Google lets customers bypass DomainSponsor, Sedo, and other domain parking companies.
[See update at bottom with latest information.] In a surprising move, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is now offering Adsense publishers the opportunity to park their domains directly with Google, rather than using a second-tier provider such as DomainSponsor or Sedo. Domain Name News caught on to this official Google post earlier today.
I’m personally shocked at this move, given the retreat Google seems to have been making in the domain channel. Google previously only wanted to work with people generating over 750,000 visits a month, and then later shut down Adsense for Domains applications all together. For now, it seem that Google is not going to cut the long tail out of domain parking. It also isn’t distancing itself further from the industry. It is doing just the opposite.
But before you get excited about going direct to Google, I suspect your earnings will go down by doing so. Domain parking aggregators such as DomainSponsor negotiate high revenue shares with Google, something you won’t be able to do. Additionally, templates are limited to Google’s standard Adsense for Domains landers, which probably won’t convert as well as advanced landers from traditional domain parking companies. Also, you can’t just change your nameservers or forward your domains; you must create an A record and CNAME for each domain.
I suspect Google may be trying to put heat on parking companies by opening up its system to anyone with an Adsense account. At first this program will attract people who only have a handful of domains and can’t get accepted by most domain parking companies, but I’m sure Google will expand it from there.
I logged into my account moments ago to see how it works. The screenshot below shows the option of Adsense for Domains on the Ad Setup tab:
You submit your domains for consideration, and they are “pending” until Google approves them. I suspect it does a general scan for trademarks.
You can edit the colors of your landing pages and suggest keywords that should be used to trigger ads. However, you can’t edit the layout, ad pictures, or customize text.
UPDATED: I have set up my first domain on the service. It was painful setting it up because you have to set up A records and CNAME for each domain. Furthermore, it just uses Google’s simple one-click template. The front page ads are all from the content feed instead of the search feed. It appears that if you click on related links it still shows content ads. The only way it shows search ads is if you actually type in a search term. Let me know if you see otherwise. Also, I’ve heard that a beta tester used the system and received poor results. That doesn’t surprise me. But Google may have some tricks up its sleeves…it always does. Here’s what my landing page looks like:
Great News!!
Domaining for the masses…
This should have a tremendous impact.
Very interesting.
I thought Big-G was trying to discourage any kind of parking, now they offer it directly.
J.R.
I just set up a domain using the system. You have to set up 4 A records and 1 CNAME…it’s a pain.
@Andrew
I agree…what’s with That, setting up all those records.
Where’s the basic two dns changes?
@Andrew – “I just set up a domain using the system. You have to set up 4 A records and 1 CNAME…it’s a pain.”
That seems unnecessary doesn’t it? I would guess we might see a quick change soon to altering DNS settings only.
It’s really in Google’s best interest to make it easy on the users of this new service. Could really boost their bottom line all these parked domains being moved to Google.
Wow. Two quick thoughts:
1) I wonder if they’ll bother to mention this to the advertisers. 😉
2) I guess they’ve decided to take the “AdSense for Domains cleanup” process into their own hands.
You can use enom folder feature to edit the A records and add your domains.
This is a great news for all of us. No more third party.
EM @KING.NET
I just logged on to my adsense account and I don’t see it.
I’m not part of it waaaaa..
EM @KING.NET
WOW. WOW. WOW.
The Google parking companies must be sweating. Of course they won’t admit it but why would any domainer not want to have control? I would seriously doubt that the payouts would be much different. They might even be better because now google has individual control over every domain.
So, that’s what they mean by Google leaving the domain channel… by leaving the domain PARKING channel.
Always made perfect sense to me with Adsense for Domains. I never understood why they needed the high threshold. I guess they are comfortable with everything now. My guess is Domain Sponsor is the first to close (and I have nothing against DS, Snap, Moniker or Oversee). They laid off 10%, competition is stiff, domainers are developing and now Google goes direct to their customers. How do they survive?
I see this as the Big Bang. The parking industry will be dramatically different in six months.
Am I being too dramatic?
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Setting up those records are simple in Godaddy and I would expect other registrars have bulk nameserver change features.
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Here’s the NO NO list for domains right from Google:
Terms in the URL may not contain or be related to any of the following:
* Pornography, adult, or mature terms. This includes, but is not limited to, any terms that refer to or suggest nudity, partial nudity, sexual imagery/acts, lewd/graphic or profane language.
* Violent or racially intolerant language or any other form of hate speech directed against an individual, group, or organization
* Excessive profanity
* Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
* Gambling or casino-related content
* Weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles
* Beer or hard alcohol
* Tobacco or tobacco-related products
* Prescription drugs
* Promotion of an illegal activity or an activity that infringes on the legal rights of others.
* References to tragedies or other sensitive current events
* Any other terms that are illegal, promote illegal activity, or infringe on the legal rights of others.
@king,
It will slowly be appearing in people’s accounts by the 18th of Dec, at the latest.
Cheers to you Lawrence.
I would calssify it as interesting news rather than great. Google is making itself into even more of a monopoly when what we need is competition.
Is there a page we can look at to see what their landers look like ?
The lander is the same as before … though you can change the color of the text.
screenshot of lander added
@Rob
That’s a fair assumption.
It looks like they really are only doing this for internal research purposes only. A waste of time otherwise.
So in a year when the major parking companies have all but disappeared and Google subsequently tightens the vice down to 2% rev share, will we all look back at this news so fondly?
Just a thought.
@Skip
That’s exactly what’s going to happen – monopolies are always a bad thing.
Google intends to pocket the ppc companies margin.
I’m sure domainer’s revenue will drop with this program.
With the ppc companies, domainers indirectly received revenue from second tier feeds.
It is giving Google even more control over domainers.
As much as we want to move up the supply chain. I don’t think this is going to help us.
The only thing that can help us is if Yahoo and Microsoft get stronger in the seach category.
I would think this gives Google more control over individual domains as opposed to a bulk payment for a bulk of domains at a parking company.
I just applied to have one name approved. We’ll see how efficient their process is but if they allow large quantities of domains, why wouldn’t domainers go direct to google or at least test their earnings there?
Nice surprising development. Lets hope google take the bugs out of the system and makes this program easy to implement and more profitable than parking companies.
I think no domainer should use them. They will first pump money into the market, and then lower everyones revenue share after they have a monopoly.
It’s SOOOO important for all domainers to have Domainsponsor, Parkingpanel, Fabulous, Sedo and all the others to compete against each other, and since they all have fixed revenue share contracts and only take small margins themselves, it’s much better for everyone in the long run to have this type of competition than none!
Don’t be tempted to use Google!
Rob,
I agree with you on the competition but when the widget maker decides to sell direct instead of through a reseller, that has to be good for consumers.
Google is now selling direct.
I don’t see how the Google parking partners are going to put a positive spin on this especially with all the negative talk about Google partner payout and PPC rates falling.
One would be stupid NOT to park directly with Google. That is the truth and the truth is going to kill the Google parking companies if payouts are similar or higher.
I would imagine the Yahoo parking companies are on the ropes too since we all know what’s going on with them lately.
The winners in this are domainers, WhyPark, maybe evolanding. The parking companies need to adjust their business plans.
No way all the parking companies are going to survive even without this HUGE news from Google.
yeah but the bad thing is that service only available on US.
If these domains start to reappear in Google search results that would be the bigger game changer.
An unexpected development. I wonder if this had to do with the economy, or the recent cuts on Google’s price & target earnings estimates?
Regarding A Records and CNames, etc… If you run your own DNS server its easy to make a template for copy/paste. I think that Moniker allows you to make DNS templates to that you can apply to domains in bulk, or 1 by 1.
This will be interesting. I don’t trust google as far as I can throw them. Clearly they can’t be thrown very far.
So what is the secret trick. This new option did not appear on my Adsense Setup. What a rip.
This is a great move. When will it be available in the UK.
This is really surprising news, which will undoubtedly have great impact on domainers. Hopefully google will quickly fine-tune their system from feedback received…thanks for the info!
This is indeed a very interesting development. I imagine that amateurs and domainers with very few names in their portfolio (like me) would want to use this service more than the average SEDO, Snap, etc… user.
I will go have a look.
Parking companies should be just fine !!!
————————————–
Here’s the NO NO list for domains right from Google:
Terms in the URL may not contain or be related to any of the following:
* Pornography, adult, or mature terms. This includes, but is not limited to, any terms that refer to or suggest nudity, partial nudity, sexual imagery/acts, lewd/graphic or profane language.
* Violent or racially intolerant language or any other form of hate speech directed against an individual, group, or organization
* Excessive profanity
* Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
* Gambling or casino-related content
* Weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles
* Beer or hard alcohol
* Tobacco or tobacco-related products
* Prescription drugs
* Promotion of an illegal activity or an activity that infringes on the legal rights of others.
* References to tragedies or other sensitive current events
* Any other terms that are illegal, promote illegal activity, or infringe on the legal rights of others.
I think this is Google being greedy yet again – I hope none of the big time players move their assets to Google, and further encourage Google to drop their payout amounts for the ‘privilege’ of parking with them.
this might also accelerate the process of developing sites without Google in mind – that way one can negotiate directly with the advertisers and make more money than if they relied on Adsense.
Really big news obviously, couple of thoughts:
1) Google will improve this service over time. They might add more templates, more control, etc. until you have a lite WYSIWYG editor.
2) You are still dependent on type in traffic. The changes happening in the way search is presented within the browsers, drop down options within the search field and the non-inclusion of parked domains in search results all mean that your visit rate is tied to domain keywords.
3) Long term, we still need to figure out how to build better websites and services to drive higher value traffic with more monetization options.
Most likely this will put pressure on parking companies to go forward with alternative to just funneling Google ads for their customers. I know that the bigger companies like DS already have lots of affiliate programs and side advertising deals in place for parked pages. This may force one of them to go completely google/yahoo free and just use these alternatives, which could ultimetly benefit domainers by providing a true alternative.
Seems as though any company that is a partner with google or a competitor of google can have their business model threatened overnight with one change by Google.
I would love to hear something positive from the Google parking companies on this change.
Is there anything positive for them here?
Wow…this must be big for G and killing for the parking companies….
it will be quite interesting to see how this all shakes out
I can’t see in my adsense account, This over for US only?
What is an A record and a CNAME ??
How does one create those ??
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
I may be looking ahead to the near future, but my experience with google is they move fast, quietly, and in a non-transparent way.
If you think this development is just a short-term investment projection for google, think again.
Whypark looks better and better each day.
Here is Google’s info on A and CNAME records and step by step instructions according to each registrar.
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=76049
I give Google a lot of credit for giving such detailed instructions.
Just pick one domain for now and take your time to set it up and then let the domain resolve overnight so the keywords and appropriate ads start to show.
It may seem overwhelming but once you do it, it’s easy to repeat.
Some very preliminary revenue numbers from Adsense for Domains.
I had a Spanish language domain with a Yahoo parking provider. Made an average of $0.14 per day for the past 30 days.
Yesterday I made $0.41 and today so far I have made $0.25.
Sure it’s only a few cents more but that over a 200% increase in revenue.
Just thought you’d like to know.
Maybe Andrew can start a post for information like this so people can post their earnings comparisons.
One more thing…
Will Adsense for domains payout more money so when people start testing and comparing to their current provider, AFD looks like a winner?
Then after a year maybe they start scaling back the payouts after the Google parking companies are dead?
Hmmm… sounds like a long term plan for Google.
Various websites will push a very biased opinion on this.
A lot of advertising revenue is directed from parking companies to advertise on domain industry websites.
If the domain parking companies are making less money, that means less advertising dollars being spent by them on the domain industry websites.
@ Greg – I’ve read a lot of opinions about this on a lot of web sites, and I don’t think anyone is thinking that far in advance. On DNW, for example, I don’t have a single Google partner sponsor (except for Sedo, which mostly advertises its domain auctions). So I certainly hope you are aren’t insinuating anything.
I don’t think goog is so dumb that they don’t know what they are doing. If they can’t compete with parking companies, then domainers will move out of AFD and go back to aprking co’s. Do you really think google haven’t thought about that?
It’s a good feeling to have something else – potentially beneficial on the horizon….
Thanks for the how-to link Rob…
(for the A and CNAME set up)
~DomainBELL (Patricia)
The pages look pale. I wish google could improve their parking pages. Why can’t google have pages looking Like… when you click on “more sponsored links” at the bottom of the paid ads. For instances the link below is for “car loans”
http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks?q=car+loans&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8
I wonder if they will have an api so that us programmers can build our own backend tracking systems. Theoretically this type of thing could already be done with the regular adsense using a page like this http://www.fairgroundamusementads.com/. This way you could also put other ads and content on the site. Its also extremely easy to set up. Visitors, clicks and CTR are equal or better than most parking companies I have tried.
I just dumped most of my portfolio into this – mainly because I am curious: my revenue from Parked.com & GoDaddy has been terrible. Nothing to lose, really. I suppose WhyPark has always been in the back of my mind, but I feel like this might be – possibly – as good?
One question I have for the more advanced crowd: when changing the CNAME and A Record (as for me, I did it in bulk – with many names), do I have to do the SAME THING if or when I shift back to another parking company? Or is that simply a matter of correcting the DNS? ….thx
Here’s a simple guide I’ve done for my domains moving to Google.
http://my.king.net/2008/12/how-to-setup-your-undevelop-domain.html
I just move 300+ domains and counting.
Good luck to you.
WhyPark is a great idea, but my domains parked with them got deindexed and lost their pagerank.
Google can’t be serious with these landing pages, they look awful. I would click the back button almost instantly.
Google is not stupid to not to know that your domain name is using whypark. It’s just a matter of time.
The rumor of domain “deindexing” by Google for domains parked at Whypark is erroneous. Google doesn’t deindex based on Whypark’s services. If you do something yourself that goes against Googles policies (which are not transparent and change on a whim, as we all know), you can find your site deindexed.
Even if your site wasn’t at Whypark, and you custom built it yourself, you can find it deindexed no matter how hard you’ve built original content on your site. It happens to thousands of companies every day.
Phase 2 at Whypark is promising even more original content and content/page customization to make the buildout of your domains very easy to do at affordable costs.
Beyond that, your other alternatives are traditional PPC parking, which gives you NO indexing, or paying hundreds of dollars per domain to hope for indexing. Whypark gives you that advantage for a few dollars. If you have questions, just contact support@whypark.com
Andrew, sorry for the pitch. I owe you one.
Stephen
hmm. so i have over 100 domains now with Google parking. so far, plenty of clicks but less money than my GoDaddy parking, which I know is supposed to be one of the worst.
i’m still optimizing all of them (and of course, there is the very good chance that my names are not all that strong to begin with), but i am beginning to think more along the lines that WhyPark is really the way to go. My only hang-up is the price tag…
Hmmm…interesting comments thus far on this big unexpected Google move. I’m more in the camp with Rob Sequin and Stephen Douglas on where all this may be heading. Let me add my thoughts!
What is Google? a search company? or an advertising media company, or both? I’d say they are both and a lot of other things thrown in. Now what are domains? I’d say domains are both search, advertising and whatever you develop on them. I’d be extremely surprised if google does not have a long term plan. I suggested right here some time ago, it was only a question of time before the likes of Google come in to take domains to where they really should go!
If I were advising google, I’d suggest they collect all the metrics on every single domain, create better landing page solutions and then offer those keyword domains to all their Adwords clients as another and better option for TARGET ADVERTISING!! better still, I’d strongly suggest that google should show the theoretical and empirical value of every “keyword” domain on every search result, perhaps just right above the sponsor ads!! This way, companies, ad agencies and execs can pitch a buy out option of domains. This in my opinion will add many billions to Google’s balance sheet over time. But that is just the beginning!! Yahoo & MSN and even lots of other search companies should get in o the game …and that is why domains will ultimately have “REAL EMPIRICAL VALUE” just like real estate.
As far as I’m concerned, we need the true innovation of Silicon Valley to bring the value of domains to potential business buyer’s and advertiser’s worldwide. If Google really gets this thing as I suppose they do over the near to long term, they will make it seamless to add all kinds of apps such as custom google search etc… My search queries using custom google search on SupremeCourt.com is alarming!! and my google ppc has gone up tremendously by comparison to previous parking.
Soon Google will make it so much easier to acquire aftermarket domains on a daily basis, as oppossed to waiting for the odd domain auction or sale by luck! Don’t forget, there are over 145 million domains registered and my estimates suggest only 30,000 thereabouts have been sold in the aftermarket to date. That’s peanuts and alot of luck to what should be really happening….I think they get it.
Lets just say this is only the beginning and now domains can finally be taken seriously by the Corporate and SME industry at large!
*Kfink,
You’re hesitant over the “price tag” at WhyPark on a $99 minimum account for 100 domains? Please contact us for budget solutions if you have these concerns. We work with all domainers, all sizes.
@ Stephen Douglas,
Please send me a sample landing page for Technology, Media and Business.
Thank you,
EM @ KING.NET
I must say i like the way whypark thinks, it should be more flexible and less obvious that it is a whypark site. But this will come in time.
*hostel.eu* (killer domain name!)
A lot of people who haven’t yet opened up an account at WhyPark.com don’t realize that they can customize ALL ASPECTS of their domain’s website at WhyPark. You can tweak your site in just a few minutes to look just the way you want it to. You can add your own adfeeds and CPA’s (Shopzilla, Amazon, CP.com, etc) and keep 100% of your profits.
The powerful benefits of having your domains parked at WhyPark.com is the “ease of use” in the customization and revenue implementation links, content and graphics.
Don’t just think that the default page designs WhyPark provides is a one-shot deal. They can be easily customized without much effort.
*EM @ KING.NET*
To answer your question about sample landing pages in your categories listed below:
Technology: http://www.fraudware.com/
Business: http://www.tax-exempt.us/ or http://www.acceleratedpayments.net
Media? http://www.upconversion.com
These are websites placed for domains with little or no further customization processing by WhyPark. Essentially, the above sites cost $.99. A WhyPark.com customer can easily place rev sources from their own ad accounts and keep 100% of the revenue returned.
These sites can also be customized at every level by the domain owner, or by WhyPark’s team. If you choose WhyPark to do the customization, you’ll be surprised at how inexpensive it is to build content and design to your domains.
Just attests the old adage. It’s an ill wind that blows poor quality. – A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is just putting on its shoes. – Mark Twain 1835 – 1910
After parking some of my domains with Google they disappeared from Google cache as well as SE traffic. I can say it simply ruined my domains. I can recommend benepark.com instead.