Buying domains for their traffic can be good for your Cost Per Lead (CPL).
Do you buy traffic to your website through the legendary Google Adwords? Specifically, are you purchasing clicks through the Google Content Network? If you are, chances are there are some ‘parked domains’ out there that are sending you some quality traffic. To cut out the Google middle-man, you can go directly to these parked domains and see if they’re for sale.
So, what the heck is a parked domain?
According to wikipedia.com (link), domain parking refers to the registration of an internet domain name without that domain being associated with any specific services (e.g. without a specific company website). This may have been done with a plan to reserve the domain name for future development or to protect against the possibility of cybersquatting.
Domain parking can be classified as monetized and non-monetized. In monetized domain parketing, advertisements are shown to visitors; in non-monetized parking, an “under construction” or a “coming soon” message may be put up on the domain by the registrar or reseller.
So, in essence you’re looking for parked domains that are monetized and showing your ads on the content network. Typically these domains get traffic either through type-in traffic or out of date inbound links.
How do you find out what sites are parked, which ones are worth buying and if they’re for sale?
Simple. 4 easy steps.
- Go to your Adwords account and view your traffic stats. Review who’s sending you traffic and visit their websites to determine if it’s ‘parked’.
An example of a parked domain is http://www.runnningroom.com/
This is a spelling error, but still a worthy domain for someone like runningroom.com to buy. Notice the Google ads listed on both pages. Neither of these pages say they are for sale, but you could easily contact the owner and make an offer.
Another example is http://homerenos.ca/
- If you have a few ‘parked domains’ sending you traffic, review what their conversion rate is like. Ask yourself:
- Is the traffic they send you of good quality?
- How much is a lead cost for you?
- How much are you paying per click?
- What is the value of a typical lead from that site?
- What would be a good purchase price for this domain (assuming traffic is maintained AND that the client is still sharing with the other advertisers)?
- If you deem it a worthwhile purchase, then you must then consider how much the domain is worth to you.
- Either contact the owner and make an offer (via WHOIS) or if you’re lucky, the domain may already be up for sale via domain marketplaces like Sedo.com or moniker.com. If a reasonable price can be agreed upon by all, you’ll be the lucky owner of a valuable, sales-converting domain!
Remember that you are only seeing a portion of the page’s potential clicks as other vendors are also purchasing traffic from this parked domain.
Tags: AdWords, buying traffic, Online Advertising, Online Marketing, parked domains, PPC Strategy
