This is a tool which I came across while hunting around on Google for something to help with finding domain names. Traffic Finder's sole purpose in life is to dig up misspelled domain names which can then be registered by you.
Why would anyone want to do that?
The theory is that surfers out there on the web 'type' domain names into their web browsers, and go directly to the website in question. Further more, humans being humans, we sometimes make mistakes. Just as if you were to type a letter or other document a certain percentage of words would be either misspelled or have a typing error in them. Or someone might not know how to spell a domain name. For example they might type:
amature.com
...when they really wanted to see:
amateur.com
As you can imagine there's lots of different ways to misspell a domain name. Common ones are pressing the letter NEXT to the letter you really wanted to tpye on the keyboard (hey - you have to remember these guys are typing ONE HANDED!) Sorry - couldn't resist that one...
An example of how this tool works
If you go to the online tool that I made for finding some misspellings of words, you can get an idea of how surfers could misspell things...
Misspelling Variation Finder
http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/misspellings/
If you were to type in something like 'fetish' - you'd get:
detish
getish
fwtish
frtish
feyish
ferish
fetush
fetosh
fetiah
fetidh
fetisg
fetisj
ftish
fetsh
fetizh
You could then easily add on a .com to the end of each of these:
detish.com
getish.com
fwtish.com
and so on...
Some marketing text from Traffic Finder's site explains it further using some real examples:
There are lots of successful web sites that use this technology. For example, such misspelled domains like Yahhoo.com, Yaho.com (misspelled Yahoo.com), Anazon.com (misspelled Amazon), Walstreet.com (misspelled WallStreet.com), Registerr.com (misspelled Register.com) and many others receive thousands of visitors everyday without investing in advertising. You can visit these sites to check their popularity.
It's also worth noting that anyone registering misspelled versions of existing domain names has to be very wary of tradename infringement. Registering a misspelled version of say "fetish" is one thing. Registering a version of "yahoo" could land you in some serious problems. If you're going to play around with this area - make sure you do not land yourself in hot water and that you research into each domain you're thinking about buying carefully.
So what does traffic finder DO?
Well all of the above - and more besides.
The software comes as a single executable (.exe) file so there's no installation required. I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not this is a good thing. Some may have preferred the option to have the software placed in it's own folder and the usual familiar launch icons placed on the desktop and in the programs menu. But I guess this is a small concern as it's something you could do yourself pretty quickly.
Traffic finder is not available as a freeware or a shareware download. This made me a little apprehensive about buying it because I usually prefer to at least test software before I purchase it. But the screen shot on the site does make it plainly obvious what this tool does. You can take a look for yourself here: http://www.softforces.com/tinfo.htm#5
There are two versions of Traffic Finder: a pro version and a lite version - weighing in at $49 and $89 respectively. The comparisons of the two versions can be found here: http://www.softforces.com/tinfo.htm#4
I opted to buy the 'LITE' version because I wasn't that interested in the additional 3 features that the pro version offered: Check word typo's popularity with Google, check word typo's popularity with Altavista, Web Site Rank. I didn't think that these tools would be useful in finding good misspelled domains.
So how is it?
Here's a screen shot of Traffic Finder running on my machine:
http://www.topniche.com/newbie-booster/resources/reviews/traffic-finder/screenshot1.gif
Using the software is as easy as using your favourite search engine. There's one box at the top where you type a word or multi word string and then you hit the submit version. The software then figures out what some common misspellings and typos of those domains might be. THEN it goes and sees which ones are already registered, and which are available to buy still. This is by far the tool's strongest point. Checking WHOIS information for domains can take time - but this tool does it all for you at the speed of light.
The upper most panel containing domain names are names that are available. Typing in 'footastic' as the name to query (my Paysite's domain name is footastic.com) - I found a number of interesting misspellings. fotastic.com for example, has the 'o' missing from the start of the word.
Fans of GoDaddy will be pleased to find that the "Register Domain" button in this software links directly to GoDaddy.com. On the other hand - this could be a drawback for anyone who would prefer to have that button go straight to another registrar they use instead. As far as I'm aware, there's no options screen where you could alter this.
Traffic finder also comes with an extremely handy 'export' feature - whereby you can "Save to File" your list of possible available domains to a simple text file. you could then go off to say Overture's suggestions and check each domain to see if Overture thinks it will get any typeins. While typing "somedomain.com" into Overture - http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ isn't a 100% accurate way to find out if a domain is going to get typeins - it's one way you can check if this name is actually worth buying.
Which brings me onto a major problem...
Finding misspelled domains and whether or not they're available is one thing - but is this really going to make any money? Places like GoDaddy.com now offer domain names for under 9 bucks (and I'm sure there are cheaper places out there) - but there's a danger that webmasters could simply end up with a large number of junk domain names - which didn't actually get any type in traffic at all. So it's important to emphasize that this tool will not act as a guide to tell you how many surfers you'll get if you buy the misspelled domain. No sir. I did see one rival domain name mining tool which claimed to be able to do this - but I've no idea quite how this would be possible.
Another drawback that you'll hit when using this tool is that many, if not all, of the best 'misspelled domains' are already sitting pretty on someone elses server making them money. For example, if I search for the recent phenomenon of 'milf' - I find that with the exception of 'mizf.com' , 14 milf misspellings are already registered to other webmasters. That's how competitive this thing is. And is anyone going to type mizf.com into their browsers? I don't know. I have a sneaking suspicion the answer would be 'no'.
The verdict...
This is a very simple tool and it won't set you back a great deal of money. I always think of anything I buy in this business as an investment and then I think about how many sales I'd have to make to be in profit. This software would cost under '2 sales' before it would pay for itself. It does exactly what it says on the label and it's easy to use. It's simplicity is definitely a strength and if anyone out there is seriously into finding misspelled domains, I'd recommend reading through the page carefully and maybe thinking about it.
On the downside, there's no way to save past projects.
Score:
Ease of use: 8 / 10
Features: 7 / 10
Value For Money: 6 / 10
OVERALL: 7[/p]
Pros:
- An interesting tool for domain name hunters.
- Automatic whois checker is very handy.
- Could find a gem.
Cons:
- Many good names will be gone.
- No way to check if names will be typed.
- No way to save past projects.
TOM ^"^
ICQ 12616560
Email tom@tomsnewbiebooster.com
Enter TOM'S NEWBIE BOOSTER
">