Monetize Your Unused Parked Domains

If you have registered unused domains that you are not yet using, you may as well make a little money from them in the meantime while they’re parked.

A parked domain is one that you are not using at the moment but you own it.

Google had once offered to host domains for free and place AdSense ads on them while you are parking them. Known as “AdSense for Domains,” this feature had been terminated in April 2012.

This means that you need to provide your own hosting if you still want to monetize unused domains. But you can still use AdSense to monetize those unused domains.

You can still advertise on unused domains by placing AdSense ads on the pages of your parked domains if you follow AdSense rules and terms of service. But there are important details to keep in mind.

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I’ll start with the one question that must be troubling you now. The cost of hoisting can be expensive, especially if you have many domains that you are parking.

I found one hosting service that lets you host an unlimited number of domains for a flat fee. It’s called Site5, and from my own experience I can tell you that they have a wonderful support system.

Site5 has a $20 package that lets you host any number of domains at $20 flat per month. You can register domains with them too, but you probably will find lower cost registrars. They fee for registering domains is kind of high at $12 a year. Many still charge under $9 per year. But, the reason I am recommending Site5 is for their $20 unlimited hosting package.

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If you do decide to place AdSense ads on your parked domains, you will need to have come content there too. Otherwise the ads just won’t work. I suggest you make it your business to write some useful content yourself, so it’s original, and make it relate to the domain name.

The match between the domain name and the keywords in your content will enhance the matching up of proper ads that visitors might relate to. If they relate to an ad, they just might click on it.

So the thing is, you don’t want useless content and you don’t want ads on a page all alone by themselves.

If you have multiple domains, do not under any circumstances use the same content on each one. It going to take some time and hard work, but you should write original content unique to each domain name.

Remember, you are trying to monetize your parked domains. This is a business and business takes some effort.

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If you want to buy domains to use with AdSense for Domains you can find them by just typing ideas of names in your browser to see if they exist. Or you can search for expired domains.

There are many sites that help with this and you can find them with a Google search for “Expired Domains” or see what domains are for sale on eBay.

Another way to get domains is to keep track of companies you might know who are going out of business.

There is a possibility that these domains will still be getting traffic and that might translate into some Google AdSense revenue.

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If you see other domains that are about to expire, keep an eye out for when they are again available. If it’s a domain which has great value, you may not be able top get your hands on it. There are many firms that grab these and then sell the names for a lot of money.

Sometimes you might be lucky. Check its whois as it approaches its expiration date. If you see that it is in a Redemption Period, then wait 30 days and check again. This is a mandatory waiting period that gives the other party time to pay up and keep their domain.

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Earlier I spoke about including content on your parked domains so that the right ads get placed on those pages. But that also helps SEO so you get more traffic.

However, since your primary concern might be just holding on to domains and not really making money yet, you might not bother with writing much content. In this case, check the AdSense terms of service carefully since you may need a certain amount of content in relationship to the number of ads you place.

If you don’t care about SEO for your parked domains, traffic can also come from people just typing a domain name into their browser. This is where some ingenuity helps. If you can think of a good domain name that could be what people might type directly into their browser, you'd get that traffic.

If you play your cards right by finding a good domain that has preexisting traffic. Or dream up one that people might be looking for, then you are good to go and you might just make some money from it.

Copyright © 2012 Glenn Stok

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