I usually start each month by giving my results for domain parking for the previous month. This will be difficult for February’s results...
I usually start each month by giving my results for domain parking for the previous month. This will be difficult for February’s results.
First, TrafficClub lost its DomainSponsor and Google Adsense for Domains channels. TrafficClub automatically optimizes your domains across various parking programs. Now all of my domains are only being sent to Skenzo. Although this defeats the general purpose of TrafficClub, TrafficClub does still provide access to Skenzo. Skenzo requires 1,000,000 uniques per month and would not accept my portfolio for its program. You can expect TrafficClub to ad other partners in the near future.
TrafficClub’s loss of the DomainSponsor set off a PR battle between TrafficClub and DomainSponsor. DomainSponsor claims it had to end the relationship due to changes by Google (which provides the advertising feed for DomainSponsor). However, DomainSponsor then contacted people currently using TrafficClub to encourage them to move their domains directly to DomainSponsor.
TrafficClub CEO Monte Chan wrote on DNForum about DomainSponsor’s move to contact its customers:
As some of you may know, Google decided to make some sweeping changes with their partners regarding 3rd and 4th party feeds. TrafficClub.com was unique as it allowed multiple feeds to compete on a domain by domain basis and select not only the feed but the landing pages that monetized the best for each domain.
DomainSponsor/Oversee was one of 3 Google feed in TrafficClub and WAS considered a partner until yesterday when they decided to do whois look ups and aggregate all contact information they had on TC customers on every domain name and directly solicit our customers. In my opinion and after a direct conversation with their management (after I was even solicited), their intent was to take advantage of the situation and steal our customers. They were actually planning this for days.
Sometimes it takes a while to discover the true colors of companies and their management.
The great news is that they flushed themselves out of the system and revenue and performance will increase as a result. TrafficClub will only get better when we learn from experiences such as these.
My advice is to choose your partners carefully and work with people/companies you can really trust and who are aligned with with you. If you never learn from your mistakes, you will never grow. We just learned from ours.
Things always happen for a reason!
DomainSponsor’s Ron Sheridan defended the company’s action:
Yesterday we sent out an e-mail inviting TrafficClub customers to deal directly with DomainSponsor.
We would like to apologize if our email notification appeared as “spam”. We were attempting to reach out to customers who were enjoying our DomainSponsor program via TrafficClub. We felt we had good reason and justification to do so but the email did not speak to the reason we were forced to send it. The email was created and sent in haste and failed to give the larger context.
Background: On mid day Friday we were notified by our largest upstream PPC provider that we were to immediately terminate our participation in TrafficClub. We quickly notified TC and apprised them of the situation. TC asked for more time which seemed reasonable. While we were not given more time on our end, we decided to extend the deadline to Wednesday (yesterday) midnight and absorb any financial and legal risks ourselves.
We were expecting an announcement by TC to those customers affected. As of 5:00pm pst on Wednesday no announcement seemed forthcoming, and we saw that as a direct reflection on us. We decided it was necessary to send an announcement on our own. We have been very happy with our relationship with TC and it is with great sadness that we had to terminate it. This was not a DS decision or a TC decision…it was something forced upon us.
We think this development which precipitated our email, is part of a larger effort from the large upstream providers to exert more control over their distribution. In that context, our main concern is to ensure we abide by our terms of service thus ensuring our clients the most sustainable and highest performing experience. That said we could have and should have handled the specific communication better, and we apologize to those directly impacted especially the TrafficClub team. We welcome anyone who has concerns to contact us directly and discuss with us.
In the words of the great Paul Harvey, “Now you know the rest of the story”.
We’ll see how this plays out over the coming weeks.
TrafficClub and DomainSponsor weren’t the only parking companies to experience turbulence recently. Afternic, a NameMedia company, is experiencing report difficulties with its Active Audience feed. In a public apology to its customers, Afternic’s Michael Collins wrote:
Many members have already noticed that our parking reporting has been down much of this month. Reports that are posted show poor revenue for many domains because of problems we experienced in a recent change to a new feed provider. I apologize to all members for this problem. We are working diligently to fix the problems quickly. Furthermore, we plan to credit members’ accounts to restore revenue that was lost due to these transition problems.
Our feed provider change along with improved parking technology that we now have as a part of NameMedia will enable us to improve click rate and rev share once these problems are fixed. We are also confident that this transition to a new feed provider will increase members’ income significantly going forward. I hope that you will be patient and allow us to prove ourselves as a great parking service to our members.
These difficulties and changes in the domain parking industry show that there are risks in domain names. Domain name owners can’t count on consistent revenue from their domain names and need to spread risk across a number of platforms and monetiziation strategies.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Domain Parking Firm, Skenzo, Hosts ICANN Regional Gathering, At Laugh Factory
Domain Parking company, Skenzo, along with software and consultancy company for registrars and registries, LogicBoxes, hosted an exclusive event ...
Domain Parking company, Skenzo, along with software and consultancy company for registrars and registries, LogicBoxes, hosted an exclusive event as a part of the ICANN North American Registrar/Registry Regional Gathering, held at the Sheraton Delfina Hotel in Santa Monica.
Some of the most influential executives of the North American Internet community, gathered at the World Famous Laugh Factory Comedy Club in Hollywood, with over 60 guests, transported in super-stretch escalade limousines, each equipped with hi-tech audio and video, a fully loaded bar and extravagant interiors.
The VIP lounge at the club and the upper balcony were both exclusively reserved for Skenzo's guests. The event comprised of the "Urban Legends" show, which is Laugh Factory's hottest addition to their all star lineup in which the biggest names in comedy perform for LA's most sophisticated upscale urban audiences. The Laugh Factory is one of the best known comedy stages in the world and has been graced by stars such as Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Chris Tucker, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and many, many more. It has been a fixture on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip for 26 whole years.
Divyank Turakhia, President of Skenzo remarked, “It was a perfect place to relax, hang out and have fun after a whole day of work", said “At Skenzo, we are very committed to providing the most personalized, boutique experience that is a cut above. The event was a smashing success and attended in full force by eminent executives and officials from ICANN, Register.com, Microsoft, Network Solutions, Domain Discover, Enom, Tucows, Snapnames, Pool.com, CapitolDomains, Afilias, Neulevel, Afforda, Verisign, DirectNic, Tralliance and several other equally important companies."
In addition to hosting this event, Skenzo and LogicBoxes also sponsored a delightful gourmet lunch and the gala dinner at the gathering. Both Skenzo and LogicBoxes have been very active in various ICANN-related initiatives since several years. Skenzo provides a domain monetization platform which gives registrars a stable, ever-increasing, substantially large revenue stream, over and above the profits made by selling just domains. Its automated systems, specifically geared for Registrar traffic, analyze domain names on a real-time basis and deliver remarkably relevant commercial content.
Skenzo caters to more Domain Registrar Customers than all the other domain parking companies COMBINED. It is the oldest company in the market that has been building technology that specializes in monetizing registrar traffic and its platform continues to be the only one that works out-of-the-box for every Registrar related requirement.
LogicBoxes provides turnkey Business Automation and Consultancy to ICANN Accredited Registrars and Registries. 40+ ICANN Accredited Registrars use its systems to manage their business.
Domain Parking company, Skenzo, along with software and consultancy company for registrars and registries, LogicBoxes, hosted an exclusive event as a part of the ICANN North American Registrar/Registry Regional Gathering, held at the Sheraton Delfina Hotel in Santa Monica.
Some of the most influential executives of the North American Internet community, gathered at the World Famous Laugh Factory Comedy Club in Hollywood, with over 60 guests, transported in super-stretch escalade limousines, each equipped with hi-tech audio and video, a fully loaded bar and extravagant interiors.
The VIP lounge at the club and the upper balcony were both exclusively reserved for Skenzo's guests. The event comprised of the "Urban Legends" show, which is Laugh Factory's hottest addition to their all star lineup in which the biggest names in comedy perform for LA's most sophisticated upscale urban audiences. The Laugh Factory is one of the best known comedy stages in the world and has been graced by stars such as Jim Carrey, Adam Sandler, Chris Tucker, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock and many, many more. It has been a fixture on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip for 26 whole years.
Divyank Turakhia, President of Skenzo remarked, “It was a perfect place to relax, hang out and have fun after a whole day of work", said “At Skenzo, we are very committed to providing the most personalized, boutique experience that is a cut above. The event was a smashing success and attended in full force by eminent executives and officials from ICANN, Register.com, Microsoft, Network Solutions, Domain Discover, Enom, Tucows, Snapnames, Pool.com, CapitolDomains, Afilias, Neulevel, Afforda, Verisign, DirectNic, Tralliance and several other equally important companies."
In addition to hosting this event, Skenzo and LogicBoxes also sponsored a delightful gourmet lunch and the gala dinner at the gathering. Both Skenzo and LogicBoxes have been very active in various ICANN-related initiatives since several years. Skenzo provides a domain monetization platform which gives registrars a stable, ever-increasing, substantially large revenue stream, over and above the profits made by selling just domains. Its automated systems, specifically geared for Registrar traffic, analyze domain names on a real-time basis and deliver remarkably relevant commercial content.
Skenzo caters to more Domain Registrar Customers than all the other domain parking companies COMBINED. It is the oldest company in the market that has been building technology that specializes in monetizing registrar traffic and its platform continues to be the only one that works out-of-the-box for every Registrar related requirement.
LogicBoxes provides turnkey Business Automation and Consultancy to ICANN Accredited Registrars and Registries. 40+ ICANN Accredited Registrars use its systems to manage their business.
Google Adsense Domain Name Parking
Google Adsense for Domains is one such domain parking service to earn money from unused or dormant domains. The service creates a HTML...
Google Adsense for Domains is one such domain parking service to earn money from unused or dormant domains. The service creates a HTML (or XML) webpage filled with pay-per-click ads which is served to the user visiting the parked domain. Since the webpage has only links, there is a good possibility that user will click to navigate - and this user activity translates to revenue since the clicked link is an advertisement.
AdSense for domains program typically analyze a domain name and tries to match its meaning with Google Adwords' ads and related searches that are related to the domain name subject. AdSense for domains customers redirect traffic from parked domains to the AdSense for domains service. When Google receives the request, it processes the domain name and returns formatted HTML that includes contextual ads and related searches.
Sites that use Adsense for domains may typically rank low in Google search-engine results since they consist solely of commercial links. But they aren't automatically excluded. Google Adsense for domains is running across 3 million parked domain names.
These advertising-oriented domains typically attract visitors searching for information by directly typing the address into their Web browsers, rather than using a search engine. Google parking requires atleast 750,000 page views per month to be eligible for the AdSense for domains service.
Google Domain Tasting:
Sign up for millions of domain names; set up pages and run ads on them; delete domains within 5 days that have no or marginal traffic; keep the 1% of pages that have enough traffic to be worth keeping the domain. Because of the refund policy, the 99% of pages deleted before the 5 day grace period are refunded in full and the monetizer (or cybersquatter) gets to keep the adsense revenue generated over those 5 days. Domain registrars make over $5m-$8m / year from parked domain monetization pages.
Google Adsense for Domains is one such domain parking service to earn money from unused or dormant domains. The service creates a HTML (or XML) webpage filled with pay-per-click ads which is served to the user visiting the parked domain. Since the webpage has only links, there is a good possibility that user will click to navigate - and this user activity translates to revenue since the clicked link is an advertisement.
AdSense for domains program typically analyze a domain name and tries to match its meaning with Google Adwords' ads and related searches that are related to the domain name subject. AdSense for domains customers redirect traffic from parked domains to the AdSense for domains service. When Google receives the request, it processes the domain name and returns formatted HTML that includes contextual ads and related searches.
Sites that use Adsense for domains may typically rank low in Google search-engine results since they consist solely of commercial links. But they aren't automatically excluded. Google Adsense for domains is running across 3 million parked domain names.
These advertising-oriented domains typically attract visitors searching for information by directly typing the address into their Web browsers, rather than using a search engine. Google parking requires atleast 750,000 page views per month to be eligible for the AdSense for domains service.
Google Domain Tasting:
Sign up for millions of domain names; set up pages and run ads on them; delete domains within 5 days that have no or marginal traffic; keep the 1% of pages that have enough traffic to be worth keeping the domain. Because of the refund policy, the 99% of pages deleted before the 5 day grace period are refunded in full and the monetizer (or cybersquatter) gets to keep the adsense revenue generated over those 5 days. Domain registrars make over $5m-$8m / year from parked domain monetization pages.
Oversee.net Grabs $60M Line Of Credit
Oversee.net, parent company of domain name parking company DomainSponsor, has arranged a $60M line of credit. The revolving line of credit will ...
Oversee.net, parent company of domain name parking company DomainSponsor, has arranged a $60M line of credit. The revolving line of credit will was arranged by Banc of America Securities LLC. Bank of America, N.A. will serve as administrative agent. A syndicate of lenders and financial institutions is participating in the facility with Bank of America, including Comerica Bank, California Bank and Trust and Silicon Valley Bank.
Lawrence Ng, CEO of Oversee.net, says the line of credit will give the company the flexibility to pursue its agressive growth plans.
Over the past year Oversee.net has gone on a massive domain acquisition spree. The company now owns over 500,000 domains, making it one of the biggest domain name portfolio owners. DomainSponsor currently monetizes over 2.5M domain names. By monetizing these domains Oversee.net has unique insight into the value of the domains, which gives it a competitive advantage.
This line of credit puts more money into the market chasing domain name portfolio acquisitions. Companies such as iREIT, Demand Media, and Marchex have over $100M in capitalization for domain purchases, although much of this has already been invested over the past couple years. Each of these companies is pursuing slightly different strategies. Demand Media purchased registrars eNom and Bulk Register and is focusing on user-generated content for its domains. Marchex has a large portfolio of domains, many of them zip code domains, and uses its own advertising network to monetize them. iREIT has focused on large portfolio acquisitions and content development monetized by Google Adsense.
Oversee.net, parent company of domain name parking company DomainSponsor, has arranged a $60M line of credit. The revolving line of credit will was arranged by Banc of America Securities LLC. Bank of America, N.A. will serve as administrative agent. A syndicate of lenders and financial institutions is participating in the facility with Bank of America, including Comerica Bank, California Bank and Trust and Silicon Valley Bank.
Lawrence Ng, CEO of Oversee.net, says the line of credit will give the company the flexibility to pursue its agressive growth plans.
Over the past year Oversee.net has gone on a massive domain acquisition spree. The company now owns over 500,000 domains, making it one of the biggest domain name portfolio owners. DomainSponsor currently monetizes over 2.5M domain names. By monetizing these domains Oversee.net has unique insight into the value of the domains, which gives it a competitive advantage.
This line of credit puts more money into the market chasing domain name portfolio acquisitions. Companies such as iREIT, Demand Media, and Marchex have over $100M in capitalization for domain purchases, although much of this has already been invested over the past couple years. Each of these companies is pursuing slightly different strategies. Demand Media purchased registrars eNom and Bulk Register and is focusing on user-generated content for its domains. Marchex has a large portfolio of domains, many of them zip code domains, and uses its own advertising network to monetize them. iREIT has focused on large portfolio acquisitions and content development monetized by Google Adsense.
Google AdWords & Domain Parking : Garbage Paid Search?
Richard Ball emailed today to fill us in on the current issues he’s having with a large amount of Google AdWords Paid Search ...
Richard Ball emailed today to fill us in on the current issues he’s having with a large amount of Google AdWords Paid Search (not contextual) traffic coming from Domain Name Parking companies and how such traffic is garbage for his paying clients.
A whopping 72% of clicks for a single exact match keyword originated from the searchportal.information.com domain.
Investigating this domain, it turns out to be owned by a company called Oversee.net that owns DomainSponsor, a parked domain operation. Now, I don’t have a problem with domainers or parked domain sites.
What I do object to, however, is a situation where my clients opt into the Google AdWords Search network, expecting to pay for search engine advertising. Instead, they find themselves paying for garbage traffic. Let me emphasize that this garbage traffic originated from the Search network and not the Content network.
Question is, what kind of conversions, if any, are coming from this traffic? Is it hurting the all around quality and ROI of advertisers or just throwing it off a bit?
For those looking to stay away from such Domain Sponsor and other type in domain traffic, Richard adds a tip:
Until Google stops this practice of distributing search engine ads to places other than actual search engines, I recommend that AdWords advertisers implement one of the following strategies:
1. Turn off the Search network entirely
2. Lower bids to stay out of the top 5
3. Split ads into 2 campaigns: Google only w/ normal bids + Search network w/ lower bids
4. Request Google block *.information.com + *.domainsponsor.com
Richard Ball emailed today to fill us in on the current issues he’s having with a large amount of Google AdWords Paid Search (not contextual) traffic coming from Domain Name Parking companies and how such traffic is garbage for his paying clients.
A whopping 72% of clicks for a single exact match keyword originated from the searchportal.information.com domain.
Investigating this domain, it turns out to be owned by a company called Oversee.net that owns DomainSponsor, a parked domain operation. Now, I don’t have a problem with domainers or parked domain sites.
What I do object to, however, is a situation where my clients opt into the Google AdWords Search network, expecting to pay for search engine advertising. Instead, they find themselves paying for garbage traffic. Let me emphasize that this garbage traffic originated from the Search network and not the Content network.
Question is, what kind of conversions, if any, are coming from this traffic? Is it hurting the all around quality and ROI of advertisers or just throwing it off a bit?
For those looking to stay away from such Domain Sponsor and other type in domain traffic, Richard adds a tip:
Until Google stops this practice of distributing search engine ads to places other than actual search engines, I recommend that AdWords advertisers implement one of the following strategies:
1. Turn off the Search network entirely
2. Lower bids to stay out of the top 5
3. Split ads into 2 campaigns: Google only w/ normal bids + Search network w/ lower bids
4. Request Google block *.information.com + *.domainsponsor.com
How To Buy Parked Domains
Buying parked domains is a bit of a black art. It’s often also a test of your detective skills. Plus you will need a dose of patience and some good ...
Buying parked domains is a bit of a black art. It’s often also a test of your detective skills. Plus you will need a dose of patience and some good negotiation skills. When you are buying a parked domain name, luck also plays its part.
So, how to buy parked domains?
Firstly you’ve got to find a parked domain before you can think of buying one. That’s fairly easy. Go to a service like NameBoy.com and type in a couple of your preferred keywords. This will bring up a list of all sorts of vaguely related domain names. NameBoy is good at thinking outside the box and will often come up with variants on a name that you’d never have considered before. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether this is a good or a bad thing but when I’m looking to buy a parked domain name, I find it a good place to start.
Then you need to start copying and pasting the domain names into your browser.
Some will come up as live domains, some will be clearly identified as parked domains and yet more will fall into a no-mans land. Kind of the scrap heap of the internet.
If the domain has a clear “for sale” sign on it then that’s good. Chances are there will be a link that allows you to contact the domain’s owner without falling foul of spam filters and you can open up negotiations. Start low and work upwards is a good technique. You may also find that it’s useful to ask what traffic the domain has had in the past and what sort of figure they would be looking at to sell.
A useful tool is archive.org. This allows you to go back in time and see what has (or more often, hasn’t) been done with the domain in the past.
Another useful site is domaintools.com which allows you to see the domain’s history. Things like previous owners, changes of name servers, etc.
All of these will give you clues that will help you to buy parked domains.
If the domain is clearly parked but doesn’t have a For Sale sign on it, you may need to do some detective work. A WhoIs service may tell you who the owner is. If it does, don’t be afraid to get on the phone and call the owner. Whilst phoning is old fashioned, you’ll know your enquiry got through and it may well be quicker and more reliable than email. If there isn’t a working phone number, try writing.
Why not just email the owner of the parked domain? Well, for starters, email is getting less reliable nowadays. Secondly, lots of newer domains have domain name guards to stop spammers so the WhoIs details may not have contactable details. Emails sent to info@ or webmaster@ may or may not get through. They’re worth a try, but don’t hold your breath. At the end of the day, unless the parked domain is one that you absolutely must have, remember that there are often a number of choices that you can go through when you are looking to buy a parked domain. The domain name is only part of the equation. It’s what you do with the parked domain once you’ve bought it that really counts!
Buying parked domains is a bit of a black art. It’s often also a test of your detective skills. Plus you will need a dose of patience and some good negotiation skills. When you are buying a parked domain name, luck also plays its part.
So, how to buy parked domains?
Firstly you’ve got to find a parked domain before you can think of buying one. That’s fairly easy. Go to a service like NameBoy.com and type in a couple of your preferred keywords. This will bring up a list of all sorts of vaguely related domain names. NameBoy is good at thinking outside the box and will often come up with variants on a name that you’d never have considered before. I’ll leave it up to you as to whether this is a good or a bad thing but when I’m looking to buy a parked domain name, I find it a good place to start.
Then you need to start copying and pasting the domain names into your browser.
Some will come up as live domains, some will be clearly identified as parked domains and yet more will fall into a no-mans land. Kind of the scrap heap of the internet.
If the domain has a clear “for sale” sign on it then that’s good. Chances are there will be a link that allows you to contact the domain’s owner without falling foul of spam filters and you can open up negotiations. Start low and work upwards is a good technique. You may also find that it’s useful to ask what traffic the domain has had in the past and what sort of figure they would be looking at to sell.
A useful tool is archive.org. This allows you to go back in time and see what has (or more often, hasn’t) been done with the domain in the past.
Another useful site is domaintools.com which allows you to see the domain’s history. Things like previous owners, changes of name servers, etc.
All of these will give you clues that will help you to buy parked domains.
If the domain is clearly parked but doesn’t have a For Sale sign on it, you may need to do some detective work. A WhoIs service may tell you who the owner is. If it does, don’t be afraid to get on the phone and call the owner. Whilst phoning is old fashioned, you’ll know your enquiry got through and it may well be quicker and more reliable than email. If there isn’t a working phone number, try writing.
Why not just email the owner of the parked domain? Well, for starters, email is getting less reliable nowadays. Secondly, lots of newer domains have domain name guards to stop spammers so the WhoIs details may not have contactable details. Emails sent to info@ or webmaster@ may or may not get through. They’re worth a try, but don’t hold your breath. At the end of the day, unless the parked domain is one that you absolutely must have, remember that there are often a number of choices that you can go through when you are looking to buy a parked domain. The domain name is only part of the equation. It’s what you do with the parked domain once you’ve bought it that really counts!
Website Ideas That Pay - Parked Domains
Here's a great idea that gave me an additional 33 new income generating web sites. I, as well as many of my associates, have reserved many...
Here's a great idea that gave me an additional 33 new income generating web sites. I, as well as many of my associates, have reserved many specific domain names for later use. Usually these domain names are parked at the domain name registrar or web host doing no harm or good ... except generating someone else income and not me! You should have this income, it's your domain right?
Have you ever checked one of your own domain names to find it parked at the web hosts or registar's parked page? They are making money from visitors to your domain name! I decided I was not going to let the web host provider take money I could have in my pocket. I set out to make my own income generating "parked" page.
A parked page can made using a subdomain or one of your unused domains. Use either to make a nice income generating page.. I fixed mine up with a nice header that included the URL and a title that reads "this page parked courtesy of...", and then I added some affiliate Ads. Once my income generating page was completed, I simply aliased all of the unused domain names to the "income generating" page. Very nice... I now have 33 income generating web sites.
Heres a couple of special notes about my income generating page. I used the server environment variables to display the domain name of the "parked" page, a nice touch to 'personalize' the page and make the visitor aware they are visiting the web site URL they entered. I also changed the error page of the parked page site to also redirect to the parked opake to generate additional views.
If you have any parked domain names, make the parked page YOURS and not theirs!!
Here's a great idea that gave me an additional 33 new income generating web sites. I, as well as many of my associates, have reserved many specific domain names for later use. Usually these domain names are parked at the domain name registrar or web host doing no harm or good ... except generating someone else income and not me! You should have this income, it's your domain right?
Have you ever checked one of your own domain names to find it parked at the web hosts or registar's parked page? They are making money from visitors to your domain name! I decided I was not going to let the web host provider take money I could have in my pocket. I set out to make my own income generating "parked" page.
A parked page can made using a subdomain or one of your unused domains. Use either to make a nice income generating page.. I fixed mine up with a nice header that included the URL and a title that reads "this page parked courtesy of...", and then I added some affiliate Ads. Once my income generating page was completed, I simply aliased all of the unused domain names to the "income generating" page. Very nice... I now have 33 income generating web sites.
Heres a couple of special notes about my income generating page. I used the server environment variables to display the domain name of the "parked" page, a nice touch to 'personalize' the page and make the visitor aware they are visiting the web site URL they entered. I also changed the error page of the parked page site to also redirect to the parked opake to generate additional views.
If you have any parked domain names, make the parked page YOURS and not theirs!!
Making Money From Parked Domains
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names)...
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others simply had ‘hosting’, ‘host’, or a related term in the domain itself.
So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, “Yeah, it’s a shame – if only I had the time to develop some content for some of these domains then I might make some money form them”. It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains – just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain, others apparently found the domain through a search engine that had categorized the parked page.
So I suggested the following to him – why not use a service that will take the domain as is – with no content whatsoever – and suggest search options that generate revenue for each click? He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess what? He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.
He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages – with a brief description of the company’s product offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved to be a great success – and his revenue stream increased.
My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others simply had ‘hosting’, ‘host’, or a related term in the domain itself.
So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, “Yeah, it’s a shame – if only I had the time to develop some content for some of these domains then I might make some money form them”. It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains – just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain, others apparently found the domain through a search engine that had categorized the parked page.
So I suggested the following to him – why not use a service that will take the domain as is – with no content whatsoever – and suggest search options that generate revenue for each click? He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess what? He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.
He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages – with a brief description of the company’s product offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved to be a great success – and his revenue stream increased.
My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.
Illegal Domain Name Parking Rampant In SA
Domain parking allows persons to register a domain name in such a manner that the rightful owner of the domain cannot use it and is left ...
Because of an impasse in the law, so-called domain name parking is rampant in South Africa leaving many local companies powerless to acquire their rightful domains.
Domain parking allows persons to register a domain name in such a manner that the rightful owner of the domain cannot use it and is left without any legal recourse.
“A good example of parking in the co.za space is the current registration of telkombusiness.co.za by a competitor of Telkom. Since South Africa joins Angola as one of the few countries without domain name dispute resolution rules, Telkom’s only legal recourse is litigation in terms of trademark law. However, trademark law requires that a mark be used in the course of trade before infringement takes place. Thus, by not linking the domain name to any website the infringer escapes liability” says Reinhardt Buys of IT law firm Buys Inc.
“In effect any person can register any available trademark as a co.za domain name and ‘park’ it by not linking it to a website. Attempts to sell these domain names back to its owners at highly inflated prices and to simply prevent the use of a domain by a competitor are the main reasons behind the practice”.
Not only local businesses are affected by this abusive practice, but also foreign trademark holders whose names are parked as co.za domains.
“There are many and significant differences between trademarks and domain names and trademark laws were never a suitable reference for resolving domain name disputes” says Buys. “However, costly litigation in terms of trademark law remains the only option open for co.za disputes. On average, such litigation costs more than R100 000.00 and can take years to complete. Resolving similar disputes in Namibia and almost all other countries cost less than R10 000 and are resolved within days”.
Unlike most other countries, South Africa does not yet have domain dispute resolution rules and the facilities to resolve disputes through online, cheap and fast dispute resolution such as arbitration.
Although final dispute resolution rules were published by the Department of Communications on 22 November 2006, the necessary facilities will take years to be developed and accredited.
“Although the publication of these rules is a welcome and long awaited positive sign, the rules itself are generally disappointing. The Department opted for a ‘uniquely South African solution’ which amounts to nothing more than re-inventing the wheel in a rather costly and lengthy process. When the Department said ‘unique’ they said a mouthful” claims Buys.
As far back as 1999 international domain name dispute resolution rules were developed for top level domains ending with .com, .net, .org and others. These rules are administered by various agencies such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation which provide fast and online dispute resolution services which has been used by many local companies such as Nandos, Sanlam, Truworths and SAA to claim their domain names from unlawful registrants. Now many countries like Namibia, Australia, France and Ireland simply submit their country level domains to these rules and procedures.
“South Africa should have followed the international example and simply submitted local disputes to the international dispute resolution system. That would have been the logical, cost-effective and fast option. But the recent regulations create a unique system that require the accreditation of dispute resolution providers, the training of adjudicators and the payment of high fees” argues Buys.
“By opting for a separate and unique system .co.za domain disputes will be resolved in a different manner and according to different rules as the similar names in other countries, for example, sanlam.co, .za, Sanlam.com.au and sanlam.com. Furthermore, the rules failed to implement the vast majority of WIPO recommendations regarding ccTLD dispute resolution rules”.
The proposed domain dispute resolution rules are governed by the provisions of the Arbitration Act which requires that both parties agree in writing to submit their disputes to arbitration. However, the current agreement that governs co.za domain registrations makes no provision for such agreement.
“Uniforum, the co.za administrator, will have to amend their governing agreement and even if they do, it is uncertain if such an amendment will have retrospective effect. Since only new domain name registrations will be subject to the new dispute resolution rules, the current 282 636 registered co.za domains may well be excluded”.
Although the Uniforum agreement provides for a number of provisions that may assist in dispute resolution, Uniforum generally refuse to get involved and rarely relies on warranties such as those that force the registrant to use the domain name registered.
According to Buys the long awaited implementation of local dispute resolution rules may be even further delayed by litigation against Uniform regarding their governing agreement.
“Currently it is not even certain that the Uniforum agreement is valid and enforceable at all since it is a browse wrap agreement generally in violation of section 11(3) of the ECT Act. This all amounts to a messy legal environment. The losers will be local trademark owners who lost their domains and the only winners will be lawyers who will cash in on the coming litigation, legal impasse and general confusion”.
Because of an impasse in the law, so-called domain name parking is rampant in South Africa leaving many local companies powerless to acquire their rightful domains.
Domain parking allows persons to register a domain name in such a manner that the rightful owner of the domain cannot use it and is left without any legal recourse.
“A good example of parking in the co.za space is the current registration of telkombusiness.co.za by a competitor of Telkom. Since South Africa joins Angola as one of the few countries without domain name dispute resolution rules, Telkom’s only legal recourse is litigation in terms of trademark law. However, trademark law requires that a mark be used in the course of trade before infringement takes place. Thus, by not linking the domain name to any website the infringer escapes liability” says Reinhardt Buys of IT law firm Buys Inc.
“In effect any person can register any available trademark as a co.za domain name and ‘park’ it by not linking it to a website. Attempts to sell these domain names back to its owners at highly inflated prices and to simply prevent the use of a domain by a competitor are the main reasons behind the practice”.
Not only local businesses are affected by this abusive practice, but also foreign trademark holders whose names are parked as co.za domains.
“There are many and significant differences between trademarks and domain names and trademark laws were never a suitable reference for resolving domain name disputes” says Buys. “However, costly litigation in terms of trademark law remains the only option open for co.za disputes. On average, such litigation costs more than R100 000.00 and can take years to complete. Resolving similar disputes in Namibia and almost all other countries cost less than R10 000 and are resolved within days”.
Unlike most other countries, South Africa does not yet have domain dispute resolution rules and the facilities to resolve disputes through online, cheap and fast dispute resolution such as arbitration.
Although final dispute resolution rules were published by the Department of Communications on 22 November 2006, the necessary facilities will take years to be developed and accredited.
“Although the publication of these rules is a welcome and long awaited positive sign, the rules itself are generally disappointing. The Department opted for a ‘uniquely South African solution’ which amounts to nothing more than re-inventing the wheel in a rather costly and lengthy process. When the Department said ‘unique’ they said a mouthful” claims Buys.
As far back as 1999 international domain name dispute resolution rules were developed for top level domains ending with .com, .net, .org and others. These rules are administered by various agencies such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation which provide fast and online dispute resolution services which has been used by many local companies such as Nandos, Sanlam, Truworths and SAA to claim their domain names from unlawful registrants. Now many countries like Namibia, Australia, France and Ireland simply submit their country level domains to these rules and procedures.
“South Africa should have followed the international example and simply submitted local disputes to the international dispute resolution system. That would have been the logical, cost-effective and fast option. But the recent regulations create a unique system that require the accreditation of dispute resolution providers, the training of adjudicators and the payment of high fees” argues Buys.
“By opting for a separate and unique system .co.za domain disputes will be resolved in a different manner and according to different rules as the similar names in other countries, for example, sanlam.co, .za, Sanlam.com.au and sanlam.com. Furthermore, the rules failed to implement the vast majority of WIPO recommendations regarding ccTLD dispute resolution rules”.
The proposed domain dispute resolution rules are governed by the provisions of the Arbitration Act which requires that both parties agree in writing to submit their disputes to arbitration. However, the current agreement that governs co.za domain registrations makes no provision for such agreement.
“Uniforum, the co.za administrator, will have to amend their governing agreement and even if they do, it is uncertain if such an amendment will have retrospective effect. Since only new domain name registrations will be subject to the new dispute resolution rules, the current 282 636 registered co.za domains may well be excluded”.
Although the Uniforum agreement provides for a number of provisions that may assist in dispute resolution, Uniforum generally refuse to get involved and rarely relies on warranties such as those that force the registrant to use the domain name registered.
According to Buys the long awaited implementation of local dispute resolution rules may be even further delayed by litigation against Uniform regarding their governing agreement.
“Currently it is not even certain that the Uniforum agreement is valid and enforceable at all since it is a browse wrap agreement generally in violation of section 11(3) of the ECT Act. This all amounts to a messy legal environment. The losers will be local trademark owners who lost their domains and the only winners will be lawyers who will cash in on the coming litigation, legal impasse and general confusion”.
Domaining & Address Bar-Driven Traffic
Monte introduces himself as founder and CEO of Moniker.com and mentions some of the big domain sales which they've escrowed and their ...
Monte introduces himself as founder and CEO of Moniker.com and mentions some of the big domain sales which they've escrowed and their status as an ICANN registrar. Domain Marketing is a $1 Billion market and contributes to 15% of Google Search revenue via domain advertising. 112 million domain names have now been registered, a 30% increase in the past year.
What makes a good domain name?
- Natural Generic Brand
- Easy to Remember
- Clear, Concise and Descriptive
- Commercially Oriented
- Visually Pleasing
- Existing Type-In Traffic
- Backlinks, PageRank, Alexa Rank etc
- Mistypes (generic vs brand)
Domains generate revenue through direct traffic to a relevant supplier, affiliate revenue, selling domain names and adding value to a domain name by building a site with content around it. According to WebSideStory, 70 percent of internet surfers guess a domain name of a brand (brand + .com) or a supplier (service/product + .com). Verisign indicates that approximately 10 percent (30,000 a week) of its new domain registrations will be used for PPC as either a parking page or part of a content site aimed at adding domain value. Domain Auction websites are becoming increasingly popular, Moniker's Live Domain Auction (TRAFFIC) topped $5.4 million in sales last year. You can acquire valuable domain names from expired/drop lists through services such as SnapNames, registering new generic terms before anyone else, buying from other people and adding value, or via domain auctions. Use trademark search before buying a domain name, consider having a valuation done, use a domain escrow service, financing is available on domain names (it counts as an asset), use a stealth acquisition service if you think that the current domain name owner may inflate the asking price because of who you are.
Jon Lisbin from PointIt Inc. is next to the stand. PointIt is a SEM agency and does not directly use domain parking. According to the Washington Post, 15% of web traffic is "Type In" traffic. Looking at a client of PointIt, domain parking traffic can be just as good on CPA as Google Search PPC, although some have proved 7 times worse then Google Search PPC traffic. Google no longer allows AdWords users to opt-out of Sedo Parking when using their partner network**. Reasons for poor CPA from domain parking includes Click Fraud, Cyber or Typo Squatters (Dotster is named in a Cybersquatting lawsuit by Neiman Marcus), Domain Kiting (abusing the 5 day refund period given by ICANN to keep domains off the market - only 8% of domains registered in May 2006 were paid for).
Andrew Beckman is up next from Search Ad Network, who plans to talk about how to analyse and increase performance when domain parking. For a Children's Education Portal, Google's AdSense partners are outperforming Google Search PPC with 14 percent conversion rates compared to 12 percent. Future of domain parking - the ability to find more relevant results through search/drill-down on the parked domain and adding content to the domain names. 2nd Tier search engines are buying domain names themselves to try and get traffic volume and quality traffic to compete with 1st tier providers (e.g. MIVA). Big brands are also acquiring domains, such as Barnes and Noble who bought Books.com (the keyword "books" got 2,458,019 searches in October).
Josh Meyers from Yahoo starts off by saying why the domain traffic industry exists and what Yahoo Publisher Network does in the vertical. Yahoo uses its partners such as eBay, HP and CNN to increase volume and the real estate which its advertisers can promote on. The old domain parking of the past was not keyword targeted and had poor conversion rates. Now these sites have keyword specific results, images related to the domain, tabbed navigation and a layout which makes it appear like a genuine information site to the user. One partner site "digitalcamerasdigest.com" uses Yahoo Shopping feeds to offer content which can gain traffic through means other than type-in. Yellow Pages has registered thousands of US ZIP Codes as .com domain names in order to gain visitors who type the ZIP into the address bar (Internet Explorer will look to see if the .com, .net and then .org are registered of a word and direct users to the site, if typed into the address bar without a real domain suffix). Yahoo Partner Network has seen a significant growth in Long Tail traffic from parking and micro-sites.
Hal from Google does not have a Powerpoint presentation. Google supports the use of domain parking as a way of harnessing type-in traffic, as it's still a way of users finding the information or product which they're looking for. The vertical no longer sees the more risky websites such as "Drive By Downloads" as there's more money in legitimate Made For AdSense style websites. Google takes Click Fraud very seriously and will take down any parking site which is proven to be using Click Fraud. **Hal says that there should not be a problem with excluding Sedo Parking (or any other site) from a PPC campaign as the AdWords interface allows advertisers to exclude any and every partner website. Google is working to further improve the quality of traffic sent to its advertisers (including from parked domains) but also help the legitimate domain parking providers.
Monte introduces himself as founder and CEO of Moniker.com and mentions some of the big domain sales which they've escrowed and their status as an ICANN registrar. Domain Marketing is a $1 Billion market and contributes to 15% of Google Search revenue via domain advertising. 112 million domain names have now been registered, a 30% increase in the past year.
What makes a good domain name?
- Natural Generic Brand
- Easy to Remember
- Clear, Concise and Descriptive
- Commercially Oriented
- Visually Pleasing
- Existing Type-In Traffic
- Backlinks, PageRank, Alexa Rank etc
- Mistypes (generic vs brand)
Domains generate revenue through direct traffic to a relevant supplier, affiliate revenue, selling domain names and adding value to a domain name by building a site with content around it. According to WebSideStory, 70 percent of internet surfers guess a domain name of a brand (brand + .com) or a supplier (service/product + .com). Verisign indicates that approximately 10 percent (30,000 a week) of its new domain registrations will be used for PPC as either a parking page or part of a content site aimed at adding domain value. Domain Auction websites are becoming increasingly popular, Moniker's Live Domain Auction (TRAFFIC) topped $5.4 million in sales last year. You can acquire valuable domain names from expired/drop lists through services such as SnapNames, registering new generic terms before anyone else, buying from other people and adding value, or via domain auctions. Use trademark search before buying a domain name, consider having a valuation done, use a domain escrow service, financing is available on domain names (it counts as an asset), use a stealth acquisition service if you think that the current domain name owner may inflate the asking price because of who you are.
Jon Lisbin from PointIt Inc. is next to the stand. PointIt is a SEM agency and does not directly use domain parking. According to the Washington Post, 15% of web traffic is "Type In" traffic. Looking at a client of PointIt, domain parking traffic can be just as good on CPA as Google Search PPC, although some have proved 7 times worse then Google Search PPC traffic. Google no longer allows AdWords users to opt-out of Sedo Parking when using their partner network**. Reasons for poor CPA from domain parking includes Click Fraud, Cyber or Typo Squatters (Dotster is named in a Cybersquatting lawsuit by Neiman Marcus), Domain Kiting (abusing the 5 day refund period given by ICANN to keep domains off the market - only 8% of domains registered in May 2006 were paid for).
Andrew Beckman is up next from Search Ad Network, who plans to talk about how to analyse and increase performance when domain parking. For a Children's Education Portal, Google's AdSense partners are outperforming Google Search PPC with 14 percent conversion rates compared to 12 percent. Future of domain parking - the ability to find more relevant results through search/drill-down on the parked domain and adding content to the domain names. 2nd Tier search engines are buying domain names themselves to try and get traffic volume and quality traffic to compete with 1st tier providers (e.g. MIVA). Big brands are also acquiring domains, such as Barnes and Noble who bought Books.com (the keyword "books" got 2,458,019 searches in October).
Josh Meyers from Yahoo starts off by saying why the domain traffic industry exists and what Yahoo Publisher Network does in the vertical. Yahoo uses its partners such as eBay, HP and CNN to increase volume and the real estate which its advertisers can promote on. The old domain parking of the past was not keyword targeted and had poor conversion rates. Now these sites have keyword specific results, images related to the domain, tabbed navigation and a layout which makes it appear like a genuine information site to the user. One partner site "digitalcamerasdigest.com" uses Yahoo Shopping feeds to offer content which can gain traffic through means other than type-in. Yellow Pages has registered thousands of US ZIP Codes as .com domain names in order to gain visitors who type the ZIP into the address bar (Internet Explorer will look to see if the .com, .net and then .org are registered of a word and direct users to the site, if typed into the address bar without a real domain suffix). Yahoo Partner Network has seen a significant growth in Long Tail traffic from parking and micro-sites.
Hal from Google does not have a Powerpoint presentation. Google supports the use of domain parking as a way of harnessing type-in traffic, as it's still a way of users finding the information or product which they're looking for. The vertical no longer sees the more risky websites such as "Drive By Downloads" as there's more money in legitimate Made For AdSense style websites. Google takes Click Fraud very seriously and will take down any parking site which is proven to be using Click Fraud. **Hal says that there should not be a problem with excluding Sedo Parking (or any other site) from a PPC campaign as the AdWords interface allows advertisers to exclude any and every partner website. Google is working to further improve the quality of traffic sent to its advertisers (including from parked domains) but also help the legitimate domain parking providers.
Fasthosts And Sedo Team up To Bridge Gap Between The Primary And Secondary UK Domain Markets
Fasthosts, the UK’s leading domain registrar, and Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, have announced ...
Fasthosts, the UK’s leading domain registrar, and Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, have announced an agreement to offer Fasthosts’ customers the opportunity to purchase previously registered domain names via Sedo’s secure and trusted secondary marketplace.
Heightened competition caused by the shrinking number of available domain names, has seen leading registrars like Fasthosts and UKreg, looking to offer new value-added services that grow customer loyalty.
Fasthosts, the UK’s leading domain registrar, and Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, have announced an agreement to offer Fasthosts’ customers the opportunity to purchase previously registered domain names via Sedo’s secure and trusted secondary marketplace.
Heightened competition caused by the shrinking number of available domain names, has seen leading registrars like Fasthosts and UKreg, looking to offer new value-added services that grow customer loyalty.
DNForum cracks Down On Trademarked Domains
DNForum, the largest online forum for domain name owners, is cracking down on trademark-infringing domains sold on its site...
DNForum, the largest online forum for domain name owners, is cracking down on trademark-infringing domains sold on its site.
Last week the forum announced that it will begin deleting posts for selling “obvious” trademarks and trademark typos, such as mikrosoft.com or samsunng.com. Sales of trademarks and trademark typos have been rampant on DNForumand I suspect the heat has been on owner Adam Dicker to stop this. In some ways DNForum could be compared to the old Napster, in which the company enabled copyright infringement.
Another factor that may have contributed to the move by DNForum is that threads and posts on the forum were being used as evidence in UDRP cases. This should send a message to domainers involved in the “gray area” of the business — lawyers are now paying attention to what goes on in these forums. What you say can and will be used against you.
Another key cleanup in the domain world occurred this week as domain aftermarket Afternic cleansed its database of vice names including adult and gambling. I predict other changes are afoot as the domain industry becomes more mainstream:
-Parking services cracking down on trademarks and trademark typos
-Domain listing services cracking down on trademarks, trademark typos, and gambling
-Yahoo and Google cracking down on trademarks and trademark typos
Do you see a theme here?
Other than trying to avoid being on the wrong side of a lawsuit, companies that hope to be acquired or form partnerships with mainstream companies must clean up their act. On the gambling side, major online poker and gambling companies have seen their businesses shattered overnight as the United States has cracked down on internet gambling.
But vice domain owners need not worry, there will still be an outlet for these domains. In fact, Moniker is extending its famous domain auctions by adding adult-only auctions at upcoming adult entertainment conferences.
DNForum, the largest online forum for domain name owners, is cracking down on trademark-infringing domains sold on its site.
Last week the forum announced that it will begin deleting posts for selling “obvious” trademarks and trademark typos, such as mikrosoft.com or samsunng.com. Sales of trademarks and trademark typos have been rampant on DNForumand I suspect the heat has been on owner Adam Dicker to stop this. In some ways DNForum could be compared to the old Napster, in which the company enabled copyright infringement.
Another factor that may have contributed to the move by DNForum is that threads and posts on the forum were being used as evidence in UDRP cases. This should send a message to domainers involved in the “gray area” of the business — lawyers are now paying attention to what goes on in these forums. What you say can and will be used against you.
Another key cleanup in the domain world occurred this week as domain aftermarket Afternic cleansed its database of vice names including adult and gambling. I predict other changes are afoot as the domain industry becomes more mainstream:
-Parking services cracking down on trademarks and trademark typos
-Domain listing services cracking down on trademarks, trademark typos, and gambling
-Yahoo and Google cracking down on trademarks and trademark typos
Do you see a theme here?
Other than trying to avoid being on the wrong side of a lawsuit, companies that hope to be acquired or form partnerships with mainstream companies must clean up their act. On the gambling side, major online poker and gambling companies have seen their businesses shattered overnight as the United States has cracked down on internet gambling.
But vice domain owners need not worry, there will still be an outlet for these domains. In fact, Moniker is extending its famous domain auctions by adding adult-only auctions at upcoming adult entertainment conferences.
Make Money Parking Domains, Parketeer Says
Parketeer.com – created by two leading SEO companies as a way to revolutionize the Domain Parking marketplace – reports that it’s possible to attach real monetary...
Parketeer.com – created by two leading SEO companies as a way to revolutionize the Domain Parking marketplace – reports that it’s possible to attach real monetary value to every single domain. Their selling point: you keep 100% of what you earn on ad revenue. Nobody skims off the top.
As online ventures, from eBay auctions to affiliate programs, dry up, the market has become saturated with newcomers shrinking profits for all. Parketeer says it’s still possible for Internet users with the right approach to fatten their wallets through Domain Parking.
Domain names, are a valuable form of on-line real estate that grow in value by the day, and are quickly being bought up and held on to. Today, people are willing to pay hundreds, thousands, or even more for a viable domain name. It’s still possible to grab them, and keep them parked while they generate a substantial (and steady) income until they’re sold off.
In no time, Parketeer.com says that you’ll get an SEO compatible, 13 page, ad-filled, and content-rich website with keywords, menu, and optimization, providing everything you need to park a domain.
Parketeer.com – created by two leading SEO companies as a way to revolutionize the Domain Parking marketplace – reports that it’s possible to attach real monetary value to every single domain. Their selling point: you keep 100% of what you earn on ad revenue. Nobody skims off the top.
As online ventures, from eBay auctions to affiliate programs, dry up, the market has become saturated with newcomers shrinking profits for all. Parketeer says it’s still possible for Internet users with the right approach to fatten their wallets through Domain Parking.
Domain names, are a valuable form of on-line real estate that grow in value by the day, and are quickly being bought up and held on to. Today, people are willing to pay hundreds, thousands, or even more for a viable domain name. It’s still possible to grab them, and keep them parked while they generate a substantial (and steady) income until they’re sold off.
In no time, Parketeer.com says that you’ll get an SEO compatible, 13 page, ad-filled, and content-rich website with keywords, menu, and optimization, providing everything you need to park a domain.
Sedo Releases .Mobi Domain Parking
Domain aftermarket and parking company Sedo has released new domain parking templates for mobile phones...
Domain aftermarket and parking company Sedo has released new domain parking templates for mobile phones.
The new templates allow .mobi domain owners to monetize traffic. .Mobi domains are for use on mobile devices and are attracting significant attention. At October’s TRAFFIC domain auction Flowers.mobi sold for $200,000 and Fun.mobi for $100,000, and additional sales are being announced daily.
Earlier this week Yahoo announced it is creating a new ad program for advertising on mobile devices, which typically have small screen sizes.
Sedo’s templates shrink a typical parking page to the upper left hand corner. You can see examples at headhunter.mobi and students.mobi.
Interestingly, the ads on these pages appear to be from the standard Google advertiser feeds as opposed to Google’s mobile text ads. I question the value the advertisers on Students.mobi are getting from mobile phone clicks, especially clicks to online credit card applications.
Furthermore, don’t expect much type-in traffic to .mobi domains until the public becomes more aware of these domains. Fortunately, the .mobi registry is making sure that its domains get put to use by requiring an RFP for key domains such as New.mobi, Sports.mobi, and Weather.mobi. Potential buyers of these domains must submit a plan for developing these domains. Because of the stringent requirements for these domains, the .mobi registry can be assured that these domains will be promoted heavily and give the public its first true glimpse of .mobi.
Domain aftermarket and parking company Sedo has released new domain parking templates for mobile phones.
The new templates allow .mobi domain owners to monetize traffic. .Mobi domains are for use on mobile devices and are attracting significant attention. At October’s TRAFFIC domain auction Flowers.mobi sold for $200,000 and Fun.mobi for $100,000, and additional sales are being announced daily.
Earlier this week Yahoo announced it is creating a new ad program for advertising on mobile devices, which typically have small screen sizes.
Sedo’s templates shrink a typical parking page to the upper left hand corner. You can see examples at headhunter.mobi and students.mobi.
Interestingly, the ads on these pages appear to be from the standard Google advertiser feeds as opposed to Google’s mobile text ads. I question the value the advertisers on Students.mobi are getting from mobile phone clicks, especially clicks to online credit card applications.
Furthermore, don’t expect much type-in traffic to .mobi domains until the public becomes more aware of these domains. Fortunately, the .mobi registry is making sure that its domains get put to use by requiring an RFP for key domains such as New.mobi, Sports.mobi, and Weather.mobi. Potential buyers of these domains must submit a plan for developing these domains. Because of the stringent requirements for these domains, the .mobi registry can be assured that these domains will be promoted heavily and give the public its first true glimpse of .mobi.
Make Money Selling Domain Names On The Internet
Ever since the Internet was born, everybody has tried to harness its revenue-generating power. But all these ambitious ventures, from eBay auctions ...
Ever since the Internet was born, everybody has tried to harness its revenue-generating power. But all these ambitious ventures, from eBay auctions to affiliate programs, have since dried up as the market became saturated with newcomers and profits shrank as pieces of the pie were chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. Luckily, however, it's still possible for Internet users with the right approach to fatten their wallets. Domain Parking, a new way to jump on the profit bandwagon, is so simple that it's hard to believe.
Parketeer.com was created by two leading SEO companies as a way to revolutionize the Domain Parking marketplace with a system that attaches real monetary value to domains and captures the revenue potential within every one. Our top selling point is basic enough: you keep 100% of what you earn on ad revenue. Nobody skims off the top.
Some domain names hold more appeal than others and popular domains are quickly being bought up—and held on to. This is making it increasingly hard to get a hold of one of the great ones. Domains are a valuable form of on-line real estate that grow in value by the day. Nowadays, people are willing to pay hundreds, thousands, or even more for a viable domain name. And it's still possible to grab them, and keep them parked while they generate a substantial (and steady) income until you decide to sell them. Those involved in the business use domain parking as a means to increase the value of their holdings, both now and for the future. When you get your hands on a domain, paid parking makes sense, and it makes money. Just watch it roll in from ads while you wait for a buyer.
Parketeer.com has turned the Domain Parking industry on its head. In two minutes you'll get an SEO compatible, 13 page, ad-filled, and content-rich "web site" with the controls right in front of you: keywords, menu, and optimization. Everything you need, in other words. Some will say that we've figured out the right way to park a domain—and they're right. Others will say, with jealousy, that we've crossed the line and handed back too much control to the domain owners.
Ever since the Internet was born, everybody has tried to harness its revenue-generating power. But all these ambitious ventures, from eBay auctions to affiliate programs, have since dried up as the market became saturated with newcomers and profits shrank as pieces of the pie were chopped into smaller and smaller pieces. Luckily, however, it's still possible for Internet users with the right approach to fatten their wallets. Domain Parking, a new way to jump on the profit bandwagon, is so simple that it's hard to believe.
Parketeer.com was created by two leading SEO companies as a way to revolutionize the Domain Parking marketplace with a system that attaches real monetary value to domains and captures the revenue potential within every one. Our top selling point is basic enough: you keep 100% of what you earn on ad revenue. Nobody skims off the top.
Some domain names hold more appeal than others and popular domains are quickly being bought up—and held on to. This is making it increasingly hard to get a hold of one of the great ones. Domains are a valuable form of on-line real estate that grow in value by the day. Nowadays, people are willing to pay hundreds, thousands, or even more for a viable domain name. And it's still possible to grab them, and keep them parked while they generate a substantial (and steady) income until you decide to sell them. Those involved in the business use domain parking as a means to increase the value of their holdings, both now and for the future. When you get your hands on a domain, paid parking makes sense, and it makes money. Just watch it roll in from ads while you wait for a buyer.
Parketeer.com has turned the Domain Parking industry on its head. In two minutes you'll get an SEO compatible, 13 page, ad-filled, and content-rich "web site" with the controls right in front of you: keywords, menu, and optimization. Everything you need, in other words. Some will say that we've figured out the right way to park a domain—and they're right. Others will say, with jealousy, that we've crossed the line and handed back too much control to the domain owners.
Domain Services Firm, DomainMart, Releases Direct Navigation
Quantitative, analytical, and ecommerce domain-name services firm, DomainMart, has released a report, focusing on the empirical shortcomings of current...
Quantitative, analytical, and ecommerce domain-name services firm, DomainMart, has released a report, focusing on the empirical shortcomings of current studies of direct navigation.
The report examines two major empirical studies on direct navigation. The first, by WebSideStory, finds that sales-conversion rates when a visitor arrives at a site through direct navigation are higher than other forms of Internet navigation. The second considers only the relationship between direct navigation and its impact on domain name prices and parking revenue.
Direct navigation has tremendous marketing implications and is of paramount interest to buyers and sellers of Internet properties (domain names and websites). Thus, it is imperative that the sources and magnitude of additional value creation are investigated thoroughly. The WebSideStory study classifies visitors into three levels, and estimates the conversion rates for each level and across various product groups. However, according to DomainMart, the study has a number of shortcomings with regard to visitor classification modeling, estimation techniques, and interpretations of results.
The DomainMart empirical study suggests that direct navigation does not add value to a parked domain name. The lack of significance of direct navigation can be attributed to statistical estimation issues, as noted in the study, and that publicly available domain name sale prices do not reflect the full benefits of direct navigation, i.e., sellers, and possibly buyers, on average, do not fully understand the value of direct navigation.
Alex Tajirian, CEO of DomainMart explained, ''Future empirical studies must address these issues to determine the magnitude of value creation through direct navigation.''
DomainMart provides domain-name secondary-market products and consulting services, including appraisal, escrow, private investment management funds, protection, valuation, and parking traffic monetization management since 1996.
Quantitative, analytical, and ecommerce domain-name services firm, DomainMart, has released a report, focusing on the empirical shortcomings of current studies of direct navigation.
The report examines two major empirical studies on direct navigation. The first, by WebSideStory, finds that sales-conversion rates when a visitor arrives at a site through direct navigation are higher than other forms of Internet navigation. The second considers only the relationship between direct navigation and its impact on domain name prices and parking revenue.
Direct navigation has tremendous marketing implications and is of paramount interest to buyers and sellers of Internet properties (domain names and websites). Thus, it is imperative that the sources and magnitude of additional value creation are investigated thoroughly. The WebSideStory study classifies visitors into three levels, and estimates the conversion rates for each level and across various product groups. However, according to DomainMart, the study has a number of shortcomings with regard to visitor classification modeling, estimation techniques, and interpretations of results.
The DomainMart empirical study suggests that direct navigation does not add value to a parked domain name. The lack of significance of direct navigation can be attributed to statistical estimation issues, as noted in the study, and that publicly available domain name sale prices do not reflect the full benefits of direct navigation, i.e., sellers, and possibly buyers, on average, do not fully understand the value of direct navigation.
Alex Tajirian, CEO of DomainMart explained, ''Future empirical studies must address these issues to determine the magnitude of value creation through direct navigation.''
DomainMart provides domain-name secondary-market products and consulting services, including appraisal, escrow, private investment management funds, protection, valuation, and parking traffic monetization management since 1996.
Sedo Revamps Domain Parking Program To Deliver Better Earnings For Domain Owners
Highly relevant keyword ads, more detailed statistics and website-like page layouts make Sedo’s Parking Program the most comprehensive and high-performing...
Highly relevant keyword ads, more detailed statistics and website-like page layouts make Sedo’s Parking Program the most comprehensive and high-performing on the Web.
Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, has today announced new features and a restructuring of its domain parking program, designed to deliver greater profitability to any domain name holder. The new program supplements the company’s highly successful SedoPro offering – targeted at professional domain portfolio holders – to give all Sedo customers the ability to leverage powerful Website analytics, new page layout options and an increased payout rate on pay per click advertising revenue.
“Up until now, only large portfolio holders and registrars could enjoy the benefits of a professional-level domain parking service,” said Matt Bentley, chief strategy officer of Sedo. “Now, we’ve leveled the playing field by offering the same detailed analysis tools, customizable layouts, and high-end earnings to anyone with a Sedo account.”
New features introduced today include:
More powerful statistical tools: Offering a behind the scenes look at visitor behavior on each parking page, the new statistics identify where visitors are coming from and where they’re clicking on the pages. There are also new tools to create sub-portfolios for better domain organization, quickly evaluate portfolio performance trends, and identify domains needing optimization.
Website-like page layouts: Sedo introduced four colorful new page designs, some including photos and search-engine friendly texts. It’s now also possible to choose thematic photos to customize the look and feel of the parking pages.
Stronger earnings: Sedo has increased their overall payout rate and switched feeds at their advertising provider. This change enables Sedo to offer more competitive payouts on tens of thousands of keywords to instantly increase their performance.
Highly relevant keyword ads, more detailed statistics and website-like page layouts make Sedo’s Parking Program the most comprehensive and high-performing on the Web.
Sedo, the leading online marketplace for the buying and selling of domain names, has today announced new features and a restructuring of its domain parking program, designed to deliver greater profitability to any domain name holder. The new program supplements the company’s highly successful SedoPro offering – targeted at professional domain portfolio holders – to give all Sedo customers the ability to leverage powerful Website analytics, new page layout options and an increased payout rate on pay per click advertising revenue.
“Up until now, only large portfolio holders and registrars could enjoy the benefits of a professional-level domain parking service,” said Matt Bentley, chief strategy officer of Sedo. “Now, we’ve leveled the playing field by offering the same detailed analysis tools, customizable layouts, and high-end earnings to anyone with a Sedo account.”
New features introduced today include:
More powerful statistical tools: Offering a behind the scenes look at visitor behavior on each parking page, the new statistics identify where visitors are coming from and where they’re clicking on the pages. There are also new tools to create sub-portfolios for better domain organization, quickly evaluate portfolio performance trends, and identify domains needing optimization.
Website-like page layouts: Sedo introduced four colorful new page designs, some including photos and search-engine friendly texts. It’s now also possible to choose thematic photos to customize the look and feel of the parking pages.
Stronger earnings: Sedo has increased their overall payout rate and switched feeds at their advertising provider. This change enables Sedo to offer more competitive payouts on tens of thousands of keywords to instantly increase their performance.
Go Daddy Offers CashParking For Domain Names
Website hosting and domain registrar company, GoDaddy.com, is offering CashParking, designed to be a simple and flexible ...
Website hosting and domain registrar company, GoDaddy.com, is offering CashParking, designed to be a simple and flexible way for customers to gain revenue from parked domain names. Parked pages are the web sites displayed when the registrant of a domain name has not yet posted a developed site.
Containing links to content that would be relevant to those visiting a domain name, the links direct visitors to the sites of advertisers who pay for exposure on parked pages on a per-click basis. CashParking offers customers a choice of three plans, based on budget and return expectations. Ranging from 60 percent with the $3.99-per-month basic plan to 80 percent with the premium plan, these revenue shares lead the industry.
According to Go Daddy, CashParking enables domain name registrants to earn money on their parked domain name portfolios with the benefit of choosing and purchasing a domain name for $8.95 or less, putting up a revenue-generating parked page, and finally, using one of GoDaddy.com's web site builders to develop an online presence. CashParking also includes features to enable customers to choose a parked page design and specify the type of advertisements displayed. In addition, CashParking is integrated with the Domain Name AfterMarket, to allow customers to automatically park certain domain names purchased at auction, in order to immediately place them in a position to generate revenue, and participate in auctions exclusive to CashParking customers.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc. commented, ''Our CashParking customers can leverage the value of their domain name while they work with GoDaddy.com through the entire site creation process. Go Daddy is putting its reputation in the domain name industry to work for our customers so CashParking can provide the highest revenue share payouts, making for quick and easy income potential for domain holders from their parked domain names.''
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services developed to enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration and web site hosting services, as well as a broad array of on-demand and other services. The Go Daddy Group is the world's largest domain name registrar, with approximately 14.6 million domain names under management as of June 30, 2006 and North America's largest shared web site hosting provider. During the final six months of 2005, The Go Daddy Group registered approximately one-third of all domain names registered in the top five generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info.
Website hosting and domain registrar company, GoDaddy.com, is offering CashParking, designed to be a simple and flexible way for customers to gain revenue from parked domain names. Parked pages are the web sites displayed when the registrant of a domain name has not yet posted a developed site.
Containing links to content that would be relevant to those visiting a domain name, the links direct visitors to the sites of advertisers who pay for exposure on parked pages on a per-click basis. CashParking offers customers a choice of three plans, based on budget and return expectations. Ranging from 60 percent with the $3.99-per-month basic plan to 80 percent with the premium plan, these revenue shares lead the industry.
According to Go Daddy, CashParking enables domain name registrants to earn money on their parked domain name portfolios with the benefit of choosing and purchasing a domain name for $8.95 or less, putting up a revenue-generating parked page, and finally, using one of GoDaddy.com's web site builders to develop an online presence. CashParking also includes features to enable customers to choose a parked page design and specify the type of advertisements displayed. In addition, CashParking is integrated with the Domain Name AfterMarket, to allow customers to automatically park certain domain names purchased at auction, in order to immediately place them in a position to generate revenue, and participate in auctions exclusive to CashParking customers.
Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of The Go Daddy Group, Inc. commented, ''Our CashParking customers can leverage the value of their domain name while they work with GoDaddy.com through the entire site creation process. Go Daddy is putting its reputation in the domain name industry to work for our customers so CashParking can provide the highest revenue share payouts, making for quick and easy income potential for domain holders from their parked domain names.''
Go Daddy is a leading provider of services developed to enable individuals and businesses to establish, maintain and evolve an online presence. Go Daddy provides a variety of domain name registration and web site hosting services, as well as a broad array of on-demand and other services. The Go Daddy Group is the world's largest domain name registrar, with approximately 14.6 million domain names under management as of June 30, 2006 and North America's largest shared web site hosting provider. During the final six months of 2005, The Go Daddy Group registered approximately one-third of all domain names registered in the top five generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, including .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info.
Sedo Launches New Parking Service
Domain marketplace Sedo (sedo.com) announced on Tuesday that it has launched a new domain parking program, SedoPro designed for customers that...
Domain marketplace Sedo (sedo.com) announced on Tuesday that it has launched a new domain parking program, SedoPro designed for customers that operate large portfolios of domain names.
The company says the package provides parking professionals with a solution that includes analysis tools, greater control over site optimization and page layout as well as a dedicated account service representative. The product, says the company, is designed to help customers maximize the return they see on domain portfolios.
Sedo says it enables domain holders to manage their portfolios the way they might manage an investment portfolio, letting them view which domains are performing well or poorly, the geographic origins of their traffic and which sites are referring that traffic.
"Offerings such as SedoPro show the necessary maturation occurring in the parking market. To optimize revenues, professionals must often go beyond bland text-ad pages," says Matt Bentley, chief strategy officer of Sedo. "With portfolios in the hundreds and thousands of names, advanced tools are necessary for sophisticated parking management."
Domain marketplace Sedo (sedo.com) announced on Tuesday that it has launched a new domain parking program, SedoPro designed for customers that operate large portfolios of domain names.
The company says the package provides parking professionals with a solution that includes analysis tools, greater control over site optimization and page layout as well as a dedicated account service representative. The product, says the company, is designed to help customers maximize the return they see on domain portfolios.
Sedo says it enables domain holders to manage their portfolios the way they might manage an investment portfolio, letting them view which domains are performing well or poorly, the geographic origins of their traffic and which sites are referring that traffic.
"Offerings such as SedoPro show the necessary maturation occurring in the parking market. To optimize revenues, professionals must often go beyond bland text-ad pages," says Matt Bentley, chief strategy officer of Sedo. "With portfolios in the hundreds and thousands of names, advanced tools are necessary for sophisticated parking management."
Earn Money With Parked Domain Names
There are several companies on the internet that will pay you to redirect your domain to a landing page, filled highly relevant PPC ...
Do you have domain names that you are not currently using?
Did you know that these domains can actually become a source of revenue for your online business?
There are several companies on the internet that will pay you to redirect your domain to a landing page, filled highly relevant PPC (pay per click) links. The links displayed on your landing page will be optimized based on what keywords are in your domain, and what links previous visitors have been interested in looking at. You can earn real money every time one of your visitors clicks a link on your landing page, in addition to guaranteed ad revenue for each and every unique visitor that you recieve. All this revenue building up month after month can form into a very nice income stream for your business.
Considering the fact that you can earn up to $5.00/click (depending on your domain, and what country your traffic comes from) with this type of program, there is no doubt that domain parking can be an extremely lucrative practice.
Do you have domain names that you are not currently using?
Did you know that these domains can actually become a source of revenue for your online business?
There are several companies on the internet that will pay you to redirect your domain to a landing page, filled highly relevant PPC (pay per click) links. The links displayed on your landing page will be optimized based on what keywords are in your domain, and what links previous visitors have been interested in looking at. You can earn real money every time one of your visitors clicks a link on your landing page, in addition to guaranteed ad revenue for each and every unique visitor that you recieve. All this revenue building up month after month can form into a very nice income stream for your business.
Considering the fact that you can earn up to $5.00/click (depending on your domain, and what country your traffic comes from) with this type of program, there is no doubt that domain parking can be an extremely lucrative practice.
Add-On Domains, Parked Domains and Sub-Domains
Once you have a website up and running, you may want to launch other websites. The default way to do it is to register new domain names ...
Once you have a website up and running, you may want to launch other websites. The default way to do it is to register new domain names and open new hosting accounts. However, opening new hosting accounts can be expensive, especially if you still have plenty of free space and bandwidth available in your original account. Fortunately, it is possible to share the web space and bandwidth of your original account among different sites.
You can basically do so through:
Add-On Domains
Parked Domains, and
Sub-Domains
What is an Add-On Domain?
An add-on domain is a new domain name that points to a subdirectory within your existing domain hosting account, where the website for the new domain will reside. Add-on domains must be registered domain names that you own, and that are configured to point to your web host's servers.
From a web user perspective, an add-on domain functions just like any other domain. For example, if you already have a hosting account under www.main-domain.com, you can register and set up an add-on domain (for example: www.add-on-domain.com), so that when your visitors type "http://www.add-on-domain.com" in their browser, they will be transported to the new site.
The advantage of add-on domains is that the browser's address bar will show "http://www.add-on-domain.com" (there will be no reference to the original domain), so the process will be totally transparent to your users. If your users navigates to another page, their browser will accordingly show "http://www.add-on-domain.com/anotherpage.html", just like it should.
Apart from sharing web space and bandwidth with your main domain, add-on domains also get their own cgi-bin and statistics.
Many web hosts now offer to set-up add-on domains for free. This is only fair, since you are not getting any more web space or bandwidth. Others, however, will charge you a modest one time fee, which is not bad, especially when the cost of registering the new domain is included. Finally, some web hosts will charge you a montly fee for each add-on domain you set up. In some cases, that fee can be very close to the monthly cost of your web hosting account, to the point that it is better to just open a new hosting account for the new domain. If you plan to set up add-on domains in the future, you're better off avoiding this kind of account.
What is a Parked Domain?
A parked domain is a domain that doesn't have a hosting account associated to it, and that is usually enabled with URL forwarding capabilities, so that it points to an existing website. For example, let's assume that you already run a newsletter that is hosted in a subdirectory of your domain name, as follows: "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html". You may at one given point want to register a separate domain name for your newsletter, so that it is more memorable, but may not want to move its pages to a new server, open a new hosting account, or pay to establish an add-on domain. You can then register a and park a new domain for your newsletter (for example: "http://www.newsletter.com"), which will be forwarded to "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html".
You don't need to register this new domain with the same company that hosts your website. You can register it with any domain registrar (preferrably one that offers free URL forwarding) and point it to the physical location of the pages.
The difference between a parked domain and an add-on domain from a web user's perspective is that with a parked domain the URL in the address bar will change to the physical location of the page as the page loads. For example, if you type "http://www.newsletter.com", that domain won't remain in the browser address bar, but will change to "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html" as soon as the page is displayed.
From a webmaster's perspective, the difference is that the parked domain won't have its own separate statistics reported through the control panel of your hosting account.
If you are a good observer, you may have probably noticed that my newsletter domain "http://www.theinternetdigest.net" is parked and points to the physical location of my newsletter pages, which is "http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/".
Parked domains are also a good alternative for webmasters whose site is hosted by a free hosting service, since by using a memorable parked domain users won't need to remember the cumbersome web addresses usually associated with free hosting accounts.
They are also widely used by members of affiliate programs, who forward the parked domain to the merchant pages, so that they don't have to use an affiliate URL that includes their affiliate id (which turns many people off).
What is a Sub-Domain?
A subdomain, also known as a "third-level" domain, is a great way to create memorable web addresses for various sub-sites of your site. For instance, Yahoo! uses subdomains for its different services, like "mail.yahoo.com", "music.yahoo.com", etc. The basic syntax is: "http://subdomain.domain.com".
Large businesses use subdomains to establish branding and focus on separate products or services, because a subdomain creates a separate URL and web presence, all within your same main hosting account. For example, a restaurant directory may establish sub-domains for different cities, or a school can set up subdomains for different academic programs.
It is also possible to redirect (forward) traffic from a particular subdomain to another location, either within the main site or to a different website altogether.
You should be able to set up and manage add-on domains, parked domains and subdirectories from your hosting account or domain registrar control panel. However, as we usually suggest, always consult with your web host before proceeding if you have any doubts.
Once you have a website up and running, you may want to launch other websites. The default way to do it is to register new domain names and open new hosting accounts. However, opening new hosting accounts can be expensive, especially if you still have plenty of free space and bandwidth available in your original account. Fortunately, it is possible to share the web space and bandwidth of your original account among different sites.
You can basically do so through:
Add-On Domains
Parked Domains, and
Sub-Domains
What is an Add-On Domain?
An add-on domain is a new domain name that points to a subdirectory within your existing domain hosting account, where the website for the new domain will reside. Add-on domains must be registered domain names that you own, and that are configured to point to your web host's servers.
From a web user perspective, an add-on domain functions just like any other domain. For example, if you already have a hosting account under www.main-domain.com, you can register and set up an add-on domain (for example: www.add-on-domain.com), so that when your visitors type "http://www.add-on-domain.com" in their browser, they will be transported to the new site.
The advantage of add-on domains is that the browser's address bar will show "http://www.add-on-domain.com" (there will be no reference to the original domain), so the process will be totally transparent to your users. If your users navigates to another page, their browser will accordingly show "http://www.add-on-domain.com/anotherpage.html", just like it should.
Apart from sharing web space and bandwidth with your main domain, add-on domains also get their own cgi-bin and statistics.
Many web hosts now offer to set-up add-on domains for free. This is only fair, since you are not getting any more web space or bandwidth. Others, however, will charge you a modest one time fee, which is not bad, especially when the cost of registering the new domain is included. Finally, some web hosts will charge you a montly fee for each add-on domain you set up. In some cases, that fee can be very close to the monthly cost of your web hosting account, to the point that it is better to just open a new hosting account for the new domain. If you plan to set up add-on domains in the future, you're better off avoiding this kind of account.
What is a Parked Domain?
A parked domain is a domain that doesn't have a hosting account associated to it, and that is usually enabled with URL forwarding capabilities, so that it points to an existing website. For example, let's assume that you already run a newsletter that is hosted in a subdirectory of your domain name, as follows: "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html". You may at one given point want to register a separate domain name for your newsletter, so that it is more memorable, but may not want to move its pages to a new server, open a new hosting account, or pay to establish an add-on domain. You can then register a and park a new domain for your newsletter (for example: "http://www.newsletter.com"), which will be forwarded to "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html".
You don't need to register this new domain with the same company that hosts your website. You can register it with any domain registrar (preferrably one that offers free URL forwarding) and point it to the physical location of the pages.
The difference between a parked domain and an add-on domain from a web user's perspective is that with a parked domain the URL in the address bar will change to the physical location of the page as the page loads. For example, if you type "http://www.newsletter.com", that domain won't remain in the browser address bar, but will change to "http://www.domain.com/newsletter/index.html" as soon as the page is displayed.
From a webmaster's perspective, the difference is that the parked domain won't have its own separate statistics reported through the control panel of your hosting account.
If you are a good observer, you may have probably noticed that my newsletter domain "http://www.theinternetdigest.net" is parked and points to the physical location of my newsletter pages, which is "http://www.accordmarketing.com/tid/".
Parked domains are also a good alternative for webmasters whose site is hosted by a free hosting service, since by using a memorable parked domain users won't need to remember the cumbersome web addresses usually associated with free hosting accounts.
They are also widely used by members of affiliate programs, who forward the parked domain to the merchant pages, so that they don't have to use an affiliate URL that includes their affiliate id (which turns many people off).
What is a Sub-Domain?
A subdomain, also known as a "third-level" domain, is a great way to create memorable web addresses for various sub-sites of your site. For instance, Yahoo! uses subdomains for its different services, like "mail.yahoo.com", "music.yahoo.com", etc. The basic syntax is: "http://subdomain.domain.com".
Large businesses use subdomains to establish branding and focus on separate products or services, because a subdomain creates a separate URL and web presence, all within your same main hosting account. For example, a restaurant directory may establish sub-domains for different cities, or a school can set up subdomains for different academic programs.
It is also possible to redirect (forward) traffic from a particular subdomain to another location, either within the main site or to a different website altogether.
You should be able to set up and manage add-on domains, parked domains and subdirectories from your hosting account or domain registrar control panel. However, as we usually suggest, always consult with your web host before proceeding if you have any doubts.
Affiliates Making Money Off Parked Domains
Having over 100 domains, you'd think it would occur to me that parked domain pages could be similarly leveraged to get some incremental ...
I've frequently encouraged affiliates to make use of their 404 error pages by serving up some relevant affiliate links to capitalize on the traffic that accidentally hits those pages.
Having over 100 domains, you'd think it would occur to me that parked domain pages could be similarly leveraged to get some incremental affiliate commissions.
I'd say a good 50% of my domains are parked on generic pages that don't do me any good. I just haven't bothered to do anything with them while I wait to use them for an appropriate project.
So it was particularly interesting to me to chat with Monte Cahn, the Founder/CEO of Moniker, last week about one of his properties, Traffic Club.
This site is billed as a domain profit maximization tool. Traffic Club can help you make money with your otherwise unused domain names through their traffic monetization tool that helps you figure out which pay per click (PPC) ad network will bring in the most domain parking revenue.
Traffic Club automatically selects the best PPC ad network for each of your domains to maximize domain parking revenue, and provides summary and detailed reporting on domain traffic and domain parking revenue.
Additionally, they enable you to modify your landing pages to give you the flexibility to target different keywords on each domain.
I'm always amazed at seemingly logical ideas like this that most people aren't doing. So go and monetize those otherwise dead pages already.
I've frequently encouraged affiliates to make use of their 404 error pages by serving up some relevant affiliate links to capitalize on the traffic that accidentally hits those pages.
Having over 100 domains, you'd think it would occur to me that parked domain pages could be similarly leveraged to get some incremental affiliate commissions.
I'd say a good 50% of my domains are parked on generic pages that don't do me any good. I just haven't bothered to do anything with them while I wait to use them for an appropriate project.
So it was particularly interesting to me to chat with Monte Cahn, the Founder/CEO of Moniker, last week about one of his properties, Traffic Club.
This site is billed as a domain profit maximization tool. Traffic Club can help you make money with your otherwise unused domain names through their traffic monetization tool that helps you figure out which pay per click (PPC) ad network will bring in the most domain parking revenue.
Traffic Club automatically selects the best PPC ad network for each of your domains to maximize domain parking revenue, and provides summary and detailed reporting on domain traffic and domain parking revenue.
Additionally, they enable you to modify your landing pages to give you the flexibility to target different keywords on each domain.
I'm always amazed at seemingly logical ideas like this that most people aren't doing. So go and monetize those otherwise dead pages already.
DomainPark - Google AdSense For Domains Sparks Debate
We discussed the big hype back in late December on AdSense for Domains and Poor Traffic where Danny called for reform of these ...
We discussed the big hype back in late December on AdSense for Domains and Poor Traffic where Danny called for reform of these types of products.
Lat yesterday evening a thread at WebmasterWorld was started named Domainers making Millions. With a title like that, it sure brought in a ton of response, at the time of writing this, it has 68 posts within its 5 massive pages. The thread is about how much money these “Domainers” are making from parked domains with the AdSense product on them.
The discussion in brief, discusses the anger some people have with this product, much of what was covered in the December entry. But as novice points out this is not new, there has always been these types of monetized park domains out there, even before AdSense. “AdWords ads appeared on parked pages before AdSense even started.” And you see them all the time with Overture ads.
We discussed the big hype back in late December on AdSense for Domains and Poor Traffic where Danny called for reform of these types of products.
Lat yesterday evening a thread at WebmasterWorld was started named Domainers making Millions. With a title like that, it sure brought in a ton of response, at the time of writing this, it has 68 posts within its 5 massive pages. The thread is about how much money these “Domainers” are making from parked domains with the AdSense product on them.
The discussion in brief, discusses the anger some people have with this product, much of what was covered in the December entry. But as novice points out this is not new, there has always been these types of monetized park domains out there, even before AdSense. “AdWords ads appeared on parked pages before AdSense even started.” And you see them all the time with Overture ads.
Lead The Way - Domain Resellers Moving Away From Parking
More and more domain resellers are packing up and moving. Yes Moving, Moving away from the big domain sponsors like Sedo, Afternic, ...
More and more domain resellers are packing up and moving. Yes Moving, Moving away from the big domain sponsors like Sedo, Afternic, and DomainHop. They're moving to simple article driven "Mini Sites" and why not. Why split you earnings with a company that isn't doing any thing to help you. Think about it, You park your domain at lets say, Sedo. They automatically generate a parking page and that's it, They don't help you generate traffic actually it's just the opposite they restrict the ways you can generate traffic. Plus you can't establish any kind of link trade. So if your domain doesn't receive any type in traffic or if your domain wasn't registered before and already had establish traffic flows your out of luck. A parked domain with no way to generate traffic isn't going to generate much revenue.
The only con of leaving your domain sponsor is the added cost of hosting. They added revenue from not having to split your earnings with your domain sponsor sould more then make up for the added cost. So if you have the money to pay for the hosting for a couple months give it a try. I started out with a couple of my best performing domains and went from there. Here is some tips to get you moving.
Hosting - The best kind of hosting for this type of venture is what they call Multi or Unlimited hosting. With these type of hosting plans you can host 2 to Unlimited domains on one hosting account. If you have a large domain portfolio and plan on buying more I would go with the Unlimited hosting. Unlimited hosting accounts are usually call reseller accounts don't be scared off by the name. If you sign up for a reseller you are not really required to sell hosting accounts. HostForWeb.com is perfect for hosting your "Mini Sites"
Picking The Right Sponsors - If you opt for a simple article driven "Mini Site" the best sponsors are Google's AdSense and Yahoo's Publisher Network. Adsense is the bully on your block and YPN is the new kid at school. AdSense ads are on so many websites that savvy ad hating web suffers are starting to pick up on the ads but YPN is still new and fresh. I would recommend joining both but remeber you can't put both on the same page this will get you kick out of both programs.
Articles - Any body can go to some article site pick out some articles and put them on a page but unless you are wiz at SEO that will not do much good. The key to generating traffic and good sponsor revenue is custom written articles. If you can write your own articles you're set, but if your like most people you hate to write. Your in luck there are tons of people just waiting to write articles for you and write them cheap. Just go to your favorite search engine and type in Freelance Writers. What I have found to work the best is a custom article on the start page and 10 - 15 other articles per domain.
Ad Placement - I have tried out many different layouts and I still haven't found the perfect one. The best advice that I can give you is a 250 x 250 ad near the top on the left side surrounded by your article and a 120 x 600 skyscraper on the right lower part of your article.
TOS - This is the most important. Do not violate the TOS of your sponsors. There is nothing worse then reaching your first payout and having your account closed.
More and more domain resellers are packing up and moving. Yes Moving, Moving away from the big domain sponsors like Sedo, Afternic, and DomainHop. They're moving to simple article driven "Mini Sites" and why not. Why split you earnings with a company that isn't doing any thing to help you. Think about it, You park your domain at lets say, Sedo. They automatically generate a parking page and that's it, They don't help you generate traffic actually it's just the opposite they restrict the ways you can generate traffic. Plus you can't establish any kind of link trade. So if your domain doesn't receive any type in traffic or if your domain wasn't registered before and already had establish traffic flows your out of luck. A parked domain with no way to generate traffic isn't going to generate much revenue.
The only con of leaving your domain sponsor is the added cost of hosting. They added revenue from not having to split your earnings with your domain sponsor sould more then make up for the added cost. So if you have the money to pay for the hosting for a couple months give it a try. I started out with a couple of my best performing domains and went from there. Here is some tips to get you moving.
Hosting - The best kind of hosting for this type of venture is what they call Multi or Unlimited hosting. With these type of hosting plans you can host 2 to Unlimited domains on one hosting account. If you have a large domain portfolio and plan on buying more I would go with the Unlimited hosting. Unlimited hosting accounts are usually call reseller accounts don't be scared off by the name. If you sign up for a reseller you are not really required to sell hosting accounts. HostForWeb.com is perfect for hosting your "Mini Sites"
Picking The Right Sponsors - If you opt for a simple article driven "Mini Site" the best sponsors are Google's AdSense and Yahoo's Publisher Network. Adsense is the bully on your block and YPN is the new kid at school. AdSense ads are on so many websites that savvy ad hating web suffers are starting to pick up on the ads but YPN is still new and fresh. I would recommend joining both but remeber you can't put both on the same page this will get you kick out of both programs.
Articles - Any body can go to some article site pick out some articles and put them on a page but unless you are wiz at SEO that will not do much good. The key to generating traffic and good sponsor revenue is custom written articles. If you can write your own articles you're set, but if your like most people you hate to write. Your in luck there are tons of people just waiting to write articles for you and write them cheap. Just go to your favorite search engine and type in Freelance Writers. What I have found to work the best is a custom article on the start page and 10 - 15 other articles per domain.
Ad Placement - I have tried out many different layouts and I still haven't found the perfect one. The best advice that I can give you is a 250 x 250 ad near the top on the left side surrounded by your article and a 120 x 600 skyscraper on the right lower part of your article.
TOS - This is the most important. Do not violate the TOS of your sponsors. There is nothing worse then reaching your first payout and having your account closed.
Cyber Land Rush
As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell and at the right prices...
As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell and at the right prices. I spent a small fortune attempting to attract sellers, acquiring licenses, recruiting competent agents, maintaining nice offices, and then ~ to bring in the buyers ~ on advertising.
After being forced to retire from real estate by MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I finally stumbled upon the easiest properties in the world to sell that I'd ever seen: "Domains" in "Cyberspace." Actually, a respected friend, who had never been in real estate, turned me on to it. Best of all, it didn't cost me anything to set up my new business.
Okay, after a week I invested $10.00, but I got a domain name property to sell if I ever decide to. Like a land rush, people all over the planet are scrambling to stake their claims on the cyber landscape. I get a picture of homesteaders, in covered wagons stirring up dust, rushing to stake their claims for 160 acres. Everyone it seems wants their own website and once their personal names are gone, they can come up with other great domains, properties which will only appreciate ~ just like real estate.
I guess, some of us have to have been in other businesses to appreciate how really good a business that offering website domains is. Like in any legitimate enterprise, a good business owner should do everything that is possible to see that their customers are satisfied with the product.
As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell ~ and at the right prices. I spent a small fortune attempting to attract sellers, acquiring licenses, recruiting competent agents, maintaining nice offices, and then ~ to bring in the buyers ~ on advertising.
After being forced to retire from real estate by MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I finally stumbled upon the easiest properties in the world to sell that I'd ever seen: "Domains" in "Cyberspace." Actually, a respected friend, who had never been in real estate, turned me on to it. Best of all, it didn't cost me anything to set up my new business.
Okay, after a week I invested $10.00, but I got a domain name property to sell if I ever decide to. Like a land rush, people all over the planet are scrambling to stake their claims on the cyber landscape. I get a picture of homesteaders, in covered wagons stirring up dust, rushing to stake their claims for 160 acres. Everyone it seems wants their own website and once their personal names are gone, they can come up with other great domains, properties which will only appreciate ~ just like real estate.
I guess, some of us have to have been in other businesses to appreciate how really good a business that offering website domains is. Like in any legitimate enterprise, a good business owner should do everything that is possible to see that their customers are satisfied with the product.
Source: As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell ~ and at the right prices. I spent a small fortune attempting to attract sellers, acquiring licenses, recruiting competent agents, maintaining nice offices, and then ~ to bring in the buyers ~ on advertising.
After being forced to retire from real estate by MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I finally stumbled upon the easiest properties in the world to sell that I'd ever seen: "Domains" in "Cyberspace." Actually, a respected friend, who had never been in real estate, turned me on to it. Best of all, it didn't cost me anything to set up my new business.
Okay, after a week I invested $10.00, but I got a domain name property to sell if I ever decide to. Like a land rush, people all over the planet are scrambling to stake their claims on the cyber landscape. I get a picture of homesteaders, in covered wagons stirring up dust, rushing to stake their claims for 160 acres. Everyone it seems wants their own website and once their personal names are gone, they can come up with other great domains, properties which will only appreciate ~ just like real estate.
I guess, some of us have to have been in other businesses to appreciate how really good a business that offering website domains is. Like in any legitimate enterprise, a good business owner should do everything that is possible to see that their customers are satisfied with the product.
As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell and at the right prices. I spent a small fortune attempting to attract sellers, acquiring licenses, recruiting competent agents, maintaining nice offices, and then ~ to bring in the buyers ~ on advertising.
After being forced to retire from real estate by MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I finally stumbled upon the easiest properties in the world to sell that I'd ever seen: "Domains" in "Cyberspace." Actually, a respected friend, who had never been in real estate, turned me on to it. Best of all, it didn't cost me anything to set up my new business.
Okay, after a week I invested $10.00, but I got a domain name property to sell if I ever decide to. Like a land rush, people all over the planet are scrambling to stake their claims on the cyber landscape. I get a picture of homesteaders, in covered wagons stirring up dust, rushing to stake their claims for 160 acres. Everyone it seems wants their own website and once their personal names are gone, they can come up with other great domains, properties which will only appreciate ~ just like real estate.
I guess, some of us have to have been in other businesses to appreciate how really good a business that offering website domains is. Like in any legitimate enterprise, a good business owner should do everything that is possible to see that their customers are satisfied with the product.
As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell ~ and at the right prices. I spent a small fortune attempting to attract sellers, acquiring licenses, recruiting competent agents, maintaining nice offices, and then ~ to bring in the buyers ~ on advertising.
After being forced to retire from real estate by MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I finally stumbled upon the easiest properties in the world to sell that I'd ever seen: "Domains" in "Cyberspace." Actually, a respected friend, who had never been in real estate, turned me on to it. Best of all, it didn't cost me anything to set up my new business.
Okay, after a week I invested $10.00, but I got a domain name property to sell if I ever decide to. Like a land rush, people all over the planet are scrambling to stake their claims on the cyber landscape. I get a picture of homesteaders, in covered wagons stirring up dust, rushing to stake their claims for 160 acres. Everyone it seems wants their own website and once their personal names are gone, they can come up with other great domains, properties which will only appreciate ~ just like real estate.
I guess, some of us have to have been in other businesses to appreciate how really good a business that offering website domains is. Like in any legitimate enterprise, a good business owner should do everything that is possible to see that their customers are satisfied with the product.
Source: As a real estate broker for years, I had always dreamed of having the perfect properties to sell ~ and at the right prices. I spent a small fortune attempting to attract sellers, acquiring licenses, recruiting competent agents, maintaining nice offices, and then ~ to bring in the buyers ~ on advertising.
After being forced to retire from real estate by MS (Multiple Sclerosis), I finally stumbled upon the easiest properties in the world to sell that I'd ever seen: "Domains" in "Cyberspace." Actually, a respected friend, who had never been in real estate, turned me on to it. Best of all, it didn't cost me anything to set up my new business.
Okay, after a week I invested $10.00, but I got a domain name property to sell if I ever decide to. Like a land rush, people all over the planet are scrambling to stake their claims on the cyber landscape. I get a picture of homesteaders, in covered wagons stirring up dust, rushing to stake their claims for 160 acres. Everyone it seems wants their own website and once their personal names are gone, they can come up with other great domains, properties which will only appreciate ~ just like real estate.
I guess, some of us have to have been in other businesses to appreciate how really good a business that offering website domains is. Like in any legitimate enterprise, a good business owner should do everything that is possible to see that their customers are satisfied with the product.
Global Web: An Internet Governance Run-Down
Thousands of representatives of national governments, corporations and non-profit organisations began meeting in Tunis, Tunisia on ...
The ins and outs of the control debate that have been dominating the WSIS in Tunisia this week.
Thousands of representatives of national governments, corporations and non-profit organisations began meeting in Tunis, Tunisia on Wednesday for a summit that was expected to decide the future of Internet management. But a last-minute deal at the WSIS effectively shifted the debate to a new United Nations "Internet Governance Forum" that's scheduled to meet for the first time next year.
ZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News.com, has covered earlier stages in this process, including a meeting last year in New York, and has prepared the following list of FAQs to summarise what's going on.
What's the purpose of this summit, anyway?
The original purpose was so broad as to be practically non-controversial: bridging the so-called digital divide, sharing technology, less-developed nations asking for cash from wealthier ones and so on.
But over the last 18 months, the focus shifted from generalised griping about the alleged inequities of the technological age to more specific complaints. Briefly put, nations like China, Cuba, Mozambique and Zimbabwe charge that the US government enjoys too much influence over the way the Internet is managed.
What are they saying?
It depends on who you talk to and it's not always easy to filter out the political posturing and anti-American sentiments. Cuba's delegate, for instance, told summit attendees on Wednesday that Fidel Castro wanted to end "media manipulation by rich countries".
"It is necessary to create an multinational democratic institutionality, which administers this network of networks," the Cuba delegate said.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe wanted his country to participate in thwarting "computer hacking, electronic fraud, and cyberterrorism", but not without "challenging the bully-boy mentality that has driven the unipolar world".
Okay, but what do they actually want?
Ideally, many of the delegates would like a United Nations bureaucracy to supplant — perhaps even replace — the ICANN. ICANN approves new top-level domain names (think .biz and .xxx), sets minimum prices for domain names and oversees a dispute-resolution process for domain names.
But substantial changes aren't going to happen, at least not anytime soon. The US and its critics effectively cut a deal this week that shifts the debate to the IGF.
Why did this deal happen?
It's not entirely clear and the language adopted in some of the statements is vague enough that all sides can claim some sort of victory.
One observer, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, said the "US simply had a very strong hand and played it well". But the European Union may not have been as committed to radical change as press reports indicated over the last few months, Geist said — in the end it decided to back down from a public fight.
So this is just going to happen all over again in a few months?
Sort of. The deal creates a UN body — the IGF — that's devoted to just discussions and has no power to regulate. So because all delegates can do is talk, expect plenty of it.
What's most likely to happen is that the IGF will schedule a series of smaller meetings, with the first one in Greece in 2006. Then, in 2010, the UN will reconvene another major summit to decide what to do next. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hinted at this on Wednesday, saying the United Nations works on five-year plans.
What would have happened if there was no deal, anyway?
The worst-case scenario is kind of a nuclear option for the Internet. It would be a Balkanised Internet in which the US attempts to retain control of its root servers and a large portion of the world veers in an incompatible direction.
A new top-level domain would not be visible in the US and its client states — but would be used in many other nations. The downside, of course, comes when two computers find different Web sites at the same address. It would be as bizarre as calling the same telephone number from two phones and reaching two different people.
Does the US really have that much power?
Actually, probably not. What's crucial here is the operation of the Internet's 13 root servers, which guide traffic to the massive databases that contain addresses for all the individual top-level domains, such as .com, .net, .edu and the country code domains like .uk and .jp. The US government — through ICANN — controls the master database currently used by every root server.
Not all the root servers, named A through M, are in the US. The M server is operated by the WIDE Project in Tokyo, and the K server is managed by Amsterdam-based RIPE. The F, I and J servers point to many addresses around the world through the anycast protocol, yielding a total of 80 locations in 34 countries.
The US government could order the root servers to add or delete a top-level domain, right?
Yep, though in practice they have never abused their power.
The reality is whoever controls the root servers has the final authority about what new top-level domains are added or deleted. If the root server operators receive a set of top-level domains they find irrational, only the US-based ones can be forced by US law to use it.
The ins and outs of the control debate that have been dominating the WSIS in Tunisia this week.
Thousands of representatives of national governments, corporations and non-profit organisations began meeting in Tunis, Tunisia on Wednesday for a summit that was expected to decide the future of Internet management. But a last-minute deal at the WSIS effectively shifted the debate to a new United Nations "Internet Governance Forum" that's scheduled to meet for the first time next year.
ZDNet UK's sister site, CNET News.com, has covered earlier stages in this process, including a meeting last year in New York, and has prepared the following list of FAQs to summarise what's going on.
What's the purpose of this summit, anyway?
The original purpose was so broad as to be practically non-controversial: bridging the so-called digital divide, sharing technology, less-developed nations asking for cash from wealthier ones and so on.
But over the last 18 months, the focus shifted from generalised griping about the alleged inequities of the technological age to more specific complaints. Briefly put, nations like China, Cuba, Mozambique and Zimbabwe charge that the US government enjoys too much influence over the way the Internet is managed.
What are they saying?
It depends on who you talk to and it's not always easy to filter out the political posturing and anti-American sentiments. Cuba's delegate, for instance, told summit attendees on Wednesday that Fidel Castro wanted to end "media manipulation by rich countries".
"It is necessary to create an multinational democratic institutionality, which administers this network of networks," the Cuba delegate said.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe wanted his country to participate in thwarting "computer hacking, electronic fraud, and cyberterrorism", but not without "challenging the bully-boy mentality that has driven the unipolar world".
Okay, but what do they actually want?
Ideally, many of the delegates would like a United Nations bureaucracy to supplant — perhaps even replace — the ICANN. ICANN approves new top-level domain names (think .biz and .xxx), sets minimum prices for domain names and oversees a dispute-resolution process for domain names.
But substantial changes aren't going to happen, at least not anytime soon. The US and its critics effectively cut a deal this week that shifts the debate to the IGF.
Why did this deal happen?
It's not entirely clear and the language adopted in some of the statements is vague enough that all sides can claim some sort of victory.
One observer, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, said the "US simply had a very strong hand and played it well". But the European Union may not have been as committed to radical change as press reports indicated over the last few months, Geist said — in the end it decided to back down from a public fight.
So this is just going to happen all over again in a few months?
Sort of. The deal creates a UN body — the IGF — that's devoted to just discussions and has no power to regulate. So because all delegates can do is talk, expect plenty of it.
What's most likely to happen is that the IGF will schedule a series of smaller meetings, with the first one in Greece in 2006. Then, in 2010, the UN will reconvene another major summit to decide what to do next. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hinted at this on Wednesday, saying the United Nations works on five-year plans.
What would have happened if there was no deal, anyway?
The worst-case scenario is kind of a nuclear option for the Internet. It would be a Balkanised Internet in which the US attempts to retain control of its root servers and a large portion of the world veers in an incompatible direction.
A new top-level domain would not be visible in the US and its client states — but would be used in many other nations. The downside, of course, comes when two computers find different Web sites at the same address. It would be as bizarre as calling the same telephone number from two phones and reaching two different people.
Does the US really have that much power?
Actually, probably not. What's crucial here is the operation of the Internet's 13 root servers, which guide traffic to the massive databases that contain addresses for all the individual top-level domains, such as .com, .net, .edu and the country code domains like .uk and .jp. The US government — through ICANN — controls the master database currently used by every root server.
Not all the root servers, named A through M, are in the US. The M server is operated by the WIDE Project in Tokyo, and the K server is managed by Amsterdam-based RIPE. The F, I and J servers point to many addresses around the world through the anycast protocol, yielding a total of 80 locations in 34 countries.
The US government could order the root servers to add or delete a top-level domain, right?
Yep, though in practice they have never abused their power.
The reality is whoever controls the root servers has the final authority about what new top-level domains are added or deleted. If the root server operators receive a set of top-level domains they find irrational, only the US-based ones can be forced by US law to use it.
Parking Service And Pay-Per-Click Ads
The transformation of the domain market also has spawned several sub-industries. For example, more than a dozen companies now ...
The transformation of the domain market also has spawned several sub-industries. For example, more than a dozen companies now sell "domain parking" services. Any domain owner hoping to one day sell the name can pay a parking service to create a page filled with pay-per-click ads so the owner draws revenue in the interim. Revenue is distributed among the domain owner, the parking company and the advertising broker, which could be Google, Yahoo or a smaller online ad company like Kanoodle.com Inc.
DomainSystems Inc., which helps domain owners find buyers, offers a parking service called TrafficClub.com that touts itself as a "domain profit maximization tool." A visit to a site like cd.com will show a parked page from TrafficClub loaded with sponsored links, along with a for-sale sign in the upper right-hand corner. Viewers can click on a link that says "make an offer," and submit a bid for the domain to
DomainSystems. The closely held company has managed the sales of thousands of sites this way, said Monte Cahn, its chief executive.
DomainSystems was tapped this year by the liquidating trust for Excite@Home, the failed Internet company, to help sell some of its domains to help pay creditors, Mr. Cahn said. Two of the domains, stuff.com and home.net, have attracted bids between $300,000 and $500,000 each, he said.
The transformation of the domain market also has spawned several sub-industries. For example, more than a dozen companies now sell "domain parking" services. Any domain owner hoping to one day sell the name can pay a parking service to create a page filled with pay-per-click ads so the owner draws revenue in the interim. Revenue is distributed among the domain owner, the parking company and the advertising broker, which could be Google, Yahoo or a smaller online ad company like Kanoodle.com Inc.
DomainSystems Inc., which helps domain owners find buyers, offers a parking service called TrafficClub.com that touts itself as a "domain profit maximization tool." A visit to a site like cd.com will show a parked page from TrafficClub loaded with sponsored links, along with a for-sale sign in the upper right-hand corner. Viewers can click on a link that says "make an offer," and submit a bid for the domain to
DomainSystems. The closely held company has managed the sales of thousands of sites this way, said Monte Cahn, its chief executive.
DomainSystems was tapped this year by the liquidating trust for Excite@Home, the failed Internet company, to help sell some of its domains to help pay creditors, Mr. Cahn said. Two of the domains, stuff.com and home.net, have attracted bids between $300,000 and $500,000 each, he said.
Profit From Parked Domain Names
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting ...
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others simply had ‘hosting’, ‘host’, or a related term in the domain itself.
So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, “Yeah, it’s a shame – if only I had the time to develop some content for some of these domains then I might make some money form them”. It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains – just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain, others apparently found the domain through a search engine that had categorized the parked page.
So I suggested the following to him – why not use a service that will take the domain as is – with no content whatsoever – and suggest search options that generate revenue for each click? He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess what? He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.
He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages – with a brief description of the company’s product offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved to be a great success – and his revenue stream increased.
My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting ...
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others simply had ‘hosting’, ‘host’, or a related term in the domain itself.
So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, “Yeah, it’s a shame – if only I had the time to develop some content for some of these domains then I might make some money form them”. It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains – just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain, others apparently found the domain through a search engine that had categorized the parked page.
So I suggested the following to him – why not use a service that will take the domain as is – with no content whatsoever – and suggest search options that generate revenue for each click? He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess what? He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.
He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages – with a brief description of the company’s product offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved to be a great success – and his revenue stream increased.
My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.
Promoting Parked Domains
At this point, one question you might be tempted to ask is whether or not it's possible to park a domain that has no existing traffic...
At this point, one question you might be tempted to ask is whether or not it's possible to park a domain that has no existing traffic, and earn money from it. The answer is yes, it is technically possible, but you need to have a solid plan of how you will generate traffic to it.
Unfortunately, when you park a brand new domain, you can pretty much forget about getting a good ranking in search engines. Sure, your domain can get listed just like any other site, but since most parking services use frames or redirects, the pages themselves don't usually get spidered. Even a search engine did manage to access your parking page somehow, the pages themselves aren't optimized, and they have no real content, so they'd never get ranked for anything. This means that getting traffic to your domain is all a question of brute force promotion, which is generally (but not always) quite expensive.
The most likely way that you can generate traffic is to build a network of incoming links that point at your site. You can't reciprocal link, or course, and very few free directories will link to a parked domain. This means that your options basically consist of linking to your domain from your own site, buying links from other sites, or using PPC search engines.
Linking from your own site is a good way to earn a little bit of extra PPC revenue. For example, if you have a content based site about vitamins, and you have a parked domain which includes the keyword "vitamins", you might want to strategically link occurrences of that word to your domain. That way, visitors might click on the keywords, visit your parked domain, click on a link there, and earn you money.
The second option, buying links from other sites, is expensive, but could be quite lucrative if you can get yourself a good deal. The trick is to find relevant, high traffic sites that are willing to link to a parked domain. Due to the fact that you aren't using the link for SEO, the site's PR and keyword optimization don't matter. All that matters is that it gets a lot of targeted traffic. Finding such a site is no easy task, to be sure.
Another way to get traffic generating links is to buy paid placement in a directory of some sort, which basically just amounts to buying an incoming link. Searching the internet for "directories" should bring up some good possibilities.
The final strategy mentioned (pay-per-click search engines) could potentially be extremely expensive, and is thus very risky. My advice would be to never bid more than a few cents on a keyword, or else you'll never have a hope of recovering your bid. Always run small test campaigns before dedicating much money to any one keyword, and never deposit more than you can afford to lose. This is essentially just a form of "traffic arbitrage", and while it could technically be profitable, it is a very risky game. You shouldn't employ this strategy for parked domains unless you are very good with PPC search engines, and really know what you're doing.
At this point, one question you might be tempted to ask is whether or not it's possible to park a domain that has no existing traffic, and earn money from it. The answer is yes, it is technically possible, but you need to have a solid plan of how you will generate traffic to it.
Unfortunately, when you park a brand new domain, you can pretty much forget about getting a good ranking in search engines. Sure, your domain can get listed just like any other site, but since most parking services use frames or redirects, the pages themselves don't usually get spidered. Even a search engine did manage to access your parking page somehow, the pages themselves aren't optimized, and they have no real content, so they'd never get ranked for anything. This means that getting traffic to your domain is all a question of brute force promotion, which is generally (but not always) quite expensive.
The most likely way that you can generate traffic is to build a network of incoming links that point at your site. You can't reciprocal link, or course, and very few free directories will link to a parked domain. This means that your options basically consist of linking to your domain from your own site, buying links from other sites, or using PPC search engines.
Linking from your own site is a good way to earn a little bit of extra PPC revenue. For example, if you have a content based site about vitamins, and you have a parked domain which includes the keyword "vitamins", you might want to strategically link occurrences of that word to your domain. That way, visitors might click on the keywords, visit your parked domain, click on a link there, and earn you money.
The second option, buying links from other sites, is expensive, but could be quite lucrative if you can get yourself a good deal. The trick is to find relevant, high traffic sites that are willing to link to a parked domain. Due to the fact that you aren't using the link for SEO, the site's PR and keyword optimization don't matter. All that matters is that it gets a lot of targeted traffic. Finding such a site is no easy task, to be sure.
Another way to get traffic generating links is to buy paid placement in a directory of some sort, which basically just amounts to buying an incoming link. Searching the internet for "directories" should bring up some good possibilities.
The final strategy mentioned (pay-per-click search engines) could potentially be extremely expensive, and is thus very risky. My advice would be to never bid more than a few cents on a keyword, or else you'll never have a hope of recovering your bid. Always run small test campaigns before dedicating much money to any one keyword, and never deposit more than you can afford to lose. This is essentially just a form of "traffic arbitrage", and while it could technically be profitable, it is a very risky game. You shouldn't employ this strategy for parked domains unless you are very good with PPC search engines, and really know what you're doing.
Parking Expired Domains
Any domain industry expert would agree that the easiest and most effective way to earn parking revenue is to own a domain ...
Any domain industry expert would agree that the easiest and most effective way to earn parking revenue is to own a domain that already has traffic. If you are lucky enough to already have such a domain, go park it now, and you'll start earning revenue almost immediately.
Even if you don't own a domain like this yet, don't worry. There is still a way for you to acquire one quite easily...
We always hear about the enormous number of domain names that are registered (over 50,000,000), and how there are many thousands of new ones being registered each and every day. What you might not think about as much, however, is the fact that all domains will eventually expire if the owner doesn't renew them. And you can be sure that there are lots of webmasters who let their domains expire for one reason or another.
The trick is to find expired and expiring domains (preferably those with traffic), and grab them before anyone else does. One way to find them is with a free tool It will allow you to search a huge database of domains that are expired/expiring (as well as those that are for sale). You might always stumble across a really great domain this way, but of course, finding them can be frustrating and time consuming.
If you want to get seriously in to expired domain speculation, you will probably need a subscription to some sort of paid service. That way, you will get special access to an exclusive list of high quality expired domains. When it comes down to it, expired domain speculation is really just a matter of determination and perseverance.
Keep searching, and keep a list of the domains that you like, along with their expiry dates. Pay special attention to those domains that are actually being used (or have been used in the past) for a website of some sort, since those are more likely to have existing traffic. If a domain that you want becomes available, don't hesitate, grab it as soon as possible. In fact, if you find a domain that you really like, you may even want to backorder it.
Any domain industry expert would agree that the easiest and most effective way to earn parking revenue is to own a domain that already has traffic. If you are lucky enough to already have such a domain, go park it now, and you'll start earning revenue almost immediately.
Even if you don't own a domain like this yet, don't worry. There is still a way for you to acquire one quite easily...
We always hear about the enormous number of domain names that are registered (over 50,000,000), and how there are many thousands of new ones being registered each and every day. What you might not think about as much, however, is the fact that all domains will eventually expire if the owner doesn't renew them. And you can be sure that there are lots of webmasters who let their domains expire for one reason or another.
The trick is to find expired and expiring domains (preferably those with traffic), and grab them before anyone else does. One way to find them is with a free tool It will allow you to search a huge database of domains that are expired/expiring (as well as those that are for sale). You might always stumble across a really great domain this way, but of course, finding them can be frustrating and time consuming.
If you want to get seriously in to expired domain speculation, you will probably need a subscription to some sort of paid service. That way, you will get special access to an exclusive list of high quality expired domains. When it comes down to it, expired domain speculation is really just a matter of determination and perseverance.
Keep searching, and keep a list of the domains that you like, along with their expiry dates. Pay special attention to those domains that are actually being used (or have been used in the past) for a website of some sort, since those are more likely to have existing traffic. If a domain that you want becomes available, don't hesitate, grab it as soon as possible. In fact, if you find a domain that you really like, you may even want to backorder it.
Domain Parking Industry Faces A Shakeout
The business of advertising on parked domains is facing a shakeout that could dampen speculation in the domain name market...
The business of advertising on parked domains is facing a shakeout that could dampen speculation in the domain name market. The domain advertising business, which is based on pay-per-click advertising from Google and Yahoo, has seen explosive growth this year. This week one of the industry's largest players, DomainSponsor, announced that it was shifting its payment model to combine pay-per-click and pay-per-sale ads.
The shift is driven by advertiser concerns about low conversion rates on click-throughs from parked domains. While the new model offers higher payouts for domains that generate sales, it will also mean smaller checks for domains that produce click-throughs but no sales. It also reduces the incentive for click fraud, which is believed to inflate the cost of campaigns in some advertising niches.
Industry observers say other domain parking services may soon follow DomainSponsor's lead. "Is this a sign of things to come? Probably," notes Leonard Holmes of Domain Parking News. "Some of the other major players have beta projects that seem to offer the same promise - a bonus for higher 'traffic quality.' "
"We believe there is a clear shift occurring in the marketplace," DomainSponsor says in its announcement. "In order to better respond to these market forces, DomainSponsor has begun transitioning into more of a pure performance-based model for traffic that ties publisher payouts to conversions for advertisers. CPC (cost per click) is not going away, but advertisers know that clicks on the same keyword from different domains do not convert the same."
Early feedback from domain owners has been mixed. A poll on the DomainState forum found a minority of DomainSponsor publishers reporting increased revenue. Of the remainder, many said their revenue had declined 50 percent or more.
Some domain portfolio owners said they would switch from DomainSponsor to other services. A key question is whether the trend is being driven by policy changes at Google and Yahoo rather than individual parking services. Google's emphasis on ad quality is clearly seen in this week's blockbuster earnings report, as improved targeting led to higher prices on many keywords. "We make quality improvements to our advertising network,'' Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg News. "When you improve the quality, that ad is worth more money."
One possibility is that domain parking will evolve into a two-tier industry, with services specializing in either pay-per-click or a per sale model, known in the industry as pay-per-action. DomainSponsor is being merged with Revenue.net, a related pay-per-action affiliate network. Two other large traffic monetization services, Fabulous and Sedo, are also owned by companies that operate pay-per-action affiliate networks.
A wholesale shift to pay-per-action could have broad ramifications for the domain advertising industry, which has had huge growth due to speculative domain buying and moves by registrars and web hosts to display pay-per-click advertising instead of house ads. It could also affect pricing in the secondary domain market, where prices are often supported by a name's potential to generate pay-per-click revenue.
The business of advertising on parked domains is facing a shakeout that could dampen speculation in the domain name market. The domain advertising business, which is based on pay-per-click advertising from Google and Yahoo, has seen explosive growth this year. This week one of the industry's largest players, DomainSponsor, announced that it was shifting its payment model to combine pay-per-click and pay-per-sale ads.
The shift is driven by advertiser concerns about low conversion rates on click-throughs from parked domains. While the new model offers higher payouts for domains that generate sales, it will also mean smaller checks for domains that produce click-throughs but no sales. It also reduces the incentive for click fraud, which is believed to inflate the cost of campaigns in some advertising niches.
Industry observers say other domain parking services may soon follow DomainSponsor's lead. "Is this a sign of things to come? Probably," notes Leonard Holmes of Domain Parking News. "Some of the other major players have beta projects that seem to offer the same promise - a bonus for higher 'traffic quality.' "
"We believe there is a clear shift occurring in the marketplace," DomainSponsor says in its announcement. "In order to better respond to these market forces, DomainSponsor has begun transitioning into more of a pure performance-based model for traffic that ties publisher payouts to conversions for advertisers. CPC (cost per click) is not going away, but advertisers know that clicks on the same keyword from different domains do not convert the same."
Early feedback from domain owners has been mixed. A poll on the DomainState forum found a minority of DomainSponsor publishers reporting increased revenue. Of the remainder, many said their revenue had declined 50 percent or more.
Some domain portfolio owners said they would switch from DomainSponsor to other services. A key question is whether the trend is being driven by policy changes at Google and Yahoo rather than individual parking services. Google's emphasis on ad quality is clearly seen in this week's blockbuster earnings report, as improved targeting led to higher prices on many keywords. "We make quality improvements to our advertising network,'' Google CEO Eric Schmidt told Bloomberg News. "When you improve the quality, that ad is worth more money."
One possibility is that domain parking will evolve into a two-tier industry, with services specializing in either pay-per-click or a per sale model, known in the industry as pay-per-action. DomainSponsor is being merged with Revenue.net, a related pay-per-action affiliate network. Two other large traffic monetization services, Fabulous and Sedo, are also owned by companies that operate pay-per-action affiliate networks.
A wholesale shift to pay-per-action could have broad ramifications for the domain advertising industry, which has had huge growth due to speculative domain buying and moves by registrars and web hosts to display pay-per-click advertising instead of house ads. It could also affect pricing in the secondary domain market, where prices are often supported by a name's potential to generate pay-per-click revenue.
Benefits Of Free Paid Domain Parking
Want to get paid to park your spare domains? Fancy knowing in real-time how many visitors these names receive...
Want to get paid to park your spare domains? Fancy knowing in real-time how many visitors these names receive?
If you have answered yes to either of these questions, you should consider setting up your names with a domain parking service. Here are some of the benefits of a typical paid parking service:
• Revenues earned from pay per click or pay per impression search engine.
• Easy to set up, with the parking service providing the hosting.
• Optional "For Sale" notice can be added to your parking pages.
• Real-time stats tell you exactly how many users are arriving at your domains.
If you only have a few names which are unlikely to attract many visitors, then it probably isn't worth the effort. In fact, you will be lucky to find a domain parking partner that wants to work with you ;-)
However, if you have a significant number of domains, especially trafficked domains, then now is the time to get yourself signed up and convert those names into dollars.
I have been using one such service for a few months now and been delighted by the results, especially since all revenues are paid out on time!
By parking my spare names, I am not only turning them into instant cash, I am also learning which names generate type-in traffic and how much. Not only is this fascinating information in itself, it also helps decide which names are worth the most money should I ever decide to sell them on. Traffic numbers can also reveal any domains that might not be worth renewing...
Want to get paid to park your spare domains? Fancy knowing in real-time how many visitors these names receive?
If you have answered yes to either of these questions, you should consider setting up your names with a domain parking service. Here are some of the benefits of a typical paid parking service:
• Revenues earned from pay per click or pay per impression search engine.
• Easy to set up, with the parking service providing the hosting.
• Optional "For Sale" notice can be added to your parking pages.
• Real-time stats tell you exactly how many users are arriving at your domains.
If you only have a few names which are unlikely to attract many visitors, then it probably isn't worth the effort. In fact, you will be lucky to find a domain parking partner that wants to work with you ;-)
However, if you have a significant number of domains, especially trafficked domains, then now is the time to get yourself signed up and convert those names into dollars.
I have been using one such service for a few months now and been delighted by the results, especially since all revenues are paid out on time!
By parking my spare names, I am not only turning them into instant cash, I am also learning which names generate type-in traffic and how much. Not only is this fascinating information in itself, it also helps decide which names are worth the most money should I ever decide to sell them on. Traffic numbers can also reveal any domains that might not be worth renewing...
Marketing Through Domain Parking
Domain parking is the process of registering a domain name and placing it on hold. Simply put, many Web hosting companies and ...
Domain parking is the process of registering a domain name and placing it on hold. Simply put, many Web hosting companies and resellers will allow consumers to "park" an Internet domain by adding the consumer's domain name to its domain name service (DNS) servers to act as the authority for the domain.
Such a service accommodates customers who only need to register and secure their domains without having an active homepage yet in place. Many consumers appreciate domain parking. The latest estimates predict that over 40,000 names/month are currently being registered. With that in mind, parking a domain name guarantees that when a consumer is ready to build their Web site, their name will be ready.
Increasingly, people are registering .com, .net, and .org domain names to prevent others from using their business name. Because a consumer does not need to have a Web site or e-mail address associated with their domain in order to register it, domain parking has emerged as an extremely popular option. Most consumers can "park" their domain names free-of-charge with a Web host or reseller, once they have registered them for a nominal fee from an established domain registrar.
Domain parking however does not only benefit consumers. Resellers can make use of domain parking for marketing and sales purposes. Domain parking is an excellent marketing tool because it allows Web hosting companies and resellers to propagate their brand identity.
Most hosting companies will provide a free "under construction" page to registered domains that are not in operation. Usually this under construction page will feature a Web host or reseller's logo, brand identity and hyperlinks to information about their service offerings. In effect, domain parking serves as another method to advertise your business.
If thousands of consumers elect to park their domains with your reseller operation, then you are creating thousands of separate, individual advertisements. Under construction pages usually propagate in search engines. Further, under construction pages also receive a varying rate of type-in traffic. For this reason, domain parking is a very appealing product to offer consumers.
Domain parking can also provide a potential revenue stream for resellers. Many established registrars will offer Web hosting companies and resellers financial incentives for reselling domain names on their behalf. With many of these registrars, it is possible to utilise automated scripting technologies to quickly register a client's domain name and have them parked on your domain name server. Once the domain is registered, many domain registrars will provide the reseller with a discount if they purchase the domain up front for the consumer, or with a small referral fee. If a Web hosting reseller is registering and parking thousands of domain names through their service, then revenue can be considerable. Most importantly, many Web host resellers utilise domain parking to build a solid database of prospective customers. In order to both register and park domains, users must yield important personal and consumer information. This information, once collected, can be utilised by hosting companies and Web hosting resellers for telemarketing purposes.
Consumers of domain parking services will eventually require full-service hosting, if they desire to deploy a Web site or use e-mail services. Domain parking is thus the first step towards establishing an Internet presence. For this reason, domain parking should be integral component of any large scale hosting reseller operation.
Domain parking is the process of registering a domain name and placing it on hold. Simply put, many Web hosting companies and resellers will allow consumers to "park" an Internet domain by adding the consumer's domain name to its domain name service (DNS) servers to act as the authority for the domain.
Such a service accommodates customers who only need to register and secure their domains without having an active homepage yet in place. Many consumers appreciate domain parking. The latest estimates predict that over 40,000 names/month are currently being registered. With that in mind, parking a domain name guarantees that when a consumer is ready to build their Web site, their name will be ready.
Increasingly, people are registering .com, .net, and .org domain names to prevent others from using their business name. Because a consumer does not need to have a Web site or e-mail address associated with their domain in order to register it, domain parking has emerged as an extremely popular option. Most consumers can "park" their domain names free-of-charge with a Web host or reseller, once they have registered them for a nominal fee from an established domain registrar.
Domain parking however does not only benefit consumers. Resellers can make use of domain parking for marketing and sales purposes. Domain parking is an excellent marketing tool because it allows Web hosting companies and resellers to propagate their brand identity.
Most hosting companies will provide a free "under construction" page to registered domains that are not in operation. Usually this under construction page will feature a Web host or reseller's logo, brand identity and hyperlinks to information about their service offerings. In effect, domain parking serves as another method to advertise your business.
If thousands of consumers elect to park their domains with your reseller operation, then you are creating thousands of separate, individual advertisements. Under construction pages usually propagate in search engines. Further, under construction pages also receive a varying rate of type-in traffic. For this reason, domain parking is a very appealing product to offer consumers.
Domain parking can also provide a potential revenue stream for resellers. Many established registrars will offer Web hosting companies and resellers financial incentives for reselling domain names on their behalf. With many of these registrars, it is possible to utilise automated scripting technologies to quickly register a client's domain name and have them parked on your domain name server. Once the domain is registered, many domain registrars will provide the reseller with a discount if they purchase the domain up front for the consumer, or with a small referral fee. If a Web hosting reseller is registering and parking thousands of domain names through their service, then revenue can be considerable. Most importantly, many Web host resellers utilise domain parking to build a solid database of prospective customers. In order to both register and park domains, users must yield important personal and consumer information. This information, once collected, can be utilised by hosting companies and Web hosting resellers for telemarketing purposes.
Consumers of domain parking services will eventually require full-service hosting, if they desire to deploy a Web site or use e-mail services. Domain parking is thus the first step towards establishing an Internet presence. For this reason, domain parking should be integral component of any large scale hosting reseller operation.
Domain Parking
Sometimes it's important to purchase one or more domain names without actually assigning them to a web site. This can happen for a large number of reasons.
You might want to reserve your domain names because you...
Sometimes it's important to purchase one or more domain names without actually assigning them to a web site. This can happen for a large number of reasons.
You might want to reserve your domain names because you have a great idea but you haven't yet had time to get around to creating a web site. Since domain names can go fast, it's often a good idea to purchase them as soon as you can (besides, compared to other business expenses domain names are cheap).
You've got a number of trademarks that you want to protect. You might purchase the domain names without creating web sites in order to reserve the names for yourself, perhaps for future use.
You are working on a web site but don't yet want people to see it because it is not finished.
Although this might be considered cybersquatting (and hence possibly illegal), you might purchase a domain which you think might be valuable. You could then resell the domain name later at a profit.
The concept, very simply, is you purchase the domain names without creating a web site. The domain registrar simply takes your payment, reserves the name to you and does not update any DNS information (or simply creates a one page holder web site for you).
Most (if not all) domain registrars will park a domain for you at no additional charge. Why wouldn't they do so - you are paying them and they basically do not have to do anything at all.
You might want to reserve your domain names because you...
Sometimes it's important to purchase one or more domain names without actually assigning them to a web site. This can happen for a large number of reasons.
You might want to reserve your domain names because you have a great idea but you haven't yet had time to get around to creating a web site. Since domain names can go fast, it's often a good idea to purchase them as soon as you can (besides, compared to other business expenses domain names are cheap).
You've got a number of trademarks that you want to protect. You might purchase the domain names without creating web sites in order to reserve the names for yourself, perhaps for future use.
You are working on a web site but don't yet want people to see it because it is not finished.
Although this might be considered cybersquatting (and hence possibly illegal), you might purchase a domain which you think might be valuable. You could then resell the domain name later at a profit.
The concept, very simply, is you purchase the domain names without creating a web site. The domain registrar simply takes your payment, reserves the name to you and does not update any DNS information (or simply creates a one page holder web site for you).
Most (if not all) domain registrars will park a domain for you at no additional charge. Why wouldn't they do so - you are paying them and they basically do not have to do anything at all.
Why Do I Choose A Broker Service At All?
It is estimated that of the 20+ million .com domain names registered, between 80 and 90% are inactive. So if you want a great name ...
It is estimated that of the 20+ million .com domain names registered, between 80 and 90% are inactive. So if you want a great name for your site, chances are it is already registered but will be available to purchase from the current owner.
And what if you have let your name expire and it gets registered by another party - purchasing the name might be the only option. Purchasing a domain name is very different from registering a new domain:
What's the name worth? Do you have any idea of the value of the name? If not, you might well end up paying way over the odds for it. Getting the name appraised should be your first step.
Anonymity - If the current owner finds out that you plan to use the name to develop a commercial web site (and most likely they will find out), the asking price could double or triple overnight. Anonymity is very important.
Hidden costs -There are often hidden costs associated with a domain name purchase. Some brokerage sites charge the buyer a fee or commission, others the seller. Depending where the name is registered, you may also be responsible for paying a domain name transfer fee.
How long will it take? The time taken to transfer a domain name is normally overlooked, sometimes with disastrous results. Imagine completing the purchase of a domain name with your launch just days away only to find the registrar where the name is registered requires three weeks to transfer ownership details. This has happened!
It is estimated that of the 20+ million .com domain names registered, between 80 and 90% are inactive. So if you want a great name for your site, chances are it is already registered but will be available to purchase from the current owner.
And what if you have let your name expire and it gets registered by another party - purchasing the name might be the only option. Purchasing a domain name is very different from registering a new domain:
What's the name worth? Do you have any idea of the value of the name? If not, you might well end up paying way over the odds for it. Getting the name appraised should be your first step.
Anonymity - If the current owner finds out that you plan to use the name to develop a commercial web site (and most likely they will find out), the asking price could double or triple overnight. Anonymity is very important.
Hidden costs -There are often hidden costs associated with a domain name purchase. Some brokerage sites charge the buyer a fee or commission, others the seller. Depending where the name is registered, you may also be responsible for paying a domain name transfer fee.
How long will it take? The time taken to transfer a domain name is normally overlooked, sometimes with disastrous results. Imagine completing the purchase of a domain name with your launch just days away only to find the registrar where the name is registered requires three weeks to transfer ownership details. This has happened!
Most Domain Registrars Will Park A Domain At No Additional Charge
Sometimes it's important to purchase one or more domain names without actually assigning them to a web site. This can happen for ...
Sometimes it's important to purchase one or more domain names without actually assigning them to a web site. This can happen for a large number of reasons.
You might want to reserve your domain names because you have a great idea but you haven't yet had time to get around to creating a web site. Since domain names can go fast, it's often a good idea to purchase them as soon as you can (besides, compared to other business expenses domain names are cheap).
You've got a number of trademarks that you want to protect. You might purchase the domain names without creating web sites in order to reserve the names for yourself, perhaps for future use.
You are working on a web site but don't yet want people to see it because it is not finished.
Although this might be considered cybersquatting (and hence possibly illegal), you might purchase a domain which you think might be valuable. You could then resell the domain name later at a profit.
The concept, very simply, is you purchase the domain names without creating a web site. The domain registrar simply takes your payment, reserves the name to you and does not update any DNS information (or simply creates a one page holder web site for you).
Most (if not all) domain registrars will park a domain for you at no additional charge. Why wouldn't they do so - you are paying them and they basically do not have to do anything at all.
Sometimes it's important to purchase one or more domain names without actually assigning them to a web site. This can happen for a large number of reasons.
You might want to reserve your domain names because you have a great idea but you haven't yet had time to get around to creating a web site. Since domain names can go fast, it's often a good idea to purchase them as soon as you can (besides, compared to other business expenses domain names are cheap).
You've got a number of trademarks that you want to protect. You might purchase the domain names without creating web sites in order to reserve the names for yourself, perhaps for future use.
You are working on a web site but don't yet want people to see it because it is not finished.
Although this might be considered cybersquatting (and hence possibly illegal), you might purchase a domain which you think might be valuable. You could then resell the domain name later at a profit.
The concept, very simply, is you purchase the domain names without creating a web site. The domain registrar simply takes your payment, reserves the name to you and does not update any DNS information (or simply creates a one page holder web site for you).
Most (if not all) domain registrars will park a domain for you at no additional charge. Why wouldn't they do so - you are paying them and they basically do not have to do anything at all.
Domain Parking Technical Details
Domain Parking is a term used to describe for temporarily placing a record in a nameserver (DNS) for later use. This is normally done ...
Domain Parking is a term used to describe for temporarily placing a record in a nameserver (DNS) for later use. This is normally done because you usually can't register a domain unless you provide a nameserver address, but many people buy domains before there is a website ready. Usually the domain is pointed at a temporary web page until the "real" site is ready.
The act of parking is physically the same as assigning a domain name to an IP address. Technically, you simply add an "A Record" to a DNS server and point it somewhere. Physically, it's exactly the same coding as a normal domain - what makes it a "park" is the contents of the destination - which is not a separate and unique site intended for the domain, but either a temporary holding page, an unconfigured server, or some other website altogether.
It will often look something like this:
www.mcanerin.com. IN A 192.168.5.100
The "www.mcanerin.com" is the domain name.
The "IN" is the Address Class, and in this case stands for "INternet".
The "A" tells the DNS that this is an Address (as opposed to a mail server, alias, or whatever)
The "192.168.5.100" is the IP (Internet Protocol) of the server.
Altogether, this line tells anyone who asks that the domain name www.mcanerin.com is an internet address that you can find at the IP address of 192.168.5.100.
Now, what would happen if I made another line in this DNS so it looked like:
www.mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
This would now point BOTH of these names at the same address. Otherwise, if someone typed in "mcanerin.com" without the "www" the DNS server would not know what to do and the user would get a dead page. Most web hosts automatically add both versions to your DNS because this is a common problem.
But a search engine would consider this to be 2 separate websites, at least at first. Why? Because although it's common for people to be lazy and not type in the "www", you can actually set things up so that these point to 2 separate servers. In the old days, servers were not very powerful, so it was common to have separate servers do separate jobs. You could have a firewall called mcanerin.com, a webserver called www.mcanerin.com, an ftp server called ftp.mcanerin.com, a mail server called mail.mcanerin.com, and so on. Each of these would be separate servers with their own IP addresses.
So a search engine (unlike many of today's casual internet users) can't just assume that mcanerin.com and www.mcanerin.com are the same site - not everyone has a powerful server. Many companies are running legacy systems set up back in the old days, and even today some people in third world countries are getting by with servers that are old and slow.
At first, the search engine will treat the two domains as two separate sites, but will eventually (once it's fully indexed both for some time) figure out that they are the same, and then merge the data for the two, which can take up to a year. In the meantime, any links that you have going to mcanerin.com would not be credited to www.mcanerin.com. For a while when I first launched my website, mcanerin.com had a PR of 2 and 9 backlinks on Google, but www.mcanerin.com had a PR of 4 with 46 backlinks showing. Eventually (it took a long time), the data merged and I ended up with a PR of 5 with 55 backlinks showing. This obviously has SEO issues, since usually you want to get credit for all your backlinks as soon as possible.
So eventually (once they figure it out) the search engine is treating both addresses as belonging to the same website. This is domain parking in a nutshell from an SEO perspective. You are pointing 2 (or more) domains at the same website.
Now, lets add another domain to the mix:
www.mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
mcanerin.ca IN A 192.168.5.100
You will notice that this is the Canadian ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain). If we add this to the mix you will find that the search engines will now also associate the .ca domain to the website, and therefore treat it as a Canadian website, which is good because the Canadian versions of the major search engines give preference (and a ranking bonus) to Canadian sites. The same applies to other areas, such as the UK, China, Australia and so forth.
In general, unless you are attempting to attach a ccTLD to an existing .com/net/org site for the purposes of geolocation, I do not recommend parking for SEO purposes, for 2 reasons:
The effect of your links (and PageRank) being split between the two sites
The fact that the second site will be considered a duplicate, and possibly trip an anti-spam filter if you have enough parks
The only time I recommend parking is for geolocation purposes. The above two reasons eventually disappear when the search engine figures things out, so it's a temporary problem, usually. Yahoo is very well known for not liking multiple domains, though, so I like to be very careful with parks.
Domain Parking is a term used to describe for temporarily placing a record in a nameserver (DNS) for later use. This is normally done because you usually can't register a domain unless you provide a nameserver address, but many people buy domains before there is a website ready. Usually the domain is pointed at a temporary web page until the "real" site is ready.
The act of parking is physically the same as assigning a domain name to an IP address. Technically, you simply add an "A Record" to a DNS server and point it somewhere. Physically, it's exactly the same coding as a normal domain - what makes it a "park" is the contents of the destination - which is not a separate and unique site intended for the domain, but either a temporary holding page, an unconfigured server, or some other website altogether.
It will often look something like this:
www.mcanerin.com. IN A 192.168.5.100
The "www.mcanerin.com" is the domain name.
The "IN" is the Address Class, and in this case stands for "INternet".
The "A" tells the DNS that this is an Address (as opposed to a mail server, alias, or whatever)
The "192.168.5.100" is the IP (Internet Protocol) of the server.
Altogether, this line tells anyone who asks that the domain name www.mcanerin.com is an internet address that you can find at the IP address of 192.168.5.100.
Now, what would happen if I made another line in this DNS so it looked like:
www.mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
This would now point BOTH of these names at the same address. Otherwise, if someone typed in "mcanerin.com" without the "www" the DNS server would not know what to do and the user would get a dead page. Most web hosts automatically add both versions to your DNS because this is a common problem.
But a search engine would consider this to be 2 separate websites, at least at first. Why? Because although it's common for people to be lazy and not type in the "www", you can actually set things up so that these point to 2 separate servers. In the old days, servers were not very powerful, so it was common to have separate servers do separate jobs. You could have a firewall called mcanerin.com, a webserver called www.mcanerin.com, an ftp server called ftp.mcanerin.com, a mail server called mail.mcanerin.com, and so on. Each of these would be separate servers with their own IP addresses.
So a search engine (unlike many of today's casual internet users) can't just assume that mcanerin.com and www.mcanerin.com are the same site - not everyone has a powerful server. Many companies are running legacy systems set up back in the old days, and even today some people in third world countries are getting by with servers that are old and slow.
At first, the search engine will treat the two domains as two separate sites, but will eventually (once it's fully indexed both for some time) figure out that they are the same, and then merge the data for the two, which can take up to a year. In the meantime, any links that you have going to mcanerin.com would not be credited to www.mcanerin.com. For a while when I first launched my website, mcanerin.com had a PR of 2 and 9 backlinks on Google, but www.mcanerin.com had a PR of 4 with 46 backlinks showing. Eventually (it took a long time), the data merged and I ended up with a PR of 5 with 55 backlinks showing. This obviously has SEO issues, since usually you want to get credit for all your backlinks as soon as possible.
So eventually (once they figure it out) the search engine is treating both addresses as belonging to the same website. This is domain parking in a nutshell from an SEO perspective. You are pointing 2 (or more) domains at the same website.
Now, lets add another domain to the mix:
www.mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
mcanerin.com IN A 192.168.5.100
mcanerin.ca IN A 192.168.5.100
You will notice that this is the Canadian ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain). If we add this to the mix you will find that the search engines will now also associate the .ca domain to the website, and therefore treat it as a Canadian website, which is good because the Canadian versions of the major search engines give preference (and a ranking bonus) to Canadian sites. The same applies to other areas, such as the UK, China, Australia and so forth.
In general, unless you are attempting to attach a ccTLD to an existing .com/net/org site for the purposes of geolocation, I do not recommend parking for SEO purposes, for 2 reasons:
The effect of your links (and PageRank) being split between the two sites
The fact that the second site will be considered a duplicate, and possibly trip an anti-spam filter if you have enough parks
The only time I recommend parking is for geolocation purposes. The above two reasons eventually disappear when the search engine figures things out, so it's a temporary problem, usually. Yahoo is very well known for not liking multiple domains, though, so I like to be very careful with parks.
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