PARKED.COM - Official Thread!

[TOXX]

Hi,

Welcome to the OFFICIAL PARKED.COM thread!

 

[Seabass]

GILSAN, I've heard, "When the U.S. sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold."

Are you sure you did not change that statement, or is that what they really say in Portugal? Just curious.

BTW - How are your Portuguese domains doing at Parked. I noticed some improvement, but still payouts as a whole are weak for anything Portuguese. I used to make some decent change in the Ask days.

Have you had any success elsewhere? I tried DS but actually seemed to be doing worse on most of my experiments with Port. domains.
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[GILSAN]

GILSAN, I've heard, "When the U.S. sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold."

Are you sure you did not change that statement, or is that what they really say in Portugal? Just curious.

BTW - How are your Portuguese domains doing at Parked. I noticed some improvement, but still payouts as a whole are weak for anything Portuguese. I used to make some decent change in the Ask days.

Have you had any success elsewhere? I tried DS but actually seemed to be doing worse on most of my experiments with Port. domains.
.

Some peaple say it here. Perhaps someone changed the statement to give it a Portuguese flavor, or should I say smell!. My Portuguese domains and all other domains are doing lousy at Parked and elsewhere.Your'e right, Ask made a diference. I'm just waiting to see if the dust settles, but there are whirlwinds coming from all directions.

I have ocasional good days but they are outnumbered by the bad days.
I'm in a "Wait and see" mood at the moment

GIL

 

[PowerUp]

Today I login and noticed my Quality Score first QS = 6.
Is this good or bad?
Do you earn more before or after you got your QS?
How do you increase your QS?

1 week later, my Score dropped from 6 to 5.
Here are my stats. Is it normal to get a 5?

country source
65% US
6.5% UK
4.0% Canada
25% Rest of the world

traffic source
Type-in 30%
SE 25.6%
Backlinks 44%

Can anyone teach me how to increase my quality score?
Thank you

 

[vbigdeli]

1 week later, my Score dropped from 6 to 5.
Here are my stats. Is it normal to get a 5?

country source
65% US
6.5% UK
4.0% Canada
25% Rest of the world

traffic source
Type-in 30%
SE 25.6%
Backlinks 44%

Can anyone teach me how to increase my quality score?
Thank you

Move your intl traffic(25%) to ND or sedo pro.

 

[Seabass]

1 week later, my Score dropped from 6 to 5.
Here are my stats. Is it normal to get a 5?

country source
65% US
6.5% UK
4.0% Canada
25% Rest of the world

traffic source
Type-in 30%
SE 25.6%
Backlinks 44%

Can anyone teach me how to increase my quality score?
Thank you

PowerUp, stop buying search engine and back-link domains. That traffic will go up in smoke eventually anyhow. Buy only generic domains, and those naturally should have 70% + type-in traffic that is hopefully permanent and will result in more sales for advertisers, generally speaking, which in turn will raise your TQ score. Right now, the domains I have with Parked read as such since I buy generics :

TYPE IN OR NO HOSTNAME 73.13%

My TQ generally stays at ten but sometimes drops to nine.

I think Donny said that when you drop to three or four then you need to work with them at Parked to get your score up. You may just want to speak with him or your account manager.

I don't think moving your international domains will improve your TQ score ( confirm with Donny), but Yahoo, I keep hearing, is not the place to have them. However, I tried DS and Sedo and I was just getting .03 to .06 per click - no improvement, and much of the time much worse. I still see some .15 + clicks at Parked with international domains, but not too often.
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[zenon]

Question for those of you with Quality Score experience:

What's the monetary effect of a change in Quality Score? If you were at 3 and then it changes to 9, would you expect your RPC to triple?

And what time period should it affect? If my Q score goes up in the middle of a pay period how long does the monetary effect, if any last?

I would appreciate hearing any feedback on this. Thanks.

 

[Seabass]

Question for those of you with Quality Score experience:

What's the monetary effect of a change in Quality Score? If you were at 3 and then it changes to 9, would you expect your RPC to triple?

And what time period should it affect? If my Q score goes up in the middle of a pay period how long does the monetary effect, if any last?

I would appreciate hearing any feedback on this. Thanks.

I can't say what would happen if you went from a three to a nine since that has not happened to me, but I doubt that you would get an enormous rise in payout such as double or triple. Donny has stated however that earnings have a correlation with the TQ score.

Is TQ measured on a daily basis? I have not heard that. Maybe so. I know it is measured on a domain by domain basis.

Many here have noted, including me, that when there is a dip in TQ the earnings go up. When I drop to a nine I seem to see a earnings jump. At a ten I seem to have lower payouts. Mind you, I have not actually measured this. It's just an observation that may be faulted.
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[thebutler]

Depends on the price...

PowerUp, stop buying search engine and back-link domains. That traffic will go up in smoke eventually anyhow.
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Seabass, I know you know what the deal is with domains but sometimes buying domains with backlinks works. I'm not talking big dollars here (close to reg fee or low $XX) but I've had some luck with a few.

I've had a few domains in this price range pay for themselves in one month and they keep making money even six months after. I'm sure most people would not mind having a reg fee domain make anywhere from .10 to .50 cents per day. So yes they are not big bucks but for some folks spending $XX dollars is a wise investment in learning the ropes and limiting their exposure to mistakes.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Thats a wonderful sound

Gilson,

when you lived in the U.S thru the seventies, were you into domains?.

Opps there were none! This domain thing does not have a whole lot of history to help us when the tide turns does it?. It makes it difficult to understand why parking revenue is down too. Has anyone here been thru a very sharp down cycle as big as the one we are experiencing now?

I don't want to take up space in this thread with issues I am trying to wrap my mind around. The thing is I only have a few names in Parked so I don't seem to have much to say about parking anymore. It pretty much came to my conclusion that spending too much time chasing the parking revenue is not in my best interests.

I only know big shit is going on and soon the internet will be overloaded with folks trying to find out the truth. Seems like some smart person or company can combine that traffic with domain names. Then domainers would hear ka-ching again.

 

[GILSAN]

Gilson,

when you lived in the U.S thru the seventies, were you into domains?.

Opps there were none! This domain thing does not have a whole lot of history to help us when the tide turns does it?. It makes it difficult to understand why parking revenue is down too. Has anyone here been thru a very sharp down cycle as big as the one we are experiencing now?

I don't want to take up space in this thread with issues I am trying to wrap my mind around. The thing is I only have a few names in Parked so I don't seem to have much to say about parking anymore. It pretty much came to my conclusion that spending too much time chasing the parking revenue is not in my best interests.

I only know big shit is going on and soon the internet will be overloaded with folks trying to find out the truth. Seems like some smart person or company can combine that traffic with domain names. Then domainers would hear ka-ching again.

Roderick,

I only started domaining over a year ago. Back then in California the interests were diferent. VHS cassetes were winning the battle against BETA. The first Camcorders were coming out. Reagan was the Prez. Dancing with some "Bad Girls" to the sound of Donna Summer's "Hot Stuff" in the discos was our Friday and saturday night ritual, going to the beaches, eating Thai food and Mexican "Burritos" and chasing after those beautifull California girls was the main passtime! The list goes on and on. There was no internet then, which was a good thing, otherwise we would have missed out on many of the good things in life!

But changing the subject and getting back to domains, it seems that we are getting squeezed out from all sides and only those with good domain names will do well. The rest us will have to adapt to the new realities and either change our tactics or do something totally diferent.

With the US economy strugling the way it is, it seems that it will be hard for domaining to return to the recent "good old days" even when the economy recovers, which seems like it won't happen soon, unless oil prices drop considerably! These high oil prices are beginning to cause havoc all over the world in the form of food shortages and as we are now seeing, lots of food riots in poorer countries, which directly or indirectly will also have repercusions in the US and Europe.

Personally I'm not feeling very positive about Domaining at the moment, but I am looking at other alternatives.

Sorry about getting away from the main subject of this thread, but an ocasional deviation will do us no harm, especially since this thread has been relatively quiet lately!

GIL

 

[Seabass]

Seabass, I know you know what the deal is with domains but sometimes buying domains with backlinks works. I'm not talking big dollars here (close to reg fee or low $XX) but I've had some luck with a few.

I've had a few domains in this price range pay for themselves in one month and they keep making money even six months after. I'm sure most people would not mind having a reg fee domain make anywhere from .10 to .50 cents per day. So yes they are not big bucks but for some folks spending $XX dollars is a wise investment in learning the ropes and limiting their exposure to mistakes.

@ thebutler, you are correct. I was not clear. You can make a lot of money buying expired traffic and back-link domains. I've got some that have been making money for five years. But that traffic eventually dies with deindexing and link removal by sites, so you keep having to add more domain backfill to keep earnings up. The golden goose though is generics if you want long-term traffic. Generally speaking, you can make more short term buying expired/back-link domains than just buying generic domains because it is easier to amass a bunch of that traffic since those type domains are more plentiful, but as a whole that traffic will not convert as good for the advertiser as pure generics. Granted, there are exceptions.

@ PowerUp, an additional thought regarding your question of TQ. Surfers going to the parked page using the "proper domain" JacksonCancerHospital,com will not click as often on links as surfers going to the parked page using the "generic domain" CancerHospital,com. Surfers looking for the Jackson Cancer Hospital will feel cheated or feel like they hit a dead end since they really wanted Jackson Cancer Hospital and they did not get it - hence the lower TQ score due to lower conversions for the advertiser. Those surfers going to CancerHospital,com are looking for a Cancer Hospital so their expectations are met much better - hence the higher TQ score for the higher conversion resulting. This is why Generics increase your TQ score and expired/backlink domains lower it, generally speaking.

And now, G and Y are getting a better handle on this and are pushing down earnings for many domainers with the lower quality traffic. This was not an issue in the past as everything was lumped together - good traffic with bad traffic. I believe they are still separating it and we'll see further separation of the good and the bad.

It used to be : A click is a click is a click, all paid the same as long as it was not a bot or fraud click.
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Gilson,

.......................... Opps there were none! This domain thing does not have a whole lot of history to help us when the tide turns does it?. It makes it difficult to understand why parking revenue is down too. Has anyone here been thru a very sharp down cycle as big as the one we are experiencing now?...................................

Yes...there was a much, much larger down time. The year was 2000, second half, and everyone was talking about Dot Bomb with a laugh instead of saying Dot Com. The recession was not as bad for the U.S. as it is now, but it was horrible for the Net - much worse than it is now. At least we have parking available to us as an option these days.

In 2000 there was no domain parking available to the standard domainer so it was a time where I picked up the phone and said to an advertiser, "Hey, the Internet is still alive and I got this nice domain here that has people coming to it and it may be useful to your business to have this traffic." Then he or she would say, "Why in the world are there people coming to the domain?" And then I would have to go on to explain to them that simply b/c the domain was so good that people just type it in. Sometimes a light bulb went off and sometimes it did not. If I could convince them to try, they almost never stopped the listing service for a link.

So virtually every "domainer" (term did not exist in 2000) had to work above and beyond the work required to find domains, in order to be able to monetize them in some fashion and make a profit.

Much, much harder indeed, yet still easier than driving to a downtown job everyday. I'd pick up that phone again before I drive an hour each way to work. :talk: :talk: :talk: :talk:

 

[goodkarmaco]

Seabass,

thanks. Coming from a person who was there and into domains, you paint a good picture. For me it shows how new this business is and how fast it has become what it is today.

Being in domains since the beginning, you must have some gems. Shows history from a in the trenches viewpoint. Wow.

 

[GILSAN]

Yes...there was a much, much larger down time. The year was 2000, second half, and everyone was talking about Dot Bomb with a laugh instead of saying Dot Com. The recession was not as bad for the U.S. as it is now, but it was horrible for the Net - much worse than it is now. At least we have parking available to us as an option these days.

In 2000 there was no domain parking available to the standard domainer so it was a time where I picked up the phone and said to an advertiser, "Hey, the Internet is still alive and I got this nice domain here that has people coming to it and it may be useful to your business to have this traffic." Then he or she would say, "Why in the world are there people coming to the domain?" And then I would have to go on to explain to them that simply b/c the domain was so good that people just type it in. Sometimes a light bulb went off and sometimes it did not. If I could convince them to try, they almost never stopped the listing service for a link.

So virtually every "domainer" (term did not exist in 2000) had to work above and beyond the work required to find domains, in order to be able to monetize them in some fashion and make a profit.

Much, much harder indeed, yet still easier than driving to a downtown job everyday. I'd pick up that phone again before I drive an hour each way to work. :talk: :talk: :talk: :talk:

Was this drop in 2000 related to the Nasdaq Bubble in the late 90's?.
What about nine-eleven, did that also have an effect on domains at the time?

GIL

 

[Seabass]

Was this drop in 2000 related to the Nasdaq Bubble in the late 90's?.
What about nine-eleven, did that also have an effect on domains at the time?

GIL

goodkarmaco, thanks for the compliment.

GILSAN, it all happened at the same time basically, but even without any downturn in the economy the Net would have had a major correction anyhow b/c no really good standards for traffic measurement were agreed upon. I would tell a customer I could send maybe eighty folks a month on a certain domain and they sometimes would scoff b/c another person or site claimed they had 50,000 impressions a day, or something silly like that. Then they would quite often discount my "small" traffic and buy into a huge "impressions" package that they had thought was actually "Uniques", and subsequently bust when they did not make the conversions to cover the advertising cost. Many of those folks walked away from advertising on the Net (most 90%+ did not even have a stats software installed) and wrote off advertising on the Net as a big waste of money. Then when companies like Pets.com and Toys.com went under it became popular to trash Net companies for a spell until the light started shining again - led by more astute advertsers who knew that the traffic they were getting on the cheap was pure gold - even with the trash traffic mixed with it. Many were making money hand over fist while the other advertisers were crying about bad conversions.

Believe it or not folks were still arguing what the difference between a "hit" and a "unique" and an "impression". It was maddening. Then there were those that just wanted to do banner advertising - they were fixated on graphics instead of conversions to sale.

Regarding 9/11, I saw no downturn on the Net. Things kept rolling smoothly with my earnings there. My offline businesses however tanked for a couple three months. One offline franchise business did not get an contract for over two months when we had been signing five or more a week. I think by 9/11 some Net momentum had returned and the excitement about the Net was starting to come back.

On another note, my RPC is doing a lot better at Parked. What about y'alls?
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[PowerUp]

On another note, my RPC is doing a lot better at Parked. What about y'alls?
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Thank you everybody for your feedback regarding my TQ score and suggestions on how to lift my TQ score. I'll wait 1 more week and see how it goes.

My RPC is about the same as 2 weeks ago. However, total clicks and visitors are dropping. I couldn't agree more with you about buying expired domains with traffic from SE and backlinks. I have been buying and buying more domains adding them to my portfolio and I cannot see my daily earnings increase. It's like pouring money into a bottomless pit. However, not all of these domains are lemons. I've bought a few that has paid for themselves within 3 months. These domains are very very rare though. Often times, these names are bid so high that it doesn't make sense from a ROI point of view. My best traffic names are those that I've bought in the range of between $20 to $130.

And from my portfolio, I can see that the generic performs better than non-generic. And the traffic lasts longer.

 

[whitebark]

Nothing wrong with search traffic...

From the recently updated thursday report - 1 visitor - 1 click - $7.87

 

[kemjika11]

my CTR and RPC are both down a bit....

 

[Malaysia]

i have asian traffic n i park it wif namedrive.com (better than sedo ) but its parked good at asian traffic? havent tried parked.com yet

 

[Seabass]

............. My RPC is about the same as 2 weeks ago. However, total clicks and visitors are dropping..............

PowerUp, I too have seen lower traffic and lower CTR on a whole, all while RPC has been increasing by two or three cents a click for all domains as a group.

In this regard, going back over all your domains again, and reoptimizing them may be key to raising earnings. I went back in and reoptimized a sub-portfolio of domains at Parked and have seen some signs of new life. As far as I could tell, I was able to increase CTR by about six percent and RPC by about .10 by reassessing my previous work and tweaking the domains with better keywords or different images. Sometimes new images that were not available before seemed to make a difference.

I suppose this could raise your TQ score as well if what the surfer is seeing results in more clicks and thus more sales from doing some optimization work.
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[goodkarmaco]

I was not into domains back during the dot com bust. From my studies of history and economics I came to the conclusion the bust was not about internet traffic. The dot com bust was because the bubble that was created under the Federal reserve chairman Alan Greenspans watch crashed Wall St.

The bubble led to speculative loans and just like the Real Estate bubble today that grew from 2001 to late 2006 was a smoke and mirrors way to stimulate the economy, the dot com bust had its roots founded in money that had no backing and was printed in excess.

That money is debt money, to be paid for by future taxes.

So thru no fault of advertisers, the net or domainers or parking companies the dot com era fizzled because Wall St was very cleaver in packaging and selling any start up company and then "sold" investors into the furnace.

The facts were there all along that this was being fueled by easy fiat money and was not a true marketplace.

This scene today with re-packaging sub-prime loans seems like deja-vue.