Why do some sellers not want to reveal traffic data?

**David G** · 04-09-2009, 02:53 PM

Anyone else notice that once you use the offer message link "please send me traffic stats" at sedo it's normally all over

The seller either raises the price to say 50k on a $500 name or else cancels the negotiations.

Not once has a seller ever complied with the request and not once have I ever purchased their name due to that. Sad because I am not looking for lots of traffic but a reply and perhaps several visits a week (but not zero traffic) would be ok with me to go higher on the offer.

**Acro** · 04-09-2009, 02:57 PM

Usually because it's seen as an excuse to keep the price low or an indication of stalling. The traffic data is right there! If the domain gets 100 hits or 1,000 hits a month, it's on that landing page the buyer initiated contact from.

**CureCancer** · 04-09-2009, 02:57 PM

what good is traffic in todays market anyway? Traffic can be generated with a simple SEO !

**David G** · 04-09-2009, 03:03 PM

Originally Posted by MIR

what good is traffic in todays market anyway? Traffic can be generated with a simple SEO !

There is a huge difference between valuable direct navigation traffic vs SE traffic

**Acro** · 04-09-2009, 03:06 PM

The argument is not about traffic, but what is the reason that this silly, redundant question exist in the sedo dropdown in the first place. The same with "Please justify your asking price". When I'm sent these two, I know I am dealing with a time-waster.

**CureCancer** · 04-09-2009, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by Acro

The argument is not about traffic, but what is the reason that this silly, redundant question exist in the sedo dropdown in the first place. The same with "Please justify your asking price". When I'm sent these two, I know I am dealing with a time-waster.

lol

**Acro** · 04-09-2009, 03:11 PM

Exactly.

**Gerry** · 04-09-2009, 03:41 PM

If I get an offer, it is for the quality of the name and what the name itself represents.

I have never been asked for stats.

I have been asked to justify my asking price.

I usually respond asking them to justify their silly offer.

The only ones who I believe have asked for justification are domainers.

The reason I say this, end users do not usually know this is there.

They are too caught up in the negotiation and open channels of communication.

Most of my sales lately have been to end users which is cool.

Domainers act too much like domainers.

**LarryWentz** · 04-09-2009, 03:43 PM

I "never" base my selling prices of my domains on traffic nor have I ever registered/purchased names based on traffic. "Name Quality" is what matters to me & existing traffic has nothing to do with "name quality" IMO.

I often tell people that I claim no traffic and they should pretend it is zero. That may not be the answer they want but that is what they get.

Originally Posted by Doc Com

Domainers act too much like domainers.

LOL.... I love that quote!

**CureCancer** · 04-09-2009, 03:54 PM

Traffic is old school - in todays market its all about the KEYWORDS

**Acro** · 04-09-2009, 04:08 PM

Actually, there is nothing wrong with traffic that goes with a sale. But on a sedo parked page, the traffic is freaking there! The sedo page shows the number of direct visits and the number of visits to the offer page. So why is that question there, other than to invoke some sort of seemingly intelligent conversation, is beyond me.

**CureCancer** · 04-09-2009, 04:12 PM

Originally Posted by Acro

Actually, there is nothing wrong with traffic that goes with a sale. But on a sedo parked page, the traffic is freaking there! The sedo page shows the number of direct visits and the number of visits to the offer page. So why is that question there, other than to invoke some sort of seemingly intelligent conversation, is beyond me.

**NostraDomainus** · 04-09-2009, 05:36 PM

If I was asked such a question via sedo I would lol - b/c Yeah, the stats are right there, and if someone can't figure that out - then it does not instill confidence in me that the person making the offer is worth doing business with, as one can imagine the possible horror stories which may arise.

re: Justify my Price, here is my standard reply for lowballers:

Thanks for the question, it’s not always easy to answer sometimes, but here goes…
Anchored in the global free market economic laws of supply and demand, I am only duly motivated to sell this timeless, 1-of-a-kind in the World product for what I deem worthy of it‘s value (monetary, intrinsic and otherwise), whereby if someone is not able to purchase this domain at the current, limited time offered price, I wish them the best to secure a name within their affordability while this premium domain name brand remains on the open market and continues to rapidly appreciate. Elsewise, if you wish to buy this domain now and give yourself a captivating online presence, I thank you and look forward to doing business with you in the near future. (-:

*******************************
Best of Luck & Success in All Your Endeavours!

**David G** · 04-09-2009, 09:00 PM

For many years I normally have a policy of only buying (even newly registering based on domain tasting by looking for a visit or two in 4-days) domains which had at least a little typein traffic, not a lot but at least some.

That to me proves value and confirms they are good keywords in that some folks have an inclination to type it in, no matter the traffc is on the low side, even a few a week is still a good sign of built-in value and to me it means a minisite does not need to rely exclusively on good SEO work to get traffic. And if there is a delay with development, the seo work is not good, or the SE drops the rankings at leaat there is still some traffic to rely on.

I realize that is an unpopular view at the forums since so many are resellers and flippers and that is why there has been negativity about a buyer investigating traffic as demonstrated in this thread.

When I have asked at the forum by PM about traffic before making an offer it is usually met with answers such as "name is not sold based on traffic" (which I already knew), or "not been parked long enough to say" (even though just 2 or 3 data days is good enough for me), or "traffic is inconsequnetial."

However, none of those popular replies seems legit to me or answers the basic question I have about any natural traffic it gets. Why not simply address the question?

**Gerry** · 04-09-2009, 09:49 PM

Trader, I get your point.

But, like you said, many are flippers.

And as many years as I have been selling, buying, trading (yes trading) domains and building sites, no one - NO ONE - and nowhere (other than forums like this) has anyone ever asked a question about traffic.

I put no importance into traffic or stats whatsoever because I can manipulate and fake traffic stats to the extreme and STILL show you that they are real - the numbers will be real and impress you but the traffic is not real.

My point is I do not think it is wise to put too much emphasis in these numbers.

**Domainator** · 04-09-2009, 10:41 PM

We do not buy or sell domains based on traffic...that was yesterday's model!

**sundaybluez** · 04-09-2009, 11:51 PM

Genuine seller offer the stats right in 2nd round of discussion once he finds the buyer to be genuine, if the seller avoid doing so the buyer should just stop the discussion & move fwd.

Also I don't think that just keywords (unless it's a single keyword) or just some traffic increases a domain cost, it's a combination of both. There's nothing such called yesterday or today's model, basics for the business remain the same thought. It's just your and mine vision to do business keeps on changing.

For the buyer, he has to look for stats and then need to analyze it for the source of traffic, it validity & more importantly the scope of development the domain has and how much brandable can it be as it does really matters, as ultimately one day the domain has to be used for a website by an end-user.

On traffic faking issue, traffic can be faked but is not tough to detect as the buyer needs some basic analytical skill to check the traffic source.

While a domain receiving SE traffic is not bad if the traffic has been continuous & steady over a period of time as ultimately that would give better revenue from adsense than some parking stuff as due to SE traffic your CTR will be high and CPC will be good(based on the genre), repetitive traffic doesn't gives good returns.
Also if planning to buy a domain even for a small website once the SE traffic flows in you can use it to built the domain name as a brand as the user coming on a website/domain is far more focused and can be targeted as if the user gets what he wants he is going to come back maybe directly by typing in the domain name this time giving some valuable type-in traffic.

**Domainator** · 04-10-2009, 01:30 AM

Thank god for newby's like you, can I pppplease send you a list of my "traffic domains"? Whats your line of credit like? I got some swamp.coms for you. You must be a gen "y", no pun intended.....

No disrespect, just responding....

Originally Posted by sundaybluez

Genuine seller offer the stats right in 2nd round of discussion once he finds the buyer to be genuine, if the seller avoid doing so the buyer should just stop the discussion & move fwd.

Also I don't think that just keywords (unless it's a single keyword) or just some traffic increases a domain cost, it's a combination of both. There's nothing such called yesterday or today's model, basics for the business remain the same thought. It's just your and mine vision to do business keeps on changing.

For the buyer, he has to look for stats and then need to analyze it for the source of traffic, it validity & more importantly the scope of development the domain has and how much brandable can it be as it does really matters, as ultimately one day the domain has to be used for a website by an end-user.

On traffic faking issue, traffic can be faked but is not tough to detect as the buyer needs some basic analytical skill to check the traffic source.

While a domain receiving SE traffic is not bad if the traffic has been continuous & steady over a period of time as ultimately that would give better revenue from adsense than some parking stuff as due to SE traffic your CTR will be high and CPC will be good(based on the genre), repetitive traffic doesn't gives good returns.
Also if planning to buy a domain even for a small website once the SE traffic flows in you can use it to built the domain name as a brand as the user coming on a website/domain is far more focused and can be targeted as if the user gets what he wants he is going to come back maybe directly by typing in the domain name this time giving some valuable type-in traffic.