Parking company moves to invite only model.
Domain parking company and domain registrar Fabulous is no longer accepting web applications for its domain name parking services and wholesale registration accounts. It will only accept referrals going forward. In fact, the sign-up button at Fabulous.com has been removed. (Fabulous customers who wish to transfer domains to buyers can send them a link to open a retail account).
You’re going to start seeing more of this in the future. 20% of domain parking customers provide 80% of the revenue to the parking companies. (It’s probably more like 5% and 95%). It’s the classic 80/20 rule. Since some domain parking companies use manual processes to get customers set up on their system, it doesn’t make financial sense to serve customers that won’t generate much lifetime revenue.
You’ll also see domain parking companies re-evaluating the acquisition cost of getting new customers. They may shift more of their dollars to referral programs which don’t require upfront marketing dollars.
The Google Adsense for Domains “Online” model, on the other hand, is set up for customers with just a handful of domains. Some domain name parking companies with simple and automated onboarding procedures can also handle smaller customers.
A handful of domain name parking companies, such as HitFarm, Skenzo, and SmartName, have always restricted usage to the biggest domainers.
And this is why parked is blowing them all away. Easy sign up, great numbers and quick support.
Fabulous is a joke, IMO. With a generic portfolio earning thousands each month, I applied for an account last year only to be turned down. Other parking companies are very happy to have me. Fabulous needs to get over themselves.
could be shooting themselves in the foot…small fish sometimes become big fish and then remember who snubbed them in the past.
I have accts with most of ppc companies.
Fab. management are “class acts”.
Unfortunately, all the ppc companies stink.
Somedays one is better than others.
For the past week, Parked – stuck;
DomainSponsor was good.
This week it could switch.
Something with the other major ppc companies.
Comparing the general performance of all of them, Fab. is on the low side. They have nice landers, etc. I just don’t know why I don’t do well there.
I believe Fab’s strategy is, all of the mid to major domainers already have accts with them. So, the only people that will sign up henceforth will be newbies, small domainers, or click fraud guys. And, none will be profitable for them in the future.
Fabulous, like Ricardo says, has great landers but they just don’t have a great CTR. Why? I just can’t figure it out.
They started off like a wild fire in the old days, but earnings have just gotten stale.
Parked.com kills them on earnings.
All my domains are generic so I can’t understand why I don’t make good $$$ there.
I agree, though, they are a class act.
.
Good move 🙂
Congrats to Fab — one of the most professional companies around… Always thinking ahead.. Always making moves 🙂
Bravo.
@ Tim – while that’s usually the case, the domain name market has matured enough that it’s rare for someone to suddenly go from a small fish to big fish. That said, I wouldn’t hold it against Fabulous. It just means they’ll do a better job focusing on monetizing your domain names when you ARE a big fish.