Does Domain Parking Have A Future?

[tricolorro]

:hi:

Does domain Parking have a future?

We know parking revenue is down. For some of us way down!

Google is trying not to index sites that don't have original content
or any content and are nothing but links (i.e. Parked pages).

I remember some time ago Google mentioning that they were working on
a site preview service. Just put your mouse over a link and you'd see
what the site looked like without going there. Then you could decide to
click and visit or not.

I don't know the status of that project and had forgotten about it until
today when I was at a site and experienced this type of site preview.

A company called Snap which is a division of IdeaLab has started what
they call Snap Preview. It's a free service. If it catches on, which it
should,it will most likely hurt domain parking revenue.

This is a description from their site:
"Snap Preview Anywhere enables anyone visiting your site to get a
glimpse of what other sites you're linking to, without having to leave
your site. By rolling over any link, the user gets a visual preview
of the site without having to go there, thus eliminating wasted
"trips" to linked sites."

It's quite easy to get used to what Parked pages look like so they
are easily recognizable.

If you can preview a site before visiting and see it's a Parked page ,
you may decide not to visit.

No visits= No Page Views= No Clicks= No Income.

I think the Domain Parking business is going to have to change
dramatically. I know some of the companies have started putting out
more attractive pages and trying to look more like real websites but I
don't think it will be enough.

Articles, site content , product descriptions, etc are needed. It's to the
benefit of the Parking companies to start considering these things and
soon. What do you think???

You can learn more about the Snap's Preview Service here:
http://www.snap.com/

Of course all this is just :imho:

Happy domaining,
Patrick

 

[NP41215]

TrafficZ allows you to put content in your parked pages.

The preview may help if you make the content interesting when previewed.

For every "problem", there is an "opportunity" and usually a "solution".

I think parking service firms will have to provide at least an option for domainers to put private content, as competition heats up.

 

[DropLister]

this doesnt affect type ins only old links. my revenue is up btw

 

[tricolorro]

this doesnt affect type ins only old links.

:hi:

Yes, I didn't mean my post to apply to Type-In searches.

my revenue is up btw

Bravo! Hope it stays up for you. Maybe there is hope.

Patrick

 

[canswift]

Page previews already on Trafficz.

Hi Patrick,

I read your post with interest. Most of my domains are at Trafficz. (Great templates and lots of customization available b.t.w.) However, when most ads show on my pages, I had noticed a small thumbnail pop-up which gives a mini-preview of the page you about to click to. I had thought this was something unique to Trafficz, but having checked Snap.com, I think that's what this is.

If I was looking at pages in a search result, and scrolled over one which went to a standard boring park page (we're watching you DS...) then I probably wouldn't bother clicking on that page.

Content will certainly continue to be king, but attractively presented too.

CanBrit

 

[Donny]

As somebody who runs a parking company I usually know some of the things that are happening that most people in the industry don't know about.

For example the snap tool mentioned above is something that somebody comes out with every few months and then it usually fades away. Personally I think it's a cool idea, I've even had people do some work on it, but we never got it out of the alpha stage because it just wasn't practical. I think you need to worry about a "This link is crappy" next to a google listing more than anything. Call it peer reviews.

We have been parking domains for 6 years, I plan to be parking domains for 6 more years if they let me. It doesn't mean that a parked page will look anything like it does today. I think you will continue to have more targeted content and more targeted pictures to domains. As I always like to say give the people what they want, not what you want.

Donny

 

[snoop]

Search reliant domains don't have a good future in my view. Link and type in names I don't see any reason for dramtic negative changes.

 

[jonpoland]

DropLister:

I took a look at your blog and see that you moved some domains to
imonetize in November. And in this post you stated that your revenue
is up. Congratulations. Can I assume that you are happy with imonetize?
Or is there another parking service that is performing well for you these days?

By the way, I am new to the forum and new to domain parking. Been doing
alot of research at namepros over the past 24 hours. A great site and a
terrific forum. Thanks for sharing knowledge and experience, everyone.
I hope to reciprocate in the near future.

Very Best Regards,

Jon Poland

 

[DropLister]

DropLister:

I took a look at your blog and see that you moved some domains to
imonetize in November. And in this post you stated that your revenue
is up. Congratulations. Can I assume that you are happy with imonetize?
Or is there another parking service that is performing well for you these days?

By the way, I am new to the forum and new to domain parking. Been doing
alot of research at namepros over the past 24 hours. A great site and a
terrific forum. Thanks for sharing knowledge and experience, everyone.
I hope to reciprocate in the near future.

Very Best Regards,

Jon Poland

I only stated I was testing it not that my revenue was up. I have sinced moved to streamic.com

 

[jonpoland]

DropLister:

Thanks for the information on Streamic. It is appreciated very much.

And sorry about the confusion that I caused with my post. When I wrote:
"And in this post you stated that your revenue is up" . . . I was referring to
the post you made in this Namepro thread.

You're right. I re-read my post and it sounded like I was referring to the
post you made in your blog.

Thanks for the reply and clarification.

Jon Poland

 

[Malaysia]

hmmm not sure how it will affect it but so far i am using namedrive for the past 6 months n happy with it.. tried sedo n namedrive so far n i prefer namedrive .. havent tried others though.. any better ones?

 

[streamic]

Hi Droplister,

I'm pleased that Streamic is making more money for you. The templates you've seen so far have served us well this past year or so, but those are being overhauled next week to coincide with changes to the ctrl panel, and this will push the CTR levels higher. We are also allowing our partners to design their own templates, if they so wish... though these must be approved by us before going live.

Cheers,
James
P.S. Just came back from the Domainchannel show in London. Some great people were there. The main sponsors were probably ourselves and Namedrive... We're probably going to be at Vegas TRAFFIC as well in March, so hope to meet some of you there

 

[jacal1]

domain hop?

They claim to have such great content on parked pages that people might even make them their homepage...and they say you can add tons of original content. Anyone have any experience with them? In the context of this feed, I'm wondering about checking them out.

 

[canswift]

See earlier DomainHop thread

They claim to have such great content on parked pages that people might even make them their homepage...and they say you can add tons of original content. Anyone have any experience with them? In the context of this feed, I'm wondering about checking them out.

Hi, check back in this forum a recent DomainHop thread started by Evenflow. The general consensus was not to touch DomainHop at all. Seems many posters had previous issues with them. CanBrit

 

[streamic]

Domainhop was actually used as a case study at the Domainchannel conference yesterday, by a guy from RBC Capital Markets. They launched their service a few years ago, however they never made a big impression because the content pages actually inhibited the ad CTR and revenues both short and long term. Interestingly, Marchex have also seen their stock fall heavily as a result of the "content pages" approach.

Domainers want to make as much as they can, yet they understandably don't want to see ugly parking pages. I believe there is a better solution, but when it comes to placing content on parked domains you have to be careful. Streamic and a number of other parking companies are working on more creative solutions to the problem.

 

[jacal1]

General page

I'm afraid to do it...but I've always wondered what would happen if I changed all my pages to "web archive" (general) pages in SEDO...

 

[snoop]

Interestingly, Marchex have also seen their stock fall heavily as a result of the "content pages" approach.

This sounds like stretch, where has it been stated that marchex's falling stock price has been due to running content on domains?

 

[streamic]

The guy from RBC Capital markets gave a presentation on it. I believe Badger(from this forum) was also at that particular talk. RBC may be able to share the information with you if you express an interest in it.

The stock was high, content was added to the domains and the stock fell. The revenues per domain dropped as soon as the content was integrated. It was not clear whether it was the fault of the content alone, or the fact it was rolled out to their entire portfolio at once.

 

[Badger]

The guy from RBC Capital markets gave a presentation on it. I believe Badger(from this forum) was also at that particular talk. RBC may be able to share the information with you if you express an interest in it.

The stock was high, content was added to the domains and the stock fell. The revenues per domain dropped as soon as the content was integrated. It was not clear whether it was the fault of the content alone, or the fact it was rolled out to their entire portfolio at once.

yup, I concur with James, Ross Sandler from RBC gave an extremely interesting talk on parking companies success and failures and certainly the Marchex business model was spoken about at length. And these Wall Street guys deal only in facts.

 

[snoop]

The guy from RBC Capital markets gave a presentation on it. I believe Badger(from this forum) was also at that particular talk. RBC may be able to share the information with you if you express an interest in it.

The stock was high, content was added to the domains and the stock fell. The revenues per domain dropped as soon as the content was integrated. It was not clear whether it was the fault of the content alone, or the fact it was rolled out to their entire portfolio at once.

Thanks for the info.