Revenue via Typos- Is my plan crazy?

[cyman]

Hi there-

So I guess I'm pretty good at finding domain typos. My plan is to find good ones that make more $ than the reg fee, purge the rest and keep building.
Is this a realistic plan? Needless to say, people think it's crazy and I don't blame them.

In terms of my background, I'm a programmer with SEO experience, so I am very tech-savvy. But I have no time for making custom pages. Life is just too busy. I work full time.

Generally speaking I think any typo domain with 350+ uniques per year can make more than the reg fee. Is this correct, or am I wrong on that?

NOTE: I actually had this going back in 2010 with some domains in GoDaddy cashparking.. But recently people just stopped clicking despite increased impressions. (Moving to Above/Voodoo.)

 

[decades80]

You wrote this as it was a piece of cake. Just give it a try and register around 100 typos of your kind (making 350 impressions), you will get money back like in 4 years when lucky...

 

[ibidu]

It's pointless asking that type of questions here.

If I were you I'd put that plan into action by registering 5 domians to begin with - using Godaddy coupons would cost you about $6 - if the plan works then you could scale it up and if it doesn't, you've had some fun and you should then abandon the idea.

PS- if by any chance it worked and made you a lot of money, don't forget my consultancy fees and I mean it.

 

[Billidn]

Eventually the owners of the names you are 'typoing' on will probably come a calling, and it may cost you more than you ever earned. Check out some of the WIPO actions written about at thedomains.com, including one last week that went after something like 1000 typo domains.

Why not work to get some legitimate traffic names, you can make money on even 20, 30 or 40 uniques a month if the "ads" value is decent, and the ads match the keyword.

Even at a 20% click thru rate, which is not unusual if the ads are a match, at lets say .25 a click, you could potentially make a small amount on each name, $2.50 to $4.00 a month, $30 to $48 a year less $8.50 renewal cost. If you can get one good name a week, over the course of a year you can get your monthly passive earnings up to $1000 + a month, much more if you are good at spotting names.

With some names you will get lucky, and might make $25 - $50 a month, others you will drop that just don't get any traffic at all. Some you might keep because you think they might be good potential names for a buyer to contact you on....kind of like holding expensive lottery tickets.

GoDaddy auctions can be a good place to look for names because of the massive amount of customers they have and the small % of drops still makes a huge number. But you have to figure out which names will get traffic, in particular type in traffic, and equally as important, which names will serve up relevant ads or you won't get any clicks.

In dealing with GoDaddy auctions this advice is GUARANTEED:
The big "traffic" figures (for the most part) that GoDaddy publishes in their auctions for many names are absolute Bullshit and not even close to reality.

About 2 years back, had bought about 10 names over time that GoDaddy Auctions advertised with 2500 + uniques a month and found out they get zero, well maybe 1 or 2.....my only guess is they let unscrupulous sellers 'post' their traffic figures and they just reprint them. I learned the hard way.

I would be interested in others experiences with GoDaddy Auctions and their "advertised" traffic numbers.

 

[ibidu]

Unless he creates a proper website first there's no other way of getting ligitimate traffic - and he's already said he has not time for doing that - also with a proper website there's no guarantee that his sites will get any traffic at all without proper backlink making or doing SEO and that takes lots of time - making minisites these days is a total waste of time.

 

[evil]

You can make more than reg fee with typos domain only if :
1) the traffic is good enough (usually the best typos domains are taken)
2) the RPC is high (for example better a money site than a torrent site)
3) you have a good parking service (godaddy is not good enough)

Another big issue is trademark or copyright violation, so pay attention!

 

[Kate]

I think it's going to be risky and cause lots of TM issues. Of course, many people are getting away with TM names and TM typos but if one end user decides to make an example out of you your life could turn miserable. They don't have to WIPO you, they can go for ACPA instead for monetary damages and if you live in the US it's certainly enforceable.
If traffic is your business model you could go for expired traffic instead.

 

[Billidn]

Unless he creates a proper website first there's no other way of getting ligitimate traffic - and he's already said he has not time for doing that - also with a proper website there's no guarantee that his sites will get any traffic at all without proper backlink making or doing SEO and that takes lots of time - making minisites these days is a total waste of time.

Do you not believe in type in traffic?

That is the 'gold', people searching for something specific,
landing on pages showing ads related to what they are searching for.

 

[ibidu]

Building a site around a "typo" is a big mistake.

 

[cyman]

Hey guys,

First of all big thanks to both of you especially Billidn who gave me some great data:
"Even at a 20% click thru rate, which is not unusual if the ads are a match, at lets say .25 a click, you could potentially make a small amount on each name, $2.50 to $4.00 a month, $30 to $48 a year less $8.50 renewal cost. If you can get one good name a week, over the course of a year you can get your monthly passive earnings up to $1000 + a month, much more if you are good at spotting names."

So far, this is all good info. Food for thought, thanks. Any other opinions, please keep posting. I read every post.

While I could test it myself, as you can tell from reading this, it makes sense to ask the pros IMHO. Just because that's my initial plan, needless to say, plans change, so all this advice is good!

 

[briguy]

Building a site around a "typo" is a big mistake.

What if the typo a generic name (not trademark) like sportzcar or basetball (just a example) ?

 

[Name Trader]

I doubt if you can rinse and repeat this over 52 weeks.

 

[decades80]

Hey guys,

First of all big thanks to both of you especially Billidn who gave me some great data:
"Even at a 20% click thru rate, which is not unusual if the ads are a match, at lets say .25 a click, you could potentially make a small amount on each name, $2.50 to $4.00 a month, $30 to $48 a year less $8.50 renewal cost. If you can get one good name a week, over the course of a year you can get your monthly passive earnings up to $1000 + a month, much more if you are good at spotting names."

So far, this is all good info. Food for thought, thanks. Any other opinions, please keep posting. I read every post.

While I could test it myself, as you can tell from reading this, it makes sense to ask the pros IMHO. Just because that's my initial plan, needless to say, plans change, so all this advice is good!

at DS I have 1-7 % CTR. So keep on dreaming about your 20%.

 

[Name Trader]

@decades80 - Yeah but, at least for me, DS EPC is double that of other companies, which kinda compensates for their low CTR.

 

[cyman]

What is DS EPC?

Ok guys so forget the typo thing.. What are my other options, assuming I do have some time on the side?
Here are examples from my domain portfolio. Are these useless to monetize (aside from selling them)?
costkick.com
yaylowprices.com

I signed up for DomainApps. They look good.

I know the long road is to try every strategy myself, but as a programmer I know, there's a lot of ways to start on the wrong foot, and a little advice from experts can go a long way.
Also, if making money with domains is just not possible if you're new to the game, then it would save me a lot of time to let me know that now.

What's really handy is numbers from people who do this for a living. I know I need to "find a great domain" and "try to make a mini site" and then "add SEO, backlinks". That's not helpful. What's helpful is: "You really need this domain finding software called X. All the people who make real money use it", and especially "you should expect $X/month from a basic monetized domain. If you don't hit $X within Y weeks, then you are doing something wrong".

That sort of thing so I can track my progress and steer clear of time consuming mistakes.

 

[Garciajhon]

Eventually the owners of the names you are 'typoing' on will probably come a calling, and it may cost you more than you ever earned. Check out some of the WIPO actions written about at thedomains.com, including one last week that went after something like 1000 typo domains.

Why not work to get some legitimate traffic names, you can make money on even 20, 30 or 40 uniques a month if the "ads" value is decent, and the ads match the keyword.

Even at a 20% click thru rate, which is not unusual if the ads are a match, at lets say .25 a click, you could potentially make a small amount on each name, $2.50 to $4.00 a month, $30 to $48 a year less $8.50 renewal cost. If you can get one good name a week, over the course of a year you can get your monthly passive earnings up to $1000 + a month, much more if you are good at spotting names.

With some names you will get lucky, and might make $25 - $50 a month, others you will drop that just don't get any traffic at all. Some you might keep because you think they might be good potential names for a buyer to contact you on....kind of like holding expensive lottery tickets.

GoDaddy auctions can be a good place to look for names because of the massive amount of customers they have and the small % of drops still makes a huge number. But you have to figure out which names will get traffic, in particular type in traffic, and equally as important, which names will serve up relevant ads or you won't get any clicks.

In dealing with GoDaddy auctions this advice is GUARANTEED:
The big "traffic" figures (for the most part) that GoDaddy publishes in their auctions for many names are absolute Bullshit and not even close to reality.

About 2 years back, had bought about 10 names over time that GoDaddy Auctions advertised with 2500 + uniques a month and found out they get zero, well maybe 1 or 2.....my only guess is they let unscrupulous sellers 'post' their traffic figures and they just reprint them. I learned the hard way.

I would be interested in others experiences with GoDaddy Auctions and their "advertised" traffic numbers.

When people say its crazy they are mostly correct its not easy and U can do it if u have a very very good luck. and u can get a better luck while gambling in casinos in Vegas

 

[Name Trader]

DS EPC = Domain Sponsor Earnings Per Click

 

[SimpleDomaining]

I know the long road is to try every strategy myself, but as a programmer I know, there's a lot of ways to start on the wrong foot, and a little advice from experts can go a long way.
Also, if making money with domains is just not possible if you're new to the game, then it would save me a lot of time to let me know that now.

What's really handy is numbers from people who do this for a living. I know I need to "find a great domain" and "try to make a mini site" and then "add SEO, backlinks". That's not helpful. What's helpful is: "You really need this domain finding software called X. All the people who make real money use it", and especially "you should expect $X/month from a basic monetized domain. If you don't hit $X within Y weeks, then you are doing something wrong".

That sort of thing so I can track my progress and steer clear of time consuming mistakes.

Wouldnt this be so sweet.... The problem is that every single domain is unique, keywords are different and that affects lots of things when it comes to some average formula. There are some estimates you can get based on exact google keyword search result numbers, based on cpc estimates and based on valid quality backlinks. Being a programmer would benefit you. Simple example. Lets imagine there are two .com domains expiring. Domain A have 35000 monthly exact searches , 15 backlinks from some unknown blog sites and cpc estimate for keywords is $0.35. This would mean that if you will develop this domain and ad some adsense, you will need to bring lots of visitors to make $10. Domain B have also 35000 monthly searches, and couple backlinks, but its backlinks are coming from .gov. edu places and the domain niche is let say health related. This would mean not only much higher cpc but also (well again depend how burried that backlinks are) would mean guarantied traffic. If you park domain like this you can probably make your $10 from few visitors, much faster. This is why its very difficult to give a formula how much domain must make in what timeframe. Its depend on domain, on what you do with it, what is its background, what kind of backlinks it has, does it have natural type in traffic, or how many searches done using its keywords or how high the cpc is. You are the programmer.... Make the formula...would love to see it shared here

 

[decades80]

Wouldnt this be so sweet.... The problem is that every single domain is unique, keywords are different and that affects lots of things when it comes to some average formula. There are some estimates you can get based on exact google keyword search result numbers, based on cpc estimates and based on valid quality backlinks. Being a programmer would benefit you. Simple example. Lets imagine there are two .com domains expiring. Domain A have 35000 monthly exact searches , 15 backlinks from some unknown blog sites and cpc estimate for keywords is $0.35. This would mean that if you will develop this domain and ad some adsense, you will need to bring lots of visitors to make $10. Domain B have also 35000 monthly searches, and couple backlinks, but its backlinks are coming from .gov. edu places and the domain niche is let say health related. This would mean not only much higher cpc but also (well again depend how burried that backlinks are) would mean guarantied traffic. If you park domain like this you can probably make your $10 from few visitors, much faster. This is why its very difficult to give a formula how much domain must make in what timeframe. Its depend on domain, on what you do with it, what is its background, what kind of backlinks it has, does it have natural type in traffic, or how many searches done using its keywords or how high the cpc is. You are the programmer.... Make the formula...would love to see it shared here

Simple domaining is right. I have generic 2 word drug-XXXXXXXXX.com its getting around 500-1000 uniques per year. But imagine CTR is absolute zero. I guess the traffic is coming from some shi*** pages. And yes EPC at DS compensates the very low CTR. On some domains 1 click only is enough to gain the profits.

 

[SimpleDomaining]

If you going for a formula you should be starting backwards. Make a list of sites that are providing quality backlinks for your keywords then scan expired domains for having this backlinks and then analyze these domains to reg them or not