This is a sponsored review of the Publicity Wheel that is based fully on my opinion and is not biased in any way for or against the service provided.

With all of the traffic-exchange programs out there on the internet, it’s refreshing to see an idea that puts a fun “spin” on the free traffic services industry. There’s been a major backlash against popular services like Entrecard and SiteHoppin in recent weeks. While I still stick with the EntreCard system, I want to suggest a brand new platform that could soon compete with the leaders. It’s a fun way to increase your traffic just like hitting the front page of Digg or getting a massive StumbleUpon bump, and it’s called the Publicity Wheel.

What is Publicity Wheel?
I got a pleasant surprise after checking out this website and signing up. With an awesome web 2.0 design, the Publicity Wheel is a brand new traffic-exchange program that promises huge results if used effectively. Instead of relying on a direct exchange of traffic like the typical systems, you essentially rack up “publicity points” which are entered into a raffle that takes place every week. Once they “spin the Publicity Wheel,” the randomly selected websites (more points, better odds) from each niche are promoted excessively for a full week. This means that if you hit it rich, you are going to get an insane amount of traffic that could bring you from zero to hero in just a week.

How to Collect “Publicity Points”
Obviously, to increase the odds that your website gets randomly selected to be featured you need as many points as possible. The great thing about this system is that you can keep building your number of points week after week until you get featured, at which point you go back to 0. This means that if you work hard, you are nearly guaranteed to hit it big sooner or later.

I really like the system used to collect points. There are basically two ways to rack up as many entries as possible. The first way is a simple referral system. Every member that you invite to join will score you a quick 20 publicity points… which puts you in prime position to win already. The second method of accumulating points is to insert a code on your website to feature the winner from your niche. Every time someone clicks on your ad, that’s an instant 5 credits to your account. Last week, two users won with just 5 points, and a few with just 10 or 15… so you really don’t even need to participate a whole lot to get a win.

Different from the “Standard” Traffic Exchange?
Yes, there is in fact a difference between the normal traffic exchange programs and publicity wheel. While they sound much the same at first glance, you need to remember that in a traffic exchange, websites with more traffic are going to receive more referred traffic from the system based on the way things are laid out. Publicity Wheel is based on one site receiving all of the traffic at once. In this way, there is no playing favorites and you can receive an out-sized ratio of traffic from the amount that you actually referred over. This is a beautiful thing for smaller blogs, but a bad idea for blogs that are already popular.

The Best Way to Win the Publicity Wheel
Unless you are starved for traffic, it is actually a lot better for your time and effort if you just register and snag 5-20 entries (a few clicks). Why? Well this is working back to the time-tested lottery theorem. I don’t want to get too mathematician on you guys… but the basic theory follows that if there is a lottery and you buy just one ticket, you are better off just owning one chance than trying to rack up multiple entries to “increase your odds” in a lottery format.

Let’s use an example: say I’m in a lottery (like Publicity Wheel) and I own just one ticket. Now as an example, let’s also figure that there are 25,000 other entries worldwide. My odds of winning at this point are 1-in-25,000 or 0.004%. If I were to try hard to win and got four more tickets, my odds would improve only slightly to 5-in-25,000 or 0.02%. Sure, the odds have “improved,” but in reality you are really not much more likely to win than by just owning one ticket. This obviously has more of a factor the larger the pool of entries is, and you can dramatically increase your odds of winning in a small pool of 50, but it is something to keep in mind.

The Downside to Publicity Wheel
In all honesty, I personally wouldn’t consider using this system for TheNetFool.com. Why? Well my blog is already semi-popular… so a system like this would not benefit me. In the grand scheme of things, bigger blogs will only benefit from a traffic-exchange if things are weighted such that more referrals = more traffic. In addition to this disadvantage for bigger names, it is a bit hard to predict just how large the effect will be of getting a featured weekly spot on the publicity wheel since things are still new.

The Advantages of Publicity Wheel
If you own a small or even mid-size blog, you are going to be at an advantage over anyone that has more traffic than you and is registered to win. Because it is a lottery, having bigger names in the mix with you is a good thing if you have less traffic. Again, it’s a bit hard to predict how much traffic you will actually get because of the “newness” of the system; however, this could actually play out in your favor since it is going to be easier to win while still in a beta stage.

Bottom Line: At the very least, I definitely recommend checking out the Publicity Wheel and what they have to offer. Other systems like Entrecard and SiteHoppin have gotten bloated and distorted, but the pure idea behind the Publicity Wheel is such that can never really be abused and will always give you a favorable spread in winning a good amount of traffic if you end up being chosen to win. So give it a try, and give that publicity wheel a spin!

-The Net Fool

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