Domain Parking: Tips & Tricks to Help You Earn More!

[smurge]

And so it begins!:wave:

My goal is to help people learn more about the parking industry and help them earn more money while spending less of it.

There are tons of tricks,tips,secrets that people use to make money in this business.

Let me say this, I will not discuss illegal or bad practices here so please don't ask.

What will I talk about? How to find domains,with traffic for cheap. Creating long term wealth for yourself and how to do it on a budget. I will answer questions and talk about what I know. If there is something I'm not familiar with or not knowledgeable about I will say so.

I am not here to start flaming wars with other domainers or parking gurus. Everyone has their own set of rules to making money. If you don't like mine, that's okay , but please share your ideas with everyone instead of bashing others.


Myths I want to debunk now:

#1. Parking is dead. (Far from it)

#2. You can't make money doing it. (B.S.- you can make a ton of money in it)

#3. Only the rich can do this. (This is not true!)

#4. Google doesn't like domain parking! (Yes they do, they make a ton of money off it. If they hated it so much why do they continue to support it?)



----

So what's the point of all this? It's to help people with parking.

Please feel free to email,pm, or post your questions here and I will do my best to answer them all.


Thanks!

RJ

(P.S. I'm not the best writer so I apologize for any grammar or sentence structure mistakes in advance.)



--Answers to Questions I'm frequently asked!--

#1. What parking companies do I support/like?

These are the main ones I use and have had great success with. I base my success not only on the amount of money I make but also, customer service and transparency.

In alphabetical order:

- Bodis.com (Supports Foreign Traffic)(Zero Click Model Supported)
- Domainsponsor.com (Supports Foreign Traffic) (Zero Click Model Supported)
- Parkingcrew.com (Supports Foreign Traffic)
- Voodoo.com (Highest Payouts In The Industry)


#2. What tools do you use to help you evaluate domains?

Besides my own "TOOL", which I'm not here to promote I would suggest the following;

1. Push2check.com - Great resource site (I do not affiliated with them in anyway)

If we break down the tools I generally look at the following:

Traffic Sources: (Understand that no tool is 100% accurate but together you can get a great picture.)

1. Compete.com
2. Alexa.com
3. Quantcast.com
4. Verisign Labs: http://domainscore.verisignlabs.com/ ( WARNING: This tool to be used when you have mastered other tools. The information on this site is tricky but can be useful)

History of the domain:

1. Archive.org
2. who.is

Backlinks: ( There are plenty of tools for these but here are some sites I use)

1. Majesticseo.com
2. Google Backlinks
3. Yahoo Backlinks
4. DuckDuckGo.com
5. AHrefs.com: https://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/overview/subdomains/brickbuyers.com
6. opensiteexplorer.org (Enjoy this one. It's the search engine for backlinks)



Keywords:

1. Google Keyword Tool


#3. Where can I get lists to analyze:

I have my own tools that do the work for me however here are a few places you can grab lists from to analyze:

1. Dynadot.com
2. Expireddomains.net - (good site)
3. Namejet.com
4. Snapnames.com
5. Godaddy.com
6. Freshdrop.net - (this covers a majority of the above & more)


#4. Do all your domains make money?:

NO!

I'll say it again : NO! I STILL PICK LOSERS!

In fact anyone who says they make money on every single purchase is lying. No one has a 100% success rate and you don't need to. What you need to do to win in this business is;

#1. Pick 51% winners
#2. Make sure to keep your costs low and make more then your spending.


Understand a single domain can make up the costs of lost ones. I picked a domain that makes me $15.00 a day in revenue. That means I'll make $450 a month with it and it's recouped $300 I've lost on previous domains.

Trust me, the sea of domains is massive and there are ton's of GOLDEN NUGGETS ready to be mined by all.


#5. How much do you spend on domains?:

I've spent anywhere from $.99 - $x,xxx! If I like a domain I will spend what I need, to get it as long as "I CAN STILL MAKE A PROFIT"! That's the key.

However, recently I am testing a new program which allows me to buy strictly "HANDREGS". YUP, Handregs! You would be surprised at how much stuff is just sitting on the ocean floor of domains that people think are garbage.


#6. Blacklisted Domains? Revenue Sucks! HELLLLLP!

This is something that's not addressed a lot and something everyone should be aware of: THE BLACK LIST!

This still happens to me this day. I'll buy a domain only to find out the previous owner got blacklisted from Google. This will affect your revenue greatly because Google will not allow Parking Companies to display the proper ad's on your site. If this happens you will need to go to a second feed like Yahoo! or Zeroclick model.

Common Terms for Blacklisted:

1. Faillisted
2. Blacklisted
3. Fail

Check the status of a domain when you park it and you'll see what I mean.

Edit:6/12/2012: Thank You www.ri.sch.edu.sg for this tool!

Originally Posted by www.ri.sch.edu.sg

One thing I can add to this thread is to check if the domain is blacklisted before you purchase them, simply point to:


https://api.bodis.com/domainclassification?domain=(Insert Domain Here)

Classification:

Primary = Google

Secondary = All others but Google (Faillisted,blacklisted, etc from google)

Hope that helps






#7. YUM! YUM! Domain Tasting


If you're not sure what this is it's when you buy a domain and test the traffic for a set amount of time and if your not happy with the traffic you can get a refund or partial refund of your handreg fee.

One thing I see all the time is: Domain tasting is dead! No it's not!

Yes; it might not be as prevalent as it once used to be but there are companies out there that still allow it. How do I know this? Because I do it.

#8. Can I promote or advertise my parked domains?


No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No,No, No, No, No, No, No!

If I wasn't clear let me repeat it; NO!


#9. What do all those backlinks mean from different sites?

(Thanks Martiinko for the info)

All those sites "backlink" scanners work by "downloading" the pages all over internet and then searching for URLs in it. Moving from one page to the other over these links. But...

1. There maybe a difference in last time they check this domain for backlinks.

2. There is definitely a huge difference in their databases of pages. That means if one site has smaller DB they don't probably have all the backlinks from as many pages as the other site.

3. Some backlinks are maybe updated, some maybe aren't. The process of "crawling" the web is very time consuming, so not all the backlinks can be verified every day.

To your other question. The links like you described are ok. If you park a domain all the requests go straight to the main page. But what is important is where is the link located. Is it a "spam in comments section", is it in the "blog post" or is maybe a "banner"?

..

So I collected couple different pages (and I'm collecting even more) for you to check if the webpage/domain was ever parked before Some have form input some are just simple url + domain name.
I will make it into a simple web app, so you don't have to go to all of this pages when checking a domain name for parking history. Mostly screenshots.

Was this domain name parked before?
All of them are free. And I don't have any connection to them whatsoever.

Fun fact: This article got to 2th place in google search for Domain name parking history after 20 minutes.




..

*** WORDS OF WISDOM ***

1. Never spend money you can't afford to lose! Consider every domain investment a loss till you make your money back because that's what it is. No one can tell me different on this and the reason why is you are "NEGATIVE" that amount of money till it's recouped.

2. When you buy a domain to park; look to get your initial investment back within 6-12 months.

 

[learie]

Well. your current concept (not experimenting with parking) is a guaranteed miss, is that what your looking for?

I am just seeking to get a concept of this whole parking domain industry

 

[Name Trader]

What parking providers do you have setup on Above? At the moment I am only using PC and Maximizer but was thinking of adding more for automonetization.

As I've hinted above. These are the only 2 which are worth having, IMHO. I also have Voodoo, in use. But as a general rule. When the parking revenue falls below $100 a month from any parking provider, I remove them. And they are just hovering above that figure at the moment. Of course, YMMV.

 

[iSG]

As I've hinted above. These are the only 2 which are worth having, IMHO. I also have Voodoo, in use. But as a general rule. When the parking revenue falls below $100 a month from any parking provider, I remove them. And they are just hovering above that figure at the moment. Of course, YMMV.

If you don't mind me asking, how many of the domains in your portfolio consistently support the $100 per mth threshold you mentioned?

 

[Name Trader]

If you don't mind me asking, how many of the domains in your portfolio consistently support the $100 per mth threshold you mentioned?

That information is not available for public consumption. It doesn't really matter. It could be any number. If I had 101 or 100,001 domains. If a parking provider pays me less than $100/month for 2 months (ie consistently), I remove them as a parking provider. It's just one of my rules I follow. It's not a recommendation for others. Parking is already dead, or at best on life support. Probably by the end of this year I'll have landing pages for every domain instead.

 

[polongru]

That information is not available for public consumption. It doesn't really matter. It could be any number. If I had 101 or 100,001 domains. If a parking provider pays me less than $100/month for 2 months (ie consistently), I remove them as a parking provider. It's just one of my rules I follow. It's not a recommendation for others. Parking is already dead, or at best on life support. Probably by the end of this year I'll have landing pages for every domain instead.

That's best bet. As we all left them they have to change something. I left all traditional parkings while ago, just wanted to check it something changed since then, but as I read your posts it's probably even worse now.

I am better with earning on cps/cpl with redirecting all domains to one single landing page. But it would be even better if I could enter some code that be also geo targetting like google adsense. Maybe someone tried such networks? Might be a good niche to create such company and gater all unsatisfied parking customers?

 

[Name Trader]

That's best bet. As we all left them they have to change something. I left all traditional parkings while ago, just wanted to check it something changed since then, but as I read your posts it's probably even worse now.

I am better with earning on cps/cpl with redirecting all domains to one single landing page. But it would be even better if I could enter some code that be also geo targetting like google adsense. Maybe someone tried such networks? Might be a good niche to create such company and gater all unsatisfied parking customers?

One bright spot I would say has been Above's Maximizer. It has grown whilst all the others have gone down and down. But in no way does it compensate for the losses. I would also mention Parking Crew has also gone down a lot, but is still holding it's own against Above's Maximizer. They are about 50/50 at the moment for me. Voodoo has 1 more month to go before they get evicted. Nothing else is even close.

 

[davidc1]

PC was good, but now voodoo and bodis works better for me.

 

[hal]

PC was good, but now voodoo and bodis works better for me.

Since when is PC’s performance down for you? I use PC on Above.com (with Maximizer) and thinking of adding some more providers to the mix.

 

[alcy]

One bright spot I would say has been Above's Maximizer. It has grown whilst all the others have gone down and down. But in no way does it compensate for the losses. I would also mention Parking Crew has also gone down a lot, but is still holding it's own against Above's Maximizer. They are about 50/50 at the moment for me. Voodoo has 1 more month to go before they get evicted. Nothing else is even close.

too bad you do not get a forsale banner with maximizer. they could add a 2nd popup window with forasle info somewhere there. but they do not.

for most people sales remain priority and pay far more than park revenues.

jmo

 

[Name Trader]

too bad you do not get a forsale banner with maximizer. they could add a 2nd popup window with forasle info somewhere there. but they do not.

for most people sales remain priority and pay far more than park revenues.

jmo

Parking used to pay approx 50% of my renewal fees. Which was not to be sniffed at and was most welcome. It's down to <20% now. Still a tidy sum. But this can be made up with one decent sale. Which is why I intend to have landing pages for every domain by years-end.

 

[CryptoInvestor]

One of my domains recently spiked in traffic HARD, earned me almost $90 in 2 days

 

[Name Trader]

One of my domains recently spiked in traffic HARD, earned me almost $90 in 2 days

Congrats. Let me guess. a Crypto domain

 

[alcy]

One of my domains recently spiked in traffic HARD, earned me almost $90 in 2 days

enjoy it.. and pray it lasts... unfortunately, that will not be happening often... to anyone... who does not buy or reg domains with parking revenue in mind and knows very well how to go about it. imo

 

[Name Trader]

enjoy it.. and pray it lasts... unfortunately, that will not be happening often... to anyone... who does not buy or reg domains with parking revenue in mind and knows very well how to go about it. imo

True. I also used to consider visitors and price per click in my earlier days. Not so much today. How much can I sell it for is now uppermost in my mind. This could also attribute to some of my slowdown in parking revenues.

 

[alcy]

True. I also used to consider visitors and price per click in my earlier days. Not so much today. How much can I sell it for is now uppermost in my mind. This could also attribute to some of my slowdown in parking revenues.

maximizer pages will obviously never get you sales.. but other than this, I gather your not much a believer in regular parked page (say PC) with forsale banner either? i think if someone really wants your domain, it won't matter much to them if they'll be contacting you via forsle banner or a full page lander.

so im trying to find best balance between selling and the occasional click here and there (which by years end still ads up... plus as cryptoinvestor just said.. sometmes u get lucky and things pickup for no clear reason)... by leaving all my domains now on parking crew.

 

[Name Trader]

maximizer pages will obviously never get you sales.. but other than this, I gather your not much a believer in regular parked page (say PC) with forsale banner either? i think if someone really wants your domain, it won't matter much to them if they'll be contacting you via forsle banner or a full page lander.

so im trying to find best balance between selling and the occasional click here and there (which by years end still ads up... plus as cryptoinvestor just said.. sometmes u get lucky and things pickup for no clear reason)... by leaving all my domains now on parking crew.

Strangely enough. I get a regular flow of inquiries from my Voodoo Parking Pages (which I'll probably be dropping from next month... my min $100 rule). Mostly, not all, from India. Maybe between 10-20/month. But zero from Parking Crew. Haven't sold anything yet from any of those inquiries.

Oh. I think a full page lander is going to be way more direct than a parking page for sale banner. It should be much more professional and beneficial. Maybe something like Dub.io would be a good solution for you. But it will require some work on your part, unlike regular parking.

 

[alcy]

Strangely enough. I get a regular flow of inquiries from my Voodoo Parking Pages (which I'll probably be dropping from next month... my min $100 rule). Mostly, not all, from India. Maybe between 10-20/month. But zero from Parking Crew. Haven't sold anything yet from any of those inquiries.

Oh. I think a full page lander is going to be way more direct than a parking page for sale banner. It should be much more professional and beneficial. Maybe something like Dub.io would be a good solution for you. But it will require some work on your part, unlike regular parking.

hmmm... I am having hard time convincing myself that when someone truly wants your domain, they'd be concerned whether its a sale banner or a full page lander they are inquiring thourgh. provided of course the sale banner is a clear one.. like say orange horizontal banner on PC.. which is what I use.. with some capital letters there.. "THIS DOMAIN IS FOR SALE... "

and the reason I am having hard time convicing myself, is simply by putting myslef in buyer shoes.. and how I'd not care about the contact method either

of course, if sale banner is hard to notice.. whihc I find to be case on voodoo.. more than PC.. due to all the multiple colors there etc.. or possibly the worst banners ever on something like Fabulous.. then thats a different story.

in all honesty the highest ever conversions to sales I got was by redirecting all trafick to goddady auction for sale lander right away... plus there you get an added increased odds of completing sales (no one wants to lose their gd accounts and be banned).. but.. the drawbacks are a few too.. 20% fee... hard to make offer for newbies.. they need to get gd auctions account first.. pay $5 per year.. and the UI is not friendly for newbies.

still, gd was the best conversion for me.. maybe I should go back!

 

[Name Trader]

hmmm... I am having hard time convincing myself that when someone truly wants your domain, they'd be concerned whether its a sale banner or a full page lander they are inquiring thourgh. provided of course the sale banner is a clear one.. like say orange horizontal banner on PC.. which is what I use.. with some capital letters there.. "THIS DOMAIN IS FOR SALE... "

and the reason I am having hard time convicing myself, is simply by putting myslef in buyer shoes.. and how I'd not care about the contact method either

of course, if sale banner is hard to notice.. whihc I find to be case on voodoo.. more than PC.. due to all the multiple colors there etc.. or possibly the worst banners ever on something like Fabulous.. then thats a different story.

in all honesty the highest ever conversions to sales I got was by redirecting all trafick to godady auction for slae lander right away... plus there you get an added increased odds of completing sales (no one wants to lose their gd accounts and be banned).. but.. the drawbacks are a few too.. 20% fee... hard to make offer for newbies.. they need to get gd autions account firt.. pay $5 per year.. and the UI is not friendly for newbies.

still, gd was the best conversion for me.. maybe I should go back!

That is why it's better to have a landing page to a parking page. You can get exactly what you want instead of the parking company deciding how attractive the button should be vis-a-vis their paying links

Putting myself in your shoes I'd much prefer to have a professional looking landing page than a scruffy parking page (which most of them are). It shows that you actually care about selling the domain.

The reason why GoDaddy was your highest conversions ever, was more because everybody knows and thinks GoDaddy is reliable and won't try to cheat them. I call it "the Superbowl effect". It doesn't matter to them that GoDaddy makes them jump thru a few hoops to completion. The solution to the 20% commission is by adding 25% to your non-commission pricing I'd even blame GoDaddy for the high price stating GoDaddy's admin and pricing policies make it necessary. Also it's very much easier if the domain is at GoDaddy where they most probably already have an account. Lots of great advantages for the buyer. No effing about doing transfers. Or you could do the transfer to your account after they have paid. The 1 extra day won't even be noticed in the scheme of things.

With your own parking page. You could have both buy now pages which went directly to escrow.com or make offer pages, so you can have a discussion. I have seen both options on the same landing page. But probably I wouldn't recommend them on the same page because it shows uncertainty about your price. So you will never get any Buy Now Sales. And you've set a ceiling for your domain upfront.

 

[CryptoInvestor]

Congrats. Let me guess. a Crypto domain

Believe it or not, it was an “esports” domain. Esports and online gaming are so, so, so big

 

[CryptoInvestor]

enjoy it.. and pray it lasts... unfortunately, that will not be happening often... to anyone... who does not buy or reg domains with parking revenue in mind and knows very well how to go about it. imo

Yeah I know haha, i’ve only got about 100 names, but I recently just parked ALL of them at Bodis (except my websites) and am seeing great revenue