Part 3 - Buying Traffic Domains

Part 3 - Buying Traffic Domains

In the previous parts of this article I discussed the importance of determining what business model you are applying to a domain prior to an acquisition. Whether it was for the domains traffic, development or to treat the domain as a stock item is a decision that needs to be made if you are to become a profitable domainer. In this article I'll now explore some of the ways that I've purchased traffic domain names.

The first example I'll look at is purchasing an individual domain from an existing owner.

Since traffic domains generate their return on investment from the traffic going to them then there are a number of questions that should be answered prior to any acquisition or purchase. There are many, many questions that can and need to be asked but I'll tackle the most important one first.

Is the traffic going to continue?

This is the number one question that you should be asking! If the traffic is not going to continue then it will dramatically impact your return on investment. In fact, you may wish to say "no" to the deal right now.

Why wouldn't the traffic continue? The domain for sale may have once been an old website that has an established web of links that will degrade across time. Worse still there may be a single primary link that is providing all the traffic for the domain. If that link is severed then the traffic to your potential acquisition will die.

Another reason why the traffic may cease is that the seller is artificially increasing the traffic numbers by purchasing traffic from elsewhere and pumping up the numbers for the domain. This can be done in a number of way such as via PPC advertising, email lists or I have even seen one case where the domainer had relatives (they had a lot) go to the domain and click on the links. These are ALL acts of fraud and can only be construed as being theft. If you do this then please stop reading as it's all about establishing a good reputation rather than ripping people off.

To overcome fraudulent activities I look at the domainer more than I look at the domain. If the domainer is right then nine times out of ten the domain is right. If there are problems with a domain then I believe a good domainer will often make the transaction good in other ways.

Let me share with you an example of this. A few years ago I purchased a domain from a German friend of mine that over time I've grown to respect. After about one week the traffic to the domain declined dramatically. Neither of us could work out the reason why this had happened and without a moments hesitation my German friend offered to either replace the domain or reverse out the transaction. When you deal with quality people like this then acquiring domain names becomes a LOT less risky.

Therefore, if you are looking at purchasing a domain name then not only do you need to look at the reputation of the seller (I'll talk about this later) you also need to establish a reputation yourself. Good sellers are also nervous about bad buyers.

Establishing a good reputation takes money, time, effort and has an initial payback of zero but a huge long-term payback.

To establish a good reputation I would:

1. Join the domain forums and most of all be humble when asking any questions and taking part in the discussions. You can start here if you like whizzbangsblog.com forum.

If you haven't joined a forum before then the first thing that you should do is introduce yourself. Say where you're from, how long you've been in the industry for, what you are wanting to achieve and a few personal items always help (eg. Married, kids, hobbies etc). Real people with real lives are reading the forums and you would be surprised at how helpful they can be. Most of all, be humble and be who you are.

2. Attend the conferences (eg. TRAFFIC, DomainFest etc). Don't be afraid to talk to people, everyone has to start somewhere. From my experience the great majority of domainers are fantastic people who will often bend over backwards to help a new person to the industry that has a humble attitude.

3. Read the blogs and leave comments. This is not a push for you to leave comments for my benefit but you would be surprised at how fast you can develop a great reputation by leaving insightful thoughts.

4. There are links to all of these resources plus a lot more in the domain archives area.

It may seem that I've diverged from buying domains into establishing a good reputation but let me assure you that it's really hard to do business if you have earned a bad reputation or if you have no reputation at all.

In the Part 4 of Domaining 101 I'll tackle a few more of the important questions that I always think about in any domain purchase.