Why do so many valuable generic domain names sit undeveloped?

[JimmyDomain]

Every day in my virtual travels I come across a slew of very valuable domains that just lie fallow in some parking program. I'm not going to list specific examples, but I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about - generic product/service domains with high numbers of monthly exact searches in very lucrative niches.

I am wondering why the owners of these names don't do anything with them. I'm not talking about full blown development since I know this can be very time consuming and expensive, but these days someone can whack up a Wordpress blog in about 5 minutes flat and have 50 pages of quality content written for under 500 pounds. We all know Google is prejudiced towards exact keyword match domains, so even in a competitive niche a page 1 ranking with only a handful of decent backlinks is a definite possibility. Surely this would be a worthy investment to improve the saleability of a domain that would be worth between 5 and 6 figures to the right end-user.

Am I missing something here? If you own a piece of prime waterfront real estate, even a cheap shack is likely to bring in a decent amount of income.

 

[Lucky Luke]

Hands up... I'm guilty. I think it's about finding the time.

 

[doodlebug]

Some nice names do go undeveloped but I guess if you buy a premium domain and then some more till you build up a portfolio and all are aff sites, you then need to pay someone to look after them and that means more money and resposibility.

Maybe something like that ?

 

[expertc]

If I buy a domain (even just for resale), I always try to develop it... But I'd second Lucky Luke. If you have many of them then it is not an easy job.

 

[Americar]

Premium domains .. those names with type-in traffic .. can be far more lucrative than a developed website even in the current environment of up to 50% + less in PPC than a year and a bit ago ...

Development requires reliance on Google or affiliates, affiliates require a sale of a product for an income stream parking just requires a click, nothing more ...

Parking is a no brainer for a domainer ...

 

[doodlebug]

Mr schlling owns tons of the generics and I believe they are all parked ?

 

[tifosi]

Thing is only a fraction of these are tied to 'portfolio owners' -though that is growing.

There are many, many more single domains owned by registrants which probably just get auto-renewed every couple of years without the registrants particularly caring. Just projects they'll get to eventually, or maybe not...

S

 

[disruptive]

I have actually found better click through's with parked pages. The advantages are that it gives people a jumping off page and they are presented with myriad of options which can make it more likely they look to find what might lead them in the right direction.

With developed sites - you can often be putting people off because they are too narrow and some segment of your market does not believe that:

a) Your content is relevant.
b) They can find what they are looking for [many are looking for something to grab them].

So parking still does have a place. I have seen names earn loads of NameDrive and bugger all on a quality adsense based wordpress content site. Of course I have seen the benefits of good quality template websites.

 

[bensd]

I have actually found better click through's with parked pages. The advantages are that it gives people a jumping off page and they are presented with myriad of options which can make it more likely they look to find what might lead them in the right direction.

With developed sites - you can often be putting people off because they are too narrow and some segment of your market does not believe that:

a) Your content is relevant.
b) They can find what they are looking for [many are looking for something to grab them].

So parking still does have a place. I have seen names earn loads of NameDrive and bugger all on a quality adsense based wordpress content site. Of course I have seen the benefits of good quality template websites.

However, if your long term plan is to sell the domain or develop it at a later date by putting on a minisite you are ageing the domain in google and if it starts to climb up the rankings you might have a better chance of selling it.

 

[Skinner]

If they are quality generics, its sit and wait for a buyer time

I have about 20 names which will NEVER be listed for sale or otherwise, never parked, never anything because I believe someone will want them, and they will find me (it helps that I included my email in the whois) and they will pay a nice price for them.

The rest, I develop at about a rate of 1 every 10 days, but I have clients who come first since 1 client pays as much as 10 basic aff sites.

1 domain sold to a local business with a basic site, earns a whole years revenue from the same basic aff site, so people concentrate on other markets.

 

[doodlebug]

I thought parking put a SEO negative on domains these days anyway ?

 

[Americar]

I thought parking put a SEO negative on domains these days anyway ?

It does .. but so does doing nothing with a domain .. a for sale page has almost the same effect, it's negative.

One can SEO a parked page, Title, Description, the name will get indexed if it is SEO even as a redirect. That does not mean that the name will get a ranking ... it means that the name with show up for it's URL .. if you do nothing that wont happen very often although some names do slip through the cracks ...

If a name has no type-in traffic then the only choice is to develop the name to in order to gain some revenue .. no type-in traffic = no revenue ...

Namedrive has some good landing pages, better than most, easily optimized, revenue per click is weak though. Sedopro landing pages have improved a lot recently if you choose carefully again easily optimized .. Sedo pay per click can be better or as good as most aggregators .. depends on the domain and the traffic to the name ..

Parkers have to forget that Google even exists .. if you worry about Google you will go nuts

See: http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/4108578.htm this is enough to drive even the best SEO expert to drink .. these guys have top sites, their living depends on Goog ...

 

[JMOT]

Mr Schilling hosts his own sites using his own XML PPC feed provided to him.

He doesnt use parking templates or parking DNS...

Parking domains is a big fat red flag that sucks to try get shifted when you try developing them once they come off parking...

I'm still buying domains that have been parked but you either gotta SEO the nuts off them trying to get them ranking or just put simple content on them, bang in a few links and forget for about a year...else you will be in for a miserable time waiting for google to treat your domain as fresh.

The longer they are parked the worse it is...

I consider parking highly valuable domains like filling your valuable land with toxic waste hoping a future buyer wont notice...

 

[doodlebug]

Mr Schilling hosts his own sites using his own XML PPC feed provided to him.

He doesnt use parking templates or parking DNS...

Parking domains is a big fat red flag that sucks to try get shifted when you try developing them once they come off parking...

I'm still buying domains that have been parked but you either gotta SEO the nuts off them trying to get them ranking or just put simple content on them, bang in a few links and forget for about a year...else you will be in for a miserable time waiting for google to treat your domain as fresh.

The longer they are parked the worse it is...

I consider parking highly valuable domains like filling your valuable land with toxic waste hoping a future buyer wont notice...

Well pointed out, Thank you

 

[Americar]

Frank Schilling = NameAdministration.com ..

They use a Yahoo direct feed .. or did, dunno about now that Yahoo is merging .. to get a direct Yahoo feed you did/once needed at least 500K unique views per Day .. rareified air that very few get to breathe ..

Frank Schilling's blog is: http://www.sevenmile.com .. sevenmile.com .. not updated since 2008 but it's still there, many interesting comments and observations by Frank Schilling on that blog ...

 

[Skinner]

Yahoo when I spoke to them, they wanted 1,000,000 daily views or 100,000 uniques per day. I jumped through hoops of fire, I bounced up and down, I tapped my heels together, I borrowed Dale's Red Ruby shoes and still they wasn't happy.

 

[WestHamFan]

I tend to look at so many premium names being parked and doing nothing as an opportunity to exploit the lesser extensions as it's even easier to get a site with content to rank high on Google.

Personally I can't justify paying hundreds or even thousands for a co/uk name if I'm only expecting a few tens of pounds per month return eventually. But I'm very happy to pay £6/7 for a name that will be covered inside a couple of months leaving a useful residual income to be earned.

I can see why people hang on to no end of premium undeveloped names waiting for the buyer and I'm sure they do well once they eventually sell a few names. But, as I was a little late to the domain name party, I can only ever hope for the odd lucky catch and need to try exploiting different angles and opportunities.

When I see the usual registrant names appear over and over again whenever I do some bulk whois searches I often think I'd be happy with an income on a par with their renewal bills! 8)

 

[JMOT]

Yahoo when I spoke to them, they wanted 1,000,000 daily views or 100,000 uniques per day. I jumped through hoops of fire, I bounced up and down, I tapped my heels together, I borrowed Dale's Red Ruby shoes and still they wasn't happy.

Its a polite way of saying "we dont think you have enough traffic and also your traffic quality probably sucks so thanks but no thanks"

I should know.... I'm ex YSM BD for my sins lol