Parked.com Domain Name Parking Review

A foreward: This is a review of Parked.com - and is not intended to be a sales pitch or a solicitation of any kind. I typically try out new domain and marketing services, and find interesting differences amongst them all!

For starters, I've been looking into various domain name parking services including SEDO, NameDrive and Bodis. I've had no results with SEDO, and Bodis was too negligent to mention that they are no longer accepting any more customers. I've heard nothing but bad reviews for both of those services on various SEO and webmaster forums. Other services charge as much as $99 for domain parking. As a marketer - I have no plans to spend money wherever it is completely unnecessary to do so!

I was referred to Parked.com by a member of Digital Point Forums who has experienced regular, decent results from this service. Previously, I've never even heard of Parked.com. I signed up to the service and have several of my higher-profile domain names running their parking service.

Think about it: you probably have a certain number of domain names that are collecting dust in your domain name service account. Although you can never truly know this - some of these domains may be getting a couple (or more) direct visits per day, either by people who are searching for the name directly (such as typing it in their browser), or stumbling on it through an internet search, somehow.

Don't be surprised at the latter scenario - the internet can be a surprising place, where anything and everything shows up at one point or another.

In other cases, some of your domain names may already have aged backlinks from many years ago. Other domain names you own might have been previously owned, and were advertised at some point in time.

Domain names, as you probably know, are becoming collectors' items: cybersquatters are buying them en masse, as great names are becoming difficult to find. Similarly, names you own may be of value to someone else, much like how one man's trash is another man's treasure!

The resolve: Put these sedated domain names to good use! By parking them, you're creating a landing page where visitors will be able to be presented with relevant links. These pages can sometimes appear to be relevant sites, and each click brings in a profit. Is it underhanded? Not quite - because it is completely legit, legal, and will not result in negative repercussions from search engines! Imagine the profit that a top keyword or phrase might bring in...use your Google AdSense knowledge.

...besides, wouldn't it be nice to earn at least $9 per domain name per year, just so that they pay for their own renewals?

Parked.com's statistics page gives you the bare-bones essentials, including RPM, CTR, RPC and revenue. You can sort your domains into folders you designate, to find them more easily. Each domain has its own dedicated statistics chart, hit counter, and all of the aforementioned statistical data.

Here's my 2009 edit: Parked.com has changed quite a bit. Landing pages are now completely customizable, prompting me to delete much of my old review! Now, you're able to choose all of your META attributes and tags, including description, keywords and title. Another section allows you to actually insert content within the footer, but I'll get to that a little later on. You can even change any or all of the colors (text colors, "box" frame colors and background colors), and insert your own image (this factor alone makes Parked.com go WAY above other domain parking services, as no other gives you all of this flexibility).

Parked.com will generate a small content area with a contextual image (based on URL keyword context), and PPC ad links. Of course, you're paid when a legitimate web user stumbles upon the page, and clicks a link. The amount you'll be paid is entirely unknown, and is based off of unseen factors including the target niche, backlinks, visits and other data.

Above: This is what a parked page using Parked.com looks like. This screenshot is from one of my 3-letter, 1-number URLs (a LLNL.com).

Note that the contextual ads that show up are all over the place in terms of topic: ranging from networking software to male enhancement pills. (To be fair: this is an unfortunate side effect of most domain parking services).

Letting your dormant domains sit stagnant is a bad business move, no matter which way you slice it. The truth is that the success of any domain in a parking service is entirely unknown, until you run some old fashioned trial and error.

Buy using one of several free parking services, such as Parked.com, you're increasing your revenue by opening another window of opportunity. Parked.com is one of the domain parking services held in high regard, and you'll undoubtedly hear about them in marketing forums across the 'net.

Personally, I've made more money with Parked.com than any other parking service, including NameDrive and SEDO. However, that might be an "overstatement," as I only make around $20/mo parking around 200 domain names. Previously, I made only a couple dollars a month parking the same domains on NameDrive.

I highly recommend Parked.com over both NameDrive and SEDO for the simple fact that you can fine-tune your landing pages down to the color, image and META attributes. I'm not a huge advocate of domain parking (I'd rather develop mini-sites on domain names), but, I still use Parked to temporarily get my domain names spidered while they're waiting to be developed.

Parked.com has a waiting period for new registrants. Parked.com states: "If you have a referral you are most likely to be approved quicker. We do not accept all applicants, so please be thorough in explaining your situation to increase your chances for approval on our system."

The banner below is my promo for new registrants. If you found this review to be helpful, please sign up through this banner and try out Parked for yourself!