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The Lowdown
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Dec. 15, 2008 Post
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Here's the The
Lowdown from DNJournal.com! Updated
daily to fill you in on the latest buzz going
around the domain name industry!
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Compiled
by Ron Jackson
(DN Journal Editor/Publisher) |
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For
the domain parking companies there may be a silver lining
in the dark cloud Google cast over their businesses
last week when the search giant announced
they were going into
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Is
there a silver lining in the dark cloud
Google cast over PPC conpanies last week?
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direct
competition with their own downstream PPC service
providers. As I said here Friday
the bottom line will be whether or not domain owners
can make more money going direct with Google than they
can with their current parking companies. It is still
way too early to say for sure, but some of the early
feedback indicates those looking for the pot at
the end of the rainbow aren't going to find it in
Google's expanded Adsense for domains
program.
On
Saturday a DNForum.com
member posted about his early results after moving
some domains to Google, writing "Revenue so far is down by almost 35% for
me. I'll assume its due to the fact that the change in
name servers and records
have yet to propagate through out the internet.
However, if this continues, it's back to Parked.com
for me. CTR (click through
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rate)
also has a marginal decrease. The 200 channel
limit is stupid if you have thousands of names. I
already miss simple features like origin of traffic
and searches, etc. not to mention vibrant templates.
Sure, one click landers may even things out but I've
yet to see any true benefits. I'll give it a few
more days to see how it fares though."
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Due
to lack of transparency in the parking
business (largely due to Google refusing to let
their parking partners disclose more information)
some believe their parking companies give them the
short end of the stick. They may now learn that the
PPC companies have been giving them a better deal
than Google themselves is willing to give individual
domain owners. If it becomes clear that is the case
the parking companies are going to be big winners
in their customer's eyes.
This
is just the top of the first inning
in what is shaping up to be a long ball game
though. We have to wait and see how Google's
plan unfolds. Will they roll out a better
interface (drastically needed), attractive
templates, comprehensive reporting systems,
etc (things domain owners have become
accustomed to with their current PPC
providers)? Will they match or better the
payments people can get through their
current PPC providers in an effort to siphon
off their business? The
other question to be answered is what was
Google's ultimate motivation for
going down this path? Several knowledgeable
observers think the reason is not simply a
money grab aimed at putting their partners
out of business, but part of a previously
announced desire to see the domain channel
"cleaned up" (as well as to
get their hands on valauable account level
data that is currently held by the parking
companies). Rick Schwartz writes
about this in an interesting new
post on his blog today. |
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UK
based blogger Julia
MacKenzie, who has shown
some great insight on Google related matters, does
so again on her Is
It Me or Is Everyone Else Stupid? blog
where she wrote about the channel clean up theory
Friday. For still another interesting angle, check
out Andrew Allemann's post about early
reaction from some of Google's parking company
partners today at Domain
Name Wire. It looks like Google
watching is shaping up to be the most popular
pastime in the domain industry in 2009.
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On
another front, Aftermarket.com
has been chosen as the live auction
provider for the Domainer
Mardi Gras conference coming up
in New Orleans Feb. 19-21, 2009. Those
dates fall on the weekend of the world
famous Mardi Gras celebration which will
certainly give this event a spectacular
backdrop. The
show is being staged by Modern
Domainer Magazine and Parked.com.The
live auction will be held on Saturday,
February 21 and bidders can participate
in person or online. |
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Modern
Domainer Managing Editor Ezra
James said, "Aftermarket.com’s
auction platform is a leader in the
industry and we are thrilled to have
them be a part of Domainer Mardi
Gras." Ammar Kubba, the
Chief Strategy Officer at
Aftermarket.com's parent company, Thought
Convergence, Inc., added "We
are extremely honored to be part of
and to provide premier auction
services for Domainer Mardi Gras. It
is our |
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goal to
offer risk management related domain
names in the Domainer Mardi Gras
auction. Given the revelry
environment of Mardi Gras, we also
welcome festive related domain names
for submission to the auction.”
(Posted
Dec.
15, 2008) |
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