There are many who would suggest that joining Auto Surf Traffic Exchanges is a complete waste of time. I am not one of them. The Auto-Surf Traffic Exchange has a very definite place in the online advertising community which, if used properly, will reflect worthwhile promotional gains. In order to help establish the reasons why Auto-Surf Traffic Exchanges should always be considered as a support platform instead of a direct alternative to the Manual Traffic Exchange, we have begun a series of Web Tests hopefully to highlight the potential gains of using Auto Surf Traffic Exchanges.

 Robert  Price

Surfing Analysis

  • Please note that your line connection speed has an impact on how fast you are able to surf if you are using a standard dial-up 56 modem your surfing experience will be slower.

  • For these tests a broadband connection speed is used for with a speed of 7.6Mbps.

  • Other factors also contribute towards the speed that you are able to surf e.g. hosting server, region and time zone.

  • Although many Traffic Exchange scripts originate from the same source if they are hosted at different locations an impact on the speed with which they transmit can be detected.

  • These tests were carried out in the United Kingdom during GMT daylight hours.

  • A single PC was used for the purposes of consistency. The PC is an Advent T9304 equipped with a Pentium (R) 4 CPU 3.20GHz, 2.00GB of RAM. The operating system is Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition version 2002 SP2.

  • Three browsers were used (i.e. Internet Explorer 7, Crazy Browser and Mozilla Firefox), in three separate sessions to produce the best surf times detailed in tests.

Test Analysis

  • For both the surfer and advertiser the way a Traffic Exchange surf browser system behaves is of fundamental importance.

  • There's absolutely no point an advertiser promoting at a Traffic Exchange that doesn't display its content adequately.

  • Equally a surfer needs a sufficiently healthy surf mechanism for them to be prepared to commit time and effort. Loading delays, poor scripts, server hosting and a gamut  of other issues can lead to surfer's deserting an exchange.

  • RPOD reviews Traffic Exchanges through the eyes of a surfer, because these are the most important human ingredient. However we also highlight aspects appropriate to that of the advertiser.

  • Additionally Traffic Exchange management is obviously significant and although these tests do not focus at any length on this aspect we do touch on it, especially where enthusiastic owners are obviously working to enhance the environment of their site for the benefit of their members.

We hope both surfer and advertiser find these tests useful.

Spider hits
Reach ? members

15 Minutes WEEKDAY TEST

  • FREE member surf ratio = 0.75:1

  • Timer = 15 seconds

  • Theoretical Page Surf Capability= 75

  • Pages Surfed = 75

  • Credits Earned = 0

  • Bonuses won = NONE AVAILABLE

  • Frame Breakers Encounter= NONE

  • Dead Pages Encountered= NONE

  • Timer Trigger Delays caused by slow loading pages = NONE

  • No pornography, gambling or extremist site pages displayed

  • No Security Notification of Virus Prevention recorded

  • No pop up attempts

     

Surfing Experience
 

The two frame construction offers a very large screen display of content without the surf bar encroaching. The surf bar is a slim blue presence at the top of the page and static, so you don't have to watch it dance up and down each time a new display is exhibited. Additionally the 15 seconds timer is unaffected by slow loading pages so that you can be certain you're not spending more time than you want at any single site.

Six buttons on the surf bar offer screen control and include:
 play, pause, open, menu, abuse and next. Additionally there's a timer and score recorder.
 

  • The buttons explained:
  • PLAY sets the auto surf in motion
  • Open allows you to open a page display on another tab
  • Pause stops the timer and keeps you on the current page
  • Menu returns you to your 'back office'
  • Abuse is self-explanatory
  • Next - use if you want to search out a page by flicking through
 Summary
The way the Spider hits  auto-surf browser operates (and excuse the geekiness here), but there's almost a beauty to the way its seamless functionality behaves. Anyone who studies Traffic Exchanges at any length will easily appreciate my meaning, others will simply put it down to gookiness. Yet there's no denying this is a superior piece of script that offers the potential for some serious traffic.

It would not be a mistake to consider Spider hits a new generation of auto-surf, because it extends the ever present potential behind auto-surfs to a more powerful level. Spider hits  is a truly 24/7 promotional platform that during our brief experience operates without hiccups, glitches or any of those other issues common with many auto traffic exchanges. Sure it's new and there aren't thousands of pages crowding it's databanks but hey, it's difficult to imagine that  Spider hits won't be able to handle whatever size it grows to and grow it will.

Some Site Features

  • NEW SITE - just launched.
1 - Networking Capability (NC) = 1 point (This relates to the opportunities offered to create online contacts.)
2 - Stickiness (S) = 1 point (This relates to a TE's ability to maintain a healthy membership because people want to return again and again.)
3 - Individualism (I) = 1 point (This relates to a TE adopting a presentation that makes it as exclusive as possible.)
4 - Surfing Experience (SE) = 1 point (This relates to the return for effort and uses measures such as time, bonuses and overall credits earned in a 15 minutes period.)
5 - Surfing Content (SC) = 3 points (This relates to the displays allowed - a loss of points reflects the inclusion of dead pages not weeded out, gambling, pornographic, extremist sites and an overly high proportion of pages not given time to load properly)
6 - Support Contact & Tools (SCT) = 2 points (This relates to the efforts made by the Traffic Exchange owner/s to provide fresh information (i.e. newsletters) and software that help members build referrals and community spirit.)

Critic Award

  • (I)=1

  • (N)=1

  • (S)=1

  • (SE)=1

  • (SC)=3

  • (SCT)=2
    Total=9/9
 

The Total at the end shows the number of points accredited against the potential that could be awarded (e.g. 8.5 out of 9).

Magic Highway
Reach ? members

  

15 minutes WEEKDAY TEST

  • FREE member surf ratio = 2.2:1

  • Timer = 20 seconds

  • Pages Surfed = 40

  • Credits Earned = 16

  • Bonuses won = NONE AVAILABLE

  • Frame Breakers Encounter= NONE

  • Dead Pages Encountered= NONE

  • Timer Trigger Delays caused by slow loading pages = NONE

  • Voice enabled feature option available.

  • No pornography, gambling or extremist site pages displayed

  • No Security Notification of Virus Prevention recorded

  • No pop up attempts

     

Surfing Experience
The 20 seconds timer offers an opportunity to sit back and relax while the pages flick over for you. A plus point is that you won't get electronically chastised for attempting to cheat by surfing too fast. Also in order to ensure that you remain at your screen Magic Highway displays pages that tell you that you have won treasure and requests that you click a box to accept. The more treasures you collect the more unique sites you have shown in your rotation. Nice idea. 

Summary
Using an Auto-Surf Traffic Exchange might be compared with driving a car with an auto transmission instead of a manual. Everything works a little more seamlessly thereby enhancing the experience. Well maybe? We're always going to have difficulty with that notion because people being people have their preferences and manual transmission like manual Traffic Exchanges  is a personal preference.

Some Site Features

  • Bribes (increase your credits by accepting bribes from other members to join (often free) other online enterprises.
  • Conference Room which is voice enabled. A calendar of conferences dates and times is shown on the Conference page.
  • Good community spirit
1 - Networking Capability (NC) = 1 point (This relates to the opportunities offered to create online contacts.)
2 - Stickiness (S) = 1 point (This relates to a TE's ability to maintain a healthy membership because people want to return again and again.)
3 - Individualism (I) = 1 point (This relates to a TE adopting a presentation that makes it as exclusive as possible.)
4 - Surfing Experience (SE) = 1 point (This relates to the return for effort and uses measures such as time, bonuses and overall credits earned in a 15 minutes period.)
5 - Surfing Content (SC) = 3 points (This relates to the displays allowed - a loss of points reflects the inclusion of dead pages not weeded out, gambling, pornographic, extremist sites and an overly high proportion of pages not given time to load properly)
6 - Support Contact & Tools (SCT) = 2 points (This relates to the efforts made by the Traffic Exchange owner/s to provide fresh information (i.e. newsletters) and software that help members build referrals and community spirit.)

Critic Award

  • (I)=1

  • (N)=1

  • (S)=1

  • (SE)=1

  • (SC)=3

  • (SCT)=2
    Total=9/9

The Total at the end shows the number of points accredited against the potential that could be awarded (e.g. 8.5 out of 9).