Traffic Strategies

Private banner exchanges are much more effective than the banner exchange programs for several reasons.

First, you get to pick the sites that you exchange banners with. You can also check to make sure your banner is displayed as agreed, and the chances of getting hits from that
exchange are much greater.

When looking for sites to do exchanges with, you should look for sites that are related to yours in some way. By this, I mean that if you have a site that offers free business resources, you would of course want your banner to appear on other sites that offer free business resources. You do not want your banner on sites that are selling the exact same service or product that you are selling...that would be counter-productive for both sites.

You should also look for sites that get at least as much, if not more, traffic than your own site gets. If the site gets about the same traffic as your site does, the exchange is even. If the site gets more traffic than yours, you will need to offer more. Perhaps their banner will stay on your site longer than yours will stay on theirs...or their banner will appear in a better position on your page than yours does on theirs.

When you find a site that you would like to do an exchange with, simply find the contact information on that site, and contact the owner of the site with your offer....the worst (s)he can say is "No".

When doing a private exchange, be sure to key the URL for your banner. Remember, to do this, you use the question mark (http://www.yourname.com/?yourkey). Then watch your stat reports. If your traffic increases enough to impress you from this banner exchange, you will of course want to extend the length of time your banner appears on that site. You may even be willing to pay the website owner for hosting your banner.

If you are not impressed with the amount of traffic that exchange generates, then you will of course not want to extend the exchange, even if the other site owner requests this.
 

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