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I
often write about
how important face to face networking
at conferences is to success in the
domain business. That applies not
just to building relationships with
fellow domain buyers and sellers but
also making personal connections
with key service providers.
For example, if you have a
portfolio of names that attracts a
reasonable amount of traffic,
choosing the right monetization
company can make a significant
difference to your bottom
line.
There
will be a wide variety of service providers,
including several monetization
companies, at THE
Domain Conference, that
opens this weekend at the Hyatt
Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida.
Several
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Attendees
networking at a South Florida Domain
Pros meeting last February at
the Hyatt Pier 66 Hotel in Fort
Landerdale which will also be
the site for THE Domain
Conference that starts this
coming weekend.
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will
be set up early in cabanas at
the pre-show poolside networking
that begins Saturday morning,
including ProtectedParking.com,
a domain monetization company with a
unique approach to parking. In
fact what they are doing is so
different from conventional
thinking it is hard for some people
to get their head around it.
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Dave
Roberts
CEO, Protected Parking |
People
have always been advised NOT
to hold trademark/brand
related domain names due
to the potential liability
of not only losing the
domains via UDRP, but
also facing heavy financial
penalties should a
trademark/brand owner take
it a step further and file
suit. ProtectedParking (PP)
says they have worked out an
arrangement with many brand
owners that lets PP monetize
brand related names with
the blessing of the
partner companies involved.
Still, among most domain
investors there is an
ingrained fear of legal
issues surrounding such
names. I got together with
ProtectedParking's CEO,
Dave Roberts, to get
more information on just how
protected domains are in
the PP system.
"It’s
important to stress that the
merchants and affiliate
networks know exactly
what we are doing – we
have presented the model to
them and they get it
totally," Roberts
said. "Frankly the
previous situation of legal
action and UDRPs was
unsatisfactory and
unworkable for merchants –
expensive, unreliable,
chasing domains with no
traffic, and so on.
Even the specialist law
firms are looking at what we
are doing and saying
“thank goodness, we’ve
been |
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wasting
our time and here’s a
solution at last."
There can be no
guarantees but we are a
trusted 3rd party
intermediary and it is
working - the
merchants gain control of
the traffic they want with
no danger of competitors
being offered, they control
the customer journey and
they only pay if the
customer transacts.
And domainers get paid.
The
situation for domainers
isn’t made any worse by
using us (it is probably
made better) and they will
get (much) more revenue." |
I
also asked Dave if PP limits names
accepted into their system to only
those associated with brands they
have partnered with? And, if so, if
they accept all names
associated with partner companies or
if names/portfolios submitted are
required to meet specific
guidelines?
Roberts said, "In short
yes, we limit names to those
associated with brands we have
partnered with. We check all domains
to be sure within reason that the
consumer was seeking a specific merchant
and this keeps traffic quality and
conversions high.
The
merchants are the source of all of
the money so it's important to
keep them happy!
"
Roberts
said the individual sources of the
traffic they provide (in other words
the domain names that traffic comes
from) are not disclosed to
the merchants buying the traffic. I
wondered if the system is meant
primarily for people who already own
brand associated domains, or if PP would
suggest people make new
registrations of this kind in hopes
of monetizing them in the PP system.
Lists of new domain registrations
are made public daily and could
easily be tracked by trademark/brand
owners who wish to do so. Roberts
said, "The system is meant
primarily for people who already
own brand associated domains.
Most “lookalike” domains that
get traffic are already registered
so it is unlikely that we will have
a significant effect on new
registrations."
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Another
major difference
between ProtectedParking and
traditional parking
companies is that PP
monetizes through CPA – Cost
Per Action – rather
than the usual PPC (Pay
Per Click). For those
not familiar with the two
systems, I asked him to
explain the difference and
why CPA is a superior
solution for the names PP
monetizes.
Roberts
said, "You rightly say
that we are different from PPC
parking engines and we
don’t regard ourselves as
a parking engine |
CPA
graphic from Bigstock |
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we
think of ourselves as a
trusted intermediary –
we are not competition for Sedo,
etc for example. We
are only targeting domains
that are brand associated
(some/much of which is
probably blocked by Google
anyway) and with the
merchants’ agreement
to take them traffic
on the CPA model.
For this specific section of
traffic we see a regular
revenue uplift of more than 400%
and in quite a few cases an
uplift of 20 times
previous PPC revenue –
it’s a non-trivial
improvement for domain
owners and a good service to
the merchants – a genuine
win-win.
" |
"CPA
= cost per action which almost
always means a purchase. The
process is cookie based and the
cookies can have variable times to
live – normally 30/60 days but we
have seen them with up to a year’s
life," Roberts added. "When
the consumer buys a product or
service within the lifetime of the
cookie the merchant will pay PP a %
(variable) of the purchase price
which we share with the domain
owner. Interestingly, if the
consumer makes several purchases
during the cookie’s lifetime, we
get a % of all of the
purchases. As you might guess
cash-flow can be slower than PPC but
significantly higher pay-outs make
it worthwhile. We are live in USA
and UK now and will launch big time
in Germany in the coming weeks."
(Left
to right): Hani Armstrong, Marlon
Phillips and Dave Roberts at the
Protected Parking
cabana during the 2014
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference at
Miami Beach, Florida
If
you have additional questions about
Protected Parking you can connect
with company representatives at THE
Domain Conference (or by email at
the addresses provided). Those on
hand will be Hani Armstrong ([email protected]),
Marlon Phillips ([email protected]
)and Dave Roberts ([email protected]).
They will be at the PP cabana all
day Saturday and Sunday and you are
welcome to just drop in or email
them for an appointment.
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