Parking vs. Developing

[chasea336]

How much of a difference does developing a domain do for the value of a domain compared to just parking it? I am new to domaining, but have made several websites before. Currently I have all of mine parked.

Thanks in advance

 

[Sparhawke]

Parking a domain basically gambles on the fact that a random person may come, type in the domain and click on a link to earn you some money...developing a domain with even a mini-site takes that gamble and stacks the odds more in your favour.

Developing pwns parking every single time.

If I owned computers.c*m I would have to hope someone will type that into their address bar and come, when I develop the domain not only do I get that same type in traffic but I also have a chance they will find me through any of the major search engines.

 

[xtrecoolx]

The value of a domain increase significantly by the number of links that are pointed at it. You can test this logic at estibot website by first checking its value with zero links and then check its value again after some links are pointed at it. Of course, I would not recommend you to believe in their appraisal value as a market value.

 

[chasea336]

thank you very much for the feedback. But what if your ultimate goal is to sell? If you build a website around it, wouldnt the end user (who might be interested) be turned away seeing that it is developed?

 

[snoop]

Parking a domain basically gambles on the fact that a random person may come, type in the domain and click on a link to earn you some money...developing a domain with even a mini-site takes that gamble and stacks the odds more in your favour.

Developing pwns parking every single time.

If I owned computers.c*m I would have to hope someone will type that into their address bar and come, when I develop the domain not only do I get that same type in traffic but I also have a chance they will find me through any of the major search engines.

Some unusual logic here. Either a name has existing traffic or it doesn't. Has nothing to do with gambling.

-If the name has no traffic then developing is the only option.

-If the name does have traffic then the decision won't be simple.

--If the development is going to be ad supported content then the traffic increase (from search engines and repeat visitors) will need to be very significant before it outperforms parking generally. That isn't easy to achieve. Probably talking about a 5 fold increase in traffic to break even based on revenue compared to parking. That is because CTR will be much lower on a content page generally as compared to a page with only ads. Having said that the lower the level of type in traffic the easier it will be for the site to do better developed (ie it will be easier to go from 1 unique per day to 5 uniques than going from 1000 uniques to 5000uniques so the lower the level of traffic the easier the decision will be).

--If the development will involve direct sales then the site is going to need to be pretty efficient before it beats parking. Probably a good acid test for any ecommerce site is "can I buy traffic from search engines and profitably convert it to sales". If the answer is yes you are on to a winner. If the answer is no you may be better off sending it to more efficient sites (ie parking the name, leasing to to someone else etc). Building an ecommerce site that really performs is no easy feat.

---------- Post added at 05:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:22 PM ----------

How much of a difference does developing a domain do for the value of a domain compared to just parking it? I am new to domaining, but have made several websites before. Currently I have all of mine parked.

Thanks in advance

Ultimately it comes down to revenue. Most development efforts don't work out, the ones that do can add a lot of value. There isn't really and particularly answer to this questions as there are so many factors at play. Revenue difference between the parked site and developed site, amount of time involved in running the developed sites, sustainability of the revenue. Sometimes a site can be developed, earn more and still be worth not much more than the name on its own.

 

[NetOctave]

thank you very much for the feedback. But what if your ultimate goal is to sell? If you build a website around it, wouldnt the end user (who might be interested) be turned away seeing that it is developed?

That depends on what you have built. If the site is a well developed business with earning/growth potential, it will increase the value of the domain.

 

[simon johnson]

How much of a difference does developing a domain do for the value of a domain compared to just parking it? I am new to domaining, but have made several websites before. Currently I have all of mine parked. Thanks in advance

The value of a domain is based on what people are prepared to pay for it. If you park a domain, then you can factor in the revenue you receive (from a parking company), if you were to sell that domain.

If you develop the domain into a business or perhaps just add CPA/affiliate offers to it - then you can also factor in that cashflow as well. If its developed well, then the domain may have a high resale value. However, some domains just respond better to parking.

Perhaps just take one of your domains and try developing it and see for yourself.

 

[chasea336]

The value of a domain is based on what people are prepared to pay for it. If you park a domain, then you can factor in the revenue you receive (from a parking company), if you were to sell that domain.

If you develop the domain into a business or perhaps just add CPA/affiliate offers to it - then you can also factor in that cashflow as well. If its developed well, then the domain may have a high resale value. However, some domains just respond better to parking.

Perhaps just take one of your domains and try developing it and see for yourself.

I think I am going to take your advice, thanks!

 

[rebornishard]

1 more for develop, i never like parking, they not give what i need,
if i search good harddisk, then ended up in a parking site, i will click back / close it :kickass:
but when i ended up in a site, even i didn't find what i looking for
i still read it, because i like reading site content :loveyou:

 

[domainpush]

Another thing to keep in mind is the average Joe knows what a parked page is (something with just ads). Think of it like this, how many times have you clicked on a link or typed in an address to only find what you weren't looking for? That usually ends up with the user instantly leaving your site.

With a developed site, the user tends to hang around longer and the chance of them clicking on an ad or even buying something on your site greatly increases v/s parked pages.

 

[Stribog]

How much of a difference does developing a domain do for the value of a domain compared to just parking it?

So the question was “the value of a domain”. Let’s see. When one looking for some domain name for its project and you show him (her) parking statistic, it’s very good, it shows that people interested in this name, they typing it into the browser… Though, when you show the potential buyer developed site with the good number of unique daily visitors it’s better. Of course.
BUT!!!
1) It’s true ONLY for DEVELOPED site. You should hardly understand that to make website and to develop it (provide good position in search engines results and good quantity of visitors) – are completely different things.
So if you are able to bring your website into the top10 in Yahoo and Google and make good traffic (say several thousand of visitors per day) – forget about parking, simply develop your sites . However, developed site is like the chicken, which lays golden eggs. Selling such a site is not too clever…
Well let’s back to the domain names.
2) Even a skilled SEO specialist need good time to develop 1 website. Now imagine, how long it will take to develop domain portfolio in 100 domains… Just to compare: parking of 100 domains will take several minutes, and couple of days for tuning…
3) It’s disputable, but actually, if your site is not well developed it could even decrease the value in some cases. Because when the buyer looking for the site (not for just name), he (she) first see at well developed sites.
Selling domain names and selling websites – little bit different things…
So, now you can decide what will be better for you in each particular case. Good Luck.

 

[AkuSopo]

IMHO

Prefer developing than parking a domain, with a note, the domain name is good keyword phrase.

 

[Stribog]

Yeah, developing give more traffic, more ranking, and more value etc. But it need much, much more endeavors. Moreover, it doesn’t matter what kind of developer you are, still you are not able to develop 100 domains (without hiring a developers team ). So, you can develop some or your domains (the pearls) but in bulk – parking.

Parking and developing like bike and boat, no one better or worse, they are intended for different purposes.

 

[Theo Goodman]

p vs. d

I have done some experiments , one result I dont understand. I parked a name and it got about 10-20 hits per day ,I made a mini site (ok not a ton of content) at noomle and only got a few or no hits a day. So I parked it and in 3 days it has over 60 hits. Únfortunately -0 CLICKS-
So I guess some domains just do better parked. Question, how do I get people to click?

 

[allroundguy]

Good advice in this thread. Imho: Parking is good only for the parking company. People hate to be directed to a page that has nothing to do with what they are looking for. And visitors that do nothing, what's the added value? They will probably never, ever, type in that url again. The longer a domain is parked, the more visitors have been there for nothing than for something.

 

[Stribog]

I have done some experiments , one result I dont understand. I parked a name and it got about 10-20 hits per day ,I made a mini site (ok not a ton of content) at noomle and only got a few or no hits a day. So I parked it and in 3 days it has over 60 hits. Únfortunately -0 CLICKS-
So I guess some domains just do better parked. Question, how do I get people to click?

IMHO your experiments has shown that good parking is better than weak site (ok not a ton of content) :D.
As for the stats - couplee of days is toooo little...

Good advice in this thread. Imho: Parking is good only for the parking company. People hate to be directed to a page that has nothing to do with what they are looking for. And visitors that do nothing, what's the added value? They will probably never, ever, type in that url again. The longer a domain is parked, the more visitors have been there for nothing than for something.

IMHO, while domain is on sale it’s good if it brings some extra money. Even if it will be $50 in a month, why not? And if the parking company get its profit too, why not? It’s not a stealing or cheating. People willingly type the name in browser. As for the “People hate”: it depends on what kind of people and on what exactly they see at the page.

 

[BidetInternational]

If you have the time and resources you should always develop your site, if you don't have time you can park it till then.

 

[kaiseng]

yes you can hire cheap worker from china, india or indonesia . and you can split your profit with them. the only thing is you must buy valuable or premium domain name first. this is long investment.

 

[Stribog]

BidetInternational - 100% agree. I ment the same. It's good solution, if consider domaining as Business.

 

[hawkv]

Developing your own site gives you more control than just parking. My 2 cents..