strategy An interesting backdoor strategy to sell domains

[Eric Lyon]

So, I was reviewing some traffic stats on a personal project site (as usual) and noticed that a bookmarked visitor accessed with an unusual ip/mail server location. The access point was in this format: "mail.domainname(.com)"

I found this interesting enough to check the website of domainname(.com) and wouldn't you know it, it was a for sale parking lander. No development, just a "Buy this domain" lander with parking ads.

So, I've seen reverse branding tactics like this before, get exposure to the techs and admins that crunch numbers, enticing them to visit the site, however, this is a first for me to see a backdoor domain sales strategy.

I find it interesting and wonder if other stats crunchers in the domain industry have come across this strategy before?

The downside is that domain they were selling wasn't targeted to any of my niche interests, otherwise I may have inquired.

With that in mind, did I stumble on an accidental sales pitch reaching stats crunchers or was it deliberate with an untargeted domain (waste of their time)?

 

[Asfas1000]

Ha ! Interesting

Maybe a little spammy (depends). It reminds me of the infamous "referral spam".

 

[Eric Lyon]

What might have made it more interesting is if the domain retained its creative message, was actually targeted to my niches, and when I visited, it was a niche specific portfolio specializing in only my niches.

Things that make you go hmmm.

Still very unconventional, but I can see where it might get a little attention or even a sale (eventually) if it was executed better.

 

[Asfas1000]

What might have made it more interesting is if the domain retained its creative message, was actually targeted to my niches, and when I visited, it was a niche specific portfolio specializing in only my niches.

Things that make you go hmmm.

Still very unconventional, but I can see where it might get a little attention or even a sale (eventually) if it was executed better.

Question is, what people will usually be exposed to the domain ? (or portfolio - great idea!)

SEO's maybe ?

 

[E-Promote]

The main question would seem to be how many stats crunchers are decision makers or progressive enough in a larger company to pass on the data to the decision makers.?

 

[Eric Lyon]

Question is, what people will usually be exposed to the domain ? (or portfolio - great idea!)

SEO's maybe ?

The main question would seem to be how many stats crunchers are decision makers or progressive enough in a larger company to pass on the data to the decision makers.?

It could go a few different ways.

1) large corp data analysis managers
2) SEO/SEM administrators/consultants
3) Tech. Admins/server administrators
4) small business webmasters (which is a lot of times also the business owner themselves).

1-3 would probably need to target the analyst's niche. While 4 could potentially target the businesses niche itself.

Bigger questions would be:

1) is it ethical?
2) is it spammy?
3) is it worth the time implementing and executing?

I can't recall seeing any strategy studies that were domain sales related using this method and tracking conversion results.

 

[Eric Lyon]

Added note: If the above (bigger questions) checked out, then I guess the next 2 questions would be:

A) can it be automated effectively to target properly with minimal error?

B) is the automation itself monetizable?

 

[anantj]

I actually just tried this out to see if it helps. Although I'm tempted to use a branded short url to try and track the metrics, I'm afraid it might be counter-productive as users (Especially technically inclined) will be averse to clicking on a random masked link...

So, no tracking as yet but let's see if this has any effect on my sales (Which are paltry at best)

 

[Kuffy]

They've been doing this for years. It was mainly spam telling you how to convert your floppy into ahard drive.

It's an interesting thought though. I think the domain and sub-domain would need to be catchy enough to temp someone into clicking, and the landing page would need a bit of thought.

 

[anantj]

1) is it ethical?
2) is it spammy?
3) is it worth the time implementing and executing?

IMO,
1. Why not?
2. I'd say on the border. I don't really see a major use of or subversion thereof of the referrer field
3. I implemented a generic referrer for all my browsing using a small extension. The URL in the referrer field now links to my portfolio page (Afternic listing page). So time taken to implement: 5 minutes. The extension also allows customization by URL (patterns) but I'm not very inclined to spend so much time on it.