Frank Schilling benefits from television screw up (again).

Peter Askew over at Domainer’s Gazette made an astute discovery earlier this week: ABC News featured one of Frank Schilling’s parked domain names in a news segment, thinking it was an actual web site.

The news segment is about parents getting alerts about what their kids are doing (e.g. in school), and discusses the web site “Parent Connect”. The film crew recorded the site ParentConnect.com. There’s only one problem: that’s not the actual web site. It’s a domain name owned by Schilling.

It’s quite funny watching the reporter discuss what you can do on the site as the camera pans over different keyword links that lead to paid search results. Check out the video.

This isn’t the first time one of Schilling’s domains has benefited from confusion. In 2004, Vice President Dick Cheney mistakenly told millions of viewers during a debate to visit “FactCheck.com” to read about the “lies” his opponent was making. He meant to say FactCheck.org. Schilling owned FactCheck.com. Schilling’s servers melted under the traffic, and he had to forward the domain to another web site (which happened to be critical of Bush/Cheney).

Schilling commented on the increased traffic after the post:

2008-05-05 33460 hits 23226 unique

…much much smaller compared to factcheck. That traffic was dangerously large.

I bought parentconnect.com in January of 2003 in my “locked in the house, long hair days”, long before these folks got the sparkle in their eye to create a similarly named product. Events like this make you feel like a farmer, who has owned a homestead for a really long time, and gradually the city is brushing up against your borders.

As far as money, Yahoo and Google smartprice the heck out of volume spikes like this, so it’s not as glorious as it looks.. It might pay for bandwidth

Acquisition talks collapse…what it means for domainers.

I’ve been torn about Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Yahoo! It could have been good for domainers but it also had a downside. Now that Microsoft (MSFT) has told Yahoo (YHOO) to “go search itself”, where does that leave the domain industry?

My main concern is that Yahoo will get more in bed with Google (GOOG) for its advertising. Yahoo has already tried outsourcing some of its advertising inventory to Google, and apparently the test went rather well.

In the long run, outsourcing ad inventory to Google is death by a billion clicks for Yahoo. So perhaps it was just trying to show Microsoft how much value it could add.

If I were Yahoo, I’d strike a deal with Google to outsource advertising to countries that Yahoo doesn’t currently serve. Then I’d figure out how to make my current advertising platform more user friendly and rev it up. (Oh yeah, it already tried that).

But what about Microsoft? It’s time for Microsoft to become a real contender in syndicated content advertising (ala Google Adsense) and to enter the domain parking channel. Microsoft may be adverse to the domain channel given how many people it’s gone after to get Microsoft typos back, but the channel still represents a growth opportunity for it. Microsoft will have to start by offering very high revenue shares (90%) because it’s click prices are lower than Google. Over time it can lower those as its click prices increase.

Microsoft can also learn from Google’s missteps in content. Microsoft soft-launched a content ad network to its own properties already. It needs to be cautious about who it lets in so it doesn’t fall into the same trap as Google did.

C’mon, Microsoft. Let’s give Google a bit of competition for once.

5 simple ways to make more money at Parked.

When it comes to ease-of-use, Parked.com is a clear winner in domain name parking. Even its domain editing tools are simple and quick to use. If you haven’t yet edited your domains there, here are five simple ways to tweak your way to more profits.

1. Remove unrelated keywords - having several keywords unrelated to your site’s topic can kill click-through rates. So when the algorithms get it wrong, it’s time to step in manually. Thankfully, Parked makes is a snap. Just drag and drop the keywords you don’t want into “Removed Keywords”. Parked uses a lot of Ajax, which makes its domain management tools a lot like software.

2. Update your title - by default, Parked makes the title of your page the domain name. So when someone lands on chiefsecurityofficer.com, the title they see is chiefsecurityofficer.com. Not that compelling. At a minimum, change it to “Chief Security Officer”.

3. Add custom content (but be careful) - you can quickly add text and extra graphics to the bottom of your Parked pages. This can help get into search engines. But be careful. People who add clickable links such as affiliate banners on their pages have reported their PPC click-through rates plummeting.

4. Customize your graphics - Parked has thousands of graphics for your landing pages. But if you don’t find one that quite fits your topic, just upload it yourself (be sure you have rights to the picture). You can also tweak the lander’s colors. If your domain is about sports in St. Louis, you might try colors like red (for the Cardinals) and blue (for the Blues).

5. Ask your account manager for help - if you have high traffic domains that aren’t converting, don’t be shy about asking your account manager for optimization help. It’s in their best interests.

If you have additional suggestions, please comment.

Domain name parking alternative gets funding, announces new ad network.

Auto-generated web site company WhyPark, which provides an alternative to standard domain parking, has received an infusion of angel funding from one of its customers. Domain Name Wire has learned that the investment totals $230,000 and will be used to further enhance WhyPark’s service.

[For those not familiar with angel funding, it typically represents investments by high net worth individuals and is less than what venture capital companies usually commit.]

One of WhyPark’s first customers, Alan Macomber, made the investment. WhyPark currently has 41,000 domains hosted on its system.

Separately, the company announced that it now has an integrated ad network. Previously, customers had to use their own Google Adsense or similar code to generate revenue from domains at WhyPark. WhyPark also inked a deal with Austin-based Click Forensics to ensure the integrity of its advertising network. I’m not aware of any other domain-related company that has signed a similar deal to cut down on click fraud.

Previous coverage of WhyPark: Auto-Generated Web Sites, Part 2

Three-quarters of domain industry believes parking revenue will be same or higher compared to 2007.

Despite all of the bad news about domain parking lately, the domain industry as a whole is still very bullish on domain parking. 75% of respondents in Domain Name Wire’s Third Annual domain name survey think earnings will be at least as good in 2008 as 2007. 45% think RPM rates (revenue per thousand views) will increase in 2008.

Unfortunately, history shows that what people think will happen in domain parking doesn’t always pan out. Last year, 53% of those survey thought earnings would increase and only 19% thought they’d decrease. But data from this year’s survey shows that earnings were about the same, if not slightly less, in 2007 compared to 2006.

The graph below shows what survey respondents earned from domain parking in 2007. 35% still earn less than $10 RPM, while 8% earned $70 RPM or better.

The next survey results will cover buying and selling domain names online.

[View survey results here.]