Domain name survey
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Barry Goggin November 24, 2008
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I surveyed 100 domains to see what was on those domains. I found
that 4% had nothing, 71% had something other than parked pages and 25%
were parked.
Parked domains
I chose domain names using terms from the content of websites like
cnn.com, money.com and portals so that the terms were commercial and
short i.e. premium domain names. I was surprised to find one quarter of
them parked and probably missing out on significant potential revenue.
One in particular had a graphic that was, well, graphic! Eye.com
shows a picture of an injection into a patient. Not the sort of thing
to encourage potential patients to stick around and click.
On the other hand, a number of parked sites tried to cover all the
potential search terms e.g. fashion.com. While it is nice to have
passive income, I think any one of you who visits these parked domains
will see how much potential revenue is being lost.
Active domains
Again, active sites (71/100) were domains that had something other
than a parked page. Of these, 3 had placeholders including life.com, a
forthcoming Life magazine photo archive.
Redirection
9 of these active domains or about 12% had redirection in place.
Redirection can raise trust issues. If the address bar url is different
from that typed in, then the potential customer may be less trusting.
This can then affect conversion rates. What I noticed was that
redirection was more common for major brands with established trust
e.g. loans.com redirecting to Bank of America. I suppose with the
recent issues in the banking world perhaps some of that trust has
eroded.
Revenue models
Advertising
Revenue models are hard to determine by just visiting a website.
About 30% had clearly marked advertising with a mix of text, graphic or
video ads. About 20% of the ads were Adsense blocks and the remainder a
mixed bag of direct ad sales or other PPC companies.
I noticed one website (which will remain nameless) was actually in
violation of the Adsense program terms which only allows 3 ad blocks
per page. This particular site had 4 ad blocks on its home page as well
as a Google search box and other ads.
This certainly suggests that visitors were not finding what they
wanted in that website’s content. A much better move might have been to
adjust their content offerings to satisfy the visitors.
Subscriptions
About 7% sold subscriptions or membership such as office.com with
free basic membership as a teaser. Fitness, diet, health and dating
sites also favored subscriptions. Subscriptions are often one of the
most profitable revenue streams for owners but also are perceived as
being the most expensive by potential customers.
Underutilized websites and domains
I also found a few sites that are dinosaurs in this day and age.
Tahiti.com has that wonderful patterned salmon colored background from
back in the day and yes, frames! I was sure they were extinct by now.
Also I tried clicking on their Photo of the month which revealed that “This photo was taken in October 2005 on a “Shark Feeding Excusion”.
So whats my point besides poking fun? This site cannot be capturing
the revenue it should be getting. Travel is a competitive area and here
is a prime name of a desirable exotic location. Here I think lies a
significant opportunity that is often missed by domainers and website
developers. Finding underutilized domains and revamping them to
maximize their potential through tweaking parking pages or revamping
their websites can allow you to get real bargains and significant
income.
Study.com is another example. In this case, it is an honorable
enterprise with volunteer teachers teaching languages and a text
website to allow for quick load times especially in countries without
broadband. The commercial nature of the study.com domain name is
obviously not being taken advantage of and again, this probably can be
purchased at a bargain price relative to its commercial potential.
Intelligent use of domains
I was particularly impressed with the use of tech.com by the
University of Illinois. This site highlights their tech research and
promotes the school to potential students. Someone there has a handle
on the value of generic domains.
I think it is smart of Bank of America to pick up loans.com but why
is wealth.com left parked? Big companies are still relying on
traditional channels of branding and advertising and forgetting about
generic domains.
Why wouldn’t a stockbroker or mutual fund company want to have
wealth.com? Isn’t that the point of their business? Of course doubt
sets in when I look at my stocks and mutual funds recently!
Summary
This small survey makes the following points in my view:
- premium generic domains are losing potential revenue
- big business hasn’t appreciated the value of generic domains yet
- there are bargain underutilized quality domains still available
- frames and awful backgrounds still live on the web!
Finally I should note that I do not own any of the sites surveyed
nor have any affiliation to them. I have included the list of premium
domains I surveyed as a PDF file. Domain review list 08 |