Parking aggregater to shut down service at end of month.

Moniker’s TrafficClub will shut its doors at the end of the month.

TrafficClub allowed customers to maximize revenue from parked domains without moving domains between different parking companies. Traffic to domains was split tested across various parking services and eventually shown more on the feeds that had higher RPMs.

The service was not without controversy.

Last year DomainSponsor, citing a policy change by Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), yanked its feed from TrafficClub. This resulted in a public spat between Moniker’s Monte Cahn and DomainSponsor’s Ron Sheridan. Apparently the two made up their differences as Oversee.net (DomainSponsor’s parent company) bought Moniker earlier this year.

That left TrafficClub with essentially one feed — Skenzo. TrafficClub tried to recruit other parking companies. Domain Name Wire confirmed that Parked.com was on the list of new providers, but this never came to fruition.

Immediately after the purchase of Moniker, Skenzo announced it was leaving the program. TrafficClub initially said the service would continue, but likely ran into difficulty recruiting new parking programs given ownership by a competitor to these companies.

Customer accounts will be migrated to DomainSponsor’s system. Customers have until February 5 to download any stats and data from the TrafficClub system.

Survey participants can win prizes, speak their minds.

The 3rd Annual Domain Name Wire Survey is now open for participation. This survey has been the voice of the domain community for several years, and this year’s survey lets domain industry participants give their opinion on:

-Which registrar is best?
-What’s most important when selecting a registrar?
-Which parking service is best?
-What’s the best place to buy and sell domains online?
-What will happen to the value of domains in 2008?
-Which domain forum is best?
-Is ICANN doing a good job?
-Where do you prefer to buy expired domains?
-What is the biggest threat facing the domain industry in 2008?

There are several new questions for 2008. Here are two that should be interesting:

Which domain industry conference is best?
DomainFEST
Domain Roundtable
GEODomain Expo
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

Which person has the most influence on the domain industry?
Bob Parsons
Dan Warner
Frank Schilling
Jay Westerdal
Kevin Ham
Mike Zapolin
Monte Cahn
Rick Schwartz
Ron Jackson
Ron Sheridan
Sahar Sarid

Thanks to readers who suggested these people for this question.

Also this year, you can win up to $100 just for completing the survey:

Grand Prize: $100 credit at the domain registrar of your choice
First Prize: $50 credit at the domain registrar of your choice
Second Prize: $25 credit at the domain registrar of your choice

Click here to participate in the survey — it takes only 5 minutes.

Survey results will be published at the conclusion of the survey period.

Domain parking platform adds new features.

Domain name parking company Parked.com has added two new features in recent weeks.

First, the company now supports .mobi parking. .Mobi domain owners can earn revenue with scaled down parking pages that work on mobile phones.

Second, the company now shows publishers their Yahoo Quality Score. This score is a measure of the quality of traffic they are delivering to advertisers according to Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), and is measured on an account-by-account basis. Yahoo discounts payouts if quality scores are low.

Above: image of Yahoo Quality Score at Parked.com (score blacked out)

The Quality Score is only calculated if you receive 100 or more clicks each day.

Parked customers are getting creative with Parked’s recently added “custom content” feature. In the example below, the landing page includes a YouTube video:

I’m seeing a number of Parked.com passing muster with Google’s Adwords program when publishers add a few pharagraphs of relevant text on their domain. I’m currently earning RPMs of $50-$100 with Parked, and recommend trying the service.

First cut at premium domain names looks promising.

It’s been six months since Moniker and TRAFFIC teamed up to shatter a domain name auction record, selling over $10M in domains in an afternoon. Since that time no auctions have come close to this record.

After reviewing the first cut of premium domains for next month’s TRAFFIC conference in Las Vegas, it looks like this one can shatter the previous record. There’s a big caveat though: it depends on the reserves on these domains.

Here’s an initial list of domains:

Civilwar.com
Daily.com
Meds.com
Refills.com
Baseball.net
Coed.com
Weekday.com
LifeSaver.com
AutoClassifieds.com
Medication.net
DiamondNecklace.com
DiscountTravel.com
BabyFood.com
Beverage.com
EscortServices.com
Temp.com
Trusted.com
Wife.com
Husband.com
SanJuan.com
Necklace.com
DreamVacation.com
FamilyServices.com
Fiesta.com
GrandPrize.com
Handicap.com
Homeowner.com
Mortgagerates.org
Organ.com
Transactions.com
Cognacs.com
Bourbons.com
SkiResorts.com
Affiliate.com
Trusts.com/LivingTrusts.com
Dance.com
CPC.com
LowRateMortgage.com
WomensHeatlh.com
Sleuth.com
Stereotypes.com
CreditReferences.com
SearchEngines.com
Sabbath.com
CustomerService.com
Computer.us
Bachelor.com/.net/.org
Communication.com
WeddingVows.com
Convention.net
Introduction.com
Voters.com
Dentists.net
Web.asia
SanDiego.com
HomeVideos.com
LeatherFurniture.com
Podiatrists.com
FootDoctors.com
MiniatureGolf.com
JobOpenings.com

A couple things jump out at me:

-SanDiego.com was recapitalized with $1M by Domain Capital in late 2006.

-It looks like Marc Ostrofsky is selling some of his domains. Bachelor.com stands out to me. Ostrofsky bought this domain (along with .net/.org) at a 2005 auction for $125,000.

-Web.asia?

-When combined with internet bidding with SnapNames, more bidders will participate than ever before.

Afternic claims categorized domains 2.8x more likely to sell.

If you list your domains for sale on sites such as Afternic and Sedo, you should take the extra time to properly categorize your domains. According to NameMedia, domains on Afternic that are categorized (e.g. “Education”, “Events”) are 2.8 times as likely to sell as domains that are not categorized.

This makes sense. When I search for domains to buy at Afternic, I usually browse by the categories that interest me rather than doing a free text search. This is especially true when I’m trolling for investment opportunities rather than searching for a specific domain.

Over the next month, Afternic will change its categories and taxonomy. Second level categories (e.g. “Events > Holiday”) will be cleaned up and improved. The categories will also align with BuyDomains site to make cross promotion easier.

According to Afternic, only 1 in 3 customers takes the time to categorize their domains.

Customers will be able to re-categorize their domains in early February. The company says that domain listings will not be affected if customers choose not to re-categorize.