Almost every experienced Internet marketer has at one time or another used free traffic exchanges. This is not surprising as they offer the promise free website traffic to people generally with little funds to invest and not much experience, and it just seems to be so easy to sit there, click away, and watch the hits roll in. Sooner or later, however, most of us begin to feel that either we are doing something wrong or free traffic exchanges just don't work!

Oh, they deliver free website traffic, all right, but nobody buys into our product or program. We soon figure out that the people looking at our page have seen it before, are bored by it, and are just looking at it, if they ARE looking at it at all, just to pass the time until the next click is due. Actually, they are more concerned with what is happening to THEIR page than worrying about ours. Eventually, most people begin to feel that it seems so pointless and they drop out and go try something else.

Now, there ARE people using free traffic exchanges to generate real traffic, visits by interested people, to their website, only they have learned a few tricks to make this happen. They have learned to avoid some of the more common mistakes that most people make when using free traffic exchanges.

1. They don't use their real page. Certainly, the occasional offer or web page is either so universal in topic or so tempting in some way or another that it does okay...at least for a while. However, think about it. After a while, you began to recognize many of the web pages you were shown...over and over. You probably even begin to say to yourself, "i"ve seen that one before. That's the seventh time I've seen it in the last hour." That is, you might think that if you haven't already zoned out.

By the way, that "seventh" time may actually be a first time. You realize, of course, that perhaps you have actually been looking at seven other members of the same affiliate program who are promoting their affiliate link. Ever see "your" site roll by? Maybe it wasn't "your" site!

Part of the game for a successful Internet marketing experience is to stand out in some way, and this is especially true at free traffic exchanges. If you want to stand out, you are going to have to offer something that catches the eye of the other surfer and encourages him or her to click over to your real site. I am not going to go into a discussion of lead capture pages and splash pages right now, but a quick search on the Internet will provide more info.

They sometimes don't even send people to their "sales" or "pitch" page directly from the traffic exchange. After all, if you can offer someone some kind of gift just for dropping by that helps predispose them to look more favorably on other offers you present than they would if they just show up at a sales site.

2. They use the best free traffic exchanges. For a newcomer, or even for an old internet marketing pro, figuring out which traffic exchanges are the best ones to use can be a challenge. Rest assured, however, that it can be done and it is worth the effort. There are websites that keep track of these sorts of things and other important bits of data, and it is worth your time to track these down and use their knowledge to your advantage. The good news is that these are generally free and provide you with additional information about free traffic exchanges as well as the opportunity and tools to help build your downline in the various traffic exchanges.

3. They build a downline. Remember the hours you sat in front of your computer clicking away only to find that you have generated just a few hits to your site? Well, to make use of the relatively untargeted visits provided by free traffic exchanges, you need to have hundreds of hits...perhaps even thousands. There is no way most people can or will sit there for the hours needed to generate web site traffic in the volume required. In fact, there are just two ways; buy it or build a downline. Having hundreds of people in your downline at any one site, maybe even thousands, can provide the hits you need for free.

By the way, this brings us back to being with the best traffic exchanges as they will usually have the biggest base of people to view your site, will be the easiest to recruit people to, and may even allow you to buy a downline, as in the case of WebbizInsider.com.

4. They pay for services. This requires a little savvy shopping around, but once the Internet marketing professional has his or her free traffic exchange system up and running, they are willing, at some exchanges at least, to pay to upgrade to a professional level. Many traffic exchanges will allow an upgraded member to collect commissions on purchases made by their downline in addition to getting credits when they surf. Plus, an upgraded membership often includes extra credits as well. With a big downline, this could be a business in itself.

5. They experiment. Maybe I should say that they test. One thing works good at one exchange but not as well as another. It may be only the background color is turning people off, or it may be the whole design of the site. Maybe the product or offer is just not catching on. One test of a product is "did I like it", but, even so, not everyone is going to be interested in what YOU are interested in.

6. They treat their traffic exchange membership like a business. They go to work selling and using the traffic exchange just as they would marketing the product or service they are trying to sell. They will keep records, trying in some way to track which exchanges and which pages seem to be providing the best results.

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Donovan Baldwin is a writer and Internet marketer presently living in Copperas Cove, Texas. He is also a University of West Florida alumnus (BA Accounting), is a member of Mensa, and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. You can learn more about using traffic exchanges to generate website traffic at donsdomains.ws/articles/free_traffic_exchange_system.html