Ways to Promote "from Reason to Freedom"

[Last Updated: Nov. 1, 2007]

Would you like to promote ReasonToFreedom.com?

The easiest way is to add a link to us on your site. Browse available text link samples on our "Link to Us Examples " page. If you would like a reciprocal link, head on over to our "from Reason to Freedom Friends" directory and add yourself to an appropriate category.

Or, would you like to promote us while promoting your own site?  And do both for Free?

The sites in each section are listed in general order of how useful they've been to us.  So go ahead, jump in, sign up, and promote two sites near and dear to your heart!

Blog Traffic Exchanges [Date Last Reviewed]

Definitions:

Your Time per Unique Viewer Time: The most important 'number' as it is an indicator of how many seconds you need to spend to get one second of a unique someone else on your site. The lower the better.

Unique views to total views ratio: Not that helpful, as while it does indicate how well a service keeps the viewers to you unique, it does not take into account Surf Ratios or length of surf sessions. The higher the better.

Blog Advance
[9/11/07] And now they're back! As of today they are running a 1:2 ratio (one surf gets you two visitors), which won't last long... So far they are the best exchange I've seen, no fancy bells or whistles, but great traffic and the blogs in their rotation aren't spam.
[7/19/07] Service went "Dark" early July, 07. Hoping they come back as they, while low volume, were about the best in terms of Blog only traffic.
Free Membership Details: 30 signup credits, Surf ratio 1:1 (changes with events they hold, occasionally surf ratio 1:1.5), Referral Credit Ratio: They do referral credits, but don't list how deep or how much.

Uses a 20 second timer.

Basic Blog only exchange, decent blogs in the rotation. Credits get used very slowly (Averages 2-10 views per day of incoming traffic). Unique views to total views ratio: ~87%. Your Time per Unique Time: 1.15 Very Good.

Blog Soldiers [8/11/07]
Free Membership Details: Surf ratio 2:1, Referral Credit Ratio: 5 levels, no listed percentages in their FAQ.

Uses a 20 second timer.

Blog Soldiers is an enigma. At their old normal surf ratio (2:1, e.g. two surfs per visitor), I was not that happy with the return traffic ratio, and after trying them, mostly stopped using them. Under their new ratio (2:1.4, e.g. ten surfs per seven visitors) they still don't “thrill” me, but they do have the odd surf bonus weekends where the ratio hits 1:1, so it's good to at least sign up with them and get on their newsletter for the bonus announcements.

Rarely now repeats the same sites a lot. Unique views to total views ratio: ~76%. Your Time per Unique Time:

Ratio 2:1 -> 2.64 Pretty bad.
Ratio 2:1.4 -> 1.89 Marginal to bad.
Ratio 1:1 -> 1.32 Good.

Blog Explosion [9/11/07] Serious problems with getting new sites approved. Their email says 72 hours, but after digging through their forums, it's taking some new sites 6 to 10 weeks before approval.
Free Membership Details: ?? signup credits, Surf ratio 2:1, Referral Credit Ratio: 3 levels, 15,10,10 percent

Uses a 30 second timer and Mystery Credits (which if not claimed logs you out) to maintain users attention.

Well documented.  Has a great deal of users, sites do repeat, but on a lesser basis.  Has several other interesting features (somewhat like games) to encourage use: Battle of the Blogs (25 credits = 15 viewers), Blog Rocket (1 credit = 0 to some views).

BlogExplosion went severely downhill after they were sold spring of 2006. Averages 10 - 20 views per day of incoming traffic. Don't seem to answer support tickets anymore.

Blog Azoo [7/26/07] Claims to have shutdown on Friday the 13th, July 07, but the site still seems to work. Blogs are getting spammy.
Free Membership Details: 2:1 Surf Ratio. The rest I can't remember off the top of my head, as I don't tend to use them much do to their bad surf ratio. Occasionally they bump their ratio by 50%, which changes the free ratio to 1.33:1 and makes the Your Time per Unique Time: 1.46 which is good enough to use.

Referral Rate: "You receive 20% on 1st level, 15% on 2nd, 10% on 3rd level and 5% on 4th level as a basic blogger. Upgraded members get a better referral rate."

Unique views to total views ratio: ~91%. Your Time per Unique Time: 2.19 Not So Good.

Blog Clicker [8/4/06] Currently seems to be dead
Free Membership Details: Surf ratio 2:1, Referral Credit Ratio: ? (and not sure how many levels)

Uses a 20 second timer.

Sometimes repeats the same sites a lot.

Blog Mad [11/1/07] Slow to burn credits.
Free Membership Details: Surf ratio 1:1, Referral Credit Ratio: None! Give some sort of cheesy flat amount of credits per referral based upon your BlogMad ranking.

Uses a 25 second timer.

Decent service, I just hate to spread the word on them as they don't really give you anything back for it. They did have a useful way to earn credits by displaying their banner and text link rotations, but we've banned their banners from too many user complaints and the text links are a bait and switch. They proclaim you “can” get 10 impression credits per text link block*, but they never have the inventory to show more than two (and it's the same two a lot!), so you really end up burning 100 page views for one credit.

I even suggested they solve their inventory problem by letting us publishers trade out text link impressions on a 2:1 basis. They show their text links twice on my blog and then they show my text link once on someone else's blog. They didn't bother to respond.

*Per BlogMad: "For every 200 impressions you show you'll get one credit." Or doing the math, 20 page views should equal one credit.

Web Traffic Exchanges [Date Last Reviewed]

TrafficG [7/26/07] Preview their rotation.
Free Membership Details: Surf ratio 1:1

NOT RECOMMENDED! We just received 6 consecutive robot hits from them, with each crediting a different username. Either their system has been hacked or they are behind it. [The robot user names we seen so far today: mingyue, icehits, alex209f, teesoo, gfeng, ptpyang, luojie88, 00003, davidal, youlong, payyou123.]

Match an image to continue, 30 second timer. Has an occasional 'scorecard' which increases or decreases your surf ratio (up to 110%, e.g. surf ratio can be maxed out at 1:1.1)

Most of the sites seem to be of a 'Get rich quick' or MLM nature. Unique views to total views ratio: ~69%. Your Time per Unique Time: 1.46 Pretty bad.

Wolf Surfer [8/4/06]
Free Membership Details: Surf ratio 2:1

Same interface as TrafficG. 20 second timer.

Using your account is almost akin to being spammed with their affiliate advertising interspersed within their pages. Unique views to total views ratio: ~59%. Your Time per Unique Time: 3.38 Very bad.

General Notes on Blog and Web Traffic Exchanges

Usually one (1) credit is worth one (1) viewer coming to your site. A surf ratio of 2:1, indicates you have to visit (surf through their interface) two sites to receive one credit.  Most have a horrible interface to display statistics on how many credits you've earned and visitors you've received, and usually requires going to several areas of their site to find it all.

Instructions on some of them are non-existent as to how to get them setup and working properly.  Most have these steps.

• Signup (preferably through our links above!)
• Follow the instructions in the confirmation email
• Add your Site/Blog(s)
• Verify your Site/Blog(s)
• [optional: Turn auto assign of credits on]
• Surf
• Manually assign any credits not auto assigned

Keywords: Established, Blog, Traffic, Exchange, Review, Opinion,