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.
Rob Sequin says
Great combo, no doubt. Ironically though I plan to move domains from parked to whypark.
I wonder other domain owners will do this too and if parked.com anticipated such a move?
I guess if people moved from Parked.com and Parked.com didn’t own Whypark then they were really out of luck.
Then again, what happens when people move from Parked.com to Whypark and enter google adsense code rather than whypark ads?
It will be interesting to see how and where the domains land.
Donny says
Rob – There are many combinations that you can do things, understand that Parked is good for some domains and Whypark in most cases is good for others. At the end of the day if you have domains with decent traffic already you will do better at Parked then WhyPark, but if you have domains that need traffic WhyPark is a much better option.
Mike – We plan on taking all of the good domains so the only thing you will be be left with is cosmeticdentistyardleylanghornewtownhopecrossingbucksdentistry.com. I know the owner he is waiting for your call. 🙂 As I’ve said before WhyPark is not into the development that you are, it’s mass development.
trey says
Really sick of Mike knocking the competition. He needs to be banned from domaining.com and the comment filter for ALL blogs.
RKB says
I also think so 🙂
Rob Sequin says
Donny,
Thanks for the feedback.
I would love to read the Parked.com/WhyPark guide to domain monetization.
Maybe someday you can write up the “best place for your domain” type of ebook.
For example, travel domains/geo domains here and product domains there and this type of domain there etc etc.
Give us some insider information about what keywords or criteria works best where.
If it’s well written I think you see can thousands of domains moving in the best direction within 24 hours.
Tell us what works and what doesn’t at parked.com and whypark and if gambling and/or adult domains don’t do well at either for example, tell us. So you loose some of those domains but people will respect you for the honesty and they will move all their other domain into your system.
Just a thought.
RKB says
Agree with above and I also think a common parked/whypark id/interface can also be a great convenient thing potentially.
Andrew Allemann says
“common parked/whypark id/interface can also be a great convenient thing potentially.”
One idea to cross market would be for a message to show next to any domain that gets below a certain number of visits a month on Parked. It could say “Get more traffic for this domain at WhyPark”, with a link to WhyPark.
D says
[5]
Why ban ? He is like baffoon of domain industry, creating entertainment for us.
wannadevelop.com says
Donny, I know that WhyPark is into http://www.domainmassdevelopment.com (coming soon!) 🙂 but so am I 😉
10,000’s strong, since 2002.
Cheers!
Mike
bernard says
I was always dubious about Whypark business model of 1 low initial payment. Actually the business model was to get bought!
Intrepid says
Just wondering if the service is so good, why is the first link in the Why Park “Success Stories” pointed back to Domain Sponsor now? Seems like lots of gullible hype here.
http://www.whypark.com/success-stories.htm
Top Success Story:
http://airlinerewards.com/
Andrew Allemann says
@ Intrepid – I think AirlineRewards.com was sold at Domainer Mardi Gras.
Andrew Allemann says
Deleted derogatory commentary. Let’s keep this conversation productive and relevant, please.
Anwar says
I tried whypark for some time with google adsense and never saw a decent revenue (maybe a couple of hundred), i make a lot more (3X) on Sedo Pro. I was on whypark for a number of months but for some reason was never able to ramp up earnings. I am not sure about whypark (or parked.com) because they are 2-click landers – don’t convert that well.
Not sure if I will jump back into whypark
Andrew Allemann says
@ Anwar – two click landers often perform better than one click landers.
furkat says
Indeed my revenue with WP has jumped by more than x10 since it joined parked.com
I would recommend WP as a leader in the market.
A lot of domainers were crying out for such platform.
Here it is. Use it.
della says
I have been at parked.comfor less than 3 weeks and already have surpassed what I make at Sedo in over a month