Why I Don’t Like to Share Stats

When I purchase domain names, I almost never ask the owner about stats. I’ve come to find that analytics are different for parking companies and for different stat trackers. Aside from this, I don’t find stats particularly interesting to me because I am buying domain names based on quality rather than traffic and revenue.

I am often asked for a domain name’s stats when selling domain names to other domain investors. On occasion, I will share them with the potential buyer, but I usually just tell them to assume there is no traffic. Sometimes I have stats available on my parked domain names, and other times, I don’t have them available on certain domain names where I haven’t enabled Google Analytics or Stat Counter.

On the infrequent occasions that I have shared stats, I have never received a reply “oh wow, that is a lot of traffic” or anything close to that. More often than not, the potential buyer uses the stats I provided as a means of negotiating a lower price. Perhaps the buyer did think there was more traffic than there really is, but I think it can hurt a sale more than help it, unless the traffic and revenue numbers are legitimately very high.

When selling to end user buyers, I am not often asked about traffic numbers. Most of the time, the buyer is looking at the domain name to either start a new website, use it in addition to the current website, own it for defensive purposes, or buy it for a future project. I am asked on occasion, but typically, this information hasn’t been used by end user prospects as a negotiation tactic (in my experience).

I like to buy and sell domain names based on the inherent keyword value of the domain name. Although having some traffic is good, I don’t look at the amount of traffic as something that would be a dealbreaker.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

10 COMMENTS

  1. I sell many, many domains to end users. It is very rare for them to ask for traffic stats (on my deals anyways). It is interesting how domainers will ask often when buying at a wholesale rate and end users never bring it up and are willing to pay 1000%s more retail..

    • The asking of traffic stats by domainers looking to buy is often a ploy to negotiate at a lower price, One of the many reasons why I hate selling to domainers, and it doesn’t matter if they have big pockets, the majority will always low ball because domainers in general have a reputation of being very negotiable.

    • End Users is the best ROI

      Phone is #1 ..
      I use this:

      Hi, my name is Steve with Network Advertising, Im calling to let you know that the domain name ________ is available for purchase. If you have a moment I can show you the benefits of owning this premium domain name. (I know 80% of the time the gatekeeper hears this) PERFECT! he/she is lazy 80% of the time as well! Most times they say in their own words “hold up know Im just the receptionist John (or whoever) is in charge of that, They dont pay me for that” and transfer me or give me the email info. Key is pitch everyone.. Hot potato is the norm with end users. Theres other variations and rebuttals to their stronger replies… But this opener I’ve used for 12 out of the 14 or so years I’ve done it. Doing it 3 times a day is useless. Its smile and dial 100 plus calls per day. I know it works I have 10 reps on the phone making 100 calls each a day, or there out. Its a numbers game. Follow-up is key most sales take 3-5 calls. Make a lead sheet with a notes section, log what you said and they said last (ammo for your next conversation) … I dont say anything different on each call, I say this, they say that, I say this, they say that, I say this, they say that. Almost the same conversation every time, Im reading the pitch (obviously I have it memorized after a decade) like an actor in a play. At the end (and it may take 3-5 calls to get it all in) they are in or out, and I’m on to the next call. When you get the decision maker its important to remember they all say no (many times sometimes) Keep reading..lol . No means you just havent sold them yet, in this case read far enough into the pitch… A real no is when you hear the rap of the dial tone. Wash, Rinse, Repeat. Want to know the whole pitch from start to finish? email me. steve at networkadvertising.com

  2. I sell most often to end-users. I don’t recall sver being asked about stats . I assume it is the “Parking Domain Investor ” that is more concerned.

    Great Point ! I never really Thought about it till now.

    • Yes, that’s what domainers looking for. Traffic stat is one of the most important factor when it comes to buying a domain because they will park the domain to generate revenue.

      The question is, do they care about the amount of revenue that will generated by the domain? Absolutely yes. When a domain able to generates some money while parked, it’s actually adding some value into the domain itself. I believe, this is an often way to mark up the price when selling it again.

  3. Yup, couldn’t agree more with just about everything here. 🙂

    I’ve thought about this before and if someone were to be really nosy or insistent about it, I’ve sometimes thought it would be good to tell them it’s a “trade secret.” And honestly, from my perspective, it really is. I don’t want anyone knowing unless I have a real good reason to want them to know. But such a situation has never arisen so I haven’t ever reached a tipping point of feeling I had to slap down that “trade secret” declaration. 🙂 Maybe I if it got that far I would just tell them no way anyway since I’m not in the business of selling like others are here, though it would be nice to make a few nice sales regardless and I do get inquiries (including another from a big domain industry co. rep just within the last day or so).

  4. This is a subject we came across recently. The appropriate way to handle any traffic stats request is to have them assume zero revenue and zero traffic. This does not come up when you revieve cold inquiries, it mostly emerges when you are doing cold sales.

  5. I don’t share stats because I am afraid showingthem would just prove how inadequate my techniques for generating traffic are. On the flip side,the traffic stats generated by another party could just as likely vanish when you get the name. You have no real idea what is driving those numbers. A domain and a brand need to stand alone on there merit.

    Now if I was selling or buying an online commerce site, those numbers along with costs, inventory etc… would be critical…only because you are buying more than the name, you are buying the business. Many times you can negotiate performance hurdles in those contracts.

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