That may seem like a silly question but for somebody that may own several hundred domain names, you may Think you know what your domain names are doing but do you really?
When was the last time you actually typed in a domain name that you own and paid a visit to it in your web browser?
You may think it’s parked and bringing in cash or potential buyers can see the domain is for sale but maybe you forgot to add the domain to the parking service you Thought you were using?
Maybe you added the domain name to your account at the parking service, but you forgot to set the domain name servers?
Maybe you changed to a different parking provider and you Thought you had already added the domain to your account there?
The fact is, many domain owners "move things around"! When you first purchased the domain name, you may have set DNS but might of forgot to add the domain to your Sedo account, or your Parked.com etc. I often move a domain being parked at Fabulous.com and change the DNS to a parking page I create. Sometimes I move it to SedoParking.com and try out Sedo for a little bit.
Domain names won at auction can often be domain names that you forget to simply change the DNS for. If you win a domain at Godaddy Auctions, you do not get the domain for 7 + days. You get an email when the domain comes into your account but that doesn’t mean you always remember to go to Godaddy right away and change the DNS. If you change the DNS, you have to set up something where you are sending the DNS to as well. A parking provider, hosting account and so on. Again, you may not visit them right away and it’s easy to forget.
I Highly suggest you take sometime and visit ALL your domain names directly! I will bet it’s likely you will find at least 1 or more that were basically "dead". Dead, meaning ~ You forgot to add the domain to your account at the parking provider, is sitting on a standard dns from the registrar or some kind of error.
You may also think you have a domain name marked as "for sale" when you really do not.
How should you check all your domains?
Go to each of your registrars and download your domain names. Once you have come up with your list of domain names, Print out the list. Start from the top of your list and start typing into your browser your domains!
It may take a little time, but you may also be suprised to see your Parking Revenue rise, sales inquires raise and lastly the peice of mind that You Know what your domain names are doing!
I found Several domains in my portfolio that were making my registrars money via parked on standard dns and I found several that my parking companies were making money because I didn’t have the domain in my account but the dns was set. Several I thought that were marked For Sale, but were not.
Leonard Britt
I once had someone on a forum tell me that one of my domains didn’t resolve. I checked out the parking settings and didn’t see an issue. Only later did I realize the issue was that the domain had been a Snapnames backorder and when I transferred it to Godaddy I never changed the name servers. So now I do get some traffic to the domain. However, wouldn’t visiting one’s domains run the risk of triggering a problem with their parking provider?
**Jamie Says**
As long as you are not clicking, I see no reason why you can’t check your site for 2 seconds to make sure “all is good”!
Ace
Thanks Jamie.
I do frequently check names and since I own many domains, I had written a little to do this for me
I can share it with other if needed.
**Jamie Says**
I have trust issues with any program or script and that’s why I like doing my checks manually but feel free to share what you had wrote to do the work.
Patrick McDermott
Ace,
If your script can check Name Servers then please share it.
Jamie graciously extended his approval of your offer.
Seth
I recently had to compile my whole domain list and had to request them from each registrar. I know that some registrars (GD being one of them) allow you to get a printout of all of your names, with the nameservers that they are pointing too attached. After you get that list, just make sure that the names are in the parking companies they are pointed too. This should save you some time.