Name Monetizer - Name Monetizer - making money with domain names

Monday

01Mar2010

Domain Monetization in early 2010

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 7:03PM

Domain parking income seems to have settled at lower levels than in the past few years, and some people have seen a slight increase in income in early 2010. Some have suggested that the Yahoo/Microsoft paid search deal should further boost parking income on Yahoo-based services such as SmartName, Parked / WhyPark, and TrafficZ. Paid search customers should add more competition for search terms in a combined Yahoo/Microsoft marketplace, and this could result in higher PPC rates for domain owners. There is always the chance that some of the increase won't get passed-on.

Domain owners who depend solely on domain parking for income are still hurting, however.

My advice remains to diversify. Diversify your income stream by actively marketing your domains for sale. Find quick and easy "development" platforms like WhyPark and SmartName to put up content-rich websites and court SEO traffic. Consider services like Above.com which let you compare parking with different companies, and connect you with Trellian's domain leasing service.

Leonard Holmes |

1 Comment |

tagged

domain monetization,

domain name sales,

domain names in

Monday

01Mar2010

More on WhyPark Development

Monday, March 1, 2010 at 6:57PM

WhyPark is actually a very sophisticated platform that lets you create almost any type of site you want to. You do this by editing the layout of your site using their editing tools. When you go to edit a layout you will see two windows - one for the stylesheet for your site and one for the HTML content. This gives you the ability to edit your site at a very granular level. Some blocks of content - such ad the main article list and the ads above and below - are not individually editable, but you can choose to omit them entirely if you want to by removing the [[mainbody]] tag. (You will almost never want to do this.) Most normal HTML will work with editing your layout. You can also use a bunch of "placeholders" as short-cuts to special pieces of content.

Site Placeholders:

According to WhyPark placeholders are "used to insert the dynamic pieces of your sites into your layout. They add functionality and provide a simple way to move functionality around within your layout." Use the double square bracket terms listed below when you are editing your WhyPark site's layout:

[[domain]] Inserts your domain name into layout.
[[forsale]] Insert a link to sell your domain. This placeholder is replaced with a link to an inquiry form where buyers can contact you.
[[image]] Insert the default small image for your site's category
[[imgHeader]] Insert the default header image for your site's theme or category
[[imgMedium]] Insert the dynamic 385x261 image
[[mainbody]] The main content for every page which includes the full articles, custom pages, etc.
[[newsletter]] Insert a sign up link for your newsletter. This feature is only available with subscribers to the Managed tier of service.
[[related]] Insert the related articles. Related articles show a title and summary of an article on your site to keep users engaged.
[[rssfeed-in]] If you have an external RSS feed associated with your site, insert this placeholder to indicate where the content from it will be displayed. This feature is only available with subscribers to the Enhanced and Managed tier of service. It may take up to 24 hours to see the first data from these feeds.
[[rssfeed-out]] Insert a link to download your RSS feed. This feature is only available with subscribers to the Managed tier of service.
[[sitename]] Insert the name of your site as defined in your main site settings.
[[textads]] Insert text ads you've setup for this site.

Leonard Holmes |

Development with WhyPark

Friday, February 26, 2010 at 3:48PM

WhyPark is marketed as an alternative to domain parking. If you have simply dumped your domains there like you would at a parking company then you are not getting the most from their quasi-development platform. It's even possible to treat WhyPark as a complete development platform, although it means manually editing html and stylesheets.

Be Careful with Keywords.

When you initially add a name to WhyPark you are prompted for several set-up options. One of the most important options to attend to is the "keyword" option. If you put in the wrong keywords you will get off-topic articles from their collection. If you leave keywords for them to optimize you may also get off-topic articles. Part of the Control Panel in WhyPark

My vision for the site GreenInfants.com was to provide resources for eco-friendly parenting. I quickly set the site up and went on to other projects. When I returned to the site recently I found it pulling in articles for green-colored baby furniture and health articles about green poop and green vomit. What was goign on?

I examined the keywords and found: "baby shoes, carters green, green dragon costume, 4t green, green sleeper, feces infants, green babies, green stool, green blood, baby infants, constipation infants, green diarrhea, green baby, green feces, diarrhea infants, green stools, green poop, teething infants, gr

Click to read more ...

Leonard Holmes |

Domain Conference Overload?

Monday, February 1, 2010 at 6:15PM

Is there really a need for three domain conferences within 30 days? There is a hard core group of professional domainers and domain journalists who go to almost all of these conferences. Andrew Allemann of Domain Name Wire had to pay an extra $500 for his TRAFFIC Las Vegas air fare after booking his flight for the wrong week. He reported that he was booking flights for TRAFFIC (January 21-23 ), DOMAINfest (January 26-28 ) and Domainer Mardi Gras (February 11-13 ) at the same time and apparently got confused.

What about the rest of us? Can you afford to jet to Las Vegas, L.A., and New Orleans in the same month? I can't.

I expect that this will be the last year that we see 3 conferences so close together. DOMAINfest was apparently the best attended conference - with over 650 in attendance. Oversee.net has gained a reputation for having the best combination of content and parties at their DOMAINfest Global conferences. They have carved out a good time for snowbirds to travel to a warmer climate (even though it is the rainy season) and I don't expect they will change.

Domainer Mardi Gras was originally sponsored by Modern Domainer magazine. It is now sponsored by Parked.com. They don't have much flexibility about when they hold their conference - they can't reschedule Mardi Gras. This conference was apparently lightly attended last year. It is primarily a time for domainers to party and relax in the middle of the winter. Next year Mardi Gras will be on March 8th - so the conference (if they still hold it) will be in March instead of February. Will they still have it? It depends on whether Parked and DirectNIC find it worthwhile. If the turnout is low, then this conference may be the first to go.

The TRAFFIC shows are being run by Rick Latona this year. Their website is much more professional and the conference got good reviews (except for the buggy live auction). We may see a pared-down line-up in 2011. Some have suggested that TRAFFIC is scheduled this way to capture people who are on their way to DOMAINfest. If that strategy is working, then they probably won't move either. If they drop a show in 2011 their January show may be the one.

The "average" domain owner would benefit from picking one of these events to attend every year or two. You'll learn about new developments and get a change to meet other domain professionals. Don't limit your attendance to domain conferences, though. Consider attending seo conferences such as an SMX event or an affiliate conference such as Affiliate Summit. As domain parking income dwindles, we all need other business models to consider.

Leonard Holmes |

Post-Parking Monetization - Rapid Domain Builder

Friday, January 29, 2010 at 3:27PM

Oversee.net's DOMAINfest Global was again a big success. The company is the parent company of Domain Sponsor
- one of the premier domain parking companies - but they also introduced domain owners to some new monetization options at the recent conference. Rapid Domain Builder generated a lot of buzz at their "Pitchfest." The purpose of the pitchfest was to introduce domainers to "new, alpha- or beta-stage product and service ideas for increasing website traffic and revenue."

Rapid Domain Builder appears to be a hosting and content management package that is priced in a pay-as-you-go manner. It is still in beta and it has some rough edges. I've played around with it a little and there is a learning curve - but there is also a lot of promise. It uses several different content management systems, and allows you to use AdSense and DevHub as well. You can even create Wordpress sites with their platform (although I'm still not sure why you would want to - WordPress is free and easy to use.)

It does not appear to me that the service adds any content to your domains unless you pay extra for this. You can apparently hire staff to create content for you and develop out your site within their system. You can see your Rapid Domain Builder sites before you pay to actually host them. Kicking the tires is free.

Expect to spend several hours figuring out all the options here. Rapid Domain Builder is built on the MyPage.com platform which appears to primarily provide hosting services. The service promises to give domain owners a quick way to develop and monetize in bulk. Pricing is still a mystery to me too. In some places they quote prices as low as $1 per domain, and in other places it looks like $299 plus $2.99 per domain. That's quite a big difference. I see the potential in their site, but I am hopelessly lost figuring out all the options.

Leonard Holmes |

9 Comments |

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