I’ve had a lot of people asking me why I’m not at TRAFFIC in Miami. I’ve been to every TRAFFIC conference for the past 10 years (other than the very first) and I’ve found them exceptional events for developing business. So why aren’t I attending this time?

It just so happens that my daughter Elise is turning 16 and despite my love for TRAFFIC she trumps it. I wouldn’t miss her birthday for anything. So I am really sorry to all of my great friends at TRAFFIC but you got beat out this time……but I will be there in 2015!

When I think of my decision it’s all about what I regard as important in my life. Do we work to live or live to work? I love my work but the reason why I work is so that I can live a more fulfilled life. It's focusing on people and relationships not things and money that provide a richer better life. In this case it was my relationships with my daughter that won the day.

The order of importance for me is my relationships with God, Roselyn (wife), my kids, work colleagues, friends etc.  I find that if I have these priorities in the right alignment then life is good. Sure, I can break the rules for a time but there’s always a cost.

So you’ve done your due diligence on the domain portfolio that you wish to acquire and everything looks like it’s good. All you have to do is part with your hard earned cash and wait for the authorisation codes so that you can transfer the domains into your registrar. So what’s the problem? A lot!

What happens if you send off your money and the seller decides not to transfer the domains. They now have your cash and the domains. What happens if you send your money and the domain statistics have been fabricated? What happens if you transfer your dollars and discover that the stats have been pumped up with purchased traffic? These are all good questions and I’ve heard story after story of people who have been burned by unscrupulous sellers…..so my advice is BEWARE!

Some buyers try and solve this problem with a contract. Personally I find that they are almost worthless. If you have a person that is prepared to steal your money then reneging on a signed contract is probably nothing big for them. So what’s the solution?

In a nutshell I would recommend using an escrow service. With a good quality escrow service both parties (ie. the buyer and seller) can agree to specific terms and a middle-man handles the actual transaction.

For example, you transfer your money to the escrow service and the funds are not sent onto the domain owner until the domains are under your control. This at least stops people from running off with your money and the domains. You can actually specify a variety of conditions that are agreed by both the buyer and the seller that the escrow company can verify before the seller can get their hands on your cash.

Seller financing has become very popular. The escrow company holds the domain in their account while the financial obligations are met. Say $12000 being paid in 12 monthly instalments of $1000. My only caution is can you imagine the headaches involved if the escrow company ceases to operate or becomes insolvent during a transaction of this kind. This wouldn’t be pretty!

There are a number of Escrow companies that domain owners use with Escrow.com being by far the most popular and the longest established. Over the years, they’ve spent a huge sum to ensure that they are in compliance with the various governmental authorities that manage the escrow industry and ensure that it’s clean.

In the previous two articles we looked at managing legal risk and also the different types of traffic that often flow through to domains. In this article I will be examining the other influencers on the returns from a traffic portfolio.

The first thing to look at is where the traffic is coming from. For example, is it mainly USA or is it from China? Chinese traffic tends to be paid much less than traffic from the USA.

A number of years ago I did an analysis on the penetration of credit cards in a specific geographic region and how this influenced earnings per click (EPC). Cash based economies like China tended to have a much lower EPC. The reason being that marketers have a much more difficult time tracking spending money online to ultimate sale of the goods if the transaction is constantly being pulled off-line.

I personally believe that over the years ahead many of these burgeoning economies will adopt credit cards and the online cycle will be complete for marketers. So watch this space!

When you buy a traffic portfolio you are always looking for any “free” upside. An example of this would be if you were getting paid 90% from a monetisation provider but the person selling the portfolio is only getting paid 80%.

We’ve had ParkLogic clients purchase portfolios that have been held at a single parking company and then placed on our system. From experience, typically no parking providers wins more than 20% of the traffic on our platform which means that the acquisition would receive more revenue 80% of the time if move to other platforms. This typically provides a 30% uplift in revenue via our algorithms and processes and this dramatically reduces the payback period for the investment.

I would like to wish the team at TRAFFIC all the best for their 10th anniversary. It's been quite a journey for Rick and Howard and their families for the past 10 years. Sadly, due to my daughters 16th birthday I won't be able to make this one....the first TRAFFIC that I've missed since the very first conference run all those years ago.

If you haven't registered then make sure that you go to targetedtraffic.com.

Please enjoy the video below...

This is the second part in a series on buying traffic domain names.

Once you’re comfortable that the legal side of the portfolio has been addressed then you really need to dive into the traffic numbers and do some research into where the traffic comes from.

So let’s get back to basics. You’re about to purchase a traffic portfolio. The first question that you should ask is, “Where does traffic come from?”

Traffic typically comes from the following sources:

1.    Direct type-in

Generic or short domain (eg. Beds.com, gx.com.au)

2.    Typos

Typo of a generic domain (eg. Fruit spelt fruit)

Typo of a weak trademark domain (eg. Joespizashop.com instead of Joespizzashop.com)

Typo of a brand (eg. Verison instead of Verizon)

3.    Link based traffic

4.    Purchased

5.    Hijacked traffic such as tool-bars and NXD traffic.

In the above list of places where traffic comes from I’m making no attempt to try and pontificate on whether they are appropriate traffic sources. I’m only indicating that they are sources of traffic. So please do not get upset at the mention of typo, trademark, purchased traffic etc.

Many years ago I purchased my second domain name and it failed miserably to provide any sort of return. Each and every year I faithfully registered the domain to remind myself to ALWAYS ask the question, “Where does the traffic come from?” In my case, the domain had a lot of Russian bot traffic that didn’t monetise at all. There’s nothing like a $10 annual learning course to remind you of an important lesson.