Spring 2013 – Issue #76
Has Parking Income Stabilized?
DomainSponsor wrapped-up their WebFest Global conference in California last month (formerly DomainFest Global) and reported an actual increase in parking income. Ron Jackson attended a press breakfast with Debra Domeyer, who reported that “Domeyer made was that the company saw good year over year growth in domain monetization with the average PPC revenue in 4Q-2012 coming in a little better than the same quarter a year earlier.”
I have also seen an increase in DomainSponsor income in the past few months. I have also noticed that the domains managed by the mets-parking platform Above are migrating away from other services and toward . Your mileage may vary, or course, but it may be time to give DomainSponsor a try again.
Interestingly DomainSponsor did not even make it into DomainNameWire’s survey of parking companies this year.
Here are the top parking companies according to their survey:
1. InternetTraffic 22%
2. Sedo 17%
3. Voodoo 8%
4. Bodis, Rook, GoDaddy, SmartName (6%, tie)
42 % of domain owners who responded to the survey reported that their parking income was down in 2012 from past years. This is certainly at odds with what DomainSponsor is reporting.
Godaddy – Domainer Favorite or Problem Child?
Back in November of 2012 security Site Sophos.com
reported that some sites hosted at GoDaddy have been hacked with “ramsomware.” Users are sent to a page telling them that their computer has been locked and that they need to pay a ranson to unlock the computer. Frasier Howard notes that “an animated GIF in this lock page to mimic the video from the user’s webcam! This sort of attention to detail is what helps convince many users that the warning is legitimate.” See the full article for all of the details.
Interestingly DomainNameWire’s survey of domain owners found GoDaddy to be the favorite registrar, despite their challenging interface and their policy of trying to up-sell on every purchase. Fully 48% of domain owners listed GoDaddy as their favorite, with second place Name.com a paltry 8%. Interestingly, eNom didn’t even make the top 5 this year.
The image to the right is what visitors saw when they visited the hacked domains. (The blurry image was made to look like a video feed from a webcam.)
Rick’s Board is Back – Sort of
Rick Schwartz had one of the hottest forums for domain owners in years past. It had a reputation of being very tightly managed, but it also had a reputation as the place to interact with the biggest names in the industry. The new Domain King’s Joint Venture Group just started and promises to continue some of the same discussions found in the past on Rick’s Board. You can request to join the group, but membership will need to be approved. It may help to “connect” with current members first.
The Future of Domain Monetization
Clearly domain monetization is changing. More domain owners are developing their best domains; and with that change comes an identity crisis. Are we “domainers” or online business persons? Domain parking remains the easiest way to monetize, and new companies continue to appear and grab part of the market. We are testing domains with InternetTraffic, and the numbers look good – but they don’t pay out until you hit $100. This puts them out of reach for casual domain owners. Sedo, NameDrive, and DomainSponsor are still competitive, and have a proven track record of payouts. The will also pay when income reaches $25 instead of $100. Whatever the future holds this newsletter will continue to publish issues when the news warrants it. The new TLDs will also be interesting to watch. They won’t have any type-in traffic, or course, but will the world embrace .everything?
NameMonetizer 