PARKED.COM - Official Thread!

[TOXX]

Hi,

Welcome to the OFFICIAL PARKED.COM thread!

 

[TheWatcher]

I'm curious about this too. Some of my best domains have existing backlinks. Does this mean that I won't get credit for traffic from these links?

Yes.

Some domainers bought expired domains with old backlink, they are included as arbitrage traffic.

 

[Mark]

I can't believe some of the responses so far in this thread - I seriously doubt Yahoo will lose any money over this ... In fact , They may gain new advertisers and some old ones back. Despite many of your beliefs , A huge majority of "Arbitrage" Traffic was nothing but Trash to begin with. If an advertiser pays 1$ for a visitor, They do not want some 2 cent visitor from somewhere else Which they could have bought in the first place if they wanted it. Vicious circles ...

 

[johname]

The perception is that abri makes the advertiser pay higher rates (wheather you agree or not) and yahoo would rather lose abri money then have advertisers think they are paying too much for what they are getting. The advertiser comes first in this game, not domainers.

I was hoping Microsoft would not buy Yahoo because i wanted things to stay the same, now i am thinking i want them to buy Yahoo

 

[packrat]

becareful with adsense on whypark lol

Why be careful???

 

[johname]

Why be careful???

read through the whole thread

http://www.namepros.com/parking-and-traffic-monetization/427268-whypark-adsense-dilemma.html

 

[larryharlow]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theres only one way out to go now:

DEVELOP+ADSENSE OR AFFILIATES.

 

[mrizos]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Theres only one way out to go now:

DEVELOP+ADSENSE OR AFFILIATES.

Not worth the time...

 

[searb]

 

[hpersson]

Crap, just spent the last two weeks getting the hang of it all.

Well now my adwords account is deleted,back to my day job.

 

[Ja$on]

Now back to redirecting all the traffic to 1 page and using affiliate links to sell stuff. :D

 

[packrat]

read through the whole thread

http://www.namepros.com/parking-and-traffic-monetization/427268-whypark-adsense-dilemma.html

Much appreciated! Looks like YPN for Whypark

 

[projektseven]

so, uh, if there are people jumping off the arb bandwagon, id be more than happy to buy your keyword lists and ad copy from you - PM me for details, serious sellers only.

for those going to aff marketing: there's definitely money there, it's just a lot harder to make it than in arb - find a good, cheap developer

dont even bother with adsense/YPN.

 

[tonyfloyd]

now i can get back to full-time custom wordpress development.......

 

[footodors]

arbitrage. eh! Guess I missed that boat.
I thought adwords already banned that.
It doesn't matter now,so how much did you pay for traffic?

 

[DomainNameWire]

Full analysis

I just posted full analysis at DomainNameWire here.

Copied below as well:


Yahoo Kills Domain Arbitrage: Fallout for Google, Others
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Yahoo will stop allowing arbitrage as of this Friday, will affect other major companies as well.



AdvertisementIn a major move sure to have ramifications across the online advertising industry, Yahoo (YHOO) has told its advertising partners that it will no longer accept “arbitraged” traffic as of this Friday. Here’s a look at what this means for domainers and even the revenue of big online advertising companies.

Arbitrage Explained
Click arbitrage involves buying an ad click at a low price and the traffic to a page of ads with high-priced ads. For example, you may bid 5 cents for a click at Google and earn 25 cents per visitor clicking on your ads.

Who does (did) it?
Everyone from individual domainers to big companies such as Marchex (MCHX) and NameMedia. Individuals did it through parking companies such as Parked.com and HitFarm (sometimes using sneaky tricks on the latter). (Other parking companies, such as Sedo, expressly forbade arbitrage.) I’ve heard stories about people quitting their jobs because they were making so much money with arbitrage. Generally speaking, this arbitrage has been from traffic at Google and Microsoft sent to Yahoo ads.

Who will be hurt by Yahoo’s change
A lot of people, and some aren’t immediately obvious.

Let’s start with the obvious. People who have used Parked and Hitfarm to create arbitrage revenue will be hit hard. It’s hard to estimate how many people this is, but it’s substantial. Word on the street is that this rule may also apply to people using the Yahoo Publisher Network for ads.

Big companies will also take a hit. When Google (GOOG) changed its algorithms in an effort to decrease arbitrage, a number of big players took a hit. This time around it will be worse. After doing some sample searches today and talking to people in the industry, I think this may put NameMedia’s IPO on ice for now. Marchex also appears to be heavy in the arbitrage game and will feel the pinch.

Don’t fall into any of those categories? This will still affect you if you are a Google shareholder, if you park domains on a Google feed, or if you have Google Adsense ads on your site…

Much of the arbitrage has been between ads on Google sent to landing pages with Yahoo ads. Although Google has eliminated some of the arbitrage, test searches today show a number of arbitrage sites showing up for most keywords. This has propped up click prices, which may tumble as a result. This will be especially prevalent on Adsense sites, since Google doesn’t filter out arbitrage ads as much on Adsense sites compared to its search results.

This could cause Google’s earnings to drop next quarter. Some sources suggest that Yahoo earns as much as $200 million a year in arbitraged traffic.

Who wins?
The first winner is legitimate advertisers on Google’s network that have fewer advertisers to compete against. (Of course, Google could just change its black box algorithm to increase minimum bid prices.)

Yahoo is making this move with the long term goal of boosting click prices on its own network because it believes click quality will be better. I don’t necessarily believe this, and I don’t think Yahoo’s advertisers really know what’s going on. I think arbitraged traffic might covert just as well as regular traffic.

The irony is that, by taking a short term hit to its own earnings, Yahoo has made a competive play against Google. But why now? Why when Yahoo is facing buyout offer(s)? Perhaps this decision wasn’t made with consideration to the buyout. Or maybe Yahoo thinks other sources of revenue will more than cover the arbitraged traffic.

Stay tuned, and remember that all is not well in the domain industry.

 

[domainpark]

Yes.

Some domainers bought expired domains with old backlink, they are included as arbitrage traffic.

No

This is not the same as arbritrage

Existing links from expired domains are allowed in every aspect of domain parking.

Yahoo, google and ask all allow these expired domains

 

[netmeg]

Yep. Sometimes, it's good to own a hosting company. I just need more time is all. However, I still get good results from Parked, and I will certainly leave a good many domains with them. I have about half with Parked and half with Fabulous, and that seems to be working out well.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Shoot yourself in the foot, yeah that feels good

There is a big misconception of arbitrage.

All of Googles ads were meant to run on real websites and were never intended to be used for parked pages.

I said this many times here and pretty much was laughed at.

I will tell you what is funny.

The tos of Parked forbids arbitrage, always has, even when Donney says it was ok. Why? Because it was always only to be used for real developed web sites.

http://www.parked.com/tos/.

All other types of traffic including bought traffic, traffic driven by PPC campaigns, traffic directed from hyperlinks are not permitted. If your traffic originates from any sources other than type-in and search engine traffic, you will not be entitled to payment as per this Agreement. Regular checks are carried out and we reserve the right to suspend any domain from our Service at any time, on our sole discretion, if we reasonably believe that you have violated this Agreement; for example, if we suspect that the traffic on your domain is bought, generated or redirected in any way that contravenes these terms and conditions. You may view your parked pages to ensure they are correctly set up, but you may not click any of the advertising links

Your names that have no inherit traffic is not what Google deems good traffic for its advertisers.

Yet to boost membership or popularity and profits, Parked turned its head from this banned form of parking your names.

The result, for many weeks members of parked names have been complaining about sinking profits.

What do you expect.. profits to go up when on masse arbitrage has been tanking quality scores?.

I saw this coming and to me it was a sad event to see a parking company mismanage the parking accounts this way and drive itself to a lower status.

Thats why parking companies are stricly forbidden to use it, places like Fabulous, Bodis, Trafficz, Sedo will not have it for one minute. They are strict about it for a reason, they want to be the best parking company, not have a flurry of domainers who have names of low qualtily having no or little traffic ruining the parking concept.

So a shot has been fired. Trouble is in this instance the bullet was aimed at Parked.com foot by its management.

I too liked Parked, but having control is not easy and when problems get out of control all will loose. Being desciplined is a two way street.

What mentality comes forward from many here? Statements like, "we talked about arbitrage too much here and should have kept it a secret", lol.

What amazes me is with arbitrage so blatent here, why this action did not come sooner.

 

[hitchhiker]

Appreciate and agree with your sentiment. It was the right move by yahoo.

But the delivery and tone needs some work. Taking pot shots at parked.com, arb parkers, or specifically Donny doesnt do much except screams "I told you so!" . . .

The need to prove oneself to be more right or smarter is very unprofessional - and if I may . . . childish.

There is a big misconception of arbitrage.

All of Googles ads were meant to run on real websites and were never intended to be used for parked pages.

I said this many times here and pretty much was laughed at.

I will tell you what is funny.

The tos of Parked forbids arbitrage, always has, even when Donney says it was ok. Why? Because it was always only to be used for real developed web sites.

http://www.parked.com/tos/.

All other types of traffic including bought traffic, traffic driven by PPC campaigns, traffic directed from hyperlinks are not permitted. If your traffic originates from any sources other than type-in and search engine traffic, you will not be entitled to payment as per this Agreement. Regular checks are carried out and we reserve the right to suspend any domain from our Service at any time, on our sole discretion, if we reasonably believe that you have violated this Agreement; for example, if we suspect that the traffic on your domain is bought, generated or redirected in any way that contravenes these terms and conditions. You may view your parked pages to ensure they are correctly set up, but you may not click any of the advertising links

Your names that have no inherit traffic is not what Google deems good traffic for its advertisers.

Yet to boost membership or popularity and profits, Parked turned its head from this banned form of parking your names.

The result, for many weeks members of parked names have been complaining about sinking profits.

What do you expect.. profits to go up when on masse arbitrage has been tanking quality scores?.

I saw this coming and to me it was a sad event to see a parking company mismanage the parking accounts this way and drive itself to a lower status.

Thats why parking companies are stricly forbidden to use it, places like Fabulous, Bodis, Trafficz, Sedo will not have it for one minute. They are strict about it for a reason, they want to be the best parking company, not have a flurry of domainers who have names of low qualtily having no or little traffic ruining the parking concept.

So a shot has been fired. Trouble is in this instance the bullet was aimed at Parked.com foot by its management.

I too liked Parked, but having control is not easy and when problems get out of control all will loose. Being desciplined is a two way street.

What mentality comes forward from many here? Statements like, "we talked about arbitrage too much here and should have kept it a secret", lol.

What amazes me is with arbitrage so blatent here, why this action did not come sooner.

 

[tonyfloyd]

how does that song go...."It's the end of the world as we know it"....