for what you have written on your site.
        1. You have traffic exchanges mixed up with paid to click sites.. TRAFFIC EXCHANGES does not pay you money to surf...

        2. Traffic exchanges is not "non-targeted traffic". Traffic exchanges are actually HIGHLY targeted.. You know for a fact when you join a traffic exchange that the other members are interested in:

        1. Generating traffic
        2. affiliate marketing
        3. advertising their businesses
        So.. Tell me, what part of that is not targeted?

        Also, have you actually used a traffic exchange to know the quality of the traffic? While I will agree that SOME traffic exchanges does not provide you with good traffic, I have to disagree that all of them serve that type..

        I've made over $1000 in the past year over JUST traffic exchanges, while it's not A LOT of money, it's an extra $1000 nonetheless.

        That's not from the traffic exchange commissions, that's from the follow up I provided when I built my list with them. I made another $500 or so just off commissions.

        You might just want to check out this thread where a lot of traffic exchange owners and members alike have commented on their experience with them. Don't think it's just a traffic exchange is high and mighty thread either, there is plenty of other people that give negatives. It's one of the few threads that have remained civil about the subject (for the most part..) and still provided some quality and accurate information about them.

        Originally Posted by Graham Maddison View Post

        No, I haven't. I thought I would see what the consensus of opinion is here first. Thanks for advice though.
        Graham,

        Unfortunately this is the case with A LOT of sites/people. Not just Ezine Articles. Traffic exchanges are NOT BH - depending on how you use them.

        If you use them like they were MEANT to be used, then you won't have ANY problems regarding them.. However, if you was to use them to generate views to your webpage to boost possible adsense (or any ads..) then yes... It would be considered BH.

        I'm actually in the middle of designing a site that allows these type of articles to be promoted. It's going kind of slow from the lack of funding, complexity of it and what not. But I'm hoping to have it up fairly soon. It's requiring a lot of coding

        At any point, don't get discouraged about promoting traffic exchanges (if that is what you were doing). There is plenty of other methods to promote them without relying on silly directories/sites that doesn't understand what they are all about.


        Matthew Roe
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        • Profile picture of the author dbarnum
          Some of our clients have tried to have this type of traffic exchanges content published at EzineArticles before, and it's always been rejected. Just publish it at other places like GoArticles or IdeaMarketers, Isnare, etc., that'll work.

          And totally understand the frustration. It's like their rejecting PLR topics, too, at EA. But hey, not everyone is in the know on the world of IM
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  • Profile picture of the author JerrickYeoh
    Try stay away from traffic exchange. Those traffic seem do not help much and low conversion rate and high bounce rate.
    I rather use Google Adwords which able to bring more quality traffic with keywords.
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    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Shane Roe
      Originally Posted by JerrickYeoh View Post

      Those traffic seem do not help much and low conversion rate
      Just a couple of questions for this...
      1. What did you promote?
      2. Have you actually tested the conversion rates? Tweaked your promotion offer? Focus on boosting it?

      and high bounce rate.
      Nothing here, just "of course it has a high bounce rate.. What do you expect for a 10 second viewing?".

      I rather use Google Adwords which able to bring more quality traffic with keywords.
      To each their own, and nothing wrong with PPC and adwords advertising.. Just kind of curious as to how much money you throw away trying to figure out what your page is converting at and trying to boost your conversions?

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  • Profile picture of the author CDarklock
    Originally Posted by Graham Maddison View Post

    I never knew traffic exchanges were considered "Black-hat"
    There are both ethical and unethical traffic exchanges. Most of them are unethical, because the ethical ones don't work very well and there's no money in them.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jon Olson
    Funny, that traffic exchanges have been around since 1998...

    Created millions of dollars in revenue every year...

    Hundreds of thousands in affiliate commissions...

    Have never been 'supported' by any gurus...

    But are still here....Year after year after year...

    5801 new 'traffic exchange surfers' joined the top 10 exchanges this past week alone...Seems to me like savvy marketers that do know how to use them are doing very well with them.

    Makes you wonder
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