Is Parking Really Dead or It Has Gotten So Different?

Thanks for your summation of parking today. Definitely agree with you. The other day I was in a private auction on NJ where I thought I could get the domain for $1K. It got up to over $4K and I stopped at $4,999 because I didn't want to mess with NJ's requirement of paying via wire transfer. Still got outbid. Competition out there is fierce these days, my friend.

 

Domain parking is definitely not dead.....in fact, it's alive and well. The best way to view this is to reflect on the "Gold rush" analogy. In the early days of the gold rush you could almost stumble across gold nuggets (eg. traditional parking) while today massive machinery is used to dig into the earth's crust to dig out the gold. It's a natural technological evolution that will continue moving forward.

I hate to say it but if you are taking the approach to parking that you always have then don't expect a different outcome. This brings up a differential in terminology as well....parking is typically placing all of your domains with a single provider that is backended by Google. Monetization is VERY different and exposes domains to the global advertising networks as well as Google. It is driven by a focus on maximizing the returns of every piece of traffic.

I actually go through this in detail at http://MCL.club as I find there is a LOT of confusion about domain monetization and whether it's worth it. MCL doesn't cost anything and I think you'll find a LOT of answers to the questions you're asking there. I hope that helps.

 

could you elaborate a bit more your point 1?
thanks

 

There really are two parts to the "is domain parking dead" question. The back-end part is addressed eloquently in this thread by Michael (ParkLogic) and other posters, but that means you already have a domain that has domain monetization capabilities (or as Michael states in his Master Class - 1 human visitor is a traffic domain). To me the bigger question is "Can a newbie investor find domains that actually has ongoing traffic in today's market without tying up a large capital investment?". As I posted previously, for the most part large conglomerates have dominated the domain auctions so you need a lot of capital to compete or build a decent portfolio of ongoing traffic domains. So either the newbie investor needs a lot of cash (or credit) to find them (assuming he/she even knows how to analyze a domain's monetization potential), or go the pending delete route (forget buying domains that have passed that stage - I've yet to find one that is worth much - I'm sure some will argue with me that they find them all the time and have no problem saying they are better at it than me). So drop catching is the most economical way, but even that route has large players in the space.

 

a) Direct contact with advertisers.
b) Your Ad serving platform or server or ad display script across your parked domains or marketplace. All you need is just one website of yours to park the domains on - using name servers, CNAME / A records or 301 redirect. Nothing extraordinary.

For example, using the illustration below, I've jettisoned google and Sedo (and the likes):

 

This is a slide I presented at NamesCon in Austin earlier this year. This is what the high end domain investors are doing now. There is a step beyond this that we have been working on for quite some time now.....but like I said previously, it's a natural evolution of any healthy industry to innovate.

MCL.club answers these and many more questions on monetization....MCL is free and I set it up as my way of giving back to the domain investment community.

 

Could you please explain in bit simple words? If I understood you correctly you are saying to redirect all traffic to one parked website, right?

If yes, I am not sure if that would be considered as a legitimate or legal way of traffic under parking terms and conditions?

I read their conditions which are strictly against such artificial traffics. Sometimes I wondered how people get 1000 views and 100 clicks daily and score $5-10 per day from a single domain.

I am doing parking-related experiment from last 2 months with more than 30 parking domains with good backlinks, search volume and authority and still haven't figure out those tricks.

I will appreciate if you could elaborate your strategy if possible. Thanks in advance

 

Hi

backlinks must be checked to see exactly where the link is, on the backlinked page.
backlinks must be on websites that other people visit
any traffic originating from a backlink to a parked page, should be related to the keywording of that name.

also, when/if webmaster of site where your backlink resides, decides to remove it.....then poof, that traffic is gone.

search volume, does not equal actual number of visitors you may or may not get.
still, with search volume, a name with low volume, may produce better than one with high volume

authority, means nothing - imo

one of the tricks, is using common sense, to acquire domains that make sense, as domains.
instead of names that have to be explained or have extra "s" or the words are used in reverse like "loanhome" instead of homeloan

imo...

 

Did you read my post at all?
What legal terms are you referring to?
I don't use any parking services, nor google's b**sht.

 

Thanks, I read it but frankly speaking couldn't understand in right context. I guess you directly approach to advertisers? I'm not sure if that path is viable for individuals or small portfolio holders ? In my opinion corporates may not deal with individual thus difficult to remove middleman.

Anyway, will appreciate if you could suggest how to figure out right advertisers/clients & approach them.
I will be glad to know your strategy and how it works. Thanks

 

Thank you so much! Appreciated...

Yes, I also observed so

Thank you very much for your valuable feedback. I also observed some of domain without backlinks or authority are performing better than those having strong backlinks.

I also believe these days getting 1000 views & likes per day without having popular dictionary word is challenging in my humble opinion or may be I haven't discovered those secrets yet

 

Since i wrote such a long post, I will add a few tips that I discovered in the past couple months:

Right now you will find better options in ccTLDs than .com not they ccTLDs are better but you will be able to find some unregistered gems.

many people still type in popular ccTLDs.
.ca, .fr, .de, .co.uk, .com.au, .in, .cn (for .cn you will need parking that provides advertising for china and I am not aware)

Avoid video domains. They usually have traffic, but the traffic will die down eventually.

regarding going upstream:
Of course going to a direct advertiser is will cut out the middle men, but then again, why do you neeed a service for that, if you have to go upstream.

I like Parking for low visit sites because they add up, and also they intelligently show relevant CPC ads, but if you stumble upon a winner by luck, the best way is to go to an affiliate network and find the best offer, test out different offers and if you have enough volume, even cut out the middle men and find the advertiser yourself.

But again, it only makes sense if you have enough traffic is a particular "niche".


I am a parking n00b, but I have been in the content site development for over a while I have done a little bit of online traffic generation, and monetization.

 

I define a domain worth monetizing as any domain that has at least 1 unique visitor per day.....seems low but you actually don't typically need more than that for it to be profitable.

Secondly, there are two things I looked at when building a portfolio many years ago. The first has already been mentioned here.....the ccTLD market is still completely under utilized while .com has been stripped mined. I made all my money in ccTLDs.

So which ccTLDs should you look for. This is the next point. I focused on those economies with large populations AND had a growing penetration of credit cards. Why credit cards you may ask? Simple, with credit cards users can purchase more easily online and it then means marketers can complete the entire purchase cycle of buying traffic right through to sale. This directly impacts Earnings per Click rates.

Also.....as an addition. Don't ever route traffic from one domain to another (or do any arbitrage) and hope to have it monetized by Google. You'll get your DRID banned and you'll effectively be unable to monetize traffic into the future.

I hope this helps people here out.

 

If any of you wants to looks at what a parking domain goes for in Auction, There are two auctions right now on Dynadot.
One Auction is 5 day left and it is going to 2500 Bid right now. Another has 3 days left and right now the high Bid is 2200

The only value in the names is that they have traffic.

 

Wow...Thank you so much.
Surprisingly, one domain is just one year old.

Btw, my experience so far with the domains I acquired with all those backlinks & traffic was not very encouraging and so far their performance is not up to the mark in terms of visitors, clicks or revenue.

I am sure these cases will be different and participants must have done a good research before bidding so high.

The domain parking is a very fascinating area and such bidding only approves that parking is very much alive and kicking. I am really excited to know more about this area of domaining and such high bidding only encourage to learn it in-depth and find the secret

 

Hi

if the only value in the name, is in the traffic,
then that assumes, that without the traffic there is no value.

i get it though, that some will pay the cost to be the boss, of the names they want.

but, what are you trying to say or imply, when it comes to "what a parking domain goes for"
or is that just a vague example of auctions for two different names?

it doesn't define the cost, or amount needed to acquire or register a domain, and then park it.

and as said below:

i agree, with above quote, in that, "1 unique visitor" can pay registration fee or renewal fee, depending on CPC and EPC, of that domain.

and such names can still be registered or acquired thru backorder/auction at less for 4 figures.

but it depends on what you're into, what you see,
and what you overlook..:

then from that, you got...
what you think will perform,
where, who or which platform are you're looking to buy it from
and what the budget is for those variables.

Hi

yeah, it's fascinating, depending on how and who is telling the story.
but unless you know what the actual names are and correlated value, then it's excitement about an unknown.
and we, prolly will never know if the names they win, will get traffic and/or whether that traffic if any, will convert to clicks
or....how much those clicks, if any, will pay and how often those visitors, again, if any, will click.
and.... we prolly won't know who won the domains, if on privacy, unless we research.
so, that's a lot of unknowns. just saying.....

still, there is no secret with high dollar amount bidding in auctions,
it depends on the domain and how many people are participating and how much each is willing to spend

imo...

 

we also need to remember, domains that do good in traffic more often than not, have also nice SEO metrics so they are useful for PBN or other purpose connected with a website development.
That's why we see high prices for ugly names (from the resale purpose).
Usage in development (if done properly) is way more profitable than normal parking so who buy traffic names with that envision, can surely pay higher amounts compared to who just buy names with the purpose to make money from parking.

 

Thanks for your insight.

After seeing the name it doesn't look catchy to me. I am not sure how the end-user will use especially when the other one (dot)Best extension is only one year old. I guess they may divert these traffic and use to push their own site.

 

That is why I said it is very cut throat. Either the guys bidding know what they are doing or they hope to recover the cost of the domaon from auction before the traffic dies off.

As I said earlier in other parking thread, if you are getting are getting real traffic from actual relevant "Links", using that domain for parking is a foolish idea. As they can be put to greater use as a PBN or a 301 redirect or even a build out.

The above examples I gave are getting Bid only on the traffic and revenue stats given by Dynadot.

I didn't put the name since it is still under Auction and it might hurt those who are already bidding,.It is a stupid ngTLD with no SLD.TLD synergy and the domain has lot of spam links and very LOW DR for seo purpose either. But Dynadot shows very high traffic stats and revenue as well.

What I mean is I didn't pick a random high bid auction. I picked out two names that were getting Bid due to traffic., because I also bid on traffic domains, but only bid as much as I am willing to pay. I would have paid 1000 for this name but now it is already 2500

 

Another consideration to what the OP said "....or has it gotten so different?" part of his question is IMO the business of finding traffic domains to grow a portfolio has really changed over the past few years. I've noticed over time that the quality of expired traffic domains to purchase at auction (or drop) has deteriorated quite a bit. Back in the day, it was easy to grab a domain name that had some great non-profit or government backlinks that would stay around for years because they didn't maintain their websites as often as commercial entities, allowing backlinks to remain for years. Those are almost impossible to find.

One of the reasons this is happening is registrars have gotten into the business of building their own domain portfolios, or outsourcing this task to third parties. It's not really an even playing field for individual investors. This isn't true for all TLDs or ccTLDs, so it requires monetization investors to constantly look at other opportunities or try to stay a step ahead of large entities. And I'm strictly speaking from parking monetization only, not developing domains or Adsense.

Bottom line? Parking is not dead, but the real question is who is actually profiting from it these days? If an individual investor can't buy decent ongoing traffic domains without paying substantial sums on the "bread crumbs" to fight over at auction, then one won't be able to participate in domain monetization from a parking standpoint.