The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – Traffic Exchange Overview by Type
Auto-Surfs
The Good
It’s a nice theory – real human beings viewing your site, and the opportunity for others to see your site, all hands free. If used correctly, can raise your Alexa rating a little.There’s no monetary investment.
The Bad
Does anyone really see your site? For ost people viewing from the States, the answer is a definite no. But for some reason, I still get email every few months from one or two people who say they saw my site on an auto-exchange. I haven’t used one in ages, but I still get credits for people who joined through me. I normally transfer those to new sites that haven’t hit any Alexa browsers yet.
The Ugly
Be wary of any system you can run unattended. it’s not that the traffic exchanges themselves are malicious. It’s that sometimes people will change the site they are getting credits to in the system long enough to slide in a pop-up ad or change your start-page. If you’re not going to be nearby to watch the auto-surf, it’s really not worth the trouble, is it?
The Tip
While the exchanges themselves are mostly not of great benefit to you, they sometimes help your initial Alexa rating if the exchange is big enough. And there are some that have games like solitaire in the navigation bar that encourage folks to be present while the exchange is running. But for the most part, they are a waste of time.
Some people still swear by them – if you see some benefit to them that I don’t, please feel free to comment.
Personally, I don’t necessarily see an auto-surf itself as anything to get excited about. But here’s a hint…. many of the people who own auto-surfs might be getting a link from…
I’ll continue this series in just a moment with start-page exchanges.
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