Domain Monetization for .CA domains?

The ability to make money off of "parked" domain names is a growing business. Parked domains refer to those web sites accessible but offering little or no content or services. Either they have yet to be developed by the site owner or they exist solely to provide the registrant a revenue source -- either through ongoing banner ads or future sale of the domain.

Often referred to as domain monetization, there are numerous companies the offer the opportunity to make money from undeveloped domains by delivering pay-per-click (PPC) ads. The industry is largely the realm of a few "domainers" who hold thousands of (predominantly) .com addresses.

The question is whether this tactic can be profitable for those with just a few domains? Or whether it can be profitable for holders of country-based domains (such as .CA domains)? For the most part, the domain monetization industry is dominated by a few companies and a handful of individuals with portfolios of thousands of domain names --- mostly .com addresses. The Ultimate domainer (or the most infamous) is Yun Yee a reclusive Chinese citizen who took up residence in Vancouver. (In a recent Business 2.0 article he's referred to as the domainers' "Keyser Soze", for those who get the Usual Suspects movie reference.) His inventory of thousands of domains was reportedly bringing in revenues of almost $20 million a year before he sold to Marchex for more than $150 million.

The tactic has been further encouraged by "domain tasting" or "domain testing" -- changes in the domain name registration system that allows prospective buyers to "taste" (or test) domain names for up to five days before they buy.

As such, savvy online real estate developers will register thousands and possibly even millions of domain names on which they can set up pages that reference pay-per-click ad sources. After Day 1 or Day 2, the investor might delete all domains that have no traffic and after Days 3-5 delete the names that have only marginal traffic. Keeping just a small percentage of pages that have sufficient traffic makes the venture low risk as the retained domains have been tested for the likelihood of profitability. And in the meantime, this investor has also made money off some domains that he/she returns without paying! Pages deleted before the 5 day grace period are refunded in full. The registrant (or "monetizer") keeps any ad revenue generated over those 5 days.

The key here, however, is volume...

In many of the cases each domain on its own generates little substantial revenue from ads. But when you talk bulk purchases of domains, earning a few hundred dollars a year on thousands of web domains can mean substantial profits: hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars. And occassionally a domainer may luck into a SARS, tsunami, or Asian Flu of the online world, finding those domains that become instantly flooded with traffic overnight due to some world event, new product or technology, or other driving force.

The majority of these domains are of course .com, .net, .org, .biz for their ability to attract "type-in" traffic. Or perhaps they were expired domains that had some previous traffic and decent indexing in the search engines.

The moral issue of course is do these parked domains provide any value to users? Those that find them in search engines and through typing in URLs directly are being directed to pay-for advertiser's sites, not necessarily what the user is searching for. But the moral issue aside, if there is anyone out there with experience in this area, my questions are:

- Is it possible to make decent revenue from just a few parked domains or is it strictly a high volume business?
- Do we think there is a good posibility of similar business opportunities for .CA domains or do the economics fall short as a small-market country with a population of only $30 million?

As a holder of a few select .CA domains (like wine.ca, taxes.ca, and library.ca), I'd love to hear your comments!

Roll your own search engine

Here is a fantastic idea. Rollyo is a search engine that allows the user to choose which sites are to be indexed and searched. I am currently looking through my bookmarks file and choosing the top 25 information management sites. It is possible to convert your bookmarks file to a search roll. Rollyo will index and return results from just these sites. I get to decide what sites I trust.

Rollyo has pre-selected search rolls from some subject experts and a browsable list of other notable rolls. I see rolls based on a single product (digital cameras) organization type (labour unions) or a specific subject (the possibilities are endless). It is possible to convert your bookmarks file to a search roll.

It takes just a few minutes to set up a roll. Take a look at my IM roll (under construction) at http://www.rollyo.com/profile.html?uid=1650.

Google Maps - Just in time for travel season

MapQuest has been a common orientation and mapping tool for several years now, and although it is a strong tool for American geography, it does work generally well for quickly locating common cities and towns in Canada. Still, it draws a lot of misses and frequently returns erroneous search results that place your query's address in some remote area of Northern Ontario. This alone leaves room for improvement by other mapping wannabes, especially for IM relatd companies with boundless appetites like Google.

Google has a beta product called Google Maps that is worth examining. It provides decent mapping down to the street level, an ability to draw driving directions between distant locations and an interesting toggle between vector illustration maps and satellite images.

Need information? Find a librarian!

From Ongoing

Real Information Retrieval

A short blog entry from Tim Bray that all librarians will soon be circulating to their friends.