Click To Hit

Well, the traffic anyways… I've been indirectly involved in this segment of the industry for over 4 years now, and if it wasn't for the confidential nature of how most of them have traditionally operated it definitely would've been a much larger focus of this blog due to the amazingly sharp and charismatic participants as well as the unique niche they've carved out that's proven to be quite successful in our online ecosystem.

I received a sneak peak of this article written by Business 2.0 last week, which is a great introduction to the industry and goes through a historical overview of how the worlds of CPC advertising and domain investment have collided to the benefit of both the Search Giant's and the domain portfolios left with an uncertain future after the bubble.

No one knows for sure how much Web traffic comes from type-ins, and Google and Yahoo execs won’t discuss it. But privately, during one of the late-night parties at the Traffic conference, one Yahoo official estimates that type-ins could make up 15 percent of its search business.

And that's over $3.6 Billion annually…

When Overture (with the Yahoo acquisition) and Google Adsense started out, the initial plan was to monetize the Internet Search technology provided to the world for free. It was a phenomenal idea that's made them a ton of cash and revolutionized Internet Marketing efforts in almost every vertical online. The one thing they noticed early on was that they were leaving a huge chunk of business on the table by only focusing on search results, and when investigating new verticals for their CPC advertising model they were quick to identify the opportunity through type-in traffic resulting in partnerships with many a domain portfolio holder today.

The secret? It has to do with what’s known as type-in traffic, or, in Wall Street jargon, direct navigation. Though it may seem odd in the era of powerful search engines, it turns out that millions of Internet surfers don’t use search at all. Instead, they type what they’re looking for right into the top of their Web browser.

Although a few of the individuals mentioned in the article expressed it wasn't 100% accurate, the results were close enough to the facts to do this segment justice and highlight how they operate in a very positive light. I even appreciated the comparison of Yun Ye to Keyser Soze, and if you've ever had the pleasure of communicating with him or any of his associates you'd definitely agree that the comment has some weight.

Every domainer knows of Ye, but few have ever met him. He’s the domainers’ Keyser Soze. “My attorney happens to be his attorney, but that’s as close to him as I can get,” says Bahlitzanakis, 29.

What I had to go through just to get a direct email exchange… well, needless to say doing your research and persistence were keys that's for sure.

The weird thing I noticed is that the day after I received the sneak peak, the Wall Street Journal posted this article (Subscription Required). I knew the Business 2.0 article had been in the works since the TRAFFIC event back at the end of October, so the timing of the WSJ article a day after I had seen the 2.0 sneak peak combined with the resultant early public ”pre-release” of the 2.0 article the next day seemed a little odd.

It appears that the “outing” of this hidden gem in our industry is being fought over by a few of the media outlets… what some of them don't realize is that for most who've been successful in the Internet domain industry this gem's been pretty much public knowledge for anyone interested enough to investigate since the beginning.

Whether someone had the insight to jump in is another story… I know a few who did