"Define Legit Traffic"

NP41215 said:

Thus, I would consider such resultant traffic from intelligent discussions of a certain product or service, and its competitors and alternatives, to be the most valuable for a merchant, because it is the traffic of very serious, intelligent buyers who are all ready to buy, but just want to be sure they are making the right buying decisions. And when they do finally click on the links to Brand A or Brand B, they're essentially ready to place the orders.

NP

Click to expand...

Remember the context of his post. If someone has a parked page and is in general advertising the page in ANY way, that's not legit traffic. He's getting people to a page with the intention of getting money for their clicks - which is AOK for a developed website, but not for a parked page. A parked page is not a brand because it is not unique...the domain may be unique, but there is no content and the ensuing links lead to sites owned by different companies.

Trust me, the forms of advertising you mentioned are definitely good and valuable. I remember back when mp3.com was a huge message forum after being purchased by CNet (leading up to its current form), I used to post messages in a bunch of discussions, messages relevant to those discussions, and would leave a link to my own personal music site in the sig (back then, I composed MIDI music a lot and wanted people to hear it). I do that here too with NameTrader.com except that I'm in this industry and contribute to this board, and there I truly had no interest in the discussions, was merely feigning it and getting my music site out there. I got my site up to 200,000 Alexa at the time with hundreds of hits a day on the counter. Ironically, not a single one of them commented really on the music, but it got traffic to the site with minimal work and no money. I'm convinced similar methods of attack to bring in visitors can be done for just about anything as people will visit your sig link out of curiosity. Still, it's definitely not a condoned way to get traffic to a parked site, and the keyword there is "get". Once your name is parked, you should not be "getting" traffic to it in any way, shape, or form really.

Part of that stems from the same reason why we can't post links to Sedo or other domain sites with affiliate codes. On one hand, we may truly be recommending the site, but the affiliate code can just as easily make it mean that you're just trying to get people in the door so you get money. A parked page is no different.

-Nick- said:

Then there is a loophole in this system. That says a person can make a website market it, build links and then park it.

I agree with your comments but can someone also comment on that loophole.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's unfortunately the case, and I don't know of any way to protect against that. Case in point, it happens with proxy sites all the time. People make them, build traffic to them, then park them and sell them here or on DNF with the traffic unsteady as hell and dwindling, probably down to nothing in just a few months. I regularly see people on DNF selling Turkish traffic sites where they seemed to in a matter of days get a site up and high enough SERPs to get thousands of visitors a day of SE traffic. Then they park the name and sell it based mostly on the traffic vs. whatever revenue they make because they're generally not making much in parking (even with Sedo it's hard to monetize Turkish traffic) and it's SE traffic that will vanish entirely in a couple months or less.

Still, the unfortunate part about it is that while parking companies ideally don't want that traffic, they generally accept that traffic because it's hard to tell it apart from traffic on an expired domain for instance, and could you fault someone for getting an expired name, parking it, and enjoying the benefits of whatever traffic it contains?

"Legit traffic" is all about using common sense - thats all.

And its no wonder that the root feed providers look for syndication partners to field this kind of stuff. Its a continuous feast of domainers looking to twist, bend, pump, dump, drive and click their usually crud domains.

My take on parking (and the one i use for my domains) is literally park it and leave it alone, including even visiting the page. Thats it. Any real person who finds their way to your domain and goes on to click an ad is a "legit click". If you had any hand in them getting there, aside from [g]arbritrage, then its not legit.

NameTrader.com said:

Remember the context of his post. If someone has a parked page and is in general advertising the page in ANY way, that's not legit traffic. He's getting people to a page with the intention of getting money for their clicks - which is AOK for a developed website, but not for a parked page. A parked page is not a brand because it is not unique...the domain may be unique, but there is no content and the ensuing links lead to sites owned by different companies.

Trust me, the forms of advertising you mentioned are definitely good and valuable. I remember back when mp3.com was a huge message forum after being purchased by CNet (leading up to its current form), I used to post messages in a bunch of discussions, messages relevant to those discussions, and would leave a link to my own personal music site in the sig (back then, I composed MIDI music a lot and wanted people to hear it). I do that here too with NameTrader.com except that I'm in this industry and contribute to this board, and there I truly had no interest in the discussions, was merely feigning it and getting my music site out there. I got my site up to 200,000 Alexa at the time with hundreds of hits a day on the counter. Ironically, not a single one of them commented really on the music, but it got traffic to the site with minimal work and no money. I'm convinced similar methods of attack to bring in visitors can be done for just about anything as people will visit your sig link out of curiosity. Still, it's definitely not a condoned way to get traffic to a parked site, and the keyword there is "get". Once your name is parked, you should not be "getting" traffic to it in any way, shape, or form really.

Part of that stems from the same reason why we can't post links to Sedo or other domain sites with affiliate codes. On one hand, we may truly be recommending the site, but the affiliate code can just as easily make it mean that you're just trying to get people in the door so you get money. A parked page is no different.



Yes, that's unfortunately the case, and I don't know of any way to protect against that. Case in point, it happens with proxy sites all the time. People make them, build traffic to them, then park them and sell them here or on DNF with the traffic unsteady as hell and dwindling, probably down to nothing in just a few months. I regularly see people on DNF selling Turkish traffic sites where they seemed to in a matter of days get a site up and high enough SERPs to get thousands of visitors a day of SE traffic. Then they park the name and sell it based mostly on the traffic vs. whatever revenue they make because they're generally not making much in parking (even with Sedo it's hard to monetize Turkish traffic) and it's SE traffic that will vanish entirely in a couple months or less.

Still, the unfortunate part about it is that while parking companies ideally don't want that traffic, they generally accept that traffic because it's hard to tell it apart from traffic on an expired domain for instance, and could you fault someone for getting an expired name, parking it, and enjoying the benefits of whatever traffic it contains?

Click to expand...

If a person should park a name, And not do a thing, Meaning ethical means of driving traffic to it, Then what is the point of parking the domain in the first place? And what is the need for for all these different parking companies? We only need one, if we are just allowed to park the name, and use NO method of driving traffic to it at ALL, imo , If that is the case, The Park and do nothing theory, Then who needs Domain Parking, The fact is, Domain Parking companies needs us, As bad as we need them,If not worse, They are the one making the big money, With out the domainer, They have nothing, And i could careless about all the political BS, I wont even consider parking with those companies who dish that out, It's business , The Parking company that meet my needs, Is the one who gets my business.

I don't personally consider my methods of driving traffic to my names "arbritrage" ..and here is why.... The way people find my names, Comes from within many web directories , for the most part, Yes, I do pay a very low cost per click, But not to the site vistor, I pay the search engines that provide my name in thier directories, NO one has to click my names, They are indexed just like any other, The vistors choose to, Because they are looking for the niche that i have to offer, Once on my page, It is totally up to the vistor, Rather they click a link or not, with that said..i don't how much more quality targeted traffic a parking company could ask for, The vistor is on my page because they are interested in that specific niche, That can convert to sales for the advertiser easily, If what they have is something the visitor would like to purchase.

Badger said:

"Legit traffic" is all about using common sense - thats all.

And its no wonder that the root feed providers look for syndication partners to field this kind of stuff. Its a continuous feast of domainers looking to twist, bend, pump, dump, drive and click their usually crud domains.

My take on parking (and the one i use for my domains) is literally park it and leave it alone, including even visiting the page. Thats it. Any real person who finds their way to your domain and goes on to click an ad is a "legit click". If you had any hand in them getting there, aside from [g]arbritrage, then its not legit.

Click to expand...

Can you please elaborate a little more, Is my method above, acceptable to iModo.com ?

Here is what I sum it up.

NameTrader.com said:

From a parking standpoint, legit traffic:
- Type-ins
- Pre-existing link traffic (aka from links made to the existing site prior to purchase/parking - this includes directories and paid links again only if they're pre-existing, but NOT traffic exchanges under any circumstances)

Click to expand...

Badger said:

"Legit traffic" is all about using common sense - thats all.

If you had any hand in them getting there, aside from [g]arbritrage, then its not legit.

Click to expand...

- So if you just have a website that is having links it is all right.
- If you don't have that kind of website then making that kind of website is not illegal but unethical, if you are planning to park it afterwards.
- But in real many of us might have done this before unknowingly. Like we developed some site then didn't earned revenue as we thought it would then we usually park it.
- So doing it knowingly is only unethical. :D
- And what about doing it unknowingly as a knowingly?

-Nick- said:

Here is what I sum it up.



- So if you just have a website that is having links it is all right.
- If you don't have that kind of website then making that kind of website is not illegal but unethical, if you are planning to park it afterwards.
- But in real many of us might have done this before unknowingly. Like we developed some site then didn't earned revenue as we thought it would then we usually park it.
- So doing it knowingly is only unethical. :D
- And what about doing it unknowingly as a knowingly?

Click to expand...

Good points -NICK-

My thinking is, What does it matter if a person developes a domain, Then decides to park it, What does that have to do with anything? It surely doesn't hurt the parking company, If they receive backlink-search engine traffic, It makes them money, And the traffic is pure quality legit traffic. I would do it knowingly, And in good faith, Any parking company that has a problem with that, Has problems period, And i wouldn't want to use thier service.

And if my methods are "arbritrage" Then let me be a pro "arbritrager" , Cause i don't park my domains just to let them sit there and collect dust.

-Nick- said:

- So if you just have a website that is having links it is all right.
- If you don't have that kind of website then making that kind of website is not illegal but unethical, if you are planning to park it afterwards.
- But in real many of us might have done this before unknowingly. Like we developed some site then didn't earned revenue as we thought it would then we usually park it.
- So doing it knowingly is only unethical. :D
- And what about doing it unknowingly as a knowingly?

Click to expand...

Reading your post is making me dizzy
:cy:

I think the point you're getting to is this example: "I had a web hosting site, I finished running the site and now its parked".. For me, thats fine.

And these sorts of domains with backlinks etc (although backlinks last for less and less time nowadays) get the best CTR and revenue albeit for a short period of time. Theres nothing immoral in doing this.

iMODO is trying to cover every angle. Domains with lots of nice direct navigated traffic you can park. Domains with a bit of natural traffic and in need of repeat visitors you can build out with our domain builder. Domains with no traffic you can plug into our domain builder with social networking tools. Domains that dont fit with our upstream feed provider you can still use all the current 1plus tools and serve the ads yourself.

Badger said:

Reading your post is making me dizzy
:cy:

I think the point you're getting to is this example: "I had a web hosting site, I finished running the site and now its parked".. For me, thats fine.

And these sorts of domains with backlinks etc (although backlinks last for less and less time nowadays) get the best CTR and revenue albeit for a short period of time. Theres nothing immoral in doing this.

iMODO is trying to cover every angle. Domains with lots of nice direct navigated traffic you can park. Domains with a bit of natural traffic and in need of repeat visitors you can build out with our domain builder. Domains with no traffic you can plug into our domain builder with social networking tools. Domains that dont fit with our upstream feed provider you can still use all the current 1plus tools and serve the ads yourself.

Click to expand...

What about my methods of driving traffic to my names, Is that acceptable to iMoDo.com or not acceptable?

Hi guys,

Thanks to ~ Cyberian ~ for alerting me to this post. It's a great opportunity for the parking providers to clarify exactly what, at least for them, is legit traffic.

This is not really so much down to the parking provider as their feed provider which is why my comments are pretty much along the lines of Mike F's and Badger's.

Having read through the thread (it's still early morning, so forgive me), I don't think I've seen any reference to the individual feed providers - i.e. Google, Yahoo etc. However, these players are vital, as our policy is very much guided by theirs.
Goog sees parking as a 'passive' means of earning revenue. The term Parking in itself suggests inactivity and this is what is expected of domains on our system: that the traffic on them is 'parked' and not 'driven' - Yes I am aware of our company's name .

As Donny says, the more traffic a domain has, the more money it makes and this is true. The difference between ND, Fab and ParkEd.com is that Google forbids us to allow users to drive traffic to their domains. I know from my own portfolio that many newly-regged domains simply don't have traffic. I park them because I don't have time to do anything else with them, but I know that, if I were an ND client, I would be better off monetizing them by different means - i.e. one that allowed me to drive traffic to them such as Adwords or parking providers who allow this.
I think one of the problems here is that many people with low-traffic domains get frustrated that they are not making their money back on their investment and so drive traffic to their domains, thus breaking our terms and conditions. There are, of course, people who simply see domains as a vehicle for generating cash through fraud, but luckily there are few of those kinds of people on NP.

To elaborate on Mike's point and our TOS:

Allowed:
In general, these are the main sources of traffic we allow.
Type in / Direct Navigation
Search engine traffic (from existing links before the name was parked)
Expired traffic (i.e. hyperlinks, again before the name was parked)

Not Allowed:
As discussed in this thread, there are so many ways of manufacturing traffic that it is difficult to list them.
The fundamental rule is this: If the traffic is being generated by YOU or you are paying someone to generate the traffic, it is not allowed.
I think that makes it pretty clear.

As I said at the top, these are not rules that we've thought up off the top of our heads to make life difficult for our clients, they are the guidelines which are handed down to us from our feed provider. If we had the option, we'd be far more flexible than this. However, it is Google who pay you for your traffic and, if we find it is being generated in a way they do not allow, it is our obligation to remove the domains from their system.

I hope this clarifies ND's situation. Sorry it got a bit long, but ~ Cyberian ~ did ask me to make our position clear!

Ed

NameDriver said:

Hi guys,

Thanks to ~ Cyberian ~ for alerting me to this post. It's a great opportunity for the parking providers to clarify exactly what, at least for them, is legit traffic.

This is not really so much down to the parking provider as their feed provider which is why my comments are pretty much along the lines of Mike F's and Badger's.

Having read through the thread (it's still early morning, so forgive me), I don't think I've seen any reference to the individual feed providers - i.e. Google, Yahoo etc. However, these players are vital, as our policy is very much guided by theirs.
Goog sees parking as a 'passive' means of earning revenue. The term Parking in itself suggests inactivity and this is what is expected of domains on our system: that the traffic on them is 'parked' and not 'driven' - Yes I am aware of our company's name .

As Donny says, the more traffic a domain has, the more money it makes and this is true. The difference between ND, Fab and ParkEd.com is that Google forbids us to allow users to drive traffic to their domains. I know from my own portfolio that many newly-regged domains simply don't have traffic. I park them because I don't have time to do anything else with them, but I know that, if I were an ND client, I would be better off monetizing them by different means - i.e. one that allowed me to drive traffic to them such as Adwords or parking providers who allow this.
I think one of the problems here is that many people with low-traffic domains get frustrated that they are not making their money back on their investment and so drive traffic to their domains, thus breaking our terms and conditions. There are, of course, people who simply see domains as a vehicle for generating cash through fraud, but luckily there are few of those kinds of people on NP.

To elaborate on Mike's point and our TOS:

Allowed:
In general, these are the main sources of traffic we allow.
Type in / Direct Navigation
Search engine traffic (from existing links before the name was parked)
Expired traffic (i.e. hyperlinks, again before the name was parked)

Not Allowed:
As discussed in this thread, there are so many ways of manufacturing traffic that it is difficult to list them.
The fundamental rule is this: If the traffic is being generated by YOU or you are paying someone to generate the traffic, it is not allowed.
I think that makes it pretty clear.

As I said at the top, these are not rules that we've thought up off the top of our heads to make life difficult for our clients, they are the guidelines which are handed down to us from our feed provider. If we had the option, we'd be far more flexible than this. However, it is Google who pay you for your traffic and, if we find it is being generated in a way they do not allow, it is our obligation to remove the domains from their system.

I hope this clarifies ND's situation. Sorry it got a bit long, but ~ Cyberian ~ did ask me to make our position clear!

Ed

Click to expand...

Excellent information, and ND position...Thank You Ed...for the very informative information.

I can certainly understand your position, Google is getting to the point that, People can hardly use them, They have put the hammer on people who have no control if someone "Click Bombs" Thier adsense, They just ban them, And do not listen to what anyone has to say, Unfortuantly this happens, The site owner has no control over it, I feel as google is treating the domainer, aswell as the webmaster in ways that are unacceptable, Just to clarify, I am not banned by google, I think using alternate feeds other than google will be a necessary evil in due time, Such services as Yahoo, Ask.com and others, Realize that there is bad that comes with the good, Meaning, No matter how they tighten down thier TOS, The click fraudsters are still going to try and scam thier way through the system, Alot of the providers have fought the fight by reimbursing the advertiser, Aswell as making the proper financial adjustments to the publisher, I strongly believe these policies are working, and are making sure the advister is not ripped off, On the other hand, Google insists on changing it's terms of service weekly, To combat such click fraud attacks, Instead of the more logical way of handling this problem. Click fraud will remain a fight, The scammers aren't going away, But such publishers as Yahoo, have combatted against them, Made sure the finances of the parties involved, are adjusted correctly, and are able to keep moving forward with thier program.

Thank You, Cyberian, For opening this thread, Contacting the Parking service providers that have participated in this discussion, I think we are making very good progress as to getting to the bottom of this, I am still hoping for more parking company Reps to join us in this discussion, We have covered some vital points, We still have more to cover, imo

Ed,

Thanks for stepping up and clarifying the ND bottom line.

We appreciate your input and thank you for your time.

X,

Just a little info on click fraud...
http://clickfraudnetwork.com/content/ClickFraudIndex.aspx

And some comments...
http://www.namepros.com/industry-news/359801-click-fraud-at-15-8-a.html

Cy

Please see the above , ~ Cyberian ~ , I had forgotten to thank you for everything you have done, and accomplished with this topic.

Click Fraud is going to be an on going thing, Just as the crime in our city streets rises, we don't stop going outside because of it, It is very unfortuanate that these scammers exsist, But it is how we deal with them, that will make a difference in the end, The same applies with domain parking and ad publishing in my opinion, I think Yahoo has done an outstanding job combatting these thieves, Google on the other hand, Is doing a terrible job, They are giving into these scammers, By banning people that have no control over what someone does once they get to a website, They are further laying new ground every day in changing thier terms of service all the time, This is not the answer, It is the fastest way to elimanate the problem, But definatly not the answer, This in turn, puts more pressure on the domain parking companies, They seem to have almost backed the parking companies against the wall. in my opinion.

.X. said:

They seem to have almost backed the parking companies against the wall. in my opinion.

Click to expand...

They sure make things interesting, and working with google can be a hoop jumping exercise at times, but they havent so much backed syndicators against the wall yet.

Google's no1 concern is to their advertisers (obviously). They want converting traffic so their advertisers spend more. If an advertisers budget gets wiped because of non converting traffic from a parking page then of course they will take issue.

Domainers seem to think that its a given right to be served high paying PPC ads. For some reason people believe they can hand register a domain for $5 today and earn that money back every week from a parking company. Im actually surprised more parking companies dont vet their domainers more ridgedly than they do. However, i do believe that this is the future. Having an "open" account with a parking company will be something to treasure in the not-too-distant future. Not only do I believe there will be a consolidation in the parking company market but also in the serving of PPC to individual domainers.

"valid" clicks will determine whether you get an account or not.

Fabulous has high standards.

Some parking companies do not. What is the benefit of having high standards? Well I have received many clicks over $5.00 with them. So I will forget about ever trying to "fool one over" on my parking company. I will not be sending traffic to my parked names.

I too think Mike taking the time to clarify how Fabulous parking works is a good thing. All parking companies should spend time to educate domainers about parking.

The concept of domain parking is all about visitors coming and clicking on the links. Its not about paying money constantly to some advertiser to get traffic to it. Parking names is supposed to be easy. Pick your keywords park it and move on.

If the names are so poor as traffic names, just don't park them or park them and let them sit there. Either way, paying for traffic or having a poor traffic name, it all brings the same result.. a poor investment.

You want to make money parking? Then find or buy high traffic names that can be keyword targeted.

Badger said:

They sure make things interesting, and working with google can be a hoop jumping exercise at times, but they havent so much backed syndicators against the wall yet.

Google's no1 concern is to their advertisers (obviously). They want converting traffic so their advertisers spend more. If an advertisers budget gets wiped because of non converting traffic from a parking page then of course they will take issue.

Domainers seem to think that its a given right to be served high paying PPC ads. For some reason people believe they can hand register a domain for $5 today and earn that money back every week from a parking company. Im actually surprised more parking companies dont vet their domainers more ridgedly than they do. However, i do believe that this is the future. Having an "open" account with a parking company will be something to treasure in the not-too-distant future. Not only do I believe there will be a consolidation in the parking company market but also in the serving of PPC to individual domainers.

"valid" clicks will determine whether you get an account or not.

Click to expand...

Thank You ..Badger.....Very informative...Much appreciated

I am not sure we are not still at a "Cross Roads" of what a "Valid" click really is.

I am seeing as Donny from Parked.com said, Every parking company has it's own terms of service...And i can fully understand that, And appreciate each and every parking companies terms of service.

I spoke with my parking manager by phone today, I asked virtually the same questions i have presented here, I asked, Is it acceptable to receive traffic from "web directories" , At first the answer was yes, And then i think a bit confusion set in, After explaining my position, That all my names are indexed in web directories, Lets think web directories for a minute, Not be confused with search engines, Because this where my parking agent became confused, I will use this one as an example http://www.alivedirectory.com/ ... I have my names indexed in atleast one thousand of these directories, I get traffic from these directories, There are certain ones, That i do bid on keywords with, So i am paying a fee for the listing, Where i do have to pay per click, BUT...these vistors are doing one of two things. #1 putting a keyword into the search box of the directory to find what thay want, #2 Going to the catergories of the directory to find what thay want, It is not a controlled, Incentivized environment, It is no different than someone putting " Domain Name" into google, and receiving the search results, The vistor finds my listing within the directory, Just the same as they would google, They click on my listing, Because they are interested in what i have to offer, Once one on my landing page, They will only click a link, IF they see something that takes thier interest, and they want to view it, Just the same as google, There is no difference, I explained this to my parking manager, so she would understand what i was talking about, She said, Hold on, I will have to confirm this, She put me on hold, She came back and said, YES, That traffic is acceptable. NOW... Is this LEGITIMATE traffic in the eyes of ... NameDrive.com - Bodis.com - iMoDo.com and other parking services, I believe that Ed, at NameDrive clarified, This method is not acceptable and is breaking the terms of service at NameDrive.com, This is was what Ed wrote concerning this ""If the traffic is being generated by YOU or you are paying someone to generate the traffic, it is not allowed."" Indeed, I am paying someone to INDEX my listing per click, But i am in no way, Nor is the directory provider PAYING anyone to search thier directory, Nor are they PAYING or otherwise, The person to click the link to my listing.

My questions is, What parking companies allow this traffic, Does anyone think this traffic is "FAKE" , If so , Please explain how, YES , under the definition of "arbritrage", That is what i am doing, I am paying little to get alot, How is this an unethical practice?

I believe what iam doing is sending extremly quality traffic, Making a little money, Ethically and Legally.

I also believe that if google has a problem with this quality of traffic, Than they have a problem..Period....Because i can't think of more quality traffic, than i am serving.

Thank You for reading this,Sorry it is so long, I just want to ad, Google has it's own web directory aswell ...They don't have a problem having a PAID inclusion into thier web directory , obviously http://directory.google.com/

Yes John, but you are looking at the issue solely from your own perspective.

You are an honest guy that wouldnt do anything illegitimate. Ok take that as read.

Lets say your domains are receiving legitimate traffic from a certain directory. However lets also say that this very same directory referrer is also sending traffic to "other" parked domains and where this traffic is BS / fraudulent.

How will you know this isnt happening?? And, more importantly, how will the parking company and upstream provider know that your directory traffic is legit?

The safest way for a parking company to deal with this is to say simply "dont do it". If they allow too many bad referrers through as "valid" clicks when theyre clearly not, then the dreaded "smartpricing" takes affect on the parking company's client ids. Which in turn means lower PPC for everyone.

The google AFD program wasnt designed for people to make money via non-organic means. The only reason why the program exists in the first place is because direct navigation cuts google from the loop. If the only way parked domains were to make money was through inclusion into directories and search engines then the AFD program would end tomorrow simply because google wouldnt need to share the revenue.

If you have domains that get no traffic and where you have to go out and buy directory listings in order to get some PPC then Id seriously consider turning the "auto-renew" button off on that particular domain.

I have been following this thread and its getting very interesting. Imo, only a miniscule 10-20% of the entire domain portfolios parked at various parking services must be getting pure direct type ins. And to compound things further, there are just a few direct type in domains left in the market. And very few new ones, like new movies/tv shows/actor names etc that might come up in the future. These too mostly have TM issues which make buying them really not worth it. The only type ins that one can think of are now typo type ins. Simply put, you really have to do lots of research to get a non typo type in that gets in pure generic traffic.

My question is, considering the current situation, is it safe to conclude that domaineers buying new domains with no type in value should just dismiss parking their domains and look to development or else just leave their domains idle with no revenue generation till a sale?

Badger said:

Yes John, but you are looking at the issue solely from your own perspective.

You are an honest guy that wouldnt do anything illegitimate. Ok take that as read.

Lets say your domains are receiving legitimate traffic from a certain directory. However lets also say that this very same directory referrer is also sending traffic to "other" parked domains and where this traffic is BS / fraudulent.

How will you know this isnt happening?? And, more importantly, how will the parking company and upstream provider know that your directory traffic is legit?

The safest way for a parking company to deal with this is to say simply "dont do it". If they allow too many bad referrers through as "valid" clicks when theyre clearly not, then the dreaded "smartpricing" takes affect on the parking company's client ids. Which in turn means lower PPC for everyone.

The google AFD program wasnt designed for people to make money via non-organic means. The only reason why the program exists in the first place is because direct navigation cuts google from the loop. If the only way parked domains were to make money was through inclusion into directories and search engines then the AFD program would end tomorrow simply because google wouldnt need to share the revenue.

If you have domains that get no traffic and where you have to go out and buy directory listings in order to get some PPC then Id seriously consider turning the "auto-renew" button off on that particular domain.

Click to expand...

You have some excellent points , And excellent insight ..Badger...

In regards to knowing exactly where my traffic is coming from, I can see every url that hits my sites or landing pages, I wont get into the method i use to accomplish that, It would take to long, But is simple. In prior post, I have stated it took me along time to research my method, I spent cash doing this research aswell, I had to see exactly where , and the quality of traffic was, Exactly to the precise IP tha it was coming from, And exactly how it was getting to my sites, Once i accomplished this, My research was complete, I then had the specific origions of my traffic, I was able to verify each vistor.

My portfolio really plays no factor, I have been accepted by every parking i have ever applied for, to include Fabulous, SedoPro, I have never had my portfolio turned down by a parking company.

I chose to use my method, 3/4 of my portfolio is indexed in search engines, Currently 38% of all my traffic comes from search engines, 14% comes from pure typins, That still leaves me a 48% ratio of traffic that needs to accounted for. I use my method to get as much as that 48% as possible.


You touched on the subject of not knowing if a directory is sending legitimate traffic, And i am glad you did, "I do not recommend" anyone, Just go to ANY web directory and try this, The reason is, I found many to send suspicious traffic, some sent non legit traffic, This will indeed, Get you banned in a heart beat from your ad publisher or parking service. So until a person can pin point geographically, exactly the source of thier traffic, I highly recomend no one try this.

I use my method to increase my traffic, Cover the 48% ratio of traffic that i lack, And yes...To make more money, I feel very confident that many others have LEGAL and ETHICAL methods to increase thier traffic, In ways such as i do.

Varon said:

I have been following this thread and its getting very interesting. Imo, only a miniscule 10-20% of the entire domain portfolios parked at various parking services must be getting pure direct type ins. And to compound things further, there are just a few direct type in domains left in the market. And very few new ones, like new movies/tv shows/actor names etc that might come up in the future. These too mostly have TM issues which make buying them really not worth it. The only type ins that one can think of are now typo type ins. Simply put, you really have to do lots of research to get a non typo type in that gets in pure generic traffic.

My question is, considering the current situation, is it safe to conclude that domaineers buying new domains with no type in value should just dismiss parking their domains and look to development or else just leave their domains idle with no revenue generation till a sale?

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Very well said...Varon

And that has been a great portion of my point, Very few names actually get typin traffic, When i say very few, I am meaning based on the ratio of domains registered, Yes, there are names that get pure typin traffic, But for the most part, They are the of the most premuim generic names in this industry, So it is very unrealistic for anyone to think they can just go register a name, and the traffic will come, I call that the "If i put it out there, They will come, theory"
And it just doesn't work that way, That is just pure reality, imo , A name has to be nurtured and raised, It takes months, if not years to accomplish this task,
That is where i have tried to establish the line between, Legitimate traffic, And non legitimate traffic, I have learned from this thread, It varies from parking company to parking company, It has been very informative up to this point, and hopefuly, once all the dust has settled in this thread, We as domainers will know who we will consider parking with, and who we wont.

.X. said:

My questions is, What parking companies allow this traffic, Does anyone think this traffic is "FAKE" , If so , Please explain how, YES , under the definition of "arbritrage", That is what i am doing, I am paying little to get alot, How is this an unethical practice?

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Nice Post X, I also do wait to hear from them about this,Now we are getting somewhere

.X. said:

And that has been a great portion of my point, Very few names actually get typin traffic, When i say very few, I am meaning based on the ratio of domains registered, Yes, there are names that get pure typin traffic, But for the most part, They are the of the most premuim generic names in this industry, So it is very unrealistic for anyone to think they can just go register a name, and the traffic will come, I call that the "If i put it out there, They will come, theory"
And it just doesn't work that way, That is just pure reality, imo , A name has to be nurtured and raised, It takes months, if not years to accomplish this task,
That is where i have tried to establish the line between, Legitimate traffic, And non legitimate traffic, I have learned from this thread, It varies from parking company to parking company, It has been very informative up to this point, and hopefuly, once all the dust has settled in this thread, We as domainers will know who we will consider parking with, and who we wont.

Click to expand...

Very true. And let us take an example of mortgage.com. A really generic type in name. A wordtracker count shows a daily type in predict of 125. That means, even for such a huge generic type in, one can expect just around 125 actual type-ins a day. Even s#x.com has a max type in of around 3300 per day. And btw, these domains cost big bucks to buy. In short, you would need thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of dollars to actually buy a pure non typo type-in generic name with atleast a 100 type-ins a day. And after this big buy from the secondary market, what do you expect would your returns from domain parking to be? A max of some 100 bucks a day.

Parking companies understandably, love the pure type in generic names, which they agree are of the highest quality and get targeted visitors looking to buy a niche product/service. But, in return, do they even offer you a decent dollar CPC for such a targeted domain name? Most likely..No.

Sad.. but true... most parking companies expect the world out of our domains and give us a pittance in return.

They need :

Pure generic type ins
Preferably no backlinks
No ad campaigns to get visitors in
and a long list of do's and don'ts

And after all these requirements are met, you end up getting the 20 cents or even lower CPC, unless you have some domains targeted to money markets/debt consolidation and a few other niches.

I think I'm beginning to see a very bleak picture here .... lol.. I need to get a break this weekend in the shenandoah mountains...

So far we have got inputs from Donny(parked), Mike(fabolous),Badger(imodo) and Ed from Namedrive correct me if i missed anyone.We have seen where these guys stand about this issue i hope more reps will show up in near feture.
IMO, CY why dont you put together their input so We as Domainers we can be able to see which comapany fit us most regarding with legit/illegit traffics , it will also help us to know which method will be consider as ethical to which company and hence reduce "unnoticed banned' from these companies.