If you have not heard anything about typo domains yet, let me explain what it is. It’s when you buy domains which are common typos of another known domain, so that you can either redirect it to your affiliate link or simply steal traffic from your competitor. 
I have tried this already, but I haven’t explored the whole of it yet. I only tried it to make some web hosting affiliate sales. A few months ago, I owned typos of the domain “hostgator.com”. I think I had three or four. Guess what? I managed to refer 7 people in one month (that’s $75 per person for a total of $525), and I spent less than $40 for the domains!
Instead of killing myself by writing persuasive salesletters and sending numerous e-mails to everyone I knew, I went the “effortless way”. I bought domains and… ta-da! Profits rolled in.
The use of typo domains is not limited to gaining affiliate sign-ups; you can also use it to steal visitors from your dreaded competitors, redirect typos of your own domains to your main sites, and so on. Actually, the only limit is your creativity on how you’re going to use them!
So, I think some of you are already going to buy dozens of domains right now. But wait! Let’s weigh out the pros and cons of this method before you do so. I’ll let you decide later whether it’s worth implementing or not.
Why They’re Worth It
First, typo domains have the potential to reel in BIG profits. As I had mentioned a while ago, I owned some typo domains of hostgator.com. Sure, I could have just marketed my way into getting sign-ups, but I chose to sit back, relax, and wait for people to bring themselves to my domains.
You can easily convert big sites’ traffic into your own traffic. Imagine if YouTube didn’t have a policy about typo domains (I’m not sure if they have.), you owned yiutube.com, yputube.com, toutube.com, and youyube.com, and then you redirected them to your own video site. I reckon hundreds of thousands of people would be flocking over your site in a day!
You can STEAL your competitors’ traffic. I know this is an evil thing to do, but usually marketers are evil so… you get the point. If your competitor’s domain is bum-marketer.com and he’s getting 10,000 visitors a day, maybe you should get bun-marketer.com or something similar to steal around least 10% of his visitors. 
You may be able to sell them for more than 100% profit. I strongly believe that there are people who want to own all typo domains of their sites — and they pay a fortune just to get them! If this is the case, then more typo domains equals more money for you.
Why They’re Not Worth It
You never know, a lawsuit can be filed against you! There are people who can file lawsuits if you buy certain typos of their domains, so I guess it’s better to not get the $100 you can earn from the domain than to shell our $x,xxx for a lawyer.
Some typo domains just don’t bring in conversions. Even if you buy all the typo domains of a certain site, you might be unlucky and not get even a single conversion. I’m sorry to say this but sometimes, this just happens. So if you bought 10 domains (that’s around $80), and you get nothing in return, then you would lose almost a hundred bucks. That’s not something to be happy about!
Net surfers tend to stay away from sites on typo domains. Let’s say you bought bun-marketer.com, a typo domain of your competitor’s bum-marketer.com. I don’t know why, but some people get angry when they see people trying to steal visitors from other sites. Maybe they’re so loyal to “bum-marketer.com” that they will curse your typo domain and your site forever.
What Do YOU Think?
Now that we’ve taken down some advantages and disadvantages, I’m throwing the question to you: Are typo domains worth it? Share your insights with me through the comment form, and I’d be glad to concur… or maybe have an interesting debate with you!
Readers have left 21 comments on "Are Typo Domains Worth It?".
Personally, I’m not a ig fan of typo domains. As you listed in your disadvantages, typo domains (most) don’t reap in the traffic or the conversions so well. I’d rather spend that money elsewhere. Congrats on the HostGator conversions tho. Excellent!
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Thanks a lot! I actually sold my typo domains already.. hehe.
I am also not a fan of typo domains but I believe it can give a nice profit. I used to blog also typo keywords and make profit from it through adsense.
I never realized you can get sued for having a typo domain. But why will the company sue you? You did not take anything from them.
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I think it’s because of some trademark issues. One time I saw this forum thread saying he got sued by eBay(?) for having a typo domain or something… I’m not so sure if it’s true, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Interesting idea. I was wondering if there was a site or something that maybe displayed the frequency a typo occured in a domain name per day. I don’t want to go and buy (example) gogle.com if one or two people accidentally go there per day…
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You have a point. However, I don’t know any site which tells you the typo frequency of domains.
There are a lot of them in the net. You can use wordtracker to look for misspelled keywords.
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Lucas,
This is a very interesting post, I have always wondered how profitable a typo could be as some of the biggest sites I am sure would generate tons of traffic for a typo. I have considered buying a couple myself but have always stayed away. I guess it is my ethics that keeps me out of this as I feel it is a little shady.
Adam
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Lucas, if i got a cent for every time a have miss typed a domain url i would be rich!
so yeah typo domains are great. you just need to find what typo domain can bring you profit.
i know some bloggers that get huge profits from this
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I saw a thing on a new cast about a guy in Canada selling typo domain and doing really well with it. Thats cool with the conversions on the hostgator typo.
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Hey, Great post ! Loving the blog so far
“I know this is an evil thing to do, but usually marketers are evil so” CLASS
The “awesome bar” in Firefox 3, as well as other similar tools in other browsers, are doing a lot to limit the profitability of typo domains going forward. If tools are in place to prevent people from typing incorrect URLs, it’s going to get harder and harder to profit from things like this.
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Yeah, but as far as I know IE still doesn’t have that, and majority of surfers use IE so…
Haha. Thanks! I’m glad you’re loving NS.
I guess it really depends on each individual whether he’s willing to be “ethical” or not.
Wow, good for him then.
Haha lol. So that proves that typo domains can be worth it. xD
There are loads of typo domains to myspace.com which would be reeling in the profits. However, my fiance recently typed facenook instead of facebook and that took her to a porn site. Whoops
I just read this post and I’m interested to know if it is “ok” to buy typo domains for MAIN sites? Not for profit or anything else, but to establish a main site..
Ryan Mclean - oh, facenook! lol! typo sites can be scary they can lead you to pr0n or inappropriate websites..
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That’s a major “whoops!” right there.
I reckon it wouldn’t be so wise to buy typo domains for your flagship sites.
I don’t like typo domains. I like real original and unique domains.
I read alot of blogs about how to make money online etc. and I always say “I’ll try anything once”. This is definately something I’d consider trying… it’s just finding the right site to go for
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Another example to add to your hostgator one is template monster, I have seen typo websites reap the conversion rates on more than one occasion.
I know someone who gets atleast 16k dollars a month with typo domains. He has a huge list of domains and almost 70 percent are typo domains.
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