We're No Longer Recommending Bing-based Services

Earlier this month I dropped my recommendation of Bing-monetized parking companies Parked and SmartName. Income has just not rebounded Since Bing took over monetization of these services from Yahoo. As of this month I recommend the Google-based services DomainSponsor, NameDrive, and Sedo/SedoPro.   

Income has been dropping at Google services too - but it's been a slow, steady decline.  Income at the Bing-based services fell off a cliff.  I know that people at these services are scurrying to work on ways to increase income. Another Bing-based service, TrafficZ, announced a new diversified platform that they expect to implement in the future.  

What should domain owners do?  Carefully evaluate what has been happening with your domain portfolio. Compare domains from month-to-month, but also from year-to-year.  Some domains are likely doing a little better at Bing, so you shouldn't move everything to a Google-based service.   In addition to their Bing "ad feed" SmartName has a "Shops" feature that builds ecommerce shops monetized through Shopping.com.  If you have product domains, consider switching to this type of landing page.  WhyPark has a similar feature, although other features at their service are Bing-based.

If you still want to keep some domains at a Bing-based service, I'd recommend Parked as the one to stick with. Their leadership has consistently demonstrated honest, ethical dealing with domain owners when some other services have changed the rules with no advanced notice.  Donny Simonton is creative and accessible and I'm sure he is scrambling to find a way to move Parked back to the top.

"Bing Sucks"

Donny Simonton shoots straight. After trying to spin the horrible numbers domain owners were seeing from domain parking company Parked this past month he finally came right out and sait it - "Bing Sucks."  (Read down this thread to see the transformation in his attitude.)

Domain monetization companies such as Parked (and WhyPark), TrafficZ, and SmartName, have depended on Yahoo's ads to power their services. Yahoo switched their ad inventory to Microsoft's Bing service in November and lots of problems cropped-up.

Domain monetization is new for Bing. They have had an AdWords-like platform for some time, but they have not worked with domain parking companies. It seems that their stats reporting system was not up to the challenge initially. They had to start from scratch figuring out issues like traffic quality - a multiplier they use based on how likely they think your traffic's clicks will result in an actual sale. In most cases they seemed to estimate low, and there were reports that these quality scores would change on a daily basis for no reason.

I reached out to Parked and WhyPark, TrafficZ, and SmartName with some questions about their experiences to date.  Only Parked and WhyPark have responded to date.  Donny asked Craig Rowe of WhyPark to respond for both services, since they work together to optimize their Bing feed.

Here are Craig's responses to my questions: 

Click to read more ...

Upcoming Events focus on Monetization

The upcoming T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas show (January 21-23 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino) is the first produced by Rick Latona.  He has ditched Rick Schwartz's "invitation only" policy and opened the show up to all (finally).  The new Rick has followed the lead of "fun" conferences like Domainer Mardi Gras and skipped ealry morning sessions.  According to the show schedule there are no morning sessions at all.  The content starts at noon.  Like Mardi Gras, Las Vegas lends itself to late night activities.  The show also offers more networking events, and half price tickets have been liberally available.  Monetization topics include "CPA as an Alternative to PPC" and "Optimizing Your Domain Portfolio in a PPC Environment."

DOMAINfest Global Follows from January 26th through the 28th at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica - a new venue for this show.   Oversee.net has pulled-out all the stops, returning to the Playboy Mansion and inviting Frank Schilling, Ron Sheridan, and Adam Roux to be the judges for the show's new Pitchfest contest, which focus on domain monetization. The contest is designed to explore new products or services designed to enhance the value of parked or developed domain names.  Pitchfests are often seen as blatant self-promotion and attendees at other conferences avoid such presentations.  It will be interesting to see if this new approach gains popularity with domain owners.  You can read their press release for all of the details.

Domainer Mardi Gras follows in February. Their sessions actually start a little earlier than T.R.A.F.F.I.C., at 10:45.  On the agenda are topics such as "Domain Name Investments in 2010 and beyond.  Where is the industry heading?"  I should be on a panel at the Conference - but I'm not sure which one yet.  Domainer Mardi Gras was apparently a small conference last year with a focus on fun (as can be seen in this video).    Last year it was sponsored by Modern Domainer magazine, which apparently is no more.  This year Parked has taken over as host, with a few additional sponsors announced.  This may be my last conference for a while as I work on cutting expenses in 2010.  How about you?

New Parked / WhyPark Forum

Check out the new forum for Parked and Whypark at Forum.Parked.com.  This seems to be Donny's answer to criticism he received not too long ago on NamePros.  It's already a very active forum for domainers and there are wide-ranging discussions on issues other than parking.  It's also another place to buy and sell domains. 

Donny Simonton and Craig Rowe on Parked and Whypark's Future Together

Donny Simonton and Craig Rowe talk about the reasons that Parked bought WhyPark and the synergies that they see going forward.  There's not a lot new here, but it interesting to hear them talk about this together.  I get the sense that they actually get along.  Background on the merger is here.