Domain parking refers to the practice of acquiring control of a domain name and then “parking” that name with a company that places advertisements on a single webpage hosted at the domain name address. If any of the visitors to the webpage click on an advertisement, the parking company and the domain owner share the revenue.

Although the domain parking industry has gone through many changes since it evolved over ten years ago, it is still possible to achieve good results if one approaches the business with purpose, knowledge, and determination.

Traffic, Traffic, Traffic

Traffic refers to the volume of visitors to your website, and it is the most important element of successful domain parking. Without traffic, you cannot make any revenue. If “location, location, location” is the mantra in real estate, then “traffic, traffic, traffic” is the mantra for domain parking.

The most successful parking domains receive plenty of type-in traffic, meaning that people type the url address manually into their browser’s location bar. Because this type-in traffic is so important, successful domains tend to comprise common words that are short, easy to spell, and generic.

Although it isn’t widely acknowledged, misspelled domain names can sometimes be very successful at attracting type-in traffic, especially if the misspelling is simple like just one or two letters.

Traffic and Revenue

Advertising revenue is traditionally measured in CPM which means the amount of revenue generated per 1,000 impressions. A $40 CPM means that when the ad is shown 1,000 times, it generates $40 or about $0.04 on average per impression. CPM rates can vary from as low as $2 for untargeted traffic all the way up to $60 or $70 for highly targeted traffic. You will also sometimes see references to eCPM for effective CPM.

Just as people often use the same word to describe different things, people often use the same search queries even though they are searching for different results. Your parking company, therefore, has to develop a clear understanding of what your visitors are looking for before they can show ads that will effectively deliver revenue. If your parking company deliver poor conversion results after three months, try another parking company. Take advantage of the choices available to you.

Change, Change, Change

As online tracking technology becomes more widely used, the industry will probably change even further. Just look at the rapid adoption of recent advances such as geo-targeting and interest-based advertising.

But change swings both ways. Plugins have now been developed for FireFox and other browsers that will recognize parked domains and redirect the user to another site! The bottom line is that, if you have traffic, then no matter how the industry changes, someone will find a way to deliver an ad to your audience and charge someone for the advertising.

Domain Parking Success

If you follow these tips you should find success with domain name parking. It’s a business that is all about changing with the market and being in the right place at the right time to show somebody an advertisement. There is definitely an art to achieving successful results with domain parking.