Internet Time Bomb Ticking

Reprintable Article: Permission is granted for the following article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and resource box is included. ---------------------------------------------------------- Internet Time Bomb Ticking By Stephen Bucaro This morning I joined a traffic exchange network. You are probably familiar with traffic exchange networks. You logon to a traffic exchange network and earn credits by using their application to view the web sites of other members of the traffic exchange. You trade the credits for visits to your web site by other members. You are required to view the other members web page for a specific time, usually 30 seconds, then you have to click on a button to view the next web page. This is a useful way to earn traffic to your web site. The power of using traffic exchange networks can be increased if you are a member of one or more banner exchanges. By placing banners on the page that you submit to the traffic exchange, you can earn banner exchange credits and traffic at the same time. I have been warning visitors to bucarotechelp.com that traffic exchange applications that do not maximize the browser window are useless because, by making the browser windows small enough to expose only the "Next Site" button, users run four or more of these applications simultaneously. Nobody actually sees your web page. I have also been warning that traffic exchange applications that have a timer less than 30 seconds are useless because most people access the web via a 56K dialup connection. Unless the web page that you submit to the traffic exchange can load before the time expires, nobody actually sees your web page. But the traffic exchange that I joined this morning does not require you to click. This traffic exchange application advances pages automatically. This is of critical importance because the user now does not even have to be in the same room as the computer that is logged on and earning credits. This is time bomb ticking for the Internet. You may be using a quality traffic exchange that maximizes the browser window, has a 30 second timer, and requires you to click. But what if that traffic exchange, in order to meet its commitments, is purchasing traffic from a no-click exchange? You are then exchanging your high quality clicks for useless hits. Members of the no-click traffic exchange can earn banner exchange credits while watching TV in another room. If you are a member of a banner exchange, you are trading high quality banner exposures for useless banner exposures. There is no limit to the number of credits you can earn with the no-click traffic exchange. The user agreement for the traffic exchange that I joined this morning clearly states "If you leave the hitbar on all night, you will get credits all night long". The traffic exchange users not only don't have to be in the same room - they don't even have to be awake! Here's where the time bomb comes in. People are flocking to these no-click traffic exchanges. It makes sense, you can earn banner exposure credits with no work. You might even be trading your worthless credits for visits from a person who actually looks at the web pages. Millions of people will be running these applications all night long. Many will run them 24/7. This will generate an enormous amount of traffic, slowing down the entire internet. And all this traffic will consist of computers automatically cycling through web pages that no human is looking at. The only thing that can prevent this time bomb from exploding is if banner exchanges block the IP addresses of all automatic traffic exchanges and don't give credit for banner exposures generated by them. And if traffic exchanges requiring the user to click guarantee that they are not redeeming credits with hits from automatic traffic exchanges. But this will not prevent the users of these applications from slowing down the internet with massive mindless traffic. The only solution is for the Internet itself to block the IP addresses of all automatic traffic exchanges. However, I'm afraid this will not happen until after a lot of damage has been done, if ever. ---------------------------------------------------------- Resource Box: Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit http://bucarotechelp.com To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter send a blank email to bucarotechelp-subscribe@topica.com ----------------------------------------------------------