Parking Gurus, I have a question...

[WebInceptions]

I have a domain that is a type of a major popular website, where the words in the domain name are reversed. The website spends a lot on ads and promotion. It's in the photography category.

It gets about 50 type-in visits per week at Sedo, and was pulling in about $20/week for years, then suddenly dropped to about $1/week.

Sedo has no explanation. I'm guessing the website has decided to block payment to my Sedo account. I know some of you have a much better understanding of the back side of parking who may have a better theory.

So... are there any parking companies that would not be affected by this type of block? If not, what's the best thing to so with this domain -- build a mini-site and shoot for Adsense? Or try to find a buyer directly for the name who would be interested in 50 super-targeted visitors/week in this category?

 

[Jeff Weller]

So raw traffic is the same and the CTR has dropped? Is the revenue per click the same?
You can glean a lot from the above.
The photography site that you believe was the major adwords buyer of your traffic could have ended their program / seen less competition for the category and lowered their bid or slashed their overall budget.
And this reverse/misspell was a new reg by you and not an old site with backlinks?
If there is any chance there were links - check Ahrefs to see if any referring domains have been lost.
I have seen some of the purest misspells imaginable that you would be convinced get all their traffic from fat fingered type in errors - actually derive inordinate amounts of traffic and revenue from popular links to the TM domain that were misspelled.
If it was at ParkingCrew - you could learn something from the referrer info. Those with active Sedo accounts might be able to coach you on any reporting available at Sedo.
If the revenue per click is similar to what it was then it hasn't been fail listed. If the raw traffic is the same, the click thru rate is the same but the revenue per click has fallen - then the domain may have been fail listed by Google. I doubt the TM holder is blocking the domain but I've never paid for Adwords so don't know about a specific blocking feature. Perhaps an Adwords expert can chime in.
If it has only been a couple of weeks - I wouldn't rush into anything until I'm absolutely clear on what has driven the change.
If the domain is fail listed then you will have to look to an alternative feed such as Yahoo. A number of parking companies offer a 2nd tier feed. We have the best success with Skenzo.
As to the best thing to do. We all have different thresholds.
$4/mo - $48yr on a $8.10 renewal is a home run for me. I'll buy $3 and $4/mo domains all day long.
You're used to $80/mo which is a very nice parking domain.
It is by no means a write off at $4/mo.
Let us know what you find out and what the answers to the above questions are.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Recheck your domain here: https://www.bodis.com/account#domain-status-tool
ParkingCrew has the same tool...
And forget about Sedo.

 

[WebInceptions]

First of all, THANK YOU for the detailed reply. I will be considering all of your suggestions!

Second, I primarily sell domains, and Sedo is a top seller for me. Sedo gives a 5% commission discount on sales of domains parked at Sedo, and that amount of money is more than I usually earn in parking... which is why I've not been very proactive about this, and not been in a hurry to move parking. But now I think it's time to look around, as I have recently purchased severl domains with light traffic.

Sedo has LOST all of my domain traffic records 3 of the last 3 years, most recently in November, so I don't have my old numbers. As I recall, CTR used to be about 25% for this domain, and there is never any referral link, back then or now, which usually means type-in. Here are the stats for last month:

=JAN 2017=
Uniques: 177
Clicks: 8
Earnings: 1.44 USD
CTR 4.52 %
EPC 0.18 USD
RPM 8.16 USD

Your Bodis check tool comes back as "OK" for the domain. I've also switched the domain to Bodis to see what happens with traffic there. I'm a Majestic subscriber and can see there are a few obscure links out there, but they don't show in the Sedo referrals list.

I just looked up the 'real' site in SpyFu, and for the last year they have been getting 97% of their traffic from organic search, so you may be correct - they have stopped using paid advertising altogether and done more SEO.

So... I gather that Skenzo would be your top recommendation for this domain?

Thanks again!

 

[Jeff Weller]

Glad you are making some headway on figuring it out.
No - since it is not failed listed - ParkingCrew would be my recommendation. But I suggest you leave it at Bodis for 2-4 weeks to see how it performs before changing DNS a 3rd time. If you have enough domains to warrant the time to open and manage an account at Above - now would be the time. Can take time for a domain to optimize and systems like Above's and Park Logic are constantly testing traffic for performance and therefore automate the optimization process. They do automatically what you have been forced to do manually.
Direct traffic can be visitors directly from favorites, copy paste or a source that doesn't link with a simple <a href=domain> link (redirections as an example).
How do the Jan stats compare with Dec 16 ?
If you don't have a Parking Crew account - here is a sign up link if you care to use it.
https://www.parkingcrew.com/register.php?r=ac446ade649dbc77d3ea6e2c300d23d1d4ba811d
Full disclosure - they pay referrals for new signups.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

You may use Sedo just as Escrow (3% or min. $60).
Their awful parking is not needed at all.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I've also switched the domain to Bodis to see what happens with traffic there.

Traffic will be lower at Bodis, because their bot filtering is significantly better.
And the most accurate is ParkingCrew.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

First of all, THANK YOU for the detailed reply. I will be considering all of your suggestions!

Second, I primarily sell domains, and Sedo is a top seller for me. Sedo gives a 5% commission discount on sales of domains parked at Sedo, and that amount of money is more than I usually earn in parking... which is why I've not been very proactive about this, and not been in a hurry to move parking. But now I think it's time to look around, as I have recently purchased severl domains with light traffic.

Sedo has LOST all of my domain traffic records 3 of the last 3 years, most recently in November, so I don't have my old numbers. As I recall, CTR used to be about 25% for this domain, and there is never any referral link, back then or now, which usually means type-in. Here are the stats for last month:

=JAN 2017=
Uniques: 177
Clicks: 8
Earnings: 1.44 USD
CTR 4.52 %
EPC 0.18 USD
RPM 8.16 USD

Your Bodis check tool comes back as "OK" for the domain. I've also switched the domain to Bodis to see what happens with traffic there. I'm a Majestic subscriber and can see there are a few obscure links out there, but they don't show in the Sedo referrals list.

I just looked up the 'real' site in SpyFu, and for the last year they have been getting 97% of their traffic from organic search, so you may be correct - they have stopped using paid advertising altogether and done more SEO.

So... I gather that Skenzo would be your top recommendation for this domain?

Thanks again!

I'm no expert but if sedo keeps losing your domain traffic records why not keep sedo as that 5% discount on commission ( never knew this about parking on sedo) is pretty sweet and then sign up for bitly url redirect?

I've seen on namebio featured when you check out the domain being featured first it goes thru bitly then you get sent to the actual GoDaddy auction. I would assume it's to keep a separate record of traffic ?

Could be a useful solution for at least that "lost domain traffic data" issue


But of course I'm no expert.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Redirects are prohibited by all parking companies.
You must park directly.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Redirects are prohibited by all parking companies.
You must park directly.

I was hoping an expert would chime in. And that's why it's not done.

Just to clarify I meant creating a bitly link and then point the domain to that link.

This is not allowed correct?

Not sending traffic to a domain via a redirect?

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Yes, web forwarding is not allowed by Google PPC program, that's why.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

You must park using DNS only.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Or your domain will be banned by Google and that's all.

 

[WebInceptions]

I'm no expert but if sedo keeps losing your domain traffic records why not keep sedo as that 5% discount on commission ( never knew this about parking on sedo) is pretty sweet and then sign up for bitly url redirect?

I've been in the "high quality/low pre-existing traffic" business for a lot of years, and only had a small handful of traffic domains bought by accident. I did REALLY well in the "traffic tasting" years, when the big companies would buy up EVERY domain at EVERY drop, scaring away all of the other drop catching dudes. For some reason I was the only one catching the great names that got dropped a 2nd time 3 days later because they didn't have traffic.

In the last few months I've started playing more with traffic domains, late in the game although I've been selling domains almost 20 years. I probably only have about 100 domains with any traffic, so those I'll move to better paying areas, and leave the rest so I'll still get the 5% commission discount.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

I've been in the "high quality/low pre-existing traffic" business for a lot of years, and only had a small handful of traffic domains bought by accident. I did REALLY well in the "traffic tasting" years, when the big companies would buy up EVERY domain at EVERY drop, scaring away all of the other drop catching dudes. For some reason I was the only one catching the great names that got dropped a 2nd time 3 days later because they didn't have traffic.

In the last few months I've started playing more with traffic domains, late in the game although I've been selling domains almost 20 years. I probably only have about 100 domains with any traffic, so those I'll move to better paying areas, and leave the rest so I'll still get the 5% commission discount.

Smart gl