Domain name survey	1.0/5.0 (3 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
Barry Goggin November 24, 2008

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

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