Major Sedo/Google changes to affect parking ---

[Gerry]

Just got this email from Sedo.

Our primary ad provider, Google, has announced a policy to stop the delivery of ads for URL-forwarded domains by September 30, 2011. It's highly likely that domains still forwarding via URL on or after October 1, 2011, will no longer accrue parking earnings. Google expects this concentration on nameserver (DNS/CNAME) parking to improve advertiser satisfaction and consequent monetization.

We've taken the opportunity to speak with many of you and have evaluated the suggestions and options you proposed. We are pleased to present a smart, flexible solution: CNAME parking.

The CNAME method has the clear advantages of traditional nameserver (DNS) parking but will soon offer three major added benefits:

1. Clarity on whether you still own the domains in your account to ensure a smooth selling process on the Sedo marketplace
2. An automated process of adding new domains to Sedo
3. The ability to still set your own MX entries and control the emails for your domains (available now)

Implement this option by September 30, 2011, to ensure continued parking earnings! We've outlined the steps you need to take below.

NOTE: If you are a registrar, you should have already received separate communications over the past few months. For additional questions, please contact your account manager.


STEP 1 - CHECK

You need to check with your registrar which domains you are parking with Sedo via nameserver and/or URL forwarding. If you park domain names via:

* DNS: No immediate changes required. However, we suggest you read the information below on the beneficial switch to CNAME parking.

* URL Forwarding: Immediate action required; you need to switch your forwarding method to ensure continued monetization of your traffic (read next step).


STEP 2 - SWITCH

Start at your registrar for any necessary switch. You may wish to contact your registrar for support, to check if they offer a solution to switch domains in bulk, and to ensure that newly registered domains are automatically set up with the right CNAME or Sedo's name servers.

A. CNAME Parking (preferred):

We have set up a redirection server for your convenience. The redirection server forwards all traffic to each of your domains with WWW so that all traffic points via CNAME to Sedo's servers.

Your personal member ID is:

These settings are specific to your unique Sedo member ID. Use only your member ID for your domains.

1. Point the domain with WWW (www.example.com) via CNAME to
xxxxxx.sedoparking.com

2. Point the domain without WWW (example.com) and all subdomains (*.example.com) via A-Record to: 91.195.240.135

NOTE: Each Sedo account has its own member ID and thus its own CNAME. We suggest that you consolidate your domains into a single Sedo account; our new statistics tools are able to process large domain portfolios.

B. DNS Parking:

If your registrar does not allow you to use CNAME parking for your domains, you can continue to use the traditional nameserver parking method on Sedo's nameservers. Please use the following:

* Primary (first) nameserver: ns1.sedoparking.com
* Secondary (second) nameserver: ns2.sedoparking.com


STEP 3 - CONTACT US

Your Account Manager is ready to answer your questions, discuss alternative solutions, or help you consolidate your domains. Please email your Account Manager once you have successfully switched.

We always aim to offer continuous and attractive monetization solutions for your domains. In this case, however, we can only do so with your cooperation and support. Thank you!


Best regards,

Liesbeth Mack-de Boer
CSO :: Sedo.com
www.sedo.com :: support.sedo.com

---------- Post added at 02:51 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:49 PM ----------

Unless there is a way to mass change the cname on individual domain names, this is a huge, huge mess and undertaking.

The letter is not clear until the very end stating If your registrar does not allow you to use CNAME parking for your domains, you can continue to use the traditional nameserver parking method on Sedo's nameservers. Please use the following:. I get the sense that this may be the next big move.


QUESTION For all you developers: Do you anticipate that URL forwarding of names to a site is also going to be affected by this change?

 

[Theo]

Old news. This was decided a year ago and silently Sedo stopped promoting the use of URL forwarding.

 

[Gerry]

Old news. This was decided a year ago and silently Sedo stopped promoting the use of URL forwarding.

Perhaps I am still on one of their dial-up servers and it is taking a year to get this email to me.

 

[Theo]

No, you're correct; the email was sent out today but the decision was made a year ago.

 

[pelican]

by having url forwarding parking, i am able to track the domain traffic on my server and then compare with sedo unreliable stats.

now with them forcing us to use dns parking, somehow i feel that they want to scrub more.

on top of that, giving only 10 days notice ...

 

[Poker]

If I remember correctly URL forwarding went out of vogue around the same time as telegraph sex..."what are you wearing, stop..."

 

[south]

Just got this email from Sedo.

Our primary ad provider, Google, has announced a policy to stop the delivery of ads for URL-forwarded domains by September 30, 2011. It's highly likely that domains still forwarding via URL on or after October 1, 2011, will no longer accrue parking earnings.

They left this out:

It is also highly likely that any domains you point to us in any other way will not acquire any earnings either. But we have a really ugly "new & improved" design that will ensure that you never actually realize the loss of income until you actually check your bank or paypal account.

 

[Gerry]

If I remember correctly URL forwarding went out of vogue around the same time as telegraph sex..."what are you wearing, stop..."

I use forwarding for pointing to sites.

Is there another method?

 

[David G]

If I remember correctly URL forwarding went out of vogue around the same time as telegraph sex..."what are you wearing, stop..."

Really? Did not know that. Why would it be out of vogue? It is/was the absolute best method and has several major benefits, some of which you may not be aware of such as traffic and clicks *not* always counting using the parking firm namesevers depending on what you are doing.

 

[Theo]

Not using the PPC nameservers is the best way to lose traffic. Imagine a scenario where numerous subdomains were used by a domain when it was in existence, which you park. URL forwarding would work for domain.com/www.domain.com only.

 

[David G]

Not using the PPC nameservers is the best way to lose traffic. Imagine a scenario where numerous subdomains were used by a domain when it was in existence, which you park. URL forwarding would work for domain.com/www.domain.com only.

That may be an issue but not really Theo if you know about making sure Wild Card * DNS is activated and also using 301's in htaccess to get all traffic going to both any subdomains in front of the primary url and any html file names in back of the main url. Works very nicely.

 

[Theo]

That may be an issue but not really Theo if you know about making sure Wild Card * DNS is activated and also using 301's in htaccess to get all traffic going to both any subdomains in front of the primary url and any html file names in back of the main url. Works very nicely.

The average Joe Domainer can't/won't do that.

 

[David G]

The average Joe Domainer can't/won't do that.

True plus it's a bit tedious to setup.

 

[pelican]

Really? Did not know that. Why would it be out of vogue? It is/was the absolute best method and has several major benefits, some of which you may not be aware of such as traffic and clicks *not* always counting using the parking firm namesevers depending on what you are doing.

yeah. sedo definitely steal our non-qualified traffic and probably sell them to elsewhere.

if using url forwarding parking, we can filter and send qualified traffic to sedo while send other traffic (such as asian traffic) to other traffic buyer.

on top of that, we get to track and analyze our own traffic and check if it is valuable traffic which is worth to develop the domain.

dns parking remove all these potential.