After analyzing so many ideas to generate traffic to a web site, I must admit that I am surprised that I did not think of using this idea sooner.

Here is the method:

A quick way to generate traffic to your web site is to buy expired domain names and have them forwarded to your existing web site.

This powerful marketing tactic is currently being abused by many adult and gambling sites, but if used properly it could mean a dramatic increase in your profits.

What exactly are expired domain names?

Expired domains are names that people once registered and ended up letting them expire.  There are many reasons why they may have let these expire such as loss of interest, bankruptcy, or that they simply forgot to renew it.

Although the expired domain name may be worthless in the eyes of the previous owner, they may present a great opportunity for people who are looking for targeted traffic.

Why?

Many of these previous owners built web sites for these expired domains, promoted them, registered them with a variety of search engines, and even exchanged links with other sites.

All these promotional methods could still be generating traffic through these expired domain names.

Now, here is how you can profit...

For example, if you run a web site that sells merchandise based on the popular animation show "Dragonball Z," you could search expired domain names that relate to this topic.

If you can find a domain name related to "DragonBall Z," you may have just hit the jackpot.  Some of these expired domain names could still be generating thousands of visitors that could be driven to your existing DragonBall Z merchandise site.

These people are genuinely interested in DragonBall Z and could very well decide to purchase your related merchandise.

You can use free software tools such as "Alexa" (http://www.alexa.com) that will tell you how much traffic a domain name has generated in the last six months.  Although it is not completely accurate, it will give you an idea of how much traffic you could receive.

You can also determine how popular a domain name is by determining its link popularity on major search engines.  A free online tool (http://www.websuccess.com) can help you find the link popularity of an expired domain at five top search engines.

The reason why this method of gaining traffic is so lucrative is because domain names have become very cheap to register.  You can go to places such as GoDaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com) and register a domain name for as little as $6.95 per year.

Bottom line....

If you are interested in buying an existing domain name that you would like to use for a new web site or looking to transfer existing targeted traffic, finding expired domain names may be the best option to choose.