Is type-in dying or already dead?

[DomainingCom]

Is type-in dying or already dead?

Type-in is when you directly write a domain name to access a web site without using a search.

Exemple:
I live in Boston and want to see foreclosures in my city.
Then I write bostonforeclosures.com imagining it should be the site better matching what I am looking for.
The problem is this site is a parked page simply showing links (in this specific case not even relevant to Boston foreclosures).
When it happen 1 time, 2 times, ... n times and most of the time the type in sites served are of no value like this one then one do no longer trust in type ins.

It's a little like the "I am feeling lucky" feature of Google. How many of you are still using it?
I used few times at the begining and after seing I was rarely lucky I did not use again.
The time of most internet users was "morrons" is BEHIND!
Most users have now some experience. What was working in the past do no longer works today!


We could say:
Type in killed the type in, or better say bad parking services killed type in.

Also I think +70% of popular generic domains are already owned by domainers serving parked pages.
This simply means when you type in a popular keyword you have 70% of chance to reach a page of low/no interest.
This have strongly accelerate the lesson:
Type in => "bull shit" site served.


The second point that killed the type-in are the toolbars, and mainly the Google toolbar.
We all have a search toolbar and when we search something we use to enter the keyword in the toolbar search box to get responses.
At the begining of internet we first have to open a search engine and after initiate a search, more complicate and longer.
Today it's really easier and faster and it has become natural.

Few days ago, I was very astonished to read that a domainer having 120 very short dot com parked was just earning 31 cents/months.
What better proof that type-in is already dead?


Now if you have other experiences I invite you to tell us about.

...

 

[tristanperry]

I have little experience in this area, but type-ins have never been useful/existent for me.

I've never seen any/much natural/random traffic from a domain I haven't advertised. Also, I own a site on a ".org" which has an alexa ranking of 10x,xxx. However the ".com" and ".net" of the name (which I do not own) received no traffic at all, AFAIK. My stats packages suggest that people use Google to find my site - I've received 1,000 visitors this month along from people using Google to search for my site.

So to conclude, although I have little domain parking experience, the relevant experiences I do have point to type-in traffic not really being useful.

 

[fatter]

I do fine with typeins considering i dont buy domains, made 27 dollars so far today, none of the names i have, ever had a website, i own about 200 domains about half of which are for future keywords not presently used. one reason i think i get typeins is there are working websites in the net, org etc and being i have the dotcom it is residual traffic. My typo names get typeins also. On a sidenote most of my names are getting seniors and youth traffic
probably the 2 best categories for typeins

 

[Duckinla]

If you are afraid of type-in dying, you over-estimate the abilities of the average internet user. Type-ins will continue to grow as the internet reaches more and more people. The first people on were the most sophisticated users. Now the less sophisticated users are joining. You probably couldn't imagine how many people right now are logging on from a cyber-cafe, school, or friends house around the world.

 

[Fearless]

Type-ins are flat. They are the most consistent thing on the Internet.

 

[Bill Roy]

Two of the above posts are interesting because they indicate two different scenarios.

If the type-ins are flat (post 5 by Fearless), then with the phenominal increase in the number of people with access to and using the internet this would mean that the number of type-ins is proportionately falling!

It would therefore follow that indeed type-ins are 'falling' in real terms as a percentage of the actual routes taken to access a desired site.

If type-ins are rising (post 4 by Duckinla) this is solely due to the lack of sophistication of the internet users.

There are two major points of note in this scenario. (1) These unsophisticated users will become sophisticated with time thereby reducing the amount of 'type-ins' they perform, thus type-ins will reduce. (2) The majority of new users is occuring 'mainly' in countries where personal disposable income is much more limited and therefore the value of such traffic is much less than had been true of past type-in traffic.

Both of these scenarios therefore lead inevitably not to the fact that type-in traffic is dead or dying but that type-in traffic is worth less now than in the past and shall likely continue to become worth less in the future.

 

[Duckinla]

The majority of new users is occuring 'mainly' in countries where personal disposable income is much more limited and therefore the value of such traffic is much less than had been true of past type-in traffic.

Sometimes people with the least amount of disposable income are those most easily parted from it.
Don't just think foreign though, think grandma, think people who don't work on computers all day.

Type-ins probably does have a lifespan as technology increases. But I'd put that lifespan somewhere near 20 years.

 

[Bill Roy]

Duck, I atually agree with you, type-in does have a life-span like anything does. It is the fact that type-in traffic is becoming less important as the amount of money spent by such visitor traffic will inevitably decrease. Grandma and Grandpa in 5 years time will be those used to the internet.

The question poised by Cybertonic is actually an important one for internet marketers, for this is happening today. We already see traffic from some countries producing no PPC or very low PPC, the advertisers recognise that the traffic is of lower quality and pay out respectively.

 

[eq78]

Why don't you ask Frank Schilling or read www.sevenmile.com for real education on type ins

 

[Theo]

The payouts get smaller because he who has the pie also holds the knife. The big boys of the PPC industry all the way up the food chain of the advertising channels simply keep more money for their own operations. Want higher payouts? Find a way to cut the fat, the middleman and potentially the food provider.

 

[Bill Roy]

XNX

Yes?

And?

 

[Theo]

Type ins are not dead. Payouts are.

 

[Bill Roy]

But are type-ins dying? What stage of their life-cycle are they at? If not why are they different to all other models of business behaviour?

 

[Duckinla]

The payouts get smaller because he who has the pie also holds the knife.

You keep saying that like it's not market driven but I disagree. If the payouts get smaller it's simply because the number of clicks we bring to the table is growing faster than the number advertisers. Same advertising dollars divided by more clicks equals smaller required bids.

 

[Beachie]

My type-in traffic has been gradually increasing. There are also other benefits to owning older, type-in domains, including better search rankings, and perceived authority and trust on the subject matter (which means more clicks by search traffic).

 

[eq78]

BillBO
and I think Frank Schiling has a lot to say about type ins and would say that they are not going down but I forwarded him this thread

 

[Bill Roy]

Hi XNX,

Fine, but we are surely looking at what the future holds here. What happened yesterday or today is now history and only is useful to tweak the model.

The fact that type-ins is increasing by itself does not mean that they are as 'important' as they were a year ago. For type-ins to be as important as in the past they must satisfy two main criteria (although lesser criteria would also have to be satisfied, but for the sake of this discussion the main two are what is of paramount importance).

1) Is the number of 'type-ins' either matching or exceeding the growth rate in the number of internet users and sites visited.
2) Is the number of 'type-ins' producing earnings (allowing for such things as inflation, rise in advertising revenue spent on internet advertising, etc.) that match or exceed the growth rate that would be produced by the linear correlation of the rise in the number of internet users and sites visited.

If the answer is 'yes' to both questions then 'type-in' traffic can be said to be at one of two stages, either still growing (increase in annual numbers) or has reached the maturity plateau (level results). This would indicate that 'type in' traffic is not dying. However, if 'no' is the answer to either of questions 1 and 2 above then this would indicate that 'type-in' traffic is decreasing in value and therefore is past the mature stage of its cycle.

It should be noted that the post-mature stage can last a very long time and this does not mean that the 'type-in' traffic has neither value nor use as a tool, simply that without change to the system that its importance will continue to decline.

I would submit that the evidence available is that 'type-in traffic' has not kept pace with the rise in internet use and sites visited and has definately not continued to produce the earnings per visitor to a site. Therefore it is declining.

Will 'type-in traffic' continue to be a perameter in valueing a domain or website, of course it will and will continue to be so for some years to come, but it will become less important in time from here on in.

Of course as stated above, this is all dependant on no changes occuring outside the perameters presently influencing 'type-in traffic'. Now if someone would be kind enough to look into their crystal ball and tell me what changes will occur on the influences of 'type-in traffic' in the future I would much appreciate it.

 

[hugegrowth]

a few things to consider:

- kids and people not born yet will continue to arrive on the internet and do type in's.

- people who don't have internet now but get it at some point will do type ins.

- people on the internet now always find new interests and subjects to learn about, which they may search with type ins

- domainers with generics are starting to add content to their sites; when people type in these sites and find relevant content, it will reinforce the type in behaviour.

I think type in traffic will always exist on some level, unless there is some radical unforeseen change to how the internet works.

 

[stuff]

It will only rise.
More and more people come to internet

 

[Duckinla]

Few days ago, I was very astonished to read that a domainer having 120 very short dot com parked was just earning 31 cents/months.
What better proof that type-in is already dead?

I don't think this little tiny piece of partial information could be used as proof of anything.

If type-in were dead, we wouldn't have any parking companies, would we? If type-in were dying, the value of type-in domains would be falling quickly. I don't see this happening.