WestHamFan

Was concerned that views on a few of my Sedo parked pages just seemed to evaporate recently so thought I'd spend an hour looking at them to see if I could do anything to improve things.

I noticed one of my sedo parked pages looked nothing like expected. On checking a few more of the 400ish domains I have parked there it seems the handful of adult domains are not using the parking template I selected, there's no mention of Sedo on the page, the keyword isn't in the source code and there's no mention of the domain being available to buy. This came as a surprise and possibly explains why traffic/clicks has fallen off lately. I even had to go and check I hadn't sold the affected domains to someone else and then even went back to my registrar account to make sure the domain was still in my account there!

Have I missed some news about Sedo parking and adult sites maybe?

To be safe I'm pointing the nameservers elsewhere as these aren't the pages I parked and I guess I'm getting no credit for any clicks on these strange pages.

Without wanting to sound too negative it seems things have gone weird lately. Almost every new domain/website I add to Sedo thesedays spends days/weeks in a verification queue and never gets checked until I find a reason to query it with CS and now it looks like I need to check over 400 domains to be sure it's my parked page showing up! On top of this, what few clicks I get are rarely worth more than 2c which seems a remarkably low share of revenue. All in all I'm starting to feel very uncomfortable with things. I can't put my finger on anything but I sense something is horribly wrong at the moment but I'm not sure what it is.

Am I alone in this experience?

WestHamFan

Just started the task of checking every domain and it is not just adult domains affected. Having checked just a few other sites I've already found two more that are not showing the right parked page.

I have to assume these "strange" parking pages are not mine and therefore I'm not being credited with any revenue they earn.

admin

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WestHamFan

I reported this to Sedo CS about the same time as my original post so don't expect a response until tomorrow. Will certainly keep you updated. Examining the source code these weird pages are definately unbranded Sedo pages. Whether I am getting credit for the traffic/clicks I can't say yet. But they are certainly not displaying the templates and keywords set up in the optimizer.

I have to wonder if parking is really worth the effort for the kind of returns you get when it also means you have to condemn your domains to being buried in the bowels of nowhere by the search engines too.

As an experiment last weekend I switched a few RSS driven minisites (each attracting between 20/40 uniques a day) to Sedo parking to see how many visits/clicks I would get before they vanished from search returns. The answer? Since the weekend I earned a total of E0.18 from those domains over four days and now the modest traffic levels they had seems to have dried up.....

So, given this occurance today with the strange pages appearing I think it's my cue to abandon parking as a viable use of my time/domains.

Having spent months trying to optimize and get parked pages looking and performing as best they can at Sedo it seems everything is stacked against you by the search engines and revenue share you receive on the few clicks you do get. The return on the time needed isn't possible unless you have the very best type in names possible. Even then with most clicks seemingly earning 2c at Sedo now the returns probably wouldn't justify the kind of money such domains cost.

At least a little time putting content together means you can promote your domains to get some search traffic and the chance of some realistic revenue from contextual ads. If I'm honest I could have put together a fair number of sites in the time I've wasted trying to play the parking game for peanuts. And ranked sites with a bit of traffic are far more likely to sell too.....

So I'm not too worried about the experience. I think I've learned my lesson but I'm curious to know if anyone has found any success parking where I have dismally failed?

WestHamFan

A bit of an update as I'm starting to suspect the weird pages is a bit of a technical glitch at Sedo.

I've not had any official response yet which is fair enough as the day hasn't really begun but I see some of the sites affected are now showing the usual branded Sedo parking pages with the for sale link etc. The only problem now is the templates are still not the ones selected in the optimizer. For instance I have long standing adult domains that have been running an adult template without change for months now showing with the "phoenix blue" template.

The good news is I feel a little more confident that I will get credited with any traffic that manages to find the domain.

I will see how things progress today and report back if I hear or experience anything more.

sedo

Hi WHF,

I'm going to get somebody to take a look at this for you.

Regards,

Shaun

shaun.wilkinson@sedo.com

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http://www.sedo.co.uk joanna.birch@sedo.com

sedo

Hi,

E-mail sent.

Regards,

Shaun

shaun.wilkinson@sedo.com

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http://www.sedo.co.uk joanna.birch@sedo.com

WestHamFan

Hi Shaun and thank you for taking an interest. I've now had a response which said...

Thank you for contacting us. I'm sorry to hear that you've been having problems with your parked domains.

I've taken a look at xxxxxxxxxx and able to see a standard Sedo parking page (see attached screenshot). The parking page includes information about the domain being for sale.

If you are still having trouble with any of your parked domains, please let us know. It would be extremely helpful for you to include screenshots to document any issues or problems.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

The screenshot mentioned wasn't attached but I'm not surprised by the answer I got given the post I made first thing this morning... although they presumably didn't notice that it was the wrong template being displayed and apparently have no idea that different pages were showing yesterday (and maybe for some time before that for all I know). Whether people have/are losing out on clicks/revenue I haven't a clue and it seems noone else has either.

I'm still keen to hear if anyone is making parking actually work for them with anything but the most obvious type in domains. I just can't see how you can earn anything near a worthwhile amount for the time investment needed. It's certainly beaten me as all I seem to achieve from it is a load of invisible and thus less valuable domains.

I'm not trying to criticise Sedo particularly - my question applies to parking generally. I'm quite prepared to be told I'm a numpty as I can't see companies like Sedo investing all the time and effort in parking that they do if it doesn't pay at least some people generously.

WestHamFan

Just a quick update to say thank you to Shaun for his efforts today. I've received a spreadsheet regarding the parking status of all my domains and it's obvious some effort and concern has been put in to my queries. I will spend some time this evening going through to see if I can identify what, if anything, the problems are.

Really do appreciate your efforts Shaun. Thank you.

sedo

Hi WHF,

You're welcome, I'll also pass on your thanks to my colleague David, who put together the spreadsheet for you. Let me know if you encounter any more problems.

Regards,

Shaun

shaun.wilkinson@sedo.com

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http://www.sedo.co.uk joanna.birch@sedo.com