Last I checked Google doesn’t get sued over click fraud for AdSense units on blogs; however, it does get sued for clickfraud and crappy performance on parked domains. Do me a favor, go ahead and find me some testimonials from advertisers which say “advertising on AdSense cookie cutter sites on parked domains saved our business!” Humor me.

On top of that, you can get advertisements from AdSense even if you don’t have any PageRank score. Google actually encourages this crap: http://www.google.com/domainpark/

And franky, I’m tired of listening to the domainers crying. I said you guys do add some value to end-users, i.e. people who are too stupid to use google and type-in domain names instead, but the fact is that you’re a pest to web developers and a fraud bucket for advertisers.

On that wonderful note, comments are closed, and please don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

“So ‘ll level with you: it adds some to end users, but not much.”
around 5 years ago, users would looking for a particular product or service would land on a blank page or a “under construction” page and get nowhere.

“There’s some asshole parking it with GoDaddy right now.” ouch . . .. lowlifes and aholes oh my. you sure about that? Godaddy puts up those parking pages as default often times and often the domain owner doesn’t even know.

“you’ve actually convinced me that I was wrong about your industry not adding ANY value.”

That’s good enough for me I suppose. wagging a finger and name calling sucks especially when you’re not a ninja in the area you are commenting about.

-You cannot determine “use” of a domain because a public web site is just one possible function of a domain.

-Initially the price was artifivcially inflated $100 for 2 years with $30 going towards Internet infrsytucture. The $30 was struck down as an illegal tax. The $70 fee stayed in place for many years and all the profits went to a private company and made a small number of people rich.

-There is nobody available to review the use of millions of domains. If there were, the cost of domains would increase dramatically.

-A lawyer to handle a domain dispute starts at $1500 and goes up depending complexity. $300 is not realistic.

-Who owns intellectual property as it relates to a domain name is incredibly complicated. General statements cannot be made. UDRP filings are often more than 50 pages with all the attachments.

-There is no defiition of “parking” a domain

-Domain owners hold domains for different reasons and may or may not have plans to develop in the future. Microsoft has many thousands of domains they may develop.

-For a domain that displays PPC ads only there are advertisers who are paying for these ads and people are being directed to sites they may not otherwise visit. Most advertising is based on this concept.

”
GreatDomains
The world’s finest domain names. Premium auctions & domain listings.
http://www.GreatDomains.com
Network Solutions
Domains, Hosting, Web Sites & More. ICANN Accred. Learn more here!
http://www.networksolutions.com
GoDaddy #1 domain names
$7.99 .COM Domains - Save Today Free Hosting, Blogcast, Email, More
GoDaddy.com
Buy Top Quality Domains
Premium Domains: great Internet real estate. 800,000 Targeted names
http://www.BuyDomains.com
Chat Rooms - Free
Chat Free with Sexy Singles in your ZIP code now!
FreeEasyChatRooms.com
”

From this very page ….

DomainTools is what I use for WHOIS queries and registrant search.

“Guess by your logic that makes google or yahoo full of useless content as well”

Come on, that’s just being silly. And no, I think most of AdSense is garbage, content-wise. My next article (it’s almost done) is about how awful unintelligent AdSense campaigns are.

After reading your comment I actually have a better idea of where you’re coming from: you send those type-ins who are looking for something to a destination. I just think it’s a shame that the parked domain isn’t a destination in itself, but I think you’ve made a good argument for value addition by domain parkers. I was just looking at it from a marketer’s point of view and not an end-user’s point of view; I’d never considering buying advertising space on a parked domain just because targeting by domain name seems pretty imprecise.

“You don’t find it useful, so be it, but advertisers pay for the traffic, leads, impressions, etc and users are clicking the links, filling out the forms and buying ?”

I’d say “stupid advertisers,” but you’ve actually convinced me that I was wrong about your industry not adding ANY value. So I’l level with you: it adds some to end users, but not much. I think an AdSense page is marginally more useful than a 404 page. But I think it still presents a big pain in the ass for a lot of developers who’d make something more useful than just an AdSense block.

Yes, my sanctimonious blog is more useful than the AdSense chunks that line it’s pages. I hope it’s more entertaining too.

As to answer your last question, the only one that I have the energy to answer before I go to bed: yes. There’s some asshole parking it with GoDaddy right now. I would have made a bid for the domain name if I thought it was worth the hassle.

Clearly you have no idea how whois works.

“I didn’t buy anything with the intention of indefinitely holding them until someone else expresses interest in purchasing them.”

I think you’ll find a lot of domainers started out with the idea that they’d develop sites and that the development was far more complicated in some cases. . . they found profit in “being low lifes” who earn money off of traffic. Addditionally the biggest domainers are not “holding out for a sale” . They’re fine making their millions and never selling the domains they own.

“domaining isn’t the most valuable way to utilize those good domain names.”

So what is ? Blogs with people sanctimoniously pontificating about who is a low-life and who isn’t ? A search engine that scrapes content from other websites ? Who decides what is useful ? You ? You’ve already said this was impossible to police.

“So here’s my question to you, how do you get traffic to parked domains? ” Type-ins

“What work goes into it? ” Into getting traffic ? None

“Do you put real content on there?”
Guess that depends on YOUR definition. In some cases I have advertising, links, banners, lead generation forms. It depends on the domains. In the case of parking you’ll find that most put the ads that google or yahoo feeds. Guess by your logic that makes google or yahoo full of useless content as well

“I have yet to see a parked domain with real content - I see plenty skraper sites, AdSense cookie cutters, and those awful search culvasacks; so please, enlighten me.”
Enlighten you on what ? You don’t find it useful, so be it, but advertisers pay for the traffic, leads, impressions, etc and users are clicking the links, filling out the forms and buying ? Even more advertisers are buying the domains because they know they are valuable .

btw I was just thinking . . .wouldnt a true marketing ninja own MarketingNinja.com ? Guess some low-life must own it, eh?

Never

What I’m saying is that what domainers do isn’t useful; the domains themselves are useful.

Actually if you were interested enough you can just use whois to see how many domain names I own. If I’m not mistaken I own 12; 6 of which are all variants of the domain name for this blog (and the old domain that I used before I rebranded the blog,) another 3 of which are variants for another blog that I’m trying to run but haven’t had time, and I think 3 of the other domains are either for upcoming projects that are in development or old domains that are due to expire soon. So to answer your question, I bought all of the domains with the intention of developing them into projects. I didn’t buy anything with the intention of indefinitely holding them until someone else expresses interest in purchasing them.

I knew about UDRP already; it’s not a preventative measure though, it’s reactive.

As for the real estate argument, that’s such a flawed comparison that I don’t even want to get into the details of it. Real estate has significant barrier to entry and maintenance costs, which prevents “domaining” behavior. People slap billboards on real estate ONLY WHEN it’s the most valuable way to monetize that land. That’s the argument that I’m making against domaining, is that domaining isn’t the most valuable way to utilize those good domain names.

So here’s my question to you, how do you get traffic to parked domains? What work goes into it? Do you put real content on there? I have yet to see a parked domain with real content - I see plenty skraper sites, AdSense cookie cutters, and those awful search culvasacks; so please, enlighten me.

Since when have useless and making a profit ever been mutually exclusive? I think what you are trying to say here is that the people doing this are opportunistic bastards. I completely agree. But that’s life, right?

Wanted to point out something. If the a domain owner (ie lowlife) is infringing on someone else’s IP, we have the UDRP (uniform domain resolution policy) to handle this.

On your last comment : “Parking them and hoarding them doesn’t increase the end-value for the consumer, the person who actually ends up using the domain name for something useful and the people who end up using the useful service.”

Many domains have an inherent value because they have traffic. Sending that traffic to a “useless page” is a use of the domain in a resourceful way. If the users didn’t find the information useful they wouldn’t click.

A couple other thoughts :
What’s your opinion on people who own land and “don’t use it” as you see fit ? Or maybe god forbid the lowlifes put billboards up.

Do you own any domains that you aren’t using ?

Good luck with all the comments that will soon be flying on your blog.

The domains are valuable, but people can already buy them from a registrar. Parking them and hoarding them doesn’t increase the end-value for the consumer, the person who actually ends up using the domain name for something useful and the people who end up using the useful service.

Therefore the practice is ultimately useless since it just adds an unnecessary middleman when people should be able to buy domains directly from the registrars.

Your logic is flawed the way I see it. Doesn’t something have value if there is demand for it? There is demand for those domain names, maybe not always immediately but in the near future, possibly. How is what the “low-lifes” do useless? Doesn’t seem any different than any other situation where you buy low and sell high.

If anything, it is just annoying. Annoying, not unvaluable and useless. There is a difference.

I’ll read you blog again. Check out mine when you have a moment…

http://www.gothamtechminute.blogspot.com