Traffic Exchanges

Traffic exchanges are sites with the sole purpose of helping you get traffic to your blog.  They generally work on the premise of for every 2 blogs you visit you earn one visit to your blog or similar.  On the surface traffic exchanges sound like a relatively good idea but in reality they aren't.  Traffic exchanges:

• inflate your visitor numbers without giving you quality traffic.  For that reason they are against the TOS for Adsense and some other affiliate programs. 
• increase your bounce rate that effectively decrease your Page Rank (PR)
• do not give you lasting traffic.  If you quit using the traffic exchange your traffic will plummet like a 10 ton weight and then some.
• do not give you readers or subscribers.  It is the very rare occasion that a traffic exchange will give you loyal readers or subscribers.
• often do not allow you to control content.  Inappropriate content (eg. ads on widgets for gaming or alcohol) can cost you your affiliate account(s) because they are against the TOS and they can cost you readers who want family friendly sites.  If you cannot control content to reject inappropriate content then do not use the widget on your blog.
• given you a false sense of how well your blog is doing.  The reality is if you are using a traffic exchange your blog is never performing up to what the numbers are saying.

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