One of the methods used to generate traffic is the use of 1 or more traffic exchange programs.
Now when traffic exchange programs came along a few years ago they were great. You may not have gotten "targeted" traffic but if you were willing to spend some time and knew how to use several traffic exchange programs efficiently, you could get enough visitors to make it a very effective form of marketing.
Speaking from my own experience, I would spend just a couple of hours a week, use around 15 traffic exchange programs and get a few hundred visitors to my site. And if I had a good offer, I'd get more than a hundred subscribers. (Not a great conversion rate but 100 free subscribers was worth more than 2 hours of work.)
Unfortunately, those who get their jollies by creating havoc for others have now infected most if not all of the traffic exchange programs.
Now this is not the fault of the traffic exchange program owners. Most have done everything they can to make sure that real people see the sites and to keep the sites safe. They have implemented anti-cheat systems, they review the sites and they put "Report This Site" links on their pages.
But even with all of this, using these programs can still infect your PC.
How do I know this?
I again am speaking from experience.
I no longer use my tool to surf multiple exchange programs at the same time. I gave it up after having been infected 5 times in 1 month. Infected bad enough that I had to re-format my hard drive and re-install my operating system and software. (Yes, I use anti-virus and anti-spyware software.)
Oh, I still spend some time with a few of the exchange programs. Like when I am on hold and can't really do anything but mindlessly click the "Next Site" button. (It's more productive than sleeping and better than just listening to the canned music they play while your waiting in queue for the next available representative.)
But, even with programs that I've been using safely for more than 3 years and having anti-bad-stuff installed, my PC still gets infected occasionally. Like this last weekend.
Yes, I was using 3 trusted exchange programs and yes, my PC got so badly infected I had to re-load my operating system.
Did I report the site?
Not possible since one of the things this stuff did was shut all my browser windows and not allow me to open them again.
Since this particular person's infection blocked me from getting on the web and was impossible to miss, I must assume that they were doing this just for the sake of creating havoc. For me, it was just bothersome since I have everything backed up and only had to spend a couple of hours reloading everything. However, for someone just learning to use their PC, someone who's unfamiliar with the need of having backups or someone who doesn't know how to re-load their operating system, this infection was a "killer."
So a word of warning to you if you're thinking of using start page exchanges:
- Do it at your own risk.
- Make sure you have everything important backed up where you can get it again. (Don't back it up on your primary hard drive because you'll lose your backup if you have to re-format.)
- Learn how to re-load you PC unless you're willing to spend the time and money to have someone else do it for you.
To Your Success,
Susan
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