Understanding the Traffic Exchange ‘credit bank’

This article will shed some light on the important, yet oft-misunderstood, state of the traffic exchange ‘credit bank’, as I like to call it.

Hopefully this will be read by surfers who want to be traffic exchange owners and help them lose the “surfer mentality” and take on the mentality that is necessary to help them become a successful exchange owner. This will save perhaps hundreds of surfers headaches. But most importantly, it will help the exchange owner understand why the credit bank is of such importance. It’s important enough to make or break your exchange. Period.

Perhaps you’ve wondered why the exchanges with a 1:1 (or better) surfing ratio for everyone don’t last long. Or, the exchanges that give you 5,000 bonus credits when you sign up should rack up thousands of members quickly, right? Wrong! Here’s why..

To put it simply, if people have credits they won’t surf. If you had 5,000 credits at an exchange would it be your surfing priority? Nope. And other members of the exchange have that same mindset. Therefore your credit balance stays ridiculously high. Other members credit balance stays ridiculously high. The traffic exchange melts down into a virtual stale-mate of surfers who won’t surf and credits that are worth nothing.

Hopefully you see where I’m going with this.. you’re going to have to do some math. Yuck, I know.

Let’s propose a hypothetical situation.

You’re offering a 100 credit bonus on sign-up after a new member surfs 50 pages at a 2:1 ratio. So after surfing 50 pages they’ve accumulated 125 credits (surfing + bonus). However, they’ve only taken 50 credits out of the system. That leaves you in a 75 credit deficit per person. Now, multiply that by 100 new members and you’re quickly in a steep deficit of 7,500 page views that need delivered. See how easy it can be to let such a simple setting dominate your exchange’s success?

Now, this deficit could be overcome with an exchange that has loyal members that surf often. But this is rarely the case with a new exchange. Besides, if the exchange was successful, it would never have this problem to begin with. The owner would know that these 75 credits per person (once they accumulate a bit) could be bought (to earn money for the owner) or given away as bonuses for incentives to surf. That’s why you’ll never see something like this at a successful well-run exchange.

Now a better hypothetical situation.

You give away 50 bonus credits after a new member has surfed 100 pages at a 3:1 ratio. After surfing 100 pages the user will have accumulated 83.33 credits while taking 100 credits out of the system. Now you’re not in a deficit — you’re in surplus. 16.67 credit surplus, to be exact. After 100 new members, you have 1,667 credits that you can fill, if you want to. Give them away as bonuses or sell them for profit. But why would people want them? Because people are surfing to earn credits that get used by other people who are surfing to earn credits. It’s that simple.

When you mix in bonuses, text links, and banner impressions, it can get pretty complicated. I say the bottom line is to have more taken out of the system than is put in. That way you have room to play.