Parked Domain Parking Review

Who is Parked.com?

Parked.com is a domain name parking company that was founded by the owners of directNIC.com. Their physical location is listed in Tampa, Florida but their legal address is located in the Cayman Islands. Unlike competitors such as Fabulous.com or Sedo.com, Parked.com only focuses on domain parking and no other services.

What services are offered?

Parked.com provides many different services that other domain monetization company's offer such as customization abilities and analytics. Where they attempt to separate themselves from the competition is with their value proposition focusing on returns which stems from their “Domain Magic” proprietary technology combined with customizable templates and having the highest payouts in the industry. The parking service does require at least 10 domains, but there no fees. Once the application is completed and the user has access to their account they have access to the following services.

Account dashboard

Provides an overview of the account with access to graphs, statistics, user's dedicated account manager and the message center

Portfolio management

The portfolio management area consist of a portfolio manager tool, mass modify tool, domain name mover tool and add domain name tool which allows for management, modification, and adding of domain names. The portfolio manager tool allows the user to sort and categorize the domain name by creating new portfolios and moving domains between portfolios. The manager also provides a snapshot of the general statistics of the portfolio like number of visitors, number of clicks, rate per thousand (RPM), click through rate (CTR) and revenue generated. The mass modify tool allows users to import and export domain name settings via a CSV file for mass modifications and archival purposes. The domain mover tool allows users to perform bulk removal and moving of domain names from portfolios. Lastly, the add domains tool allows users to add less than 1000 domains at a time with the supplied text box and more than 1000 domain names with the upload function as well as being able to add them to a new or existing portfolio.

Reporting and analytics

This portion provides statistics for the portfolios, individual domains as well as traffic analysis through a report manager and traffic analysis tool. The report manager allows users to view individual domain name statistics and trends for any given date range up to 365 days in the past. The statistics that can be viewed through the report manager are number of clicks, number of visitors, rate per thousand (RPM), click through rate (CTR), rate per click (RPC) and revenue generated. The manager also allows users to save reports for future viewing. The traffic analysis tool provides information about the click/visitor to the parked domain name. The information displayed includes visitors by country to all domains, a list of domain names or for individual domain names for the past five days and a breakdown of the clicks/visitor by keyword and referral hostname.

Referral program

Parked.com offer an incentive program for users to refer other users to the service. The referral rate is 10% of all income produced by the referral for a period of 365 days. Also there is no restriction on who can be referred and Parked.com provides banners for users as well as allows users to create their own custom banners.

Listing domains for sale

Users can list parked domains for sale via the “My Account Information” section. They are also able to include a message with information about the sale.

Domain Magic technology

Analyzes millions of advertising options against a customized set of performance variables. The process allows the results of the page to optimized towards specific categories as well as display category specific page templates.

Although Parked.com does not have a huge set of tools the ones they do provide work well and are easy to use. The account is extremely easy to setup and there is no application wait period. The import and export functions within the account are very easy to use. One area that could use some improvement is their analytics and reporting. Currently the options and display methods are very limited. It would be nice to have custom reporting options and additional visual representations of the statistics. Another area that is lacking is the functionality of selling a domain. Within their platform users are not able to specify min offer amount, redirects to sales pages, or other useful functionalities.

An interesting promotion tool that Parked.com uses is their referral program. The ability to generate money based off of a referrals portfolio performance is very enticing. The only negative that comes to mind is, if parked.com is give 10% of referrals earning to the user then their revenue share must be pretty large to accommodate the additional payout. Either way Parked.com does a decent job with their tools and interface.

Can the domain names parked page be customized?

As with most domain monetization companies today landing page customization is not a luxury but a standard. With Parked.com this is no different. They provide many of the same options that other parking companies have. One difference that should be observed is unlike parking companies who use the Google ad network Parked.com uses the Yahoo ad network and thus have no control over whether there parking page is a one- or two-page lander. The different aspects that can be change are:

Template colors

Colors can be changed using a color palette or the color code for the background color, header color, related bar color, related box color, left category box color, middle category box color, right category box color, and related search color.

Template images

The use of template images is optional, but users have the option of replacing default images with personal images for the landing page as well as the results page. The image for the landing page can be replaced by a jpeg image with a max size of 60k and a width and height of 385 x 261. The Image for the results page can be replaced by a jpeg image with a max size of 60k and a width and height of 250 x 251.

Title tags

Custom title tags can be implemented for individual parked pages for SEO purposes

Meta tags

Custom meta descriptions and keywords can be entered for search engine indexing purposes.

Custom content

Each page allow for custom content to be included in the footer of the page. This element helps with search engine optimization

Although users cannot specify whether they have a one or two page lander Parked.com does a decent job with the customization options for the pages. Allowing users to implement title tags and custom content will help increase the SEO value of the page. Also being able to upload custom pictures can provide a more personalized feel to the page increasing the amount of clicks received.

How is number of pages determined for domain names monetized with parked?

When yahoo is utilized as the ad provider for the parked pages the parking company does not have control over how the landing page is setup. The lander is determined by whether the associated keyword is considered general or specific by the ad provider. For keywords that are deemed general, a two-page lander is utilized. If it is considered specific, then a one-page lander will be implemented. Historically, one-page landers tend to generate a lot more revenue due to the reduction in friction for a click to occur.

Parked.com income payment options

Parked.com as with most domain parking companies uses the standard four payment methods. The one unique thing about parked is unlike most parking companies they distribute payments twice per month.

The different payment methods for receiving payment are PayPal, direct deposit, check and international wire transfer. The requirements for the different payment methods vary by payment type. Payment can be sent to any active PayPal account as long as the account meets the minimum income level of $20 dollars. Payment can be received via direct deposit to any valid bank account as long as the $20 dollar minimum income level as been met. Payment can be received via check, but requires a minimum income level of $100 dollars. International wire transfers can be used for payment as long as the account balance is above $2500 dollars. Standard wire transfer fees apply.

Payments are made on the 7th and 22nd of each month as long as the associated minimum threshold has been met.

Parked.com is a great company for people who do not want to wait an entire month to receive their payments. Which their flexible payment options and attractive payment schedule Parked.com provides a very pleasant financial experience. Referral payment are sent with the parking payments as well.

Final thoughts

With so many different parking companies available it is becoming increasingly harder to choose the right one for a user portfolio. Parked.com is like most other parking companies in that they offer 'technology' to optimize their pages, customization, good support, and flexible payment options. Where Parked.com separates itself from the rest of the pack is with their chosen ad provider (Yahoo), bi-monthly payment schedule, and referral program.

Examining the impact of Yahoo being the ad provider has both positive and negative aspects.

Positive aspects

• Yahoo has been known to receive higher revenue per click
• Specific keyword domain names get the luxury of having a 1 page lander

Negative aspects

• There is an adjustment period for clicks. User need to wait until the click is reviewed before seeing the final value of the click
• Generic keyword domain names have the disadvantage of having a 2 page lander.

Parked.com has many nice features and services but ultimately, determining whether Parked.com is a good fit for specific portfolio will come down to whether the portfolio contains specific keyword domain names or general keyword domain names. For the portfolio's containing specific keyword domain names Parked.com has the ideal platform for them, but if it consists of general keyword domain names the user is left scratching his head as to why the visits aren't generating revenue.