Now that we have covered the first steps and you have an offer that you are going to track it is now time to get traffic. Not doing those steps first is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make. They work on traffic without a good offer and system built first.

Now there are numerous ways to get traffic. That means this will be a series of posts and not just one. Even with that there are so many different ways even though they fall into 3 categories.

Today I will discuss traffic exchanges. Now this is really only a good method for getting visitors if you are in the make money on line niche. If you are looking to sell pet products, cell phones, etc. this is not a good source for you.

Now traffic exchanges are a co-op of sorts. You look at my pages – I look at yours.

The key to using traffic exchanges is to target the market and make an irresistible offer. Your target market is people looking to sell to other marketers. If you have a way to get more traffic for less effort that would be something of interest to most users.

Now the other thing is to understand the media here. The average exchange is only going to show your page for 10-15 seconds. If you have this long page it may not even load in time before the person is ready to click next.

You also need to have your whole offer show in the frame or be above the fold.

Above the fold means that your whole page and offer shows in the browser without you having to scroll. The mindset while surfing a traffic exchange is to generate as many page views for them selves as possible.

Nobody goes into a traffic exchange saying “Gee I want to go sign up for 10 lists today and buy 3 products.” They are saying “I need traffic for my site so I am going to surf as many sites in as short a time period as I possibly can.”

Because of this attitude you need to have a quick loading page, catch their attention with the headline and have a strong call to action.

Finally, because people deal with people not programs you want to be sure that you are branding your self on every page. Personalizing the page with your name and picture is extremely valuable and…

The more you do it the more credibility you build up. Understand that if someone sees your face every time they surf they start to see you as an expert. After all if you are constantly showing all the time what do you know that they don’t?

Now let’s look at an actual page that has done very well and see why it works. Check out this page Anyone Can Blog and we will discuss how and why it works.

Headline – Do you think that resonates with someone that has been spending hours each day surfing traffic exchanges? Will that catch your attention?

Pictures/Branding – Paul and I have branded our image on the traffic exchanges for years. We also add credibility by adding how long we have been online. Might someone that is still using these sources know something that can help you?

Bullets – Here you make the promise and get the saliva running.

Call to action – Finally tell them exactly what to do. Don’t vacillate on this. We use “Enter your name and primary email address to receive your free lessons”. No doubt there on what we are asking.

Now the final step in using these resources effectively. Be in as many as you can 24/7. There is a huge power in someone seeing you EVERY time they surf. Don’t spread your self too thin. You are better to be in 3 or 4 24/7 than in 20 for half an hour a day.

You also want to use the big exchanges primarily. There is nothing wrong with using some of the newer smaller exchanges but…

The one’s that you are in 24/7 should be

• delivering 100 – 150 page views a day
• adding lots of new members each and every week
• have an active membership so that you are receiving more than 40% unique visitors

Test the smaller and newer ones but put your major effort and money into the ones that meet this criteria.

Some of the ones that I like and use regularly are in no particular order -

• I Love Hits
• Dragon Surf
• Traffic Splash
• Swat Traffic
• Advertising Know How

There are many more that are good that is just a short list. I really recommend you check out Jon Olson’s Hit Exchange News and the Affiliate Funnel Traffic Ranker for more choices.

Finally if you decide that you want to use traffic exchanges I strongly recommend that you join Affiliate Funnel. They have some great training to help you get started.

Remember that this is only one source of traffic and that it is specifically targeted to the make money crowd. Tomorrow we will discuss another free traffic source that is in the same marketplace – safe lists. Don’t worry we will be getting into other areas of traffic for other niches.

As always your comments and questions are welcomed.

Mike Paetzold

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