How profitable is Domain Parking?

[gymosphere]

Hi, I am a newbie in the context of Domain Parking. I have just read through PPCParkingGuide.com and think it might be a good way to earn some income.

I know some of you guys might own a few hundreds of domains and make money parking it. I would like to do the same as well, but I have no idea and no confidence money can be made.

I was in adsense, when I started, I thought it was easy, later did I find it not as simple, competition is steep. However, I managed to drive $30 a month now.

I want to move into Domain Parking, what are the keys and success factors? I am sure there are rules and diamonds that should be followed closely to be successful.

I am looking at $20 a day from domain parking business, how do I get there from ground zero?

All your help is highly appreciated. Please help this newbie out :D

 

[Domagon]

With a developed site, there are many things one can do to improve performance - add pages, rework pages, change / add ad placement, work the search engine placement, etc.

With parking, it primarily comes down to the quantity and quality of the traffic being sent from the domains.

If you have (and/or plan to acquire) some decent domains, then parking could potentially meet your expectations ... however, if the domains you intend to park get little to no traffic, development is likely the better route to take ... $20 per day from a series of developed sites, even if very basic and templates, is very realistic.

If your primary motivation for some / all of your domains is resale, then development and/or putting a custom "for sale" page on them may be better - sometimes less is better than more ... that is to say I've sold many domains by not parking them, but instead by putting a custom "for sale" page on them, which also helps to cross-promote other domains for sale.

If you have many domains, then you likely will want to use a mix of various approaches ... ppc parking, development, for sale page, etc.

Hope this helps.

Ron

 

[matt_bodis]

Welcome to domain parking.

Well it's time to gain that confidence that you do not have. Because I must tell you, there is nothing as successful on the internet in my opinion, as domain parking.

First off, if you are starting from scratch and want to jump straight into domain parking, it is a good idea to first make some money at a regular job, save up, and invest it all into a traffic domain(s). If you want to make $20 a day from parking, you would need atleast $7000 - $15,000 to find that type of domain, and that would most likely get you a trademark domain that may or may not have legal issues in the future. Usually it will not, and it is usually safer to buy multiple trademark domains so that if 1 gets taken away you still have others to count on.

I'm not sure how new you are, but the value of a traffic/revenue domain is based on 12-24 months revenue for a trademark domain. 12 months is usually a very good deal, and you can come across a few every month on certain domain forums including here - NamePros.com, but you have to be fast otherwise it will be sold within minutes. 24 months revenue are quite easy to find via the Domains Wanted section, etc. The majority that own traffic domains are willing to sell based on 24 months revenue.

Now $7k - $15k for you might be hard to save up outside of the internet, unless you have a good job. How I started was buying and selling regular domains that were worth in the $xxx range. What domains to buy/sell are a whole different topic, but after a while, it would profit you enough to afford a good traffic domain.

It is also good to get familiar with different parking sponsors such as Namedrive.com, Sedo.com, etc. Usually if somebody sells a domain parked with Namedrive.com, or a parking sponsor which doesn't pay as much as it can per click or the CTR% is low, there's a good chance of optimization, which is another way to increase the revenue of the domain. Therefore, if you are buying a domain that is poorly optimized and makes $10 a day, there's a good chance you can optimize it to make $20+ per day.

It's alot of experience. Start small first. I think $5 per day is a good start.

 

[gymosphere]

Cool, how many domain do I need to drive $20 a day, considering they perform below average? Is there a concrete estimated calculation to give me a picture on the total investment, estimated traffic, estimated revenue, and any suggestion on domain parking service?

 

[gymosphere]

Thanks for the answer,cfguru, you answered my question before I posted it :D

$5 is great to me. I am a total newbie, no previous experience. While I was reading, it looks like the only traffic to parked domain is type-in traffic. So I have to buy only domains easy to be typed in? Or should I look for domain that is already taken but for sale at bargain?

 

[Fka200]

Cool, how many domain do I need to drive $20 a day, considering they perform below average? Is there a concrete estimated calculation to give me a picture on the total investment, estimated traffic, estimated revenue, and any suggestion on domain parking service?

a crappy type-in name and you'll be lucky to get 20cents/day, its not how many in this business (in my opinion), it's the quality of the domain name that matters the most.

 

[matt_bodis]

Well if you find a domain for sale at a bargain then either the seller has no idea what he is doing or you are being fooled into believing that it may have traffic when in reality it does not.

Type-in traffic is always better than typo traffic since it will usually have a higher ctr and is developable. I have 1 youtube type-in domain that has a 28% CTR, while another youtube typo that has 3% ctr. It's a huge difference. If you are buying based on the visitors, go for type-in. If you are buying based on the revenue, well...it doesn't really matter.

 

[cyberoptik]

cfguru: This is somewhat related to the OP, but in your opinion... what is the best place to park your domains at?

Also, would you mind sharing what kind of ballpark you make from your portfolio?

~Ron

 

[matt_bodis]

I recommend 3 places. First off, use the overture bid tool to find the highest paying keyword or phrase that is relevant to the domain that you own: http://uv.bidtool.overture.com/d/search/tools/bidtool/

The 3 places I recommend have their own exceptions as well, here they are:

-Sedopro.com
-NameDrive.com
-RevenueDirect.com

If you have a high paying keyword domain, $1+ on overture bid tool, use Sedopro.com. Lately Sedopro.com has dropped in revenue (which according to their staff is a temporary problem), but they are still good enough for high paying keywords. The secret to Sedopro is to negotiate a 20%-30% revenue bonus with them. If you can convince them or show them that you have a good portfolio, they will give you a bonus on top of your earnings. You can sign up for sedo pro at sedopro.com. It is by invitation only and you must have either 200+ domains or $200+ earnings per month. If you qualify, pm me and I will email you an invitiation code.

Namedrive is good for average domains, or a "ball park". It is average for me. Sedopro will pay you $3+ per click for "auto insurance" domains, while Namedrive will pay you max 30 cents - from my experience atleast. Namedrive is good if you have a small portfolio. No invitations, no minimum requirements. It's an average place. Above average CTR.

RevenueDirect. Once again, these guys have something unique. Templates. Their templates are fantastic. Reports and such are not great, revenue per click is a little dissapointing, but it nearly makes up in CTR. I had a domain on Sedopro, it had 40% CTR, I moved it to RevenueDirect, 80% CTR. Also, RevenueDirect is great for typo domains since they don't display the domain name on the template page. So if you own a typo domain such as "Googe.com" of Google.com, it won't display the word "goole.com" on the template page. Therefore increasign CTR since more visitors won't realize they have come to the wrong place. The trick here is to negotiate a higher revenue share with RevenueDirect. These guys are desperate in the business, they'll give you a higher revenue share pretty easily. No minimum requirements to join. Great selection of templates.

Oh and yes, I don't disclose my revenue.

 

[gymosphere]

Great insight! Wow, looks like you need a few hundreds of nice type-in domains to make money in this business. Thanks for the extensive lesson, CFGuru!

 

[cyberoptik]

Thank you as well .

 

[smilegene]

I have 1800+ domains parked in two different companies, just get ~$30-60 per day......

 

[Anteros]

$60/day doesn't even seem to cover domain register every year.

 

[bdmunee]

I have 1800+ domains parked in two different companies, just get ~$30-60 per day......

I have one site that is 1 year old that does that in adsense every day - big reason why I mainly develop (instead of park).

 

[Anteros]

1800 every day, wow, that's what I make on 3 good months doing part-time jobs =) but since I'm still studying im not worried yet

 

[DropLister]

Not profitable at all, run for the hills. Leave your domains with me on your way out.



:0

 

[cyberoptik]

He/she said they have 1800 domains, but only make $30-60 a day, not $1800 a day -- that would be amazing.

 

[Anteros]

Heh, you are right, I answered then answered again with something different. That's the result of too much work and lack of sleep :hehe:

 

[RobnaCarta]

Thanks cfguru360 for the insightful post.

 

[gymosphere]

Does anyone has any resource on where to learn:
1) How to find good domain
2) Tips and tricks and must know

Free or paid resources are both welcome. I am a noob eager to learn how to make good return from Domain Parking business.

 

[cache]

traffic domain is very hard to find. Who would let go a good money making domain to other people?

 

[Fleege]

Page optimization is key. If you only get 0.30 PER CLICK on auto insurance perhaps your ads are not as targeted. Play around with key words. Name drive rocks. I have had $3-$4 clicks. The key is that they seem to value clicks for what they are worth. Thus staying healthy and keep ing the business alive for all of us.

I think a modest goal for every domainer should be to break even. Sounds simple but think about it. if you have 100 names and renewal fee is $7 your domain should give you $60 a month. If you bought your names above reg fee - them they gotta perform much better. It all depends what your goals are and why you are domaining. But everyones first goal should be breaking even with their parking revenue. Then that wil grow and grow with referrals etc and the real income comes from domain sales.

 

[keenx]

Thanks You this really helps alot....

i got a couple domains probably 20 domain names i will try to park them at sedo and namedrive and see how much they make me....