Most domainers think that only type-in traffic deserves their attention but that’s just not true. Even if you want to limit yourself to being an investor (strictly buy and hold), it’s still important to understand how things work when it comes to other traffic sources and here’s why:

(In Most Cases) End Users CARE

First of all, let’s define an end user as a person who buys a domain with the intention of developing it. So for example, if you own DallasLawyers.com, an end user could be represented by a Dallas law firm as well as by a webmaster who wants to turn the domain into a directory (for example).

Leaving end users who are only interested in a descriptive domain which passes the phone test aside (there are a lot of them though), there are quite a few people who want to buy a certain domain with a clear business model in mind and those are exactly the folks who care about other traffic sources.

The Relationship between Domains and Traffic Sources

Let’s not complicate things too much and get right down to business by defining the most important traffic sources and referring to the relationship between domains and them:

1) Type-in Traffic

There are gazillions of posts/threads which focus on type-in traffic and since I’m pretty sure that most of my readers (after all, this is a domaining blog and everything) know everything there is to know about it, let’s move on and not waste valuable time.

2) Links

Yep, links. That’s how we communicate online and as a result, there’s a huge amount of traffic on the table. How do people find sites via search engines? They perform a search and click on the link(s) they consider relevant. How do people share sites via email? Again, through links! The list could go on and on. Here are the three most important “subcategories”, if you will:

2.1)  Search Engine Traffic

Why are domains important to people who want to chase after search engine traffic? Simple! It’s because exact match domains will always help them have an edge over the competition. If you’re targeting the term “Dallas lawyers”, for example, owning the exact match dot com/dot net/dot org would help quite a bit.

People who want to chase after search engine traffic exclusively will probably not have an “only dot coms, forget everything else” way of thinking, simply because search engines don’t value a dot com more than a dot net or a dot org (seriously, they don’t).  So as long as you stick with that has been proven to work in terms of SEO (.com/.net/.org), you’ll probably be OK.

2.2) Social Media Traffic

Social media websites like Digg (the most popular social voting site), Delicious (the most popular social bookmarking site), Facebook (the most popular keep-in-touch-with-people site) and Twitter (the most popular microblogging platform) are all about sharing stuff and what do people share online more than anything else? Yep, links!

People who are interested in social media traffic exclusively will probably want to stick with dot coms, obviously because this is the most popular extension and they want a domain which is extremely easy to remember. On the other hand, domain hacks might work as well, so don’t exclude this possibility either.

2.3) Word of Mouth (Or Should I Say “Word of Keyboard”) Traffic

People mention sites when they’re sending emails, people mention sites while they’re chatting on Skype/AIM/whatever, people mention sites when they’re interacting via forums and so on.

Folks who consider word of mouth traffic a priority will probably want to limit themselves to buying dot coms, maybe even more so than people who are chasing after social media traffic and that’s because the “leakage” factor comes into play.

3) Offline “Referrers”

Billboards, newspaper/TV/radio ads, phone conversations and so on. Just like with let’s call it “word of keyboard” traffic, leakage is definitely something that people need to take into consideration.

Think about it: if you don’t own a dot com, you’ll probably be losing quite a bit of traffic as a result of the fact that people didn’t remember the extension and automatically assumed that they need to go to “the name they remembered” dot com when they heard about your website or saw an ad. Once again, people who will want to promote their site offline a lot will probably want to stick with dot coms.

An In-Depth Analysis?

I’ll be analyzing the traffic sources I’ve referred to one by one this week and as a domainer, being armed with as much knowledge as possible will definitely help a lot down the road. After all, whenever you’re contacted by potential end users, doing a little bit of research is always smart.

It’ll be fairly easy to find out who you’re dealing with and based on what you know the person who has contacted you is interested in, you’ll be able to “organize” the negotiation better and “sell” your domain accordingly. If you want to develop at least one domain, then knowing a lot about these traffic sources is even more important. Alright, enough for today: don’t forget to drop by on Wednesday for some more words of wisdom 😉