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Congratulations on your purchase of a domain name through an accredited registrar via the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) accredited registrar’s offices located in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA. [And your 20 cent ICANN fee] ICANN, the non-profit group that regulates domain names.

Now what do you do when there is no current plan to build a website, email service or resell this new asset you have acquired through dropcatching, pure insperation, trade or auction?  Will this domain make  or cost you money?

Domain parking refers to an internet domain name whose DNS [and sometimes the A record] is pointed to a service which provides a landing page or pages served with ads, links and or search results, without that domain being associated with any services such as e-mail or a website.

Revenue sharing from a parked domain works by traffic being directed to a search page or pay per click page where any visitors to your parked domain may click on the ads and you receive a percentage of the revenue from this.

This is also referred to as parked domain monetization. Revenue is earned as potential customers view pay per click (PPC) ads or the Internet traffic [type in or search related] may be redirected to another website. The domain name itself is the revenue generating asset providing information and more than just acting as a regular internet address.

There are “DOMAIN FOR SALE” parked pages to let others know that your domain name is for sale. When potential buyers type in your domain name to see if it’s available, the “DOMAIN FOR SALE” parked page displays with your email address so they can contact you.

Parking pages can be presented in two forms, a ‘one-click’ process, where a click on a keyword is not necessary to generate ads. The ads are targeted based on the domain name or keywords presented in the admin panel of the parking companies dashboard. Domains with ‘two-click’ implementations require a click on a keyword or a keyword search to generate ads.

Domain owners may use parking services to reserve the domain name for future development, and to protect against potential cybersquatting. Many companies provide parking, domain resale, auction and appraisal services. There are many turnkey Internet advertising firms that let you earn money on your domain names, providing advertiser links, landing pages and track traffic statistics for you. I have used Sedo, Domain Sponsor, Parked and so on with varying results but diminishing returns over the past several years.

Often to be most effective as an monetization tool, the domain names and their landing pages must be designed and optimized to generate maximum revenue.

Considerable skill and expert knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) practices, behavioral psychology and an understanding of the target market audience, including demographics play significantly into the amount of money a domain name can generate.