1 to 1 banner exchange. How does it work?

1 to 1 banner exchange

[jchance]

I was snooping around the web and saw these websites that offered 1 to 1 banner exchange rates and then gave you 1000 credits for free when you signed up.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but it seems like if they gave everyone extra credits when they signed up and a 1 to 1 exchange rate that the system would never be able to use the pool of credits that builds up. In other words there would always be more credits than could be spent...and the number of extra credits would just grow and grow...

Am I missing something here?

[mack]

If it sounds to good to be true then it probably is.

What you may find is your advert will be displayed on their site their partners sites and perhaps here there and everywhere. They will just hope that you have a higher quality of user and their ads make more sales.

Mack.

[killroy]

could also be an initial start up offer so taht early adopters get "free" cradits for later when the system changes to a 3:2 or 2:1 setup.

SN

[StanBo]

It can be a promo action...
It can be some hidden cost involved (Like 1:1 for some site and 1:2 for the ones generating most of the traffic)...
It can all too well be scam...

About a month ago I've published an article on that very topic (it covers the exchange ratio issue and some others as well) at SitePoint (article 1211). If you need help trying to evaluate a particular case - feel free to PM me and I'll provide whatever assistance I can

[jchance]

StanBo, great article. That really cleared things up.

Thanks again.

[vibgyor79]

Are banner exchanges still used by 'mainstream' webmasters? I had assumed that they are used only by newbies peddling other traffic exchanges, MLM schemes et al.

[StanBo]

Let's put it like that: they can still produce top quality traffic. Seem to be out-of-fashion nowadays (unrightfully so) - the "mainstream" guys are all too obsessed with SEO to notice anything else :)

In other words - they work fine if
1. implemented properly (by owner)
2. used properly (by member)
And there are people who capitalize well on those selective few that meet #1 requirement above.

[isorg]

You can't knock banner exchange programs :-) I created a banner exchange program for sites related to widgets (of course, I have a site related to widgets). In next to no time, the exchange had hundreds of widget sites on the rotation, and the banner exchange site got a PR of 5.

Naturally there were static backlinks to my own widget sites, all of which got a PR 3 or 4.

As for how to account for the free impressions... I run the widget exchange site, and some of my own widget sites on the widget banner exchange show banners but have "suspended" accounts and so do not use up their banner credits.

I have heard that banner exchange programs went out of fashion a long time ago. But people are still willing to pay me good money for extra impressions on my exchange program - for that they get highly targetted customers interested in widgets, and the CTR is about 1:100. And can anyone put a price on a PR5 site that almost instantly gives your new widget sites a PR4...? :-)