some basic questions

[ralhar35]

Hello everybody,

I have some basic questions and would appreciate some help...

During my day I occasionally come across domains that are no longer in use...

I come across them because I have searched for specific terms e.g googled vehicle repairs birmingham.

could the domains have any value - i'm thinking along the lines of parking?

If I park a new domain (a domain that I have come up with rather than one of the above) how does it get traffic? where does the traffic come from? Do I need to SEO?

How do I decide who to park with?

How do I unpark a domain?

Thanks for your help...

 

[accelerator]

Much better to learn how to build your own site (or mini-sites as they're referred to here). Search the forum for a post about how to make money from mini-sites.

The domains you are finding might have value, but bear in mind there are many established domainers now, so if the domain is that good, it's likely to get picked up by the drop catchers (domainers who snap up dropping domains).

Rgds

 

[Domainate]

could the domains have any value - i'm thinking along the lines of parking?

There are terms that people search and there are terms that people might type the domain in for. A term like "vehicle repairs birmingham" is not one that someone would type in, and Google does not see parked pages favorably, so it would not have value in terms of potential parking earnings. Names like that only have value if you intend to develop it (even just a minisite or something is much better than parking) or if you sell it to a reseller or developer.

If I park a new domain (a domain that I have come up with rather than one of the above) how does it get traffic? where does the traffic come from? Do I need to SEO?

It doesn't get traffic, and more often than not, parking companies frown upon efforts to get people to your parked page. You have to ask yourself this though - is it easier walking up a hill wearing a 150 lb backpack or wearing no backpack? You'd have to do 10 times the work to try and SEO a parked page, assuming Google wouldn't deindex it to begin with.

How do I decide who to park with?

I generally recommend Sedo for newbies as there's no barrier to entry and they can sometimes have decent earnings on domains. Once you get to about $500/mo earnings, you can try a more exclusive place like BigJumbo which is where I park much of my domains (they are basically Skenzo lite, with Skenzo being only if you have a million uniques a month I believe).

How do I unpark a domain?

Simply change the nameservers to your host or wherever else you'd like to direct the domain. Your registrar should have options allowing URL forwarding too if you'd simply want to redirect it.

 

[ralhar35]

Hello,

Thanks for your help...

OK i'll look at minisites rather than parking...

The domains I come across (i'm cold calling at work and compile my own lists of potentials by googling certain services) are usually businesses that have stopped trading for whatever reason...

most of them are in business directories and I just thought that if I follow these dead links then so do others.

thanks again.

 

[Domainate]

Yea, unfortunately parking just doesn't make what it used to. We no longer park most of ours, instead opting to use for-sale pages, which have made us a lot more money in sales thus far than parking would have been making.

 

[accelerator]

most of them are in business directories and I just thought that if I follow these dead links then so do others.

My advice to new domainers is don't buy too many domains before you've made a success of a few, whether that's developing them or selling them. Otherwise, future renewal bills will haunt you.

Rgds

 

[ralhar35]

yeah, I think your right...

it seems all too easy to buy in a hurry without really planning what to do with them...

I think I'll stick to my own stuff and just learn the basics from the ground up without trying to make shortcuts.

I'm going to look at minisites and affiliation.

Thanks again.