What’s a Traffic Exchange?

[ad_1]

A traffic exchange is a type of website set up to help website owners promote online pages or sites under their control. Using the age-old concept of bartering, a traffic exchange allows site participants to share links to other participants’ sites, in exchange for other site participants doing the same. The end result is that each site that participates in the traffic exchange is likely to reach more interested web surfers, which in turn increases the chances of getting sales and increasing business volume.

A basic traffic exchange works by allowing site members to post links to other websites, splash pages, and even articles that have to do with member sites in some way. In exchange for being able to post such links, the member has to browse a certain number of links posted by other members of the exchange.

For example, traffic exchange rules may require that in order to post a link, the member must click through and visit at least five links already posted by other members. More robust sites allow members to choose which links to visit based on the most recently posted links or by selecting links based on category or interest.

The general idea behind the traffic exchange is that each member not only has the ability to advertise their sites and pages, but also has the ability to come across sites featuring goods or services that may be of interest. As and when this occurs, the member can mark sites of particular interest for future use, possibly including by placing an order. These saved links can also be shared with others who are not members of the traffic exchange, further driving traffic to the sites and opening the door to more sales.

Increased security measures have been implemented on traffic exchange sites over the years, typically to reduce the incidence of the use of software to post links and to circumvent the requirement that a minimum number of member sites must be visited in order to post a link. This often includes requiring that a visit to the clicked site last for a minimum period of time as well as using security measures that require entering a series of characters into a field or accurately matching a set of images to get credit for the click. These efforts help reduce the incidence of computer-generated traffic effectively skewing the results obtained from participating in a traffic exchange and make it easier to ascertain whether this link sharing approach is actually worth the time and effort required to engage in this type of marketing activity.

[ad_2]