Domain owners are caught between a rock and a hard place. Bing has cut income from many parking companies, and now Google is taking new measures against spammy content. Ironically, Demand Media is about to go public at the same time that Google strikes out against content farms like eHow. Google's efforts should also affect... Continue Reading →
“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:
TrafficZ’s New Monetization Models
TrafficZ is one of the companies reeling from the drop in revenue associated with the switch from Yahoo to Bing. They recently announced a sneak peak of a new monetization model that will be less dependent on pay-per-click parking. Their new model includes CPA (Cost per Action) - "Clients get paid when a user... Continue Reading →
Staying Afloat in 2011
As domain income gets tighter and tighter people are looking for creative ways to fund their domain portfoilo expenses. There were a couple of really good articles in the past month that gave people tips on how to do this. Rick Schwarz posted an excellent article on his blog giving newbie domain investors advice on... Continue Reading →
Verify your Parking Stats with DNWStats
How can you prove your traffic stats are legitimate to a potential domain buyer? Andrew Allemann's new DNWStats service will log into your parking stats and retrieve the data. It will then publish a certificate certifying the traffic. The service currently works with DomainSponsor, NameDrive, Parked, Sedo (but not SedoPro), and Skenzo. DNWStats is free-of-charge. At... Continue Reading →
WhyPark Debuts Domain Apps
WhyPark announced in July that they have new "Domain Apps" that can be installed on WhyPark domains. These widgets are automatically installed, either on the home page of the domain or on a separate page. Domain Apps let you instantly add relevant widgets to your domains, and in some cases you earn money from the... Continue Reading →
WhyPark teamed with AdSense
WhyPark and AdSense can be a powerful combination. You may recall that there was a period where some domains that used WhyPark were banned from Google's AdSense program. WhyPark scrambled to develop their own ad network, which was greatly strengthened when they were bought by domain parking powerhouse Parked. My domains that were with WhyPark... Continue Reading →
Yahoo Exits the “AdSense” Business
Yahoo announced on March 31st that it shutting down its Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) effective April 30. According to a Yahoo bog post, the decision "does not affect large, direct publishers and partners, nor advertisers using Content Match." They go on to state: Earlier today, Yahoo! emailed a small group of publishers participating in the... Continue Reading →
ParkLogic – Domains as Investments
Michael Gilmour is serious about domain name investing. You've probably seen his blog and heard him speak at domain conferences. His vision for domain names involves treating them as objective investment vehicles - similar to stocks and bonds. He has developed a platform at ParkLogic.com that allows owners of major domain portfolios to tightly analyze... Continue Reading →
Development with WhyPark
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
NameMonetizer 