Parking is Not Only About Pennies Per Click
On various forums and blogs I often read that "Parking is Dead" and that people are only earning a few pennies. While revenue might be down, parking for me is not only about the money it has more important uses.
The domain parking service I use most is Parked.com its simple, and the service is great. They also payout by papal when you get $20.00 in your account. When I first buy a domain I change the name servers to my parked account and let it sit for a few months. On all of my parked domains there is a contact forum so that people know that the domain is for sale.
After a few months I check back and often I am surprised by the traffic and revenue that my domains generate. Last month I got over my $20 payment limit and was just paid by Parked. Now that's not much, but for only a few domains it pays for some more renewals, but parking has two much more useful purposes for me.
First
The revenue and visitor stats that I get from the parking websites show me which domain I want to develop. If a domain is getting type in traffic and people are clicking on a parking page imagine if it was a real helpful website. I recently took a domain of mine that earned $1.13 the month before on parking and I threw up a wordpress site with 4 articles and Adsense and EPN ads. Last month the same domain that earned $1.13 parked now earned $12.58 with Adsense and $16.35 with eBay Network ads. That is $28.93 on a site that took an hour to create and now it earns almost $30 a month. Without parking the domain first I would have not know that it was perfect for development. It now ranks top 3 in Google and the traffic and revenue continue to grow.
Second
Parking my domains allows end users and general visitors to know the domain is for sale. I have sold 2 domains and had many offers just from the little contact sheet on the parked domain that says "this domain may be for sale click here to contact us." It makes no sense not to park your unused domains you have nothing to loose and lots to gain by signing up for an account at one of the many parking providers and moving over your names. Collecting stats and end user sales are two great reasons to park your domains regardless of the "pennies" they may earn.
Indian Domain Market Part 1: An Overview
To try and describe India and its domain market in 1 post would be impossible. In this post I am going to try and give some general information about India and also some of my big picture thoughts and observations.
India is a land of vast extremes on both ends of the spectrum. Their tourism ads say "Incredible India" and it truly is. The best way I can describe it is with a scene I saw on the way to visit a Hindu mountain temple. There was a BMW and a farmer on his cow drawn cart with his goods both stuck in traffic because of the elephants up ahead blocking the roadway. There is immense wealth brought in by the IT sector and also tourism and large businesses and there is also vast poverty in India. Some parts of India are poorer than subsarhan Africa and this was easily visible on the sides of roads and trash filled alleys.
Stats about India
A population of 1.18 Billion people making it the 2nd largest behind China, it is also the 7th largest country by land mass. The official languages are English and Hindi but many local languages are also spoken, the more educated wealthy Indians seemed to speak English better and more frequently then members of the lower class. Almost all of the domain names that I saw were in English even if the ad was in Hindi the domain would still be in English. 42% of people live below the poverty line, but India with its 5.8% GDP has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world. On average the average income per person in India is less than $2,500 per year.
Now about the internet. Overall India's infrastructure is still developing but in the major cities I found the internet coverage to be great. In Delhi the speed was fast and when I went to stay at the school and on trips I had a USB data card which had decent speed. India's mobile market has started massive price wars so everyone has a cell phone at a super cheap price over 50% of people in India have phones meaning 601.22 million people and the number is growing fast. In 2009 178.25 million new cell phones were added. These phone companie have also made data cards affordable to many people which will increase internet coverage in rural areas where many people still live and are not connected to the web.
India has the 4th largest number of internet users in the world, but still the usage in rural areas is very low and the overall usage compared with the population is lower than the rest of the world.
So from most of this information there is huge potential in the Indian domain market especially with large companies moving into the market and the large number of people, but the poverty, corruption, government, and other factors hold down the current values and markets for the names.
On to domains; I was looking at many advertisements to see which domain extensions and what domains were used. Dot Com was the most used domain extension, but not by much (exact stats and many more number to come in later post and the ebook.) Dot In was next and the numbers were not very far off from the dot com numbers. The .in domain extension has been accepted by the people of India as their domain extension which is the total opposite scenario that what has happened with the .us in America. The .in is not considered second tire to the .com; it is a alternative that is on the same level' which is great news for the .in investor. Dot .Co.in was next, but compared with the .in the usage was small, it only seemed that big international companies were using them which was very interesting to see. Some examples of this were Dell.co.in, Hyundai.co.in, and Nokia.co.in. Someone needs to educate them on using the domains that the people in a country use. Maybe they should read my blog 
Also on many ads I did not see domain names at all which surprised me at first. In the US in most ads there is a domain name somewhere, but in India I would say less than half had domains especally when one looks at signs and billboards that littered the streets and cities. After spending time in the country I realized that some of the companies products were not targeted towards the internet using population they were aimed at the lower class citizens. As time goes on the lower class will have easier access to the internet and thus these companies will begin to use websites. Another reason for domains not being featured on ads was that unlike in America there is a lack of major brand name stores that control cities and small townships. In India many of the cities are filled with family owned hotels, stores, street stalls, repair shops, ect.... These mom and pop shops as we call them have not fully embraced the internet yet and may not see the need too, yet. Like anything though as more customers get online the stores too will have to follow.
There are a few markets I see that have potential right now. Education, travel, health, high end merchants, and mobile internet. Education because every other sign is for a college or some sort of education instution. People in India take huge pride in education and the companies because they have to target the younger more web savvy generation are using domains now. Travel because people in record numbers are going to India, its a great destination people speak English and its very cheap. Health and healthcare because India has some of the best healthcare centers in the world and people come from all over to utilize the doctors and hospitals. Lastly mobile because the phones used in India do not have full html web browsers like the iphone or my droid phone so mobile websites could be a big hit.
More about the younger generation, India is a very young country and the youth that I spent time with were very connected with the internet much more than the adults. Every time we went out in the city they would go to a computer cafe where everyone could go surf the net. As this generation grows older they will become the leaders and store owners and they will bring with them their knowledge of the internet and many I believe will try to utilize it to their advantage.
Right now at 101domain .in and .co.in domains are only $3.99 and at godaddy they are 7.99 which is less than .com domains. There are no requirements for a presence in the country. If you decide to invest in them be careful about words that are different they speak English, but use some words differently Indian English is more British than American usage from what I saw with words like centre being used. Also remember the reseller market for .in domains right now is very poor and even the end user market is bad. If you sell to a person in India they earn in the rupee which is around 50 to 1 with the US dollar and you are not going to get a huge payday from many people just because the market is not established. Investments in the Indian domain market are long term from most right now. There are still great domain for reg fee or to be picked up on the aftermarket.
This is the first post of a series I am going to do over the next week and the I am going to give away a free eBook that goes into much greater detail. Please I would love any feedback good and bad about part 1 of many.
What to Do When an End User Stops Responding
End user sales are a big part of domaining, they are normally the most lucrative, but they also take the most work to pull off. With my domain sales I often try and be proactive and contact the end useres either by email or by phone to sell domains.
End users are often busy business men and women so many time even after getting the initial reply of interest in a domain they stop responding for whatever reason. When an end user does not respond to my email I normally give them a week or so depending on how the contact has gone up to that point. If they seem super eager to buy the domain and have been responding to emails within a day I will give them less time that someone who has responded after 5 or 6 days.
After giving them time to respond without response I will then send another email or call them asking if they are still interested in buying the domain. Often times the email was just mistakenly missed because of other work. If they still do not respond after this if the negotiations were a little ways down the line I might add that I am going to be listing and trying to sell the name to other businesses if I do not hear from you within x days.
Then if there is still no response maybe the business changed hands or something else happened I have no problem sending them another email after a few months have passed about the domain. One of my favorite tactics if the end user does not answer an email is to give them a call. This shows them you are serious and can help close the deal faster.
End user sales are a tricky art to master, and in no way have I even come close to getting it perfect. Every day brings a new scenario and a new learning adventure.
Late Update from India and My Initial Thoughts
India has been an incredible experience for me to say the least, the month I spent here has been amazing in so many different ways. The style of living, learning, and basically is different than at home in the US, so it provided a great opportunity to learn. The school I attended was loads of fun and the guys were all supper nice. It was very remote and a spartan strict kind of school so I did not have the chance to update the blog as I would have liked but I still got loads of information about the Indian domain market.
I was able to sample the ads in over 25 different newspapers, magazines, handouts and such. I also looked at many road sign ads (I had lots of long car rides) and also I got to watch a little tv and saw a few ads.
Overall without any number stats or interviews right now to back me up .com is still the most used in the ads I recorded (print ads newspapers and magazines) and also from what I observed and talked to students about but the .in is a very close second and is very widely accepted and is not considered a second rate extension to the .com. .In was used much more in ads than the .co.in but it was funny to see many larger international brands using the .co.in when most of the smaller Indian brands were mostly using the .in. .Org and .net even made a decent showing and some more extensions showed up to my surprise and delight.
I have decided I am going to do a few post about my case studies and interviews and observations and then write an ebook which I have started and it should turn out to be over 20 pages of solid information. Overall I like the Indian domain market for longer term investments. End user sales are still small and resale value is not great but there are some new developments in India (Gambling look at the news?) that I think will change that. It is a good time to buy!
I want to update this blog much more and it just did not work out to update it when I was in India but you can expect more post from me in the weeks to come. If anyone has any questions they want answered in the ebook or in a post about India please comment and I will respond the best that I can.
Off to India and My Plans for a Report On the Indian Domain Market
Right now I am in the airport waiting for my flight to New Deli, India. For the next 5 weeks I will be studying at a school called Mayo College in Rajasthan India a few hours south of Deli. This is part of an exchange program at my school and I will be the first America to attend Mayo. It is a traditional English boarding school founded over 120 years ago. I am really excited to learn about the culture and see India, I am also going to be doing many little trips while I am in the country.
As part of my trip I plan on giving a first hand report on the Indian domain and internet ecosystem. What is used more .co.in or .in? Are many people and businesses online yet or is the boom still to come? Do they know about .us and other cctld’s? Is the .com still king in India? What are the most popular websites? Ect.. I know I will think of more questions and if you have any questions about the Indian domain market please post them and I will try and find the answer.
I am going to be doing video and written interviews with my classmates and other people, I think the students will give a great perspective because they are the future of India. India is a very young and smart country and the newest generation is connected to the internet just like America’s present youth so if they use the .co.in or .in that will make a big difference in the future use of these domains and their value to invertors.
I have not really decided how I am going to do this yet I am thinking in a long series of blog post or even a little free ebook. Again if you have any questions you would like answered about the Indian domain market I would be glad to try and find the answer as this will be a huge learning experience for me. I would love to hear all feedback.
« go back — keep looking »Sponsors
Domain Auctions
