How to Evaluate a Traffic Exchange Referral Contest
A traffic exchange referral contest can give you a reason to review your advertising plan. Start by reading the current rules and deciding whether you would recommend the exchange to the same people without a prize. This page originally announced a 2018 contest that has ended. Use the steps below to evaluate future promotions.
Read the rules before you promote
Write down the closing date and time zone, who qualifies, and what counts as a referral. A registration, a verified account, and a member who completes a qualifying activity are three different things. Check how the organizer resolves attribution questions and how winners are notified. If a rule is unclear, ask the organizer before promising anything to readers.
Set a time limit and measure something useful
Decide what you can spend in time, credits, and money before you start. If you already advertise with SurfAholics TE or Wall Street TE, keep your ordinary campaigns separate from the contest so you can tell which effort produced each result. Track qualified referrals where the organizer provides that information. Keep page visits and signups in separate columns so you can see what happened after someone clicked.
Give readers a clear next step after the deadline
Put the closing date next to the contest invitation. When the promotion ends, remove expired prize language from ads and update any page that still receives visitors. Give readers a useful alternative, such as an explanation of how to compare exchanges or a link to the Advertising & Traffic hub.
For example, if the rules count verified accounts, record verified accounts separately from clicks and raw registrations. If a campaign uses up your planned time or credits without reaching the people you intended to help, stop and review the offer before allocating more.
