Benefits of toplists?
 

I've always wondered, and well darn it, I finally decided to ask.
I've always avoided toplists after being a newbie surfer and getting trapped on a few clipart ones (I know you all have been there hehe) Once I started building sites, and saw that I had to send hits to be listed, I also avoided them as it didn't seem to be as good an investment as giving that link out to a regular linklist.

Toplists still do seem to be going strong and I'm curious as to the benefits they provide to both the webmaster running them and the webmasters submitting to them. What are the pros and cons?

Thanks for any insights!

Tart,

you will get differing opinions but...

IMO - they used to be a fantastic and efficient way of filtering and targetting traffic...

Now? :( they are 99% circle jerks and have become a complete waste of bandwidth.

Some early toplists were very successful.. but then, as usual, every dik decided they wanted one as well.. thereby diluting the originals, and of course traffic to these became harder to get... so they started linking top 100s together and using blind link banners... leading to the BS mess that is toplists today. :)

Yet another way to jerk surfers aroud, make big counter numbers and lose sales.:(

There are still some legitimate toplists out there.. you just have to look hard to find them.

DD

Thanks for your input Dave |smooch| My curiousity is feeling more satisfied now... of course if anyone else has an opinion.. I'd love to hear it :)

I pretty much have to agree with Dave on this one.

What DD said. :)

Hmmm,
http://www.eroticexoticfun.com/EEF_TopList/

Yes, it is good to get some targetted traffic back. You send traffic that doesn't want what you are offering or from a link site maybe and get traffic to a specific site. I have used them to promote AVS sites for example.

I Pretty much agree with Dave with the exception that they are a complete waste of time. All traffic has a purpose and top site traffic can do things for your site as well. When used right. After all it is still a numbers game and discounting one source of traffic would be short sided There are a lot of good link lists out there still. MOst people just over do it and it can piss the surfer off.

|juggle|

I like toplists though I don't really play them much anymore. You have to really look for the good ones.

But I have always thought that toplist traffic would be newer surfers. Mainly because I think experience surfers are less likely to click on the gates or toplist links because they know what to expect and have found 'better' places.

There is alot of bs traffic getting sent to them so people can get higher placement. But it seems like the clicking surfers would still be of some value.

I agree. They can be great for targetted traffic if you find the good ones (not easy). You have a picture and/or description... if the surfer likes what he sees, he clicks on it... and if you're honest, you can't get much more targetted than that.

The problem is finding the good ones. Best bet is to use niche specific ones and really concentrate on them The numbers may not be big, but they're looking for what you're offering. And, you're more likely to find some good ones that way, because a lot of times they are started by people who are really into that niche and got tired of all of crap. Be ready to jump through some hoops to join some of them, because of the ways they come up with to cut back on the cheating . I just spent a good part of the last month linking up a few niche sites, so I know it's not that easy to find them, but can be worth it.

Are people actually interested in sending decent traffic to some niche toplists???

I have about 20... that are terribly underused, because I wont let scammers in or link to other toplists, etc...

Post if your interested..

DD

|afro|

DD..

Tartlette should be as we speak, messengering you..

or maybe after 3 versions of AT..

whichever comes first..

|goodnight

I would be interested, if I can match up niches. Umm.. and exactly what is your idea of decent traffic?

ditto what Tart said...

:)

Niches are:-

Amateur
Anal
Asian
BBW
Bondage
Breast
Cartoon
Celebrity
Ebony
Gay
Hardcore
Lesbian
Lingerie
OlderWomen
Swingers
Tasteless
Teen
Voyeur
Webcam

Decent traffic = quality not quantity - and you must TRY to send some... not just whack up a button on a links page.

These lists used to get combined uniques of 120,000 / day (back when that was a lot of traffic and before every dik decided they wanted their own Toplist :) ) I would like to see them have some success again.

DD

dang, sounds good, but nothing there for me right now. Wish i had found them a year/year and a half ago... would have hit about 6 of them. Maybe in the near future. I hope you get them going again, we could use some more good ones.

DD - do you accept sites that link from diffent pages?

For example

I have a page here http://www.prettywhitepanties.com/links.html

Where I have toplist return links. The page is the exit popup for a premium avs site of mine and is also linked too from some of my free sites and stuff.

The actuall site I would like to have traffic send to would be http://www.prettywhitepanties.com/
Which has the exit pop above but no links on the tour or site.

Would something like that be acceptable?

DD..you have PMs not to be confused with PMS unless you've had a sexchange and not informed any of us..

Tart: check your Poptart.. you've got mail..

OK.. my toplist rules..

I only list Real sites with content... not pages, not ads not galleries.
NO pop-ups.. of any kind.. on the site that is listed
NO new windows etc
Pretty much similar to my LL rules.

amadman, yes it is ok to link to the lists from other places... but the pop-ups aint :(

Doc/Tart... looking at my PMs now

DD

Doh!

But that is ok.

I have a tour without the popup as well :)