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.

 

[MapleDots]

We are not talking about the store as requested,

but the kind of domains you have and the amount of traffic that they generate is an important metric to have for this discussion, so as I said a new thread to discuss directed traffic in general might not be a bad idea, although I like to see what OP has to say about this. IMO

I have already discussed what types of domains. One word .ca's two word. ca's, 20% com's and regions and cities. All highly targeted to the Canadian marketplace.

 

[oldtimer]

I have already discussed what types of domains. One word .ca's two word. ca's, 20% com's and regions and cities. All highly targeted to the Canadian marketplace.

And so the fact that the majority of your domains are geo targeted to your local market is what is making all the difference here as far as your redirected traffic being so effective. IMO

By the way can you give us a rough idea of how much traffic your 1000 domains are generating. (if that's a trade secret then I understand).

 

[oldtimer]

no its not

Do they charge by the word to make a post in Germany

It would be nice to add a little more explanation in your reply.

 

[frank-germany]

Do they charge by the word to make a post in Germany

It would be nice to add a little more explanation in your reply.

all you need is human visitors
from a western country

 

[Recons.Com]

And so the fact that the majority of your domains are geo targeted to your local market is what is making all the difference here as far as your redirected traffic being so effective. IMO

By the way can you give us a rough idea of how much traffic your 1000 domains are generating. (if that's a trade secret then I understand).

His website, even after redirect, is Alexa 5M.

Even adjusting for the fact that Canada traffic doesn't get registered on Alexa as other countries do, it still should mean that daily visitors to the site even after the redirect are only around 300-700 uniques per day, and probably just 100-300 from the redirect.

It would be quite remarkable to extract that much revenue from so few visitors. And it is also strange that with that ability the OP is not simply buying paid search Canadian traffic. If you can get around 70K/months in revenue from adding 100 to 300 per day times 30, that means each visitor contributes $8 to $20 to revenue.

Now, we don't know his profit margin, but let's assume 40%. That is still $3.2 to $8 per visitor. So he could easily afford 20 cents to 2 dollars for targeted Canadian clicks.

Something doesn't add up. That 40% increase in sales could just be seasonal or due to other factors?

 

[oldtimer]

all you need is human visitors
from a western country

Right, and to have Targeted human visitors versus those who are browsing in General is what is considered to be the ideal traffic which the OP apparently has here. IMO

 

[xynames]

It’s an arduous process to get from even this “redirect” to even buying anything. First you land on some page that at first glance is a URL plant. Then assuming you’re determined to get to the actual online store you go to what appears to be the online store but is merely a description of the online store a sort of “about us” page. Then if you click the link on that page to go to the actual store you’ll see series of products not at the top but somewhat hidden at the bottom, then assuming you click on each - not even product but just “category” or brand of product, still you get no prices unless you register and login, which I assume involves re-starting this whole maze to reach the actual products again. At any point clicking the home button just takes you back to the link plant looking page.

Worst Jacob’s ladder-esque online selling design I’ve ever encountered I mean seriously I assumed all of this was just filler stuff for a phony business when I viewed it weeks ago. It struck me as a fake site set up to make it difficult to buy anything.

People who just happen to land on one your domains click through all this, register, login, and then actually buy something at your online store [name of online store redacted by request]? These must be determined people.

I know exactly what his online store is. I also know his domains. I can state that categorically few if any of his domains or keywords in his domains have anything to do with what he sells in his store. I also know, as outlined above, that anyone who wants to buy anything from his store needs to register just to see prices let alone to buy, and that the store looks rather odd, doesn't really get right to the point of what is being sold.

Therefore, I'd have to say with conviction that this redirect results only in elimination of domain sales for direct land-on audience, and zero or close to zero sales from the random untargeted audience that is being redirected to his store.

In order to gainsay what I state above, he'd have to implement Google conversion tracking to prove that the domain redirect traffic is actually going all the way through with registration and purchase. If he does that and establishes that this is really what is happening, I would be very surprised.

 

[oldtimer]

I know exactly what his online store is. I also know his domains. I can state that categorically few if any of his domains or keywords in his domains have anything to do with what he sells in his store. I also know, as outlined above, that anyone who wants to buy anything from his store needs to register just to see prices let alone to buy, and that the store looks rather odd, doesn't really get right to the point of what is being sold.

Therefore, I'd have to say with conviction that this redirect results only in elimination of domain sales for direct land-on audience, and zero or close to zero sales from the random untargeted audience that is being redirected to his store.

In order to gainsay what I state above, he'd have to implement Google conversion tracking to prove that the domain redirect traffic is actually going all the way through with registration and purchase. If he does that and establishes that this is really what is happening, I would be very surprised.

We are not here to persecute the OP, but rather to discuss and learn from redirecting the traffic from domain portfolios, and as such that's why I suggested that it might be better to start a new thread for this and leave all personal info out of it about anyone's domains or store. IMO

 

[frank-germany]

I know exactly what his online store is. I also know his domains. I can state that categorically few if any of his domains or keywords in his domains have anything to do with what he sells in his store. I also know, as outlined above, that anyone who wants to buy anything from his store needs to register just to see prices let alone to buy, and that the store looks rather odd, doesn't really get right to the point of what is being sold.

Therefore, I'd have to say with conviction that this redirect results only in elimination of domain sales for direct land-on audience, and zero or close to zero sales from the random untargeted audience that is being redirected to his store.

In order to gainsay what I state above, he'd have to implement Google conversion tracking to prove that the domain redirect traffic is actually going all the way through with registration and purchase. If he does that and establishes that this is really what is happening, I would be very surprised.

I don't think he has to "proove" anything

just do it your self
and get a feeling
if you like

thats all the OP is telling you


as far as I understand


( I have about 12 years experience with "RON" traffic
it works - but is hard to convert

still works

if you don't pay for the traffic )

 

[Recons.Com]

I don't think he has to "proove" anything

just do it your self
and get a feeling
if you like

thats all the OP is telling you


as far as I understand


( I have about 12 years experience with "RON" traffic
it works - but is hard to convert

still works

if you don't pay for the traffic )

Master Yoda? ))

 

[Elsupremo]

All of the name's out partnership own's are forwarded to plant based products to make it easier to see many name's from 1 domain .

 

[KTC]

I know exactly what his online store is. I also know his domains. I can state that categorically few if any of his domains or keywords in his domains have anything to do with what he sells in his store. I also know, as outlined above, that anyone who wants to buy anything from his store needs to register just to see prices let alone to buy, and that the store looks rather odd, doesn't really get right to the point of what is being sold.

Therefore, I'd have to say with conviction that this redirect results only in elimination of domain sales for direct land-on audience, and zero or close to zero sales from the random untargeted audience that is being redirected to his store.

In order to gainsay what I state above, he'd have to implement Google conversion tracking to prove that the domain redirect traffic is actually going all the way through with registration and purchase. If he does that and establishes that this is really what is happening, I would be very surprised.

Agree with the Google conversion tracking to prove that this traffic is actually converting.

Nonetheless, it does look interesting to test out to see if this traffic is driving more of the sales or if there were backlinks from some of his obtained domains are increasing his SEO to actually bring him more targeted traffic from the search engines. If it is untargeted traffic, I expect barely any sales at all, as you had said. But, if it has increased his SEO positions, then I could totally see his claim of increased sales being credible.

A good read that some people may be interested in is from Detailed's blog titled: Expired Domains for SEO: Generating Up to $35k/m from Best Product Reviews. The guy that gave the interview was mostly tailored to generating Amazon Affiliate Sales(which I actually wouldn't agree with anyone using Amazon as the continuing changes in commissions and the very short cookie time is a personal turn-off), but with that value his backlinks have given him increased sales. But, doing something like dropshipping or even increasing your own store's presence can do absolute wonders to your bottom line.

 

[MapleDots]

It is an experiment to see what pointing so many domains at an end address does. I have seen a good uptick in sales in the first little while but I will only be able to say for sure once some time passes. There are natural ups and downs in the retail world so until you get months of data it is hard to say anything for sure.

That said, I'm liking what I'm seeing and I will be continuing the redirects to see where my final sales data goes.

 

[oldtimer]

Agree with the Google conversion tracking to prove that this traffic is actually converting.

Nonetheless, it does look interesting to test out to see if this traffic is driving more of the sales or if there were backlinks from some of his obtained domains are increasing his SEO to actually bring him more targeted traffic from the search engines. If it is untargeted traffic, I expect barely any sales at all, as you had said. But, if it has increased his SEO positions, then I could totally see his claim of increased sales being credible.

A good read that some people may be interested in is from Detailed's blog titled: Expired Domains for SEO: Generating Up to $35k/m from Best Product Reviews. The guy that gave the interview was mostly tailored to generating Amazon Affiliate Sales(which I actually wouldn't agree with anyone using Amazon as the continuing changes in commissions and the very short cookie time is a personal turn-off), but with that value his backlinks have given him increased sales. But, doing something like dropshipping or even increasing your own store's presence can do absolute wonders to your bottom line.

I agree that Google gives more weight to pure city and regional geographical domains especially in their corresponding ccTLD (in this case .ca), and as such forwarding 1000 such domains to a website can create a lot of credibility for that site which can give it a higher ranking in search engines resulting in more visitors. It's worth noting that forwarding the wrong kind of domains to your main website can have the opposite effect and might lower your search engine ranking. IMO

 

[KTC]

It is an experiment to see what pointing so many domains at an end address does. I have seen a good uptick in sales in the first little while but I will only be able to say for sure once some time passes. There are natural ups and downs in the retail world so until you get months of data it is hard to say anything for sure.

That said, I'm liking what I'm seeing and I will be continuing the redirects to see where my final sales data goes.

Sounds like a good case study to write down. I'd definitely been interested in seeing this as well.

May want me to actually put one of my domains to good use with some of the SEO value that it still has.

 

[ultradog]

I'd have to ask my expert on seo, but this mass redirection seems like bad practice, if you keep it up for long. For one thing, it seems like there'd be possible negative consequences for some domains, as they become associated with your marketplace site, if their meaning and relevance are very different. But as I say I'd have to ask my coworker.

 

[xynames]

I'm liking what I'm seeing and I will be continuing the redirects to see where my final sales data goes.

Unless you definitively track the conversions from the redirect traffic all the way to sale, you may continue to see what you want to see, versus what is really happening.

 

[KTC]

I agree that Google gives more weight to pure city and regional geographical domains especially in their corresponding ccTLD (in this case .ca), and as such forwarding 1000 such domains to a website can create a lot of credibility for that site which can give it a higher ranking in search engines resulting in more visitors. It's worth noting that forwarding the wrong kind of domains to your main website can have the opposite effect and might lower your search engine ranking. IMO

Oh, definitely. It's not completely black and white because it depends on the quality of the backlinks generated. If most of the domains have crappy, spammy backlinks, it's only going to do more harm than good if it was one of those Fiverr-type gigs of 100k backlinks for $5. Even with a good backlink profile, it can be negligible since it still has to go through the SEO dance and that's just one part of it. But, as you said, it can give a lot of credibility to a website and generate more visitors.

 

[xynames]

If his domains have a lot of backlinks coming to them, and then he does a 301 redirect, yes that might help his ranking at the site to which all these are redirected, but I don't think his domains have a lot of backlinks pointing to them in the first place. Plus the domains had zero content to speak of on them prior to this redirect scheme.

I also think that the Google bots see through such a ploy when too many domains are redirecting to the same website.

 

[oldtimer]

Oh, definitely. It's not completely black and white because it depends on the quality of the backlinks generated. If most of the domains have crappy, spammy backlinks, it's only going to do more harm than good if it was one of those Fiverr-type gigs of 100k backlinks for $5. Even with a good backlink profile, it can be negligible since it still has to go through the SEO dance and that's just one part of it. But, as you said, it can give a lot of credibility to a website and generate more visitors.

Also it's important to keep in mind that any kind of change or activity can cause a temporarily uptick in visibility for a website, whether that is going to hold for the long run is what needs to be considered before using redirecting your portfolio's traffic as a viable and long term strategy. IMO

 

[MapleDots]

Unless you definitively track the conversions from the redirect traffic all the way to sale, you may continue to see what you want to see, versus what is really happening.

There is only one thing I need to see and that is my sales figures at the end of the day.
If they are higher in the next three months then it works, if they are unchanged then it is just a few keyclicks to change things back.

The store has years of sales data so once entered on my spreadsheet I will be able to track the pattern.
With sales you can never go month over month, as in sales are higher in June than July. You have to track year over year and compare July to July the year before so it will be a few months before I get solid data.

 

[Recons.Com]

If his domains have a lot of backlinks coming to them, and then he does a 301 redirect, yes that might help his ranking at the site to which all these are redirected, but I don't think his domains have a lot of backlinks pointing to them in the first place.

I also think that the Google bots see through such a ploy when too many domains are redirecting to the same website.

It might hurt too, if they are bad ones.

If he is looking for traffic only, 302 temporary redirect is the best.

But, so far, it seems, he has admitted that he has not verified if it is seasonal/temporary/unrelated/search related etc. He doesn't know, if the growth is coming from the redirects.

And, again, it is astonishing to generate so much sales from such little traffic. The numbers just don't add up.

 

[frank-germany]

If his domains have a lot of backlinks coming to them, and then he does a 301 redirect, yes that might help his ranking at the site to which all these are redirected, but I don't think his domains have a lot of backlinks pointing to them in the first place. Plus the domains had zero content to speak of on them prior to this redirect scheme.

I also think that the Google bots see through such a ploy when too many domains are redirecting to the same website.

you are thinking into the wrong direction
has nothing to do with SEO
but with human eyeballs
looking at the shop
and eventually liking some stuff
and buy

 

[xynames]

but with human eyes

There aren't that many eyes landing on his domains! And the ones who do redirect to his store didn't ask to go there, and will simply leave, instantly, especially when they realize that they must register just to figure out how much what he sells costs! or to buy anything. This is untargeted, irrelevant traffic, and we're talking about a couple hundred a day maybe.

 

[MapleDots]

And, again, it is astonishing to generate so much sales from such little traffic. The numbers just don't add up.

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.