I recently took over the traffic exchange Half Hour a Day. It currently has nearly 2,000 members, and it is growing each day. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, and found out just how easy it wasn’t. Even though there is already a large member list, it doesn’t make it any easier. If you plan on starting a new exchange, don’t expect members to just flood in without any work.

Many of the current members were not very active, and there were a lot of unused credits there. So, I started to email the members and give them a few tips, and created a dialogue with some of them. I instantly started seeing some great results. More members were becoming active again.

I then started a weekly contest. The top surfer of the week gets to have their links displayed in a Member Spotlight. I have had a good response from that too. This is really going to get the exchange going again.

Within the next couple weeks, the script will be updated. It will then have more contests available, and even more features for members. After the update, Half Hour a Day is going to get a facelift.

Being an active member of many traffic exchanges over the last few years, I have a firm grasp of what makes an exchange appealing to surfers. I am going to apply all of that knowledge, and work towards making the site one of the top exchanges on the net.

Stop by Half Hour a Day and take a look. Let me know what you like and don’t like. I’m not a “fire and forget” kind of administrator. Feedback is important to me. After all, it is your exchange, not mine.