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

 

[Name Trader]

No Above do not do any of that. For example, if you optimize keywords at one company, Above will notice they are paying better than elsewhere and move domains over to that service, on a domain by domain basis.

You should ask yourself why you failed with your previous applications at Voodoo. They only ask to see your best 10 domains. So send them your best 10 .com domains. They don't like new registrations, so don't send anything under a year old. Send them domains which make sense verbally, have some backlinks. Pick your best 10 domains with these criteria, and try again. Do the same at Parking Crew.

 

[alcy]

got it.. well... looks like some optimization keyword work ahead of me. a whole lot of it lol

I better make sure I won't be dropping those companies afterward.. like sedo. I probably shouldn't bother optimizing there.

i'm curious if ayoen ever did any afternic parking.. no one ever talks about oit.. most probably don't even know its there.. I like afternic.. beautiful site. nice customer service.. plus I almost sold a 3$ .info there last week for 7k... offer accepted and all.. sadly, escorwed payment failed.

and yes, I know why I failed. voodoo was the first place I ever applied to. and when I did, I didn't even know what a good domain name was. then I got better. I like my portoflio.. it's like my baby. it shows progress and progression... evolution.. lol.. when I look at my first domains, I want to puke and get a refund.. then when I look at the rest.. I feel proud.. well.. prouder.

now all I buy is english one word domains. they always get some traffic.

I also make sure thye've all been registered before. even if I don't know how recent the traffic was on them.. at least I know they were once registered.. in most cases, 10 years ago and up. which to me is a good thing.

 

[Name Trader]

You should always check the domain history before purchasing, at the wayback machine, web.archive.org. Obviously a developed website with relevant content is the best you can hope for. But it really needs to have backlinks as well.

I come from the camp that .com is king. And I suppose those one word domains you are now buying are not .com's. So I don't really agree with your strategy. But that's ok. Any strategy which is working, is ok by me.

I'm not feeling the commitment of, yeah, I'm going to file my application for ParkingCrew and Voodoo parking accounts, tonight. They will definitely be better paying parking companies for you than the one's you are currently are using. I can't promise I won't harp on this again until you say you have applied again.

I have kinda used Afternic for parking, a long time ago, and well, it wasn't so good. Did I give them a fair crack of the whip? Probably not. Well when other companies pay you more for the clicks, your head usually goes in that direction. I'd rate it as a third rate parking company, like GoDaddy who now owns it.

Setting the keywords is nowadays marginal at best because Google thinks it knows better than you what keywords should be used on a domain. Very often, you can set keywords, and Google just ignores them and uses their own. YMMV.

 

[alcy]

you're right. the english one words I'm keeping an eye out are not coms. the only one word english dictionary you can find today in com is something like "hypothermoticitally"

I think you get the picture.

whereas in org or net you can still find tons of good one word english words.

then even more in biz.

and then fewer .info than biz.. but still more info than org or net.

I'll definitely keep applying. thanks for these tips!

but if my portofolio they do not like, then I am sure all it means is that they see no park revenue potential for it to begin with. so I think being rejected will be good indication of parking potential of my portfolio.

I am mostly interested in reselling domains.

before I knew anything about domains and parkibg, which was a pretty short while ago, I was under impression I could relativley easily recover annual reg fees from parking.

the more I understand the more I realize that registering new (or once before registered) domains and parking them for revenue are mutually exclusive things.. in most cases...
and therefore recovering annual reg fees for your domaqins, while just keeping them round waiting to sell, is fools gold dream.


that being said, any thoughts on adsense and developing some content at all? I read a lot. most say it is not much better than parking if any.. plus loads of work.

any thoughts on this or personal experience?

regards

 

[Name Trader]

You should only give them your top ten domains they ask for, not your whole portfolio. I think if you are submitting .net or .org one word nouns you ought to be accepted. I wouldn't include the .com you mention above. If you like you can PM me your domains and I will suggest which ones you could submit.

If you are mostly interested in selling, you should stick with two word (which make sense) .com's. But I had the impression from this thread that your main interest was in parking.

Parking and Reselling are not diametrically opposed. I sell a few domains each year from my for sale links in my parking pages. Good domains will sell themselves. Parking revenue requires visitors (usually from backlinks). This is where a previously developed website which had done good seo work is a bonus. Type-in visitors, I feel, are becoming fewer. YMMV

It's probably 5-10 times harder to sell a non-com than a .com. I have never sold a non.com domain I wasn't liquidating. I've been in this business since 2006. <10% of my portfolio is non.com. That %age is going down. I've let a lot of (what I thought were good) single word non.com's go. I've only bought one or two.

I think you need to be quite gifted in designing your adsense pages to make much money with adsense.

 

[alcy]

hmm.. I didn't think it was 10 times harder to sell non .com... I just thought it was 10 times less profitable

which is fine by me.. cause as a newbie, my goals are modest and realistic. by end of year I'd love to simply recover my investment money from buying my portfolio (in my case this means strictly registering my portfolio domains). if I do that, be it from parking or reselling for profit, then I'm content newbie. then next years we can talk about profit etc..

hmmm... I thought decent one word english dictionary words for org and net and even biz and info were a good strategy.. I still think they are.. so I'll continue to keep an eye out for those, but I'll definitely incorporate more well thought out twoword .coms too as per your advice. I guess anything like bestCars or bestHotels are still great com options.. and while at it why not make it 3 word coms.. like thebestcars thebesthotels.. that sorta thing.

from your experience is there a potential for reselling adult related names? coms or other..

thanks for the pm offer, I have no proven past traffic domains cause I do not get my things from auctions, and wwth some proof of revenue in auction description.. so until I do that one day, I have my doubts as to acceptance into the better parking companies.. but if you still feel there are chances for that, well, then I can pm you something in future.

cheers

 

[Name Trader]

Personally, I don't like domains like bestcars.com, etc. I'd prefer domains like musclecars.com, kitcars.com (all outside my reach but they were given as examples only). I think three word domains which include a "The" tacked on the front, might be in the range you can sell (at your level), but I don't like them. I have a few two word domains which include "The". Adult websites are cheap charlies. They prefer regfee domains, unless it's sex.com Your single word .net/.org domains are ok. But some people will disagree with my assertion that single word .biz/.info domains are mostly crap. YMMV. Of course cars.biz has some value.

But we digress. your thread was posted in Domain Parking and Monetization. We have strayed far from that subject. Also, your lack of interest in taking any advice about your parking strategy which could potentially increase your parking between 100-500%, means I'm going to bow out of this thread.

I hope you have learned something from @Hypersot and myself.

 

[alcy]

good info as always
thanks a lot.

interest is the one thing I don't lack. sorry if I gave that impression. it's obviously some kind of unfortunate misunderstanding.

take care.

 

[Name Trader]

I don't think it's a misunderstanding if you refuse to apply for accounts at Parking Crew and Voodoo. It shows a lack of interest in the receipt of solid advice. But lets leave it at that. I, for one, have no desire to get into a shouting match over it. To each their own. As I am used to saying, YMMV.

 

[Above_Steve]

As I said, I honestly don't know if they get revenue from us other than the maximizer.

Hi Hypersot,

To answer your question, Above.com does not take a cut of your parking revenues. The Parking Manager, now called AutoPilot, is a completely free service.

And you are correct, we only generate revenue via the Maximizer. But, typically you'll make more money via the Maximizer than any parking company anyway.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[Name Trader]

Hi Hypersot,

To answer your question, Above.com does not take a cut of your parking revenues. The Parking Manager, now called AutoPilot, is a completely free service.

And you are correct, we only generate revenue via the Maximizer. But, typically you'll make more money via the Maximizer than any parking company anyway.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

The problem with maximizer as I see it, is the potential for having a lot of unruly visitors (from wherever) which can raise the specter of your parked domain being blacklisted for parking by Google. It's why I turned it off.

 

[Above_Steve]

The problem with maximizer as I see it, is the potential for having a lot of unruly visitors (from wherever) which can raise the specter of your parked domain being blacklisted for parking by Google. It's why I turned it off.

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

 

[Hypersot]

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

Hey Steve,
I'm not sure you understood Stub's post fully. He is talking about the potential dangers maximizer has.

As the owners of the domains being monetized, we have absolutely no idea where our traffic goes.
We can't even see any of the ads that your advertisers show since the traffic is being used at totally random times which makes it impossible for us to check.

When we park domains on various parking services we are able to see at all times what kind of ads those parking services serve. With maximizer that's impossible.

Don't misunderstand me though. Maximizer brings great revenue, it's just the part of it that lies in the shadows that concerns us
...and there is also the issue about domains being suddenly faillisted. I have talked about it with your team but I still haven't got a clear answer on this.

 

[Above_Steve]

Hey Steve,
I'm not sure you understood Stub's post fully. He is talking about the potential dangers maximizer has.

As the owners of the domains being monetized, we have absolutely no idea where our traffic goes.
We can't even see any of the ads that your advertisers show since the traffic is being used at totally random times which makes it impossible for us to check.

When we park domains on various parking services we are able to see at all times what kind of ads those parking services serve. With maximizer that's impossible.

Don't misunderstand me though. Maximizer brings great revenue, it's just the part of it that lies in the shadows that concerns us
...and there is also the issue about domains being suddenly faillisted. I have talked about it with your team but I still haven't got a clear answer on this.

OK, yes I did misunderstand stub. Now I understand your concern.

However, I want you to know that we screen the advertiser's landing pages so we do a lot behind the scenes that you do not see.

Also, we have a strict advertiser policy in place which says:
Our traffic is not to be resold to traffic exchanges, tech support advertisers, illegal, ransom ware, scare ware or malvertising sites. This will result in an automatic suspension.

 

[Name Trader]

@Above_Steve - I have had 2 experiences which I can explain here.

1) Maximizer is there to make at least some money on domains which are supposedly banned from normal parking companies, ie google faillisted domains. Because this is quite marginal business. I'd be quite surprised if it exceeds say 5% of our total monthly revenue. So when it's reaching 10% of monthly revenues and monthly revenues are actually declining, I cannot stop the thought that you are taking revenues which should be going to the normal parking companies.

2) When this is coming from domains which are not faillisted by google, but afterwards become faillisted by google, I cannot stop the thought, that it might have been due to the traffic you are delivering to the domain.

So. Because of this, I prefer to turn off maximizer and forgo the increased revenue of <5% of revenue in order to prevent the possibility of having good domains faillisted by Maximizer's actions. YMMV.

 

[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