discuss What happens when you point 1000+ domains to an online store?

[MapleDots]

What happens when you point 1000+ domains to an online store?

I had a situation arise in the past little while that have made me rethink of what I'm doing with my domains. Having over 1000 domains pointing idly at my landers, parked pages, or for sale pages really does not make me any money. Parking is for the pits and sales will happen regardless of where the domain points. Buyers will still find me if they really want the domain.

As most of you know by now, I run a number of businesses and some of them are successful online stores. This gave me an idea and I thought, what would happen to sales if I pointed 1000+ domains to one of my online stores?

To start with I have to say it's a pretty popular store and is fast approaching 2 million in annual sales.
Secondly one has to keep in mind that my domains are 80% .ca which are targeted to my home market.

So what happened after a little bit of experimentation?

Sales have shot through the roof, we cannot keep up with sending packages. In the first week alone we had almost a 40% increase in sales. If that is all I get from this experiment then it will translate to an $800,000 increase in sales by the end of one year. That is assuming the increase is static at 40%, I expect it to climb exponentially over the next year.

So ask me about parking again?

The best money maker I have found for my domains is to put them into actual use. Funny thing about that phrase, I was actually threatened by someone that one of my domains was not in use for commerce so I had no legitimate claim to it.

HeHe, what a good idea that was.... use it in commerce, who would have thought

PS. It also helps that I own a number of Canadian Cities in .com as well and they seem to drive quite a bit of traffic to the store.

The domains just forward to my online store so anyone wanting the domain sees it is in use but will also realize it can be purchased because it's only used as a forwarder. It's kind of a win win situation with the ultimate in parking revenue.

I should get threatened with a UDRP more often, it gives me great ideas


PS. ALL MEMBERS I POLITELY ASK YOU TO NOT POST ANY OF MY DOMAIN NAMES IN THIS TOPIC.

 

[Recons.Com]

HeHe..... The numbers I put through my merchant account at the end of the day add up, that is what will tell the tale for me.

My experiment is simple.... increase sales or not.

Right now I have over 1000 more entry ways into my site than before, I don't care how anyone argues that. It will ultimately affect my sales, the only question is by how much once I factor in seasonal variables and such.

here is why they don't add up:

- if you are able to generate $2.8MM/year on only about 150,000 visitors a year, even assuming all of them are Canadian (which they are not), you could buy another batch of 150,000 100% Canadian visitors from Google search for $50K to $150K to generate another $2.8MM/year. That would be, at least, doubling your money even if your profit margin was only 10% (and it is probably 30%-50%).

But you are not doing it, so something doesn't add up.

 

[MapleDots]

here is why they don't add up:

- if you are able to generate $2.8MM/year on only about 150,000 visitors a year, even assuming all of them are Canadian (which they are not), you could buy another batch of 150,000 100% Canadian visitors from Google search for $50K to $150K to generate another $2.8MM/year. That would be, at least, doubling your money even if your profit margin was only 10% (and it is probably 30%-50%).

But you are not doing it, so something doesn't add up.

The store has been running for a decade, we have a nice big client base, and they are almost all regular return clients. Don't know where the 2.8 million is coming from, we are at 1.8 and hopefully will do 2 if the increase I saw maintains momentum. Our average sales are about 5k per day and that is consistant 7 days per week. Can be 3 can be 6 per day but averages at 5k daily.

Our sales moved to 7k when I implemented the change. I need solid data for a while to make sure that was actually all due to the domain pointing but I can say pretty clearly that a big chunk of it was because I saw an uptick fairly fast.

So you see when you break it down daily it is not huge but it adds up when you multiply it by 365 days.

You guys keep measuring traffic but at 2k extra per day that translates to about 10 extra customers for me.

Its the total sales data that makes it look huge, its actually not that big in traffic. So even if I get 1000 extra visits per day. (my google analytics show a heck of a lot more for all domains) only about 10 new clients need to come per day for me to see my sales figures.

 

[oldtimer]

The store has been running for a decade, we have a nice big client base, and they are almost all regular return clients. Don't know where the 2.8 million is coming from, we are at 1.8 and hopefully will do 2 if the increase I saw maintains momentum. Our average sales are about 5k per day and that is consistant 7 days per week. Can be 3 can be 6 per day but averages at 5k daily.

Our sales moved to 7k when I implemented the change. I need solid data for a while to make sure that was actually all due to the domain pointing but I can say pretty clearly that a big chunk of it was because I saw an uptick fairly fast.

So you see when you break it down daily it is not huge but it adds up when you multiply it by 365 days.

You guys keep measuring traffic but at 2k extra per day that translates to about 10 extra customers for me.

Its the total sales data that makes it look huge, its actually not that big in traffic. So even if I get 1000 extra visits per day. (my google analytics show a heck of a lot more for all domains) only about 10 new clients need to come per day for me to see my sales figures.

In addition to using the increase in your actual sales as a metric if you also kept track of all the traffic that your website is getting then you'll be in a better position to decide whether it's a good idea to increase the size of your portfolio and get even more city and geo targeted domains in .ca to forward to your website. IMO

 

[Recons.Com]

The store has been running for a decade, we have a nice big client base, and they are almost all regular return clients. Don't know where the 2.8 million is coming from, we are at 1.8 and hopefully will do 2 if the increase I saw maintains momentum. Our average sales are about 5k per day and that is consistant 7 days per week. Can be 3 can be 6 per day but averages at 5k daily.

Our sales moved to 7k when I implemented the change. I need solid data for a while to make sure that was actually all due to the domain pointing but I can say pretty clearly that a big chunk of it was because I saw an uptick fairly fast.

So you see when you break it down daily it is not huge but it adds up when you multiply it by 365 days.

You guys keep measuring traffic but at 2k extra per day that translates to about 10 extra customers for me.

Its the total sales data that makes it look huge, its actually not that big in traffic. So even if I get 1000 extra visits per day. (my google analytics show a heck of a lot more for all domains) only about 10 new clients need to come per day for me to see my sales figures.

To start with I have to say it's a pretty popular store and is fast approaching 2 million in annual sales.
... Sales have shot through the roof ... In the first week alone we had almost a 40% increase in sales. If that is all I get from this experiment then it will translate to an $800,000 increase in sales by the end of one year.

$2MM, 40% increase, $800K increase all are from your first post. $2MM+800K=$2.8MM.

From my experience, even with a great portfolio, you'll average 1 visitor a day per 3-5 domains (excluding traffic names, former websites etc.). So, your 1000 names should add only 200-300 visitors a day. I can't see you getting 1000 incremental.

And, also, your total site visitors per day are probably much less than that. I estimate at around 500, given your Alexa rank and even adjusted for Canada.

 

[Brands.International]

1. I was not assuming, you mentioned it to me before regarding struggling with renewal fees. I am not implying anything about your situation and if I offended you I apologize.

2. I often overpay for single word domains, I follow the Rick Schwartz motto that real estate like that will go up in value.

3. I published sales in this post not profits, company sales are not a secret and I'm quite proud of them. Companies publish sales figures because shoppers love dealing with successful companies.

4. I will pony up the cash for a nice domain and the fact that people know it allows me to have the nice base of one word domains I currently have. My last two domains were bought that way, the domainers knew I had the cash to pay and that is why they contacted me.

5. The fact that you are a little perplexed just means you do not see the other side of the picture yet. Why do people with money buy big houses and fancy cars? Believe it or not it actually helps their careers.... just ask Rick Schwartz why he shows videos of his beach house. The more successful he is the more he gets for his domains, he has a proven track record.

Thanks friend, that actually makes sense - I was thinking that this will be the case as per 4).

As per 5) let's see if that approach will work for you (as you do it here, and I think there are some other venues where high net individual hang-out, and it is not exactly here).

Saying that, I do remember your porftolio and individual domains very well, and those are type of domain names which CAN achieve pretty high prices when/if right end user comes (while one needs to acknowledge that it can take years to happen - but quality of domain names you buy in .ca is good so far, so if those are for long term investment, it is a way to go).

This long term approach also now explains your thinking that when serious end user comes, he will not mind that desired domain name is redirected (they will try to purchase it anyway). Still, I would argue that some of then would be turned-off by that, but I agree that if the big desire/need is there, it is not an obstacle then.

So it all makes good sense imo, except 5) which I think is not going to work here too much - people here are too clever to be impressed by it, and those who are impressed, usually do not have money needed (but maybe if you do it let's say on Twitter..)

 

[MapleDots]

@Recons.Com you are low at 500 visitors per day, I have domains that generate more traffic than that by themselves.

 

[Recons.Com]

@Recons.Com you are low at 500 visitors per day, I have domains that generate more traffic than that by themselves.

That goes against my whole experience with how traffic correlates with Alexa.

500 visitors domain by itself should rank 2 to 3 million Alexa.

Your website with all the redirects from 1000 domains is only 5 million.

check out this:

https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/elix.com

Alexa 850K, with around 1,500 visitors a day, top countries being USA and Canada.

 

[frank-germany]

That goes against my whole experience with how traffic correlates with Alexa.

500 visitors domain by itself should rank 2 to 3 million Alexa.

Your website with all the redirects from 1000 domains is only 5 million.

check out this:

https://www.alexa.com/sitei xxx

Alexa 850K, with around 1,500 visitors a day, top countries being USA and Canada.

don't show the domain please

 

[Recons.Com]

don't show the domain please

That is my domain )

 

[MapleDots]

The redirects were shown in a frame up until yesterday, which I will probably do again so I can manipulate the title and retain the referring URL in the address bar.

So until yesterday the forwards were not part of the totals because the count will have been to the domain containing the frame. I am experimenting with that to see which I like better and I am leaning towards the masked forward because this way a potential client for the domain name will still see the domain in the URL bar and as the title in the tab.

So you see, it's not all that straight forward.

PS. I am in the middle of putting the frame back because I still want sell domains and I think there is a greater possibility of selling it if the URL stays in the bar.

I will probably use something to direct the client to the actual shopping site with a target="_top" command to break out of frames when it comes to getting to the store.

 

[King]

Interesting, never taught about doing this actually.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Canada traffic doesn't get registered on Alexa as other countries do

I hope I am not taking thread off topic but this really intrigued me. Do you mean Canadian traffic does not count in Alexa ratings? Why is that? Thanks for any background, @Recons.Com
Bob

 

[Recons.Com]

I hope I am not taking thread off topic but this really intrigued me. Do you mean Canadian traffic does not count in Alexa ratings? Why is that? Thanks for any background, @Recons.Com
Bob

No, did not mean that. The only way Alexa knows someone goes to a site is if he/she has Alexa toolbar installed on their browser.

Countries like Canada or USA are not big on installing this toolbar, while countries like India, Russia etc. do install them, in part, to influence Alexa, in part, for other reasons.

So, for this reason, Alexa normally will overestimate India/Russia and similar traffic share and underestimate the Western traffic.

Just empirically, if I see a Canada targeted website that has Alexa 5M, I would assume that the real ranking for the website should be higher and the daily traffic assumption can be multiplied by a factor of 1.5 to 3.

 

[Recons.Com]

Ok, did a bit further research and it seems that this is one of those cases which Alexa gets completely wrong.

Similarweb, for example, shows the site ranked at 1.1M, and also shows very low bounce rate of just 19% (which is very good) and around 10 page views per visit, which is also great. So, it seems the visitors are quite purposeful. Which can be explained by a good mailing list and repeat visits.

Given all these, I'd assume uptick in sales could just be related to other factors more than to domains, as those visitors definitely be as purposeful and at this stage probably are more contributing to the mailing list than to sales.

 

[topdom]

You need a store to be able to do such things. Not everyone has a money making web site. I once had some free stores, which made good money; and when redirecting, I would think in terms of seo, not in terms of traffic, but things changed. Seo might be dead together with ppc. We seem to be totally dependent on big players, like Afternic, Sedo, Dan in domain sales.
If you have funny cat videos on youtube, you can redirect your domains there, and make money from it, I think.

 

[MapleDots]

Ok, did a bit further research and it seems that this is one of those cases which Alexa gets completely wrong.

Similarweb, for example, shows the site ranked at 1.1M, and also shows very low bounce rate of just 19% (which is very good) and around 10 page views per visit, which is also great. So, it seems the visitors are quite purposeful. Which can be explained by a good mailing list and repeat visits.

Given all these, I'd assume uptick in sales could just be related to other factors more than to domains, as those visitors definitely be as purposeful and at this stage probably are more contributing to the mailing list than to sales.

The first week has been a boom but it is fall and people also spend money when the seasons change so it is too early to say for sure the domains are the only influence. I did see quite an increase in the number of sign ups to the site so there has to be some correlation. We added quite a few signups today and I'm hoping those are not all namepros members

Data will be my friend, a few months worth will paint a clearer picture.

 

[poweredbyme]

Hey you clever guy..
why didn't you post it in the first place?

I don't login and read all posts everyday. I posted it as soon as I read the original post and first few comments on what a brilliant and new idea it is. In fact, although it's a good idea, it's a common and old practice, is not a new thing.

Perhaps you may know, there was a German ad company that was selling/buying domain redirection traffic. They might still be active. They might be a partner or founder of parkingcrew, I can't recall their name after they replaced their very short, likely 3L, domain.

 

[poweredbyme]

Type-in traffic is not related to backlinks and those domains usually don't have backlinks if never developed. Mass redirection hurts SEO. That's correct. But it's for 301 redirected domains with backlinks. If you are unsure you can disallow all bots with robots.txt and can exclude that robots file in the redirection code.

You don't need to track conversion once you verified the domain has traffic. Because it's a free traffic. Even if it's entirely irrelevant domain, it can help for brand recognition in the long term.

You need a store to be able to do such things. Not everyone has a money making web site. I once had some free stores, which made good money; and when redirecting, I would think in terms of seo, not in terms of traffic, but things changed. Seo might be dead together with ppc. We seem to be totally dependent on big players, like Afternic, Sedo, Dan in domain sales.
If you have funny cat videos on youtube, you can redirect your domains there, and make money from it, I think.

You can redirect the traffic to your domain landing pages. Everything is related to the amount of traffic you have. If you have high traffic you can sell anything, including domains, directly without being dependent on big players.

Assume you receive 1 low ball offer per year for a domain and today you have redirected huge traffic to that domain and have started receive 1 offer per hour. One of those potential buyers may buy that domain in a few days directly from you without any big player or middle man.

 

[frank-germany]

I don't login and read all posts everyday. I posted it as soon as I read the original post and first few comments on what a brilliant and new idea it is. In fact, although it's a good idea, it's a common and old practice, is not a new thing.

Perhaps you may know, there was a German ad company that was selling/buying domain redirection traffic. They might still be active. They might be a partner or founder of parkingcrew, I can't recall their name after they replaced their very short, likely 3L, domain.

they are parkingcrew
they send parked page traffic
to customers who pay for it

 

[Arpen Tucker]

Great post - thanks for sharing. Do you think the same method could work when pointing domains with traffic to affiliate programs (obviously relevancy would help)- I have been thinking about doing this for a while and your post has given me some hope this might work. Would welcome your thoughts. Thanks

 

[topdom]

I had a domain which was receiving like 50 visits per day according to Sedo (old system). I redirected it to a high paying domain, and new domain's traffic didn't increase according to Sedo, and these domains didn't earn a cent. Both dropped. I don't trust ppc programs at all, and I think they steal money. Google adsense was good for several years, but now Google doesn't need affiliate programs to control internet, because they have like buttons, analytics, chrome browser, and they can spy almost everything without effort, why pay little guys for stupid clicks.

I change ppc settings of a domain at Sedo, and guess what: It doesn't have any effect at all! I have a generic domain which also represents a famous trademark, and I try to disable ads from that industry, but no, Sedo continues to show competitor ads.

Casino traffic, means 100 USD per click, and let's say I have 100 visits per day, and if landing page is ok, click rate can be 10 percent, and let's say earning per click is 10 usd, then I must earn 100 USD per day. But in reality there is zero clicks. And by rare luck if there is a click it makes zero or 1 cents. Ppc is so dead, or so full of scam, you decide which one it is.

 

[Windoms]

The store is selling a popular product. Anyone could buy them.
You land on the page, you see all the brands, it seems like a good place to find everything you need, you sign up to see pricing which I'm sure is very competitive.
Being redirected from authority domains like cities.com or oneword.ca just makes it better. Makes you think the business is genuine and established.

I think it worked to that extent (40%) because of two factors
1/ product category
2/ authority domains

 

[Windoms]

@MapleDots you could blow up any store from day one..
everyone will be in touch soon.

 

[Soofi]

subscribed

 

[DomainBanana]

Good discussion on this here:
https://moz.com/community/q/is-poin...to-a-single-website-beneficial-for-seo-or-not

There doesn't seem to be any SEO benefit, but if the domains you're pointing get a significant amount of traffic, it could help.