Domain Name Wire » Search Results » goldkey

Sedo and Parked.com Tops for Domain Name Parking

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:11:54 +0000

Familiar faces top results from survey.

Sedo and Parked.com were selected as the best domain name parking companies in the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey.

Sedo took top honors with 23% of the vote, followed by Parked.com at 18%. Here are the top five vote-getters:

1. Sedo 23%
2. Parked.com 18%
3. NameDrive 13%
4. SmartName 6%
5. DomainSponsor and Google Adsense for Domains 6%

SmartName is new to the list this year. The company has combined its three parking platforms into one, giving customers previously on GoldKey and ActiveAudience access to SmartName. The company has also launched new parking products including content sites and shops.

It’s also interesting to look at the percentage of customers that have used a service that rate it ‘best’. By this measure, SmartName takes home top honors, followed by Parked, NameDrive, and Sedo.

Amongst domainers with 1,000 or more domain names, Parked.com takes first place followed by Sedo.

Rate domain name parking companies at ParkingJudge.com.

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GoldKey Domain Sold, Customers Need to Change DNS

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:22:54 +0000

NameMedia sells domain name from legacy domain parking service.

NameMedia has been merging its domain parking platforms for a couple months, but a number of domain owners have yet to make necessary changes to their domains on the NameMedia platform.

In particular, GoldKey and ActiveAudience accounts have been upgraded to SmartName. NameMedia sold the Goldkey.com domain name at the beginning of the year, meaning that domains parked on ns1.goldkey.com are no longer resolving, leaving money on the table for domainers. According to a name server report at DomainTools, there are currently over 25,000 domains pointing to GoldKey, so a lot of traffic isn’t resolving. Customers should login to their upgraded accounts at SmartName to check stats and update their name servers.

Once you change your DNS to SmartName, customers should check out some of the new SmartName products such as the content system and SmartName Shops.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

SmartName Launches Content Site System, Upgrades Accounts

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:22:58 +0000

NameMedia launches SEO-friendly content system and upgrades domain name parking accounts.

Domain name parking company SmartName has launched a new content parking system, and has upgraded GoldKey and ActiveAudience accounts to take advantage of the new system.

The new content system enables domain owners to create content-filled web sites on their domain names with the click of a few buttons. The content web sites pull in external news and blog feeds and create a web site automatically with the goal of receiving search engine traffic.

The content system is monetized using search boxes and pay-per-click text ads. Users can also add their own banners and PPC ads, such as Google Adsense, and keep 100% of the revenue from those ads.

SmartName representatives demoed the system to me last week, and showed me a number of sites developed on the content system that have PageRank and have achieved high rankings in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

The example below is fairly basic, but the system allows for extensive customization.

The red circles represent SmartName’s monetization, which is shared with domain owners. The blue circles represent areas where the domain owner can add their own ad code and keep all revenue. There is one additional customizable spot near the bottom of the page.

Using SmartName parent company NameMedia’s domain names, the content system has been shown to increase organic traffic 10x, increase page views per visitor 40%-75%, and boost revenue 10-25%.

SmartName has also enhanced its E-commerce platform (also known as SmartName Shops), which allows customers to create a pay-per-click store on their domain names. An example I created (again, with no customization at all) is EverythingDogs.com.

Which domains will perform well on SmartName’s content and e-commerce platforms? Here’s how I’d segment your domains:

-High type-in traffic, good click-through rate, not a product domain: use standard parking

-High type-in traffic, product domain: try e-commerce template. Revenue per click may be a little lower but CTR should increase.

-Low type-in traffic, non-product domain: use content system to get indexed in search engines and receive traffic

-Low type-in traffic, product domain: use e-commerce parking to get indexed

-Any domain that is ineligible for Yahoo ads: content or e-commerce

It used to be extremely difficult to get an account at SmartName. However, users of GoldKey and ActiveAudience have had their accounts upgraded to SmartName in recent months as NameMedia consolidates its parking brands.

If the content and e-commerce templates are not listed in a client’s account, they should contact their account manager for activation.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

SmartName Shops Provide Parking Alternative

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 19:38:50 +0000

Easy-to-build online stores provide alternative to standard domain name parking.

A couple weeks ago I mentioned SmartName Shops, a unique parking template available to SmartName customers. The system has been available for a while on SmartName, but is now available by request on NameMedia’s other parking platforms including ActiveAudience and Goldkey.

SmartName Shops are pay-per-click based templates that include an e-commerce product feed from Shopping.com. They provide a good alternative to standard parking pages on domains that have an e-commerce connotation. Even more important – SmartName makes them very easy to set up.

Creating a shop basically involves adding your domain name as usual, selecting an e-commerce template (one is available and another on the way soon), and choosing your category keywords. For example, I set up EverythingDogs.com in about 3 minutes. The tabs at the top represent my keywords.

This example is basic and you can customize your shop fairly easily. SEO features are rich, allowing you to add custom text and change your meta tags. You can also upload a custom header. An example of a well developed Shop (owned by NameMedia) is YellowDress.com.

SmartName Shops provide a great alternative for domains that either don’t perform well as standard parked pages or lend themselves to an e-commerce site. Getting a SmartName account is very difficult, but users of ActiveAudience and Goldkey can contact their account manager to activate shops on those programs.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

Check NameMedia Parking Stats on iPhone App

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:47:58 +0000

Apps let you check stats on all three NameMedia platforms.

On Monday Cortnee Gunn, a NameMedia domain parking account manager based in Austin, stopped by my office to show me the company’s latest parking innovations.

If it seemed that NameMedia and its parking companies — GoldKey, ActiveAudience, and Smartname — fell off the earth for a while, that’s because the company was dealing with its initial public offering quiet period. With the IPO called off, the company has been more visible over recent months.

The company recently released iPhone apps for all three of its parking platforms. The iPhone apps let you quickly see daily and monthly stats, portfolios, top and bottom performing domains, and other content. I played around with the app for SmartName, and it is slick.

SmartName Shops, which are easily created pay-per-click ecommerce sites, are picking up steam. Check out YellowDress.com for an example. These shops are now available to some customers on all three of the company’s platforms (contact your account manager for details). I’ll have more information on Shops in the next couple weeks after I experiment more with it.

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Yahoo Delays Domain Parking Stats

Andrew Allemann — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:09:01 +0000

Delay affects all Yahoo partners.

For the second time in as many months, a domain parking statistics delay from Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) is making domainers wonder “just how much have I earned this week?”

Apparently Yahoo hasn’t been able to provide final stats to domain parking companies since about March 25. The company provided some stats but then called them back, saying they weren’t accurate.

Although it may be a minor annoyance for some, the problem needs to be resolved within the next few days for clients to receive payments on time. For example, Parked.com usually sends payments on the 7th for earnings from the second half of the prior month.

NameMedia sent an e-mail to customers of its domain parking services, including Goldkey and ActiveAudience, yesterday to update them on the stats delay.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

NameMedia Upgrades Parking Platform

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 17:13:44 +0000

NameMedia improves stats and landers for its three domain parking programs.

NameMedia, parent company of BuyDomains and Afternic, has released several improvements to its three domain name parking platforms: GoldKey, ActiveAudience, and SmartName.

The improvements span three areas:

1. Reporting – improvements to reduce timeout issues and site downtime and improvements to data discrepancy reporting. This includes a move to a new data center as well as database improvements.

2. Dashboard – what was once a convoluted mess is now a simple dashboard including recent revenue, portfolio snapshot, and best and worst performing domains. Beyond the dashboard, I still find NameMedia’s reporting systems to be more complicated than some of its competitors. A simple click to view the entire month’s stats by domain name would be a nice addition.

3. Landers – introduced seven new templates including localized search. The new templates include a configurable number of results.

There are few differences between NameMedia’s parking services as they all use the same platform. GoldKey is intended for newer and smaller domainers, whereas SmartName is an exclusive program for only the biggest domain portfolio owners.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.