Been thinking about this all day

Before trundling off to bed I thought I would seek wiser and broader opinion than mine!

Following Glen's comment about this blog taking ages to load for a 15 second surf timer (not quite sure how that works, 15 seconds - as I said - is 15 seconds, and even on ASDL I find that blogs are loading as the timer is finished, it makes no difference to the timer itself), and holding up folk who are trying to gain credits to sell their highly valuable scheme for making money (that wasn't meant to sound sarcastic, but I guess it did). This brings me to the question that I want to encourage some response to -

Should blogs be allowed on traffic exchanges?


After all the nature of a blog is to get longer and longer (guilty as charged), though the content is time limited and disappears after a few weeks - a fact not grasped, it seems, in the comment made before about my blog getting longer, that may be the case, but it is all hidden away after about 15 postings or so.

(As an aside, I put my blog into these exchanges as a deliberate antidote to the latest get rich schemes that appear on these exchanges, something that I have been very pleased to be able to offer, but which I am now withdrawing from, due mainly to the fact that I can't be bothered.)

So, for all those I have uncharacteristically tried to wind up with this post let me know. Should a blog be allowed on a traffic exchange, or should, as Glen seems to imply, it be left to the experts?

Comments

Dr.John said…
I had my blog on an exchange where everything else seemed to be an advertisment. Since I wanted to find blogs. I quit that exchange.
Dr.John said…
Well that was some video. Some of your artists didn't seem very friendly. It looks like a fun time.
Anonymous said…
Speaking of "too much bother," what's a traffic exchange? One of those "Visit so many blogs pwr day and we'll send that many people to visit you?" I bet most don't even stop to read -- and they're hoping you're at their place hanging on every word. Pft.
Cassandra said…
I salute your efforts! You have every right to be in a traffic exchange if you want. There are no rules that state it must be a certain type of blog. Some of their blogs with so many ads and pop ups take awhile to load.

That said, you can adjust your blog to only have a certain amount of enteries on the first page for faster loading, if you'd like.
Cassandra said…
I just hit your site again and with DSL it loaded quickly.
Nick Payne said…
I use several traffic exchanges... many of which have been specifically designed for use with blogs.

I am fussy as to what a blog actually is. I automatically disregard business and marketing because it is not a genuine personal view. I see them as a joke, to be treated with the same level of contempt as the periodicals that guest feature each week on "Have I Got News For You".

I also eliminate "pet blogs", food and drink, holidaying blogs, adult blogs, transport bloga and sport blogs most of which tend to be America focussed).

I try to be reasonable when surfing the exchanges. Having already deleted all the stuff I consider to be of no interest (kind of like sorting wheat from chaff), I do try to make an effort to read the few that remain. The best way of getting a response and indeed boosting your readership... isn't to just click surf the exchanges, it's actually being sure to invest in other people's creative works. If you show a genuine interest in others, they will show an interest in you. It is a cyber extension of "love your neightbour as yourself".

I find that the temptation to merely respond to comments on your own site is a great one.

However that behaviour is a little egocentric... so I try to resist this and actually respond on the visitor's site on a subject they are talking about as well.
Anonymous said…
I have no problem with a blog in a traffic exchange.
I point out babs comment on adjusting for faster loading.
some blogs load tottaly before the timer numbers appear on a traffic exchange to go to the next site.
When surfing with a dialup connection this makes it a 20 - 25 second round trip for a 15 second exchange.
I would have broadband connection if it was available in my area.
All I ask is that people think of all possible connection types when deciding what to display on an exchange.
If you display the latest 4 to 8 posts on the front page then that would load within the 15 seconds on all connection types.
It is very iimportant for anyone advertising busuness to load fast so the message is seen. I know yours is not a business, but I am sure if you think it is mportant enough to publish, you would like it to be seen as well.
I am not being mean, just asking for those with faster connections to remember us "little" guys with limited technology in our areas.

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