I never quite understood why they were supposed to work in first place, given greed and selfishness of people in general.

The premise is that you earn visits to your offer/business from other surfers/clickers and you also return favor. Hence term, traffic exchange!

From beginning, I saw a problem with this model of promoting.

Self-interest and rule breaking seems to be only way that some people know how to do business.

So they spend their energy and skills finding ways around having to view other marketers' website..in effect, they cheat!

As well, just about every Traffic Exchange program on Internet has an upgrade. So now you can buy thousands of page/website views without having to surf, click on or view others' website.

So who is supposed to be looking at your offer?

I have written to many of owners of these Traffic exchanges, asking them why people should spend all this time surfing. The ones who answered, have either been vague or sent me more of same hype that they use to advertise their program.

1.Do you have a target audience?

Do you know who you're marketing too? I'm mean specifics. Do you know there problems? Do you know what frustrats them? Do you know why your product or service fulfills their needs? If you don't have a clear cut answer to this set of question then this should be a surely a red flag. Study your market. Know who they are.

2.Do you have a product or service?

So many people get into affiliate marketing online because they see opportunity to make money. They don't know what they want to sell they just know that they want to make money. Do you know what you're selling? Do you have a primary product that fulfills your target markets need? If not, stop and figure it out now.

3.Do you have a website?

It seems pretty stupid to ask this question, but some people overlook this glaringly simple detail. It's very simple. If you do business online you need a website. If you don't have a website now go get one!

4.Do you have traffic?