An Interesting Question

[greenlake]

I am amazed, and wonder if anyone can explain this to me:

Since I started my domains (about 2000 names) on a parking program (Sedo and DS) about 1 year ago my domain SALES dropped sharply. I used to get much much more inquiries and sales BEFORE I had my domains pointing to landing pages of parking programs.
As a matter of fact - my parking revenue does not compensate for the loss of sales I had before.
What could be the reason?

 

[monRa]

Maybe your domains are not traffic enough?

 

[gazzip]

That's not good, I can only suggest that maybe once people see that there are not many visits they may think the domain is not so good and don't make any offers ?

 

[wow!]

yea...traffic is the name of the game this year.
But still good keywords domains selling good for firms and endusers.

 

[Michelle]

Interesting that maybe those that dont pull alot of traffic could do better just listed :blink:

 

[TT]

Regarding SEDO revenue from parking. Its a waste of time SEDO's tracking software is disfunctional to say the least. We have run various tests at many of the major PPC sites using a wide array of domains purchased for these tests. We placed these domains in places like SEDO and used a geographically strategic group of 100 participants to visit each domain once and then we removed and discarded all domains ( No Clicks were ever made) But our findings were obvious out of the 100 IP's used to make these visits SEDO only reported 6 out of 100 , Domain Sponsor reported 99 out of 100, Afternic reported 78 out of 100, DomainHop reported 4 out of 100. Our findings left us to summarize that these PPC programs are for the most part 1.) decieving domain owners with portfolios to park with these services and they are making money from your visitors. 2.) statistcally speaking if only 6% of unique IP's are being reported to you the domain owner whats happening with the other 84% and if any clicks are made within that block not reported to the owner of the domain its obvious that the PPC program owner is pocketing the ad revenue generated. Another finding we noticed with all these PPC programs is that all revenue generated is based on %-% with the larger % going to the PPC owner. We have studied market trends on certain average costs for strategic ad's. Using the keyword domain as an example we found that if the average cost to the buyer was x.xx / click the domain owner would be shown by the PPC company a revenue of 0.0x for that click. our universities economic and computer sciences group that conducted this test has determined that the best and most honest PPC program associated with this type of venture for domain owners would be domain sponsor. I sincerley hope i have not bored you with my rant. I would never even park stolen domains at SEDO ( Stealing Everyones Domain Oppurtunities )

 

[Michelle]

all mine are parked at sedo

 

[gazzip]

I sincerley hope i have not bored you with my rant.

Not at all, that is interesting and I have been wondering the same thing recently.

They sure must be making good money if that's the case - cos I'm NOT :bah:

There terms should be listed upfront regarding Pay Per click

All my domains do not seem to be working at the moment at sedo
ie: type in to browser the domain name and it show - cannot find server !!

 

[quality]

Wow this is hot stuff!!!!!!!!!!

Wow according to you the PPC programmes need to clean up their
acts very quickly.....This type of research suggests the need for third
party verification of PPC partners and they need to be much more explicit
about their revenue share...For instance SEDO only guarantee you 0.03
minimum per click and they say nothing about their share with you.

I have been very concerned about this for some time since if an advertiser pays $2 a click and SEDO have say a 50% division with google. Then
SEDO are left with $1....now they might pay you 50 cents but they
might only pay you 0.03 or 0.05........I have been going on about this
for some time..........I like SEDO a lot but I have been very concerned about the fact that they do not promise you a 50% share of their revenues which would guarantee you the 50 cents. I think they would do well to restore confidence by publishing their % share. I would certainly not say SEDO is a dishonest company as I find their stats to be rather good and to my knowledge accurate but on one of my domains I was geting 35 cents a click but this month only 5 cents a click for what I know to be a very good
PPC term. Similarly I had a good domain with them paying only 4 to 5 cents a
click but which now generates 40 cents a click elsewhere.......

So the lessons are:

Firstly ALL PPC companies need to clean up their counting acts if what you say is true.

Secondly, they need to state your percentage share of their revenues.

Thirdly there should be independent audits of the way they share their click revenues.

In the long run they will suffer as people with good portfolios will shift them to the most honest and reputable with the fairest PPC revenue division.

 

[TT]

our thesis was to find out if any of these PPC actually reported 100% and as you can see they failed miserably. Remember there is no governing body overseeing any of these entity's and they are free to do ehatever thay want. This includes stealing from the domain owners. After all our extensive testing the only PPC company that shows any credibility is domain sponsor. I personally have no domains parked and I was only involved in the tests for school, but after physically participating and reviewing the results I was amazed and shocked that these companies get away with this and you people allow this to happen to you. I am going to request from our prof that he publish these results on our campus website.

 

[Siobhán]

Regarding SEDO revenue from parking. Its a waste of time SEDO's tracking software is disfunctional to say the least. We have run various tests at many of the major PPC sites using a wide array of domains purchased for these tests. We placed these domains in places like SEDO and used a geographically strategic group of 100 participants to visit each domain once and then we removed and discarded all domains ( No Clicks were ever made) But our findings were obvious out of the 100 IP's used to make these visits SEDO only reported 6 out of 100 , Domain Sponsor reported 99 out of 100, Afternic reported 78 out of 100, DomainHop reported 4 out of 100. Our findings left us to summarize that these PPC programs are for the most part 1.) decieving domain owners with portfolios to park with these services and they are making money from your visitors. 2.) statistcally speaking if only 6% of unique IP's are being reported to you the domain owner whats happening with the other 84% and if any clicks are made within that block not reported to the owner of the domain its obvious that the PPC program owner is pocketing the ad revenue generated. Another finding we noticed with all these PPC programs is that all revenue generated is based on %-% with the larger % going to the PPC owner. We have studied market trends on certain average costs for strategic ad's. Using the keyword domain as an example we found that if the average cost to the buyer was x.xx / click the domain owner would be shown by the PPC company a revenue of 0.0x for that click. our universities economic and computer sciences group that conducted this test has determined that the best and most honest PPC program associated with this type of venture for domain owners would be domain sponsor. I sincerley hope i have not bored you with my rant. I would never even park stolen domains at SEDO ( Stealing Everyones Domain Oppurtunities )

Your results seem pretty implausible. I mean I've moved my domains around as much as anyone and if what you're saying is true I'd see a big discrepancy when I park with DS and afternic when I move names from Sedo and DomainHop. But I don't. Also, how would you have any idea what % you were actually getting since almost everyone is using Google now and they don't make the keyword bids public like overture?

 

[Dillpup]

Regarding the original question--I think one reason is once potential buyers see you have the name parked at Sedo,and offered for sale,then they immediately know that you know a little something about domains and know the domain has value.They may automatically think you want too much for it.
Or they just may be put off or intimidated by bidding on a domain thorugh Sedo.

If they type in a domain that doesn't resolve to anything and they're forced to look you up in the WHOIS,they're probably more likely to drop you an email while they're at it.
It may not necessarily lead to more sales,but it would stand to reason that you would get more inquiries on a name not parked.
I still use Sedo,but I am tempted to take 5-10 names down that get regular views at Sedo and have them resolve to nothing,just to see if any emails come in.

 

[gazzip]

Maybe we could ask RJ to have an Namepros Parking

Namepros - Buy, Sell, Discuss, Park Domain Names - It's got a nice ring to it don't you think !!!!!

There must be enough names here to make it viable for everyone ?

PS - I know absolutely nothing about what it takes to do :lol:

 

[nRnF]

I can confiorm, that the hits on sedo SALES pages (not parking) are rarely reported ;(

TT, Did you research also on Fabulous ?

 

[Siobhán]

That's a good question nRnF,

If you were doing research on parkings sites why did you leave out Fab, TrafficZ and GoldKey among others and decided to include DomainHop and Afternic? I actually really like DH but they're pretty small relative to other companies and Afternic has kinda given up on parking don't you think? I mean last time I listed a name there they gave me the option of using DS's parking service.

 

[SimpleDomaining]

ok people. i understand i made mistake by parking at Sedo. Now what? Where can i park a few domains for better deal?

 

[greenlake]

Am glad my original question inspired this discussion

regarding my original question -
I guess the answer is really that if your domain does NOT resolve to any parking page, potentia buyers look you up in Whois and send you emails, which result in some sales. They dont do that if they see it parked with DS or Sedo or the like,and as a result my domain sales dropped at least 50%.

I had ALL my domains parked on Sedo. I gradually moved most of them to Domainsponsor during last 6 months, and my revenue literally DOUBLED....
You still may find that for few specific domains Sedo does better.