Should You Take Part in Traffic Exchanges?
Yet again there is another traffic exchange doing the rounds with widgets appearing on blog sidebars. Of course people are asking if they should join in. Here is my advice …
- Is it really free? - OK, in most cases you don’t actually pay money to be a part of it, but in return for the hope of traffic you have to give valuable attention away to people you do not know nor endorse.
- Does it work? - By all means try it, but in my experience they don’t tend to work as well as advertised once the initial hype has worn off
- What will it look like? - The widget itself could be a distraction (after all, the idea is people click on it rather than read your content), but if the images are not moderated are you going to be showing seedy pictures? Hopefully there would be some checks in the system but even the biggest
well-funded services such as Google and Facebook allow saucy stuff
through, and I still see NSFW avatars on MyBlogLog even though it has
improved a great deal. - Who are you promoting? - Other than the service owner I mean. If you put one of these widgets on your blog you are sending your hard-won readers away to destinations unknown. Who are the most likely to want free and easy traffic other than smaller blogs? Yup, spammers, scammers and other less-than-quality publishers who wouldn’t get voluntary links. Could you be sending your prized audience to bad neighborhoods? Would they thank you for that?
- Can you trust them? - This might seem the most cynical reason of all but really, can you trust them? If you can trust the current owners, how about the people who buy the service?
In my opinion you are better off gaining good quality links in the traditional way (ie. having something worth linking to). The only links you should be placing on your blog, plain or Javascript, are to resources you have personally vetted and actually recommend or have a relationship with (eg. advertisers). Your reputation and traffic is just too valuable.
On the positive side, these schemes are a great insight into what works right now in viral marketing and spreading your ideas. Think about it, the people getting involved in these schemes are giving away valuable real estate, promoting another persons asset for free, potentially risking their own brand, in return for the hope of some visitors from it. How do they get otherwise rational people to do this? That is where the real value lies …
By all means try any service you think has potential, you might find an actual good one, just please please monitor it carefully for what appears and where you are sending your loyal readers.
Have you had any success with traffic exchanges? Am I just bitter and deluded? Please share your experiences in the comments …
Posted on December 06th, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Marketing
I used it 2 years ago for promotion but did not get much. It works for the lucky few..
Probably works great for the people you’ve already heard of…but not everybody else.
One aspect I find interesting about BlogRush (which I would think falls into this category) is that it’s a good headline test. Since the posts have no context other than the headline, it’s interesting to see what kinds of headlines inspire folks to click through.
It’s probably not a compelling enough reason for me to keep it, though–when something better comes along for that real estate on the blog, I think I’ll say good-bye to it.
Your 4th point echoes my main concern. Increasingly I’m becoming aware that less-sophisticated readers may tend to confuse an advertisement (which is, effeciely, what these widgets are) with an endorsement. After all, we’re known by the company we keep… What one *might* gain in traffic, is there a risk of losing much more in terms of authority and credibility?
probably works only for lucky winners. maybe I’ll give it a try someday
As much as I like John Reese, I have been tracking my Blog Rush stats and they have been horrible. I am going to remove the Blog Rush widget from my blog soon.
In other words, I totally agree with you. Other methods of traffic generation work much better and they don’t have to take up as much space on your blog.
Great post…
I will agree with your evaluation I get better results focusing my attention at other methods and I do want to know who I am keeping company with.
Great post!
Rod
The choice to ‘take part in a traffic exchange’ is one, I believe, when you doubt your own content. I am a believer that you take what you know and discuss it deep and not wide. Why pollute your thoughts with the promise of unrelated graffiti for the promise of pennies. Best staying away from these exchanges and traveling the less traveled road to personal fulfillment.
I can’t say much for Blogrush, but the latest widget that allows card exchange is doing extremely well for me.
I have to agree with you though, that we monitor these services closely. Once it starts to smells fishy, I’m out!
I have had good luck with Real Traffic Exchange. The links displayed are relevent and I get about 1% click through from my Ads.
I don’t do traffic exchanges because I want to be in control of the links that I am putting on my sidebar.
I’m one of the people who BlogRush canned with a letter saying I didn’t have a real blog, even though I do. Thus ended my brief experience in traffic exchange.