'Net Features : direct navigation

The Return of Direct Navigation

Administrator — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Trellian, a provider of Internet marketing solutions such as keyword research tool KeywordDiscovery.com, has announced the availability of a direct navigation ad platform dubbed the Trellian AdNetwork.

Direct Navigation, also known as type-in traffic, is a method consumers use to navigate the Web to arrive at specific websites. The direct navigation market was white hot several years ago but has since tailed off. Website Magazine covered the direct navigation trend back in November of 2007.

So does it work? A study of Internet traffic by WebSideStory's StatMarket division from 2005 revealed that direct navigation traffic converts into sales for advertisers at 4.23% of total visits compared to 2.3% for product and service related searches performed via search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Whether you believe real value is there or not, direct navigation remains big business for those that want to monetize their domains.

Advertisers in the Trellian AdNetwork will place bids based on keywords or a list of categoryes. The top bidder will receive the majority of traffic, and the remaining bidders will receive a percentage of the available, remaining trafffic. The traffic is sent from domain names parked on the Above.com Domain Parking Manager which reaces some 200 million unique visitors each month through 1.2 million domains and redirects users to the domains in the network.

Related Content:

- Ask-Sendori Direct Navigation Deal

- Sedo Rolls out Domain Advertising

Sedo Rolls out Domain Advertising

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:16:00 GMT

Domain name market Sedo launched a new service today which will allow advertisers to purchase ads directly on domain names that are parked at Sedo with performance-based pricing.

SedoDNA (short for Sedo Domain Name Advertising) will enable advertisers to display advertising in relevant categories and on geographical domains - but it might just work best on keyword rich domain names. With a network securing over 92 million unique monthly visitors and with 6 million domain names currently parked at Sedo this is a genuine advertising opportunity to consider.

SedoDNA relies on the belief that direct navigation traffic is worthwhile to acquire. I'm not personally a believer yet. There are few details on how the service works (or how well it works) and Sedo is doing nothing more at this point than touting the same benefits that every other advertising network uses; exceptional ROI, targeting traffic, flexible customization, and of course an opportunity to "diversity and support" existing SEM campaigns.

Ask-Sendori Direct Navigation Deal

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:52:00 GMT

TechCrunch has reported that Ask Sponsored Listings (a division of Ask) has acquired Sendori, a provider of direct navigation advertising technology.

For those not familiar with direct navigation (read this article on direct navigation published by Website Magazine several years ago) it's a way for advertisers to purchase type-in domain traffic and bypass advertising networks. More importantly though, direct navigation is a way for domainers to monetize on the domains they have in their domain portfolios - and they are the ones that were really winning (something that TechCrunch failed to mention).

The interesting thing about the development is that several second-tier networks privately rebranded the Sendori solution for their advertisers over the past 24 months. The impact on these networks once they learn of the acquisition will be that they will essentially stop using the service. When advertisers leave the network, bid prices will drop, and my guess is that the acquisition won't be nearly as attractive as it once was as a means to drive revenue for IAC.

The traffic for advertisers was nominal in quantity at best, often untargeted for the premium that was being charged by the company, and converted poorly on top of it all.