Here are a couple news notes from Domainer Mardi Gras and WhyPark.

Domainer Mardi Gras special ends today: Domainer Mardi Gras is giving away a 500 GB external hard drive to anyone who signs up to attend by midnight tonight. Registration rates are as low as $595 if you also stay at the conference hotel. This is the lowest fee you’ll ever see for attending an industry-wide domain conference. It’s a lot of fun, too. I recommend taking advantage of this offer if you’re sitting on the fence about attending Domainer Mardi Gras 2010.

WhyPark announces auction details: WhyPark is teaming up with Rick Latona Auctions to test out the latter’s Latonas.com auction platform for WhyPark’s upcoming charity domain name auction. Not only is the auction for a good cause, but I’m excited to see what Latona has developed. His company has used Proxibid.com for its previous auctions, but the system has serious limitations.

To learn more about the auction, listen to the DNW Radio interview with WhyPark founder Craig Rowe.

Our first ever episode of DNW Radio.

About a month ago I announced I was working on DNW Radio, a radio show that will feature domain industry leaders. Better late than never, here’s the first episode.

You may recall that I’m not a huge fan of using video when you can get something across in text. The same thing goes for audio, but that’s why the solution I’m using for DNW Radio is perfect: not only can you stream the audio, you can also read a transcript. If you want to download the podcast and play it in the car, you can. If you want to stream it in the background while you’re bidding in auctions, go for it. And if you’d rather just read the transcript, that’s an option, too.

WhyPark founder Craig Rowe was kind enough to be our guinea pig on DNW Radio. In this episode, he talks about how WhyPark got started, the acquisition by Parked.com, and new features the company is working on. GeoDomain owners will be especially interested in what he has to say.

Please keep in mind that DNW Radio is a work in progress. I’m working on getting the right mix on audio, length, etc. If you’d like to add this show to your web site, feel free to click the link in the widget below. You are free to redistribute the audio. However, the transcript is copyrighted.

Stay tuned.

Domain company organizing online auction for charity.

Domain parking alternative WhyPark is hosting a charity domain name auction with a twist — the single highest bidder gets to pick which charity receives the proceeds.

The five day auction will run December 7th and end December 11th and contain about 50 domain names. When the auction is over, the one person who placed the highest winning bid across all auctions will get to choose the charity to receive the proceeds of all domains sold in the auction.

As an added incentive to submit domains to the auction, selected domains will include a logo and link back to whomever submitted the domain. WhyPark requests that people submit domains that they feel are worth at least $250-$500; not domains that you plan to let expire next time around.

Details and the submission form can be found at WhyPark.com/auction.

News bytes to start your Tuesday.

Here are a few domain name news items for the week:

Domain Name Wire Radio is coming. More later.

Parked/Why Park Forum. Parked.com and WhyPark have created a user forum at forum.parked.com. Parked’s Donny Simonton has always been active on message boards, so you can rest assured you’ll get direct access through this forum. Hint: register for the forum to get more content.

Got travel traffic?. If you have a good portfolio of travel domains getting xx,xxx visitors per month, shoot me a note. I have someone who wants to talk to you.

Yahoo’s updated traffic quality algorithm has gone into effect. Some domain parkers are complaining, but many of them probably only make a dollar a day, anyway. Remember: quality of traffic matters!

XsitePro thoughts. I’ve long raved about Xsite Pro. The only problem is I still can’t find anyone that creates good custom templates for it. They’re always so amateur.

SedoPro Partner Forum. Just a few weeks until Sedo rolls out the red carpet for VIP parking clients. Most enjoyable few days you’ll ever spend with fellow domainers.

Company sees earnings boost after acquisition.

If you used WhyPark in the past and weren’t happy with your ad revenue, or haven’t given it a shot, it may be worth another look. I caught up with WhyPark founder Craig Rowe today to ask him how the transition to new ownership under Parked.com is going.

Now that WhyPark gets to use the Parked feed, what has happened to existing customers’ earnings?

We’ve seen earnings increase by 10x for many customers and about 7-10x has been the average increase. It’s not that it’s all based on just the better CPC’s, but also a combination of better ad coverage in different countries, higher quality ads that yield a better response, and a better inventory of related search terms to show on each page based on Parked.com’s historical data. So, the result is that there are more searches, better click-through rates and better paying clicks as well.

Other than a better ad feed, what does Parked bring to the table?

Expertise, historical data and a team that’s tough to beat. I’ve always felt that WhyPark has done a good job in bringing new traffic to domains, but previous to the acquisition, we lacked in monetizing that traffic directly. We’ve heard from a lot of our customers that they’d start building a site’s traffic on WhyPark and then switch it over to Parked.com since they monetize the traffic better than anyone else. So, this has been a nice marriage to bring the traffic and monetization pieces together in one package.

There has been some technology of theirs that we’ve already implemented, like the related terms to display for each domain that have historically performed well. Also, we’re using their template and categorization technology behind the scenes right now, so customers will be able to bulk manage and setup sites with even greater relevancy. So, rather than showing images that are targeted at a category level, we’ll soon have incredibly focused images on each site, all handled dynamically without a customer needing to manually choose the best template. We’ve also adopted the twice monthly payments and are finalizing the integration to add wire, checks and direct deposit options for payment. Over the next 6-12 months, we have a lot in the works to ensure that we leverage each others’ technologies and people to the fullest.

Since WhyPark was your inspiration, why did you decide Parked was the right group to sell to?

We were at a point where we felt like we needed to get WhyPark aligned with a leader in monetizing domains. It was the one piece that was holding us back from being a bigger contender in the industry. Parked.com was the only company we approached and they also saw the fit, so we moved quickly. It came down to really two things: the people that run and work for Parked.com and the fact that I constantly hear how well they perform. The technology and monetization piece is obviously huge for our customers and was important in the decision, but I wanted to be able to still be a part of the growth too. So, it was ultimately essential to work with people that I like and trust and would be open to my ideas as we continue to develop WhyPark together. It was also great to be able to bring some people with me from the WhyPark team that helped us grow the company and will continue to do so.

Our customers have been very happy since the acquisition, so hopefully it means we’re doing something right together.