Sounds Crazy? TGTBT - Too Good To Be True?These domains have been idling on Cash Parking, simple landing page with sponsored links for several years. With a minimum of time and effort, e.g., tuning landing page photograph and keywords, they've been earning registration fees and more. Their potential, if someone would take the time to develop them, e.g., start a blog, niche or authority site, create a directory, or merchant affiliate site, is limitless. The names are short and simple, and include good, marketable keywords.
I need to lighten some of the administration time of managing my domain portfolio and it just happens that eBay is offering FREE listings, i.e., no insertion fee, for a very limited time.
Sounds Crazy? TGTBT - Too Good To Be True?
I registered most of these domains a few years back when I had time on my hands and I started several projects at once. Now, years later, a couple of those projects have grown into full time occupations. In addition, I have several other domains in development. At some point, you have to step back and get real. There's just no way I'm going to be able to develop every single domain. Sure, I'd like to, but I've only got so much time. I know some guys used to run hundreds of autoblogs profitably, but since Google's Penguin and Panda updates, that just doesn't work anymore.
Yes, the modest amounts these domains are returning in Cash Parking pay for themselves, and then some, but it's time to simplify and pare down my working list. Even maintaining parked domains takes some admin time, performance and traffic review at renewal time, fielding offers, real and bogus, etc. Also, I plan to use the proceeds from these auctions to invest in my other domains under development, including commission articles and blog entries, and fund new AdWords campaigns.
Sure, short .COMs are awesome. SEX.COM sold for $13 Million in 2010 and CONSULTING.COM sold for $180,000, in 2005. And if I had registered those names, particularly the former, I'd be out on the links, not checking stock photo sites for a crazy guy in a shower. This ain't that. These aren't pulling in thousands of dollars of ad revenue a day, but then again, I'm not auctioning them for a starting price of $1 Million. These names are strictly B-Side domains, but they do make the registration fees and then some, some more than others, and their starting bid is 99 cents. There's value in parking and holding, but the real value here is open to those with the know how, and just as important, the time to develop them.
Starting bid is only 99¢. With .com and .net registrations at $10 and up per year, you can earn advertising revenue and sample the traffic on these domains for the remainder of their current registration period for less than a buck. Less than one dollar! That's a no-brainer. That's like, what? five of these domains for the price of a latte. You can pull out a ten spot, pick up ten domains, park them and see how they perform. Dip a toe in the water.
Or you could go "all in" and take an hour or so to set up a simple site, write a couple of articles and place advertising links, e.g., AdSense, and affiliate merchandise offer, e.g., Amazon affiliate, seed a few backlinks to your new domain, and generate passive income without any additional effort. Mailbox money - just open the mailbox and cash the checks.
Provide Internet services to a family community, including email address, family web sites and social community, genealogical information, or other family information services. These domains get high traffic, undeveloped, because, I guess, everybody looks for their name on the Web at one time or another.
Provide vacationers and residents alike with the latest information on the best hot spots, restaurants, cultural and sports events. Even undeveloped, these city-based domains get traffic. Park for quick cash or develop an authority site for high paying link advertisement and affiliated merchandise sales. Every event planner has a budget to get the word out. No reason you can't get in on some of that cash.
Nothing builds community like school spirit and the love of alma mater. These domains already see high traffic, type-in and limited search. These domain name keywords pay off in parking mode, already, but could explode with the proper touch and a minimum of site building and SEO expertise. Offer vanity email addresses for annual subscription. Found a school-based social community or develop a niche or authority blog with tips on school admission, post-graduation placement and career advice, school activities and alumni events. Don't forget school based merchandise - from big foam fingers to class jewelry, with the right merchandise affiliate partner, you can get a piece of every sale, just for owning the site.
The military is a tight-knit community and there's traffic to be developed offering information on military careers to prospective officers and enlisted, as well as transition advice to service members awaiting retirement or separation. Get out the word on good postings and the bad. There's also full on industry in military-related merchandise, from children's toys to apparel and entertainment, an Amazon affiliate's dream market. You could probably retire just on the commisions from sales of "A Few Good Men," alone! You want the Truth? These names bring in traffic in parking mode - a landing page with sponsored links. With development, the payoff could be excellent.
Identifying and reviewing, and referring, visitors to local professionals can be highly lucrative. Reviews, aka user generated content, is easier to elicit than you may imagine: people love to talk. Specialized skills and targeted markets, like the growing Spanish-speaking community, make referrals here particularly valuable. Can you say, "Mucho dinero?" Directories and review communities come to mind, but these domains bring in visitors just as paid parking sites.
I couldn't tell you why some of these domains pull in search and type-in traffic, but they do, and these domains consistently pay for their own registration and more. With a bit of traffic analysis and tailored development, they could provide phenomenal return on your investment. With a starting bid of 99 cents, this is as close to "domain tasting," as you're going to get in 2013.