New PPC Parking Service: GoldKey

GoldKey is a relatively new provider of pay-per-click domain parking that has been advertising on many domain portals. It uses Yahoo/Overture as its advertising provider and describes itself as "the most sophisticated domain monetization service." I signed up a number of domains back on May 17, but GoldKey has experienced extended system delays in processing approvals with Yahoo, and it took more than a month for my domains to be activated. They're working now, so we'll see how it goes.

GoldKey received a strong review from Howard Hoffman at PPCincome, who cited revenue of $90 per 1,000 impressions for domains he parked with the service. "This new PPC service is giving the established players a serious run for the money," writes Hoffman. "With attractive pages and some technical innovations, our test portfolio is earning far more at GoldKey than anywhere else we have tried to date." The lengthy delays are a problem, Hoffman notes, as Yahoo reviews each domain to ensure it doesn't violate any trademarks. GoldKey says the backlog has been resolved. "All domain reviews are up to date and from now on, domain reviews will take less than 24 hours," a system message states. Several additional test domains were approved overnight, as promised.

Posted by RichM June 25, 2005 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 20, 2005

Register.com Rejects Takeover Bid

Register.com has rejected a takeover bid from RCM Acquisition Co. LLC, deeming the $7.10 a share bid "inadequate." In the press release announcing its decision, the language suggests that Regsiter.com may be fishing for a sweetened offer from its suitor. "We have instructed our financial advisors, Credit Suisse First Boston, to consider all available alternatives to maximize shareholder value, including potential further discussions with RCM," Register.com said in its statement.

The market is clearly expecting that someone will make a higher offer, as the share price of Register.com jumped to $7.40 per share in afternoon trading, 30 cents higher than RCM's initial bid.

Posted by RichM June 20, 2005 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 3, 2005

The Future of Pay-Per-Click Parking Income

Is pay-per-click revenue from parked domains a viable business model for the future? Or is it a short-term strategy that will soon fall out of favor? And can the whole business model be dismantled by a policy change at Google?

These questions are significant ones for the domain name industry, as PPC income is playing an increasingly large role in pricing for domain resales and market speculation. It's a big topic, and best discussed in small bites. A good starting point is the longevity of the PPC model, which was a hot topic of discussion at recent industry conferences.

In his updates for Domain Name Journal, Howard Hoffman of PPCIncome expressed surprise that a number of attendees at Traffic West weren't believers in the PPC revenue model that drives so much of the industry. "Some think parking pages are a waste of time," Hoffman said. A session at Domain Roundtable in Seattle looked at the quality of traffic on parking sites. The conclusion: falsified traffic is bad for the industry as a whole and that everyone will benefit when it decreases.

Posted by RichM June 3, 2005 | Permalink | Newsletter

June 2, 2005

Everyone's Talking About .xxx

ICANN has approved the proposed .xxx top-level domain (TLD) and entered negotiations with ICM Registry to work out the details. Here's ICM's description of .xxx and how it envisions it will work:

The .xxx sponsored top-level domain will create a clearly identifiable area of the Internet that will empower families and help protect children and others from unwanted or inappropriate content. The existence of the sponsored TLD would facilitate meaningful, voluntary self-organization and self-regulation by responsible adult-entertainment website operators.

There's lots of commentary on the .xxx TLD in the domain blogosphere (see below for links). My two cents: The notion that this will lead to any meaningful quarantine of porn sites is absurd. If you're a network admin for a corporation or school, you can eliminate a headache by filtering out the entire .xxx TLD. So which porn sites will move to .xxx, abandoning any visitors from those networks? Oh, yeah - the "responsible" adult-entertainment sites. Call me crazy, but I'm guessing those aren't the same folks who are using zombie botnets to inundate my email Inbox and weblog comments with porn spam. So why approve it? Some say its politics, but I think politicizing TLDs leads to more headaches, not fewer. What's left?

Money, of course. For starters, fees to ICANN, and the registry, which will charge $75 per domain. Given adult sites' success using domains to build traffic, we may see a land rush once the .xxx names are released. Even if a porn site doesn't want to operate within the new TLD, they may want to buy the domains associated with their brands as a defensive move.

Here's some other commentary from domain blogs:

Posted by RichM June 2, 2005 | Permalink | Newsletter