Park domain
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Most domainers, and other domain name holders, will park domains of relatively lower value (which can still be quite valuable in a large domain name portfolio managed by professionals).
All domain registrars offer default domain parking options. Third parties such as dotzup or WhyPark or VisitorDay claim to be different or better than parking services at domain monetizing (i.e. to seek rent from a domain by directing web traffic to advertisers and then to sell it at a profit once it's proven to move traffic). Software to help in the rapid development of domains proliferates on the web, typically called an instant web site builder or something. To develop domains using some customized software like SNAPP or standard software like Wordpress or mediawiki is increasingly common but can be a large risk on most domains of low value. There are various automatic solutions to this problem to keep the cost of initial investment very low, and provide even large-scale domain name portfolio hosting at a low cost of entry with almost no risk of loss. Some even offer open host features to let domains easily move.
Typically such services require changing all DNS/nameserver entries registered for a domain, so it resolves to the service itself.
The most common alternatives ways to park domains are:
- Leave them in charge of the registrar or a domain parking service - suitable only for low-value domains for reasons mentioned below, e.g. Internettraffic.com
- Develop them individually using low-overhead "instant web" sorts of services - suitable only for domains valuable enough for such custom development and constant maintenance
- Employ a "domain market" service which makes it easier to monitor and improve domains incrementally only as they prove their traffic value, and also allows leasing or purchasing of a domain by its advertisers
- Develop a custom solution with some of the above features for a larger domain portfolio that is focused on some particular application or use or audience, that is less applicable to domains falling outside that niche. For instance, many porn networks have their own solutions to move traffic around between their own or affiliated web domains (only).
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Any domain name portfolio contains domains of more and less value.
For low-value non-premium non-niche-specific domains, cheaper options mean less of the slim profit margin devoted to overhead. Where a web advertiser recognizes a higher value, they may pay a premium to advertise direct on premium and niche-specific domains. A generic domain name that identifies a high profit margin, high-discretionary-value purchase (such as breastimplants.com) can have extraordinary dollar value; Even just to acquire sales leads for this purchase is extremely valuable.
Some of the "long tail" of generally less valuable but highly-targeted names (often heavily hyphenated or very long) may have similar value (great-breast-implants.com or natural-breast-implants.com). Purchasing, or sometimes leasing, such niche domains can however be very costly. Often it makes sense to share the cost with others marketing to the same niche buyers. For instance, other vanity products, stripper work equipment or figure-slimming or exercise products that increase a bust.
Advertising and marketing on the web is not necessarily cheap any more;It is just another way to develop a premium corporate brand name. Existing web ad networks ( (such as Google, Bing and Yahoo) lack transparency and poorly target specific sources. They work on volume not quality of leads, and their corporate parents are extremely conflicted and in many businesses at once. Knowing the source of web traffic lets advertisers adapt the brand message (to a geographic region, language or reason for purchasing, or other reasons). However, it reduces the power of the ad network because then direct contact becomes easier and the ad network's "cloud" of aggregated traffic is perceived as less of an asset in itself.
Direct placement of ads onto niche-specific domains performs better but is labour-intensive, requiring actual communication between two humans (the advertiser and the domain holder or publisher in charge of web ad acceptance). The early history of web advertising had been dominated by schemes analogous to magazine cost per thousand views but through the 2000s the trend was steadily to pay per click methods and large web ad networks that were efficient in large volume for low-value generic "clicks", and especially effective at identifying click fraud from countries notorious for it. But not good at identifying the intent to buy. The failures of the ad network systems included:
- domain brand value, page-rank, domain age, etc., don't count for much in the ad network algorithm - resulting in poor matches of the end user expectation with the ads they are presented with, which devalues the domain
- The domain parking companies are paid for bulk commodity traffic which includes domain name arbitrage, click fraud and robot views.
- Few revenue models (for instance, enabling domain leases or sales to advertisers who are receiving most of their sales from one domain or from a few domains would be a viable business, but ad networks disable it)
- Other advertising vehicles exist: banner ads, display ads, embedded video, paid articles, social content contextual advertising, and direct referral.
- Some networks may intentionally diminish the value of domains as part of their conflicted business of enabling search (especially Google).
- Their "paid search" offerings diminish the domain channel (but have not seemingly depressed domain name prices, or at least not by 2012)
New challenges emerged in April 2012 as Google received a patent apparently intended "to lessen the value of keywords included in domain names by recognizing when queries are commercial in nature and using a different ranking algorithm for those queries that might lessen the value of domains with keywords in them. [Google] looked at the rankings and weights that we give to keyword domains and some people have complained that we’re giving a little too much weight for keywords in domains. And so we have been thinking about adjusting that mix a little bit and sort of turning the knob down within the algorithm so that given two different domains, it wouldn’t necessarily help you as much to have a domain with a bunch of keywords in it." [1]
