Is Parking wrong and other questions

[aristotle]

Many frown at parking? Why? Does it steal traffic? Or just being smart!!

And how can I know if a name is trademarked? I don't want to do anything wrong!

 

[Ronald Regging]

It doesn't steal traffic. You can park a domain and get 0 traffic. It's not like traffic will magically just start coming to your parked domain unless it's something that people type-in naturally. It's wrong if its a TM. Otherwise, you have every right to park it.

 

[Lasher]

A lot of people consider them the equivalent of internet billboards, particularly when they click on a link from another site to find that the name expired and was replaced with a parking page.

For direct navigation I think they're fine, if someone types in 'homeinsurance.com' they're probably quite interested in learning about home insurance and don't mind seeing a page of links from companies that have paid for the privilege to tell them about home insurance.

 

[aristotle]

Thanks for all your responses. Most grateful.

 

[labrocca]

They call it "parking" but it's tentamount to parking a mile from where you REALLY want to go and the parking attendant gets paid by your end-destination. Parking is imho the lowest form of domain usage.

Technically not illegal though. Now parking a TM name of course COULD be illegal in the sense that you could be violating intellectual property law and subject to penalties. However this only goes to the domain owner. There is yet to be a suit against a parking company at least to my knowledge. But I been expecting one fairly soon. I think it's why some parking companies have toughened up a bit about some domain names.

 

[ofclean]

I don't understand how parking makes any money. I have never clicked on a single ad on a parked page, and neither has anyone I know.

The clickers must be somewhere, though!

 

[Ronald Regging]

I don't understand how parking makes any money. I have never clicked on a single ad on a parked page, and neither has anyone I know.

The clickers must be somewhere, though!

I've never used Google in a verb form and neither has anyone I know, yet apparently millions and millions of people do. If parking didn't make money, no one would be doing it

 

[The Critic]

I don't understand how parking makes any money. I have never clicked on a single ad on a parked page, and neither has anyone I know.

The clickers must be somewhere, though!

The more internet savvy you are the less likely you are to click on ads, be they on parked pages or just a simple AdSense banner. Ad blindness is a factor (less so on parked pages of course), but as a webmaster and domain owner the I know what an ad looks like and what happens when I click on it. Somebody loses money while someone else (and a faceless corporation) makes money. That isn't to say I won't click on an ad if I think it's relevant (that's what it's there for), it just means I'm far less likely to click on an ad than the general public. Your average Joe will think "Hey, that looks interesting" and just click on it without analyzing the process behind it.

Regarding cash parking in general, I don't like it. Rather than taking a good name and developing it into a useful site with content, people may just sit on it for a few years in the hopes that someone will pay them a premium for it. Parking is supposed to be a way for you to get use out of a domain while you are still developing it into a site, not a means unto itself. The only time I can see this being a good alternative to developing a site is in the case of typos, which have limited potential anyway. To each their own though.

 

[Lasher]

Parking is supposed to be a way for you to get use out of a domain while you are still developing it into a site, not a means unto itself.

According to who? I think I must have been sleeping when that rule was declared.

A domain is "supposed" to be used for whatever the heck the owner of the domain wants to use it for, as long as their actions are legal. There is no right thing or wrong thing to do with your names (within the law) only what works for you.

 

[The Critic]

According to who? I think I must have been sleeping when that rule was declared.

A domain is "supposed" to be used for whatever the heck the owner of the domain wants to use it for, as long as their actions are legal. There is no right thing or wrong thing to do with your names (within the law) only what works for you.

It was published in Vol. 1 of "It's my opinion not a rule." Pick yourself up a copy.