Building a Domain Portfolio

If you're considering building a solid portfolio of domain names, the first thing to keep in mind is that the majority of domains in your portfolio should have natural, type-in traffic. They should not rely on search engines, paid links, links from other web sites, press releases, or advertisements (print, web, radio, tv) for visitors.

Search engine placement, paid advertising, press releases, and links from other web sites may all be useful for temporary traffic boosts, like during a sale or promotion, or for an announcement to an expanded audience.

However, these methods of traffic generation should never comprise the bulk of traffic to your web site. Unless you have natural type-ins as the bulk of traffic to your web site, you're headed for trouble because you are not the one who controls traffic to your web site. And if your traffic is controlled by another entity, they can cut it off, essentially ending the stream of visitors to your web site. And without those visitors, your web site will be like a jetliner running out of fuel; you'll fall from the sky and so will your profits.

On the other hand, unless the Internet collapses, direct navigation and natural type-in traffic is not going anywhere in the foreseeable future. It will be here tomorrow. It will be here next year. It will continue year after year, even as new search engines rise in popularity and functionality while some of the current search leaders wither and die off. The traffic from natural type-ins increases in numbers and value year after year after year.