The difference between Type-In, Typo, Link Popularity and Link Saturation Domains

It's important to understand the difference between type-in domains, typo domains, link popularity domains and link saturation domains before diving into the domain business.

Type-in domains are known to be the best source of traffic because as the name suggests, they are visited by users who simply type the domain into their browser. For example, "funnypictures.com" would be a type-in domain because people often type it in, expecting to see "funny pictures" on the web site. These domains usually require no work or web site to maintain the traffic and are of the highest quality when compared to link popularity and other domains.

Other type-in domains include:

• funny.com
• jokes.com
• freegames.com
• playstation2.com

Typo domains are similar to type-in domains in that they are typed directly into the browser and not a search engine. However, typo domains are typos of popular sites and rely on the success of that particular site to receive traffic. For example, "gamewinner.com" is a typo of the popular "gamewinners.com". The traffic received by "gamewinner.com" relies entirely on the success of "gamewinners.com" so if "gamewinners.com" was to shut down, traffic to both domains would eventually die (this would take several years). It's important to note that some typo domains should not be purchased due to trademark infringement Possibilities. For example, the domain "yahooo.com" a typo of the popular "yahoo.com" would be considered a trademark infringement and the domain would likely be lost in legal arbitration.

Other typo domains include:

• microsofft.com (microsoft.com)
• funystuff.com (funnystuff.com)
• khols.com (kohls.com)
• mnoster.com (monster.com

Link Popularity domains rely on links from other web sites to receive traffic. These domains were previously associated with a web site. For example, "lezon.com" is a link popularity domain because there are other web sites linking to it and that's where most of the traffic comes from. Link popularity domains generally deliver traffic only for a few months before other sites begin to remove links to those domains, which is why they are not as high quality as type-in domains. Generally speaking, the higher the link popularity (Domain Search Tool rows ending with "LP") the more popular the domain was at one time. Link popularity domains can be extremely useful in SEO (search engine optimization).

Sample link popularity domains:

• popcornpalace.com (305 MSN links)
• spinnakersailing.com (682 MSN links)
• spaceday.com (4,676 MSN links)
• thefillmore.com (12,695 MSN links)

Link Saturation domains rely on traffic form search engines. These domains were previously associated with web sites. These are the lowest quality domains because frequent changes in search engine placement algorithms may completely erase or change the placement of these domains in the search results. Generally speaking, the higher the link saturation (Domain Search Tool rows ending with "LS") the more popular the domain was at one time. Link saturation domains can be extremely useful in SEO (search engine optimization).

Sample link saturation domains:

• funnyjunk.com (4,247 MSN LS)
• lezon.com (8 MSN LS)
• memorysource.com (118 MSN LS)
• stypo.com (41 MSN LS)

Finding Type-in and Typo Domains

Finding domains with type-in traffic requires scanning the "Overture.TLD" servers. We strongly recommend using proxy servers for all Overture scans. To enable Overture.TLD scanning click on the "Options->Scan Settings" menu and click on "Overture.TLD" in the "Search Engines" tab. You may uncheck all other options except for "Availability/Parking Status".

Once you are done configuring the search engines either use the "File->Domain Lists" menu to download any of the integrated drop lists or import your own lists. When you are done loading the list press the Play button to begin the scan.

Generally speaking, when scanning using the default United States overture server, the amount of "Overture" results (in Overture column, not Overture no TLD column) is close to the amount of daily type-in visitors the domain receives. Note that while Overture scores are usually a close approximation of daily type-in visitors, they can also be very misleading. Always double check all results, ensure that the traffic is plausible and only purchase domains which you have thoroughly checked.

Finding Link Popularity and Link Saturation Domains

Finding domains with Link Popularity requires selection of either one or multiple search engines. To access the search engine scan selection select "Scan Settings" from the "Options" menu. The following search engines support link popularity and link saturation scans:

• Google
• MSN
• Yahoo

You may select one, or multiple search engines and you may scan either link popularity, link saturation or both.

When scanning expired or expiring domains (ex: registrar hold, dropped, redemption period) we recommend scanning with MSN only. Google removes link popularity and link saturation records when the domain drop so scanning Google with drop lists is not recommended. MSN on the other hand does not ban bulk queries, does not remove dropped domains and is quite fast. With the exception of MSN, we recommend using proxy servers on Yahoo and Google scans as these search engines tend to ban extremely fast.

Generally speaking, any domain with more than 500 MSN link popularity or link saturation is worth the registration fee, assuming the links are placed in a visible position and are on English speaking web sites.

As mentioned before, domains with link popularity and link saturation can be extremely useful in SEO, or search engine optimization (of other web sites).