Domains

Potential Revenue Streams for Parked Domain Names

by Dave Pye on March 24, 2007

Update 6/03/07:

WhyPark works. I moved all of my unused or poorly developed domain names under their roof a couple of months ago. Then I did about an hour’s work of en masse linkbuilding to get them all re-spidered and left it all to simmer. My “WhyPark” AdSense channel is now my second most profitable, averaging about $5 and growing. If you’re like me – a compulsive domain hoarder – put some of the little buggers to work and see what happens.

“What shall we do with a parked domain name?
What shall we do with a parked domain name?
What shall we do with a parked domain name – ear-lye in the mor-ning…”

Jeepers, I think I had a little too much rum while swabbing the decks today. But it’s a heck of a good question, and one I’ve asked myself a lot lately. If you’re like me, and you’ve registered what you think is the best domain name ever thought up by humankind on a weekly basis since 1999 – you’ve probably amassed quite a collection by now. And I bet more than half of them aren’t being used at the moment, but you just can’t seem to let go because you’ll get around to building that amazing website someday. Listen, nobody likes a squatter – but those domain names were an investment and this is business.

2 Revenue Streams for Parked Domain Names

GoDaddy’s Cash Parking: A few months ago, I took a large number of dusty domains, all with some amount of existing organic traffic, that have been percolating for 2-4 years and moved them all over to GoDaddy’s Cash Parking section. In terms of ease, if you have your domains hosted with them, it’s as simple as checking a box and hitting submit. You can choose the template of the page and the specific keywords that will trigger the Yahoo ads generated there. I’ve made a few bucks, but nothing to write home about. This may be a great option for an older, established domain but would be like useless for something you’ve just registered.

WhyPark’s Content Domain Parking: This is the sort of service I am most interested in experimenting with. The service is similar to traditional parking in that they will host a page for you after you point your DNS in their direction and then host ads relevant to your domain. The major differentiator here is that you keep 100% of the Adsense revenue and can use your own code. You can host up to 100 domains for a one time fee of $100, and they generate all of the content automatically based on your custom parameters (presumably via RSS feeds, etc.). They also give you the ability to sell text links and even let you choose your own title tags (unlike GoDaddy). In theory this could work for domains which are established and those which are embryonic. A great model which will be loved by some and absolutely reviled by others, but the bottom line is – will it make more money than traditional parking services? I think… yes.

The way I see it, it can’t hurt to kick the tires on a few of these services. I am a firm believer that if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is – but I also believe that an objective resource with good content (even if that content isn’t super-original) will attract relevant search engine traffic. I’ll get back to you after I have some personal success or failure to share with you, and I welcome your comments and advice in the meantime. What sites am I missing here? Admittedly, I am a rookie parker, and perhaps even a drunken one.

Swatting the RegisterFly

by Dave Pye on February 13, 2007

Still Another Update: www.RegisterFlies.com

Another Update: Enom has stepped up to the plate and completely severed their ties with RegisterFly. They have created an FAQ which will allow you to transfer domains from RF back to Enom. Since our domain is technically expired, this is going to be an even bigger hassle than a normal domain push. I am going to call Enom in the morning and see what can be done. I have also backordered the domain in question through GoDaddy in case I get lucky. Pray for the kids.

Update: Apparently we are not alone. Has RegisterFly.com stolen our domain name? “It seems RegisterFly has gotten themselves into a lot of trouble recently for their practices and have been banned by Enom from registering domain names in the future.” Who else has this happened to, and what can we do about it?

I have never blogged for the purposes of evil before. In fact, I pride myself on my burgeoing online reputation management abilities. I do so now only because I have come up against service provider treachery the likes of which would make Carol Beer cringe. “Domain registrar says no.”

I help run a website for a non-profit community center here in Boston’s North End. I took over webmastering duties when the first guy moved away and I never bothered to transfer the domain name to my registrar of choice. I didn’t see the need. Instead, I left it at RegisterFly.com with whom I had no prior dealings. I am not going to play the ‘who let the domain expire‘ blame game here. I had access to the RF account – but I did not renew it before it technically expired (never got an email telling me expiration was imminent like I do everywhere else) and one day in December I got a panicked call from one of the center’s principals wondering why the site was down.

Long story short – it is two months later and after a barrage of calls to RegisterFly and its controlling entity, Enom, the site is still down and the domain unrenewed. I have moved it to a .org as a plan ‘B’, but refuse to rest until someone has at least explained to me why we’ve been ignored to the extent that we have. RegisterFly support tickets simply tell me there is a delay and to ‘just wait’. Enom doesn’t know we’re alive.

Yes, I am in a vendetta sort of mood tonight, but I’m also hoping a few tags will draw some Technorati traffic from folks who are experiencing the same issue with this collective set of jokers. It would be a shame if someone at the Boston Globe caught wind of my non-profit being cornholed in this fashion. I played a cop in the fundraising play this year, for goodness sake. I wore makeup. I’m pissed. We’re only trying to help the kids, Enom. Do the right thing and call a brother. I did a little research to no real avail – Does anyone know what the heck is going on with these two companies?