Why Park - What is Domain Parking?
If you've registered a domain name but don't have the time, or the skills, or the money, to build a website yet - then domain parking was designed for you!
When you buy a domain name, it's just a name - there's no website until you set it up, not even one that says "under construction". Maybe you can't start work on creating a site straight away. Or maybe you've bought a great domain name with no intention of making a site - you're simply hoping to resell it at a profit. Either way, your domain is invisible, and that's not good.
Google gives preference to domains that have been established online for longer, so getting your site up and running as soon as you can - even in a very basic form - is well worthwhile. And that's where domain parking comes in. Although your hosting company can usually park your domain for you, there are free domain parking services that will do a much better job.
Making Money with Parked Domains
Once upon a time, parked domains made good income - all you had to do was find a good domain name, park it and watch the dollars roll in as people clicked on the advertising links. Unfortunately, that's not so true nowadays.
If you know anything about making money online, you'll have heard the phrase "Content is King". The whole point of parking is that the site is created instantly so usually, a parked site will be nothing more than a bunch of advertisements, automatically generated from keywords relevant to the domain name.
And that has been the downfall of parked domains, because Google can now recognize websites that don't provide genuine content, and "slap" them. That means parked sites get buried in the search results - and no visitors means no money.
Of course, if you have what's known as a "type-in" name, you can bypass the search engines to some extent. For instance, people wanting to buy ballet shoes might type "balletshoes.com" into their browser to see what comes up. Try it - you'll find yourself at a basic parked site. The domainer who owns it hopes you'll leave the site by clicking on one of those links. However these days, savvy internet users often recognize these sites for what they are, and click their Back button instead!
Anyway,"type-in" names are becoming harder and harder to find, as the internet becomes more and more popular.
So Why Bother Parking Domains?
The real value in parking domains these days is not in the passive income they generate (although let's face it, even earning a few pennies is good, if you don't have to do any work to earn it).
For domainers - the people who park domains for a living - their real profit comes from selling the domain name. The longer they hold the name, the more valuable it's likely to become, especially if the parked domain gets reasonable traffic in spite of being content-thin (because that proves the domain name has value). If they do manage to get good income, the selling price will soar!
The other customers for domain parking are people who own domain names but don't have time or resources to develop them. In this instance, if they don't park the domain, it will sit idle - and a little income is better than none. Plus, having the domain parked means it's visible and acquiring a history.
A Better Parking Alternative?
One company that is taking a different approach to domain parking is Whypark. Instead of creating sites that are just a bunch of advertising links, Whypark has a stock of articles which it uses to post relevant content as well.
The result is a site that can convince both search engines and real visitors that it's a regular website, especially if you take a few minutes to create a custom page and upload a couple of relevant images. Unlike some other parked sites, Whypark sites are indexed by Google without any trouble.
Whypark offers lots of value-add paid services but basic parking is free.
It's important to remember that this isn't free web hosting - you can add your own pages and links to your other sites, but none of your own advertising. Instead, you earn a share of the advertising displayed on your site. It's also just like any other blog or site - unlike HubPages, it's not a case of "build it and they will come". A Whypark parked domain needs to be promoted just as much as any other website, if you want traffic.
Which leads some people to ask, why bother?
Tip - When applying for Whypark, I had to list at least 5 sites belonging to me. It was only after I'd submitted them, that I re-read the instructions and realized they wanted 5 active sites. I thought I would be rejected as I have only 3 active sites - the other 2 were domain names I wanted to park. However, my application was successful, maybe because my 3 sites are reasonably good quality. So it's worth trying even if you don't have 5 active sites.
Alternatives to Domain Parking
If you're a writer like me, creating content for your site isn't the problem. So the inevitable question is - if I'm going to have to do all the promotion anyway, why don't I just build a proper site? That way I get all the advertising dollars. Even if you're not a writer, there are plenty of freelance writers who will provide the content.
Of course, it's not as easy as that! It's true I can set up a basic site using Wordpress in a few hours - but the trouble is, I then can't resist spending tweaking it! First, I'll design my Wordpress theme, add all the right plugins and configure them, decide what content to use, find the right images - and although I try to tell myself I should be quick and dirty about it, once I've started creating a site, it's almost impossible not to get sucked into making it better. And that can take days!
So before deciding to do it all yourself, ask yourself what your priorities are. In a fit of enthusiasm, I bought several domain names at once, using keywords from dancewear and belly dancing. It would've been impossible to develop them all at once, so it was great to be able to park them and take the pressure off!
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All text copyright Marisa Wright. Photo from Danard Vincente on Flickr.
Comments
Thanks Marisa! I am such an oldie, I need lots of help with online stuff. It takes me awhile to understand the point, lol.
Thanks for this info. I'm just starting out with building my own sites and have a blog up and running on a free hosting site (Blogger), but am realizing the limitations already. Owning your own domain seems to be the way to go, and this hub has certainly clarified a few things for me.
Karen, I started my first blogs with Blogger, before I found HubPages. I've heard people say it's a good place to start a blog because it's owned by Google, and therefore Google gives it preferential treatment. Personally, I think that's a myth. I did a fair bit of promotion for my Blogger blogs and never got any traffic.
By contrast, last year I started a blog with paid hosting. After my Blogger experience, I didn't expect it to get traffic at first, so I made the site public immediately (on Wordpress, you can choose to hide it while you're developing it). I was amazed to find I got a trickle of visitors almost at once. The same thing happened with my flamenco site, and even my personal website has had a few visitors.
That makes me think that Google has more "respect" for standalone sites with a ".com" extension than for free blogging sites. It's logical in a way - you have to be reasonably genuine about blogging before you go to the trouble to buy a domain name and pay for hosting, so Google assumes you're going to produce a reasonably genuine site.
This was a an incredible piece of information that you have provided. thanks you so very much. I had no idea on the subject and never thought that such concept can be used to make money. Thanks again for the info.
Packerpack, it's all new to me too! It will be interesting to see how my parked domains pan out.
It's interesting what you say about Blogger vs paid-for domains. I'm getting traffic from my own promotions but nothing from search engines. As you say, because blogger is owned by google I thought that would be a good thing, but maybe not. Maybe I should move all my content to a paid-for domain. Do you recommend Wordpress, and can you register a domain name through Wordpress or do you have to do it separately? So many questions...
I think Wordpress is marvellous! Check out my belly dance directory, http://bellydanceoz.com. That's written in Wordpress. I got it up and running in a day. I have learned a lot more and tweaked it since then, but the basic look hasn't changed, because that all comes from a predesigned theme that I just loaded up, and there it was!
You can't buy a domain name through Wordpress. There are companies that will sell you a domain name, then offer you free software to set it all up. That's not a good idea because if you take your site to another host, you lose all your design because it's based on their software. Buy your domain from name.com and then use a separate hosting company. People seem to like Hostgator, I use Hightekhosting.com. They're not the cheapest but they're a small company, so I can ask as many dumb questions as I like and they'll help me out for free. They even did some of my setup for me after I tried myself and screwed it all up!
Thanks for all the advice Marisa. Will be looking into it:)
I think I stumbled on a few them. I found such little content that I was very disappointed.
Yes RG, and I think that's another reason why parked domains are less profitable than they used to be. Today's more sophisticated internet users recognise that parked domains are just a con, and will click the Back button rather than click on the ads to exit.
That's where Whypark has seen a niche, providing a mechanism to create a website that looks more like a real site for minimal effort.
If I'm not wrong this 'parking domain' thing started more than 10 yrs ago and that was the time when people really earned some money selling these domains to desperate buyers but now, as you said, it's not that much in demand. However, wordpress is really the in-thing. It really worked well with sending traffic in my case too. Thx for sharing this info.
Yes, you're right, Anjalic. You'll still see lots of "premium" domain names advertised for thousands of dollars, but I wonder how many buyers there really are out there.
Like I said, I'm using domain parking as a way of forcing myself to set my surplus domains aside for now - eventually I will develop them using Wordpress, unless I happen to get an offer I can't refuse in the meantime!
Great Hub, Marisa. The only time I've Parked a name was to back up poetic-humor (I was able to Park poetichumor with a redirect to the hyphenated version), which does of course pick up folks who aren't sure which way to type it in for a search. A lot of the other reasons for Parking had never occurred to me.
Thanks for the WhyPark tip. I'll certainly try that.
Marisa, thanks for sharing these infos with us. I found them very helpful. Hope the best!
Thats by far the best parking page I've ever seen Marisa - I even thought it was developed for a split second - and I am a very sophisticated user LOL I notice your domains are nicely indexed too which is all good - I will have to look into this!
Lissie, I've noticed that the articles have been improving steadily since I parked them - at first, I had three dancing sites parked, all on different dance styles, and they all had identical articles about hip-hop and tap dance!
I have a few domains parked with Google. I'll look at the other services you suggested. Thanks.
One catch with Whypark is- if for any reason they close your account you loose your sites and your content (even your own content you add). As long as you depend on your domains on thier site, you have to strictly adhere to the rules. I know a buddy who lost 500 sites-that were closed by Whypark because he had some traffic from China.He lost all the content and tweaking stuff he had spent on.The best alternative to domain parking is to develop a full optimized sites.
You can get a customized website- designed and fully optimized, content rich, PPC optimized, eye appealing website, each website consists of more than 500 web pages, you get 100% of the revenue from your domain name if you have ads on your website, no hidden costs, all for as lows as $9.00 if you use this link: http://www.ppc-sites.com/aff/798492
Yes Celebrity, ppc sounds like just one step up from WhyPark - you're still relying on them for the website design and content, you're just paying a bit more for them to do a more thorough job. If you want to change to another provider, you're still going to lose your site design and content.
The concept sounds similar to buying stock in the hope that it will appreciate in value over time.
Marisa, This is a great and well written hub. I have a much clearer understanding of Parked Domains now. I appreciate your carefull and well explained article on this subject. I look forward to reading more of your work. Thanks and Peace:)
Very useful hub for new hubber like me! Thanks for sharing it.
I had a couple of web sites years ago with geocities these were on all my records for genealogy. With help from my sonilaw I created most of it. But over the years, I lost my password to get into it and they had no way of contacting them. Then all of a sudden we were notified that it was closing and lost the lot.
So have not had a website since. But this sounds like a great idea. Thanks marissa for all the information.
I have a few domains parked with Google as well, but dont make much. When I bought them I wanted to create websites but now I am sure I would have wasted hours of effort too.
Have to make a reasearch to find proper names for the domain I plan to buy.
Thank you for sharing with us!
I would encourage anyone serious about creating a web presence, whether business or personal, to search out and register a suitable domain name and go through a web hosting provider. It is the only way to truly have control over 100% of your site content. You will be happier and more successful in the long run. Thanks for an insightful hub and feel free to search the expired and deleted domain name list on my website.
As defined by Prof. William Lorenz, “Domaineering” is the Internet marketing business of acquiring, with the intent of monetizing, generic domain names by focusing on their use specifically as an advertising medium rather than primarily speculating on domains as intellectual property investments for resale as in domaining where generating advertising revenue is considered more of a bonus while awaiting a sale. In essence, the domain names function as virtual Internet billboards with generic domain names being highly valued cash cows due to their revenue generating potential derived from attracting large amounts of Internet traffic hits. Revenue is earned as potential customers view pay per click ( PPC ) ads or the Internet traffic attracted may be redirected to another website. Hence, the domain name itself is the revenue generating asset conveying information beyond just functioning as a typical web address. As the value here is intrinsically in the domain name as an information carrying vehicle and not in a website’s products or services, these domains are developed for advertising, ( i.e, “parked” ), and not into “conventional” websites. As with traditional advertising, domaineering is partly art and partly science. Often to be the most effective as an advertising tool, the domain names and their corresponding landing pages must be engineered or optimized to produce maximum revenue which may require considerable skill and keen knowledge of search engine optimization ( SEO ) techniques, marketing psychology and an understanding of the target market audience, including demographics and buying habits. Domaineering generally utilizes a firm offering domain parking services to provide the sponsored “ad feed” of a word or phrase searched for thus creating a mini-directory populated largely by advertisers paying to promote their products and services under a relevant generic keyword domain. Occasionally content is added to develop a functional mini-website. Ethical domaineers contend that their product, i.e., “domain advertising”, is a bona fide offering of a good or service in and of itself which provides rights to and legitimate interests in the generic domains they use. This serves as the domaineer's rebuttal or defense in addressing false accusations of cybersquatting on trademarks. Domaineers and some of those who advertise online using generic keywords believe domaineering provides a useful, legal and legitimate Internet marketing service while opponents of domaineering are concerned that the practice only increases the ubiquitous commercialization of the world wide web. Domaineering aka “domain advertising” is practiced by both large organizations which may own hundreds or even tens of thousands of domains to individual entrepreneurial minded domaineers who may only register one or a few domain names. The earliest known verifiable identification and defining of domaineering as a distinct Internet advertising practice is generally attributed to Canadian Professor William Lorenz.
I was interested in your website. I am a math teacher and I have some hubs about math also.
Nice! Thanks for the heads up on Whypark.
I also think in same way. Wordpress is a good option if you do not have enough time and i also like whypark for easy work.
I use Sedo parking, I earn money from domain parking also
I parked my website (which I paid over $1,000 to build) with go daddy only to find out today all the content is gone! and so is my husband's website for which he worked for months! I thought that by parking your article it was just dormant, instead all the files are gone if you fail to have it hosted for over 30 days! to say I am disappointed is an understatement, and they gave no notice they were trashing all my files! an no where it said "if you park all your files they are lost if you do not host!"
I'm so sorry to hear that, Alexadry! It's very important to understand that you CANNOT "park" a website. You can only park the domain NAME, not the content of the site. The only way you can keep the content of the site is by parking the name, but keeping a backup of all the content on your own computer till you're ready to start again.
So GoDaddy didn't do the wrong thing - most hosts would do the same thing, because they assume people know what "parking" means. It's a pity they don't make the purpose of parking clearer when you sign up for it, but it's a service that's usually only used by experienced domain owners, so I guess they thought it wasn't necessary.
I hope you'll feel able to start again - but this time, don't pay $1,000 to anyone to build a site! Get some cheap hosting with Hostgator or a similar service, use Wordpress and create your own. good luck.
Well the content was hosted on gogaddy for several months prior to parking and I thought it was pretty much safe there while the website was "parked"! I kept it there for months so it was my belief that it was going to just stay there! I know I knew little about websites back then but at least a notice they were going to delete everything! I paid that much for the website because it was a Q&A website that required a whole lot of knowledge to build, otherwise I build normal websites on my own...
It doesn't matter how long it was with GoDaddy, Alex - as soon as you parked it, you lost all right to have your own content on the site. That's the point of parking - the reason it's free is that they're only keeping the name of the site alive, NOT the content.
A good site designer would have kept a copy of his/her original setup so it's worth going back to them to see if you can get a copy. It's a lesson for the future though - even hosted websites can crash, so it's very important to back up your content regularly.
More Domain Parking Websites
- Domain Parking - Test the Waters:
Domain parking lets you earn money on unused domains. If your dormant or 'under construction' domain doesn't contain paid content you are losing money. The domain parking services described here provide free hosting and pay you every time someone cli - Sedo
- Domain Parking - DomainSpa.com
DomainSpa.com is a free Domain Parking Service designed for domain name owners, registrars and web hosts looking to get MAXIMUM PROFITS from Domain Traffic to parked pages. It's absolutely Free Domain Parking, you pay us nothing ever - we pay you for - Parked.com - Domain Parking Made Easy!
Parked.com is a leading domain name monetization service offering the highest payouts and payments twice a month. - 1plus.net - Digital Media Solutions
1plus.net is a media company that connects online publishers and advertisers to consumers through a range of wholly owned digital monetization platforms and contextual advertising solutions - DomainSponsor.com
- Domain Parking at ActiveAudience.com
Domain parking can earn you money. Park your domains with ActiveAudience today. - Google Domain Park
- Fabulous.com - Premium Services for Domain Name Professionals
Fabulous.com - Premium Services for Domain Name Professionals. Expert tools to manage domain registration, sales and monetization for domain portfolio owners. - Namedrive
RVDaniels 2 years ago
Helpful and an easy read. Thanks.