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You Should Make Landing Pages for your Domains

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DomaHub

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Link to original Medium article.

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First of all, what is a landing page? The term has many meanings on the internet, but for domaining purposes it simply means:

A site for your domain name where visitors can make sales inquiries.

Sounds simple enough, but what’s so special about it? Is this an alternative to listing on secondary marketplaces (e.g. Sedo, Flippa, etc.)? Is it better than traditional parking?

Okay, okay — you’re skeptical. Let me help break it down for you.

Parking Revenue is Declining…
For the end-user at least. Look at this 2015 survey result from popular domain news source domainnamewire.

1*9aKS9gPr5hyFG0TqhYH6LA.jpeg

Credit to Andrew Allemann (www.domainnamewire.com)

Yes, domain parking revenue used to be very lucrative for many domainers in the early days of the internet. Yes, it was a simple and easy way to make money from your domains. But, in today’s reality, parking tends to only bring in a couple of bucks a month.

There could be a few possible reasons for this such as fewer people typing in URL’s to unknown websites, people becoming less likely to click on advertising links, parking companies not giving you a fair share of the revenue, etc.

Regardless, parking revenue is on the decline for many domainers (and basically nonexistent for many others...). So where should you put your domains now?

Marketplaces Don’t Cover All Your Bases
There are dozens of domain name marketplaces where you can list and sell your domains to other people. Some marketplaces allow you to redirect your domain to its respective listing page. Or they may provide free and/or paid parking options while your domain is currently being listed. And some marketplaces provide neither.

You probably have a number of domains listed on marketplaces. You’re relying on the people who peruse these marketplaces to eventually find your domain and then purchase it.

But what about the people outside of these marketplaces? How will direct visitors know your domain is for sale — especially if your domain only shows parked ads or shows nothing at all?

Don’t Alienate Your Visitors
There are going to be a number of people who visit your website directly (i.e. by typing in the domain into their browser). Some of these people are going to be interested in buying it. How can we best persuade them to make an offer on the spot? Or at the very least, let them know the domain is for sale?

1*FFf_RyiKdD8n5v-bBDh3sg.png

A typical Uniregistry parked domain. (with satire)

The above image is an example of a typical parked domain’s site provided by Uniregistry. A single banner at the top that states the domain is for sale and provides a phone number. Clicking the banner directs you to another marketplace where you can submit an offer (quite redundant). The rest of the site is all advertisements.

If a potential buyer were to stumble onto this domain, would they know what to do? No, chances are they’ll bounce because the site looks like typical spam and you lose out on a potential sale opportunity or lead.

1*XLdNijaPcAgkwg7TDPinLg.png

Let’s try to help visitors avoid seeing this little guy.

Even worse, you have nothing on your domain and the user sees some kind of browser error or blank page.

AdBlock Is On the Rise
The number of users who use some form of adblock (software to detect and avoid ads on a page) is increasing. Let’s face it. Not many people like being targeted for advertisements.

1*XivM1d8mQYZde2TWGTgxPQ.png

Source — 2017 Adblock Rep

When people arrive at your site and see advertisements or they see nothing because of adblock, they are more likely to just leave the page immediately.

Dedicated Landing Pages Bridge the Gap
Landing pages ensure that your visitors will see something better than just ads or errors when they land on your domain. Good landing pages will also make it immediately obvious to the visitor that your domain is for sale. An even better one has a visible price tag (buy-it-now price or minimum offer price) and a simple contact form to get in touch.

This way, visitors won’t get confused by strange advertisements and redirects, errors or blank pages, and they’ll have a easy way of contacting you.

But that’s not all! Landing page services and platforms also provide a variety of different stats and visuals you can show on your page. These things help visitors understand the domain better, potentially increasing the likelihood of a sale. Additionally, many of these services provide portfolio management and help you get set up across all of your domains in a short amount of time.

Don’t want to lose out on potential marketplace sales? Don’t worry, you can have a dedicated landing page and still list your domain on other marketplaces. This way, you can maximize your reach and alienate as few visitors as possible.

Conclusion and Follow-up
Our next post will cover the things that make a good landing page as well as things to avoid when creating one!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
hah,

trying to present a "sky is falling scenario" with parking, using the poorest looking parking page ,

for a lame intro to the promo that's bound to come.

why assume that "a buyer"... someone who is looking to "buy" wouldn't have sense enough to click on that link?
it's a dumb assumption, given the sales data recently released from Uniregistry marketplace

also, why not show what the lander looks like after they click the for sale banner or simply state one can redirect right to the lander at Uni or at any other ppc that have sales landers too?

ie: https://uniregistry.com/market/domain/fiat.us

or show what sedo's landers look like
ie: https://sedo.com/search/details/?pa...73&domain=wujo.com&et_sub=1010&origin=parking

or what fabulous landers look like
ie: http://www.fabulous.com/domainsales...t&utm_campaign=DOMAIN ACTIVE FOR SALE BANNERS

or parkingcrew?
ie: https://www.mydomaincontact.com/index.php?domain_name=etv.org


with so many choices, why the need to make your own lander or pay some service the dollars you could be spending on domain renewals?

just saying as a counter point.


imo.....
 
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hah,

trying to present a "sky is falling scenario" with parking, using the poorest looking parking page ,

for a lame intro to the promo that's bound to come.

why assume that "a buyer"... someone who is looking to "buy" wouldn't have sense enough to click on that link?
it's a dumb assumption, given the sales data recently released from Uniregistry marketplace

also, why not show what the lander looks like after they click the for sale banner or simply state one can redirect right to the lander at Uni or at any other ppc that have sales landers too?

ie: https://uniregistry.com/market/domain/fiat.us

or show what sedo's landers look like
ie: https://sedo.com/search/details/?pa...73&domain=wujo.com&et_sub=1010&origin=parking

or what fabulous landers look like
ie: http://www.fabulous.com/domainsales/?formdata[domain]=hdc.net&formdata[affo]=6141&formdata[affhash]=1507842927&utm_source=bannertop&utm_medium=6141&utm_term=Non DDN Make Offer&utm_content=hdc.net&utm_campaign=DOMAIN ACTIVE FOR SALE BANNERS

or parkingcrew?
ie: https://www.mydomaincontact.com/index.php?domain_name=etv.org


with so many choices, why the need to make your own lander or pay some service the dollars you could be spending on domain renewals?

just saying as a counter point.


imo.....

Biggie, I believe you misunderstood what we were explaining in this post.

There is a difference between the domain's listing page on the respective marketplace and the actual site that is shown when you visit the domain. We are specially talking about direct traffic to your domain. Not to your domain's listing on some secondary marketplace.

For example, let's take a look at the "landers" you linked. We think that these domains are perfect examples of what we are talking about :xf.smile:

1. www.fiat.us - This is what you see what you go to www.fiat.us:

UMN0BWE.png


2. www.wujo.com - This is what you see when you go to www.wujo.com

48Tknye.png


3. www.hdc.net - This is what you see when you go to www.hdc.net

uAW96qh.png


4. www.etv.org - This is what you see when you go to www.etv.org

16vr8f9.png


So as you can see, the domain sites display a starkly different page from the respective marketplaces' listing pages. Additionally, if you had AdBlock turned on, you wouldn't even be able to see any of the links on these pages. They'd just have a lot of blank space instead.

In this post, we are simply pointing out that these parked sites look sub-optimal and may lead to a poor experience for potential leads who are visiting your domain directly (not to mention the declining revenue factor). We then state that landing pages may be a good alternative solution.

We are not trying to knock the marketplace's domain listing pages. Not sure how you got that idea from our post.
 
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@DomaHub , with all due respect, I think it's you who didn't get Biggie's post.

Biggie is asking a very sensible question,
why someone that is interested in buying a domain won't click the -quite obvious- sales banner?

As long as that banner is clicked then the landing page will immediately switch to a more appropriate page according to the visitor's interest, ie. buying the domain.

btw. I totally agree on the adblocker's risk you mentioned. That is indeed something troubling.
 
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@DomaHub , with all due respect, I think it's you who didn't get Biggie's post.

Biggie is asking a very sensible question,
why someone that is interested in buying a domain won't click the -quite obvious- sales banner?

As long as that banner is clicked then the landing page will immediately switch to a more appropriate page according to the visitor's interest, ie. buying the domain.

Hi,

That is one part of his post I actually overlooked and did not respond to, thanks for bringing this up.

I understand that people who are looking to buy the domain are more than capable of clicking the obvious sales banner. But why must someone who wants to buy the domain have to go through an extra click to get to the sale? Why do they have to be redirected to a different marketplace page? Also why must the domain have all these irrelevant advertising links?

[edit:]

It's like when you are really craving a hamburger so you go to the local hamburger chain. After sitting down, the waiter comes to you and instead of directly taking your order for the hamburger, he starts blabbing about all of the special deals available. But you know you only want the hamburger right now damn it! :xf.eek: Imagine after all that waiting, your waiter says, "okay please follow me to a different table so you can order your hamburger."

That would be ridiculous! Taking it back to domain names--if you know what your target audience is, why are you creating artificial barriers that prevent them from making that purchase? We know customers are fickle and can get cold feet easily. We should make it as easy as possible for them to make that final purchase.
 
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Most pages I visit that are parked are 100% blocked. So I don't see any for sale links or banners. I stopped using those awhile ago because I wasn't getting enough sales. Once I switched I started getting a lot more sales.
 
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Most pages I visit that are parked are 100% blocked. So I don't see any for sale links or banners. I stopped using those awhile ago because I wasn't getting enough sales. Once I switched I started getting a lot more sales.

What did you switch to? A service? Or did you make something on your own?
 
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What did you switch to? A service? Or did you make something on your own?
Both, doing split testing now with a new layout (hasn't gone live yet.)
 
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Both, doing split testing now with a new layout (hasn't gone live yet.)

Cool, good luck with your experiment! If you can, please share what you learn so we can all benefit :xf.grin:
 
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The Fabulous page isn't responsive, and that makes me click back instantly

That's annoying.
 
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I have been using custom optimized landing pages since day #1.

As a developer it only made sense to control the content of my own domains.

Landing pages are not a magic sales solution but it can assist your sales funnel if you have one in place.
 
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Cool, good luck with your experiment! If you can, please share what you learn so we can all benefit :xf.grin:

Another approach could be to simply (depending on # of names) direct all of your non traffic names straight to the sales landing page (avoiding an ad landing page).
 
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what about fully developing mini income generating sites? I have been procrastinating starting with WPRobot that generates auto content via RSS.

would the ads on such a site be blocked too by the adblocker? or do adblockers specifically detect that a landing page is simply a parked page and automatically blocks all the ads on it?

what about a developed site albeit autogen content from rss feeds?

thanks.

also has anyone seen the benefits of putting your own personal domain email on your whois data for all your domains? or mentioning in your whois (noticed this alot lately)

something like this?

"This Domain is for Sale"

and if your contact email is something like this

[email protected]

assuming most people would hand type DNPremium they could see my entire Efty account with all my domains?

That way you keep or corral visitors inside your Domain marketplace?

like a circle jerk really.

The problem too with marketplaces is this fear I have that the traffic you send your listings. I can't help feeling the marketplaces might redirect incoming traffic to their "buddies" or featured listings?
 
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trying to present a "sky is falling scenario" with parking, using the poorest looking parking page ,

for a lame intro to the promo that's bound to come.

Really, the OP can't be objective per se, since he harbors ulterior motives of self-promotion.

also, why not show what the lander looks like after they click the for sale banner or simply state one can redirect right to the lander at Uni or at any other ppc that have sales landers too?

Here we should not throw the baby out with the bath water
AdBlockers can be an insurmountable barrier between you and your "almighty" landing page.
It has been happening and no point denying it.
 
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Unpopular opinion but I agree with almost everything the article said @DomaHub and I have my stuff on landers. Nobody likes ads. Domainers just don’t like to accept how spammy an ad filled page looks to a consumer if they see the ads at all. Ads are also a good way to get a UDRP for some names. Mainly though unless you have an extremely lucrative dictionary word it’s not going to do beans for you to have ads polluting your domain, I like to think I am keeping the name clean for its future owner.
 
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what about fully developing mini income generating sites? I have been procrastinating starting with WPRobot that generates auto content via RSS.

would the ads on such a site be blocked too by the adblocker? or do adblockers specifically detect that a landing page is simply a parked page and automatically blocks all the ads on it?

what about a developed site albeit autogen content from rss feeds?

thanks.

also has anyone seen the benefits of putting your own personal domain email on your whois data for all your domains? or mentioning in your whois (noticed this alot lately)

something like this?

"This Domain is for Sale"

and if your contact email is something like this

[email protected]

assuming most people would hand type DNPremium they could see my entire Efty account with all my domains?

That way you keep or corral visitors inside your Domain marketplace?

like a circle jerk really.

The problem too with marketplaces is this fear I have that the traffic you send your listings. I can't help feeling the marketplaces might redirect incoming traffic to their "buddies" or featured listings?


I think WPRobot is dead and this idea wouldn't work well on full automation unless someone developed a system from scratch for today's world.

Same goes for mini-sites. Used to be great but now they're mostly dead. Better to dev 1 or 2 larger sites and focus on them. Just my opinion of course.
 
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I think WPRobot is dead and this idea wouldn't work well on full automation unless someone developed a system from scratch for today's world.

Same goes for mini-sites. Used to be great but now they're mostly dead. Better to dev 1 or 2 larger sites and focus on them. Just my opinion of course.


cool cool. can I ask what your issue is with WPRobot. sounds like you used it? or you read some bad news about it?

and I'll quote this

"this idea wouldn't work well on full automation unless someone developed a system from scratch for today's world."

they do have another hosted solution like an Efty style set up called

CMSCommander.com

how about that one? was looking into that too.

why is all of this dead? new Google Algo ruining everything again?
 
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cool cool. can I ask what your issue is with WPRobot. sounds like you used it? or you read some bad news about it?

and I'll quote this

"this idea wouldn't work well on full automation unless someone developed a system from scratch for today's world."

they do have another hosted solution like an Efty style set up called

CMSCommander.com

how about that one? was looking into that too.

why is all of this dead? new Google Algo ruining everything again?


I haven't used WPR but looked at it, it seems dead and not useful imo.

I'll checkout the CMSC and yeah I think Google helped kill these things faster.
 
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I haven't used WPR but looked at it, it seems dead and not useful imo.

I'll checkout the CMSC and yeah I think Google helped kill these things faster.


geez. that was my only hope really to do like automated income. I really was gungho about it.

as parking was dead for sure.

I had planned to use WPR to created autogen RSS feed site like turn domains into mini Amazon or Walmart affiliate programs using those sites XML feeds.

and then maybe slapping some of those "content ads" like Taboola or OutBrain or RevContent to add more income to the mix.

would Google ban such sites? or blacklist a domain for this?
 
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geez. that was my only hope really to do like automated income. I really was gungho about it.

as parking was dead for sure.

I had planned to use WPR to created autogen RSS feed site like turn domains into mini Amazon or Walmart affiliate programs using those sites XML feeds.

and then maybe slapping some of those "content ads" like Taboola or OutBrain or RevContent to add more income to the mix.

would Google ban such sites? or blacklist a domain for this?

A bit unrelated--but is MarketDN.com down? Tried to visit it but got DNS errors...
 
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A bit unrelated--but is MarketDN.com down? Tried to visit it but got DNS errors...

hey thanks. I don't know why but damn! I think I never changed the DNS on that since I bought it! lol

unbelievable!
 
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hey thanks. I don't know why but damn! I think I never changed the DNS on that since I bought it! lol

Haha no problem. Happens to the best of us :xf.wink:
 
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Haha no problem. Happens to the best of us :xf.wink:


reminds me. I need to do this with all the newly transferred domains. I don't understand why the receiving registrars don't have an automated way that changes the dns soon as you transfer? why is that? to prevent what? if the domain is pointing to your website hosted at the last dns?

probably.

what a hassle. and most registrars don't have a "global" option to switch all domains in account to default.
 
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The problem with things like WPR is that your site will never be unique. There probably will be 100's of domains doing exactly the same thing.

It may only work well if your domain has direct traffic, as ranking them kinda sites is difficult.

Building out niche sites that utilise Amazon and others XML feeds is fine. You'll just have to put a little work into the content side of things, or pay someone to write for your site(s)

I own NicheWebsites .co.uk and moving forward I'll use that to sell my affiliate sites, and create my own domain portfolio site.

Sometimes we have domains that are just begging to be developed and would sell for a lot more as a site then on its own.
 
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I've just started building dedicated landing pages for each one of my domains, to feature on my website, built on wordpress.

Each domain when typed directly in redirects to my site. It's a reasonably long process but I dont have a huge amount of domains and I'm sure there's quicker ways to do it than my way.

For me, if I was in the shoes of being an end-user (which I have been before I started domaining), I would like to see a professional looking page, virtually spam-ad free (targeted ads are much better), with some proof of concept about the domain (e.g. a conceptual logo), some information, a price and a clear link to where/whom I can contact to get this domain.

It just feels better to look at a nicely designed page and puts the customer at ease. I had loads of pages parked with SEDO going to literal pyramid scheme scam sites and it was annoying at best and damaging to my domains rep at worst.

I think this is what DomaHub meant in the OP? It looks more legit. Although that being said I do really like UniRegistry landing pages they look very sleek.
 
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