How much is a domain w/ unknown but qualified traffic worth? Have some measures?

[christopher_c]

Before I get a tonne of posts telling me this is way too simplistic a view, there is some substance to this rediculously shallow post. Lately, within various niches of mine, when trying to buy type-in/type-o domains (or drop catch) I'm finding more and more park-and-go domain competition. For instance, instead of competing with competitors from within a given niche, it's with people who on the surface seem to want the traffic alone.

I understand that there is certainly some investment value in domains so type-in traffic isn't everything, but the parked traffic domains really has given me pause. Namely, when I see an untargetted parked page sitting there I've always thought "Wow, what a waste of traffic". Now I'm wondering if I've missed the boat.

What I'd like to do is to get at least a general understanding of how much "untargeted" traffic is worse.

For instance, take the following hypothetical scenario:

• ilovepeanutbuttersandwiches.com has overture w/ numbers of 8k
• the domain on the surface doesn't point to any major industries
• the current owner is using a parked page to convert traffic

Take it one step further, the domain is going to drop tomorrow. Knowing nothing about the industry, how much do you bid? How much would 1000 type-ins per day be worth to you?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[hiOsilver]

Some of this question is discussed on my site, www.PPCIncome.com
Generally speaking, it is difficult to generalize about the value of traffic :>)
For example, I have lots of Asian traffic that simply does not convert using DomainSponsor, Fabulous, or the other PPC services. However, eventually, someone will create a DomainSponsor equivalent for Asian traffic, and then they will add an English interface for us, and I will be able to convert this traffic. In the mean time, it is close to worthless.

You can convert totally random traffic at TrafficZ for around $3/1000 uniques (not sure if there is a US restriction on this or not). You can convert totally random US traffic on DS (using popunders) for $5/1000 uniques (no click-thru required). That is the DS minimum, as most names will also generate income from click-thru.

On the other hand, if you can find the right target, the traffic can convert at much higher rates. This is a big part of why I am such a DomainSponsor fan: their auto-optimization will figure out what people are searching for and offer up the best converting links, although this can take up to several weeks to work. So, DS really requires patience. Sometimes, a name that I could not figure at all will end up producing a $20 or $25 cpm.

Fabulous's Roar general search page converts random US traffic rather well too. It generates around $5 to $10 for me on fairly random US traffic.

Sometimes, Brazilian or Italian or Dutch or whatever traffic will convert well on DomainSponsor or Fabulous ($5 to $15 cpu). At least these languages share our character set, and the countries have a fair number of English speakers as well. You can imagine that the average Chinese person who cannot decipher our character set does not click on anything when he or she gets a US web page.

Sedo has support for and gives you the option of setting the language for each name. So, Sedo is worth a try on European languages (Spanish, French, German, etc).

 

[christopher_c]

Thanks Hio,

That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for, great site as well Actually while you're here and seem to be an expert on the field, PM sent ;P

 

[actnow]

Chris,

Howard is is the "Rhodes Scholar" when it comes to traffic.
(Sorry, Duke, no offense.)

He has done all of the research for you on his website.
Plus, he will answer your questions if you PM him.

 

[christopher_c]

No dispute here act, actually it goes a long way into explaining why I've had so much trouble trying to pay for PPC sites w/ traffic. It's nice to actually have a figure as a starting point because I've really been clueless as to what a fair offering prices is.

It's kind of neat actually as you can use overture w/ numbers to get an approximate valuation of a site running one of the major ppc sites.

 

[hiOsilver]

Chris,

Howard is is the "Rhodes Scholar" when it comes to traffic.
(Sorry, Duke, no offense.)

He has done all of the research for you on his website.
Plus, he will answer your questions if you PM him.

Richard,

Thanks for the endorsement. :>)