Afternic parking to Sales Page experiences?

[markfromslo]

I just realized that Afternic now (maybe for a while, I don't know, allows a parked page to go directly to a name sales page. I've often thought of trying this, but I didn't want to have to forward 4,000 names. It can be done now with just setting the nameservers and clicking on the Parking option to show a sale page. Here's an example I saw of what it looks like:

Adoptions.us (not my name)

I'm wondering if anyone who is doing this would share their experiences of how this is working out. Are you finding that their names are selling more often? Is it worth the loss of parking income?

I have 4200 names parked at Sedo, and also listed at Afternic. I might be willing to switch parking to Afternic so I can do this. An increase in sales could be worth a loss in income.

One problem with considering doing this type of parking at Afternic is that the $60 minimum charge at Afternic makes selling off my lower quality names not an option. Sedo waives the minimum if the names are parked there. But, most my names are not going to sell low enough to worry about this.

 

[SpareDomains]

if the domain pays for itself or makes around .60 per month parked I would probably leave it parked as if it pays for itself whats the hurry in a sale, if it does not make that then you could try another parking provider as some domains will perform better at different parking companies or forward it to the actual sales page and hope for a sale, I think it may increase a sale as someone may see an ad and click on it and then not even notice it is for sale and if there are no ads and just a make offer statement it's pretty obvious it's for sale then, so I guess if the domain is not paying it's own way then you could show it's for sale, however most high end buyers know what a parked page is and will still know how to make an offer when a domain is parked, low end domains that you wanna dump I think a good idea, domains that make good revenue I would leave parked, your domains your choice, but I think the sales page showing could help a little bit.

 

[markfromslo]

Yes, I think something you said hit the nail on the head. The end users who will pay the most for a name -- not other traders like us -- don't understand parked pages. I have many friends who were looking for names who've told me that "the name's not available, there's a site there" and then I've looked at it and told them no, it's just parked. Huh? thye say. Then I explain.

When end user buyers check to see a name, they usually just key it in and see what comes up. Those are the buyers we should be seeking, and I think we need to explain that the name is for sale when they key the name in.

 

[SpareDomains]

exactly a corporation will understand a parked page or have someone on the payroll that they can go to and understand it, sally who wants to open up a bakery may not understand a parked page or just seek an alternate name, so I guess it depends on the domain at hand and who the end user buyer would be, good luck with figuring out which way to do them, I have toyed around with a few showing sales pages but not enough to come to a solid opinion on which works better, maybe next month I will try a nice group of them as a test as most of my own are bought for the generic terms and not high ppc income so I really wouldn't lose a ton of cash by testing it out fully.

 

[markfromslo]

And then there are the companies between the big corps and the bakeries. Doctors, lawyers, etc. Professionals with money to buy a good domain, but otherwise cluess on matters like this.