Have you ever felt that when you develop a domain name you own that there just seems to be a lack of options to monetize the site? I often feel like this, as if my hands are tied with really four or five options to try and profit from your work.
Now this can really be for any dollar value domain name but this article is mainly focusing on smaller sites with not much traffic but still offering a useful development to those who visit.
The biggest problem for me (and I would likely build more sites if I could figure out a revenue stream that simply worked better) is I feel my hands are tied when it comes to options on sources to use that generate income. I really am only aware of about 5 sources one can use to generate income from a small site.
- Affiliate Ads (Links, products)
- Google Adsense
- Direct Ad sale (not as likely with a small site and lower traffic)
- Lead Generation
- Domain Parking
Now I added domain name parking in there because without using any of the top 4 suggested, your options are limited and are almost forced to use it if you wish to generate any income. If the first four are not producing an income that is worth running a "site", then domain parking is really your only other option. You could consider "leasing" the domain but that also takes a large portion of control away from your domain.
So I have built some sites over the years and really have little luck with making any money with my test projects. Affiliate links/banners/products are always hit or miss. It seems I bring in a sale from time to time and every program is different. For an example, I have used Amazon.com affiliate program and never ONCE made a single penny! The CJ.com affiliate program has some popular domain name services like GoDaddy.com, Network Solutions etc but again.. very hit or miss. I seem to get $1 commissions from time to time and every once in a great while, I will get a little higher one that is $2-$5. Again, very inconsistent and I always have the feeling that I am getting "shaved" (sales are happening, but I am not getting my credit for it)! IMO, that is one of the things affiliate programs lack, transparency!
I have tried "other" CJ affiliates outside the domain name industry as well and have seen similar results, if not worse.
eBay’s affiliate program was better before they went to a click quality program which they currently use. I like to use the EPN (eBay Partner Network) when I build sites related to specific products because eBay likely always has a wide selection of the specific product at different price ranges. On another note, I really do not have much of an option otherwise unless CJ or a related affiliate program offers product links. Several tools work with eBay’s EPN like PHPBay that does work (read more about the plugin here on DW), it just doesn’t seem to work all that great for me. Offering products using an affiliate program like CJ is going to take some further development skills that outreach what I have, but a site was developed that way and again didn’t work for me.
I have 3 similar sites using the EPN program and sites running with the PHPBay WordPress plugin but none of them really do all that well.
DriverSuits.com is the one that currently does the best of all 3 as you can see in those stats which are from a little over 2 months of data. $16.52 from 193 click with an average of $0.09 cents per click earnings. Not all that great and not really worth the investment in the domain name, site, plugin, hosting fees, time etc IMO.
Now if you could get 100′s of sites doing that on a monthly basis, I can see it being worth the time. I currently have a # 6, page 1 natural listing on Google with DriverSuits.com which helps. I also have Google Adsense on the site, which earns me as close to $0 as you can get!
Best option for DriverSuits.com? Likely to offer the racing suits myself as the profit margins would be a lot higher, but that is a risky investment that includes a lot more work like accepting payment, shipping, inventory etc.
So what are my other options to make better $$$ with the site? I could try and sell direct ad’s on the site but traffic is pretty low but targeted! Not always easy selling ad spots. Lead Gen? Not likely with a product like this, so it would be hard to find a program offering it!
Like I said, I feel my hands are tied! The site offers products related to the domain (affiliate), people do naturally search for the product and the site get’s some traffic (with a P1 SERP) but it is only making about $8 a month! If I switched it to domain parking, the SERP’s would leave pretty quickly as well.
I have tried other sites like NetTees.com which is a simple "search" style site that uses Google Search (Adsense) for revenue that doesn’t work all that great for me. I have tried content and affiliate mixed sites like BuyExpiringDomains.com with little luck. (by little luck, I mean making $$)
So is only offering the products directly the best way to make the most out of the domain with these types of domains? It seems that way but it is also frustrating that I lack more options really.
Premium domain or not, many domain names are simply hard to make money with! Domain parking is the easiest and even at times will do better than a developed site at making money but your SERP’s will lack, if not exist at all! It does seem that monetizing options can be lacking for web development depending on the domain name but it seems with the vast majority of domain names the site owner’s hands are tied to about 5 options to generate revenue which all depend on another source.
I keep trying to find something that works for me on developing domain names (even with DotWeekly) that produces a fair amount of income but this clearly isn’t my niche or I am in the same boat as many others.
Do you have some monetizing systems that seem to work better for you? Why?
TV
I’m curious why you don’t have any ads on HandTrowel.com?
Nice work on the search engine rankings on that one.
Even if you only make $0.50 a day in Google Adsense on a site like that, it’s $150+ per year.
Jamie Zoch
@TV,
For HandTrowel.com I am more focused on finding a buyer, so I felt the adsense may make somebody click out right away.. I figured the cleaner the better. I used the same style template for PaintPail.com which now has a P1 rank as well and no adsense.
Leonard Britt
I’ll agree that monetizing websites is not easy. First you have to get enough content and backlinks to generate traffic. Then only a 1-2% average CTR for Adsense ads and practically none buy from affiliate links. I have had over 500K impressions via CJ affiliates without a commission so one begins to suspect there is a problem with the tracking. I did receive a small payout from Amazon.com so am emphasizing them a little more now. I will note that Adsense blocks placed high on each page do result in higher CTR than those placed on the side. Also,
Adsense for Search seems to generate much higher CTR close to 20% for my sites though the number of clicks is lower than Adsense for content. Consequently lately I have been focusing more on sites which eventually allow the possibility of selling ad space or placing lead generation forms on the site (geo sites near my home). Of course I am also devoting time to marketing domains via various methods.
Jason from GoDrops.com
I’ve pretty much given up on trying to make coin with aff programs. The traffic is just not there. Maybe you can pull it off on an uber generic or buy expired with lots of backlinks… I’ve resolved to take the few generic names I have and invest time into turning them into real businesses, the rest I’m letting go if they’ve received 0 offers…
Luckily I’ve been picky with the domains bought in the aftermarket, only going for ones in a niche I have some measure of passion for…
The only income lately has been names sold via snapnames priced to sell… so much for the hold ‘em game =(
Avraham Saltoun
CJ is my best performer and I have several techniques. the best performing is a subscriber base that has trust, then I recommend services I use and have a positive experience. Very effective, Hundred’s of dollars monthly. Check Lisa Irby on you tube, or skype me if you need advice….
John Humphrey
Jamie, my experiments have exact match results. Not only that, but what limited success I’ve had with individual sites seems to be random, i.e. can’t see a pattern in the domain-to-income relationship that allows me to become more focused. I’m wanting to move into experiments around selling keyword domain physical products, but the numbers there too are daunting. Chinese manufacturers mostly deal in quantities of 500+, otherwise they want wholesale prices that Ebay beats.
Next up will be a concentrated effort to sell to end users based on Elliot’s formula. I guess I’m not really the ‘salesman’ type but I’m going to push through that and give it a good shot before I put domaining on the back burner. I love it, but the idea was to create some economic independence.
greg
Lets use DriverSuits.com as an example.
If you move the ads*nse to just below the opening paragraph and maybe 2 25×250 boxes next to eachother your ads8nse will go way up even with a small bit of traffic, ad placement is very very importand. Then again if you do well in my opinion almost any program will drop you, my ads*nse was closed once I got up and over $100 per day, eb*y affiliate closed after averaging over $100 per day. I could go on and on. my amazon is next to close i’m sure of it lol.
In your title tag you have your domain set to show twice? you don’t even really need it once.
Domain sales are ok, not getting rich, but you do have to be aggressive and leave no money on the table, take the offer as long as you come out ahead, the amount of good domains is endless, its not what you like but what an enduser will like. Ofcourse I am excluding category killer, one word .com’s.
Good meaningful names, even brandable name have a value to someone. I can’t count how many times I have said after a sale wow out of all the names I have for sale , that’s the name they wanted?
Tim
Personally, I think the parking industry is coming to an end, at least to the extent any money can be made. It has just taken two years or so to die.
It takes a ton of nice generics to even make a couple coins to rub together anymore. I’ve got thousands of them going back to the mid 1990′s and they ain’t paying me shit anymore.
I think all of us domainers now have to sell and/or develop. Actually, I’m so sick of parking now and all the bullshit excuses from Y, G, and the parking companies and moanings from us domainers that I am looking forward to a challenge of a different sort.
You know, the parking companies are so complacent with their arbitrage income they are forgetting that the umbilical cord may be cut on them at any time. Meanwhile, they squandered an opportunity to grow outside of parking and instead died.
You are right Jamie, there are not a lot of options. I really think it is leads or selling products that are the future, not PPC whether parking or on sites.
PPC is getting whored out in every place and facet possible. Surfers are getting blind to it.
Duane
PPC is dead and if you think your affiliate links arent producing business? Your wrong!
Your affiliate links are producing income, just not for you, as the affiliate. I would say 80% of affiliate providers are screwing there affiliates.
This is not just a if or maybe statement! It’s happening to every affiliate, every single day.
So, forget these networks and build your own business without relying on middlemen which at the end arent going to pay you the way they should.
Louise
Hi, For the purpose of testing its platform, I am giving Epik a try, and will update the progress on my blog, TaskDomains.com
Every domainer should be a developer, IMO. There’s a couple interests you revealed in your blog: pets – you own a dog; vintage war planes – you are photographed in front of one; t-shirts – you have a collection. Why don’t you create a site about one or the other, then create t-shirts to sell from your site? You’re informed about domains; you write well; you should develop a hobby site and sell t-shirts that you design.
The Fromainer
Jamie,
I have to agree with Louise above. You have a talent for this and should perhaps try building a blog or site based around what you’re into. That way the passion and willing to write content/articles/posts etc will already be there and you can grow the site based on your knowledge of the subject, be it planes (don’t Spitfire’s rock?) or dogs or tees etc.
With quality content your rankings and traffic would improve and you could also then build up a community/forum, then sell merch and ad space etc. If you’ve never done so, check out Michael Gilmour over at Whizzbangsblog, he wrote a series of posts recently on doing just this and is also an aviation nut so he’d be a good contact for sure.
Now, as for this..
“Premium domain or not, many domain names are simply hard to make money with! Domain parking is the easiest and even at times will do better than a developed site”
In my experience this is simply not the case. One of my better performing sites is
JacketPotatoOven.com. My first attempt at development and nothing special at all. Since Jan 2010 it has made me more coin than I have EVER made from parking in almost 3 years. Only monetisation strategy right now is Adsense. Ranking varies but it can be usually found on page 1 or 2 of Google and traffic is reasonably consistent if a little “modest”. I am considering either end user sale OR selling ad space OR since I have had enquiries from small business startups, contacting suppliers/manufacturers in the hope of maybe making some commission on referrals. These machines ain’t cheap!
From my experiences I have concluded that the only way to make money from parking is from premium generics and I use my parking acount now as merely a holding pen for my names before I develop them, if I choose to do so at all. I don’t see parking as a way for me to make revenue personally.
BTW – Glad you decided not to sell up, the game needs people like you.
Drop by my blog sometime!
Peace.
Mike Sullivan
Why not consider drop shipping some products? You can invest more time into promoting the site, but the return will be higher.
Attila
wow, for all those people saying PPC is dead, perhaps you’re thinking parking companies paying out via PPC is dead?
I personally make mini sites, seo them and PPC is on average 5-20% depending on the topic. Most clicks pay out 0.50 cents on avg to $3 or $4 a click depending on industry.
I don’t know where people are claiming they aren’t making off PPC.
If you can make $5 a site via PPC’s and have 1000 mini sites all keyword domains, you’re set to have your overhead taken care of with some extra money in the pocket.
Andrew Douglas
I’m not going to pretend to be some affiliate superstar or anything… but considering the keywords you are developing on, I would think you are doing really well. The problem is the keywords you are developing on IMO. One of the things you have to do is think like an internet marketer here and realize that there are certain products people are going to buy online and others they just won’t. Some products they may be researching for a future purchase but would never purchase from an affiliate or from ebay.
So step 1 – find better keywords. If you can’t afford exact match, then go for “keyword intensive” – like BuyX, XShop or the like. In my case, I actually like picking up exact match .US and .info, but I’m “weird”.
Step 2 – have a product that you know will sell online or plan to generate revenue from advertisers because trying to sell something online that people don’t buy online is going to be fruitless. And if you do sell a product, make sure it’s one that will allow for decent revenue. Making like %4 on a $10 Amazon.com sale means you have to have huge volume in order to make decent money.
Step 3 – optimize, promote and if all else fails, pay for traffic (good, targeted traffic mind you) in order to generate real revenue.
There are a number of online courses from reputable people – making money online is not as hard as domainers who are used to passive parking revenue think. The good news though is that as domainers we have a leg up on understanding the SEO power of domain names and how to acquire them at the best prices. But at the same time it’s a handicap because we often find ourselves buying names that are “good deals” without thinking about how they would make good online businesses.
Best of luck.
CC
I have to agree with Andrew above.
IMO the problem is the domains and products the domains reference.
Try developing some better domains that reference the types of products that people buy online regularly and research for online regularly. I think once you try this approach you will see much higher returns. I know I have.
Randall Brown
I have to agree and disagree, You just have to market your website right, Dont look at them as if once you put ads on there you will leave them. Never stop promoting any site you have and resell it if you can via NamePros.com or Flippa.com That is how I make money by flipping pre-built websites and ya it might take me a little longer but the money is more then I could get from PPC in a year. PPC is dead and most other programs about making money online are also. Not to say some people are making money from PPC but I for one am not making any money in PPC or affilate programs at all. I have had one ad sale on my blog and thats more money then I have ever received from PPC. Do I continue to support some google ads, You better believe it, even if it takes me some time to get to payout, I will keep them because that is money that I have earned and I am not letting google keep it.
Malaysia SEO
If you can’t make at least 1 million page views per month, you should forget about making money with your website. Sure you can make a few cents or dollars here and there from Google Adsense. But you won’t be able to make a living from your website because to make a living from your website, you need about 1 million page views per day.
Heath Coiro
Amazing Publish, i’ve truly being reading this website the past few days to weeks but currently since i spent the time to thank you to the knowledge you were selling around.