Stop PARKING your DOMAIN, change your OBJECTIVE.

[DN BROKER]

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[Poker]

as domainer's we are loosing the battle against the Parking Companies. They are getting richer with every click. Why not re-direct that click to a system which would benefit all of us....Building a Profitable Foundation for tomorrow can start Today.

There needs to be more team players and more focus about the Role we can all take to protect our assets and make money.

Well said. Obviously most domainers are secretive about their tactics/strategies because it is a very competitive business, but it still could be possible to create a co-op style system.

Name me one these domainer's who started with no money? I would like to learn!

I started 35k in debt w/ 2k credit avail from 1 credit card. It was all about flipping names (cold calling and emailing) and reinvesting constantly while living cheaply. This was back in mid 99 but I'm sure there are ways even today, it's all about drive and ambition, always will be.

 

[hugegrowth]

all you really need to make it is ONE domain and a great idea to make it a business.

many of us (myself included) get caught up in searching for more names, regging more names, trying to build up a domain porfolio, and if you also have a regular job that leaves no time to develop seriously. Scan through your names and you can probably imagine a business for many of them.

In 2007 many major domainers only started to seriously begin developping their names, and it continues into 2008. Having a choice of Parking sites where you can just add your domain and get paid for clicks is easy but the flipside is no real SEO, little chance of search engine ranking, and little chance of building repeat visitors. That's the tradeoff. Most of us don't develop because it is hard work and time intensive. I can use point and click website builders, but I have no idea how to do it from scratch, coding, etc.

We'd probably be better off to spend less time searching for new names, take a hard look at the ones we have, and pick a couple to develop into websites that offer information or products that customers will keep coming back for, and that will rank up there in search engines.

The guy who owned Unicyle.com started it up as a hobby site, and now it's a full time business. A teen girl started up a myspace layouts site with a not so great domain, now she earns xx,xxx a month in advertising, and talks to advertisers directly.

Start up a travel site, or real estate site about the place you live. That's something anyone can do because we all know about the place we live. What would tourists want to know? What would home seekers want to know? etc. What is your hobby you can turn into a business?

There is a new group I read about that is trying to make parking companies more transparent, and they will be giving a seal of transparency for parking companies who comply with their requirements. I read it on one of the domainer blogs, hopefully that will help things for those who park.

I think the days of hand regging names that will pay handsomely in parking are over, better to do what it takes to build websites on your domains. Hopefully I'll be taking my own advice here...

 

[DN BROKER]

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[sashas]

I started on Jun 22 2007. Its not been too long, has it? I remember I regged g4ay.com and put it up for appraisal here with a tag "I got some kickass names". Was cut to ribbons in minutes.

And I am (was) a student. Its been a good ride so far

 

[Luc]

as is usually the case, i agree with batman.

parking kills domains, it kills the industry and it makes people dislike the internet.

just look at what happened with the recent newly launched tlds, .eu, .mobi, etc.

did developers pick them up? no, just a bunch of fools thinking they can park and flip them for millions later.

the best domains in the world aren't developed, they just show a bunch of useless ads that annoy the user and make them resort to using search engines to find stuff (hence the month to month drop in typein traffic for the last 4 years).

.com succeeded because it wasn't mined to death by domainers, but rather by people making useful and informative sites and services. early .com'ers bought their domain for $70 in hopes of developing it into a useful site, and the internet became a huge hit.

these days, domains aren't used for sites, they're not developed, they're parked, and parking does not enhance the average users experience or like of the internet at all.

 

[DN BROKER]

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[sashas]

agreed, parking is not conducive to the web experience.

But to me, developing trashy "minisites" that consist of the same old rehashed articles is even worse. I don't want to read some badly written, amateur opinions while I hunt for the information I want. An ad link can at least direct me to something that might interest me.

 

[DN BROKER]

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[Biggie]

Thats the main issue here, if its not parked, Domainers second choice is a cheezy site that cost for less then $500 to develop. The main glitch in our industry today is simply "Developing Tools"

there are plenty of tools and tutorials and editors for anyone to build a website.

the main glitch is ...domainers are lazy

that's why I park my domains, until I decide to drive them

 

[sashas]

the main glitch is ...domainers are lazy

so right...

 

[BGray]

Update: The sky is blue


Sure developing is obviously going to make more money and developing should be everyone's end game sooner or later if they aren't looking to flip.

Many people here have portfolios with thousands of names. It's not the concept they fail to grasp. It's the most valuable asset any good domainer has which is TIME.

I and many other domainers I've spoken to have actually regretted developing domains in the early 2000s because of the amount of time it took and the opportunity cost of not spending that time acquiring domains.

Sure the scene might be different now but we thought the same thing back then.

It is simple economics and the bottleneck is TIME more then desire or money in most cases.

 

[sashas]

Its stupid to even believe for a moment that you can develop all your domains.

Picking the best one, making a huge site, and directing all your traffic to that single domain is a much better idea.

As domainers, we understand traffic and one part of development that most webmasters fail to grasp: the value of domain names. Its imperative that we capitalize on this advantage.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

I first started in this game in earnest around 1997. I have made and lost substantial amounts, one way or another. It makes me think back and ask myself what I would have done in, say, 1998 with the knowledge I have now.

Well, I'd have picked up as many of the .co.uk and .com generics and 'LLLs' as possible. I had the funds to do it back then in a big way, and I would have retired years ago as a rich man. Are you with me so far? Sure -- it's something 99% of you will relate to. Hindsight is a useless commodity and we all like to indulge.

Looking forward now, and based upon that hindsight, all I can say is that IMO, the way to make money is to develop. Don't do those silly AdSense-based 'minisites', but do a site that has perhaps five pages of completely original content; appx. 250 words per page; then a 'contact', 'site map', 'about us' and 'links' page. Of course a little AdSense is fine, but don't make that the focus of your site, or its goal. SEO is your objective. Once you have traffic, you can build on it, find sites to link with, and generally build your portfolio for the longer term. How long? That's the proverbial "piece of string" but my guess is that you should be well on track in a year now if you do it right.

If anyone's interested further, PM me and I'll expound.

I have around 800 domains all parked now. All making relatively very, very little money. I'm gradually making the changeover. I need to STOP buying speculative rubbish, and now concentrate on developing. But will I even listen to myself?

Right now, the answer has to be "yes". I'm trying the 'disciplined' route to building my portfolio. A static portfolio of mediocre, undeveloped domains is useless to me. Especially when renewals come round.

My 2c.

 

[draggar]

the best domains in the world aren't developed, they just show a bunch of useless ads that annoy the user and make them resort to using search engines to find stuff (hence the month to month drop in typein traffic for the last 4 years).

I fully agree. Look at malinoisrescue.com - f'ing parked, so they (and we) had to settle for malinoisrescue.net (and I bought the .net and .info for them).

I've seen this countless times, or they point ot an irrelevant site. Yes, I do have domains parked, but only as a "in the meantime" while I devolop other sites.

As for mini-sites, if it's done properly they can be very helpful. Yes, I've been doing mini-sites but I make sure it is 100% original (except the ads) and the ads are tastefully placed, not intrusive. I try to get domains for a reg fee or pretty close to it that I know I can have friends write articles / reviews (well) for the site. No, I'm not going to hand reg a domain and sell it with a mini site and traffic for thousands of dollars a few months later, but maybe get the site up, some traffic coming to it, and maybe sell it for $50-$200 6-12 months later.

Sure, the "costs" to me are minimal (domain price) but the amount of work I'd put into them isn't costing me anything. My most recent self-parked page I've spent close to 10 hours (off and on) over the past week (working FT, not web based also). I do my own SEO (as dismally I am able to), my own link exchanges, my own research into related affiliate programs, and so on. I may add more pages as time goes on, but I have a backlog of a few dozen domains that I'd like to also get mini sites up and running, maybe even a blog or two.

I may use templates if I am lazy, but no pre-made content.

 

[stewie]

Good Luck in the Auction today Batman...hope your domain sells

 

[DN BROKER]

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