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anyone can now
park their domain names directly with Google.
In addition to potentially siphoning customers away
from parking companies, this, for the first time,
opens the PPC door to those who did not have a large
enough portfolio, or domains of high enough quality,
to get an account with one of the parking companies
that have traditionally served as the middlemen
between Google and individual domain owners.
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Many
are declaring the move is a death sentence
for Google's parking company partners, like DomainSponsor,
Sedo and Fabulous, but it is far
too early to determine what impact this will
have on PPC providers who offer the Google feed. It
will all boil down to one question - can
those who go direct to Google make more money
than they can make using one of the parking
companies? We won't know the answer to that until
those who make the switch start reporting on whether
their revenues are going up, down or staying the
same. On
the surface it looks like a no brainer - if you cut
out the middle man and go direct you are bound to
collect more money, right? Not necessarily
and in this case probably not even likely. I have
used AdSense in the past and (like many others I
have spoken with) have found the payouts to be underwhelming
to say the least. In addition, there are a lot of
problems with Google's offering, starting with an archaic
system for implementing their parking program. You
can't just change nameservers like you do with the
PPC companies - for each domain you have to setup
CNAME and A records (and more than a few people will
have no idea what that even means). Their landers
look like "throwback jerseys" - pages from
a time long ago - just a list of links with no
graphics and no way to do critical
keyword optimization. In another major drawback,
those who want to let visitors know the domain is
for sale have no way to do that either and that
could mean forfeiting the ultimate payoff -
sale of the domain itself. Below
is an example of a Google AdSense for domains
landing page. 
The
ability to optimize pages, add relevant graphics and
custom content, utilize cutting age management and
reporting features are all value added services
the parking companies have provided. Google is going
to have to pay individuals a nice premium to
get them to forgo all of those things or they are
going to have to match those services point by point
with something just as good or better. Over
time maybe they will do that. In the short
term maybe they will pony up and pay more to get
people to switch now - or maybe they won't. For now they
may be content just to pick up some of the
stragglers who can't get parking company accounts.
Google has never been one to nibble around the edges
though - they only think big - so I'm sure they have
something more in mind as time goes on. There
is no doubt the PPC companies need to accelerate
planning (that most already have underway) for a day
when Google (and probably Yahoo too) decide to cut
them out of the picture all together. This
episode has featured quite an ironic twist. At the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
conference in Orlando last spring there
was a lot of hubbub about rumors Google was going to
pull the plug on the entire domain channel
(in other words not monetize domain traffic at all).
Instead they have just embraced the channel
and possibly taken the first step toward pulling the
plug on their parking company partners
instead.
T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Co-Founder Rick Schwartz has been a
parking company critic in the past. He is
currently out of the country on a vacation
cruise, but I tracked him down
this morning to see what he thought about
Google's move. "I
think the numbers will tell the real
story," Schwartz said. "The
interface each PPC company uses and how well
they filter the traffic (to eliminate
junk traffic) will be what determines the
future of PPC companies. This may be more
complicated than it might appear. I
think the question really is "What
is the motive for Google in this decision?"
Was the motivation to cut out the middleman
or is their decision based on economics
and the economic turbulence we are about to
enter or is it a |
Rick
Schwartz
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Co-Founder |
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future house
cleaning to have more control and identify
those with trademark and other questionable
traffic? It may end up being a mixed bag but
for now it seems like a positive development
and maybe trying to insure their hold on the
space from a serious challenge by Microsoft
or others in 2009," Schwartz said.
"Hopefully
this will open up new opportunities
to maximize the value of our traffic. We'll
know in the upcoming months. May be good for
some, disaster for others and may have
several phases as it plays out. Parking
companies may or may not survive as they
have been bleeding all year and now
this is like a giant blood vessel that
just exploded. The weak are going
to fold. The strong are going to fight for
their very survival, growth is gone,"
Schwartz concluded. |
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In
times like these, you had
better have an ace in the hole. |
However this
plays out my personal opinion is that for real
control of their own destiny, domain
owners must find an alternative to
relying on Google and Yahoo for their
primary revenue streams. That is way too
much power to give anyone over your
life.
The current
best solution I see is to get serious
about development. It is true that
development cannot be done on the massive
scale that parking accommodates, but if
you can develop just one site on a
subject you are truly passionate
about, one appealing enough to attract
direct advertiser relationships, that one
site could produce more revenue than
thousands of parked domains put together. It
will also give you a revenue stream that
Google and Yahoo have no influence over, so
if your parking revenue completely
evaporates, you will still have an ace in
the hole. |
The ability to create
multiple revenue streams is what makes the domain
business such a beautiful thing. You can make money
parking, make it selling or leasing domains, or make
it by building a business or media property on the
domain. Those who are smart do it all. You
never want to be dependent on any one of
those streams. The path to freedom is there. Don't
let a new wrinkle in the parking game distract you
from it. Get on that path so that you are the
one who has control of your future.
(Posted
Dec.
12, 2008)
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