How to Monetize Product Domains

As an owner of a few product domains I have been trying a few different methods of monetizing them with mixed results. A product domain for those of you that don't know is a domain name that is a generic product like fishingrod.com. I like them because when people visit them they are already looking to buy or research a product that you can try to sell them. There are many different options to try and monetizethem, I am just going to  talk about building your own site using wordpress for now. Later I want to test out smartname and review that service.  The one beinfit about is building your own site is you have total control over the revenue and design and all other parts of the site.

Build your own site

       I have been building out sites using wordpress. I like wordpress's ease of use and thousands of free plugins and themes. It also does a fairly decent job at SEO which helps your rankings. On the basic sites I have used Ebay Partner Network to monetize the site. EPN recently went to a QCP pricing which is kind of like PPC and since that my earning have been up. On the sites I use a wordpress plugin called PhpBay to display the ebay ads in a great format.  The ebay ads do not look at all like traditional PPC ads and the click through rate (CTR) has been much higher.  I have also tried Amazon affilate program, but I do not like the results so far and am in the process of switching my sites out to EPN or other affiliate programs. On some of my sites I still have some AdSense.

I am also looking at starting to drop ship a small amount of products from some websites. Drop shipping does not require any overhead and the margins can be quite large.

I would also like to begin to reach out to direct advertisers now that my sites are getting traffic and ranked for their keywords I think that I could provide value to a potential advertiser.

My Early Results

I recently built Portable Camping Shower and USB Powered Speaker. Both sites took me about a little over an hour to put together and set up. I have a few articles and reviews on each one with some pictures and videos. I used some basic seo plugins and now the names both now rank in google and bing and have generate over $50 a month in revenue combined. Its not a ton but from making nothing with a parked page I am very happy especially with the time I put in. Tip google image search drives nice traffic so seo your images.  

If you have any questions please ask them below, I might also be interested if people wanted in build a very small number of sites for clients.

Related posts:

  1. Why Product Domains Make Amazing Minisites
  2. 5 Easy Ways to Make More Money off Your Sites
  3. Product Keyword Domain Tip: Search eBay Completed Listings
Category: Domaining Resources

Posted on March 3, 2010 | 14 Comments

Comments

14 Responses to “How to Monetize Product Domains”

  1. brian kleiner
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 12:40 pm

    Thats great, I have been working on the same plan.
    What do you do for seo?
    How long did it take to get to page 1 in google.
    I just launched playboybunnycostume.com
    its on page 2 in google.

  2. Anil
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 1:27 pm

    Thanks for sharing this information. It not just motivates people like me, it gives very valuable pieces of information at our finger tips.

  3. Jamie
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 1:53 pm

    Have you tried having the “products” like on PCS open in the same window? I think the customer may not even notice they are on eBay. I only noticed because of the new window. Something that may effect sales a little bit.

    I like the cloaked links for the eBay products compared to the Amazon products. I also am not a fan of the “Buy From Amazon.com” button. I think that hurts the affiliate a little.

    I would bet most of your sales on PCS come from the “Top Rated Showers” section? That is a good one!

    All in all, I like PCS site over the speakers site. It seems more “real” of a site compared to the speakers site.

  4. TeenDomainer
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 5:43 pm

    @Brian for SEO I just do some small link building with some similar sites I really need to do more. The exact match domain help so much sometimes I do not need it. Onsite I use the all in one seo plugin and use seo friendly url’s

    @Anil Thanks for the comment its people like you who keep me blogging

    @Jamie Thanks I never thought of that idea but I am going to try it and see what the data looks like after a month. The amazon products do not sell well I am going to change them when I get a chance people just do not click on them. Yea the speakers sites was done quickly I need to go add some more too it. I don’t know if you saw the ebay link on the speaker site they are hidden and they get tons of clicks by people.

    Thanks everyone for reading!

  5. Al
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 9:16 pm

    Gotta try out the plugin that you mentioned. Have you tried WP Robot for WordPress? Have it on some of my sites like WirelessNRouter.com, SoundBars.com and LEDStrips.com. Already have some sales and commissions there.

    As for eBay, somehow I am not able to qualify for the affiliate program…wonder why. Otherwise, would like to try eBay out too. Seems people are saying that eBay works better for them than Amazon.

    Cheers, Al

  6. TeenDomainer
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 9:21 pm

    @Al Yea PhpBay Pro is a really great plugin tons of options and really SEO friendly too. The same company also has an amazon plugin called PHPZon I think.

    With eBay you just have to have a site with some content on it that provides value to the user in a way other than just trying to sell them products. For me eBay has worked 100x better than amazon has.

    Thanks for reading

    Brian

  7. TechFilipino
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 9:54 pm

    Great Post! I agree its a must to monetize our domains, especially the product domains. Btw you should check out shopperpress, I’ve created a new website with it @ http://mouseoptical.com. I love how it automates the importing of Amazon products.

  8. PPC Ian
    March 3rd, 2010 @ 9:55 pm

    Brian,
    Thanks for sharing. Your sites are awesome and congrats on the early wins. The info you have shared is very helpful.
    All the best,
    Ian

  9. Arseny
    March 4th, 2010 @ 1:36 am

    Great tips, Brian! thanx for sharing!

    I followed the review of Bruce Marler and moved some product names related domains to SmartName. Within SmartName I’ve chosen commerce website (powered by Shopping.com)

    Here’s couple of examples:
    - Merlot.tv
    - SimpleDiets.org

  10. Carsten
    March 4th, 2010 @ 4:37 am

    Hey,
    nice post…I just registered campingdusche.com (the german name) and will try to make a similar wordpress site…Thanks for Shopperpess, will try this one someday.
    Greetings

  11. Mike
    March 4th, 2010 @ 11:58 am

    Would you consider tutoring?

    Mike

  12. TeenDomainer
    March 4th, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

    @Mike sure send me an email using the contact page.

    @Ian and Arseny Thanks for reading

  13. bruce J tedeschi
    March 4th, 2010 @ 7:55 pm

    Damn you are a smart lil bastard “)

  14. Chris
    March 6th, 2010 @ 4:03 pm

    Thats a great plan, thanks for sharing…

    have a nice one…

Leave a Reply





Sponsors

  • Godaddy
  • Above.com Domain Parking Manager
  • Sp Tweets
  • In Domain Forum
  • Your Ad Here
  • DN CRUISE

  • TeenDomainer Newsletter



    * = required field
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes