Godaddy Domain Parking Review

Who is Godaddy.com?

Godaddy.com was founded in 1997 by Bob Parsons in Scottsdale, Arizona and is probably best known as the world's largest domain registrar and for their racy super bowl commercials displaying scantily clad women. Besides being a domain registrar they offer many other services ranging from hosting to domain name brokering. One area that the people over at Godaddy.com have been working hard on is their parking service.

What is Godaddy.com Cash Parking?

Cash Parking is what Godaddy.com has branded their domain parking service. For many years their parking service was viewed by many within the domaining community as just another way for them to make a quick buck off of their customers without adding any real value. In late 2007 Godaddy.com hired owner of DNForum.com, Adam Dicker, as the Vice President of Godaddy's Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM). Along with Admin Dickers responsibility to develop TDNAM as a premium aftermarket site was to improve the current domain name monetization platform.

Godaddy.com's Cash Parking does not require a minimum amount of domain names but it does require a monthly subscription to use. The current platform has two subscription levels for users to choose from, basic and premium.

Basic Plan

Allows users to earn 60% of the advertising revenue on the parked domain names. The monthly fee for the parking service is $3.99, but if there are discounts available for advanced purchases of 1 and 2 years.

Premium Plan

Allows users to earn 80% of the advertising revenue on the parked domain names. The monthly fee for the parking service is $9.99 and like the basic plan discounts are available for advanced purchases of 1 and 2 years. The premium plan also includes a free year membership to Godaddy.com's domain name aftermarket as well as 5 free express appraisals.

What Services come with the different plans?

Looking at the two different plans that Godaddy.com offers the only differences between the two are the revenue shares and the “free” extras. Beside the two differences the functionality and services are the same. The platform uses many of the same features as the other parking companies.

Setup Wizard

The wizard takes the user through importing and configuring their domains. It automatically allows the user to choose from the domain names they have registered at Godaddy.com to import. The system also sets the name servers automatically once the domain names have been chosen. The platform can also be configured to import new domain name purchases as well as expired domain names purchases through Godaddy.com domain name aftermarket. Lastly, the wizard allows the user to setup their payee information to receive payment.

Dashboard

The dashboard provides the user with information about the account like daily statistics for the last 30 days, a revenue summary and an account summary. The daily statistically options are to view revenue, impressions, clicks, RPM (revenue per thousand impressions) and CTR (click through rate). The revenue summary is broken down by the current date, last 7 days, previous 7 days, last 30 days, month to date and year to date. Lastly the account summary provides information on the status of the imported domain names.

Add domain

Provide the ability to add domains by selecting ones present in the account, entering them in manually or uploading a file of domain names.

Domain Grid

Provides the user a grid view of all parked domain names in the account. The grid displays the domain name, revenue earned, current template being used, if it is displaying ads, keyword status, domain status, and whether the domain is for sale on TDNAM.

Reporting Section

The reporting section provides reporting on individual domain traffic statistics and traffic analysis. The traffic statistics shows basic information about revenue, clicks, impressions, U.S. impressions, CPC, RPM, and CTR for a specified date range. The statistics are displayed in both graphical format as well as a grid format. The traffic analysis provides information on origin of the clicks, referring search phrases, referring sites, and which ad was clicked.

In general there is no real innovation in the functionality of the platform. The reporting is adequate but by no means ground breaking. One bright spot concerning the functionality was the setup wizard. It provided an easy way to setup the account as well as import domains. From a usability aspect it was a bit below par compared to other competitors like Fabulous.com.

Parking page customization

Godaddy.com does allow it's users to perform some customization of the parking templates. They also offer the ability to create custom headers for the templates but the cost to have the functionality is $99 per header. User can customize the following aspects of the template for free:

Keywords

Users can define keywords for the domain name as well as choose a relevant category.

Ad Options

Users can specify whether to display adult ads.

Custom image

Users can upload a custom image for the template. The supported formats and sizes for the custom images are .jpg, .gif and .png for the formats and up to 760 pixels in width and 80 pixels in height for the sizes.

Custom colors

Users can specify both a primary and secondary color for the template.

Custom page header

A header design service where Godaddy.com professionals will design a custom header to be applied to parking page template. The service cost $99 per header and the customer is allowed one round of revisions. The image will come in the standard 780 x 60 pixels format and Godaddy.com professionals will apply the header on up to 20 parked domain names.

Overall Godaddy.com's idea of customization is very disappointing. They do offers a large amount of standard templates for different categories but the templates are still very generic and only allow for three different ways to display PPC content. For being a paid service the customization capabilities fall well short of other free parking services.

How is payment received from Cash Parking?

Unlike most parking services Godaddy.com only offers two methods for receiving payment for domestic customer and a single method for international customers. Another area where they differ from the other companies is that they submit payment 45 days after the month in which the revenue was generated. This is a fairly uncommon practice with most parking companies either pay monthly or bi-monthly.

Domestic Payment Methods

Godaddy.com offers domestic customers two payment methods through check and direct deposit. The requirements to receive a check are a $50 dollar minimum balance and a $10 service charge that is deducted from the balance. For customers who receive payment via direct deposit there is a $15 minimum and no service fee.

International Payment Methods

Godaddy.com offers only one payment method for international customers. Payments are sent out 45 days after the end of each quarter. The requirements for international checks are the same as domestic customers, $50 minimum and a $10 service fee.

Godaddy.com's method of paying its users is extremely limited and impractical. Requiring their users to wait 2 and half months from when they setup their account to receive payment is ludicrous. Also not having a PayPal option and forcing international customers to wait over three months for payment and charge them with a service fee is unheard of.

Final Thoughts

Although Godaddy.com is making an attempt to improve their system it has fallen short most areas. The service offers very limited customization and the pre defined templates are antiquated and unattractive.

The feeling that Godaddy.com evokes is one of being victimized. It seems as though Godaddy.com does not strive to improve the functionality of their product but instead to improve the amount of ways they can charge their customer. With the leaders in the industry offering advanced customization, no charges, and timely payments Godaddy.com has a lot of catching up to do.