Site Flipping - Investments That Pay Dividends (Part 1)
When people first hear about domain investing, even experienced marketers, they often cringe. Some think it means buying trademark and typo terms to get “accidental” visitors looking for a different site. Some believe domains have little monetary value, and are instead traded on intrinsic characteristics like “cuteness” or scarcity.
The general consensus of opinion nowadays is that a domain name is not important and that NoggyDog.net is just as good as Banks.Com, with the understanding that the content on each site is identical. Now I too used to believe this but I can assure you now that I was completely mistaken. I will reveal the awesome value of domain investments with a couple of questions for you. Which domain name would you consider to be most valuable but strictly on a valuation basis? … Google.com or Books.com?
Even my dog has just answered Google.com so don’t feel so bad when I tell you that it isn’t the case here and I will explain just why. I think we would all agree that Google is one of the most successful businesses there are on or off line, but how many people do you think put Google in the search box… exactly, it is not often used as a keyword. What this is really telling us is that if you own a domain name you also control the keyboard.
I have several domains like Google.com, all cute, super fun-to-say, and memorable, but with no real definition. None get more than a few visitors a month - accidental, random traffic, at best. And since “Google” doesn’t historically mean anything, there’s almost no way to monetize a name like that without millions and millions of dollars worth of branding, and years of reputation building. At best, a domain like Google.com - but with no existing name recognition - might earn a few dollars a year in click revenue and sell for a few thousand at auction.
After taking this into consideration you may just see how a domain name such as Flights.com could create a hell of a lot of casual visitors otherwise known as type-in traffic or direct navigation. If I had to calculate though my own results as well as established type-in click-through metrics for the domain industry, I would estimate an average of 5000 visitors a day for a domain name like Flights.com. This means that you would receive 125,000 visits a month just through type-in traffic. (Find out just how in part 2)…Published Soon.
