Reserve Your Domain name Now!
By Derek Vaughan
Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect
domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While
he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular
domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting
company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others
simply had ‘hosting’, ‘host’, or a related
term in the domain itself.
So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, “Yeah,
it's a shame –- if only I had the time to develop some content
for some of these domains then I might make some money form them”.
It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains –-
just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the
domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic
stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain,
others apparently found the domain through a search engine that
had categorized the parked page.
So I suggested the following to him –- why not use a service
that will take the domain as is –- with no content whatsoever
–- and suggest search options that generate revenue for
each click? He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess
what? He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.
He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase
his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his
parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test
banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting
companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages
–- with a brief description of the company’'s product
offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved
to be a great success –- and his revenue stream increased.
My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing
his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay
per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every
domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business
into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business
that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my
friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.
If you have parked domains and what to try getting paid for search
results on those pages, check out this service offered by Sedo
(there are others out there as well):
http://www.sedo.com/services/parking.php3
Good luck in transforming your parked domains into cold, hard
cash!
About the Author
Derek Vaughan has been actively marketing on the Internet since
1995. Mr. Vaughan has marketed products at the Walt Disney Company
as the online marketing manager of ecommerce for ESPN.com. Mr.
Vaughan is also the founder of Cheap
Hosting Directory - a web hosting review site, a part of TechPad
Agency's network of web hosting portals.
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