Domaining - Monetising Domain Names (Part 5 of 5)
1Oct2008 Filed under: Domain Names Author: Rozbeh NassabThus far, various aspects of domaining have been covered including the basics of domaining, buying and selling domains and the development of domain names. In this final section, the monetisation of domain names shall be covered. This includes what monetisation is, different methods of domain monetisation and methods of maximising the potential for monetisation of your domain name(s).
- What is domain name monetisation?
Domain name monetisation is the process of utilising a domain name to generate money.
- What are the different methods of domain monetisation?
In order to generate revenue from your domain name it is necessary to utilise one of the following methods and choose the method which suits you and your circumstances the best.
1. Domain Selling
The process of Selling Domain Nameshas been covered previously and is the first possible method of monetising your domain names. The value of the domain varies according to many factors including quality, extension, revenue generated via parking monetisation (see method 2 below) or advertising (see method 3 below), history including any development (see method 3 below) and/or traffic.
2. Domain Parking Monetisation
Domain parking is the process of registering a domain name without the intention of utlising the domain for purposes such as a website or for e-mail. Domain parking may also be classified as non-monetised and monetised (which shall be covered below). Non-monetised domain parking being a simple “Coming Soon” or “Under Construction” page which may be provided by the domain registrar and no revenue is generated from this. Monetised domain parking involves the use of advertisements to gain revenue and/or clicks from visitors to the site and advertisements. More than likely, you will have stumbled upon a monetised parked domain name page whilst browsing the Internet either via the search engines or by typos when inputting a URL into the browser. The advertisements on parked domain names are usually provided from a domain parking company like Sedo.com or Parked.com and usually contain content that is somewhat relevant to your domain. A music related domain may display MP3 related content thus increasing the chances of revenue from a user clicking on the advertisements.
I have attached a few screenshots of samples of parked domains. As you can see, some have been design customised to maximise the clickability of the advertisements by attracting the users eye to the revenue generating content.
Domain Parking Companies
The following list contains the main players in the domain parking industry. (N.B. The list is in no particular order)
- Sedo
- SedoPro - Similar to Sedo but with reported higher earnings (Stricter application criteria)
- Parked
- TrafficZ
- GoDaddy Cash Parking
- NameDrive
- Fabulous
- DomainSponsor
- HitFarm
- Active Audience
- SmartName
- GoldKey
- DotZup
- Revenue Direct
- Bodis
- Parking Panel
- DomainSpa
- iMonetize
The potential revenue varies between the various parking companies and it may be just a case of trial and error for each of your domains to find the best method of maximising the revenue as different parking companies have different strengths.
Due to the nature of domain parking, domains with traffic are sought after by domainers as the existing traffic has a revenue generation potential via parking. For this reason, expired domains which were previously developed and dropped or domains with type in traffic (visitors landing at a website from entering a keyword or phrase in the browser address bar and not via hyperlinks or bookmarks) are in demand and the demand causes the price of the domain to increase.
3. Monetising Domain Names from Development
Part 4 of domaining covered the Development of Domain Namesand outlined the monetisation potential. In this section the monetisation potential via development shall be covered more thoroughly.
Note: Before a domain name is developed it is possible to park the domain at one of the domain parking services in section 2 above and possibly receive revenue from any traffic that visits your domain name.
Advertisements
It is possible to place advertising on your site in the form of banners and text ads via either selling ad space using third party solutions or directly and receive revenue on a CPC Basis (Cost Per Click), CPM Basis(Cost Per 1000 Impressions) or for a period of time agreed between yourself and the advertiser.
Outlined below are some of the major third party advertising solutions (The list is by no means a definitive list):
Google AdSense is a fast and easy way for website publishers of all sizes to display relevant, unobtrusive Google ads on their web site’s content pages and earn money. The ads can be customised in size and appearance to blend in with your site and overall Google is one of the, if not the, major player in website advertising solutions.
- Adbrite
Adbrite is a marketplace for digital advertising and allows users to generate advertising codes to implement on their site to generate revenue.
- Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN)
Yahoo Publisher Network is the rival to Google Adsense and ads are displayed that are relevant to the content of your site and YPN allows you to earn money from qualified clicks.
Other programs worth mentioning include:
- Clicksor
If you site contains adult related content the following options are available:
- AVNADS
The potential revenue from the above advertising solutions varies and it is a case of trial and error over a period of time to establish which of the above networks works best for your site.
Another method of monetisation is by selling advertising space directly rather than using one of the above advertising networks.
Affiliates
It is also possible to generate revenue from your site by placing affiliate marketing links. Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliates marketing efforts. If you have a music site, for example, it is possible to place affiliate links to Amazon and you will generate revenue (percentage or set amount) each time a user purchases a product from Amazon via your affiliate link.
The revenue generated depends on the performance of your site and the number of leads/sales generated via your site. The greater the number of leads/sales the higher the revenue your site will generate.
Outlined below are some of the major affiliate marketing solutions (Again the list is by no means a definitive list):
Commission Junction is a global leader in Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing, and Search Engine Marketing.
- buy.at
- WebGains
Many of the major sites like Amazon (Amazon Associates) have independent affiliate programs in place which does not utilise the infrastructure of the above affiliate marketing networks so it may be worth looking for potential affiliates beyond the above advertising networks.
Sponsorships
Companies/Individuals may be interested in sponsoring your site for a period of time agreed prior to sponsorship in exchange for exposure from your site.
Donations
Donations from users to your site may also be an effictive means of monetisation with little effort as the donations can be handled using third party payment processing solutions like PayPal.
This concludes the five part series of articles on domaining and you should now have an insight into the basics of domaining, buying and selling domain names, developing your domain names and monetising domain names.
