Don’t just consider your click revenue.
Too often as domainers we focus on how much money our parking company pays us for clicks. But that doesn’t take into consideration the whole value stream of parking.
What other value do you get from your parked domains?
Let me give you an example.
I recently sold LinkDetective.com for $1,400 through Afternic. The domain also happened to be parked with the company.
In the past 60 days I made precisely $0 from parking the domain. (I don’t blame Afternic for that; the domain gets little traffic.)
But because it was parked with Afternic when it sold, I receive a $70 rebate on my sales commission. That made my effective RPM $2,333.
The domain also sold on BuyDomains.com, which means there’s a fair chance that the buyer found out that the name was for sale because of the “for sale” notification at the top of the page.
So the parking revenue was nil, but the value from parking was greater: the “for sale” banner may have led to a $1,400 sale, and parking it with Afternic helped me pocket another $70.
Is the message here to go park all your domains with Afternic? No.
The message is that you need to think about the value your parked domains deliver holistically.
Think about your goals. Do your domains get relatively little traffic? Then focus on putting “for sale” banners on them, regardless of where you park them. (Better yet — what if you get rid of those PPC links and just put up a sales pitch?)
You might even consider a parking company that can help you sell the domains. Afternic is an obvious one (especially on its DLS Network), but many others will help you. Some will even act as an exclusive broker for your portfolio. That adds value beyond the revenue you earn.
I used to make a couple hundred bucks a month on my geo domains at Octane360. That was nice, but the real value was in the search rankings the service provided. That resulted in a few strong sales.
What if a domain earns a lot parked? Then I’d focus more on that PPC revenue than other forms of value from parking the domain such as potentially selling it.
Take a good look at your portfolio. Is counting only your pay-per-click revenue holding you back?
Jamie Zoch says
Very good point Andrew!
I had parked with SmartName in the past and when Afternic started giving a kickback if you parked with them and sold the domain via Afternic it was great. I have had several examples like yours and I was happy the domains were parked with SmartName when the sold.
Acro says
Reminds me of the math used by the Greek government in the late 90’s to enter the Eurozone 🙂
DR.DOMAIN says
There is only sales & development.
RD. Nomaid says
There is only parking & sales.
Domain Lo Mein says
What did happen to your Octane360 domain revenue? Did it grow, hold, or decline?
Thanks.
John says
I like the GoDaddy InstantPage “Domain For Sale” for just putting up For Sale Pages. Big and in one’s face. Clean looking pages.
Andrew Allemann says
@ John – can you post an example of a domain as an example?
Wealth Investors says
@ Dr. Domain – why do you say there is only Sales and Development? That quote has peaked my interest because I’ve made well over 6 figures doing non of the above.
look forward to your response
Andrew Allemann says
@ Domain Lo Mein – they got hit pretty hard in Google updates last year. Rankings and revenue dropped.
John says
Couple For Sale Examples:
http://www.fresnoparking.com/
http://www.tempeparking.com/
You can even do plain looking without a For Sale:
http://www.viptipper.com/
Easy to Use.
I believe it is only available for names that one has bought or transferred in since they introduced the product 15 months or so ago. Anything older defaults to WebSite Tonight, which is not as easy to use in my opinion. These are way easy.
Adam says
I’m confused by the math or how you get to that RPM especially since Afternic took a cut of the deal ?
Why not just use Internet Traffic’s system and pay nothing. He’s been killing it by the looks of things.
DR.DOMAIN says
@Wealth Investors:
I applaud your success sir.Clearly you are doing the right things.Feel free to share your strategy with me / us.
Alexander says
Please note, you have to park the domain with Afternic/SmartName for minimum 15 days before the sale takes place, to qualify for the 5% cash back.
Hope it helps,
Alexander
Mike Flynn says
I think parking is a waste of time and effort and is usually bad news for those stung with UDRP. I’m definitely in the develop & sales camp. For that reason am selling domspark cheap;->$1000 anyone?
Mike Flynn says
..actually, I also think chasing the sales is a waste of time and effort, though I guess I should probably work on this side of things. $950? hehe
Tony says
Saw this from DomainShane.
Just having some fun but based on your RPM of $2,333 and $70 rebate, that domain had a total of 30 visitors.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Tony – yep. Although I think the traffic count was probably artificially high
Eppie Vojt says
Hey — I’m the guy who bought LinkDetective.com from Andrew through BuyDomains. This is one of those cases that worked out nicely as a win for both parties. Andrew owned a name that wasn’t pulling any traffic and couldn’t generate parked income… but it’s a good brand name and fit perfectly with a tool I had been building. He cashed in on the domain and I got an easily memorable domain.
I released a free SEO tool on the domain shortly after acquiring it. That got me a ton of industry exposure and helped to make me more marketable in the SEO field (I’ve received a bunch of unsolicited job offers since its release from some excellent companies). I’m sure I could have done it on a .net perhaps, or a less descriptive domain, but why leave anything to chance?
I left the tool 100% free for several months and garnered over 10,000 users. Not a bad little email list. A bunch of these users expressed interest in an enhanced service and said they’d be willing to pay for it. I surveyed the whole list to gauge interest and there was enough to move forward. So I added premium tiers and the site now generates a fairly significant recurring income (monthly profit exceeds the initial domain cost).
As a guy who’s bought and sold a bunch of domains over the years, I thought you’d be interested in some follow up on where this one ended up. Glad it worked out well for both of us!
Andrew Allemann says
Congrats Eppie, and I wish you the best with the site.
Hardik says
Very useful information Andrew.
Thank you so much for providing such as creative idea about domain parking.
Valentine day 2015 wallpaper says
I think parking is a waste of time and effort and is usually bad news for those stung with UDRP. I’m definitely in the develop & sales camp. For that reason am selling domspark cheap;->$500 anyone?
Zach says
Experience same. I got 0 revenue from parking.