ABOVE.com management results

[alcy]

hi, I recently joined above.com with dns ponting to them to manage my portfolio for parking.

I was previously unhappy with sedo and bodis.

I added 4 accounts:
bodis, sedo, theparkingplace,namedrive

it has been only 3 days since I did that... so I am not expecting any results yet, but being newbie to domains and parking, and impatient to understand how it works.. I would like you to tell me why i get about 20 000 hits per day, about 200 uniques in that, about 100 in the "reported" column, and 0 clicks.. that's for my entire portfolio of course.. which is being managed by above.com

are these numbers in any way conclusive? can one really get 20k hits and 0 clicks?

any input from the experts here would be appreciated.

thank you

 

[Above_Steve]

I don’t blame you for being concerned about domains being fail-listed by google as a result of traffic being redirected/sold to malvertising sites.

We take this issue very seriously because landing pages with malvertising not only harm the value of specific domains, but also undermine the value of the entire direct navigation traffic industry. As a pioneering service provider with deep roots in this industry, we can’t sit back and do nothing.

That’s why we are constantly scanning the landing pages of advertisers who buy traffic through our AutoPilot Maximizer system. And that’s why we are constantly reminding advertisers about our zero tolerance policy.

However, we don’t stop there.

We also scan the landing pages for domains pointing to our DNS that have traffic not being redirected to our Maximizer system. Why? Because even though our AutoPilot technology will ensure that this traffic will end up at the highest paying parking company, that parking company might be selling it to advertising feeds who in turn may be knowingly or unknowingly selling the traffic to malvertisers.

We take this extra step for domains not using our AutoPilot Maximizer not only because we want to protect clients who put their trust in us, but also because we want to protect our own brand reputation. Despite the fact that it is the parking companies who would be selling the traffic that ends up on a malvertising page, it is our DNS and thus our company that would likely be blamed for the malvertising. So as you can see, we have multiple reasons for fighting malvertising.

Here is an example. Just a few weeks ago, one of our scans revealed that a domain name pointing to our DNS was being redirected to a malvertising page by a parking company who was selling it to an advertising feed. We immediately stopped this domain’s traffic from being sent to that parking company and instead sent it to another parking company. We then contacted the client and the parking company. The client didn’t even know that the parking company was selling his traffic to advertisers. Obviously, he was extremely grateful to us for being pro-active in protecting his domain. He benefited, and we avoided damage to our reputation.

Is our scanning system perfect? No. But at least we’re doing our best and always looking for ways to improve.

Have I convinced you to re-enable Maximizer since we’re being so pro-active against malvertising? If not, then in order to fully protect your domains against malvertising and being fail-listed by google, you may want to ask your parking services to block your traffic from being sold to advertisers or advertising feeds.

Switching gears, you mentioned seeing a 5% revenue lift when you had Maximizer enabled. I just want to point out that the lift will vary from client to client depending on the quality of the traffic. For example, we recently had an experienced domainer point a portfolio of 3,000 domains to our DNS. Before he changed the DNS, our team manually seeded each domain with keywords. This seeding process helps advertisers select the most relevant, high-converting traffic possible and thus encourages them to bid high in order to win the traffic. Anyway, in the first month, his revenue spiked by 25% and his RPM jumped by 71% versus the parking company he was using. Of course, everyone’s results will differ.

The great thing about AutoPilot and AutoPilot’s Maximizer is that there is no downside risk. If for some reason advertisers don’t want to outbid parking companies and buy your traffic via our Maximizer system, then AutoPilot’s technology will confirm whether your old parking company offers the best payout. If so, your traffic goes there and earns the same payout. If not, AutoPilot will send the traffic to a higher paying parking company.

 

[Name Trader]

@Above_Steve - I really commend all your efforts to combat this problem. But you honesty definitely means I will not be reactivation Maximizer any time soon. I had already informed all my parking providers that I don't wish any of my portfolio to be serviced with secondary feeds, ever. I still, unfortunately see the downside as being the possibility of having domains faillisted by google. Well not always possible to avoid, but it reduces the risks. I was a huge fan of Maximizer until I realized these risks.

In very rough terms my Maximizer revenues went up from about 5% to 10%, but as my comments indicated, my total revenue actually wet down

My portfolio is bigger than his. Maybe you can offer the same service to me. I actually didn't realize you could set keywords in Above and pass them onto the parking company.

 

[Hypersot]

That was a very interesting post Steve.

I just wish I had the same answer to all my attempts in the past to get more info on maximizer from you via your support

You need to realise that, domaineers talk to each other. If you explain something to one, eventually it will spread to all.

I want to note that maximizer's earnings is 22% of my total earnings. At the moment, maximizer beat every other parking service out there but ParkingCrew. So, at least for me, your lengthy explanation was very much needed.,

I would also like to note that the 22% is the result of a complex formula I have made which calculates a lot of factors and has a lot of restrictions before it gives me the result, so it's not just a number $$$/total($$$)

thank you for your time explaining all this

 

[Name Trader]

Deleted upon request.

 

[Name Trader]

Hi stub,

Our Maximizer service is a separate service from our Parking Optimizer. The Maximizer sends your domain traffic directly to our advertiser's landing page, so Google does not get involved in it at all. We sell this traffic direct to our advertisers as Zero-click.

Please let me know if you need further explanation, or if you have any questions.

Regards,
Steve

I understand the difference between your parking optimizer and maximizer. But the issue that worries me most, and has actually happened, is traffic to maximizer sites has got me faillisted by Google in the past, when trying to go back to regular parking companies which use Google.

 

[Above_Steve]

I feel like there may be some confusion about our Maximizer feature.

Just because Maximizer is enabled does not mean that you will immediately start earning on every single domain you have added to our system.

Three conditions need to be met in order for your domain's traffic to be sold to advertisers on our platform:

1. You need to enable maximizer on our dashboard.

2. Your domain has to be tagged with keywords. This is not an immediate thing. We need to see that your domain is receiving a considerable amount of traffic. Then, we tag your domain with specific keywords. Domains that do not receive traffic will mostlikely never get tagged.

3. There must be advertisers who are bidding on the specific keywords which are tagged to your domain(s).

 

[Above_Steve]

I understand the difference between your parking optimizer and maximizer. But the issue that worries me most, and has actually happened, is traffic to maximizer sites has got me faillisted by Google in the past, when trying to go back to regular parking companies which use Google.

As for quality of advertisers, we manually review the landing pages of advertisers in our network, to make sure we are not sending traffic to pages that have forced downloads, malware/scareware or illegal content.

When we come across landing pages that are against our TOS, we immediately suspend the account of the advertiser in question and they are no longer allowed to buy traffic from us.

We also have a thorough verification process in place for new advertisers.

 

[Name Trader]

@AboveSteve - I think Above must have changed something about Maximizer, and not spread the word. That's not how think about Maximizer. I think of it as providing small amounts of money (mostly $0.01/clicks) for those domains which are not being well monetized by the regular parking companies.

 

[cocaseco]

@Above_Steve @Hypersot I know this is an old thread, though it was very helpful, but I'm still a little confused.

Does Above work like this:

I change the DNA for all parking domains to Above's, then I connect all my parking accounts. I currently use Sedo, PC and Bodis. Then when someone types in my domain or follows a link, they go to Above's server which decides which of the three parking companies, has the best payout at that time? And if this is true, I'm assuming I need to submit my entire parking portfolio to each parking company?

 

[Hypersot]

@Above_Steve @Hypersot I know this is an old thread, though it was very helpful, but I'm still a little confused.

Does Above work like this:

I change the DNA for all parking domains to Above's, then I connect all my parking accounts. I currently use Sedo, PC and Bodis. Then when someone types in my domain or follows a link, they go to Above's server which decides which of the three parking companies, has the best payout at that time? And if this is true, I'm assuming I need to submit my entire parking portfolio to each parking company?

that's correct

PM me if you need help on the basics

 

[NachoGalactico]

@Above_Steve
Something just crossed my mind - if a domain is already faillisted, is pointed to above with maximizer on, and parking companies are enabled that offer direct advertiser on 2nd tier (eg Bodis, ParkingCrew), will this increase the bidding on the traffic?

In theory there should be multiple direct advertising sources competing for this traffic. Have you seen any results along these lines?

Thanks

 

[Above_Steve]

@Above_Steve @Hypersot I know this is an old thread, though it was very helpful, but I'm still a little confused.

Does Above work like this:

I change the DNA for all parking domains to Above's, then I connect all my parking accounts. I currently use Sedo, PC and Bodis. Then when someone types in my domain or follows a link, they go to Above's server which decides which of the three parking companies, has the best payout at that time? And if this is true, I'm assuming I need to submit my entire parking portfolio to each parking company?

Yes, that is how it works. With our free service, the parking companies compete for your domain traffic. Many people have the misconception that Above.com is a parking company. We are not. Our service allows you to optimize your parking revenue among several parking companies, and also allows you to check traffic/revenue stats all in one place.

We also offer the Maximizer service, which when turned on, allows your domain traffic to be bid on by direct advertisers in our network. Read a bit about where our traffic is sold: http://www.above.com/blog/2015/11/direct-search-network-focused-on-quality.html

This added competition (parking + Maximizer) allows you more opportunities to earn greater revenues.

And important to remember: You only make money on clicks with parked pages. With Above Maximizer, you make money on every visit (zero-click). Much easier to accomplish.

 

[Name Trader]

Doesn't Maximizer turn you into a parking company?

 

[Above_Steve]

@Above_Steve
Something just crossed my mind - if a domain is already faillisted, is pointed to above with maximizer on, and parking companies are enabled that offer direct advertiser on 2nd tier (eg Bodis, ParkingCrew), will this increase the bidding on the traffic?

In theory there should be multiple direct advertising sources competing for this traffic. Have you seen any results along these lines?

Thanks

With respect to your first question, yes, if a Google fail-listed domain is pointing to Above.com’s DNS and has our AutoPilot’s Maximizer feature activated, then you will be increasing the competition/bidding for that traffic by continuing to allow AutoPilot to periodically test the payouts at parking companies who have either tier 2 non-google ad feeds for parked pages and/or who sell traffic on zero click basis to direct advertisers or advertising feeds/networks. Keep in mind that our Maximizer feature typically gets bids from multiple premium direct advertisers via our parent company Trellian’s Direct Search Network, so there is already built-in direct advertiser competition, even if none of the parking companies have advertisers currently bidding on that domain’s traffic.

For your second question, whether or not it’s a fail-listed domain, competition is always a very good thing. By enabling lots of competition, our AutoPilot and its Maximizer feature offer only upside potential for your RPMs. You can’t go wrong by having parking companies compete against each other and against premium direct advertisers.

You asked about results. We had an elite domainer recently point 3,000 domains to our DNS. As always, we manually assigned keywords to the new domains in our system and then activated his Maximizer. In the first month, his RPM on these domains increased by 71% in large part due to Maximizer awarding traffic to premium advertisers, but also due in part to AutoPilot finding parking companies that paid better than at his prior parking company. In the second month, his RPM was 188% better than when he was pointing to the one parking company. Of course, results will vary depending on traffic quality. But it just goes to show that you can’t lose by having AutoPilot maximize the competition for your traffic.

 

[Above_Steve]

Doesn't Maximizer turn you into a parking company?

No, we're not a parking company because we don't serve parked pages with cpc ads. If our zero click Maximizer system does not have a buyer for a given domain visitor, then our AutoPilot technology awards that visitor to the highest paying parking company. In a nutshell, we operate at a level above parking companies by making them compete for your traffic. Competition is good for your RPMs.