by Edgar Frost

Created on: September 01, 2008

Have you ever typed in a web address only to be taken to a page filled with ads because you typed the name in incorrectly? Have you ever typed in a domain name for a topic, rather than doing a search at Yahoo or Google, only to find that you are on a page that has related advertising? If the answer is yes, then you are one of the many people who visited a parked page.

Domain parking is a big business. Individuals who register domain names often don't get around to developing them into web sites right away, so they will sign up with a parking program which places advertising on the page and shares a percentage of the revenue with the domain owner. Some domain owners might also purchase generic words or typos. Generic words can be valuable, because besides their potential as a possible website, they are also valuable because people looking for information about a topic may just type the word, rather than doing a search. For example, if you are looking for art supplies, you might type in art.com, instead of doing a Yahoo search for the word "art". Typos work by catching typing mistakes that individuals make. For example, if you want to go to Ebay, you may actually type enay, ebsy, eebay, eay, ehay, or hundreds of other possible combinations. Established sites get such large quantities of traffic, that a good typo can bring lots of traffic, which in turn bring more clicks and higher revenue.

Once you decide you want to park domains, you can go with a free parking service like Sedo, or a pay service like Godaddy. There are also many others that you can find by doing a quick search on "domain parking". My advice is to use a free service if you only have a few domains, and to use a pay service if you have lots of domains. Also, don't be afraid to try other services. I've tried a few, and I'm very happy with my main parking company. However, I noticed that a few domains weren't performing well, even after optimization, so I moved them to another service where the revenue stream has improved tremendously.

This brings us to domain optimization. After you choose a parking service, you will get a chance to optimize your parked pages. Make sure you take this seriously! If you have a generic music domain, then use keywords that are related to music. If someone goes to your music domain and finds ads for plumbing equipment, they're probably not going to click, but if they see ads for concerts, CD's, MP3 players, etc, they probably will click. You should also focus on the types of graphics you choose. Try to pick a theme that is closely related to the type of domain you have. Make it seem like a search portal.

Parking can be a great way to earn extra money with little continuing effort. I would encourage you to read more articles on the topic, check out domain parking sites, and carefully research the domain market before jumping in all at once.

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