Want to develop your domains? Here’s a solution that even non-techies will appreciate.
[Editor’s note: this is an updated version of an article originally posted March 6, 2006] Domain parking got you down? Worried about the Snowe Bill and what it may do to your undeveloped domains? Killed by the death of parking arbitrage?
It seems most people in the domain industry are finally getting on the development bandwagon. This article discusses a simple way for even non-techies to develop their domains. The upside is more revenue and better protection for your domains, which will now be used for a legitimate business purpose.
The solution, XsitePro, lets you quickly create good sites for domain names that result in large ad revenue increases – often 10 or 20 times that of a parking page.
But this software isn’t like the myriad of other applications that generate thousands of junk web pages to attract search engine spiders. Instead, it’s web design software created for internet marketers and domain name owners. It allows you to rapidly create search-engine optimized web sites for your domains and publish them with little hassle. You don’t need to know the slightest about HTML to use XSitePro, although advanced users can add HTML elements to their web sites.
Here’s how I use XsitePro. First, I pick a parked domain name in my portfolio that gets a modest amount of traffic but has low earnings. I then create a simple site in XSitePro. It takes a few minutes to set up the framework for the site including all meta tags, affiliate links, etc. I then add a few pages of content. XSitePro automatically organizes the pages, creates a site map, and adds navigation structure. The software makes it very easy to add your Google Adsense code into all pages automatically. Then you click a button and upload your site.
Total time to design, add content, and upload sites: about 1-2 hours.
Take a typical domain that makes $1 a day. With an XSitePro site that gets traction in search engines I can make about $5-$10 a day with Google Ads. In one month, that’s a difference of $120-$270 per month. Extrapolate this out over a year and the time you spent on the site is well worth it. One of my best performing sites made $1 a day as a parked domain and now makes an average of $15 per day as a mini web site.
I highly recommend picking up a copy of XsitePro. You can invest some time this week developing web sites and reap the benefits for years to come. This software pays for itself several times over — it has for me for the past three years.
Can we see some samples of your domains? Like the one that went from $1 to $15/day?
I like xSitePro as well. I’ve used all versions of FrontPage, ExpressionWeb and Adobe GoLive and prefer xSitePro over them all.
Yes, some samples would be great!
I realize these aren’t pretty, but they work:
St. Louis News
Image Viewers
Driving for Life
I need to do something so maybe I will try this. I have all of my domains parked and they aren’t making any money at all. They aren’t all generic but they are common enough words and topics. I thought parking them would bring in some funds but so far it is minimal.
It seems that all the excitement lately has been WordPress. I would like to know if anyone have tried both and could make a comparison between WordPress and xSitePro.
I actually bought a copy of xSitePro a couple of years ago but never used it.
It would, however, be good to know which is better/easier since so many domainers have been talking about this lately, including me. 🙂
@ Antoinette – if they don’t get type in traffic or have residual inbound links (basically, if you registered it for free) I wouldn’t expect to make much money from parking.
@ CCC – Domain Name Wire uses Wordpress. You can adjust it to create sites, but it’s somewhat of a hack. Wordpress is basically a specialized content management system. I find Xsitepro to be much easier to use than most content management systems.
One great example of an XsitePro site — Ron Jackson’s NameNewbie.com
I caught the tail-end of click parking revenue.
I started domaining end of ’06.The game as I came to it basically demands that you hit a bullet with a bullet…because there are no more SEX/CARS/BUY.coms out there.I noticed a pronounced drop in click money in January of this year ’08.I’m trying to hang tough.I’ll give this Xsite a shot.Pardon my ignorance but how do you sign up for the various ad services & how do you max revenue?
Thanks for posting this. I think this software is just want I need. I have a lot of domains that I want to get out into the search engines. Revenue is not a major reason, SE placement is the goal so easy development is the key for me.
This is exactly what I haver been looking for! Mini sites like this are a goldmine compared to parking. I have a number of sports .coms/infos/nets getting decent uniques on sedo but their is ZERO $$ coming in. Anything is better than that! Time to give this a try.
I didn’t realize that Ron’s NameNewbie was an Xsite site. Sweet.
I agree that Wordpress is kind of a hack for development for monetization. It’s great if you really do want to create a living site, but for a static site there are better tools.
@ Rob – you’re welcome, and I have definitely gotten my money out of this software. Please note that the link in my story is an affiliate link. Please use this if you decide to buy the software…it helps pay the bills 🙂
Right. Just went through that door and bought a copy. I have to say the checkout was quirky.
I’m in firefox.
My credit card address is different from the registration address. Had to cancel to change. Then the download link is dead.
Got it all figured out but someone from xsitepro should go through the checkout process.
But, I checked out their forum and it is very active with users so, based on that and your recommendation, I’m going full speed ahead.
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing the info, Andrew.
Also, there are a lot of free web templates (xhtml, css, etc) out there that you can use to develop/build a web site for your domain names.
http://www.openwebdesign.org
http://mitchinson.net/ (check out the Resources page)
I recently used one of these free templates and developed my glossophobia.com domain (btw, it means fear of public speaking). Sure, it took more than a couple of hours but I enjoyed doing it and learned a lot along the way.
If you own products/services-related domains, then also check out Amazon.com’s aStore Affiliate program. It’s really easy to sign-up and set up for your site and I’ve incorporated throughout my site. The Costello brothers’ Manicure.com site also uses Amazon aStore for all of their products offering.
Thanks for the clarification Andrew on the difference b/t the two.
I would like to also like to 2nd what Rob Sequin said above about the xSitePro Forum. I spent a lot of time reading it when I originally bought a copy and there are many folks with success stories. I wish I had tried this earlier, but I kept seeing sites like WhyPark and other minisite companies getting squashed by Google and bugs, etc…. But admittedly, this is much different than the other programs.
The link for the forum is at the bottom of the page and just says “Forum”.
Ya’ll readers make sure to buy a copy from Andrew though, since he delivers the best, quality news in the industry and we need more stories and reports a comin’. 🙂
Andrew,
You’re the man!
Thanks for providing some examples of your XsitePro developed sites.
I suppose it’s like running your own Parking program.
Ron Jackson’s NameNewbie site is awesome and a real good commercial for XsitePro.
Interesting times ahead.
Patrick
I’m going to purchase a copy of XsitePro from Andrew just because I’m a big fan of his news service.
I am a big fan of simple html based websites. I happen to have a pretty good collection of websites and can tell you unequivocally that all of our html/simple-coded websites run circles around blogs.
In addition, if you have “nonsense” names – take some time and figure out something fun to do with them. Add a splash of creativity and original content and you’ll have a domain that will faithfully draw visitors and create income.
An example? How about http://www.bonq.com
Silly, irreverent, but fun. Video is home grown. Revenue hits triple digits several months of the year. Income for this domain while parked? Pennies.
Best of luck!
I usually prefer to ‘roll my own’ specialized tools but I think I’m going to make an exception in this case, having seen Andrew’s sample sites above.
If I decide to go for it, it’ll certainly be via Andrew’s aff link above. 🙂
Thanks for the response, Andrew. I realize I could make more money by finding a webhost and developing them myself but I’m very diversified and I haven’t decided which ones to spend the time on. This is a part-time thing so the hours I can spend on website development are pretty limited. But I appreciate your reply.
Thank you for this article. But aren’t the best “tools” having good URLs puls content content content?
Greetings from Germany
Ulrich