TGP Owners
 

If you got a sec, I have some questions about traffic that I have been trying hard to figure out, but with no luck. Who knows, maybe this will actually be a helpful thread on GFY! I'd offer something in return, but the best I can do atm is a "thanks".

1. If a new trade has low prod (less than 1.00) how long do you wait until you give em' the boot?

2. In your experience, do new trades that initially have low prod eventually stabilize into good trades within a couple days?

3. I have some decent quality traffic (about 1.50). Why is it that with all the trades I have tried to develop they can never send me a greater or equal amount of traffic?

4. As far as incoming traffic, what would you consider to be an acceptable ratio of Bookmark/Direct vs. Trades?

5. I have heard different answers on this one. What is more important in a good trade: a high amount of in hits or a high productivity? For example, which would you consider a better trade?
| In | Out | Prod |
Trade 1 | 654 | 135 | 54% |
Trade 2 | 245 | 551 | 131% |

Trade 1 or Trade 2?

I appreciate any help that can be brought to this thread, and I am sure a couple others will as well. :)

You can hit me up @ 97400700 too.

Thanks :thumbsup

The higher the trade the more accurate your impression of their overall productivity will be. For example, you could get 50 visitors but those were just a bad bunch.

Also keep in mind that if a site is really big and your trade with them is really small.. you're probably getting their garbage traffic since all their good stuff will be going to their large trades.

So unfortunately it's not a really cut and dry answer. It depends on the size of the site and how big your trade is with them. I would say get the trade as big as you can .. and then if the prod isn't worth it cap it and keep it low so it doesn't affect your outbound prod much.
No.

But keep in mind that things happen. Bookmarkers come and go .. trades rise and fall. A site that sends garbage traffic initially might send really good traffic in a day or two.

If 1.50 is your prod then I hate to be the one to tell you .. that's not that great. Start sending your trades above 2.00 and you'll see better returns. Also keep in mind what I said about trade size. A small trade won't get a high priority unless the site your trading with is small.

Whatever you can manage. You want to build bookmarkers because they're generally accepted as being a stable and steady source of traffic. And they're usually productive. So just make it as easy as possible for people to bookmark your page and encourage them.

Also don't neglect other sources of traffic. Such as SE traffic, purchased traffic, recip link traffic, 404 traffic etc. You should be looking at getting traffic from as many different sources as possible .. especially considering how tricky trading is. You can build your trades up to 100k / day and then make one wrong move and have it all come crashing down.

What I've found is that productivity = volume. Ideally you want to have as much coming in and as high quality as possible. You could get 100k per day but if they don't click anything what's the point? You're just wasting bandwidth.

In the examples you gave, you need to calculate the return and the value to figure out how good the trades are.

The value of the trade is determined by clicks / hits out. It's just a quick way to show you how many clicks you get, in return for the traffic that you send it.

So let's expand it the example:

Trade 1:

In: 654
Out: 135
Clicks: 353
Prod: 54%
Return: 21%
Value: 261%

Trade 2:

In: 245
Out: 551
Clicks: 321
Prod: 131%
Return: 225%
Value: 58%

Ok so you see .. Trade 1 is more valuable to you than Trade 2. In fact, Trade 2 is an expense. You're sending it more than 2 times what they're sending you! And you don't get as many clicks in return for your outgoing traffic. Only just over half! So you're wasting traffic on Trade 2.

I would keep Trade 1 where it is. Because you're only returning 21% to it. You don't want to grow the trade, because it's prod sucks (Trade 2's prod sucks too .. just not as much) but it's helping your site a little so keep it.

Trade 2 you seriously need to cap so the value gets over 100 and you don't waste traffic on it. If you can't get your return below 100% then you'll just have to delete it .. as it's not helping you at all.

Many will disagree with me on this .. but you really shouldn't have any returns above 150%. With the high returns being on the trades with really good prod (220% to 250% and up). If a trade's prod is below 150 or so then cap it and make sure they send you more than you send it.

Thanks a lot Garett!
This has been the most helpful trading advice I have recieved thus far. I really appreciate it!