Domaining Riches, Domain Parking: Type-In Traffic Or Search Referral
December 28, 2007
Over the last year how many times have you read the phrase “type-in traffic” or “direct navigation”? While it is easy to understand why type in traffic is so covited and can be so very profitable over a period of time. I wonder if this term is helpful or hurtful for those just getting started, I hear domainers all the time dropping the “type in traffic” phrase when they are talking about a very different type of traffic that converts for their parked domain names and in some cases developed domain names.
I started to think about this issue about six months ago when I started to pick up keyword rich domain names that ended in .net, .org, .us and .biz. My plan was to go after search phrase domain names that have high traffic but low competition, step two would be to start developing these names to monetize them to further fund new acquisitions (or buy toys).
I noticed that one domainer by the name of Frank Schilling had the same concept as me but got started about four or five years earlier than I did (Frank seams to own many of the domains I do, of course he has the .com address). I bumped into Frank and a few of his domain names during my Halloween marketing, ran into him again preparing for valentines day and I am sure I will stumble upon many more of the names he owns.
What is interesting is that during the month of October one of the Halloween domain names I mentioned received close to 200 referrals for a the exact domain name, minus the .org extension. Three words that were run together as one = a high listing on Google. Frank was sitting pretty at number one, while I was number two during October (now the site ranks about fourth).
I found this fairly interesting and started to wonder how much of Franks revenue was based on this type of search referral? What I am now calling “run together referrals”.
On the other side of this coin is short (one word) generic domain names, lets take a domain owned by Rick Schwartz.
Candy.com
I could make a pretty penny with that name (of course who could’t). Heck I could write unique content all day long about “candy” … I mean were not talking about a technical subject … it’s candy 
With this type of domain name their is no “run together search traffic”, were only talking about one term. Their is no way to rank well over time in Google or any other major search engine for the word candy with a parked domain. So it is easy to figure that the revenue generated from the domain name candy.com is mostly from type-ins.
Food for though….
Your thoughts?
Brian J
Hello Brian,
That video was great! The reason I keep coming back. Very educational. I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned about registering name after name and not making any money or getting any traffic. I have been doing that for a year now,(my first year). However, I do feel that I am getting some good names. Of course there not Candy.com but there not 132xyss.com. I have over 300 names on parked pages and developing a bunch more.
I sure enjoyed your video today.
Thanks again
Ronald
GoJunkie.com
Nice video Brian. It is hard to buy good 1 name domains, but 2 names are available. The key is to get good traffic. Question… in an earlier vid you said you knew where nice headers for BANS were available….where? Keep up the superb work!!!
Ron:
Glad to hear your enjoying the videos, I am lucky to have focused on search very early in my Internet marketing career.
just wish I was snapping up domain names back in 2002
Try to find true niches online and pickup names around those niches.
Les:
Check out the following page:
http://www.domainparkingmoney.net/best-domain-name-tools-keyword-phrase-data-software-products-scripts/14/
Look for “Website Header Wizard”
I really like this software product, I have made tons of nice looking headers in minutes.
Brian
Brian, last couple of videos I found the sound very low in volume.
Apparently you bought a new camera, however the sound is not loud enough.
Maybe Me????
Let me know if others noticed the same thing.
thanks, Ed - Michigan
Hi Brian,
Great video. I think you are right that a lot of people mention “type-in traffic” and sort of blur the lines. I know I was mixing the two. If I understand it correctly “type in traffic really means when someone types in the name plus extension for instance if someone typed in http://www.candy.com that would be an example of type in. However if they went to google and did a search that would be on the word preceding the extension and not including the extension that would be an example of search traffic.
Although we always try to get a com extension how important is the extension choosing a domain for search traffic?
So I think I have it straight the difference between the two but one of the things that confused me is that some of the sites that report domain statistics really high type in traffic for names with lots of hyphens. For example they might report a couple of hundred million type in traffic for a name like c-a-n-d-y.com. I can’t see someone typing the name like that with a hyphen between each letter. I was assuming somehow the search engine doesn’t see the hypens and equates c-a-n-d-y.com with candy.com This happens very often in the listings so its not just an isolated incedent. What are these pages reporting as type in traffic?
Thanks again.
All the best,
Ted Sudol
Ted,
You got it buddy - Are you speaking about stats from domain auction houses like tdnam or snap names? If so these stats have to be taken with a grain of salt. In fact I really don’t even look at the stats that are provided.
I check wayback, check link quality (not only how many links but what type of sites the inbound links are coming from).
Lastly - lets take our candy.com example. You think people are going to “type in” candy.us? Maybe a few now and then, but not enough to make a bundle.
That being said these types of domains are fantastic if your going to …. (here comes that word again) develop.
All the best …
Brian J