Disposable Traffic and The Power of You.

I gotta be honest,  I'm a slow learner.

I didn't "get" Youtube when it first came out and I certainly didn't "get" why anyone, or any company would pay more than a billion dollars to acquire that site in 2006 .. As pure-play domainers with what are essentially free visits that come for the keyword weight of the names we own, many of us frown on development of websites as a distraction to making paid search revenue.

Why would you build a website, sweat and toil if you can just put up a rudimentary page, give people the information they desire and move them along to another targeted website, getting paid in the process?  I've been doing it for half a decade and can tell you it's a no brainer. Give the people what they want.. and if somebody is willing to pay you to give your people what they want, that's like something out of that lottery ticket dream I had back when I was 22.

So I'm a music fan..  I like jazz (when driving with the kids it puts them to sleep), Hip-hop, R&B,  Funk, Folk, Classic Rock, but lately I prefer rock - of the alternative and contemporary persuasion.  I was recently vacationing in greater Los Angeles and listened to a lot of KROQ (K-Rock)..  I sang till I was hoarse.. and I'm not a pretty singer. KROQ mixes 1990's alternative with Social Distortion, Incubus, Muse, Depeche Mode, System of a Down..  I love it all..  It's great driving music and I love to drive the freeways of LA. I'm thinking about writing and publishing a coffee table book on driving in Los Angeles..  seriously..  I like it that much :)

Anyway.. I'm sitting here tonight recreating the KROQ play-list from my trip on Youtube..  Songs load 'Google quick' (I've got two windows open), I'm mixing songs, dovetailing one into the next..  It suddenly occurs to me that this is better than Napster.

Yes, I know Mark Cuban said it could come to a crashing end tomorrow as everybody sues Youtube..  but Google is so powerful, and the music industry so beaten down by Russian / Chinese P2P networks and the Napster/RIAA suits that went nowhere that Google's rev share siren-call has labels often uploading the official hits themselves!  I'm listening to legal music that the label uploaded for free! .. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Cuban ;)

From now on I'm doing the opposite of what Mark Cuban says..  Cuban says don't buy Youtube..  Google does and wins .. Cuban Says the "Internet is Dead" ..  the Internet quietly ignores him and delivers its 50 trillionth page.. If Mark said "don't jump off that cliff" on his blog,  I'd be tempted to go over because given Mark's recent calls .. an airbag with champagne and Playboy bunnies surely awaits the sucker that does ;)

This post wasn't to slag Cuban, who is a decent entrepreneur.. Passionately wrong about his last few publicly espoused ideas..  I just am struck by how Youtube is changing America.. and the World.  Brian Depalma screening a gritty brutally honest war docu-drama about Iraq recently intimated that Youtube-like sites on the Internet are the last bastion of free-media in the US..  Most TV/News media is corporate today, controlled by shareholders, hamstrung through LBO debt and beholden to banks and bankers with agendas. Youtube is a mirror shining back on "You" it reflects our interests like a video search term suggestion tool and shines the truth if you dare to key-in the phrase you desire information on.

There's always a domain name related bent to my posts and this post is no different.  As I searched for artist and song title on Youtube, the site often spat back the most visited video as the most relevant..  Lot's of people watching?  It must be good!  How could a domainer skew the videos viewed by uploading a video (say with a 10 second intromercial that you sell to advertisers on a CPM basis, then plumbing one's own traffic under a popular keyphrase (ie. 'Foo Fighters') to rank your Foo fighting video near the top?

Your organic domain name related traffic visitors to a site like "Musicnews.com"  (an under-utilized name), serving a PPC site with an automatically executing Youtube video under a 'Foo Fighters' label..  With each repeat load (coming from tens of thousands of visitors across hundreds or thousands of individual names like musicnews.com) you build credibility, all while you sell flat-rate CPM advertising within your video (remember you're driving the traffic with your organic type-in traffic) and then serve PPC ads in a split screen format.  In six months your generic domain names have delivered thousands or tens of thousands of loads to your Youtube video making it the most watched video on Youtube (eat your heart out "Korean guitar solo guy"), all while you've made flat rate CPM rates on your video intromercial and click-through PPC revenue on the split screen format paid search text links (through GOOG/YHOO/MSN or direct) to boot!

A music domain name vertical with 1000 generic music names generating 10,000 unique visits a day could drive 300,000 video's viewed a month (some of you could drive considerably more).  Then create an "email this to a friend" box or ajax/flash popup on your page and watch those viral visits multiply with each video load and each passing week. I sincerely think there is massive untapped opportunity marrying the Youtube phenomenon with the effectively disposable visits which come to generic defensible domain names.

When a visitor shows up on your doorstep for nothing more than the keyword weight or gravity of the name they typed and you happen to own that domain name, you find yourself in the fortunate position of being able to kick-start a brand, create a site and show the people what you want.. all while growing something. Those who have to buy their traffic via PPC or through Arbitrage do not share in that luxury.

A running start to get your machine going.. and a do-over if you're wrong...   Hmmmm  There are times when being a slow learner (and a late-comer) aren't so bad. If you're in the domain business,  this might be one of those times ;)

Comments

[Ed Keay-Smith]

Hi Frank,

Great post and what timing!

I have just been reading a great ebook on that very subject and how to apply it.

The name of the ebook is Tube Traffic at www.tubetraffic.com

I think it is well worth the US$37 asking price.

By the way, this is not an affiliate link and I have no association with the book what so ever, just a happy customer!

Regards

Ed Keay-Smith
www.ozdomainer.com

[Kevin]

I think there is going to be a dramatic paradigm shift soom with domainers that have been giving up traffic to simple ppc landers for so long.

Not to knock ppc landers nor the domainers that are so hooked on them, nor the companies that provide them, but this industry entrenched strategy, though it is by far the easiest "no work" way to monetize domains, is actually the most costly to domainers.

If you have a top type-in domain getting 10,000 visitors per day, that is over 3 1/2 Million visitors per year that are walking in your store's front door and walking right out the back door in the click of a second, never to be seen again. Think about that. Think deeply.

What businessman in their right mind would want to operate their business like that, where they so quickly say adios to incredibly valuable maximum targeted customers? People would call you crazy, wouldn't they? Isn't the smarter way, at the minimum, to at least grab their e-mail before they zip by? Isn't the smarter way to give them a list of all the closely relevant "stores" aka domains you also own to visit in the future too?

I have always been beyond perplexed why so many domainers kiss goodbye millions of dollars every day so simply by taking the "lazy man's way to riches" approach to making money on the Net.

The most successful businesses in the world are the ones that "BULD AND KEEP" customers. That is what branding is all about. That is what business is all about. YOUR CUSTOMERS! It is the core ingredient to building vast wealth via the Net and in the bricks and mortar world.

On the Web the biggest acquisition deals go to those companies that build enormous user bases. That is the most desired "prize" billion dollar companies all fight for when looking for companies to acquire. Users are repeat customers. They stay put when you service them right and you make money from them for years.

Let's put in the time perspective factor now on the equation. 3 1/2 Million users per year for the past 10 years and that 10k a day domainer has given away the opportunity to grab a business relationship with over 35 Milllion customers. 35 MILLION!!! That is obscene in my eyes. Even worse is the collatteral damages and loss of that volume of people. Word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool on the planet. Take those 35 Million lost customers and factor in their network of friends. Potentially that could be 3 or more people per lost customer who could have told someone else to checkout your site. Now the 10k a day ppc lander domainer has ultimately kissed off over 100 MILLION prospective customers. That's not obscene, that is INSANE.

Maybe it's time for domainers to look in the mirror and start really thinking about what they are ultimately "NOT PUTTING IN THE PIGGY BANK" by letting millions of prospective customers walk in and walk out so quickly everyday.

Oh I know, development is a bitch. Well it can be if you go the old fashioned hard way. But there are lots of technologies that enable ways to develop stafflessly with relative ease these days without much investment and with minimal ongoing management time. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself, what would my 10,000 domains be worth if I also had millions of opt'd in e-mails with those domains, millions of pieces of data as to other things those customers are searching for to buy, millions telling a couple friends to visit my domains also. The answer is many domainers that today are worth $10 Million to $100 Million would be instant BILLIONAIRES. And the B Club is by far, a more exciting and exclusive wealth objective to strive for, in these days where being just a laid back domain millionaire is so utterly common and easy to do.

There is a BILLION DOLLARS sitting right on your doorstep, just waiting for you to grab it, and nearly all of us walk right over it everyday when we lazily go to the mailbox to pick up our PPC checks.

It's time to stop thinking about what the going "multiple" is on your PPC flow and start thinking about what the "multiple" could be on your 100 Million eyeballs!

[VS]

Welcome back Frank.
i have never been a fan of Cuban. I dont see him as a Internet visionary by any means and he should not be followed as closely as he is.

[Mike]

We sure missed you Frank. It's great to see you blogging again. Many of us missed your daily bits of wisdom. Hope you and the family had a good time on vacation. I look forward to reading more of your thoughts.

Mike
Cyberspace Developers

[Todd Mintz]

I've experimented with this concept...except I've driven people more to affiliate sales pages instead of parked pages. I've gotten fairly good traffic for very narrow keyword niches and with Google's universal search now including videos, one can get traffic from there as well as from directly within YouTube. SEO and "viral" factors for your video will determine its success...it's not a slam dunk that this will work every time.

Creating a Facebook App with the same "end game" in mind might even be a better play because the viral factors in Facebook are much stronger than in You Tube and SEO doesn't enter into the equation.

[john]

Frank, don't Post this

It is John from the Bronx. AKA AbortionIsMurder

I need your advice on something. Any chance I can talk to you?

[Patrick McDermott]

Frank,

You mention YouTube in your other posting today. Really neat, huh? Lots of possibilities.

Since you were at the DR event giving the keynote speech, I don't know if you are aware that much of the event including the Live Auction was viewable by anyone over the internet thanks to a free service from UStream.tv.

I just happened to log into the DR UStream feed and there you were approaching the podium.

I can't tell you how cool and exciting it was to be able to not just hear your speech but to watch it live from here in The Bronx, NY.

And then to also be able to jump in and out of watching the live auction and watch as my domains were up. Really exciting!

Internet boring? Not in my world!

Imagine being able to stream your Wedding
Ceremony and Reception to friends and family around the world who couldn't be there in person?

Imagine streaming anything. It's doable. And free!

Welcome back,
Patrick

wat

[daniel rueda]

kickapps.com gives unlimited site launch with you skyscraper ad section for free. Great place to start. Ning is also a great place to start if you have less than 10 domains to launch. I plan on launching 1300 vertical locator social channels in the next 60 days. sample videoslocator.com

[[email protected]]

VickIsADick.com was mentioned on CNN. In a short time it's gotten tons of traffic made tons of money, and now it's for sale on eBay. We have purchased the rights to the Video on the site that was also featured on CNN. We are working out an interview with NBC for next week.

[Patrick McDermott]

Just saw this on:
http://adverlab.blogspot.com/

Excerpt:
"Zapping New YouTube Ads

That didn't take long at all. A couple of days ago, YouTube announced the roll-out of InVideo ads laid over the videos inside the player... Today, the top story on Digg is about the TubeStop Firefox extension that strips the ads off. And despite YouTube claiming the new ad format is user-friendly, the users aren't welcoming (it) at all."

Patrick

[Kelly Reed]

Hey Frank,

VERY good post. Here's my take on Mark Cuban... When you've got luck, s**t will do for brains.

Mark's got lot's of luck :)

Cheers!
Kelly