Domain Parking vs. Domain Development (cont.) – The Keyhole Effect
Today I want to continue what I started into yesterday. That is, the pros and cons of domain parking and domain development.
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the main advantages of parking is that you really don’t have to do much at all. If it gets type-in traffic, the money pretty much happens. Sure, there might be some optimization of keywords, but it’s a pretty simple process. For those lucky few that own those really powerful domains, this works just fine.
For the rest of us that have domains that are good but not great, development may be a better option.
When you park a domain and depend solely upon type-in traffic, you’re essentially limiting the ways that somebody gets to your site. I call this the Keyhole Effect. That one way, direct navigation, is the only way you’re going to see any traffic. And it’s only that one little phrase. Typo on that one phrase? That’s a lost visitor.
If you DEVELOP that domain, you unlock the doors of multiple traffic points. Search, link referrals, longtail, personal referrals, etc…
One reason to park is that you get that relationship with Google and Yahoo for high value clicks. If you load in Adsense or YPN, those are clicks that tend to be lower value because a lot of advertisers either lower their bids or opt out of that network entirely. As an advertiser, it’s certainly what I’ve done as my ROI through those channels are much lower.
As a domain owner/publisher I want to monetize my traffic as easily as possible. I prefer PPC because all I have to do is deliver the traffic. The visitor from my site clicks the link and is gone. I’ve done my job, now pay me. If I’m monetizing through some sort of inquiry/lead/purchase based affiliate program, I have to rely on the program manager to effectively convert the traffic I send them. I lose enough sleep over traffic as it is. I don’t really want to be worried on downstream conversions that I’m not involved with.
So, what I’m getting at is that you should develop if you think you can get traffic from from those other sources. If you’re only going to a half-a$$ed development don’t plan on getting any natural search rankings, any quality directory listings and friendly or linking referrals. You will be giving up the cleanest and easiest monetization. But if you do a good development job, you will easily surpass what you would have made from just parking.
