MatteoRedigolo

You can bring page views to your web site, article or blog posting by listing it on TraffUP. You do not have to pay anything for the use of this site.

Bringing page views improves your site's track record in different Web analysis tools. It can be a help in getting approval with advertisers. 

As well, you are publishing your web page in an online link. Simply by displaying your site, this also gives your site credibility among search engines. Perhaps not much credibility, because only people with a vested interest in a site will add it to TraffUP; but at least a smidgen of search engine credibility.

However, there are concerns...be sure to read that paragraph, too.

Register with TraffUP and respond to their confirmation e-mail. 

Before adding your own site, you should review the list of categories in the left-hand menu of the TraffUP main page. Click on the categories where you site might best fit. How many points do each of the top five or top ten sites offer?

Inside TraffUP, logon and click the Websites + Add New Website menu selection. Enter the title, URL, points per visit, category, and a brief description. Stop and think for a moment.

The really important choice is the number of points. If you simply want a quiet link on a page, allocate one point. Very few people will visit your site, so you won't spend a lot of points to keep the listing active.

However, if you want to drive visitors to your site, you need to allocate enough points that people will indeed visit. If the default is five, you need to offer at least six. My strategy is to be in the top five or ten sites in a category, which usually takes over ten points.

You can change your mind later, so set up the number and click "Add Website".

In the past few months, I've noticed that many pages offer 50 points per visit.

At the same time, the number of visits to my two top-award sites declined drastically.

So now I've been offering between 45 and 50 points per visit.



It's still important to check your "spending" against your "earning"; but simply listing your pages with TraffUP won't garner page views. "You have to spend points to make views" 

You can have a total of 10 listings. You can add different pages from the same site into the same category; each page would be a different listing.

You can place your exact same URL into several categories; each of these is a listing. Of course, you can also list entirely separate pages from different sites into different categories.

Each listing has its own point value. You can edit your listings later: change the point value, alter the description, or choose a different category.

After you add a site or make changes to your listing, TraffUP reviews the change so it does not go into effect immediately. Instead, it is held and your site is no longer visible to TraffUP users.

Eventually, the TraffUP software may decide that you can be trusted to edit your points, so it keeps your site available continuously.

TraffUP is a visit, or traffic exchange, or "impression exchange", site. You earn points by visiting other users' sites via TraffUP and waiting until the countdown congratulates you for earning the points. The minimum time is five seconds for one point. 

TraffUP may enforce a limit of visiting about 35*sites/hour, so you cannot earn infinite points by endlessly browsing. (I usually start the day by cherry-picking all sites giving 10 points or higher. The limit is the number of browses, not the point value).

Meanwhile, you pay points for adding a new listing, and for every visit by other users. If you run out of points, your listings become invisible to TraffUP users; therefore you will not gain page views until you replenish your points.

You could buy points: 500 for $5 is the current minimum, with discounts for larger purchases.

When I began using TraffUP, I realized that the easiest approach to staying "solvent" was to open one browser window and log on, open a category, and click on a high-value site. Then I would do my real work elsewhere, and return to TraffUP a minute later. Then I would click the "Close Window" button, select the next site, and repeat the process.

With my approach, I would rarely read an article and never click an ad. How many people actually read my articles? Probably none.

While TraffUP brings visitors to my site or article, it does not bring readers. It merely encourages people to visit long enough to impress Internet analysis engines.

When your site receives a "page view", it earn an "impression" for each third-party advertisement displayed on that page. If you are paid on "CPM" (Cost Per Mille = 1000) impressions, then your site just earned a fraction of a cent.

"Monetization" means that your site is supposed to earn money based on page views or clicks on third-party advertisements. AdSense (by Google) is a very popular way of monetizing a web site.

The Terms of Service for Google AdSense say that neither "impressions" nor "clicks" may be purchased or exchanged. Therefore Google AdSense will not support your use of TraffUP to exchange impressions with other sites.

The bottom line is: do not use TraffUP if you are using AdSense.

If you use other advertising processes, check their Terms of Service: they probably do not want you to exchange impressions or page views.

During July of 2011, I had noticed that some HubPages articles have been "de-published". In the Hubpages Q&A forum, the consensus seems to be that Hubpages considers TraffUP to be a traffic exchange site. Therefore the offending pages may be flagged or disabled.

Today I encountered a new TraffUP message. When the article loaded, it was allowed 10 seconds before the new message was displayed.

It warned that I earned no points because I hadexceeded the daily limit, which seems to be about 75clicks per day.

That's a nuisance. In days of yore, I could earn TraffUP points all day, and therefore spend lots of points without running out.

Now I (and you, we're all in this boat together) are much more limited in how many points we can earn per day.

My advice: 

1. Lower the point value for your pages.
2. Raise your expectations for the articles you read: set a lower limit of 10 or 20 or 30 points.
3. Use my "90 Second Timer" to remind yourself to refresh the list.

At the time of writing, the limit seems to be about 75 views per day.