Traffic exchanges are probably one of the most common methods that desperate web masters resort to because nothing else is working for them. They have probably heard the term of link building and promotions before, however, they just can’t seem to grasp the satisfying results that they have always been looking for. After this post, I hope to have persuade to you that traffic exchanges are a big no no in terms of quality and trying to convert into sales.

Traffic Exchanges in General

The concept of each individual exchanging visits sounds like a great idea right? However, it just doesn’t work that way. Traffic exchanges have been reduced to being an out of date method of exchange that now publisher programs consider as a valid reason to be able to discipline publishers of their money. Here are some reasons why traffic exchanges are not worth your time or money at all.

• The system is flawed. Traffic exchange owners sometimes use proxies to mask bots to make it seem like real visitors, when really there aren’t.
• Even if a traffic exchange is legit, one would only be surfing just to get credits and not take the time to read the contents of the page. The system will just be full of webmasters desperately exchanging page views.
• It is considered as a suspicious source of traffic that Google does not like.
• Sales simply won’t convert. You can keep putting up “for sale” signs all you want, however, it won’t convert because you are getting traffic that doesn’t even exist.
• Publishers, especially Google, hates traffic exchanges and is a valid reason to ban you because of it.
• Most traffic exchanges don’t even get more than 50 visitors per day! Yet they are offering traffic exchanges. A bit odd don’t you think?
• Last but not least, although traffic exchanges may sound like a great idea at first, it has pulled too far away from it’s true purpose of delivering valid traffic, to being an out of date source that is now considered a bad neighborhood.

Although traffic exchanges don’t sound like a bad idea, it has pulled too far away from it’s real purpose when it first originated. The stats may look satisfying, but you know what is even more satisfying? Traffic stats that can actually convert. Traffic exchanges brings webmasters a false reality that they are achieving something, but in reality, they really aren’t.

Tags: link exchange

Google has implemented a new Digg style social voting platform!

Google has launched their new iGoogle gadget, “What’s Popular” which has only been installed by 2,889 users thus far. Google’s “What’s Popular” lets users “pop” stories which they find interesting in Google News and beyond. The iGoogle Widget lets users read and vote on “All Popular” as according to Google, My Pops - which are stories that have been voted on by the users and “My Adds” - stories added by the user.

Google also offers a canvased version of the tool, with its standalone page, here : Google What’s Popular?

At first glance it looks like What’s Popular is using a mix of personal relevancy, voted “Pops”, and timely posts to serve up the default listings on its What’s Popular? page.

Here is an explanation from Google :

How we find interesting stuff
What’s Popular uses algorithms to find interesting content from a combination of your submissions and trends in aggregated user activity across a variety of Google services, like YouTube and Google Reader.

Ratings
You can rate items that you like or dislike by clicking the ratings buttons next to each item. If you change your mind, you can change your rating at anytime. The What’s Popular gadget looks at what users liked or disliked to improve its ranking of interesting items.

Users can filter the stories based on date, popularity and relevance and in addition to stories, videos and images can be added. Without much of a social aspect, calling “What’s Popular” a Digg competitor could be a stretch, but the voting and bookmarking is made easy and very Digg -like by the iGoogle gadget.

With Google slowly rolling into social, via OpenSocial, Friend Connect and of course GTalk; something could be added soon if this gadget takes off. Perhaps though, the social aspect is already part of the algorithm, as Google generally has an idea of the verticals or information its users enjoy, and which other “friends” visit the same webpages and fall within similar profiles.