Erik’s Blog: Board Shorts and Business Suits

Aside from the obvious way of not redirecting them to a site that has some sort of advertising where you get a piece of the action there’s also another way to make sure you don’t make money from domain names.

It’s called “Forgetting to renew your domain names!”

That’s right, I had a domain name that was pulling in $5-$10 a month, clearly paying for it’s renewal fee and more importantly paying off the money that I had initially invested in the domain name when I bought it from a third party. And I had put off those emails from GoDaddy reminding me that I needed to directly renew this domain because it wasn’t able to be auto renewed.

Then I went to check on the domain after noticing the expiration date had passed and it wasn’t there. At first I could have swore I tried to renew the domain name, but I guess there was no such luck and I somehow let it slip through the cracks. I only ended up making back about 50% of what I had initially invested. Not a very good business move.

I’ll keep checking to see if I can blame it on GoDaddy but I don’t think I’ll be able to.

If you want to learn how to make money buying and selling domain names check out my 5 part series on domain located at: How to make money buying and selling domain names.

In my recent series about buying and selling domain names I talked a lot about the basics of where to look for an easy revenue earning domain name. The thing I didn’t really talk about was what are optimal click through rates (CTR) or how to optimize domain names that might not have optimal click through rates.

I again stress that I’m not an expert in this subject and have limited experience (6 months) and above that know only as much as I’ve read, which is freely available information. However, since I wrote that article series I’ve had several people inquire about what optimal CTR’s are for domain names at parking sites. So I’ll dish what I feel I know.

First off, when you’re buying a domain name like I described in part 4 of the series using low earnings multiples to buy domain names as well as few other tips, you need to also think about what keywords the domain names are using as well as the click through rates the domain names are receiving.

Before you Buy

I’ll start off by looking at CTR before you buy a domain name and how

From my experience an average CTR of 20% is good, that’s what I strive for in my portfolio and I feel like that’s a good benchmark for parked domains. If you can get 1 in 5 people that visit your parked domain name to perform an action, you’re on the right track. Of course there are ways to boost this and some people boast 50% returns, but if you look for a modest 20% CTR you’ll be good.

Before you buy the name or while you’re looking at names, as I explained in part II of buying and selling domain names, you’ll want to look at what the seller has for a CTR. If it’s around 20%, considered it optimized, for your own sanity. Of course if you have a way of turning parked domains into a 40 or 50% return, consider a 20% CTR a bargain, but that’s not what I’m talking about here and you probably wouldn’t be reading this.

If the domain name has a lower CTR like 10% or even 5%, then you need to put in some more research. Find out the keywords that are used if any, look at the category used. Do you have a similar name in the same category, but using a different keyword that you’ve optimized for cost per click (CPC) and/or CTR? If so, then you might have found a bargain.

But be careful, sometimes names just don’t receive a high CTR. Especially certain typo’s. Some typo’s that people get to aren’t going to people clicking. They get to the parked page and realize it’s not where they’re going. However, you may be able to coax them into a click if you choose the right keywords, so be on the lookout.

After You Buy the Name

If you’ve found a domain name that has a lower than 20% CTR or that isn’t using a high paying keyword you may be able to change some things around to increase one or the other.

A lot of parking services allow you to change the look of the parked page. Surprisingly, different looking pages can have different effects for different categories of domains. You need to play around with the page layout to get the highest CTR you can. I usually choose a standard search result looking page but have begun to venture into other layouts as I do more research in the forums.

Another method of increasing the CTR and possibly the CPC is to futz with the keywords used at your parking service. Like I mentioned earlier if you find a domain name that wasn’t optimized with high CPC keywords but is in a category where you know of high paying keywords, you might have found a bargain. Be weary though, the keyword might not work with that domain.

In closing, if you stick with the rule of thumb for 20% CTR, you’ll be doing well. That’s what I work off of and it’s served me well so far. I’m going to venture into higher paying and higher conversion rate methods for domain name monetization, but that’s a whole nother series in itself.

Buying and selling domain names for profit is a rather new mainstream phenomenon. One that has been written about widely ever since the major story in Business 2.0 titled “Master of their Domains”. Although the act of buying and selling domain names for profit has been around. Tons of people, like anything that makes you a quick buck, are jumping in full force.

In this little five part series I have mentioned only one major way you can buy and sell domain names for profit. There are many more ways to monetize a domain name than just parking a name. Although, parking is the least time consuming method to a quick buck. There’s of course building the name with content, playing the SEO game to get your domain and site to the top of the Google Search list. There’s also building a community of readers and contributors, which is rather popular right now with MySpace making all the headlines. There’s also a plethora of ways you can make money on the Internet, buying domains and creating revenue with them, that I haven’t come close to touching on. There’s probably tons that aren’t even thought of (at least I hope so).

Since the bulk of this series is on buying and selling domain names that you park, I’m going to focus on that for right now, and where I think those types of names will go.

In the short-term, 6 months to a year, I think domaining will be strong. Internet users will still type-in names in their browsers, they’ll still mistype some of those names and advertisers will still pay for people to click through on ads placed on these pages. There won’t be an overnight extinction of parked pages.

However, as browsers move forward, these sites, parking pages, which most Internet users not in the parking game have grown to know and hate, will become harder and harder to monetize. One big problem is that browsers might come equipped with fishing, and third-party site announcers. Meaning you’ll be warned that you are being taken to a known third-party site, like a parking site, do you want to proceed. Specifically targeting typo’s

In fact Microsoft has just the service to help you out. Which, being a domainer I hate to promote or even show where they exist, but the service is called Stryder and is written about here.

But that isn’t going to bring the world crashing down on domainers. Of course some of the prices of domains are getting a little out of control. Like any business, if you can’t realize a return from a purchase, ie spending more than you make, you’ll go out of business. The market will take care of itself if it gets out of control. Be it a bubble or just a gradual realization that prices are too high.

The key thing with domain names is how much money do they make and what’s the brandability of the name. If a domain name gets traffic, someone can always find a way to monetize that traffic. If you can show that the traffic, provided by a domain name, brings you money, you’ll be able to put a price on the domain.

I don’t have to send my domain name visitors to a parking page, it’s just the easiest thing to do right now. Eventually, if browsers wise up to the game and people enjoy the popup that asks if you want to proceed to a parked page (I for one would get annoyed and disable the thing), then I’ll find a different way to make money from the traffic.

The last thing that might hurt domainers are laws being passed about trademark cases with typo’s. This could hurt the “big-little” business of typo squatters where the easiest money is. I’m not going to get to far into this one since I don’t know that much about the legalities of trademark infringement on typo’s. It’s a sticky situation with probably more than one right answer.

Overall, I feel the art of buying and selling domain names for profit is here to stay. The Internet isn’t going anywhere, and the only way to navigate the net is from an address. Domain names give you a unique and sometimes brandable address that can make you a small fortune if the game is played right.

Yes Google may be trying to make searching the net without a domain name easier and easier. However, you shouldn’t fear that, they’ll never be able to make it easier than say, typing in Google. There’s too much clutter with all these blogs (guilty) cluttering the search results. Once a users finds a useful resource they’re bound to bookmark it, or type it in again. As long as you buy and sell domain names wisely, you’ll be able to make a few dollars in the business. Who knows, maybe you’ll make a lot more than a few.

OK, so I’m going to let a little bit of the cat out of the bag with this one. My method isn’t rocket science and it isn’t like I’m getting crazy go nuts lucky. Even without the big sale in December that I mentioned in Part II, I would have still made a 76% ROI this year just on month to month earnings.

Note: If you haven’t read the first 3 sections in this series start at the front and and link through there with:
Part I - How to Make Money Buying and Selling Domain Names

On to the good stuff. I use a type of value investing approach to buying and selling domain names. I look for names that people want to offload quickly and are willing to let go for cheaper than if they waited around for the right buyer. With so many domain names out there there are plenty of these that get bought and sold every day, so don’t think it’s that tough to find your diamond in the rough.

I try and follow these basic steps:

1. Reduce Risk by requiring at least 3 months revenue stats
2. Long term outlook and limiting seasonality
3. Limit exposure to potential trademark infringements
4. Buy at a low earnings Multiple

By following these 4 steps I’ve been able to make a pretty decent return in 6 months and so should you.

1. Reducing Risk by Requiring At Least 3 Months Revenue Stats

The main way I reduce the riskiness of the names I buy is by requiring proof of 3 months of revenue and traffic stats or more. Now a lot of names are bought and sold based off of only a months revenue stats. I’m not going to say that I won’t buy a domain name with only a month stats proof, but I try and limit the number of these names that I purchase. (For more on stats see Part II)

By requiring proof that the domain name has had traffic and revenue for at least 3 months you can better assume that the traffic and revenue will continue as such in the future. This is especially useful for typo domains. Since typo domains aren’t really useful without the non-typo domain name, they don’t really hold any “intrinsic value.” You can’t really put a price on it like you could something brandable such as BeachBums.com or something like that.

If you know a domain name has made money in the past you can better predict it’s earnings in the future. This isn’t fool proof as you’ll see with the next section. Some names that are typo’s could come crashing down on you and you’ll loose your initial investment.

2. Long Term Outlook and Limiting Seasonality

If you are buying a type-in and especially a typo you need to look at the staying power of the name. If it’s a typo you need to take extra care that the real name your domain name is a typo of will stick around. There is no set way to do this but if you’re getting into the business of buying typos you need to get good at this. You can do overture traffic analysis, look at the PR, the links, is it in the news, is it membership based, is the membership growing?

These are only a few of the things you can look at but they are the main ones I look at when buying a domain name. You need to come up with a good method to make a reasonable inference as to the domain names staying power (if it’s a typo) or to it’s value as a brandable name.

If the name is a direct type-in you’ll need to usually concern yourself with if it’s a fad or not. Is the name going to continue to be popular and warrant people typing it into their browser? Does the name show up in search engine results near the top? The same can be said about typos as well.

Another similar thing to look at is the seasonality of the domain name. What I mean is does the name only get high traffic in a particular season. You can check that out on Alexa if the site is popular enough. Is it about lodges in a ski town? Do people look for bikini’s all year round? Be careful of these names and be sure to check the dates on the stats you are shown. Sometimes they’ll show you 6 months at a time but for the last 3 months the name hasn’t received any hits because it’s about a small town called Punxsutawney.

3. Limit Exposure to Potential Trademark Infringements

Buying a name like GooglePics.com Might put you smack in front of a C&D letter from those guys at Google, so weigh out what the potential risk you face that the company involved in the infringement portion might want to come after you. Especially if they have a history of doing so.

Check around on the forums and look at how much traffic the name gets. If it only gets a few visitors and is small potatoes the infringed company probably won’t want to waste their time and resources on you. But maybe they will. It’s all a guessing game there. Plus I don’t really know the exact rulings that would occur if you tried to claim that yes Google owns Google put I’m trademarking the whole word GooglePics. Thank goodness for no spaces in web addresses.

Best thing to do is ask a lawyers opinion, or take the risk.

4. Buy at Low Earnings Multiples

This is the big one. You have to be patient and wait for deals. The easiest thing to do is to get excited and buy a name because it seems like a good deal but you end up buying at a high price and increase your risk.

If you assume that in the worst case scenario you won’t be able to sell the domain to anyone even though it continues to make money, how long will it take to make your money back. That’s the risk of it all. If, at current earnings based off your work in step 1, you buy the domain name at 10 times monthly earnings your risk is a lot lower than if you buy the domain at 20 times monthly earnings.

The risk comes in because you never can be 100% sure that your traffic and thus revenue will stay. The Internet is a crazy beast and a liquid one at best. It moves and shakes on a moments notice.

The best advice I can give you is to wait it out. Buy value. Just look at the return I made if you need proof. I could buy at high multiples, without proof, and without knowing if the name is going to have any staying power, but that would be just crazy talk.

In Part V I’ll be looking at what I think the future of domain name investing is.

Make sure you check out the first two articles in this series:
Part I - How to make Money Buying and Selling Domain Names
Part II - My 65% ROI Buying and Selling Domain Names 

Getting started in domaining or domain name investing can be as easy as going over to your favorite registrar and registering a domain name. But how do you value a domain, how do you know it will make money, how can you get in above the basement floor?

I’ve tried my hat at buying typos, buying what I thought would be good type-ins, and in both cases failed miserably. Unless you have a bit of time for research, or feel as thought you’re a lucky person. Buying domain names like this isn’t going to be the easiest way to enter domain name investing and make money right away.

Bonus Tip: Some might already know this but you can buy massive amounts of domain names (called bulk registering) at moniker.com, and they let you drop the name in the first 4 days for only the $0.25 ICANN regsitration fee. This can be a great way to find domains that make money, typos or type-ins and not spend a lot doing so. I don’t want to spend the time or money doing this but if you got the time, try it out.

Instead you need to search out domain names that already have proven traffic and possibly even proven revenue. To do this you can go to several places. My personal choices are three dedicated domaining forums:

NamePros.com
DNForum.com
DomainState.com

I’ve listed the forums in the order of my preference. Namepros is a great forum that is completely free. You don’t have pay a subscription or membership fee to start posting and dealing with other members in the forum. The second one, DN Forum, is a great forum, but to start a thread in any of the marketplace forums you have to pay a fee. The cheapest fee for this forum is $30. Not bad if you want to get your names to a large traffic very active forum. However, DN Forum will allow you to post in the marketplace forums in response to threads, and also you can PM and deal with users for free. The last forum up there, Domain State, is a good forum, but doesn’t have as much traffic as the other two.

The other forums you can buy names at that are big time are Site Point and Digital Point. These two forums are very very large with many active members but they aren’t domaining dedicated. Therefor, you may be able to find some deals there but there just won’t be as many names as the first three that I mentioned.

How to Buy From the Forums

The way you conduct business at these forums is pretty simple but comes with risk. A user posts a domain they have for sale, listing any traffic or revenue if applicable, and then lists a price or accepts offers. People post questions, post offers, and post comments about the name within the forum thread that was started. This can go back and forth for a while until the seller and one buyer agree on a price or someone can just buy it quickly and end the sale.

Here’s where the risk comes in. Once that is official the seller and buyer usually private message (PM) each other their paypal and registrar information. The buyer then sends the money to the sellers paypal account. Once the payment is confirmed, the seller then pushes or transfers the domain to the buyers registrar account. It’s pretty easy and can happen in less than 10 minutes if you’re quick about it.

How to Reduce Risk during a Transaction

The biggest risk is, what if the seller takes the money and runs? Well, the three forums I listed as domain dedicated have trader rating systems, similar to eBay rating system that allows you to see what users have to say about the seller or buyer from previous dealings. Although most of these ratings are linked to a forum thread so you can look to see if there was a legit sale involved in the comment, the system can be skewed by false trader ratings. It’s up to you to determine if the rating is valid.

Other things you can look at to see if a user is legitimate is looking at the number of posts, the previous posts, how long they’ve been a member, and what else they’re selling or have sold. Most users like to build up their reputation in these forums and don’t like people saying bad things about them.

Another way you can go about reducing or eliminating risk is by using an escrow payment service. These types of services act as the middle man. They hold your money until you receive the domain then send the funds on. That way you can’t cheat the user and the user can’t cheat you. The one downfall to these systems is they usually take a day or three to process payments and most people don’t like dealing with them. Especially for small time dealings of $500 or less. Which most domain names go for. This means you won’t be able to get into a lot of the good deals. It’s up to you though.

Most of all you’ll need to determine if the seller is legit. It can be tough to do but you’ll get better at it as you go along. Also these communities are pretty good at looking out for one another. All three of the ones I mentioned have warning forums and I was once in a bad dealing and was able to resolve it. I’ll talk about that later.

Valuing Domain Names 

Valuing a name is all about what it’s worth to you. If the domain name is a type-in you may end up paying a lot for a name that doesn’t receive any traffic or revenue. The reason being is that if it’s popular phrase, catchy phrase, or very brand-able domain name a lot of people might want to buy it and push the price up. Buying these domains isn’t really what I’m in the domaining game for. I like to buy names that already make revenue. Guessing if a name is going to bring traffic and money later on is what speculators do. I’m looking at a more value based approach.

To value names that claim to already make revenue you’ll need to consider several things. First off, the seller usually posts what the revenue and or traffic of the domain name is. They are most likely required to post this per the rules of the forums. They are also usually required to link a screenshot of the stats or requested via PM to provide a screenshot.

Screenshots are all different looking, based on what parking site the seller uses, and you’ll have to get good at determining a good one from a bad one. I like to see a screenshot of the daily stats if possible, and to reduce the risk of a name having large traffic spikes I like to see a couple months worth of stats. Of course these screen shots are jpegs or gif files and can be easily manipulated in paint or photoshop so you’ll have to get good at seeing a fraud. However, as I mentioned in the previous section, these forums are good at spreading the word on a fraudulent seller.

Some sellers have also become accustomed to simply copying and pasting stats into threads via which can look confusing at first like this:

Thu, Dec 21st, 2006 US$ 1.30 58 13 % 22.41 US$ 0.10 US$ 22.41
Wed, Dec 20th, 2006 US$ 0.10 63 10 % 15.87 US$ 0.01 US$ 1.56

But actually isn’t too bad and usually comes with an explanation as most parking sites list their stats in a different order. This one happens to be from namedrive and lists the day, the revenue, the visitors, the clicks, the CTR, the CPC, and the RPM. You’ll get used to these formats and be able to quickly spot the parking site the name is with.

Some people won’t give you screen shots, or won’t provide copy and past stats like those above. They’ll contact you via PM or sometimes post and not be reprimanded by the forum staff for not providing info. Personally I try to steer clear of these people. I need proof of what I’m buying.

Once you have the proper information you need to value the name. To each their own and you can pay what you’d like for a name. I’m going to get into what I try and pay later but most of the time sellers look for a multiple of the proven monthly earnings. The multiple can be 5 times or it can be 100 times. It’s just what you’re willing to pay for the name.

Some things to think about when determining your multiple are, how long will the name be around, what’s the chance for growth, and how long are you willing to wait until you make your money back. Some people can wait a few years. I’m impatient and cannot. I’ll be talking about how I determine my multiple in Part IV.

Sedo, Moniker, and other Domain Marketplaces

You can also buy domain names from places like Sedo and moniker. These are mainly aftermarket spots, meaning people use the sites to sell names. They usually park the names with the site and then enter a price that’s viewable by the public. A price that they’re willing to sell the domain name for. If you browse through these listings you’ll notice that some of the prices are rediculous. But if you need the name, you gotta pay the price.

Since what I’m showing you assumes you don’t need the name, you probably want to steer clear of these domain name marketplaces. But don’t throw them out completely. There is always that diamond in the rough that someone is just dying to give away. 

You can read Part 1 in Buying and Selling Domain Names for Profit or continue on. 

I’m not going to divulge my actual investment dollar amounts right now, I may in the future, but for now I’d like to keep them secret. I can say that it’s not small potatoes so these numbers aren’t skewed by one large return. I’m going to use percentages because it’ll keep my investments secret for the time being. There is a way to figure out the initial investment but I’ll leave that to the people who really want to know (although one large number has been left out.)

I started back in the late part of June and the numbers go through to this month. I bought a few domains each month and tried to reinvest my earnings each month to increase the monthly return and build my domain portfolio. Here are the month to month ROI’s adjusted each month for domains and reinvested earnings. I took the total invested up to the end of that month and divided by the earnings that month.

You’ll see right away that last month my earnings jumped considerably. The only reason for that is because I sold a domain name in which I made a sizable profit. If I weren’t to have sold that name my earnings would have been about 8% again and I would have had a total return of 38% with a yearly return of 76%.

Still a very respectable return. Feel free to use either chart for your personal decision, either way, both returns beat many other investments out there.

 Also of note. I recently evaluated my domain portfolio by asking for an appraisal in one of the domain forums and was offered the same amount as my total investment which, if I sold the portfolio then, would have mad my return 138% or an estimated 176% on the year.

The spread of earnings on each of my domain names ranges from a 1% to a high of 80%. These are just monthly returns and do not include sales of domain names. It’s like the earnings a company makes off investing on a piece of land or equipment.

From these numbers you can see that I was able to earn a steady return of 6.3% per month (equating to 76% per year). So on a simple $1000 investment I would make $760. I can live with that, so can most other investors willing to accept a little risk (which I delve into in Part IV). You must also remember that this is an investment that you do no more work other than searching, buying and letting sit.

If on the other hand I were to take the total return on my investment including sales. I would be averaging 10.8% per month or 130% per year. So on a $1000 investment I would make $1300. More than my initial invest. So even if I couldn’t give the domains away at the end of the year I would still make money. Actually I would still make a 30% ROI, still an amazing return when compared to the stock market.

In the next part I will be discussing the basics of what I look for and how I go about buying and selling domains. That’s right I’ll be revealing some of my “secrets” to my domaining world.

Back in May of this year I talked about wanting to take the plunge into domain name investing and the world of domaining. I finally did and for the last six months I’ve been tracking how I’ve been buying, and recently selling domain names. I’ve done decent at it, making a 65% return on investment, and thought I would write about my foray into domaining in a 5 part series titled Domaining for Beginners.

Part I - How to Make Money Buying and Selling Domain Names?
Part II - My 65% ROI in 6 Months Buying and Selling Domain Names
Part III - How to Get Started Buying and Selling Domain Names for Profit
Part IV - A Simple Method to Get a 130% APY Investing in Domain Names
Part V - What is the Future of Buying and Selling Domain Names for Profit

I wrote about domaining earlier but feel like this part was warranted because I’ve learned so much more since then. However I must warn you, there are a lot more people making a lot more money, buying, selling and parking domain names. I’m just here to give you a primer on what I’ve done and how it’s worked. Take what you will and use it or toss it. I don’t claim to be an expert, I just feel like sharing my small success.

Domaining in the sense of strict investing in domain names and squatting on them is simple. You buy a domain name that receives traffic, type-in or referral, and you park the name with a site that provides the layout, the advertising and the tracking of all this action. I’m going to stick with this simplest form of domaining because it involves the least amount of work. Also I’m going to use the word domaining rather than squatting because there are a lot of negative connotations that go along with domain squatting and I’m not trying to perpetuate negativity with this business.

Type-Ins and Typos 

The first type of names you can get are type-ins. They can be broken down into two basic categories. One is someone typing in the wrong spelling of a domain name, or Typo, and the second is a real dictionary word or phrase that is better known as the real Type-in.

Typos 

The typos are the ones that most people (non-investors) despise because they are trying to get to a page they know exists, like a newspaper, or a famous blog, and someone has registered a common typo error and has parked that name with a service which we’ll get to later. There are also some investors who dislike certain typos, but really where do you draw the line?

Typos are some of the riskiest domain investments and proper research and guesstimation is essential to limiting you risk. Prices are usually strictly based on earnings for several reasons. First typos are difficult to predict because one day a website can be all the rage and the next day it can tank, or vis versa.  Two, there are sometimes is trademark issues with typos which from my limited experience and searching of the forums, no one is too certain about. But you must always be weary of the Cease and Desist Letter (C&D).

Also, there are people who park names that have nothing to do with adult content using adult content words, thus display adult content advertisements, which in my opinion is wrong. Most parking services will quickly remove your account from this so a lot of people don’t practice this. However, that’s not to say that people aren’t redirecting their names to adult sites. I don’t recommend this practice and it’s just not an honest way to make a buck.

Type-Ins

The other type of Type-in is the real type-in. Names that are naturally typed in that contain real “dictionary” words or word phrases. Things like Candy, Songs, kitchensupplies, and a lot more. These are the names that are worth a lot more than their earnings because you can always get someone who wants to come along and buy a catchy 2 word phrase that is will to pay you way more than what you are earning on the name.

Natural Type-in, real spelling names, are also much better for search engine rankings. Most search engines will rank names containing the same and real spellings of searchers keywords higher than random or misspelled domains with similar keywords. Although your content can be strong enough to pull in many searches (just look at ebaumsworld) you’ll have an easier time with real words relating to your site topic. 

These are the names that most domainers strive to get to because they are the safest investments, especially if they are getting natural type-in traffic. You can earn money while you wait for someone to want to start a site based on your parked name.

Referral

The next type of domains are those domains that have a lot of referrals to them either through searches or backlinks. Since backlinks usually aides in searches I won’t break this grouping down but I will say that there are a lot of type-in names that have never been developed with content that are still number one in Google search results.

The others are sites that have been developed before and are now parked. They used to have great backlinks, still possibly have indexed pages and page rank and are for sale as undeveloped sites. These are names that you must be careful with because a lot of links to these pages may disappear.

Webmasters clean up their links all the time and if they link through and see a site is now parked they’ll loose the link in second, guaranteed. With that lost link you may loose a lot of your traffic. These should only be bought at the right price.

Now you may think, well I can just list my parked names in forums, on websites and build links that way. Wrongo, if you read the Terms and Conditions to most parking sites you’ll read that you can only have natural type-in or search traffic. No referral that wasn’t natural prior to ownership is usually standard. Now you can’t help it if the name had links previously and starts out with a lot of traffic. But if you build traffic the wrong way, parking sites will get you!

Domaining Isn’t a Bad Word

I want finish up Part I by saying domaining isn’t a bad word. Think of it as owning a piece of real estate in cyberland. My thoughts are that parking a site is providing the user, who might type-in naturally or via the typo, with ads that provide them with sites that may or may not be of service. Most of the parking sites get their ads through Google and these are the same ads that people have plastered all over their websites in optimal places for you to exit their pages from.

The reason most people frown upon it is because it’s a really easy way to make money and they’re just mad they don’t have patience or technical know-how to get into it. But as I’ll show you in the next part, I don’t spend a lot of time looking for and buying domain names and I was able to make 130% APY in 6 months!

When I purchase domain names, they tend to be on a whim and I’m unsure how long I’ll want the domain name. Therefor, I usually only opt to register them for a year, and uncheck the auto-renew box. I don’t want to be stuck with a name a year from now that I bought because one night I thought it was going to make the next golden Blog.

I also buy typos and type-in names that I park. Most of these names have completely arbitrary renewal dates that I don’t even look at after I decide whether or not the renewal fee + purchase price makes the purchase a smart buy. I just add it to my Go Daddy account, change the name servers and forget about it.

Then every once in a while I’ll get an email from Go Daddy that says 90 days renewal notice, or 60, or 30, or 15, or 10, or 5,4,3,2,1, they never end. So I just delete and forget, knowing that I’ll eventually make it back to Go Daddy to check on the names and renew.

Well, the other day I remembered that a name I currently own throw Air Depth had sent me an email that I promptly deleted or filed away. Only problem was, I remembered that the notice said 5 days to renew and that was 20 days ago. Ug! It was a $80 domain name! Now that’s chump change to these big wig domainers but to small peanuts McGee over hear that’s a good portion of money that I could pay bloggers with.

So I quickly called AirDepth to see if I could recover the name. Low and behold it turns out they hold it for 30 days and allow me to renew within that time period. (probably if no one else wants it, who knows)

I renewed the name but learned a valuable lesson. The second you realize a domain is worth something to you, renew it for a couple of years. Worse that happens is you can fact in the cost when you sell the domain name.

Some of you may remember that I’ve gotten into the dreaded parking of sites as an experiment and a way to see if I can diversify my internet earnings. (See Blogging Pro’s most recent post on the need for internet entrepreneurs to diversify their internet holdings and businesses.)

I jumped into the parking of sites because it’s easy money. I buy my sites through forums like Namepros or DomainState from people who have already proven the particular name to be an earner. I try and buy for a reasonable earnings multiple, and then just add it to my NameDrive account and forget about it. To try and save face I’ll say that I don’t buy porn related names and I don’t use pop-ups, or put porn related ads on a non-porn domain name. I just put ads that are relevant to the typo or type-in that I bought and see where it goes.

Now you may remember in my Septemeber Earnings Report that I said I was seeing a lower than average Cost-per-Click (CPC) on my domains that I had parked with NameDrive. I hunted around the forums and even emailed NameDrive and everyone confirmed that, yes there were lower than average CPC for domains across the board. Well it seems as though the tables have turned and my earnings are back up! This is good news for me because, as I mentioned I was doing this as an experiment and was sweating it in those few months that earnings were down.

Now NameDrive told me that they had already contacted Google about the lower earnings and that they were working towards a solution. My assumption is that NameDrive aggregates it’s ads from Google and is allowed to display them in their own way as parked sites. So I did a little more searching and notice that a lot of people had lower adsense earnings around August September and October. It sort of makes sense that these would be lower advertising spending months with kids going back to school and all. We’ll just have to wait and see if this upward trend continues and I keep seeing more cash in my pocket from having sites sit there.

I’ve acquired a few domain names over the past year and need to lighten the load. I’m looking to get rid of a few before I have to renew them and thought I’d list them here and see if my readers have any interest in them. Some of them I just haven’t had time to develop but thought they would be good for those people looking for decent content site ideas.

All of the following are reg’d at GoDaddy.com and expire sometime between next month and next July.

DIGIPHOTOEDITING.com
BLOGREPRENEUR.com
FindAScribe.com
GuideToGolfClubs.info
YourGolfClubGuide.com
MMAFightingTechnique.com
ScribeHut.com
NESFanatic.com
NESFanatics.com
NESFans.com
SubmitAnything.com
SubmitTaxes.com
SubmitYourTaxes.com
SumbitMyTaxes.com

Send an email to me if you’re interested in any or all of these names. I’m looking to get whatever you’re offering so send over your offers. Best or first offers takes them. (That is if I get two or more offers during the same email check I’ll let the offerers know the best offer and allow bidding from there, but if you’re first during my email checks (several times a day) with no other offers it’s yours!)