I Love Hits September 12, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentHow do you describe a Traffic Exchange with well over 95,000 members, that’s been online since 2001, and is owned and operated by THE traffic exchange guy, Jon Olson? I can do it in one word. Results. Always Jon’s top priority, positive results are the biggest reason I love hits has remained an industry leader for all these years. The fact that an exchange this large still consistently brings in hundreds of new users per week speaks volumes about it’s owners advertising skills.
As a member of I love hits, not only do you get fast moving, quality traffic, but you get access to the I Love hits Tutorials archive. This is one of the first places I send folks who e-mail me about their poor results with traffic exchange advertising. Outspoken and rarely wrong, you’ll be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable expert Than Jon Olson when it comes to advertising in TEs.
I Love Hits has experienced some extensive upgrades this year, first with the ILH Profile pages which brought the exchange into the realm of web 2.0 with some really snazzy social networking tools. And soon followed by it’s participation in the one of a kind Super Surf cross promotion, giving members a chance to earn an incresed surf ratio by super surfing the 5 included exchanges.
In short, I love hits is one of the most consistently reliable traffic providers you’ll ever hope to find. With 7 years under his championship belt, Jon Olson and I Love Hits are a sure thing.
My Rating: 9 (out of a possible 10)
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Link Crews September 10, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentLink Crews runs on a unique, custom script and appears to combine some of the best features of traffic-swarm and logiscape sites like TS25 into a powerful advertising medium.
As a free member, the goal here appears to reach the #1 Crew. While surfing, you work your way up from the bottom, advancing to the next crew by viewing a certain number of sites. Making it into the higher crews, gets you an increased surf ratio. This program uses a “tokens” system rather than credits, but essentially you start out with a 4:1 ratio and as a free member you can work your way up to a 1:1.
The surfbar is quite unique, combining Traffic Swarm’s classified ads approach with a more standard surfbar. You begin with a small thin surfbar which gives plenty of space for member ads. Once the timer has expired, the surfbar extends to about the average size you’d see elsewhere, and you are asked to choose one of 3 sites to view next.
Credits are assigned in the form of campaigns, very much like you’d see at the logiscape exchanges. You have a considerable amount of control here as you can not only set your total visitors and max daily visitors, but you can also set the campaign to start on a specific date and time.
Link crews management has done a fine job of delivering traffic consistently thus far, and it looks like everything is in place to keep the hits coming in down the road. At nearly 23,000 members, this site is just coming into it’s own.
My Rating: 6 (out of a possible 10)
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Magnify Traffic September 9, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentMagnify Traffic does a great job of distinguishing itself from the hundreds of other traffic exchanges online. From the moment you log in, Magnify has a distinctly different feel, yet it’s layout is focused and simple to navigate.
The team at Magnify have taken huge steps to ensure members return to surf daily, and offer some generous rewards for those who do. Rewards come in the form of surf ratio bonuses. Some of which are good for the remainder of the day, and some you get to keep the next day if you log in and surf again.
You can always depend on Magnify Traffic’s dependable traffic delivery as well. You would think with all these ratio bonuses going around, credits would begin to back up. Quite the contrary here as the hits have been rolling in nice and steady all summer with no sign of slowing down.
If there’s one thing I find lacking at Magnify, it’s text links. Sure, there’s a common belief that text links are worthless, but I for one have always loved the ability to convert credits to text links. It’s a great way to test short n’ sweet ads and I’ve had some great results from these things in the past. Maybe resident programmer (and co-owner) Dan Smith will incorporate text links in the future.
All in all, Magnify Traffic is a quality program that I can feel comfortable recommending to anyone.
My Rating: 7 (out of a possible 10)
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Traffic Swarm
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentWith a membership of over 500,000 Traffic Swarm is the biggest Traffic Exchange online today. But do big numbers like these mean better results?
Well, you can’t deny the potential for monstrous exposure in a program of this size. Getting that exposure however is not as simple here as you may think. Traffic Swarm’s method of advertising member pages requires the user to write a brief classified ad. While surfing, members choose from a set of 8 classified ads, clicking one starts the timer and loads the corresponding member page. Now, many will argue that most people would just click all of the ads, regardless of the classified itself, in an effort to gain as many credits as possible. I’m sure many surfers do exactly that. However the surfbar is not the only method in which hits are delivered at Traffic Swarm.
Another method to earn credits at Swarm is to add their search box to your website. The search box is linked to the directory of Traffic Swarm member ads. Hits coming in this fashion are possibly the highest quality hits you can get anywhere as the user was specifically searching for your site or product. In a situation like this, the best classified ad will most certainly get the click.
Traffic Swarm also lets you earn credits by adding their link box to your site. This is similar to google’s adsense and like in the previous example, members with good ad writing skills get the most clicks from these ads.
So Traffic Swarm has put together a program that offers some impressive exposure for your site. Thanks to the search box, and link box, your ads are not limited to the Traffic Swarm surfbar, but could easily be found on member sites all over the web.
My Rating: 9 (out of a possible 10)
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247 Traffic Pro September 7, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentThe team at 247TrafficPro have been on fire this summer and activity seems to be increasing by the day. Lets take a look at some of the new additions and see how this exchange stacks up to the competition.
This summer marked the beginning of the Hover Surf craze. Made popular first by the gang at New Way 2 Surf, it was quickly imitated by tons of exchanges looking to cash in on the buzz. 247 Traffic Pro reacted quickly, looking to please members who preferred to hover, they developed a customizable version of the hover surf feature made it an optional feature at their click exchange. But they didn’t stop there…
Looking to reward loyal surfers, 247TrafficPro turned on their “keep the next day” progressive surf ratio. Surf long enough, get an increased surf ratio. Come back and surf the next day and your increased surf ratio remains in place. Surely an incentive to surf daily, but with all these extra credits being earned, won’t member credits begin to stockpile?
Apparently, the 247TrafficPro team was aware of this possibility and quickly developed their “Activity Points” feature. Rewarding active members with points for doing “the most regular tasks on 247TrafficPro”. Each week, the top 5 members based on points win the weekly jackpot. The jackpot contains credits, banner and text impressions, referrals and even a bit of cash.
So the activity is high and the features are full of potential, so why are my results here not consistent with other active exchanges. I can’t answer that question, but if the fellas at 247TrafficPro can, I think they’ll have a real powerhouse of a hit exchange on their hands.
My Rating: 5 (out of a possible 10)
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Click Ranch September 6, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentClick ranch is one of many cowboy themed traffic exchanges online these days, but in my opinion, not one to be overlooked. Quickly nearing 7,000 members, this exchange is making a steady climb in the numbers and has the stats to match.
In the way of site features, you won’t see much you haven’t seen before. Click Ranch does have many of the mods you see in most full featured exchanges, but there doesn’t appear to be anything truly unique going on inside the member’s area. Surely they must be doing something to get the activity up, right?
One source of all the activity may be their weekly surfing contest. Add on a monthly referral contest to bring in a steady flow of new members and we begin to see why this exchange is growing at such a steady pace.
The owners do seem to be onto something with their Monday cross promotions. Surf 100 sites on Monday, get 100 credits at another traffic exchange. I’m sure users with limited time to surf are getting a kick out of this aspect.
Click Ranch may have quite a bit of road to travel before they hit the “big time”, but it looks like the owners are on the right track. I’m keeping an eye on this one.
My Rating: 5 (out of a possible 10)
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Web Biz Insider September 5, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentWeb Biz Insider is big. We’re talking HUGE member base to rival some of the biggest exchanges online today. Not long ago, this site was a consistently top ranked click exchange that everyone was using. But in the first half of 2008, WBI seemed to be on a downward slide.
As of late, owner Matthew Graves has been an active little admin, revamping the site to make some, in my opinion, long overdue improvements.
Finally! We have the ability to use text links at Web Biz Insider. Your “enhanced text ads” are highlighted in yellow, and really stand out against the deep blue surfbar. Banner ads are now much more manageable than before and now work much like we’ve become accustomed to in the majority of the exchanges.
All of the features that once made Web Biz king are still in place as well. You can email your downline once per week, adding any available credits you may have as an incentive for readers to open your emails. Having trouble building a downline? No Problem. Mr. Graves will allow you to purchase a downline, and frequently offers special pricing on downline member packages. Yes, these are REAL people too as tracking of your email ads will verify.
So effectively, this site is not only a manual traffic exchange, but a credit based safelist as well. While traffic flow isn’t what it once was, Web Biz Insider appears to be back on the road to the top. As Matthew’s site rapidly approaches 130,000 members, I think we’ll see WBI as a top contender once again in the near future.
My Rating: 6 (out of a possible 10)
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Blue-Surf September 4, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentScott Martin’s unique exchange Blue-Surf is a class act and you’ll know it from the moment the page loads. The professional yet eye appealing design gives a great impression and the service itself leaves little to be desired.
A completely custom built traffic-exchange, Blue-Surf is one of a kind, yet navigation is simple and intuitive making it a snap for newbies and old pro’s alike to get in and start advertising their pages right away.
Site-wide stats are boldly displayed on the home page, and I really love a site that is willing to share this valuable information with it’s members. A quick glance will show not only the number of members currently surfing, but also how many sites, banners, and text links are in rotation. Stats like these help me decide where to focus my advertising for maximum effect and I applaud Blue-Surf for making this info available.
Automatic daily bonuses for surfing 100-300 sites is a definite plus. That’s on top of the bonuses you can receive on the Blue-Surf prize page which appears often enough while surfing. No shortage of bonuses here.
Some great looking promotional tools go hand in hand with Blue Surf’s commission structure, offering up to 40% commissions on your referrals upgrades. While most exchanges these days have a similar structure, you’ll find referring others to Blue-Surf to be surprisingly easy.
Blue-Surf continues to rank well in the lists, and I have to agree with the trend. Blue-Surf is a winner. The only reason I don’t rank it higher is that it is relatively new, and as such doesn’t have the large reach of the “big” exchanges. However the activity at Blue-Surf is growing like crazy and will no doubt rival the top 5 before long.
My Rating: 7 (out of a possible 10)
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Traffic G
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentSince their inception back in 1999, Traffic exchanges have evolved in many ways. Currently the average surfbar timer is set to 10 seconds (even lower in some cases), but believe it or not there was a time when most exchanges had a 30 second timer. One of the few traffic exchanges to stick to the 30 second timer is TrafficG, and from where I’m sitting, it doesn’t seem to have hurt them one bit.
The 30 second timer isn’t the only thing that’s remained the same. In fact, if you’ve been a member of TrafficG since early 2005 or so, you’ve probably noticed that NOTHING has changed. A quick look at the history page shows the last site upgrade/event dated May 8th, 2005. I suppose the folks behind this exchange decided to stand behind their system taking a “if it ‘aint broke, don’t fix it” attitude. As their service continues to rank well on many ranking lists, and my own results there continue to be above average, I have to think they may be right.
Truly an oddity, TrafficG stands apart in other ways as well. These days most exchanges only award credits for a percentage of your 1st level downline’s surfing, but at TrafficG you earn credits on your referrals activity 5 levels deep. Huge potential for residual traffic building here.
If you’re a fan of banner advertising, you may want to have a look at TrafficG’s free banner exchanger software. Basically, you add your banner link, then load up the software which displays banners while you go about your normal PC activities. The software will prompt you occassionally to click and ensure that you haven’t walked away from the computer. It’s a unique approach to banner advertising and I used to love testing banners this way. Sadly, the delivery of banner credits has slowed down considerably lately, possibly due to the ever increasing size of the TrafficG membership.
Bottom line, while TrafficG may not be a top 10 exchange these days, it’s most certainly top 20 material and that puts it miles ahead of most of the competition in both the size of it’s membership and the results it delivers.
My Rating: 7 (out of a possible 10)
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Free Traffic Lotto September 3, 2008
Posted by The Secret Surfer in : Reviews , add a commentIf there’s one thing I hate to see in an exchange, it’s a credit system that doesn’t follow the 1 credit equals 1 pageview system. There’s a handful of sites that do this, and at Free Traffic Lotto, 3 credits equals 1 pageview.
I can imagine many a user logged in for the first time, was delighted to see they were getting 1 credit per click as a free member, only to find out that they were essentially surfing at the standard 3:1 ratio the whole time. It’s disappointing, and a bit misleading, and I wouldn’t doubt that many a member has walked away with a bad taste in their mouth, never to return.
The design looks like an artifact from back before the y2k scare, and probably isn’t helping bring in many new members either. And this a site that launched what, 2 years ago?
Here’s something else that gets under my skin. A free lotto ticket every 5 pages where I “might” win something. Is this really necessary every 5 pages? I mean I’d really rather have my ads shown than this lotto game. I’m sure the intentions where to keep surfers eyes on the ads, but based on my own tests, I’d say it’s time for some fresh ideas for this lotto thing.
Also can’t remember the last time I got an email from this program, which is always a red flag to me. The occasional update to remind members you’re there wouldn’t hurt the activity a bit. Seriously.
I’m really hard pressed to find much to like about Free Traffic Lotto. Here’s hoping the management decides to make some improvements soon. Maybe I’ll have another look sometime down the road, but it won’t be soon.
My Rating: 1 (out of a possible 10)
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