In the past few months, I have primarily used Sedo and Godaddy for parking and sales landers. I was surprised by the number of unique visitors I received despite the low number of offers or no offers at all for most of my domains. Sedo records show around 450k unique visitors on my portfolio of 1000 domains in the last year.

 Some of my domains received over 50 offer page views per month but received no legitimate offers. Godaddy didn't provide stats on sales landers, but their traffic stats on Godaddy Auctions seemed inflated. Recently, I switched to Parking Crew because their traffic stats for unique visitors and offer page views seem more realistic, and they also allow me to use Afternic and Sedo sales landers.

My question is why can't Sedo and Godaddy provide accurate stats, and how will this affect end users and new domainers who rely on these false stats? We need true and accurate stats throughout the Domain Industry to avoid misleading potential buyers. All opinions are welcome as long as they are professional, constructive, and respectful.

In my opinion, it's impossible for any registrar or sales lander to completely eliminate bot traffic from their statistics. Even when using Google Analytics and filters, a significant amount of bot traffic remains.
This observation is based on my experience monitoring domain traffic over a considerable period.

Bot traffic makes it impossible to rely on any statistics, as they do not correlate with actual sales or the value of a domain. High traffic domains may remain unsold for months, while low traffic ones can end up making sales.
Therefore, I do not attach much importance to views/traffic in determining the worth of a domain.

The domain industry has long debated the relationship between investment and speculation, yet no conclusion has been drawn. This article aims to shed light on this issue and examine the value creation of secondary market transactions.

Investment and speculation in domain names both carry price risk, making them speculative investments. A portfolio of domain names can help to mitigate risk, but the relatively thin volume of market transactions makes it difficult to reduce risk quickly. Speculation is not necessarily negative and can increase the value of commodities. However, too much speculation leads to price volatility and creates "price bubbles."

Domain investments can increase, decrease, or transfer value, and acquirers face three main types of investment risk: overpayment, price, and use. Selling a domain to a non-end user, parking a domain, or keeping it dormant all have varying effects on the value of the domain.

Purchasing domains associated with companies may reduce their value if they violate trademark laws or are too similar to other trademarks. Finally, expired domain names can be upgraded or downgraded depending on their previous use.

In conclusion, the purchase and sale of domain names is a speculative investment that can have various outcomes.

Firstly, it's important to understand that generating accurate traffic statistics can be a complex task, especially when it comes to measuring unique visitors and offer page views. There are various factors that could contribute to discrepancies in these stats, such as the use of cookies, ad blockers, bot traffic, and other technical challenges.

Regarding why Sedo and Godaddy may not provide accurate stats, there could be several reasons. It's possible that they may face limitations in accurately tracking and reporting visitor data due to technical constraints or trade-offs. They may also employ different methods or algorithms for gathering and calculating these statistics, leading to inconsistencies.

The implications of inaccurate stats can indeed affect end-users and new domainers who rely on this information for decision-making. It can create a misleading perception of interest or demand for certain domains, potentially leading to misguided investments or missed opportunities.

To address this issue, it would be beneficial if domain marketplaces and parking services prioritize transparency and invest in improving the accuracy of their traffic statistics. This could involve adopting standardized measurement methodologies, leveraging advanced analytics techniques, or collaborating with independent third-party auditing services.

In addition to promoting transparency and accuracy in traffic statistics, here are a few more suggestions to address the issue:

1. Standardized Measurement: Domain marketplaces and parking services could work together to establish industry-wide standards for measuring and reporting traffic statistics. This would help create consistency and reliability across different platforms, making it easier for users to compare data and make informed decisions.

2. Independent Auditing: Employing independent third-party auditing services to verify and validate the accuracy of traffic statistics could add credibility to the reported numbers. These auditors could review the methodologies, data collection processes, and algorithms used by domain marketplaces to ensure accuracy and reliability.

3. Feedback and Communication Channels: It would be helpful for domainers and end-users to have feedback mechanisms or communication channels with domain marketplaces and parking services. This would allow them to report discrepancies or concerns regarding traffic stats, enabling the platforms to address issues promptly and make necessary improvements.

4. Education and Awareness: Promoting education and awareness about the limitations and challenges associated with traffic statistics can also be beneficial. By providing domainers and end-users with information on how these stats are calculated and potential sources of inaccuracies, they can better interpret and evaluate the data provided.

Sedo's 450k uniques on 1k domains with no offers? That's a "laughing stock" metric, likely juiced by bots or lousy tracking scripts. GoDaddy hiding lander stats while pumping auction numbers is a "slap in the face" to domainers chasing real insights.

This misleads newbies and end users, making them buy into "fool's gold" portfolios. Parking Crew's stats seem less like a "wild goose chase," but the domain industry needs to quit the "number games" and code proper analytics.