For the last few years, the most popular form of exchanging traffic was through banner exchanges. In the past year however, more webmasters are beginning to use exit exchanges.

Exit exchanges drive traffic to member sites by exchanging popunder displays. When a visitor leaves Member Site A, a window showing Member Site B appears beneath Site A's browser window.

This effectively drives an extra visitor to Member Site B.

But do exit exchanges really provide a better deal?

Let's examine this issue by looking at the figures. In the illustration below, I have compared the extra traffic that a website would earn from a banner exchange and an exit exchange.

For a website getting 1,000 visitors daily, each viewing an average of 5 pages - and using 2:1 exchange ratios:

With A Banner Exchange:

Total number of banner impressions earned = 1,000 visitors x 5 pageviews x 1 banner/page x 0.5 (2:1 ratio) = 2,500 banner impressions

Assuming average clickthru rate is 0.20%.

Number of extra visitors earned = 2,500 imps. x 0.20% = 5 visitors

With An Exit Exchange:

Assuming 1 popunder is displayed to each visitor:

Total number of popunders displayed = 1,000 visitors x 1 popunder/visitor = 1,000 popunders displayed

Number of extra visitors earned = 1,000 popunders displayed x 0.5 (2:1 ratio) = 500 visitors

As we can clearly observe from the above illustration, exit exchanges drive a lot more traffic to member websites compared to banner exchanges.

What are the KEY secrets to success with exit exchanges?

1. Popunders

Reputable exit exchanges only display 1 popunder window to each visitor. The visitor will only see 1 popunder during their entire visit at a member site.

This way they are never deluged with tons of popunders. Some webmasters are prejudiced against using exit exchanges. They are haunted by bad experiences due to unethical uses of popunders by some rogue sites.

Some unscrupulous site owners spawn one popunder after another - creating a seemingly endless stream of popunders which refuse to go away! These rogue sites create a bad image of popunder advertising.

However, from the above illustration, we can see that if used responsibly, popunders are one of the most effective forms of advertising available.

My advice?

Join an exit exchange that only display a maximum of 1 popunder per visitor. To see an example of such an exit exchange, visit w3exit exchange at http://www.w3exit.com

2. Targeting

Before joining an exit exchange, make sure they have suitable content categories for your website.

If your website is about web design, you should select appropriate categories like Web Development or Web Design.

The more specific the categories offered, the better the targeting, and the higher the quality of traffic exchanged.

If an exit exchange seems to show get-rich-quick schemes all the time, then the traffic exchanged probably won't be of much use.

Targeting is the key to quality traffic.

So if you own a webmaster resource site, you should join an exit exchange like w3exit at http://www.w3exit.com which caters specifically to web development related sites.

Should you use an exit exchange?

I believe if you weigh the pros and cons, you'll agree that exit exchanges do provide a better deal. Why exchange banners when you can exchange visitors?

Here are some exit exchanges you can consider:

http://www.w3exit.com (recommended for web dev sites) http://www.exitdirect.com http://www.adexit.com http://www.freevisits.com

About the author: Michael Low is a professional PR Strategist. He provides top- notch PR services at highly affordable rates. Check out his full range of PR packages at http://www.prbuilder.com/pr.cgi?a014