Future of Domains, new treasures, new monetization

[SuccessClick]

With the acquisition of WhyPark by Parked.com, the door has been opened for all ccTLD and non-.com domain owners to develop their domains with content, and get a good feed on them.

It's almost like an ambush on .com owners who only park their domains. Parking your domains if they each get 1000 typeins a month and have a 30% CTR is nice, but that domain never gets indexed, and a significant percentage of endusers are turned off by checking out a domain name you're trying to sell them and all they see is adlinks on the page. Endusers seem to see more of a "competitive need" to purchase a domain name that features relevant content to their own prodservs.

So ccTLD, .org, .net, .us gTLD's SLD's, all have significant benefits now, especially if you scooped up some killer one/two word popular names/phrases because now you can put content on these sites relevant to your domain name, and have the opportunity to get organic search traffic (search engine traffic, or SET)

I'm definitely more into non.com's lately, and they seem to be looking better to endusers too. I've seen VW use a ".org" domain in a nationally televised commercial with Brooke Shields. I've seen local businesses now using .net's and .org's, .us's and even the once-lame .biz!

What's your thoughts bout this gang?

[stuff]

self promotion?

[draggar]

With the acquisition of WhyPark by Parked.com, the door has been opened for all ccTLD and non-.com domain owners to develop their domains with content, and get a good feed on them.

I've been doing this since I started - the second domain I bought (registered) was a .net and my two most successful sites (traffic and revenue) are a .org and a .net (I think I'd actually have to go down to maybe #4 or #5 to find the first .com).

[jasdon11]

What's your thoughts bout this gang?

My thoughts are this should be in 'advertising' section.

[SuccessClick]

self promotion?

And another post count for "STUFF", who has provided thousands of posts that provided substance benefitting the domain community.

(Why would somebody with a profile like "STUFF" be allowed to post over 4000 times in this forum? hmmm... well, it's not my forum, so I guess the old belief of "I've been a member for years and I've remained anonymous" still gives these lonely people boners when they try to belittle people in their posts.)

Forget that... Again, the question is "How do you feel about the future of monetizing non-.com domains?"

My thoughts are this should be in 'advertising' section.

Jason, it's not an advertisement. It's an opinion, and a direction I feel is important for domainers. Should I just say "XXXXXX is offering this" and it could be helpful for non .com owners? Should I provide a list of all the domain development companies in the post?

I don't think that there would be an argument against any legitimate domain development company being discussed within this thread. This isn't just about WhyPark, but about a new direction in monetizing domains you have sitting dormant at a PS.

I think anyone reading should list any domain development company they think will benefit non-.com domain owners. I'm not going to argue against them. I support them all as long as they deliver!

I've been doing this since I started - the second domain I bought (registered) was a .net and my two most successful sites (traffic and revenue) are a .org and a .net (I think I'd actually have to go down to maybe #4 or #5 to find the first .com).

Draggar, did you build the sites yourself? Or did you hire a team, have your own team, or did you use an established "corporate development service" to build up your domains?

You sound happy with your results, can you share your methods in achieving them? Most domainers own non -.com domains and would like to do something with domains that don't get typein traffic.

Congrats on your success!

[jasdon11]

Jason, it's not an advertisement. It's an opinion, and a direction I feel is important for domainers. Should I just say "XXXXXX is offering this" and it could be helpful for non .com owners? Should I provide a list of all the domain development companies in the post?

I don't think that there would be an argument against any legitimate domain development company being discussed within this thread. This isn't just about WhyPark, but about a new direction in monetizing domains you have sitting dormant at a PS.

As you know, I have had upto 500 sites live with Whypark in the past - one of the problems I have had, was with Whypark deeming it better to point some of the sites I had taken the trouble to set up, to a Domain Sponsor parked landing page. This was done without my permission and without any notification - these were not names that got natural traffic, so I find the gist of your opening post to be quite...interesting!

[stuff]

And another post count for "STUFF", who has provided thousands of posts that provided substance benefitting the domain community.

(Why would somebody with a profile like "STUFF" be allowed to post over 4000 times in this forum? hmmm... well, it's not my forum, so I guess the old belief of "I've been a member for years and I've remained anonymous" still gives these lonely people boners when they try to belittle people in their posts.)

Forget that... Again, the question is "How do you feel about the future of monetizing non-.com domains?"!

I was reffering to point that you old fart are making self promotion where its not allowed!
and if you where the guy who got personal...

[draggar]

Draggar, did you build the sites yourself? Or did you hire a team, have your own team, or did you use an established "corporate development service" to build up your domains?

You sound happy with your results, can you share your methods in achieving them? Most domainers own non -.com domains and would like to do something with domains that don't get typein traffic.

My "sites" are mainly just a Wordpress blog with a theme and some ads thrown on them (CJ / Adsense). Nothing big plus I'm sure my "success" sites wouldn't even come close to a lot of "less successful" sites other people here have. I'm sure most would laugh at the stats - but considering I make the sites and domain as a hobby and not as a full time job then even a small success for me is a plus.

As I said, development is mainly wordpress and for content one uses articles written by the person I run the site for (the site is his RealName.org (plus I have the .net, .info, and .us pointing to is since the .com was illegally being run)). he wrties great articles for SEO (even though he knows nothing about "the internets") and we quickly beat out the .com with SEO and god communications to sites promoting the illegal copy of the site (the .com owners later dropped the .com and I picked it up but traffic coming from it still won't match what comes directly to the .org). I'd say most of this traffic is from search engines and some from backlinks. I'm sure any typeins are to the .com.

Number two is a fan site for a local radio station's game. Yes, a game. This game generally lasts over 100 working days (Mon-Fri, no holidays, minus vacations etc - the average lasting 5-7 months) and has great prizes. Traffic was small until one day they mentioned it on the radio. Ever since then traffic has been steady (20-50 hits a day, sometimes spiking over 100 - I know this is laughable for some but with no paid advertising and very little promoting). I also post about the show topics and a daily post about what's happened in the world of classic rock (the genera the station mainly plays). Most of this is direct, I've been able to sneak a link here and there but what really helps my site is that they tend to mention it on the radio at least once during each "seasons" of the games (usually every 5-7 months).

I am happy with the results. I'm sure some members here would hate to see numbers like this but considering I am working with an extremely low budget (almost always hand-regging domains, cheap Hosting (Hostmonster), free templates and CMS like Wordpress, SMF, etc, the lowest level of advertising (CJ, Amazon affiliate, AdSense etc), and the little amont of time I can dedicate to each site, I am quite happy with the results.

Honestly, I see non-.com domains as a far less expensive alternative to get some great names. I was able to pick up a single word .net (post drop hand-registration) and six months later the .com dropped - went to TDNAM auction and sold for over $500. My .net is developed and I'm happy with it (just hard to find content for it). There are still a lot of great non-.com domains out there, even some .org and .net domains but plenty of .info and any other ccTLD (.us, .de, .bz, .co.uk etc..) and now since a lot of it is about SEO over typing in the names then it is easy to get a non.com ranked higher than a parked .com domain.

[Acro]

The question is, do you make money out of hybrid set ups such as these? The web sites that carry feeds only look atrocious. The inclusion of AdSense ads hardly matches the revenue from full parking. If one must develop content, the only way is to go into full-fledged development. That's the only real way to maintain and retain steady traffic.

[SuccessClick]

As you know, I have had upto 500 sites live with Whypark in the past - one of the problems I have had, was with Whypark deeming it better to point some of the sites I had taken the trouble to set up, to a Domain Sponsor parked landing page. This was done without my permission and without any notification - these were not names that got natural traffic, so I find the gist of your opening post to be quite...interesting!

Hi Jason,

The key word for you is "in the past". I wasn't with WhyPark when what you are describing happened, if it did. I can't discuss that but I know it no longer is an issue. I don't want this to be a post about "Whypark", but on the techniques, sources, scripts, programs and sites that can create a powerful moneymaking machine for non .com domains through proper development.

If you have any domains still at WhyPark, have you experienced any beneficial changes? And if not, why not test a few at Whypark to see how they've evolved? It's free to get started. And no, I don't make anything off you signing up unless you go through my referral link on my blog. Since I've never published that in this thread, I'm really only interested in domainers' opinions about the value of non.com domains through SET revenue gained with content development.

Thanks for your reply!

[mulligan]

Can I just refer you guys to http://www.idndemystified.com/ for a brief rundown?

Edit: Not my blog

[ksinclair]

Stephen,

I enjoy your posts, keep doing them. i agree that for dev .com is not critical. But for a big sale later, if that is your goal, you want a .com.

To me its like playing poker. If you play poker, you dont care how much the other guys win; the players change over time too. You should only care who much YOU win. So dev is like that - if you dev a .net and the .com is making more, so what? if you drive some traffic, inadvertently to the .com - thats gonna happen - so what? what matters is how much your site makes for you. if you meet your goals, its good.

Kevin

[jasdon11]

Hi Jason,

The key word for you is "in the past". I wasn't with WhyPark when what you are describing happened, if it did. I can't discuss that but I know it no longer is an issue. I don't want this to be a post about "Whypark", but on the techniques, sources, scripts, programs and sites that can create a powerful moneymaking machine for non .com domains through proper development.

If you have any domains still at WhyPark, have you experienced any beneficial changes? And if not, why not test a few at Whypark to see how they've evolved? It's free to get started. And no, I don't make anything off you signing up unless you go through my referral link on my blog. Since I've never published that in this thread, I'm really only interested in domainers' opinions about the value of non.com domains through SET revenue gained with content development.

Thanks for your reply!

Steven, you were with Whypark at that stage - it was only a few weeks ago, in February.

I still have approx 100 sites at Whypark, and reducing.

[David G]

I still have approx 100 sites at Whypark, and reducing.

Why?

Has anyone here seen evidence WhyPark sites get indexed well in the search engines and gain traffic as a result?

[teatime]

Why?

Has anyone here seen evidence WhyPark sites get indexed well in the search engines and gain traffic as a result?

Yes, some whypark sites get indexed fairly well. Maybe the key is that you need to add some good, original content to a whypark site to make this happen.
Here's one that has performed ok: http://showertiling.com