Posted by Ray White on May 3, 2010 Comments (4)

Not all web pages are suitable for rotation in traffic exchanges. I’m not talking about the content meeting terms of service. I’m talking about pages that are designed to work well in traffic exchanges and convert to sales or sign ups. If you want to use a page that has any chance of getting results from traffic exchanges, I have a few things for you to consider.

It must be a fast-loading page.

Surf timers are getting shorter and shorter. With very few exceptions, surf timers are 10 seconds or less in duration. Your page must load and be read within that time.

What can slow down loading time?

• too many redirects (cloaking your rotator url, for example)
• video clips (especially when hosted on another domain)
• audio clips (especially when hosted on another domain)
• too many widgets on a blog

Also remember this: Most surfers don’t surf only one exchange at a time. Your page must be truly exceptional to catch someone’s attention between tab changes.

It should be a short page, literally.

No one who is surfing a traffic exchange is in the mood to read a long sales letter. Get your point across within the size of the surf frame. With many traffic exchanges now offering the option to “chat” while surfing, that means you have a space of about 500 pixels wide and 400 pixels tall to work with. Don’t make people have to scroll down to find your call to action. Chances are, they won’t bother.

The page should be direct and to the point.

Too many choices can get confusing. Don’t give the viewer any choice but to take up your offer or move on. Join, or don’t. Buy, or don’t. Put only one very prominent text link on the web page. Or better yet, make the entire page a single graphic that is linked to your opt-in form or sales page.

If you are not making your own splash or squeeze pages, then test your affiliate pages periodically.

Just like you can tweak the web pages that you create yourself, affiliate programs can do the same thing with their referral pages. Because you have no control over what goes on a program-generated affiliate page, you need to keep up with what’s on it. Programs may choose to add exit pop ups, or Live Chat agents, which may increase conversion rates, but might also get your affiliate page reported at your favorite traffic exchanges. Then the page gets paused by the admin, and no one will see it. Pages that don’t get seen, don’t convert.

Simply visit your affiliate links periodically. Take a look at them for any changes. Check for new exit pop ups. See if it sets off any false positive alerts on your anti-virus software. Then decide if you want to keep using that web page for promotional purposes, in traffic exchanges or anywhere.