When advertising in traffic exchanges, you have to remember that most surfers will not be interested in your site. All they want is that traffic credit they will get by waiting a short amount of time (usually around 10 seconds). You can, however, try and get them out of that “clicking zombie” state by using eye-catching splash pages.
A splash page is used to capture the surfer’s attention before they move on to the next site. Here are some tips for creating effective splash pages for traffic exchanges:
1) Write an attention-grabbing headline. It should clearly define what the site or product you want people to see is about. I advice against using cliché headlines like “Discover How You Can Fire Your Boss in 7 Days With This Guaranteed Money Making System™” – most people know already that it’s usually an ad for yet another useless e-book. It’s better to keep it short and simple.
2) Keep it short and tell people what makes you different. A bullet list might work well to outline the most important information that surfers will find interesting. Pique their interest and make them want to take action to find out more about your offer.
3) Keep graphics to the minimum. A lot of traffic exchange users actually surf with graphics off – if they see nothing where a big image should be (a chart with text, for example), they will leave. That aside, a splash page also has load quickly (remember, you only have 6 to 20 seconds – site loading time included). If you absolutely have to add a big image, don’t forget to write an alternate text for it.
4) Keep it silent. Sure, an auto-playing video telling how awesome this product is, will get surfers’ attention, but it almost always triggers a negative reaction. Traffic exchange users hate sites with sound! If you absolutely have to add a video or a record to your splash page, let the visitors decide whether they want to hear it or not. Consider the loading time as well. It won’t be affected if video will be streamed only if the visitor clicks the “play” button.
5) Add a call to action. That’s what visitors do after they read through your splash page: join your mailing list, visit your main website, join the program you promote through your affiliate link, and so on.
6) Track your splash page performance. Create several copies of the splash pages, with different headlines, colors and promotional text. Find out which combination generates most clicks on your links and concentrate on promoting that particular page. ClixTrac does the job very well by counting the page views (via a tracking pixel) and clicks (via a tracking URL) and calculating the CTR for every splash page.
If you’re looking for some help designing a good splash page, I suggest trying EasySplashBuilder offered by EasyHits4U exchange, which I use myself.
I wrote this article from a TE surfer’s point of view, so you don’t have to agree with everything I’ve said here. I know that, for one, TE marketers love using auto-playing videos and sounds, as much as I hate encountering them while surfing. There is no “best way” to design a splash page. Your best bet is creating something original and different from the cookie-cutter advertisements we see every day.