Manipulating OVT+Ext counts?

[austinandrew]

I have this horrible feeling that OVT+Ext counts are being manipulated. People are paying so much for Overture domains that this was bound to happen. See this blog entry and tell me what you think.

When I saw a domain with about 5,000 domain+ext being sold for under $100, I became suspicious...

 

[MediaHound]

Of course they're being manipulated! Here's why:
All the software out there to bulk check overture counts as a search for next month's update. A search that was not an end user typing the query into a yahoo searchbox.
That means it's being manipulated.
I know the thread your referring to - that seller mines the names and then sells them. He's not intentionally creating bogus queries just to beef up the results.

A lot of the time, if the results seem strange, it's not going to be a traffic domain.
Here's an example:

7371 site steverossforcongress.com
7273 linkdomain steverossforcongress.com
7272 steverossforcongress.com

Notice the 'site' and 'linkdomain' helpers. That's some kind of automated analysis bot.
Beware of names with weird results like this.

Most of the time, if your buying a domain strictly based on its ovt score, ask the seller to test the traffic for a week or two, and offer to give him or her any revenue that it generates in the meantime.

This isn't a rampant problem as of yet, but it can be in the future.
Just be careful out there and know who your doing business with.
If the seller isnt willing to let you test the traffic, you might be better off saving your money.
Then again, there's always the chance that you may find a diamond in the rough.

 

[guile]

I certainly wouldn't doubt it...Some of these scammers work harder than people who make an honest living. But hey, some people prefer to walk around and collect cans at $0.05 cents a pop to avoid working.

I really dislike when people claim to have found an unregistered name that has OVT w/ext, and offer to sell it before it is even registered. It is really the perfect plan because they are not making any guarantee that the domain has any traffic at all, yet just collecting payment for the tip off.

Not to take anything away from the sellers that are honest, but I could spend this month boosting up the OVT w/ext of an unregistered domain that I will attempt to sell as a tipoff next month. I won't be responsible for verifying traffic becuase the name hasn't yet been registered. I surely won't be the one to blame when there is no traffic at all, how would I have known?

I personally would never buy a name under these circumstances. If the seller is so sure about a name, they would register it, track stats on it for a month, then sell it.

 

[clemzonguy]

I wouldn't exactly trust what a single person "thinks" or "suspects" as a basis for any business decisions. Buying & selling overture names is a gamble for all parties involved. The person selling may in fact loose a good producing name. The buyer might in fact buy a valuable income producing site. It's all a roll of the dice. I have had some domains get lots of hits one day while others there is nothing. Some traffic can be seasonal and irregular. There are people who do not think twice about taking the risk to buy these names even at a slight markup. I have actually had to remove a few names from sales simply because I discovered they started to make money just after I listed them. There is nothing guaranteed. If you are looking for easy handouts you are coming to the wrong place. People do not sell substantially documented earning sites for cheap. Even if a site does get traffic doesn't make it valuable either. One click or search can produce just as much as 50 visitors. Additionally sometimes sponsorship sites like Domain Sponsor do not report accurate stats or traffic information. Trust me I have compared DNS information and so have others. Just about anyone can take a gamble on overture names when auction prices are as high as they are. These names don't have the ability to be tested either! The reseller market is simply a way for people to break into the traffic business at a relatively cheap investment overhead. Sooner or later you will luck up and be glad you took a chance.

 

[guile]

I agree. If it looks like a gamble, sounds like a gamble, smells like a gamble lol...I am interested to hear what results other people have had from these unregistered ovt/w ext names? Maybe I will test my luck!

 

[taboo]

Overture does not always give accurate results either, just use common sense.

 

[urbanvilla]

Yep overture can be very misleading some domains without overture extension can earn while them with overture earn nothing !

speculate to accumulate thats the gamble !