If you are looking for a way to grow your web site traffic without blowing your budget, perhaps you should look to the free traffic exchanges. Traffic exchanges are basically surfing membership opt-in sites on the web where they will display your advertisement or webpage to other members when they are surfing the site.

Traffic exchanges provide a free traffic and advertising method where a person signs up as a member and sets up a webpage URL to advertise his/her program or product. The traffic exchange will then rotate the URL webpage to its members based upon the amount of surfing you do. In general, traffic exchanges provide a ratio of 0.6:1.0 for each page surfed by a free member. This means that for every page you surf, you get 0.6 page credit for surfing. A few of them provide a 1:1 ratio for free members. Depending on the amount you surf, they may also credit you with bonus credits (i.e., 500 bonus credits for surfing "x" number of pages). Page rotations are timed and the time varies from 10 seconds to 30 seconds, depending on the traffic exchange.

Most traffic exchanges also provide a paid "upgraded membership" (a small monthly fee) which will give you a higher credit ratio and other incentives when you surf. Ezine Article

There are two other advertising tools provided by most traffic exchanges which are beneficial to a website owner. These tools are a referral link to the traffic exchange site and a Safe List advertising option.

1. If you promote the Referral Link, and others join the Traffic Exchange through your referral link, you will receive page view credits when your referrals surf.

2. You can utilize traffic exchange Safe Lists to send your email ads to the Safe List members of that traffic exchange.

You should know that both manual and auto-surf traffic exchanges are available to work with:

Manual Traffic Exchanges -- Manual traffic exchanges generally have a 15 to 30 second timer and you have to click on an icon or text area after the timer runs out to rotate to the next traffic exchange page for viewing. This is done to assure that the pages get viewed by the user. The manual traffic exchanges usually provide a better credit ratio per page than auto-surf traffic exchanges. Manual traffic exchange advertising will get a better click ratio on your ads compared to the auto-surf.

Auto-surf Traffic Exchanges -- Auto-surf traffic exchanges usually have a 5 to 15 second timer and the page views rotate automatically at the end of the timer run out. The auto-surf traffic exchanges usually provide a 0.6:1 credit ratio for surfing. The advantage of the auto-surf rotation is that the user does not have to click once or twice for each page viewed and more page view credits are accumulated as the timer is shorter and allows more page views per minute.

You can cut down on your surfing time by using a free multi-tabbed browser (i.e., Mozilla, Firefox, Crazy Browser, IE7).

Traffic exchange advertising may not be considered as "targeted advertising" (i.e., email and ezine advertising or search engine clicks), but it provides free traffic which will improve your site ranking and promotes your program or product at the same time.

Advertising with traffic exchanges is really simple once you start thinking of traffic exchanges as TV ads. You only have the viewer's attention for a few seconds, so your sales page must grab it and give them an action they can take. Some people say that traffic exchange advertising does not work, but traffic exchange advertising is only one aspect of promoting your site. A site owner should diversify site advertising into as many available avenues as possible and track the ads to see what is working best and adjust his marketing strategy accordingly.

Getting free traffic and free advertising through the traffic exchanges is certainly worth considering.

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Author: Conley Stallard

Conley Stallard is the creator and owner of C & C Internet Marketing which provides home business opportunities, information products, services and affiliate programs with excellent commission programs, no risk or obligation. For more information, GO TO Internet Marketing Resources

To download a free copy of his new 'How To' ebook on getting free web site traffic and free advertising: CLICK TO DOWNLOAD