"Domain Parking is a thing of the Past!"
We've all heard this sentiment before and I'm certain many of you have written it off as another non-issue simply because you might be continuing to receive steady PPC Income. But... I warn you not to hastily ignore this line of commentary just because you might be seeing steady income yet today. The future will be much different for Domainers and Internet Marketers. Algorithms used by Search Engines to display SERPS are constantly changing, oftentimes on a daily basis. In order for Search Engines to remain Competitive and to ensure their Results Pages contain the most Relevant Search Results they need to constantly change the factors by which they rank Web pages.
The Largest change Search Engines have made is how they factor Quality Content into their algorithms; a much heigher weight has been applied to this factor. Users look to Search Engines for Answers to questions. Users are looking for Relevant Results and Real Answers, not more questions. Users are not interested in digging through Page upon Page of Web links in order to find these Answers as of the Internet was some sort of Mysterious Maze at a Fun Park. Instead they want to click "Search" knowing that the Answers they are looking for will be in the Top Results.
You and I are well aware of the Basic Content on the Average Parked Page. Parked Pages contain nothing more than Links or Empty Promises that maybe, eventually, Users will find the answers they Seek. A Parked Page will never rank very high in terms of Content; which is why "Domain Parking is a thing of the Past!" Because they lack any "Real Content", Parked Domains are falling off the first few pages of SERPS in Search Engines like Google, Yahoo! & MSN Live Search. In turn, Developed Web sites with Quality Content are now steadily taking the top spots regardless of the actual Domain Name. If you don't believe me, Search for any basic Keyword and you will find that Web sites with updated Quality Content & Quality Links, such as Wikipedia.org - the Online Encyclopedia, are making their way to the top of Google's SERPS.
Parked Domain Names continue to rank lower and lower in the SERPS so Domain Name owners now need to figure out a better way to Monetize their Domain Names. Even the Domainers at the Top are realizing that Developed Web sites are becoming the best way to Monetize their Domain Names.
Rick Schwartz describes this situation rather well in his "Last Blog Post":
"The industry is maturing and splintering and becoming more serious and becoming more desperate. So the dynamics of the cottage industry that gave birth to what we do is no more. The orbit has gone to higher levels. Those in other orbits have to work hard to escape the gravity of whatever orbit they are currently in to move to the next level. The safety of mediocrity has to be overcome by the challenge of what the future promises."
So what is the Domainer of the Future to do in this situation? Well I may not have the right answer, but I believe it is time to take a serious look at our Domain Name Portfolios and make what may be some Hard Decisions about the Domain Names we own. If you find that your Domain Names are only as good as the Keywords located within their names and those Domain Names cannot be easily developed into Money-making Web sites, then I believe now is the time to Sell.
An example of such a Domain Name would be "securedcreditcards.net"; this name may be producing a steady PPC Income today because of the Keywords in its name, but I know that its Monetization Model will not continue to receive the same results as Search Engines continue to produce better SERPS for Users. This Domain Name recently sold at GoDaddy's Aftermarket Web site, TDNAM, for $5,560. The Web site for this Domain Name currently contains nothing more than Sponsored Listings. This type of Development may be good for Natural Type-in Traffic, but Search Engines now recognize that Users do not want to Click on a link from their SERPS only to find what they had just navigated away from, namely, MORE ADS! I believe that traffic for Domain Names that are solely based on Keywords is near its Highest Point and now is a good time to sell at the current selling rate of 5 to 10 years of revenue.
(Note: Between the time this article was first written in July of last year and now, early March 2009, the Domain Name used in this example has been Developed into a more Content-Rich Web site. It is not known whether this Article had any effect on that decision or if the Domain Name Owner had also realized the same thing about Parked Domains).
The Next Step for the Enlightened Domainer is to develop those Domain Names that are left into complete Content-Rich Web sites; Web sites that Users will use to find the Answers they were searching for. If your Domain Name contains Keywords dealing with Secured Credit Cards then provide users with information about what a Secured Credit Card actually is. Educate your Visitors and provide them with venues where they can apply for these types of Credit Cards. Use Affiliate links and Partnerships directly from your Web site so that users do not have to continuously search through Pages and Pages of links in order to find what they originally came to your Web site to find.
The Future of Domaining involves a complete Domain Development process involving Web site Design, SEO, Link Building Strategies, and High Quality Content Development. That's what I believe and I am fairly certain that others will come to this realization too. We at Capable Media™ are re-designing and developing our own Web sites with these thoughts in mind and we believe you should too!