Last night I met for drinks the source who gave me the insider take on Google looking to dump all the tail end domains from their system. Inevitably the chat soon turned to domain parking and the reasoning and repercussions behind this move by Google – So, allow me to share with you the one or two salient points (which were revealed and which I can print) that may or may not make things clearer:
- Seemingly, over 90% of the high earning parked domains (those earning above $1k per month) are typos of another site or of a TM holder’s site.
- The volume of tail end parked domains (those that earn less than a few dollars per month) equate to over 95% of the total number of “parked” domains.
- Cumulatively the tail end domains have an overall average quality score thats the lowest in the Google syndication network and yet earn less than 15% of the total Google AFD income.
- 10% of the domains parked at Sedo earn 90% of their parking revenue.
Excuse my math (which may be wrong) but from this Im drawing the following additional assumptions:
- Only 10% of the high earning parked domains are truly generic.
- Generic, high earning parked domains equate to just 0.5% of total domains parked and make up a mere 8.5% of the total revenue.
These assumptions leave me somewhat bewildered. Without the domain tail and the TM domains the $1bn domain market would be cut by 91.5%. I wont post the numbers as i believe a “billion dollars” is a different value depending upon which side of the Atlantic you live.
However, I just cant see it happen. Surely Google aren’t cynical enough to kill off all the tail domains whilst turning a blind eye to all their money making typo’s.
Wow… Great post. Interesting stats. Makes you think
Great info. I am also amazed at these stats. I do however believe that its gonna help us all once tm/typo names are taken out of parking.
Thanks for another great post.
Interesting stats there, Julia.
Next time ask about numbers rather than percents.
jk
Ah!! 80/20 Rule is everywhere. This is a classic case in point of economic principle that says only 20% of the world population posses 80% of the world wealth. Another typical example here in the U.S. is the so-called “top 5%”. Meaning 95% of the country’s wealth is being owned by very few. It shouldn’t be a surprise that this law applies to domain industry. What can I say? That is capitalism in action…big up!!! to the few lucky domainers. They should really enjoy their breadNbutter as long as it lasts.
Nice post, i have been readin ur posts and seen a lot of em comin true, this one shudn’t
Google is going to have their cake and eat it too.
- turn off most (by volume, not by revenue) tm domains
- reduce the litigation risk
- retain revenue
- reduce workload
Assuming that TMs have a fairly even distribution across the spectrum of domains, if Google turns off 95% of parked domains (volume tail end parked domains), they would turn off around 90% of the TM domains on their system.
These large numbers of typos domains have the same amount of litigation risk as the high earning ones. I don’t think Google is cynical at all here – it makes business sense to “turn a blind eye to their money making typo’s” since they’ve just been really good IP guys by turning off most (by number) typo domains.
Thanks for the post.
If you own domain names do not park them instead develop them into nice websites – this way you ad value and $$ value to your domain name so you have a choice to sell the domain name ONLY to a buyer or to sell the domain name with the website as well (for more $$ total).
Your other post on this topic somehow leaked through on my RSS reader but when i come to the site it is not here.
Maybe you took it down because it was a quote from Rick Schwartz and he had a hissy fit that 3 paragraphs of his knowledge leaked out beyond his private board?
Anyway, obviously he seems upset over bad domainers registering TMs and other domains that do not get “PURE TYPE IN TRAFFIC”.
I am not very concerned about google shutting down domain parking. There are other places to sell that traffic as there is a market for it. If the traffic converts to sales, it should not matter. Expired traffic is also DIRT cheap and targeted. While expired/backlink traffic does NOT make a good domain name, it still has value.
If people are willing to pay for it, what is the problem here? If i ran a web site selling shoes, i would pay alot to buy the expired traffic from a competitor’s unwanted domain name. What are people to do let all that traffic go to waste?
I am not talking about TM-infringing traffic – that needs to be cleaned up. But expired backlink traffic is still valuable regardless of what domain king says. It is a HELL of a lot cheaper to buy expired domain traffic that is relevant to your business than to buy PPC clicks on ad words.
Parking is should be eliminated, it lowers user enjoyment of the internet – how frustrating it is to get a lot of crappy ads and be lost clicking through junk. Domainers are under threat only if they dont team with developers.
If Google was to go after mini-sites, that would be a problem, and if parking companies try to evolve to mini-sites maybe they will.
BS doctor twisted..
if a domain isnt parked and doesnt resolve i get a page full of ads regardless since almost every ISP is monetizing NXDOMAIN responses
verizon, BT, earthlink
why is it ok for them to monetize domains that do not resolve but it is not ok for everyone else? even worse is that they monetize trademark typos and no one has a problem or sues them
where is the outrage over “right of the dot” typos? either my isp or microsoft will show ads on these typos. hypocrisy.
and why arent you outraged over someone owning a parcel of land in real life and putting up a billboard? why is that ok but parking is not?
long live parking and i cannot wait for more innovative ways to effortlessly monetize my property without relying on GOOGLE
Many things are being happening around we do not know. Big sharks always try to kill small-natural !
I developed many mini sites , with identical links, do not get traffic. Why? What I have to follow? Please
Regards,
‘Till now im only got $2 each month
Domaineering is the web-based marketing business of acquiring and monetizing Internet domain names for their use primarily as an advertising medium rather than as intellectual property investments for resale as in domaining. In essence, the domain names function as virtual Internet billboards with generic domain names being highly valued for their revenue generating potential derived from attracting Internet traffic hits. As with traditional advertising, domaineering is part art and part science. Often to be the most effective as advertising tools, the domain names and their corresponding landing pages must be engineered or optimized to produce maximum revenue which may require considerable skill and good knowledge of search engine optimization ( SEO ) practices, marketing psychology and an understanding of the target market audience. Domaineering generally utilizes a firm offering domain parking services to provide the sponsored “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. Domaineers and some of those who advertise online using keywords believe domaineering provides a useful, legal and legitimate Internet marketing service while opponents of domaineering decry the practice as increasing the ubiquitous commercialization of the world wide web. Domaineering is practiced by both large companies who may have registered hundreds or even thousands of domains to individual entrepreneurial minded domaineers who may only own one or a few.
what an interesting turn of events….
http://adsense.blogspot.com/2008/12/extending-adsense-for-domains-to-all.html
Wow! WOW! Hell has frozen over.
“With AdSense for domains, users can find relevant information… Today we present ads, links, and search results on the pages, and may add other useful information in the future.”
and
“In addition, we regularly receive requests from advertisers who have found domains to be an effective way to reach their users.”
That’s what domaineers have been saying for years. Domaineering is a legit form of marketing. Domaineers are serious advertising professionals providing a valuable service, now finally recognized by big G.
And now that G**gle has on just rolled out adsense for domains it appears that it has both recognized domaineering as a legitimate Internet marketing business and that that some companies find parked domains an effective way to carry their advertising to potential customers. Advertising that converts well. This slams the door shut on the discussion about domaineers being almost scammers or semi-cybersquatters. In what appears to be 180 degree turn about-face, the world’s largest SE has now become a domain parking service provider itself, defacto giving it’s stamp of approval to domain monetization. Was this done because it got tired watching parking companies eat it’s lunch?