Evening Folks!!
Here is something I doubt many will agree with. But here
goes. I go out of my way NOT to get search engine traffic. Sorry, but I am
looking for something completely different, much bigger and search inhibits that information
at this stage of the game.
See what I try to do is start with a domain with
100-500 daily type ins. What I want is growth because something on the site
sparked them to come back or tell somebody or list somewhere. That to ME is the
goal. The search traffic clouds that information over at this point. That is fine later on, but in my pea brain, not at this stage. On the otherhand when I have no traffic on a domain I would do the opposite. All you have is search or your own links etc.
My goal is never to have a “Spike” in traffic. It is to
latch on to something that shows growth and THEN worry about stuff like that.
So I come at things a different way. I am not saying it is right. I am saying
it is the method that I employ and use. If I have a domain getting 2 visitors every day, my goal is to bring it to 4. It's not easy. I don't want 23 visitors from search. Not yet. I want to figure out the formaula to grow the traffic from 2 to 4. From 500 to 1000. Once that can be done THEN search traffic becomes important because it can accelerate your growth. But it accelerates because you have a formula, a business, a product, a service.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
PS: I should have said I doubt 'ANYBODY' will agree with me. But from most f the responses, you folks completely missed my point. You focused on the wrong part of the post imo. Which is more important, meaningful,and long lasting, 1 match to make a fire, 50 matches to make 50 fires or the knowledge to make fire without the matches? Also, this post is not about 'Advice.' It is to share a concept that I employ. Right or wrong. And for the record. I am probably the worst person on the net to develop. But I developed the original TRAFFIC site's content with the great and unselfish help of Mike Fiol who created the original site, logo and navigation which has taken in more than $25 Million between the show and booking hotel rooms. It has had 3 versions besides Mike's original site and layout. By 3 developers. Michelle Miller when she was working with Browser Media. Danny Prior, on the last version and now the Skezno team. But the content and almost every word written came from me. I worked on it every day year after year. Websites are never finished. they evolve. But it is NOT about the site. It is not about search. It is about the BUSINESS. Each element is important. The website, the navigation of the website, the look, the feel and finally the thing that trumps everything else, the product, the business. Sorry, but search is last not first in my book. I could make a case that websites are a waste of time. Build businesses, not websites. That is truly the missing ingredient. Lastly, it also depends what you are looking for. If you are satisfied with a domain making $1/day, $10/day, $100/day, $1000/day that is all well and good. But the truly big money is not there. That's just the foundational money to buy you the luxury of time. Finally, which has more value to YOU. 10 visitors from search or 10 visitors from 'Word of Mouth' advertising? I'll take the latter EVERY single time. So I would rather focus there. Oh I forgot, many don't include 'Word of Mouth' as an option in this new era. But it still is king!
Kenya
that might be the worst advice ever.
and would explain why you Rick have never succeeded at this interweb thing
Leonard Britt
I’ll give you one example of someone who took a domain they paid $10 for (JuegosFun.com), developed it and sold it for 12 thousand euros (~$17,000) a year later….
http://www.demene.com/discussion/13239/macrosubastadominios-y-proyectos-unforocom-ianuncioscom-demandares-crucerospe/
http://www.demene.com/discussion/22015/dnj-hasta-el-23-de-agosto/
http://www.dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2009/20090902.htm
Bill
Poorly written, so poorly your entire point will be lost.
Understanding your natural or type in traffic is key before search engines bring you other viewers and skew the results. Ahhhh that make sense now.
The rest of your post about traffic spikes is just gibberish.
Stick to shameless promotion leave development to those in the know, champ.
Mike
Some folks just never will get this concept, evidenced by the first two posts. What they are talking about has nothing to do with what you are talking about.
All I know is that when I find a domain I like with traffic and it has never been developed or is listed in any search engine….I see gold! LOL
Danny Pryor
Search engines have taken some of the traffic from direct navigation, but I still would rather start with a generic, spelled correctly and all. After all, for those who are simply typing in”shoes.com” probably know they’re going to land in one of two spots these days … a website that is selling shoes or a site with plenty of links to places that sell shoes. High-quality names with natural traffic are always going to be the best because you don’t have to brand the domain along with branding the product you’re selling.
Alan
Everybody has a different role in this industry and this is the dumbest advice I’ve ever heard.
Leave the development tips to the developers.
Helder
Rick is right about one thing, and that is the most important thing, it’s all about business, it’s all about making money.
I see a lot of developers talking about creating big sites, with excellent content, ranking in search engines etc… Well how about so many one page sites that sell, that make a lot of money.
The goal is to make money, not simply get traffic, not simply ranking in google or wherever, there are so many excellent sites with tons of traffic that make very little money, so what’s the point?
The goal is to make money, it all depends on the business, it’s specific for each domain, for each site, it all depends on what it is.
The rules are not the same to every site, to every business.
If you have a site selling medication, all you need is a good generic domain and good one page site to sell. If you have a site with health information, then you need to add good content, and keep updating. All this to show that different businesses, different sites, different domains have different needs, but in the end what counts is making money.
So just stop the”war” about parking vs mini sites vs full scale development, it’s non sense, those things for themselves mean nothing, again what counts is the end result, and that is money.
Response by Rick: Amen. Exactly the point.
Tim Davids
I own a city.com of a city near me…I’m attending real estate agent school right now…I’ll be listing homes for sale on that .com.
All I need is 1″real” buyer a month to make $$$. A type-in in this case is better than someone finding me via some long-tail term.
Anthony
My 2 cents …
How many of you searched for” search engine” to find Google.com or How many of us used search engines to find Facebook.com which now has 300 Million members ?
I think Rick is really asking … Do you want to be a King or a Pauper ?
Anthony
Ze
I totally agree with you Rick. Understanding how to grow a website that has poor traffic and harnessing the”formula” to make ANY domain grow, is the holly grail of online businesses. If you can do that without guaranteed search numbers, or buying your traffic, and you can reproduce it again and again on any site, on any domain, then you have sure money on your pocket. All the time! Excellent post and perspective.
Response by Rick: Thanks for explaining it to the folks that think I am a fool. Some only see one door and one solution. Thank the Lord I knew nothing about search in 1995. It forced me to look for a back door. The back door to traffic was domain names AND it came with a priceless asset. ;-)
domain guy
so you own the domain cubic
zirconia.com you have 5 uniques a day and then you build upon this type in number. how? do you add more related domains,misspellings? what formula do you employ? without search?and then you have direct navigation searchs people than want cubic zirconia and not real diamonds.therefore these
visitors at this stage of the game are worth a ton of money for each lead.servicemagic sells these laeds $25- 60 DOLLARS EACH. in addition
to this strategy google
is not in the picture and you do not need google.google only dilutes your biz model.
MAGOOgle
I would agree.
I have a similar fetish as to which domains to develop.
When looking at them with the same type-in traffic, I find those that have the least hits when doing a google search gives me the opportunity to become number one with those search terms and has brought more traffic that way.
Like you, it is better to build on fundamentals of content than getting search hits because if they never stop back, what is that worth?
You may make money but for how long and are you not missing the potential of monetizing the site.
Make it a site they will email their friends about first.
Better to be a big fish in a small sea than to be a small fish in a big sea.
Domain Superstar
“I go out of my way NOT to get search engine traffic” = CRAZY (capital letters intended) :) http://www.domainsuperstar.com/i-go-out-of-my-way-not-to-get-search-engine-traffic-crazy
Jim
Excellent post Rick. Your last two blog posts could be described as controversial but it takes gutsy decisions sometimes to tell it like it is. Otherwise we become too comfortable and accept perceived norms without ever questioning them.
For instance the endless touting of mini sites as a profitable solution for domainers on domainer blogs shows more about their cosy relationships with each other then about making genuine profit from these products. Also you get fed up of the same domainers, day in, day out showing mini site examples of their site gaining users monthly. You often wonder is it because they keep mentioning the same mini site domain names in their blog that they gradually get traffic and search engine juice from the blog that is the main driver to the mini site. The very same domainers spout about how traffic has grown to 3000 uniques a month in six months, but rarely, if ever, do they divulge the financial figure or profit. And we all know why. Despite all the publicity they receive for the mini sites in the respected domainer blogs they still only convert to $9 – $30 / month. Yet they want to lead the complete domain novice up the garden path to mini site development. In my experience mini site development on the norm is more costly than parked pages when you consider the upfront cost and pay back period.
As for search engine traffic, the ultimate goal for a website owner is to have the least traffic from there as possible and find real traffic / end users for your website. Too much risk with search engine traffic. Generic search is on it’s last leg so to speak(it’s becoming more symbolic than useful for small website owner), while paid search is the future for search engines. But paid search can also be ineffective and costly so alternatives to search engines are making real progress. Most of the genuine and up to date information for domaining nowadays comes not through Google(search or news)but through niche specific authority sites like domaining.com. This will be replicated across niche segments in every market. Relevance is what matter most these days and big search engines just cant do that any more. The conflict with driving more and more people from generic search to paid search is just going to make the future of generic search even more irrelevant in the future.
Search Engine Traffic
I totally agree with Rick’s idea..Understanding how to grow a website that has poor traffic and harnessing the formula..That would be great to learn..