Spin the Publicity Wheel

August 13, 2008 by Collin LaHay
Filed under: Reviews 

The following is a paid review and is my complete and honest opinion. If you would like your own paid review on my blog please visit the advertise page.

We all know that having high search engine rankings is the best type of traffic any website could ever get, but for certain keywords that type of traffic is the hardest to get as well. So what can a newbie webmaster or blogger do to increase traffic to their site, gain some readers, and maybe make some cash along the way? Well, one method of traffic that can be utilized is the type of traffic that comes from traffic exchanges.

I know as well as you guys know that traffic exchange programs can deliver some traffic to your site but most of the time your visitors are not even close to being the targeted ones like you’d get if your site has a good search ranking and position. But for new webmasters who are still learning the tricks behind link building and SEO taking advantage of this type of service is a very good idea. I know for a fact that a friend of mine I met while on the Top Affiliate Challenge has built a proven system to make $50.00 per day after 14 days and he uses mostly traffic exchange sites as his traffic source, so they do work!

I do however have a new traffic exchange site to tell you about today, and it is one with a kind of unique concept. The Publicity Wheel is the name of the site and here is how you can gain some nice traffic through their method of displaying your ad.

Once you have signed up for your free account at The Publicity Wheel you get a bit of code to put on your site which displays a widget with an ad in it. Every time someone clicks on that ad you earn points. Every week there is a draw (they call it spinning the wheel) and a new site is chosen to have their ad displayed in the widgets that are on everyone’s site. Did you pick up on that? Everyone who has the widget on their site has the same ad placed in it, so your possibility of getting some massive amounts of traffic is very, very real, but at the same time it is purely a game of luck.

The more points you end up getting over the course of the week increases your chances of getting you ad pulled as the lucky winner to run for a week on all these sites. The idea is sort of like Entrecard, but instead it requires your users to click on the ad rather than just dropping cards. One thing to keep in mind though, the draw is not only based on who has the most points, but rather the amount of points you have just helps your chances of winning.

The Publicity Wheel also has a referral program that offers you an additional 20 points for every friend you send there way.

The Publicity Wheel also has a sponsorship program where you can skip the lottery system and buy impressions the easy way. Part of the cost of the review was paid in impressions from that system through the $5 CPM ad buy, and unfortunately so far I have had about 1000 impressions and only 3 clicks. If I was a real paying advertiser, I would have paid over $1.50 for each of those clicks, that is suicide for a blogger. If you are thinking about joining Publicity Wheel, I don’t suggest testing out the sponsorship advertising until the price goes down or the system switches to CPC.

UPDATE: Mark just emailed me letting me know he actually cut the cost from $5 CPM to $2 CPM. I would still prefer a CPC model, but that is a big cut in the costs which was much needed. Good choice Mark!

Update 2: Mark has taken my advice and added a CPC model. You can now become a sponsor for $0.10 per click, which is FAR more bang for your buck than the CPM model.

On a personal note I am not fully sure how this site is going to take off in the blogging community. One thing that I keep realizing more and more is that if your traffic is not targeted, it is traffic that you don’t need unless your looking at testing a new site or an affiliate program to see how well it is going to convert. Free traffic might be a good place for you to look at first, but traffic promotions like The Publicity Wheel will never be able to compete with traffic you get from the search engines, so it is up to you to decide how to spend your time optimizing your site… I know that my time is better spent working up my search engine traffic.

Comments

9 Comments on Spin the Publicity Wheel

  1. Neon Signs on Wed, 13th Aug 2008 9:48 am

    2. Nice honest review. Sounds interesting.

  2. Mark on Wed, 13th Aug 2008 5:55 pm

    3. Thanks for the review Collin. Based on your feedback i’ve added a CPC option to the Sponsorship Program (at $0.10). I should also point out that we have a number of categories (with one winner in each), so your exposure is targeted and you’ll receive natural clicks (as opposed to something like Entrecard).

  3. Angie on Wed, 13th Aug 2008 8:37 pm

    4. I like the concept because it has the potential to grow exponentially and for free. Of course if you pay to be featured, it take the novelty out of the idea. The idea of getting any traffic for free and by chance and is cool because you then rely on your site’s content to convert on sales. It reminds me of when a site was on Google’s first page because users click it there, but when people started to page for keywords, it became more of who has the bigger budget.

  4. Mark on Wed, 13th Aug 2008 8:56 pm

    5. Hi Angie,

    Just to outline the Sponsorship Program, you’re only playing for a percentage of impressions. Those who win (using the free method) still get the vast majority of exposure, and that will always be the case. I hope that clears things up.

  5. Link Building Bible on Wed, 13th Aug 2008 10:47 pm

    6. I have been using Publicity Wheel for quite a long time… i get little spurts here and there from my category, but there isnt too much main competition in my category, and I have won a few times, so the amount of people seeing my banner on everyone else’s sites who havent seen it before is pretty small.

  6. Collin - Feed Flare on Thu, 14th Aug 2008 7:01 am

    7. Nice review Collin. Love it!!! I am going to have to check them out and see what there all about. I wander if they have a dating category?

  7. Mark on Thu, 14th Aug 2008 7:06 am

    8. “Romance” may be a good option for you :)

  8. Neon Signs on Thu, 14th Aug 2008 8:01 am

    9. Thats kind of a cool feature

  9. Julie on Sat, 16th Aug 2008 2:29 pm

    10. thanks for this detailed review

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