Here is one of my This and That kinds of posts that I do from time to time. I cover several things that are just floating around in my head that are just not long enough for a single post alone.

~ I have slowly started buying domain names again! It really has been a pretty long time since I have done that and the reason was due to lack of funds. Things have slightly improved for me with a couple domain sales recently, a couple advertisers here on DotWeekly and just adding in a bit more risk with the funds that I have! I was never a "big spender" on domain names but I just never had the funds to drop $10K on a domain. Not that I wouldn’t, I just have never in my life had that much money. I work very hard daily to change that and I will continue to keep searching for my perfect niche that works for me. I put in a ton of effort, so it isn’t due to a lack of trying, I just have to keep at it and keep my mind open and continue to think outside the box!

~ Domain parking is just flat out dead and I am giving up on it. My parking revenue has went from about $350 a month and dropped each and every single month from 2009 until now in August 2010. I think last month my total parking rev was around $40. My new goal is to at least stick a landing page / minisite on every single new domain name that I purchase and slowly start doing the same for my portfolio. Some will get more development and time than others. Some will have affiliate links, banners or products on them as well as an AdSense block or two for revenue. Doing a simple site with a little bit of content and SEO simply does WAY better to gain traffic and add value to the domain name than a parking page! With the added traffic, also increases clicks on affiliate banners, products and AdSense blocks.

Case in point would be the following sites that I have done just that with. DriverSuits.com . This domain couldn’t be found in the SE’s and had little to no traffic at all, yet the domain name makes sense, is a generic product that people look for. I spent under 1 hour putting up a site with a little content on it, used the PHPbay wordpress plugin and displayed relevant products it makes about $15-$20 a month. Parking, it made $0 and SE rankings were not happening. With the site I put up, I rank # 2 on Google now for the matching term. Not only does that drive more traffic, it builds value into the domain if I choose to sell it! FreeHeaderMaker.com is a nice example of promoting an affiliate product that has been doing fairly well for me. It was a hand reg in May 2010. 3 Months later and I have a Page 1, # 5 natural ranking spot for the matching term on Google.

I have even found that putting up a Coming Soon style site with a couple lines of text, title and meta descriptions help with ranking! Putting a Contact Page and due to ranking well in SE’s can greatly increase your chances of selling. This can take about 15 minutes to do using a WordPress site. Sbei.com basically is a site like that, which holds a # 2 spot on Google for the matching acronym. "Sales" pages for HandTrowel.com (P 1, # 2 on Google) and PaintPail.com (P1 # 7 on Google) have proven well to rank great for their matching terms and get’s some AdSense clicks, it just makes sense to do that instead of parking! I have a hard time ranking better with .net domains like GripTape.net (P2, # 1 on Google).

~ I noticed ExpiredDomains.net sold at Sedo (again). It was sent to auction for $60 and No Reserve from what I could see on a couple forum posts. The bad thing for the past owner… ExpiredDomains.net sold in 2007 for $2,500 at Sedo. The recent auction the domain ended for $1,378. A difference of -$1,122. Then subtract Sedo sellers fee of 10% ($137.80) and that totals up to a $1,259.80 Loss on the 3 year investment. Robert Rolls was shown as the owner since 2007, until 6/4/10.

I hate seeing this for the seller but it is vital to not overpay when making a purchase. You win some and you lose some and domain names are one of the hardest items to price IMO, so it can and does happen. It appears BuyDomains.com owned  the domain in 2007 when it sold for $2,500.

~ I have reached out to several people this past week, so I am hoping I get some replies and I can share the stories that I reached out about next week. More on that to come. I reached out to some past domain buyers of mine to see how the domain purchase has been for them, I reached out to some high profile domain owners that their domains expired and were sold at auction in hopes of learning more from them and a couple other things.