How Traffic Exchanges Work: A Short Review

Successful internet marketers use various tools to assist web surfers find their web pages. Blogs, article submissions, traffic exchanges--these are just a few tools in the marketer's tool kit. This article will present an overview of how traffic exchanges work.

We all want to maximize traffic to our web sites. There is a large body of web surfers who participate in traffic exchanges in order to do just that. You can guide thousands of new visitors to your targeted web pages by participating in such exchanges.

After registering with a traffic exchange, members can surf the exchange's network. Such a network can consist of thousands of members. Members exchange views of ads promoting their pages, products, or services.

Depending on the exchange type, exchange members are able to create banner ads that will be displayed on the exchange network. Members can also list web page URLs that will cause entire web pages to be displayed over the network.

In order for a member's ads or pages to be shown to other network members, the member must first surf the exchange. After logging onto the exchange, a member begins to earn "credits" for viewing the pages broadcast by the exchange service. The page displays will include the ads or pages of other members. The "credits" earned "pay" for the display of a member's ads and pages over the network.

If you are an exchange member, another member clicking your ad will be taken to the web page of your choice: each ad is associated with a target URL. If the exchange is displaying your web page instead of a banner, another member can "stop" or "pause" the display to fully explore your page.

In the discussion so far, a member's ads and URLs are shown to members registered on the same exchange network. Belonging to multiple exchanges can dramatically increase the number of potential visitors to targeted web pages. As an example, if each exchange has 10,000 members, registering with 10 such exchanges would then cause ads and pages to be shown to 100,000 individuals. The odds of getting a click on an ad or a stop/pause on your web page increases dramatically. In short, more web surfers will be able to find their way to your web pages--but there is more.

Recently, innovative internet marketers have used traffic exchanges to create traffic generating systems that function more-or-less automatically. By directing exchange surfers to specially coded web pages, called hitpages, a marketer can automatically generate credits on multiple networks. These credits will cause ads to be displayed on each of the networks. A "case study" might make all of this a little easier to understand.

Let's say Rita Smith wants to market the ultimate teddy bear. Rita signs up for an account at traffic exchange_1. The exchange allows her to create two banner ads. The traffic exchange has 8,000 members.

Rita creates one banner ad and assigns it to a hitpage URL; she creates a second banner ad and assigns it to the URL of her ultimate teddy bear sales page. The 8,000 members of exchange_1 will be able to view the two banner ads.

Rita signs up for another exchange, exchange_2, which has 10,000 members. On exchange_2, Rita creates an ad pointing to her sales page. Rita also copies popup HTML code generated at exchange_2 and pastes it into her hitpage. When a browser loads the hitpage, the HTML code will cause the popup to display--automatically. Each time the popup displays, Rita will earn credits towards the display of her ad on exchange_2's network and to its 10,000 members.

Bill Goodman is a member of exchange_1. He is surfing the network, earning credits by viewing other members' ads. From time to time, he sees Rita's banner ads. He clicks the banner ad associated with her sales page and is taken directly to that page. At this point, there is no hitpage involved; but, because of the great sales page, Bill buys a bear.

If, instead, Bill clicks on the banner associated with Rita's hitpage, he will be taken to the hitpage. Because of the popup code that Rita pasted into the hitpage, a popup ad will display--without any other action by Bill. The popup will display automatically and does not require that Bill click it for Rita to earn her credits.

Each time the popup is displayed, Rita earns credit--automatically--towards the display of her ad on exchange_2. Bill's click from exchange_1, where Rita's ads are being shown to 8,000 members, resulted in automatically generating credit that will "pay" for the display of Rita's ad to another 10,000 surfers: Rita does not have to surf exchange_2 herself in order to earn credits to display her ad there. Her credits are earned automatically when surfers from exchange_1 click the banner ad targeting her hitpage.

The basic operation of a traffic exchange is not difficult to understand, "You look at my ads and I'll look at yours." Traffic exchanges can help guide more visitors to specific web pages. The targeted web pages can be designed to contain interesting content, offer a service, or sell a product. Recently, the use of traffic exchanges has been extended to create systems, utilizing hitpages, that generate web traffic automatically.

Author: Elizabeth Adams

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