In the wake of the news that Google was terminating their own Domain parking program, Frank Schilling wrote today on this blog:
“Google has never been more committed to the domain name channel.”
Frank went on to say on his blog about domain name parking:
“The innovations I see Google bringing – the sincerity, intelligence and seniority of the Googler’s managing this channel and the gravity of the positive changes coming to the domain-channel at Google, show me that this company not only intimately understands Domain Names and the paid search characteristics thereof, but they understand the needs of their partners. They understand the echo system that facilitates the traffic and the subtle elements that drive the technical prosperity of the operators in this space.
In short domain name traffic monetization is very much alive and well at Google, but it is no longer cost effective for Google to manage those small domainer level relationships directly””
I found the news of Google’s termination of its in house program to be pretty irrelevant. Its a program that never caught on. I personally didn’t know of any top domainer that used the service, much less than placed a lot of domains on the system.
Basically its a program that never caught on and probably was a net money loser for Google which had a lot of little accounts producing minimal dollars each.
I tried them with10 or so generic names that were regular Type In traffic producers.
They were OK, but as someone who doesn’t have an enormous portfolio of generic, type-in producing domains and treasures those I do have, the value of my traffic seems more than whatever parking yields.
I wish there was a centralized way to BUY traffic from large domainers on a piecemeal basis, at domain parking rates.
It would be interesting to see how that really converted on leadgen.
Domainers talk it up as if type-ins posses mystical properties, SEO talks it down as if targeted traffic’s targeted traffic. Would be interesting to put to the test and not allow for any excuses, from any party, once the test was done.
If anything, type-ins might come with a strong ‘monkey premium’, since you can assume that anyone still “keyword navigating” the year 2012 is going to be less sophisticated, more easily persuaded to fill out that webform…
My crystal ball says domain parking will be completely DEAD in two years!
With new gtlds coming, general public is going to be so confused and angry when they don’t see a website and see a blank screen…that their natural response is going to be to run straight to google and just perform a search…no direct type-ins.
And if Google gets its own .google, then it’s definitely game over for direct type-ins and domain parking.
They will make .google like an automatic search engine…when someone types in anything.google, it will automatically pop up top 5 related sites.
Google is the big winner here…do NOT buy domains for their parking income or for their traffic…buy domains only if they have development potential or you will end up holding an empty bag full of smoke!
Good Luck to ALL!!!
I feel bad for anyone who had lots of domains in the system and now has to scramble to move them elsewhere.
The FS post didn’t sound like FS, I wonder if someone else wrote it for him?
As far as I’m concerned, it’s another great piece from Frank. His success is certainly not an accident because he figured out the importance of quality names.
I had long drawn out battles with my fellow unix admins back in the early 90’s about domain names. There was always a large group who said domain names were archaic. Something was going to supplant them. Didn’t really need them because people were (at the time) typing in the ip address or using x.400 or x.500 directory servers.
Fast forward 17-22 years and we are still having the same debate. Different technologies are being discussed – but – the same people are saying the same things: “domains are dead” | “you can’t possibly make money parking”
Reminds me of the sick and poor people who buy cigarettes and lotto tickets everyday at 7-Eleven and can’t figure out why they are always sick and poor.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Pretty spot on assessment of the likely situation
It never caught on because it was strictly inferior to parking companies using their feed. The pages were completely plain and boring.
When I saw the news of them closing it down, I didn’t take it as bad news for the parking industry at all. In fact, anyone who was around when they opened it up knows that its OPENING was taken as bad news for the parking industry, i.e. Google was going to take all their business and then pay out practically nothing on clicks.
The real reason is all the wandering flaundering Bull shit text wrapped around adsense ads did nothing but clutter up SEO.
I am just curious why Adam Strong feels the need to bottom feed off of Frank’s “BenFranklin” Bidder name in the auctions with “BentFranklin” – the one I recently saw was the auction for RecentlyListed.com.
It might just send a message of credibility for tyhe guy IMO.
I’m not sure what part of the bible says you are not supposed to wish bad things on to others, but it always feels like there is a fringe element lurking around the domain industry wishing and praying big domain owners will fall from grace.
@L ….. I just bought some flowers at CheapFlowers.com by direct navigating. I’ve been Online since 1995.
After being frustrated looking for cheap flowers for someone I did not want to spend much on I ended up buying at CheapFlowers.com through direct navigation. I went to Google, several famous flower sites that are already branded in my mind, and then lastly I direct navigated to CheapFlowers.com when I could not get the flowers in the price range I wished.
I don’t direct navigate much, but it does happen. I think it happens with pro surfers more than you think.
I’ll also add that direct navigation through parking, if there are decent ads on a parked page, gets you to the prodserv you want quicker than using Google.
There are just less physical typing steps in the search process.
@nacho
Lol I just hand regd IHatedYouAliveButNowYourDeadIMustBuyYouSomeBudgetFlowers.com in your honour! 🙂
I never typed in before I started learning about domaining, then I started as I checked to see how domains were being utilised, net result: got a virus off a fantastic one word Italian dot com. The funny thing is the word isn’t just good, it’s amazing so they must be raking it off the type ins they get.
Eric Borgos has done well with CheapFlowers.com – could not even give away CheapFlower.com years ago in a few deals I did with him – and he was right – not even worth the cost of renewal each year – but I still renew it as a reminder of what a great business people Eric is.
Brand is everything (i.e. the plural) – food for thought for the newbies that think non.com’s or typos have any value at all other than the STROKE value.
Bri
Hey Brian if you have a problem with a joke user name you might want to talk to me personally This topic has nothing to do with the topi at hand. Also you may like to know frank dropped that handle years ago when name jet launched and he chose the handle Taryn. Anyone who has been doing this long enough knows whose handle is whose and also would I ow Taryn was a “joke” user name too since Taryn Naidu was in charge of NJ at that time.
Regarding google killing the program (the topic at hand). I personally am puzzled why google didnt even try to improve and advance their own channel but turn to partners. Surely they have te resources and insight
Adam –
“a joke user name” = There is no joke friend – the link provided on this thread takes me to your publication. Just calling your bullshit as well friend
Best,
@Nacho
“After being frustrated looking for cheap flowers for someone….”
I typed cheap flowers into my address bar and – because google is the default search – it showed me a series of results: Cheapflowers.com was P1 R2 at my location.
Not sure why you needed to switch to direct navigation.
I sure hope whoever was lucky enough to receive “CHEAP” flowers appreciated them 🙂
===
Frank writes a post basically advertising his own services and for some reason we are supposed to be captivated by the underlying message? Really?
seems like he’s really kissing up to google.
wasn’t he down on google years ago?
didn’t he have to use yahoo because google wouldn’t do business with him?
maybe running this parking company has allowed him to reach the size where he has now become welcome at the googleplex?
just seems strange. he never used to talk so kindly about google.
repeating myself – Adsense was nothing more than a tool for bottom feeder losers wrapping endless streams of bullshit text and images around a whored out Adsense click – that is no way to go thru life.
This is nothing more than Google admitting .com direct navigation is its own animal – just results – no text or any other bullshit on the page – like CheapJerseys.com, CheapDresses.com or CheapShirts.com for example that Frank’s InternetTraffic team hosts for me.
I am guilty of using Adsense on one of my production websites – CheapApartments.com – when we do not have apartment listings in a user suggested geographic area. I never liked putting that garbage on the page – it lessens the user experience – I am glad not to have that Adsense option anymore.
I tried about 180 domains there at one time since 12/2008. About 14 earned more than any other parking service. A handful earned 3-6 times more.
My only issue with them was a suspicion that they were compiling a list to delist domains from their search engine since landings almost always dropped over time. I could never be certain since it was occuring elsewhere although almost always at a lesser degree.