Smartname Shop Feedback Please

[stingrae]

There were a few threads back in March talking about the smartname shops and the ability to get them indexed in Google and Yahoo.

I've just gotten started with my first couple of smartname shops and I don't want to go too crazy before I can ensure they have a chance to be indexed.

What has been the experience of others? The older thread showed early promise but how do they hold up over time?

 

[SpareDomains]

If you have a domain that kills it with standard parking (lots of type in traffic) then you will probably make more with standard parking. If you have good keyword product .com domains that don't make much with standard parking then ya got nothing to lose other than 10 minutes to try it.

I have about 90 built into stores so far and hundreds of others on their regular parking. When I get more time I will be turning more into stores. Click values seem to be lower than regular parking but I am getting more clicks due to better search indexing. You could also add pay per sale ads like cj.com, linkshare.com etc... It only takes just over .60 a month for a domain to pay it's own way and I have quite a few of the 90 I have done so far making $2-$20 a month which doesn't sound like a lot but multiply that by 100, 200, 500 etc... and it could be profitable since standard parking has taken a hit and is hard to get any form of ranking. It moves them from the negative column into the profitable column meaning there are no holding costs as when something is profitable you can be more patient in holding out for a good sales price.

I have plenty on the front page of google. I think you need to test a few different niches preferably with .com keyword product domains and see how you do as some of mine are doing better than others but quite a few have gone from $0 a month to a few bucks a month which turns them profitable which helps as they are no longer an expense until they are sold.

 

[stingrae]

Thanks for the information. It's good to know it is working for you on some level in the SERPs. The earnings would be a nice bonus but I'm mostly looking for a quick and dirty way to move my niche product domains to the first page or two in Google/Yahoo for their keywords and then use that as a selling point/tool to Adwords users. I think it's a pretty compelling sales arguement to tell somebody who is spending $200-300 per month or more on a keyword how they can buy my domain and get that same traffc naturally.

As someone who doesn't have time to develop, the smartname platform will be great if it works.

 

[SpareDomains]

Thanks for the information. It's good to know it is working for you on some level in the SERPs. The earnings would be a nice bonus but I'm mostly looking for a quick and dirty way to move my niche product domains to the first page or two in Google/Yahoo for their keywords and then use that as a selling point/tool to Adwords users. I think it's a pretty compelling sales arguement to tell somebody who is spending $200-300 per month or more on a keyword how they can buy my domain and get that same traffc naturally.

As someone who doesn't have time to develop, the smartname platform will be great if it works.

Exactly, as truthfully I could care less about earnings as money isn't an issue with me time is as I only average 2-6 hours of sleep as it is right now or I would have more done by now. Smartname actually emailed me and said move your others here and after I explained I don't have time they offered to do them which is cool but I prefer to do them myself as I'm picky like that so little by little I'll pull more from the parking side into the store side as for a quite a few months now I have seen an improvement on most of them. I'm looking for better rank as those front page google listings can drive in end user leads on their own without contacting anyone if you put an inquire link on them as most of my income comes from sales and not parking and good rank only helps the sales pitch. Most of the domains I have done them on are all $7 expired pick ups, 1-2 from Bido and a few from forums so when your starting from a $7-$20 investment not hard to turn a profit. Good Luck.

 

[hambling]

I have just started using SmartName and was impressed that the site was able to bring me traffic & revenue for even a .ws name. Remember the Keyword is still the trump card.

I purchased bras.ws in March 2010. I parked it a SEDO and in the 3 months from March to May I received a total of 9 uniques and no clicks. I moved it to SmartName and in June it was the first "eCommerce" site I built with them. For the first 17 days of July I have received 123 Uniques, 250 page views, 48 clicks and $2.78 in revenue. For a .ws! Not big money but 3 times my reg fee while I wait on the right end user.

I have not even done one thing on the SEO page in the set up. I just went in moved it to eCommerce chose my own keywords and added my bannere ads from Commission Junction. BTW the banner ads have not converted any cash yet.

 

[Ron Jackson]

My SmartName stores experience here:
A New Approach to Domain Monetization: My Experience With SmartName's eCommerce Platform

 

[firefly]

Hey Ron, those are some pretty impressive numbers that you have shown there. How do the sites go with indexing and how much content do you have to put on them?

I have an account there and have the feature activated, but I don't want to be spending hours setting up sites again. Quick and painless?

Cheers

 

[Ron Jackson]

I didn't do any of the SEO stuff - wanted to keep it as simple as parking to see how it compared. Since the Yahoo algorith change around July 4 lowered many of the site's ranking I think I will try spend a little time on some of the SEO figures to see if I can bring then back up.

 

[firefly]

Thanks for that. Appreciated.

 

[BizBot]

Not all names qualify for SmartName shops. Only product-related domains and supported cctld. If your names are not approved for the shopping sites you will receive an email from them.

Thanks for the reporting, Ron. Your numbers are very impressive and should motivate us to get the most out of our domain names.

 

[the_yehezkiel]

Well, I have just try it on my domain shoppingideas.com.

Hope it could boost my traffic & rankings But I think its better if we spend a little time on the SEO-setting to optimize the domain name because ultimately it will increase traffic and revenues.

 

[dtagr]

Not all names qualify for SmartName shops. Only product-related domains and supported cctld. If your names are not approved for the shopping sites you will receive an email from them.

Any idea what the supported cctld's are?

 

[stingrae]

I've been messing around with this on a few sites and I'm not having any luck getting indexed/spidered. It seems that yahoo and google are not picking up the meta tags properly.

View my source and then go to yahoo or google and type the domain with extension and you will see what I'm talking about.

I'm hesitent to role this out further until I can figure out what is going on.

 

[BizBot]

Any idea what the supported cctld's are?

No cctld's are supported - US traffic only (and .CA).

I may have worded that wrong. :red:

 

[dtagr]

Thanks for the info.

 

[olderguy]

My SmartName stores experience here:
A New Approach to Domain Monetization: My Experience With SmartName's eCommerce Platform

Hey Duke - are you at liberty to reveal the average net cpc you receive here.

Thanks
olderguy

 

[Name Trader]

So that's all the gTLD's plus.us & .ca are supported, correct?

 

[has2hands]

.US...Yahoo puts "Quality Block" on all MY .US names. So, don't waste time with .US.

Anyone else blocked for .US??

.com/.net/.info all work.

 

[Name Trader]

No cctld's are supported - US traffic only (and .CA).

I may have worded that wrong. :red:

How then did Hambling get his bras.ws into a smartname shop?

 

[SpareDomains]

How then did Hambling get his bras.ws into a smartname shop?

their regular parking is powered by yahoo which means extensions and
sensitive categories may get flagged like any yahoo provider, the stores are powered by shopping.com feed so yahoo doesn't come into play only smartname would decide if it's store material or not.

 

[Name Trader]

OK. That's cleared that up. So what was BizBot talking about?

 

[hambling]

You can go to bras.ws and see that it is set up as a Smart Name eCommerce site and I have gotten revenue from it.

 

[Blitz]

Man, I just applied with some exact product .us good names and got rejected. Was really looking forward to trying them out

Anyone know what they are looking for?

I Submitted names like adjustabledumbbells, cruiserbikes, carpettiles and more like that. All get a decent number of people searching per month for the particular products.

 

[BizBot]

OK. That's cleared that up. So what was BizBot talking about?

I got my information from my account manager. I was told for domains to be approved for the eCommerce templates they must be product names, US traffic and no cctld's. I will see if I can get a clearer answer from them.

I have only had .com names approved for my shopping sites.

 

[m-i-k-e]

Man, I just applied with some exact product .us good names and got rejected. Was really looking forward to trying them out

Anyone know what they are looking for?

I just submitted 10 names and all were accepted. 1 each of .com/org/ca and the rest .info. All are basically product domains.

PM on the way Blitz