One of my readers wrote in recently, interested in how to make money on parked domain names. I specialize in creating niche affiliate sites on my own domains, so I decided to reach out to my friend Gene Pimentel. He was kind enough to answer a few questions on the topic of monetizing domain names…

Hi Gene! Since you are a professional Domainer, I was hoping you could shed some light on this topic for us. First, what exactly is a “Domainer”?

Hi Lynn, I’ll be glad to help shed some light on domaining.

A “domainer” is a person who registers or buys domain names with the intent to sell. The key to being a successful domainer is to get your domains to pay for themselves through monetization. This allows you to have an unlimited number of domains in your portfolio at no real cost to you – IF you choose domains wisely.

There are many strategies that can be utilized to monetize domain names depending on the quantity and quality of the names.

First I’ll talk about quantity. If the owner has a substantial number of domain names that are not being used for anything at the moment, the first thing he or she should do is “park” the domains.

Parking a domain simply means creating a free account at one of the major domain parking companies and uploading a list of all the domain names.

The parking company will automatically place a web page on each of the domain names, containing many clickable ad links. The links are paid advertising similar to Adsense, and are contextual. They reflect the keywords found in the domain name. When your visitor clicks on a link, you are paid for the click (the parking company also receives a share of the click revenue).

This is a fast and easy way to instantly monetize all of your unused domains. The amount you earn per click varies greatly depending on the type of ad clicked on. Some clicks can earn you several dollars each, but most will earn a few pennies to a dollar. It all adds up.

That’s where quality comes in. The better the quality of the keywords in your domain name, the more each click can earn. By quality, I’m talking about keywords that are desirable to advertisers in very competitive markets, like insurance, health, financial, etc.

The main benefit to parking your domains is that you can instantly monetize all of your unused domains with virtually no effort. Naturally, you will be better off to build your own website on your domain name and monetize with your own ads and offers, but while you’re waiting to get to each one, you may as well let your domains earn their keep automatically. You can have a portfolio of a thousand domains that cover their own registration fees if you choose quality domains. In fact, this can be a profitable business model in itself.

In my opinion and in my experience, two of the best parking companies are Parked.com and Sedo.com. Sedo.com goes a step further by allowing you to list all of your domains for sale on their site, and handles the transaction through their escrow service automatically.

Do you usually monetize your domain names until you sell them?

Absolutely. Whenever I register a new domain name, the first thing I always do is park it unless I have other immediate plans for the domain. Using a service like Parked.com allows you to customize your parked page as well, giving you more flexibility in monetization. It also lets you do some basic on-site SEO to attract the search engines.

What are the top 3 ways to monetize domain names in your portfolio?

1) Parking as described above. Very little effort, but also little pay. The idea is to get the registration fees covered, for as long as it takes to develop or sell the domain.

2) Redirect the domain to an affiliate sales page. Think ClickBank.com Think RAPbank.com. Again, there is almost no effort in this, and just one sale over the course of the year will easily pay for the registration fees. This can be very profitable with good domain names containing keywords that people search for, related to the product or service you’re redirecting to.

3) Put up a squeeze page, giving away a free product with high perceived value but no cost to you. The visitor is required to enter their email address to receive the free product, and you benefit by building a mailing list in that niche.

Set it up with a good autoresponder like Aweber, so you can load up many weeks worth of mailings ahead of time and multiply your chances of exposure to the list members. The autoresponder sends them a “newsletter” every week for let’s say 26 or 52 weeks, and every email contains links to products you’re offering along with the good content they signed up for.

You can purchase great PLR autoresponder series for this purpose very inexpensively. Once the system is in place, it runs completely on autopilot and works like a great salesperson for you, week after week.

Great tips, Gene – Thank you!

Lynn, I’d like to offer all of your readers a free membership in my Domain Profits Club for 30 days. No auto-renew, no payment of any kind. If they want to keep their membership longer they will have the option, but there is no obligation at all. Just use this link: http://DomainProfitsClub.com/lynnterry

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Next, we’ll talk to professional domainer Kenny Goodman. Make sure you’re subscribed to ClickNewz so you don’t miss the next post in this series!

How many domain names do you own, and are you currently monetizing those domains? Leave a comment below – and be sure to include any questions you have for Gene. Have your own tips for how to make money on parked domains? Share those with us below as well!

Best,

GoDaddy – World’s No.1 Domain Name Registrar

Melanie asks: “It seems blogs are all the rage now but I wanted to start with a website (have a little experience with that and a friend who can help too, so seemed quicker to get up and running).

I just want to get my website up and content written and improve/add as I go along. But feel almost like it’s a blog or nothing these days? What are your thoughts on this?”

Great question, Melanie! There is no right or wrong answer here, but there are some things to consider. I’ll start by asking you a few questions to help you make your decision:

• What software do you have to create/edit/manage a website?
• How much experience is “a little experience” with HTML?
• How dependent would you be on your friend to help you?

There are a lot of differences between a blog format and a static website. In the end though, it boils down to: good content, proper optimization and quality inbound links. So to answer your question, yes you can still be successful online with a traditional website.

The learning curve is a lot steeper than with WordPress for most people. Also, WordPress is heavily supported so it is very easy to get any help you might need. There are tons of free themes, free plugins, and free support forums to draw from.

I have a detailed checklist here: How to Create a Blog that will walk you through the 7 steps to setting up WordPress from domain name to customization.

Hosting is cheap, WordPress is free, and any web host with cPanel offers it as a one-click install. I use HostGator, as do many of my readers here, and you can get the first month for 1c by using the coupon code “wordpress” when you sign up. You can literally set up a great looking blog for about $10 – the cost of the domain name.

Benefits of Blogging

There are specific benefits of blogging that you won’t have with a traditional static website. In addition to it being cheap & easy, you’ll have perks like:

• An RSS Feed
• User Comment Feature
• Listings in RSS & Blog Directories
• Auto-Pinging Update Services
• Automated Email Newsletter

Also, users are more receptive to blogs. They enjoy subscribing and commenting, and so it’s much easier to build a loyal readership and you’ll enjoy a good number of repeat visitors.

In addition to that, you’ll become a part of the overall blog network, which opens up opportunities of it’s own. You can bring on guest bloggers, get mentioned on other blogs in your niche, participate in cross blog conversations or blog carnivals, etc.

If your website idea is content-based, I definitely recommend that you consider using the WordPress platform. If you plan to include an online store with a shopping cart (ie an ecommerce site) you can add that separately on the same domain. Static pages and blogs can easily co-exist within a “site”.

How long will it take to earn $1500/month?

“What would you say is a reasonable amount of time (with hard work, but part time as I have to work still) to be able to earn your first $1500 month? I really would like to get out of the auction business within a year.”

When I first decided to make the transition from a service-based online business, to Affiliate Marketing, my initial goal was to consistently earn $5,000/month. I reached that goal within the first year.

Like you, I was still running my original business, and so I was doing Affiliate Marketing on the side – nights & weekends, basically.

At first it was all work. A serious investment of time & energy. But by the last quarter of that year I had reached my goal, and in the process had phased out my original business altogether.

I can’t answer that question for you, as it’s different for everyone. You get out of it what you put into it. But I can tell you that it’s definitely possible – and it sounds like you’re willing to make it happen.

Getting over the fear of… Getting Started

“I have read your tips about taking small steps to getting to your goals but to someone who at present has the fear to actually start the site, I suppose the fear of failure you could say.. and that of changing my business model, do you have any valuable insights to give me a push this Monday?

I have read a lot and pretty much understand it all and know I need to TAKE ACTION, but something keeps me from starting although I have done keyword research and roughly designed a website on paper and content ideas…”

You have to want it bad enough to just make it happen. Period.

Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to be. An idea is never going to earn you money. Taking action on that idea will.

So go ahead and get started, set up a domain name and hosting account, and start getting your content online.

Nothing you do will be “wrong”. Everything you do can be changed or improved. There’s really nothing to fear at all, except doing nothing at all. You’ll never regret trying something, even if you fail. And even from there, you can fix it.

The only regret you could potentially have is wanting something, or wanting change – and doing nothing about it at all…

Best,

p.s. Anytime you have questions, stop by my discussion forum. We’ll help you out!

In my last post, titled How Can I Promote My Website For Free, we discussed Jim’s advertising question and possible solutions.

You’ll recall that I suggested Jim create a blog or website of his own to promote his company replicated website.

To continue that conversation, I’ll share the next note that I received from Jim and also do an in-depth website review – including tips for nailing your “call to action” for the best possible click-through and conversion rates…

Jim says: We created a website at www.harvestmyamerica.com to be more appealing. We now have a news broadcast on there that profiled our company. It is channel 9 news interviewing one of our founders…

With this website, you can see that Jim is targeting the business opportunity seekers instead of the product consumer as discussed in my last blog post. That’s a good angle too, though I would recommend doing both.

This would require two separate websites, as you are targeting two entirely different markets. Obviously not everyone that wants to shop online for discounts wants to get involved in a biz opp, and vice versa.

In order for a website to convert visitors into buyers, you want to target them very specifically and keep the call-to-action simple and clear. Always meet the visitor where they are, instead of trying to convince them to take an entirely different direction (common website mistake).

Going back to the example of Jim’s HarvestMyAmerica.com, which was created to drive traffic to his referral link for MyHarvestAmerica.com as discussed in my last post, you can see by the domain name alone that Jim is promoting the brand.

Instead, I would create a blog or website that addresses the needs or thoughts of the target market you most want to recruit into your downline.

When people are looking for a business opportunity, they rarely search for specific company names. They search things like: home based business, internet business, work from home, business opportunities, etc.

In order to get found by the thousands of people who are searching for this online every single day, you want to target those specific keyword phrases they are typing into the search engines.

Meet them where they are. They may not be aware of your company yet.

Now let’s take a look at Jim’s website, and specifically his call-to-action…

I hope this has proven helpful for you Jim, and for everyone reading along here. I’d love to hear your thoughts & questions!

Best,

p.s. Also see: 21 ways to increase your conversion rate
And: Using a “Call To Action”

We recently discussed how to recruit super affiliates, so I want to go further on that and share ways you can build on that relationship with your top affiliates.

Merchants and Affiliate Managers have specific needs and objectives, and so do their Super Affiliates. Sometimes the two don’t necessarily see eye to eye, or the objectives may not jive. This is where it pays to have an open mind, and a vision of the bigger picture – the ultimate objective.

There are 5 major issues that I hear from both sides. I’ll address each of these issues from my side of the fence, as an active super affiliate:

The Cost of Affiliates

Merchants sometimes question the cost of affiliates. To those merchants, I would say: consider your affiliates as your marketing team. Instead of paying an in-house marketing team, you pay based on performance only.

You will reach customers that you may not have reached otherwise, so your affiliates are actually generating revenue instead of costing you money.

Affiliates will also create buzz across blogs and forums, and start social media conversations. These discussions coming from a variety of sources are much more valuable than one company shouting about their own product.

While employees may expect or require regular pay raises, regardless of their performance, affiliates can simply be rewarded based purely on performance.

Branding Issues

Super Affiliates will often register a domain name and redirect it to the merchant site as a means of cloaking their affiliate link. This can cause some concerns over branding for the merchant.

Case in point is my domain redirect for Mobile Store Maker, which is http://www.easymobilestore.com. While affiliates can and will create buzz and exposure for your brand, the main objective is to increase sales.

If a merchant is especially concerned about preserving their brand, they can easily set up special landing pages on their domain for super affiliates.

The affiliates job is to pre-sell the product, and bring you new potential customers. Branding, conversions and follow-up are the responsibility of the merchant.

Interact With Affiliate Campaigns

You may not be able to keep tabs on every single affiliate in your program, but you definitely want to keep a finger on the pulse of your super affiliates.

Set up Google Alerts, groups in TweetDeck, a directory in your Feed Reader, or however it is most convenient for you to keep an eye on their promotions.

This allows you to enter the Social Media conversation and/or the discussion within their blog comments and provide additional support and credibility. Not only does this increase conversion rates, but it also strengthens your relationship with the affiliate – which will give them incentive to continue promoting for you.

Don’t Compete With Your Affiliates

Never, ever, ever compete with your super affiliates – especially not on their turf. If you enter an affiliate’s Social Media conversation on Facebook or Twitter, or you comment on their blog post, use your affiliate’s referral link to your site – not a direct link.

You want to support your affiliates 100%. The minute a gaping black hole opens up that bypasses their referral link… is when you’ll lose them as a promotion partner.

Be A Team Player

Treat your top affiliates – your super affiliates – like partners. Consider them part of your team. They will often have valuable feedback, or spend their day interacting directly with your target market, that could be as much an asset to your company as the sales they generate.

Best,

p.s. Rosalind Gardner turned ME into a $uper Affiliate. Whether you are new to affiliate marketing, or looking to take it to the next level, you’ll benefit from her Super Affiliate Handbook. That link will take you to my in-depth review of her latest version of SAH. It’s updated often. Enjoy!

Netfirms, an accredited registrar and host, is leveraging the power of Twitter to make domain registration even easier for their clients. In their Netfirms Contest they are giving away new iPod Touches and a Macbook!

For a chance to win, you can do one of the following:

Tweet this:
“Win a #free iPod Touch or Macbook from the @Netfirms #contest. Domain registration services via Twitter http://bit.ly/yJfJK”

OR – Register a domain name via the Netfirms Twitter Domain Registration service for $7.99.

One retweet equals one entry per day. One domain registered equals one entry.

How Netfirms Twitter Domain Registration Works

You simply send a Direct Message to Netfirms through Twitter and ask them to register a domain name for you. If the domain name is available they will register it for you and automatically add it to your existing Netfirms Control Panel and bill to your current billing profile.

The only prerequisite is that you add your Twitter username to your Netfirms Control Panel. Please visit our tutorial with full details on setting yourself up for domain registration via Twitter. The instructions should be completed once only and you’re good to go after that.

It’s As Easy As 1-2-3:

1. Log in to your Twitter account (You can use any of the available Twitter apps)
2. Send a dm to @netfirms with the following: reg mynewdomain.com
3. We will confirm by replying to you via direct message at which point the domain will be added to your Netfirms Control Panel. The domain is now ready to be used.

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If you use Netfirms, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this new option. And if you don’t, does this option make you consider using their service? Either way, leave a comment below and let me know what you think!

Best,

When I say “Vanity URL” you automatically associate that with Facebook’s recent land grab where they allowed users to display their preferred username in the profile URL.

Example: www.facebook.com/lynnterry

But what I’m actually referring to is a true Vanity URL, which is a domain name that you register and then point to your social media profile. Example: LynnTerryonFacebook.com

A vanity URL is a domain name, created to point to something to which it is related and indicated in the name of the URL. In many cases this is done by a company to point to a specific product or advertising campaign microsite. In theory, vanity URLs are creatively linked to something making them easier to remember than a more random link. source: wikipedia

I understand the reasoning, or I believe I do. I use domain redirects for affiliate promotions all the time. The perk is “owning the property” so you are at liberty to redirect that link elsewhere at any time…

My question is: why put so much stock and energy into a social media profile? If that particular social media site disappears in the future, what’s the big deal?

I recommend you put your time & energy into your own properties. Use the social media sites as they are meant to be used for sure – but for the most part you should focus on building your content and your brand on your own web pages.

I see a lot of people creating URLs like this, such as lynnonfacebook.com or lynnontwitter.com – meaning you buy domain names and redirect them to your profile pages – but honestly… it seems pretty much pointless.

I use “lynnterry” consistently as my username, so you’ll easily find me at:

http://www.facebook.com/lynnterry
http://www.youtube.com/lynnterry
http://www.myspace.com/lynnterry
http://www.twitter.com/lynnterry

Not only is my username consistent, so I can easily say “I’m /lynnterry on any of the major social sites – let’s connect!” but it also keeps the continuity with the social URLs as well. People that use twitter or facebook know the typical URL to find a user, so a domain name is just another point of potential confusion – or an unnecessary thing for them to remember.

Agree or disagree?

If you create vanity URLs for your social media profiles, I’d love to hear your reasoning on it.

Best,