I need to use 'long tail' type-ins because all the higher traffic names of around 10 unique visitors/day and above are all taken. (I'm using Overture for this estimate).
My theory is that even if each of these low traffic names only gets 4 or 5 unique visitors daily, then 100 such domains will give me about 185,000 uniques/yr. At a sales conversion rate of around 1%, my net profit would be $37,000 for this traffic. Nice pocket money.
The cost of keeping the domains would be around $900/yr, so the figures stack up okay.
Does anyone do this kind of thing successfully? Is there anything I should look out for?
We had some success with long tail keyword domains in the telecom sector, but when renewal time came around we only kept a third of them because the rest were not worth it.
With us, we found it was a fairly steep drop. The best ones brought us consistent traffic, but they were few in number.
In making my guestimate I'm assuming that these long tails have constant year round traffic. Maybe not.
There are a lot of unregistered selections at the 4 visits/day mark which originally peaked my interest. Maybe these terms drop off the scale after a month or two for some unknown reason.
How would I quickly be able to check this? Do I need to join Wordtracker, or is there some freebie source to get the historical data?
Thanks!
How would I quickly be able to check this?
Wouldn't such a small scale test be unreliable? If Overture says unique traffic for my test domain is 10/day, by the time I got the DNS xfer organized and had a couple of days left from the 5 days tasting to prove it, this may not tell me anything about traffic on the same days in Oct 2008 (or whatever date).
But the idea is interesting, and I'm certainly open to more ideas. Thanks.
then 100 such domains will give me about 185,000 uniques/yr. At a sales conversion rate of around 1%, my net profit would be $37,000 for this traffic.
Well, you're certainly not referring to AdSense!
I've just checked some 30 domains I have with single page customised content that have been around for between 5-10 years, all names in all SERPs etc.
This 30 for 2007 so far have had just over 50,000+ Google Page Impressions and earned USD 560.00 therefore they may make USD 850 for a full 12 months.
Many of these names are single word trade-related and highly relevant for my sector and will, eventually, be developed into full-blown sites.
by the time I got the DNS xfer organized
It shouldn't take that long. If I buy a domain the traffic is usually showing up in a few hours.
High density, in SERPs, for an exact match of the generic industry phrase is a good thing.
The longer the domain=phrase the fewer the type-ins.
The longer the phrase the more likely the type-ins are rather focused on your domain's topic.
The more indicative the domain is of a highly commercial intent the more likely the phrase has enduser value or conversion utility, . . but not always.
It's part formula, part experience, part good instinct. The formula comes from experience, paid for in many hours of work and lots of money invested. Most of "the formula" is laid out above. The rest of "the secret formula" is actually nothing more than taking your time, thinking about things before you go hunting, etc.
Seeing the big picture is always a factor. Trend analysis matters. Subject matter matters. How do people, looking for "X", tend to think and search? Will that change? What's your demographic? Is THAT demographic more or less likely to employ direct navigation?
Show up at a PubCon some day. I tend to "give it all away" when I speak. I suspect some folks will vouch for that. I do a pretty good job of giving it all away here, too. Heck, I just "gave away" a number of decent unregistered domains elsewhere, at another domain place where my (abbreviated) nic is "Cranky".
Cranky? Go figure. ;0)
Chicagohh - I agree that a DNS transfer won't take as long as a couple of days... but if I were buying domains and spending time putting them through the 301 process, measuring, testing etc., I could easily see that it would be a day or two before I could see results.
I guess my main question is this - what are the most efficient processes to get traffic to my website? Type-ins seem to have the advantage of organic flow, which also means less work at the coalface. So that's my quest.
The alternative is whipping up my affiliates, but this is ongoing and time-consuming, and sometimes doesn't get the results I want. I've often found that sales from some affiliates have higher refund rates simply because they are not targeting the right audience.
Long tail type-ins - by the very nature of their targeted response - would be a lot more reliable in that respect. And as WebWork says: "The longer the phrase the more likely the type-ins are rather focused on your domain's topic."
If long tail names are the answer, the next step is how to quantify them to get the best results. Which leads on to the main question - how do I ensure that a picked batch of 3-4 word keyword domain names are going to stay popular for a while to give me an easy life?
Good idea. I'm not generally an 'all eggs in one basket' kinda guy, but I like the idea of less maintenance.
Does your website have as much content as humanly possible about your topic? Content = traffic from search engines. Just make sure it is relevant. Ideas - history of your industry / products / how to buy your product / how to use your product etc etc - you'll be amazed at how much traffic you get from the long tail this way.
Agreed. Now I'm just trying to figure out how to identify the best/worst names in traffic terms. Once the portfolio count starts to rise, it will become a real time-comsuming chore, and I value my sales-making time over admin time.
I guess - looking on the bright side - if I can make one sale a year from one long tail, then I've covered the expenses for 3 domain names. That saves me chasing my tail with complicated stats.
