Because Google’s Panda Update 2.5 has taken away a chunk of Wopular’s traffic, I’ve decided to try out web 2.0 link exchange programs. I read that they’re significantly more sophisticated than their previous incarnations. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never tried them with Rotten Tomatoes.

I had been getting solicitations from MGID every other day to join their link exchange network, so I finally gave in. They are THE biggest link exchange service. Here’s how it works. You stick in a customizable widget on your site. When someone clicks on a link from the widget, MGID will send you a couple visits from other sites that are also using the widget in return. Sounds like a good deal to me. So far, the results are pretty good. They’re sending me decent traffic, enough to offset a chunk of the loss traffic to Panda 2.5.

My only concern with MGID’s referrals is it’s mostly international traffic, which is nearly impossible to monetize. I’m getting a lot more users from India, UK, and Australia. They’re all English speaking countries, but ad networks in the U.S. don’t service them. Ones that do service them offer rates that result in negligible revenue.

I’ll probably try out a couple of the other ones and see which gives me more monetizable traffic.

Still, overall, I’m impressed with the amount of traffic I’m getting MGID.