Free Targeted Traffic with Banner Exchanges

Free banner exchanges are probably one of the oldest methods of getting targeted traffic to a website. Some people swear by them, others avoid them. My advice, try out a banner exchange and see if it works for you, you can always leave the exchange by removing the code from your website.

So what are the advantages.. well free targeted advertising! As any new webmaster learns there are very few ways to get a website noticed, and even less that don't cost an arm and a leg. This is how they work... you place the banner code on your website, it displays advertisements for other sites. Each time a banner is shown you get a credit for 1 impression. Those credits are then used to show your ad on someone else's website. Pretty simple!

A few important things to look for when choosing an exchange network are; a good exchange ratio, a fast server (slow services can bring your website to a crawl!) and targeted ad categories.

Free Pop-Under Advertising
They only accept high quality sites, so once you're accepted you know they will be sending quality traffic. Their pop under shows only once per visitor so it isn't too annoying. BackPOP gives you real time traffic reports and targeted traffic (choose from 75 categories). I haven't tried this one but it does look like a great way to get targeted traffic for free!
Ratio: 2:1

United Banners
A banner and text ad exchange service. They have some rather unique features including that you can have 10 banners and 10 text style ads (similar to Google's adverts). Free members get 1000 bonus credits for joining and you can earn more free advertising with referral bonuses and a percentage of the hits your downline earns.
Ratio: 2:1

Link Buddies
Banner, button and ad box exchange! Targeted advertising, (even the ability to choose what time of day your banners are shown and you can block competitors ads from appearing on your site). Stats are included plus you get 20% of the activity of anyone that joins through your referral.
Ratio: 2:1



Need a banner made?

If you need a banner made and don't have access to an image editor, visit our online banner generator.

Notes: A couple things to avoid with traffic exchanges...

I really don't believe the "surf for traffic" networks offer any value what-so-ever... ie. you visit other sites, those webmasters will visit yours. You'll soon realize that no one is actually interested in visiting the sites, rather they are just clicking to get the credits!

Another thing to avoid is the "link building" schemes. While this has nothing to do with banner exchange networks (which are a valid source of advertising), it is an all too common pitfall for new webmasters looking for traffic to join link farms. There are many out there promising to improve your page rank but in the end all that happens is that you have irrelevant links on random sites that no visitor ever clicks on. And even worse, you end up with questionable links on your website! The search engines are also well aware of these methods and often penalize or even ban the websites involved.