If it wasnt for 20+ domain parking companies I wouldn't of been able to earn six figs

[mike031]

The year was 2005 and I had been domaining "professionally" for close to one year and accumulated a domain portfolio with thousands of domain names mostly focused on Music/Movies/Games, basically domains within the entertainment niche as well as a lot of Adult/Porn related domain names. I had a lot of traffic too coming in to all of this domains which were all of generic nature as well as ones that were expired or "foreclosed" sites which I picked up once they expired... I never really liked domains that just sounded cool but didn't have the potential to generate traffic, I did buy some of those, for example 3 letter .net and .org and single word names in com/net/org but flipped them as fast as I could. Most of the domains I kept were consistent traffic generating domains which I picked up for anywhere from $10 to $20 over at GoDaddy or eNom Club Drop or $60 at most over at Pool / SnapNames. I was never a big spender on any one particular domain name but went after many domains each and every day... Consistently. This was my one and only strategy... To acquire a lot of domains that receive traffic.

But all this traffic from domain names wasn't converting so well when it was parked. The click through rates were really low, barely at 10 percent across my portfolio, peaking at 20% sometimes at certain parking companies, but the payouts were even more depressing... Not even 20 cents per click... Some names did manage to get a bit more but that was the exception. So I had a domain portfolio that was generating a few hundred bucks per day from thousands of domain names that I paid six figures for... Great? No.. Not really, I wasn't happy with it. You are probably thinking to yourself... With a ROI of about anywhere from as low as 12 month's and maximum 24 month's --- it is pretty good... But I wasn't thinking like that. I knew there was more money to be made. I wanted to make the most of what I got one way or another and I was determined to find a way to do so.

At that time, there was at least 20 domain parking companies that were offering their domain monetization services. I had opened accounts at all of them of course. I tried out at least a few hundred of my domain names at each and every service for at least a week or two. I managed my domains and optimized them as best as I could but the results were pretty much all the same everywhere I went. I spent more than six month's going from parking company to parking company hoping to find that perfect partner that will pay a little more, at least double up the payouts and convert the traffic better by maybe 10% and I'd be happy... Nope, it didn't happen. The results were all the same across the board. I came to the conclusion that either the traffic wasn't as good as I thought or the domain parking companies were really underpaying me.

I decided that enough is enough... Something just isn't working out with domain parking and it was time for change. I was not happy with approximately 90% of the visitors leaving my domains without even clicking on any of the links, 90% of the traffic going to waste and the payouts fluctuating as well... Not good. There was no consistency with parking whatsoever. Also the traffic declined slowly month after month. So, I went ahead and setup my own parking page. I first visited some of the websites that were showing up on my parked pages as sponsored ads, signed up for their affiliate program if they had one, grabbed the url with my affiliate code in it and plugged it in my own custom parked page. It was nothing fancy... Nothing too sophisticated or out of the ordinary. Just a regular web page with big blue textlinks and a good call to action. I setup 5 custom parked pages total which were self hosted and managed for each category and manually redirected all of the thousands of my domains to them accordingly. I had setup custom parked pages for music, games, movies, dating and porn originally. Later on I setup custom pages with relevant ads on even more.

My top performing category was Porn and second best was Dating... The other three didn't do as great but they still earned more money as compared to when they were parked. Overall, once I switched up all of my domain names to point to my own custom parked pages, which only took about a few hours to make the DNS change, the next day my revenue had increased more than 5x from direct affiliate sales. The following day it increased 7x. The third day was even better... The week after it was close to 12x. After about one month, I compared my monthly statistics and I had earned more than 1000% more. I made more in one month that I would of made in one year with domain parking. But how is this possible? What the hell... Was I just lucky? No! Going direct is where the money is... Duh!

You see, the sponsored advertisements on parked domains are mostly from search engine marketers. They buy up a lot of advertisements on Google and Yahoo... Why? Because they are promoting affiliate programs. They are "resellers" of whatever product or service. Lets take Hotels.com for example. A search engine marketer signs up for the Hotels.com affiliate program, buys up PPC ads over at Google/Yahoo which are displayed on parked domain names...and if there is indeed a sale / lead generated through one of the links that the search engine marketer placed, he will get a 5% commission from Hotels.com --- if it was for a $1000 reservation, he gets $50. Search engine marketers or "affiliates" generally bid up based on quantity and not quality, so they try to acquire as much traffic as possible... This increases their chances of getting more sales.... Lottery style.

A lot of times the ads they setup to be displayed for many keywords aren't relevant. I remember many times having half if not more of the ads displayed on my parked pages which weren't even on-topic or even remotely close. For example I would have a games domain that would display dating, gambling or finance links on it... What the hell? How is that relevant! That surely isn't going to interest a "gamer" visiting my game site... So you get what I am saying. This is partially the reason why maybe my traffic wasn't converting as well --- the sponsored advertisements weren't on-topic... Not the best user experience if you know what I mean.

As for the payouts, obviously the profits were being split five ways. The affiliate is always offering either a revenue share or a fixed payout for a sale/lead. So the affiliate was paying the search engine marketer to promote the product/service or whatever who was paying Google/Yahoo in order to display his advertisements to potential users who may be interested in the product/services, Google/Yahoo are syndicating the advertising inventory to it's "partners" and paying the parking company who pays out the domain owners who parks the domain. By the time you get paid, it is only a fraction of what the actual traffic / value of the click was bidded up and actually may be worth.

So, I eliminated all this middlemen and went direct to the affiliate and top of the chain. The results were mind blowing. Over 1000% increase in less than a month!! Traffic continued to grow as well instead of decline like it used to for all the month's that I had my domains parked... If it wasn't for those 20 parking companies, I don't think I would of ever figured out that going direct is where the real money is... I was stubborn enough though and knew deep down inside that the traffic is worth more and obviously it is. If it wasn't for trying out all those parking companies I would of never clearly understood that they are paying pennies compared to what each and every visitor may be worth. Sure, they provided a simple and efficient way to make money off the traffic without doing much but come on... It is only a tiny fraction. A little optimization paid off big time.

By not going direct you are missing out on too many opportunities and leaving so much money on the table. My problem wasn't me being lazy, my problem was that I trusted and believed in all the hot shots saying that domain parking is where the money is... It is true, there is money to be made parking domains but there is even more money to be made by going direct to the source. A lot more money. Try it for yourself... Visit one of your highly trafficked parked domains, sign up with all of the websites that show up as sponsored ads on your parked domain, setup a simple web page with your affiliate links embedded in them... The results should be quiet interesting to say the least. This is nothing new obviously, and many have tried this and doing this already, but if you haven't experimented with this as of late --- you need to. There is tons of good affiliate programs out there offering revenue shares as much as 80% and fixed payouts on even free sign ups... The money is there --- go get it!

[2fly1]

Originally Posted by mike031

So, I went ahead and setup my own parking page. I first visited some of the websites that were showing up on my parked pages as sponsored ads, signed up for their affiliate program if they had one, grabbed the url with my affiliate code in it and plugged it in my own custom parked page. It was nothing fancy... Nothing too sophisticated or out of the ordinary. Just a regular web page with big blue textlinks and a good call to action. I setup 5 custom parked pages total which were self hosted and managed for each category and manually redirected all of the thousands of my domains to them accordingly. I had setup custom parked pages for music, games, movies, dating and porn originally. Later on I setup custom pages with relevant ads on even more.

I compared my monthly statistics and I had earned more than 1000% more. I made more in one month that I would of made in one year with domain parking.

So, I eliminated all this middlemen

By not going direct you are missing out Try it for yourself... Visit one of your highly trafficked parked domains, sign up with all of the websites that show up as sponsored ads on your parked domain, setup a simple web page with your affiliate links embedded in them... The results should be quiet interesting to say the least. There is tons of good affiliate programs out there offering revenue shares as much as 80% and fixed payouts on even free sign ups... The money is there --- go get it!

Is it really that easy? Can you show us some of the parked pages you've made and give some direct examples of the affiliates and sponsors you are using?

Although I'm not currently doing the affiliate sites I have a horrible CTR with the adsense sites I'm currently trying.



I drive no paid traffic to my adsense pages so this is 100% natural and search engine traffic, and As an example today alone I had a huge jump in page impressions~ 7,662 impressions ~ 6Clicks ~ 0.08%Page CTR ~ $0.06Page eCPM ~ For a grand total of $0.48 in Earnings.

This is why I park my most of my names.

[dmyre]

Interesting read. Thanks for sharing...

[mike031]

Originally Posted by 2fly1

Is it really that easy? Can you show us some of the parked pages you've made and give some direct examples of the affiliates and sponsors you are using?

Although I'm not currently doing the affiliate sites I have a horrible CTR with the adsense sites I'm currently trying.



I drive no paid traffic to my adsense pages so this is 100% natural and search engine traffic, and As an example today alone I had a huge jump in page impressions~ 7,662 impressions ~ 6Clicks ~ 0.08%Page CTR ~ $0.06Page eCPM ~ For a grand total of $0.48 in Earnings.

This is why I park my most of my names.

it's easy

you need to try all options... what i mentioned above is just one of the many

don't be so passive

in 2009 --- it is time to get aggressive

[hugegrowth]

The problem sometimes is finding the right affiliate program for the domain. Dating, adult, music, casino, poker, books, etc are easy to find affiliate programs for and work very well. Other areas like real estate not so easy. Many people on the internet are looking for free information, free games, social interaction, etc. You make a good point but it's not always so simple.

[mike031]

Originally Posted by hugegrowth

The problem sometimes is finding the right affiliate program for the domain. Dating, adult, music, casino, poker, books, etc are easy to find affiliate programs for and work very well. Other areas like real estate not so easy. Many people on the internet are looking for free information, free games, social interaction, etc. You make a good point but it's not always so simple.

it does not get simpler than what i have mentioned

you look up all 10 websites that are showing up as "ppc advertisements" on your parked page

you visit those 10 websites

...most of them have affiliate programs

you sign up

...etc

easy as 1-2-3

[Acro]

Jeez, Mike. This guide needs a little more "juice". I did use affiliate programs and referrals etc. and from my experience they pay less than AdSense. I never tried the adult industry though.

[mike031]

Originally Posted by Acro

Jeez, Mike. This guide needs a little more "juice". I did use affiliate programs and referrals etc. and from my experience they pay less than AdSense. I never tried the adult industry though.

its either one of two things then

1) either your traffic isn't converting because its not all that great

2) the affiliates you were using sucked


match up GOOD traffic + GOOD affiliates = chaaa ching $$


some of the the best adult affils payout tens of millions each and every month to ppl just like u and me... if u have names that have anything to do with porn u should give em a try --- going direct is going to put a lot more $$$ in ur pocket --- they have the best content and best deals that are sure to convert ur visitors into paying clients


u can pm me and ill be more than happy to recommend a few of the companies i send my traffic to

..and get paid weekly

[Shaggy]

Give us an example of one of your sites so we can see how you designed it.

[mike031]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Give us an example of one of your sites so we can see how you designed it.

you forgot to say please

[Dorkside]

Please give us an example of one of your sites.

[Shaggy]

He did say please

[mike031]

top 999 dot net

adult content, not for minors

[koolnoob]

Mike, thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas...I have only two more questions:

1) Is there a go-to site for signing up as affiliate for all the sites listed on my parked page.Or does it have to be calling up each of the Site's Cust support for becoming an affiliate?

2) Do you have to negotiate on the affiliate marketing price/click or is it a pre-determined number?

Thanks much.Please share your ideas...

[mike031]

Originally Posted by koolnoob

Mike, thanks for sharing your wonderful ideas...I have only two more questions:

1) Is there a go-to site for signing up as affiliate for all the sites listed on my parked page.Or does it have to be calling up each of the Site's Cust support for becoming an affiliate?

2) Do you have to negotiate on the affiliate marketing price/click or is it a pre-determined number?

Thanks much.Please share your ideas...

you are welcome

1) there isn't... the toughest part is finding good affils, by looking at ur parking page, is one way of finding them, it is quick and easy...this way u should be able to get at least a few.. it doesnt mean they are the best affils though... u sign up by visiting em and looking on the bottom of the page for "affiliate" or "partner" links

2) each affiliate program is setup differently...most are setup at pre-determined payouts, etc...but you have to believe in that everybody is open to anything, if u have the traffic and lots of it, they will do all they can in order to win over ur biz

good luck

[mgstudent]

Mike do you have an example of a non porn affiliate site that you've been successful with. This is all pretty interesting stuff.

top999.net took a while to load the images - I think that could be optimized to load faster.

If it wasnt for 20+ domain parking companies I wouldn't of been able to earn six figs

Should be "wouldn't have".
Don't mean to nit pick, just things like this bug me.

[mike031]

Originally Posted by mgstudent

Mike do you have an example of a non porn affiliate site that you've been successful with. This is all pretty interesting stuff.

top999.net took a while to load the images - I think that could be optimized to load faster.


Should be "wouldn't have".
Don't mean to nit pick, just things like this bug me.

picture in ur head the same page, with lighter colors, such as blue and green, but with thumbnails of homegain.com and apartments.com for example.

[denny007]

But maybe you should rename your service you are pushing so hard everywhere from "WannaDevelop" to "WannaScrapPages". That would describe it better.

[mike031]

Originally Posted by denny007

But maybe you should rename your service you are pushing so hard everywhere from "WannaDevelop" to "WannaScrapPages". That would describe it better.

maybe you should get a clue before you post again

we do not scrap anything --- ever

...not so cool as you to scrap and develop sites with stolen content mr. chinese rebel

[denny007]

Originally Posted by mike031

maybe you should get a clue before you post again

we do not scrap anything --- ever

...not so cool as you to scrap and develop sites with stolen content mr. chinese rebel

Dude you are already laughing stock at Domainstate, now let me enlightenyou - for development of one domain you need from couple of weeks and one person to a big team and years. Whatever you or Marchex or Whypark etc. does is not development but putting scraps/MFA pages, period.

I have semi-scrap/semi-developed i.e. http://silymarin.com/, I am not much proud of that still it took one person 3 weeks to do that crap.
http://filez.com/ I would consider developed because it is working and popular search engine.

Nobody can "mass develop" anything, but it is possible to put mass scrap pages with free content copied gazillion times already, weather and stock quotes tickers and crap like that. But that is not devleopment, it is not, it is not, it is not.