Domaining Fail: AdSense on Domain Portfolio Sites

[A D]

I was browsing through several domainer portfolio sites for a future article on this subject, when I noticed that many portfolio websites (which shall remain unnamed) used AdSense and/or affiliate banners rather prominently. I couldn’t help but think, “this is definitely not how you sell domain names”. Running a portfolio website is a great way [...]

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[Biggie]

totally disagree with that philosophy


if a buyer visits a site, they should be looking at the domain names, not trying to figure how much money the site owner is or is not making.

adsense can provide income to pay renewal fee's for not only the domain that the portfolio site is attached to, but also provide income to sustain the portfolio or a portion of it.

and if the names are listed on other venues and have sold there as well, then that point becomes less, and less important with each sale.



the site doesn't have to look high end, the names just have to appeal to the visitor.

are you gonna buy domains from them just because the website looks good and has no adsense, but all the names are crappy?

or are you gonna pass on buying some good domain names, because there is adsense or the design ain't so hot?


can you judge a e-book by it's e-reader?

 

[sashas]

totally disagree with that philosophy


if a buyer visits a site, they should be looking at the domain names, not trying to figure how much money the site owner is or is not making.

adsense can provide income to pay renewal fee's for not only the domain that the portfolio site is attached to, but also provide income to sustain the portfolio or a portion of it.

and if the names are listed on other venues and have sold there as well, then that point becomes less, and less important with each sale.



the site doesn't have to look high end, the names just have to appeal to the visitor.

are you gonna buy domains from them just because the website looks good and has no adsense, but all the names are crappy?

or are you gonna pass on buying some good domain names, because there is adsense or the design ain't so hot?


can you judge a e-book by it's e-reader?

Would you want to walk into a car dealership and see ads for other car dealers? Would you trust a stock broker who puts up a giant billboard advertising another stock broker's services in his office?

Let's be honest here: if you are trying to attract end users who may have no clue about this industry, your book will be judged by its cover. That's unfortunate, but it's a fact of life - first appearances count. I don't care if your website uses the latest web 3.0 design and whatnot, but it shouldn't look shady at least. Nor should you lure away prospective purchasers with a link to a (competitor's) sites through ads.

In marketing, they create 'squeeze pages' that are designed to reduce noise and distractions to a minimum so that you can be sold on the product. As a domainer seller, you are essentially a marketer as well.

And honestly, your portfolio website will never attract enough traffic to make more than $10/month. That'll pay for 10 domains at most in an year. Is that really worth losing a couple of end user sales of $x,xxx?

 

[Biggie]

Would you want to walk into a car dealership and see ads for other car dealers? Would you trust a stock broker who puts up a giant billboard advertising another stock broker's services in his office?

Let's be honest here: if you are trying to attract end users who may have no clue about this industry, your book will be judged by its cover. That's unfortunate, but it's a fact of life - first appearances count. I don't care if your website uses the latest web 3.0 design and whatnot, but it shouldn't look shady at least. Nor should you lure away prospective purchasers with a link to a (competitor's) sites through ads.

In marketing, they create 'squeeze pages' that are designed to reduce noise and distractions to a minimum so that you can be sold on the product. As a domainer seller, you are essentially a marketer as well.

And honestly, your portfolio website will never attract enough traffic to make more than $10/month. That'll pay for 10 domains at most in an year. Is that really worth losing a couple of end user sales of $x,xxx?

if a portfolio website was the only means of marketing domain names, then sure there is validity in esthetics


but since it is not, then it may or may not be the most contributing factor in sustaining the portfolio.


there is no substantial proof that buyers will not pursue the purchase of a "domain of interest", simply because of the look of the website.


there are too many instances where the name is found thru whois and the seller is contacted directly, without the buyer ever seeing a full portfolio list.



also, the perceived loss of one or two buyers a year for $,$$$, vs the potential income to renew the domains that you say could have been sold....only means one would still own them the next year and a different party may not prejudice the website's design, for the sake of acquiring a name they want. they also may be willing to pay more than the perceived loss of the former.


every time dnf changes design, you'll have complaints, but does it stop members from coming back or stop them from doing biz here?


does it prevent new users from signing up, even if they saw or didn't see previous design?

when facecrack changes your profile privacy and changes home page, folks complain, but how many are unliking facecrack


the point, for every neg you show me, i'll show you similar, where it has no effect

 

[sashas]

Actually, the examples for DNF and Facebook design changes don't really apply to portfolio websites because there are no other websites offering the same services as DNF or Facebook. And while DNF and FB design changes might elicit negative reactions, you have to keep in mind that neither of these sites were/are ugly to start with.

But we can talk about MySpace and how it lost all its market share because a better looking service with better privacy options came along (Facebook).

Point is: aesthetics matter. You can't point to Craigslist or Wikipedia and say that "look, ugly sites are popular too" because these sites really have no competition. As a consumer, even if you don't like the design, you have no other place to go to. If a local classifieds site shows up with Craigslist's existing user base, or if a great looking free encyclopedia opens shop tomorrow offering all of Wikipedia's features, I'm quite sure these sites will start seeing some substantial attrition rates.

Honestly, Google might turn into the ugliest site tomorrow, but I'll still use it because no other search engines works quite as well.

With portfolio sites, though, these rules don't necessarily hold.

You have two kinds of buyers:
1. Those who have a specific name in mind and will go out and get it, no matter the cost or effort
2. Buyers who are looking for a new brand/site name and browsing through domain lists/portfolios for ideas

The former will find you through Whois and other contact details. You can throw up the ugliest site in the world, and they'll still find you and send you an offer.

The latter, though, can be swayed by the presentation of domains on your site and how authentic and credible it looks.

And I daresay the latter represents the majority of end-users.

My point: the job of a portfolio site is to maximize sales. Why turn away even the 1% of buyers who might be put off by an ugly design or ads on the site?

Domainers and highly motivated end-users might not care how your portfolio site looks, but the majority of casual buyers do.

 

[MAllie]

I don't see a problem here either, assuming that the site is not swamped with ads. In fact, would a potential buyer not think, Hey, this name is one that draws traffic, making it worthwhile to have AdSense on the page?

I made a mini-site for one of my sale domains out of curiosity, and it earned around $24 last year. Not much in real terms, but well covering the name's renewal. If I could do that with my other names I would be quite happy.

 

[Biggie]

Actually, the examples for DNF and Facebook design changes don't really apply to portfolio websites because there are no other websites offering the same services as DNF or Facebook.

not true

there are plenty of sites like fb and dnf, though they may not be as popular or you may not know of them

You have two kinds of buyers:
1. Those who have a specific name in mind and will go out and get it, no matter the cost or effort
2. Buyers who are looking for a new brand/site name and browsing through domain lists/portfolios for ideas

The former will find you through Whois and other contact details. You can throw up the ugliest site in the world, and they'll still find you and send you an offer.

.

thanks!

you only confirmed my point that buyers will find your names thru whois, as expressed in previous post.


i get what you're trying to convey, but you can't blanket that shiz-zit {title} across the board and make it stick like a rule of thumb, without holes getting poked in it.

 

[sashas]

you can't blanket that shiz-zit {title} across the board and make it stick like a rule of thumb, without holes getting poked in it.

Haha. Love the way you put it. Of course, gross generalizations are usually bad and different things can work for different folks

 

[katherine]

ADsense is absolutely tasteless on official websites too
For 'business' websites you definitely want to avoid that, in particular when it provides links to competitors - how dumb is that. Okay, preowned domain names are only available from one source but...

 

[ksinclair]

If you put adsense on a site, you are creating little doorways for people to leave your site. So if your click rate is low anyway, then put adsense.
If you want to create a brand, and you have a lot to offer where people will be returning, then adsense makes NO sense.

Re: the comment that people would use google even if it was ugly, because it works the best, well that is just not true. I assumed it too, for a long time.
But google's privacy policies really bug me, so i tried out Bing and it works quite well. When Bing would fail at first I got mad but google did no better
for the same search.

99% of domainers dont want to create brands. They fantasize about high traffic and lots of direct clicks; either ppc or adsense.

Kevin