As you may or may not know, I have been a user of
traffic exchange programs since I first started my
online business. In fact, one of the first e-books
I created was a list of 30 really good start page
exchange programs because they were an easy, free
way to get some exposure for your site.
Now, however, I am re-thinking my position on the
use of them and recently stated that I would be
testing some of the ones I have been using. I was
going to run this test because I had noticed that
after surfing for credit I was usually infected with
some obnoxious spy/adware. Now I don't think the
infectious software was coming from the exchange
programs directly but rather from some of the other
members who were using the service to get traffic
to their sites.
Well, the testing has stopped with only 2 of the
traffic exchange programs really tested because I am
tired of fighting a losing battle.
After surfing on the exchanges I normally use for
about 45 minutes this morning, I spent the next 4
hours trying to delete all the spy/adware that had
been downloaded onto my machine. And I know that
my machine is still not clean. But at least the
pop-ups only come up every few minutes now rather
than every few seconds.( I was getting more than
25 pop-ups in less that 5 minutes before I started
cleaning my machine.) So I guess I'll be reloading my
operating system to get everything cleaned off soon.
Bottom line - I will be much more cautious in my
use of traffic exchange programs. As of today, I
will continue to use Instant Buzz and MDT because
when tested they caused minimal damage.
As for the 30 exchange programs that were listed in
the ebook I wrote 3 years ago, I will not list them
all because I've only been using 5 of them on a regular
basis this last year.
As for the 5 ...
TrafficSwarm - They showed my site and do review sites
before allowing them to be displayed to others. This
unfortunately is not enough since sites can be altered
and I know that at least one of the sites I displayed
while earning credit tried to infect my machine with 2
Trojan viruses.
WebBizInsider - They also showed my site and reviewed
sites before allowing them to be displayed. I don't
know if any of their sites tried anything funny but
I'm a little gun shy right now.
FastFreeway - They showed my site and they do not
review the sites except to see if it will breakframes.
TopSurfer - They also showed my site and do not
review the pages displayed. Also, they don't have
any safeguards in affect to ensure that others are
really viewing your site. They did however implement
one thing that should be available at more traffic
exchange programs - a way to report sites that take
you away from your surfing page. (Before all the
downloaded ad/spyware and trojans that used to be one
of the big surfing for credit problems.)
123Clicks - They don't review the sites shown and
it would have taken months before all the credits
I've already earned to get used. However, since I
won't be surfing the minimum, I'll be losing my
credits.
So today, these are my thoughts on the traffic
exchange programs I have been using. If you have
any information about these or other programs
please post a comment so that we may all learn
from your experiences as well.
To Your Success,
Susan
FriendsWhoCare Newsletter
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