Massive drop in revenue

[Raider]

For the last month, my revenue at Parked has decreased over 50%..

In the past 5 years it has NEVER dropped to such a degree, And it seemed to happen when Parked switched to new providers.

Is anyone else experiencing the same drop?.

If this doesn't improve in the next week, I'M LEAVING Parked for good.

I've earned more money than this with Adsense, seriously.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

While I experienced a huge drop this last 2 weeks I suspect some may be due to the recent/current accounting, I think several days are still under review, havent checked yet his morning.

 

[Tedgeman]

I noticed this soon as they took on Bing so I switched over to Fab with 1/2 of the domains and that half is doing as well as it did with Parked before the change. While the ones I left at Parked are down 50% as you guys mentioned.
I like parked but the earnings are harsh right now.

 

[think]

I don't use parked.com but I'm seeing similar results over the past 6 months at DomainSponsor.

For me parking is no longer something to consider seriously as a revenue source and will be doing my best to quit feeding Google all my traffic and revenue.......

 

[tetrapak]

It was probably years ago since I last tweaked parked domains. They are only good for pumping some money to Paypal that will pay the renewals and for some SEO works. Interesting that while Parked and Namedrive going south Bodis remained quite consistent. I don't really care if parking income goes even lower, especially if my developed sites are gaining in the meantime.

 

[Adam DickerAdam Dicker is verified member.]

I feel the same ways as Raider, revenue has dropped a ton at Parked as well as many other parking companies.

Maybe they all need more money for the sponsored events, somebody has to pay for the expensive events and it's got to be us.

-=DCG=-

 

[Raider]

Donny is looking into it for me.... If it turns out this is the way it's going to be and other parking companies are paying the same, this will be the driving force behind developing my domains.

Maybe they all need more money for the sponsored events, somebody has to pay for the expensive events and it's got to be us.

-=DCG=-

I'm surprised to hear you say this, I got a lot of static from Chuck the last time I criticized the prices at TRAFFIC events... One of the reasons for the high admittance was that it would attract "Time Wasters" as Rick referred to them as, which I think is nonsense. Promoting and expanding the industry is what these events should be about, not padding your pockets.

 

[Theo]

PPC has dropped 50%+ across the board. First at Parked, then at Sedo. It's Google being "not Evil" by paying less.

 

[Adam DickerAdam Dicker is verified member.]

It's Google being "not Evil" by paying less.

Parked doesn't use Google.

-=DCG=-

 

[Adam DickerAdam Dicker is verified member.]

I'm surprised to hear you say this, I got a lot of static from Chuck the last time I criticized the prices at TRAFFIC events... One of the reasons for the high admittance was that it would attract "Time Wasters" as Rick referred to them as, which I think is nonsense. Promoting and expanding the industry is what these events should be about, not padding your pockets.

I don't feel Traffic prices are the issue, but I am not happy about the non-transparency from parking companies for the past decade.

-=DCG=-

 

[Theo]

Parked doesn't use Google.

-=DCG=-

True, I was referring to Sedo.

 

[Gerry]

True, I was referring to Sedo.

Are you getting so whacked numbers from Sedo today?

This has not changed in numerous hours:

Earnings $0.11
Uniques 36
Clicks 3
CTR 8.33%
EPC $0.04
RPM $3.11

Yes, this is today's summary as of this post.

 

[katherine]

Lone domainer:

 

[south]

Are you getting so whacked numbers from Sedo today?

This has not changed in numerous hours:

Earnings $0.11
Uniques 36
Clicks 3
CTR 8.33%
EPC $0.04
RPM $3.11

Yes, this is today's summary as of this post.

Definitely whacked. They are actually over .1 cent clicks! Seems excessive.

 

[Gerry]

Definitely whacked. They are actually over .1 cent clicks! Seems excessive.

ah ha ha ha ...

 

[Donny Simonton]

I sent a response to Raider and explained their specific problem.

But past that, revenues are down with the Bing migration, yes about 50% in most cases. I would LOVE to say it's because we are spending all of the money on sponsoring events, but it's not. Hell, most everybody knows that we used to be million dollar domains at auctions, I don't remember the last time I bought a domain for more than $1k.

Yahoo/Bing and Google have us where they want us. We have relied on them for so long for the money, that now they can kind of force us to do whatever they want for us to continue to making that money. Most companies can't just switch from Yahoo/Bing to Google without taking huge hits in revenue, and for whatever reason it works the same way if you went from Google to Yahoo/Bing. It's a game and it never ends.

Donny

 

[Theo]

Here's my data for Sedo. I calculated the mean EPC (not average, the mean - that's important).

Yesterday: mean EPC was $0.16
January so far: mean EPC was $0.20
In December: mean EPC was $0.28

 

[David G]

e.... If it turns out this is the way it's going to be and other parking companies are paying the same, this will be the driving force behind developing my domains...

I am a big believer in development myself. With that said, a lot of domainers do not seem to consider the fact a recently developed site using ppc website revenue alternatives will almost always have significantly lower revenue than a parked domain, even with parking revenue being down more than 50% it's still the case since all sources are believed to be down a lot.

The main reason for it (assuming EPC is about the same) is CTRs are typically MUCH lower, i.e. if you have a CTR of say 20% or more while parked (which I believe is fairly normal), you will see a CTR of a fraction of that, probably in the area of 2% to 4% range. in other words, the CTR of a good parked name can easily be (and often is) 5 to 10 times vs a website.

So let's take this one more step, where I can say you would need as much as 10 times the traffic to get the same revenue (again assuming EPC is the same). It would likely take a new small site many months (or years) to get 10 times greater (non-typein) traffic, even with good SEO work. A lot of people will not have the patience to wait so long before they see the same or better revenue.

 

[Raider]

Thank you Donny for the quick response....

As you indicated, the core reason for the decline in revenue is my TQ score, Which I should note has always had erratic fluctuations, dropping from 10 to 4, back up to 10 and now down to 2.. These are from domain names that according to your system receive 98.94% TYPE IN OR NO REFERRER Traffic.. Which I would think would be the best quality traffic there is, and yet my TQ score drops from 10 to 2?.
.
I never fully understand how TQ scoring works and I don't think I want to, I don't want to know because I thinks it's irrelevant.. It's something I have little control over anyway, it is what it is...

I honestly think TQ scoring is just device to skim money from domainers who deliver legitimate traffic, You can dispute that all you want but your never going to convince me otherwise... It's a clever vehicle that was installed to regulate and control how much Yahoo wants to pay us.

I'm going to quote something Donny wrote because I think it's important for everyone to know;

Bing has become very TQ aware and basically over the next few months anything less than a 5 has a chance to get the axe from the system.

My response to that is; "Bring on the Axe", because my names WONT be there, No longer will Bing be making money from my investments and no longer will I be subjected to their monopoly.

I am not happy about the non-transparency from parking companies for the past decade.

I'm not happy about it either, I don't think any of us are... But you know what? It's not going to change unless we make a impact, that mean's each of us changing our name servers to anywhere else but a PARKED PAGE.

So long as parking companies are making money, it will be business as usual.

 

[David G]

....As you indicated, the core reason for the decline in revenue is my TQ score, Which I should note has always had erratic fluctuations, dropping from 10 to 4, back up to 10 and now down to 2.. These are from domain names that according to your system receive 98.94% TYPE IN OR NO REFERRER Traffic.. Which I would think would be the best quality traffic there is, and yet my TQ score drops from 10 to 2?....

Blog article 3 weeks ago about TQ: http://davidgreen.com/the-saga-of-nonsensical-traffic-quality-scores/