The Death of Domain Parking and the Birth of a New Vertical Web 2.0 Empire
Why domain parking as we know it is about to come to an end… and what's next
This story is about Richard Rosenblatt, an innovator and serial entrepreneur who sold his startup iMall to Excite@Home for $565 million in 1999, and went on to broker MySpace to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for $580 million.
He is currently the co-founder, chairman and CEO of Demand Media, the company that first caught domainers' attention when it acquired eNom and Bulk Register in May 2006.
So what has Richard been up to? For the past year or so, he has been quietly working on revolutionizing the domain industry and creating a new Web 2.0 media empire in the process.
Here's how it all began. Like thousands of domainers and soon-to-be domainers at the time, Richard read a compelling article entitled "Masters of Their Domains" in the December 2005 issue of Business 2.0.
The article described how millions of people ignore search engines and type domain names into their browsers (a concept known as "direct navigation") and how well-positioned domainers make a fortune by selling clicks generated by this traffic to PPC (pay-per-click) search engines such as Google.
In a recent interview with Business 2.0, Richard described his reaction to the December 2005 article:
"I thought, it can't be that easy. So I talked to some domainers, and they said, 'We own 300,000 domains, we make $20 million a year, we have just four employees and some servers in the Caymans.' I thought, 'If you can make that much doing nothing, what if we added some Web 2.0 sprinkle so that people would come back - user publishing tools, social networking? What if we built a platform where we could snap that into as many domains as we wanted?' That's when the lightning bolt hit me: You'd have a company that generates its own traffic, generates its own content, and monetizes itself. It would be the perfect lazy-man's media company!"
Many domainers have had similar ideas before, but they did not know how to turn them into reality. Domainers who do not have the large portfolio required to deal directly with Google's Adsense for Domains face the following dilemma: If they park their domains, they lose up to 80% of the revenue generated by PPC ads to Google and to their parking provider. To be exact, about half of the advertiser's payment goes to Google, and the remaining half is split, usually in unfavorable proportions, between the parking provider, e.g. Sedo, Namedrive, Fabulous etc., and the domain owner.
To increase their profits, many domainers are motivated to develop their most promising domains into a website or forum. By doing so they can usually more than double a domain's income as they are now dealing directly with Google's Adsense and no longer with a parking provider who takes his own cut.
But many domainers soon realize that developing domains to a point where they convert one-time visitors into regulars takes a lot of time and effort. They end up developing one domain after another, and even if they put the same type of software on each domain (like, for example, a discussion forum), maintaining and building these sites is a full-time endeavor. These domainers are now web developers and they no longer have the time to research and buy new domains.
The solution?
Go back to PPC and park the vast majority of your domains. That's what most domainers who don't see themselves as full-time web developers end up doing.
But Richard asked himself something like this: (not a direct quote)
- "What if we could equip one single domain with a powerful Web 2.0 community software that turns one-time visitors into regulars?
- What if we could then duplicate that domain's software over thousands and hundreds of thousands of domains at the click of a button?
- What if these domains could automatically brand and customize themselves according to their visitor's perceived preferences and expectations?
- What if these domains could interact with each other on the back-end to transfer content, users and ads among each other?"
Well, Richard found a way to do all of the above, and more. And he's going to control every single element in the "revenue chain" and generate massive profits in the process:
- He owns the domains and the traffic. Demand Media acquired eNom and Bulk Register and is now the second largest domain registrar behind GoDaddy, and a major player in the expiring domains market.
- He controls the content:
"In consideration of having your work posted on the Site for any period of time, You grant eHow a perpetual, worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, reproduce, modify, transmit, distribute, publicly perform and display, and create derivative works of the Content, in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, to make, have made, import, and sell the Content, and to sublicense all of the foregoing rights (including the right to grant further such sublicenses)."
- And he will certainly sell his own content-targeted ads, even though he didn't mention it yet because doing so will put him into direct competition with Google, Yahoo and MSN.
What are Richard's domains going to look like? So far, it's a big secret, but we can get some hints at wehow.com, which draws content from ehow.com, one of Demand Media's recent acquisitions.
wehow.com and ehow.com already host a wealth of user-generated content. Now imagine millions of automatically branded and customized domains drawing from ehow's content and allowing users to add their own material. Then add some social networking tools and some Web 2.0 "sprinkle", and compare the end result to a traditional, ugly parked domain like, well, you know where to find them.
What does this mean to domainers? Is Richard going to make a deal with domainers to host and populate their domains in the same way as his own domains? Or will he try to buy out as many domainers as he can?
Probably both. Richard can "snap" his community software from one domain to another at the click of a button. He will probably buy as many domains as possible, and offer to share ad revenue with domainers who give him control over their domains.
As Richard's domains retain visitors through valuable content and community interaction, the earning potential of domains that are using his software is increased dramatically. If his solution is as vastly superior as it promises to be, it could put current domain parking companies out of business in a matter of weeks if they don't adapt.
However, the Daily Domainer is confident that as the word about this innovation is getting out, Demand Media's competition will soon respond with their own product. 2007 will be a highly interesting year, and domain parking as we know it will be changed forever.
Do you believe that Richard Rosenblatt's plan can work? Do you think he will offer a superior alternative to the current domain parking model? Will his vertical niche sites be attractive to users? Can he successfully compete with Google, Yahoo and MSN for advertisers' dollars? What products will his competitors come up with, if any? Let us know your thoughts.
It will probably be successful, but we first need to see some example domains other than wehow.com
There will still be room for domain parking but it will be marginalized to low-end domains (typo domains and domains with unpopular extensions). Premium domains will definitely go with Richard's program or whatever the competition comes up with!
I read this article several months ago. It is really an innovative idea and I think it will take off with incredible force. I am interesting in learning more about Rosenblatt's plans. Thanks DD!
How much do you want to bet he'll put this widgets together, employ them on his portfolio, and then sell the lot of it to Yahoo for 3-5 Billion…they'll buy anything these days.
I also read about this a while back in Business 2.0 (great magazine), but I was very diappointed when I saw their site…
The main idea is to get type-in traffic and other visitors to find sites that are on a topic they are interested in and can contribute to. The users provide the content in return for… something?
And the company sits back and watches their investment grow and grow.
I'd rather see domain owners not be so lazy and put content on thier own sites. I think they will make more money from ads and when they are ready to sell the domain they can also sell the site and get a much better price for it.
I don't think it would take much to improve the current state of domain parking. Even feeding RSS onto a domain and placing google ads around it makes more money than parking does.
I think this is the natural progression of aggregated media on domains. The only danger is in content duplication and it's inevitable decimation of your search ranking… but I guess if it's direct type in traffic, that's not really a concern.
at a point where people relay more on the stupid users, it will work. but how much will it work?
This will be hugely popular for a while, then the whole Web 2.0 market will crumble as people tire of reading meaningless, unedited posts and comments.
Its too bad domain parking and squatting isn't illegal.
"domainer" is a bullshit term. What you really mean to say is "squatter". Just because you decided to call them "domainers" doesn't suddenly turn domain squatters into something cool.
It's just a euphemism. Anybody with a brain will see right though it. It's no better than calling URL spammers "search engine optimizers".
What a sad way to make money, off of people mistyping things. I guess it's on par with being CEO of the world's worst website.
It's people like this that are ruining the Internet. Screw you and everyone who looks like you.
Fortunately, as Adblock software is installed on more browsers, this business model is going to dry up and die.
It's hard to take this seriously with the random bolding and stuff like this "well, you where how to find them."
Your "industry" is as unethical and unproductive as all other forms of spamming. I'm glad you found a way to make money by not contributing anything and wasting bandwidth. Scumbags like you spammers and squatters should be permanently banned from the internet.
How to they pick content for the domain? Computers don't know context, they know keywords. This may turn an 1 time oops into a 2 or 3 time, but people are going to realize by the content that the source is not really what they are looking at.
Props to the adblock comment. Though it'll be more of a war than a smackdown.
What scumbags. Instead of leaching off of clicks. Why don't you people actually create something beneficial and useful to the web community.
More worthless sites clogging up the net. Domain parking itself is tantamount to vandalism. Nobody is going to return to a place like this unless they are using it just for posting their worthless spam.
It's disgusting.
Web 2, indeed! Those people are the worst kind of carpetbaggers, speculators, and squatters. Leeches sucking the blood out of the http://WWW.
Eventually the government will have to set up special namespaces like virtual wilderness areas and national parks with strict rules to keep out thses types of "developers" and "exploiters".
I went and looked at ehow.com, and frankly, it looks like every other parked domain I've ever come across.
I can't believe there are companies making millions of dollars off of these parked domains. Every time I come across a parked domain by accident I always back out and try again - I never link-jump from the parked domain.
It's instantly obvious when you hop to a parked domain that it's a sham designed to feel sort-of like what you were looking for, but really isn't.
I guess the dumb masses fall for it.
I am all for the death of the Internet, TV, All media. Money slaves.
http://www.tvbgone.com
Why in world do you call this 'innovation'? You're not creating a single thing! You're just scamming a buck off of other people's typos.
The ads on tv and the classified ads in the papers. Scum, all scum.
Ban advertising and keep the net as you want it. Boring blogs and big tits (that's you, lucky reader).
You only need one domain (not even that) for all the content in the world, if you're so worried about not having enough content to read, go make some more.
Let the domainers innovate your future, while you gripe and whine.
Wow - promoting spam sites that clog up google searches or catch people's typos. How innovative! Perhaps openDNS can simply find out this guy's domain names and blacklist them.
Absolutely scumbags. Since when is it a brilliant idea to create useless noise in hopes of making a buck? The only thing brilliant about this idea is the brilliant lack of integrity on the part of domain spammers.
Another moron that want's more money by fucking things up. Domain names are there to make it easier to find a site. These days it is virtually impossible to find a suitable domain name for your business because people like Mr Rosenblatt parked their fat arse on those names. It is as sick as patent squatting. It shows how low humanity can sink
1 If Google rally is "Do no evil" then they should stop allowing addwords to parked domains.
2 Parking and squatting should be illegal
3 We need more and better add blockers
4 Stop raising children so poorly that they turn out to be like Mr Rosenblatt
making noise is a whole load less damaging than selling mortgages to people you know can't afford them, or running a bank at current rates, or selling electricity or petrol at current prices, or being a salesman, or being employed by any one of the above, or or or or
so *ck off and let the innovators innovate, you go back to your day job and gripe about the quality of your reading matter.
I own wehowcreator if anyone is interested. hehehe…
This isn't the death of domain parking, its just "more efficient" search engine manipulation and link farming.
Ultimately all this will be is a bunch of RSS feeds which are contextually linked to the domain name. They're certainly not going to build 300,000 unique websites.
And if he thinks that current domain name parking companies won't emulate him in a matter of weeks, he's hilariously delusional about the value of his idea and the difficulty of its implementation.
What a lightweight. This isn't a Web 2.0 empire, its the business plan of a cheesedick.
Amen to making domain parking illegal.
I think the laws should clearly state rules around domain parking….
How many domain combinations are there?
One day, won't someone just buy every combination of the allowable characters
so there is nothing left?
I want to buy my name.com but some rediculous company that sells email
addresses @yourname.com bought it. Do they have anyone who has purchased my name?
Nope. But will they give it up? Nope. Its rediculous.
Wow - lots of frustrated people out there!
Question to you guys - if you could go back to 1996 and register for $20 business.com, or music.com or any other cool domain name that is worth $50k+ now (eg imusic.com, goshopping.com etc) - would you say 'no I'm not going to do this because its unethical and i will be helping to bring down the internet!'? My guess is that you all would probably own 1000+ domains each by now.
Just like any business, there are good and bad people. Domain investing is no different than buying real estate in a high growth area - you just have to operate within the law (typo domains are definitely unethical - but dont group these people with the rest of domain investors). I bet you dont hurl abuse at people who own ashfelt parking lots in the central city and dont build on the lot immediately!
All these domain parkers more or less associate with Click Fraud. Park their domains there and pay people to go to the site and click on the stupid ads few times a day to generate some non-sense revenue. If Google and Yahoo indeed try to fight the Click Fraud, their ads should never be placed in these sites whom content is worthless…
Yeah, there's an empty lot next door with nothing but a for sale sign on it. Someone should confiscate it from these scumbag speculators and give it to me, after all I just didn't have the idea until recently. Somebody please legislate everything until I feel like things are fair to me.
Just to be clear– the roughly 20 comments prior to mine are from complete babies. Domains are worth what they are worth. Make an offer if you want one of them, most domainers are more than willing to sell for cash. I just bought an 'unused' domain for $500 for my own use. Do I wish it had been $8? Sure, yeah. But since everyone's so concerned with making 'productive' use of domains as possible, how can a few hundred bucks be a barrier? Unless I plan on making a completely worthless website, a one-time payment of $8 or $500 for a domain is no difference.
By the way, morons, let's hear your 'fair' uses for domains. Just post your objective criteria here, I'd love to read it since it's all so well thought out. Is email 'use'? What if they use the domain just for email and have a parked page for http? Anyway, don't want to skew the results, I really would love to get your expert input.
I agree with Morgan. So people make money in a way you can't or don't have the energy to get off your fat ass to do. Boo hoo. Hey guess what morons…life isn't fair !!! Shock ! Horror ! Domain parking is legal. It's about peoples creativity. If it's a legal way to make money then SO WHAT. All this pathetic whining about ad's makes me sick, commerce pays bills and taxes. Now let me think, I have a choice (a) be creative and make money from parking (b) fail to put my two children through college because I'm lazy..
Hmmmmm…guess I'll go for (b)
The idealist in me agrees wholeheartedly that the greed that is prevalent on the net is disgusting but the realist in me agrees with the last posts and that it is probably not going to change. One thing they both agree on is that government regulation of the net is pointless. Isn't it great that spam no longer exists because it is illegal. The only way to affect any change in this PROBLEM (it is deceptive and exploitive and therefore it is WRONG)is for a free, open source browsing aid(possibly a browser extension.) One that helps inexperienced users browse more effectively while simultaniusly discouraging the type of exploitation that earns the exploiters their fortunes.
And in response to the prior post about "how can a few hundred bucks be a barrier?" Some people are on much tighter budgets than others. I believe that the internet is for everyone. Not just the wealthy. For some people(esp. from poorer nations) 500 dollars is what they earn in a month. As a matter of fact that is almost half the GNP of some developing countries. do either of these not deserve a domain name that is easy to remember? I think not. Fair use to me is where the domain serves its original intended purpose: to resolve easy to remember names into hard to remember network addresses to simplify http, ftp and any other internet protocols so everyone, including laypersons, can access the resources they need. And I am quite sure that they don't "need" to be herded into participating in mass advertising click-fraud.
I can only hope for precise hurrican on his servers in the caymens.
I don't know how, exactly, people think it would be so easy to make 'domain squatting' illegal. To make something illegal, you have to define it. Once you define it, people simply find some loophole that allows them to not fit the definition, and what they are doing becomes legal.
The simple truth is, if you want to see the death of domain squatting, the most effective route is to make the registrars the domain squatters - raise the annual registration fee for domains from $8/year to $100/yr. Nearly anyone can afford $100/year for 1 or a small number of domains.
I suspect that few 'domainers' could afford thirty million dollars a year for 300,000 domains that don't generate that much revenue.
The reason that domainers exist is that you can register those 300,000 domains, right now, for $2.4 million (possibly less, I dunno if there are 'bulk discounts' or anything), and get revenues of $20 million. That's a very compelling business model. Spending $30 million for $20 million is not a compelling business model.
I agree with Morgan and Andrew.
It appears that the LIBERAL Slahdot community has tainted a genuine business model that they can't understand. I love /. but for the most part the negative comments are from people that expect the Internet to be FREE and free from advertising or any other public medium… The "academic" surfers that plan on working for someone else forever and have no hope for the true American dream. The same people that use the US Government as a crutch.
I've been in the domain name game for about 10 years and got in about 10 years too late. I've acquired over 2,000+ "quality" domains that bring in about 360,000 unique visitors per month and about $20,000 per month in revenue. This is no way close to a hand-full of others out there, but it works for me, a 1-person organization.
This allowed me to quit my damn job as an Internet Architect and sit back with the family and enjoy life at 34.
Good luck slashdotters.
It's too expensive !!! It's too Expensive says the buyer… but when when the buyer gets the product for
free he goes boasting about how it got a "steal of a deal".
If you want the domain, buy it. Don't complain if someone else owns it. It's their right.
For everyone who thinks it's OK for these scumbags to squat on millions of domains, I've got an idea. I'm going to set up a wall in front of every supermarket in America with a window. If you want milk, butter and eggs, you can't go into the store to get it. I'll get it for you and charge you an arm and a leg for it. I'll do a revenue split with the store so a quart of milk costs you $15 and I'll pay the store $5 for it. Profit! After all, the middleman needs to eat, too. There's nothing illegal about it but how fast do you suppose Federal Marshalls would show up? Maybe I'll do that with gas stations, too. $10 a gallon but you have to go through me.
If the American dream is fulfilled by being absolutely useless for the economy of your country and creating nothing of value for the rest of your life, that explains why it doesn't seem to be energizing the huddled masses recently.
Divebus is a great example of the quality of thinkers on this blog. Wow.
Divebus - it is completely illegal to stand in front of someones store on their land that they own, and stop their customers from entering unless they pay you a fee. You will get arrested very quickly. Same goes for a gas station.
The same thing online would be if you took over someone elses domain eg Google.com and only let users through if they paid you a fee.
What domain investors/parkers actually do is buy a piece of land down the street and get paid for advertising the stores nearby.
Zook - the internet isnt meant to be completely free, just like the real world isnt. Just like not all people can afford $500 in the real world for an iphone, or $100k for a Mercedes, they will have the same issues online. That is the free market, that is why you are all able to use computers right now that only cost $400. If the free market didnt exist, we would still be living in huts
Like someone said earlier - stop complaining and get out there and do something for yourselves.
"What domain investors/parkers actually do is buy a piece of land down the street and get paid for advertising the stores nearby."
Did the stores nearby need, or ask for, this advertising service? Of would they be just fine if only their customers weren't distracted and confused by a ga-fucking-zillion stupid parked-domain "websites" in their way?
It's like the mafia showing up and offering you "protection".
If those stores didnt want the advertising or traffic, they can stop advertising on Google Adwords, MS adCenter or Overture.
Yeah, I'm on the disgusted end of things here. I know that he WILL make Billions of dollars, but so what. He's already worth too much money. You think that he would want to build something that he was proud of in a real way. Yes, some of his sites do provide real content and are actually decent, but the other business strategies are not much different than what spammers do.
John
http://www.monomachines.com
Domain parkers are nothing more than Internet parasites, and nothing admirable about someone who exercises innovation to take advantage of people.
I'm with you Richard Rosenblatt’s, i have over 300 domain names at 2 parking locations,I will go where the money is just like most out there,my names are on great landing pages get's average 24% ctr,i think they are very helpful to any one that comes acros them, Ya im a domain squatter, if you must call it that.I want to tell all you complaining out there, you should have gotton up off your asses and registered what you needed. just becouse yours is gone now we've got to here your shit, well Fuck you and all your kind.
John post 44: Richard is personally worth less than 75 million outside of his Demand Media venture - that includes his home in the Palisades. It might be less than 50mm actually.
Divebus post 41: "the wall" and "handing your milk through a window" - you are a complete rube and are clearly (either) uneducated, or a factory mindset worker bee. The registrants of names are the "owners of the stores" they own the land and the building and lease it to the gas station your mamma just went to to buy her skoal bandits so your daddy wouldn't beat her again. The landloard keeps the driveway clear of vagrants like you and lets commerce flow. If they built walls WITH PASS THROUGH WINDOWS around the stores and gas stations people would go to OTHER gas stations and stores. The reason mama's skoal bandits cost 3 bucks instead of 2 bucks is becaused the store owner has to pay rent for a prime location. That's life bub. Get one.
Anti-click fraud post 31: You are another complete screwup. Direct nav traffic converts better than search according to Sesquehanna - I beleive the exact statistic is 4.1 X for type-in direct nav VS 2.8 X for Google or Yahoo search. The money is coming BECAUSE the traffic is of high quality.
Dinther post 25: You just fail to follow whats happening and worse yet your post (at number 25) shows that you are nothing but a bandwagoning follower. If the herd would have told you how great this is, you'd be cheerleading (i was being facetious there Dinther no need to rebutt)
Ted post 21: You're just so lost pal. Its about generic domains with type-ins .. not typ o's the only typ 'o 'demand media' would want is you to donate at the red cross. Preferably so much so that you bleed-out and that your more capitalistic minded brethren pick it up from there.
anagma post 23: Google makes 10-15% of its operating revenue from these guys and you would be crying in your beer as your Google stock cratered into the earth if you wished this industry away. Google revenue is like hamburger, don't about 'exactly' how the cow went from the ranch to your bun just order well done with cheese or go vegan. Also anagma to prove what a complete imbicile you are: openDNS has a parking service they are promoting.. yes they will overwrite all these parked pages WITH THEIR PARKED PAGES.. You just sound like such a complete fool against the backdrop of reality, I had to point it out.
Grimreaper post 18: empty shrill.. nobody cares.. if I wasn't writing this you'd be a tree in the forest .. falling.
Somedude, grouchy dude, asdf, and others sounding off to the extreme negative with absolutely ZERO logic or balance are just a bunch of lost sheep who do not realise they have been led astray. Baaaaaa!
I'm not crazy about the exact Demand Media roadmap but I am reasonably certain that they, Marchex, NameMedia.com and others to follow will prove you wrong and use their generic names to absolutely mop-up in paid search. Because of the vitriol and absolutely misguided technosnob mindset of these posts, I would be especially pleased if they mopped up with your (so very sorry) asses.
This entire response thread-tree leaves me feling so very sorry for those who do not understand the machinations of paid search direct navigation or generic type-in traffic domain names.
You people posting have missed one of the great opportunities of your lifetime to make a difference, make your fortune, change your own lives and the lives of your friends and families by doing 'something', getting off your ass and letting the light of capitalism elevate you in some entrepreneurial way. What a sorry bunch of loosers you all are.
I read this and something gets excited in me. This is not just the new thing but is a great evolution of something already existing. Time will show how great this is (or isn't). But hats off for innovative thinking
Now if only I could get my idea's out the doors and had the $$$ to run them up…
To all the people lobbing around names like "scumbag": you should cut to the chase and
go find an anti-capitalism website to post on. Your percieved unfairness
of capitalism is your real issue, not whether a successful businessman, who has
found yet another entirely legal niche for generating revenue, is "ethical" or not.
You've already decided that capitalism isn't ethical unless it's giving stuff
to you for free.
"You people posting have missed one of the great opportunities of your lifetime to make a difference, make your fortune, change your own lives and the lives of your friends and families by doing ’something’"
Are you seriously suggesting that buying up a domain like "fredsfishmarket.com" and selling it to a guy named Fred who wanted to a website for his fish market but discovered that "fishmarket.com" was going for $15,000 is in some way "making a difference?"
Look, I won't deny that there's money in being a cybersquatter. But what "difference" are you making by rushing out and grabbing the site? It's no more ethical than real estate speculation — buying abandoned lots in hopes that the value goes up — and in some ways is considerably less so, since the reality is that the abandoned lots are CREATED by the squatter. Squatters, in other words, produce an intermediate stage in the early lifecycle of useful websites that does nothing but move money to the squatters themselves. They're parasitic, not symbiotic.
So what value is a squatter to society? Are you donating your "fortune" to the poor? Are you giving generously of your time in ways that you would not had you not been able to sell "hdtvsucks.com" for a ten thousand dollar profit in 2003?
Parasitic middlemen arise in any market where growth outpaces transparency or regulation. That doesn't mean they're providing any value.
In the line of spam we all should be comfortable with it, thats all you see on tv adds adds adds i never agreed to all that??????/
Tom Davidson post 50: It is 'not' about buying fredsfishmarket.com Tom - It is about buying cameras.com (a clearly generic name) and then adding content until it gradually morphs into photography.com .. then doing that tens of thousands of times until you create a network.
Can you spell your own name Tom? Because if you can then I should not have to explain this to you. This is so blindingly obvious and simple.
Last points:
1)The search engines give ZERO traffic to these sites.. the traffic comes from Type-in, direct nav so there is 'no' SEO SPAM.
2) Ethhics cheerleader.. you sound like the trivial psychic on SNL "I got up, I bought a generic name, I bought thousands of others, then I built relevant websites there and made millions" How incredibly unethical [sarc]. I can see you content scraping and optin email marketing from here Mr. Jealous.
[…]Squatters, in other words, produce an intermediate stage in the early lifecycle of useful websites that does nothing but move money to the squatters themselves. They’re parasitic, not symbiotic.[..]
The only excuse for ignorance is the refusal to engage in education!
An interesting argument you propose. On one hand you seem to suggest that domaining is a business model, perhaps in some small way legitimising it. On the other, when stating “They’re parasitic, not symbiotic”, you seem to suggest implementing a form of neo-Nazi purification
A squatter registers TM domains with the purpose of selling them to the TM holder. They may or may not participate in business models that include PPC. The term came from IP owners, who persuaded a unilateral right to terms that may or may not include generics as a result, business owners lose domains (see DRS cases “finecheeses.co.uk or mercer.co.uk”) at the expense of multiple categorised TM.
That is of huge concern that is what we should be talking about. Why do legitimate business models suffer a quasi-court procedure, increased barriers to entry, IP experts / DRS supposed experts working for organisations and may or may not advise on DRS /UDRP/ ADR.
You only need to look at waynerooney.co.uk and .com the experts in the .com heads up the .co.uk and advises on results. He also wrote, “Domain Name DRS Policies: from the sublime to the ridiculous”. Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 1 (8): 539-549
Let’s get this into perspective, people that own domains that are willing to sell, that park, contribute a significant sum to the coffers of all registrars. Interestingly, I don’t know of a registrar that allows research into the number of domains that are parked, and or for sale. I just wonder why that is? Without that money will they struggle to exist?
Adding to what I've already mentioned…
You seem to argue that PPC / middlemen industries adds nothing. That notion is bizarre, western economies are generally based on adding nothing that is the nature of service economies.
Hopefully there will one day be a FireFox extension that identifies cookie-cutter sites, and up pops a little bubble saying:
"This is cookie-cutter site, it uses the same template as 59,135 other sites"
Obviously you'd need to whitelist popular forum software and shopping cart systems…
There are going to be a myriad of options domain owners can use (or paths to take, so to speak) announced this year. Other companies are working on the "pop out mini sites, rss feed them, hope that content falls from the sky, adsense it, and maybe the little devil will grow to be a money making dragon. This is just one of them.
2007 is the Year of the Domainer in my professional opinion.
Stephen Douglas
Amazing how some people here perceive this whole thing, especially if they don't seem to care to understand or consider other perspectives and give it a little more thought. As if they don't have any selfish interests of their own to consider.
It's all about who gets what. But I guess some people find it easier to whine than do something.
If you have a domain that receives typein traffic, then you can sometimes get a 30% click through rate on a one click landing page. If you add content, then your click through rate will go down. If you think that more traffic and a lower click through rate is going to make you more money, then you develop a name. If your name is good, then you should go to eLance and hire some people to write some custom copy and build you a site for a few hundred bucks. Keep in mind that search engines don't like duplicate content. Think about all the sites that you find useful. Can this parking system turn your domain into a site that you would find useful?
domain names are just like realestate, s1n.com is a peice of my realestate and it cant be duplicated once some one buys it its theres,how many people do you know that will go and buy a peice of land when its cheap and later sell it for a profit,same thing right, that don't make them a bad person.
HAHAHA I have to laugh at the people that think parking should be illegal. It should not be. It will however be replaced in time. I am a typo squatter and am not afraid to admit it. There are those who only choose to use generic names, and others that use tm names. I do both. If a company contacts me however I do let them have the domain, as long as they are nice to me, I am nice to them. It has only happened twice so far though. Once with Yahoo. Once tm typos are outlawed there will be other ways to monitize that traffic.
I've personally tried all sort of "micro-publishing" from putting RSS feeds across my domains to coding community features.
Nothing has ever come close to what I make with DomainSponsor.
Parked domains are useless - I always click the "back" button and pick another link ever time, often even before the horrible parking page is fully loaded.
Domain-squatters are scum. They deprive developers opportunities to startup new sites and tools, which would in turn drive progress and innovation within the internet.
It's like people buying up vacant lots in the middle of a city and then putting a hotdog stand on it. Both sell crap, and both prevent developers from using that space to build something bigger and better.
(No offence to hotdog sellers or lovers.)
The idea of parked domains with targeted content is already live and
running at http://www.WhyPark.com.
Thanks Nick, it helps when you're a web developer by trade
I've seen eHow.com erroneously referred to as a parked domain in this article and comments. eHow is a rich content site that has been on the Web since 1999. It is one of the highest trafficked knowledge sites with a growing catalog of tens of thousands of expert articles, both professionally and user-written.
For a brief summary of eHow's history see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehow
I'd like to praise all the above commentators! I have really learned something new and started reading related articles.
Based on most of the comments above, many articles, and my own observation:
Demand Media may never beat Ford, GM and Chrysler in losses, but may get pretty close or may end up in a disastrous IPO attempts and/or legal battles with their investors.
The fact that the upper ends (you know who you are) can sleep at night feeding on the blood of others who actually work for a living just shows that these soulless pigs don't care about anyone but themselves and who cares anyway? You can't take it with you, so in the end was it worth it to be known only as a scoundrel in your own time?
Hey this hit the domain name newsgroups last night. I think it may be an early example of the domain parking death march. Check it out, who knows something just may come from it.
Don’t Park It, Embark It!
RE: Domain Embarking Beta Test Program (by this invitation only)
Domainers,
We are respectfully posting this notice in Domain Name discussions groups, blogs and forums to attract “experienced domain name parkers” and extend this sincere invitation to join our new (patent pending) Domain Embarking Beta Test Program.
If you’re serious about domain name monetization, but you’re tired of the old parking methods, we’d like your participation in a REVOLUTIONARY new method to create “profit-hubs” with each and every domain name you own using our free, (patent pending) software and network, to generate monetized websites and internet traffic.
In an effort to learn from true, domain name entrepreneurs, we are limiting applicants to those who own 10 or more domain names.
There are no obligations, no contracts, no time commitments, no fees, no tricks.
The public Grand Opening is scheduled for May 1st, 2007.
Thank you in advance for your valuable help and input. We hope to reward you with a real “ground floor” opportunity to profit for a long, long time. The beta program is limited to 500 approved applicants.
Below you will find the Domain Embarking Beta Test Invitation Link.
Special Domain Embarking Beta Test Program Sign-up Link:
http://www.domainembarking.com/admin/betaregister.cfm
Domain Embarking Staff
http://www.domainembarking.com
—*Scammer Alert!*—
Do not get involved with above advertiser (domainembarking.com) for monetizing your domains.
For further reference visit the Namepros.com forum and inform for further information on this shady character named Addison Bachman.
NP Member
Hi my name is Addison B. Bachman. Regarding -*Scammer Alert*- above.
If I'm a scam artist, I'm the dumbest one you'll ever meet. Make up your own minds http://www.addisonbbachman.com
To those that "dare risk" having their parked domain name portfolio ACTUALLY make money, get front page search page rankings and real traffic (that isn't dependent on people typing in your exact url) all for free; C'mon over and join our beta testing group.
Special Domain Embarking Beta Test Program Sign-up Link:
http://www.domainembarking.com/admin/betaregister.cfm
For the rest of you…..be afraid. Be Very Afraid!
Addison B. Bachman
OMFG! U stupid naive bunch of idiots, "Make the Internet a better place by getting rid of parking and domainers"?? LOL! How absolutely narrow minded are you all! The internet is literally virtual "real estate" and at the moment is THE biggest money maker on the NET! And probably will be for years to come because the concept is evolving every day at a staggering rate! - I made £300k last year from buying/selling/parking and developing domains - get real!
I believe that they idea of setting up a wiki like search engine where domains participating in it will use a script that enables the ability for user generated content is problematic. The reason being because if every top domain was simply "user generated content" then how useful would these domains be? I think that what would be more useful is for these top domains to be real stores, and real Web sites.
I think that having a page which provides a handful of links to real Web sites and stores is a much cleaner idea than having a wiki like search engine for domains. The traffic is in essense more pure. Users who visit that site will find the links that they are looking for. So if somebody types in a domain such as rentanapartment.com into their browser they will be finding links to apartements rental Web sites and they therefon will find what they are looking for. On the other hand, if somebody saw a page will usergenerated content then there is no way that, the user generated content can be as useful as the enduser site, which provides a real apartment rental Web site. In other words, the usergenerated content will not be able to provide a data base of apartment rentals directly on their Web site from user generated web 2.0 based content.
I feel that not all domains would benefit from user genrated content because some domains simply won't flow well with user generated content. In essense the page can end up being more of a "mess" than a relelvant content page.
#77 - zorag
Maybe the second largest revenue generator; but pales in comparison to porn.
in all honesty i liked comments #s 26, 30, 36, 41 and ESPECIALLY 47 the best. but then i thought
about #73. but .. then .. that really brings one back again to considering both #26 and now
especially #49. do you see the dilemma?
I have a question that may be stupidly obvious, but here goes. If one were lucky enough to have registered a keyword domain like vacations.com, and were interested in monetizing the PPC potential, would one have to pay for the search terms vacation and vacations, since they're already in the domain name?
If not, it would seem keyword domains are self-funding through cost avoidance.
Thanks for any help.
These domainers all talk a good game along the lines of 'imagine turning a surfer into a repeat customer etc'.
So we'll put up a great site etc. Trouble is with that statement is a great site is hard to build and maintain. So instead of one page parked domains with adverts we'll get crappy content sites no doubt written by Indians for $2 an article and believe me that copy will read like a $2 article.
So just because you now have content doesn't mean that the sufer will want to return. The only way to achieve the goal of repeat customer is to employ great writers to write great content and I'd bet that less than 1 out of 500 domainers will go down that route.
Lately I have heard alot of controversy that some think domaining should be illegal. Just in case you dont know, domaining is where speculators buy deleted domain names and resell them for a profit. They can also hold on to them and park them and profit off of the pay per click ads. To any anyone who thinks this is a crime, are you kidding me? This is America, free enterprise is legal. I believe domain speculating could be put in the same category as real estate investors, or stock investors. Would you complain and say it was illegal, if someone bought a house and sold it for a profit? This is the same concept. These "people" that do not think this should be legal, need to pull there heads out of there ass. There are many other problems in the world today. Go get mad about people selling drugs. Don't complain about America's free enterprise. You could go out and do the exact same thing, GET OVER IT!
I compare parking services at ParkQuick.com and I can tell you that domain parking is alive and well. Some of these quickie "development" ideas (such as "Why Park") aren't doing well in Google because of the duplicate content penalty, and the content on those sites is competing with the links big time. I'd recommend that domainers stick with the traditional companies like Parked and Sedo for now.
All of these morons that call Domainers "CyberSquaters" or think parking should be illegal need to get a grip. They have no clue on the service we provide to advertisers on the web.
I have been buying domain names since 1998 I originally bought unique names for businesses that I planned to start, and becuase of that mind set I missed a ton on good generics traffic names. I woke up and started buying names for traffic. I would them point them to affilate programs that had the content that the people where looking for that typed in the name.
If I had not bought the domain their type-in would go nowhere and show and error page. If I bought the name and pointed it to a affilate program that targeted what they were looking for I was doing the person a service by connecting them to what they are looking for.
There is nothing wrong with that at all. Also If I buy a name to resale, that is no different that buying, land, gold, a house or anything else.
Often people don't even have the ability to think up a good name, I do the work for them and then sell them the name, I am being paid for my intellectual property and the work of coming up with the name.
Parking does the same thing and is not in anyway related to spam or anything like that. As you chose to come to the parked name by typing it in. Spam is forced upon you in your e-mail. As far as typos of trademarked name those names have the lowest click through rate of all. Only very generic typos with no TM issues are worth anything.
Squatting is when you infringe on someones trademark, I have done that before by accident and I gave up the name when they sent me a letter. TM squatting and Cybersquating will soon be a thing of the past as parking companies are starting to block and ban those domains.
THE BOTTOM LINE. The only people that against parking are people that did not have the insight to do it them self and are jealous of those of us that did. And the truth is we spend a lot of time and money and work doing it and we deserve every penny we make.
As as far those of you that feel someone like me is providing no service or benefit to this world. I have written several books on other subjects that have helped many people. Domaining is not my main gig but the money I make from parking and resales domains allows me to pursue my other interests. Also when I donate money or items to charity from the money I make parking names I am helping people. Most jobs that the average person has makes no difference in this world. So get over yourself.
I worked for a company as a salaried employee for almost 38 years "employee at will" and was kicked to the curb being told my job was eliminated and i asked to go back to my old job as head of personnel and was told salaried personnel are not allowed to bump. I have 2 beautiful daughters. One has a BSN in nursing and is a registered nurse and the other was in the Navy 6 years and is now continuing college in the criminal justice.. so Mr. Rosenblatt and his rich friends how about a big donation to pay for their college, as i am busted, disgusted and don't understand a thing about the computer world. I would like to leave this world knowing I tried to help my beautiful daughters. thanks and remember this world needs Registered Nurses and a future probation officer. take care sue
i read neaw this article, several months ago.
I am interesting in learning more about this thenology..
sory for may comment, i know eng leatle :((
You slept for 50 years watching TV, slaving for your balding and abusive boss and spent time whoring around.
Now that you have come up with a brilliant idea reading this article, you want that name. Is it available. God damn it. Those parking squatters.
Scam! Scam! Scam! Unethical Scam!
Wake up you moron. This is capitalism. No one waits for losers like you. Now go ask your boss for overtime so you can take your wife for a one week discount package vacation to Cancun.
Hey Sue, Pardon me! My post was not at all directed to you and I did not read your post while I was writing mine. I read your post after I made mine.
I am sorry about your situation. Hope it turns out well.
The working man and the working woman is the pillar of our economy. But it is time they do not get so absorbed in it that they miss out on the future and great possibilities.
Domain names are one among them. There is still time!
Chris
POst # 50 - Tom, when you daughter gets sick, the medicine in your cabinet comes from a middle man as well. The Viagra you use perhaps to remind you of your teen years comes from a middle man drug sales rep as well.
Don't you think Pfizer has enough resources to build Viagra stores in every neighborhood.
You guys are clueless. Stick to the 'Help Wanted' section.
I feel sorry for your kids.
The new model of business like Richard Rosenblatt already did will become role of business model. Take a look at Google and 33 big companies which have mobile phone platform software called android. Or last October google launched Open Social platform.(read it in http://canalize.net/android-new-open-software-from-google-for-mobile-phone/ )
Not just in the West Country, right know Indonesian Blogger made asiablogging.com as their media platform. Compare it with wehow.com.
I think the rule is WHO DOMINATE MEDIA IS MAN WHO OWN THE WORLD.
I don't think people would register and contribute content to a website they just typed in. They wouldn't trust it enought to register unless they heard about it from someone/someplace they trust. I don't think he would be able to get people to contribute content.
The Business 2.0 Magazine is out of business.. Does that tell us anything..?
Hi
C'mon all you yanks, free market economy etc. owning the domains is OK - just tweak the rules to encourage owners to do something useful with them. I own a lot and do not feel comfortable about setting up junk pages on them. We are looking at genuine ways to make the pages useful - such as links to related sites. We do not participate in click fraud as implied above. Important point - it is not usually possible to say suchabody SHOULD own this domain as there are usually many people with a legit claim. Google (and other ad providers) are very responsible for the whole industry of parking, spam pages, minisites and the web 2.0 nonsense above. I imagine 95% of the domains are bought for PPC ads not resale potential - resale is a bonus. Without PPC it would be very different. If billboards could be erected anywhere without permission think how our highways would look with all the cheap rural land … that is equivalent to google ads on all these marginal value domains. However the 5% prime domains will always be bought and owned. That is capitalism. Don't forget the ads pay for the best website out there that we all use for free - the big G.
Yeah, fine, we live in a free market economy and enjoy a high standard of living largely because of it. So what? This doesn't change anybody's opinion of the average domain-squatter: An opportunist who just so happened to find an exposed spot in the system. A _talentless_, _worthless_ parasite who continues to suckle at the bleeding teat of this system, never to contribute anything in return. Not that the squatters give a rat's ass. No, the eye of the squatter's mind is too callous and myopic to see who they are hurting: students, hobbyists… fellow human beings who can't afford the exorbitant prices of even the most obscure domain names.
"Too bad, that's capitalism, loser," you say. And you're right, it is too bad… it's a damn shame. But eventually the system will be corrected. The parasites that are the domain-squatters will be burned off like the fleas on my dog's ass.
Traditional domain parking just not work, we need more nice website with more nice content.
I might me replying late to this article. but i need to speak on some points here. some people call it sad to make money through mistypes etc. Its obvious that the links the click on is needed by them and they actually get information out of their ads.
The domain industry is booming and it would be sensible to come up with different alternatives. Parking is one and Richard's ideas are good too.
what does this mean for a normal person like myself who occasionally takes out a domain or two for my blog or business will getting domains be hard and will the search seo area be cornered by these people or will the world keep turnin like usual?
Richard? Richard is that you???? That was the biggest bunch of cheerleader bull I have ever read. Richard will revolutionize and Richard will do this and Richard will fly and walk on water.
If this was written by someone other than Richard then Richard, get an attorney and file an anti-stalking complaint. This articles author will be camping on your front yard within hours.
The birth of a new empire? This is not a new idea and it certainly was not invented by Richard Rosenblatt. Parked.com comes to immediate mind without having to use Google to look it up. I know there are others as well that offer the same thing. Dynamic content and a fake page full of links that looks real. I think NameDrive Does it as well.
Jan 27th, 2007 at 12:23 am
[…] And now, Richard Rosenblatt, the guy who ran MySpace.com for a time, says there is a better way. He has a vision that involves the venture-capital magnet buzzword Web 2.0. You see, he notes that web sites like Blogger, Flickr, and YouTuber don't actually create any content: people go there because other people make those sites worth visiting by adding self serving essays, photos, and clips from Family Guy, respectively. […]
Jan 29th, 2007 at 2:02 am
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[…] The Death of Domain Parking and the Birth of a New Vertical Web 2.0 … … will probably buy as many domains as possible, and offer to share … Google rally is "Do no evil" then they should stop allowing addwords … their browser they will be finding links to apartements rental Web … http://www.dailydomainer.com/200733-200733-death-of-domain-parking.html […]
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[…] Rosenblatt is taking his vast network of domains and turning each of them into a Web 2.0 site with user-generated “how to” content. Ham’s company, Reinvent Technology, has a mission “to transform our direct navigation […]
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May 9th, 2008 at 3:53 am
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