Name Park It!

This is an important, but lengthy, discussion about the best name-parking strategies.
Consider printing it and reading offline in comfort.

There are several great reasons to park domains. At less than $10 per domain, parked domains can offer you a great Return on Investment (ROI). They provide...

The "how and why" you use parked domains depend on whether you are...

-OR-

So we'll incorporate both perspectives as we examine the main reasons why parking a domain name is a worthwhile consideration...

Reason #1) Reserving a Domain Save for Future Use

Your only goal in purchasing a domain name (first one or another) may be to tuck it away, inactive for now, and saved for possible later use. For example, if your first site goes well, you may foresee several possible ways to "extend" its concept. Prevent others from taking those domains by purchasing and parking them now.

Here's an example... the owner of anguilla-beaches.com foresees the time when she might want to spin off her successful first site into highly profitable standalone sites.

She should only do this if a "spinoff" can stand on its own as a strong site, has a good reason to exist, and if she plans on putting as much energy into it as she did into the original site. Otherwise, the topic is best off remaining a TIER 2 Web page within the main site.

Understandably, at an early stage, you won't be sure exactly what part of an original concept will work best and what part will fall flatter than a pancake. But, by the time you're successful, others may have started a business using the domain you would have picked.

That's why it's important to lock down major possible "spinoffs" now. Keeping this in mind, the owner of anguilla-beaches.com registers the following possible "spinoffs"...

Not knowing which would be most profitable, she locks them all down now. Brainstorm It! keyword research, your knowledge of the theme's subject matter, your awareness of potential monetization models, and your future intentions all help you pick which domains to protect now.

Now let's look at the specific rationale behind the two groups of domain names from above (yes, that bullet break was intentional)...

First Group) Monetization plans obviously play a huge role. If you hit a home run with one model (ex., real estate -- villa sales and rentals) on your SBI! site, consider putting extra emphasis on this model by focusing an entire site upon it in a year or two. It's impossible to predict which direction will be the home run...

For example, who knew that visitors to anguilla-beaches.com would really buy $500,000+ villas because of a referral, not to mention rent in droves? Well, they do. So now she has converted best-anguilla-villas.com into an SBI! site.

This spinoff site already more than pays for itself, since it scores for some keywords at some engines where her main site does less well. And vice-versa, of course. (And that's despite the fact that she has not put enough effort into building best-anguilla-villas.com into a large, strong site.)

The take-home lesson here is... Lock them in now for future use. The "future" does, inevitably, arrive.

Second Group) These types of conceptual domain names leave the door open to creating a different spin on Anguilla. They are less important, but if you get an idea you like now, you might kick yourself when the domain is gone in two years.

Bottom line?

Protect those names now, before someone else grabs them. As you see, this site owner had to settle for two lesser alternatives since the shortest, most highly commercial domains for Anguilla villas and hotels were already taken.

Please note... SiteSell is not trying to sell you domains. NPI! is a service for SBIers and 5P Affiliates.

Including out-of-pocket expenses and maintenance, etc., this service runs at a loss for us. However, this service will make you a more successful SBIer or 5 Pillar Affiliate. So, ultimately, we benefit, too!

But please don't interpret any of the strategies outlined here as "us" trying to sell "you" a domain. Pick and choose what makes sense for you. Depending on the size of your ultimate goal, scale the ideas up or down.

You might only reserve one or two domains, or even 50! It's your decision.

There's a second part of this reason to reserve domains for possible future SBI! use. Instead of a spinoff, you might start a totally new business. So the owner of anguilla-beaches.com reserves...

Why "Turks and Caicos" and not all the other Caribbean islands? Well, if this SBIer had really big long-term plans for the Caribbean, she would in fact be wise to lock down all the other islands. However, the Turks and Caicos is a very special opportunity that might happen for this entrepreneur, so she saved these particular domains now.

You never know what might come your way once you build a successful SBI! site. But be ready for it. And when it does come... act!

And what if this entrepreneur had other interests, such as kung fu movies? She might want to reserve kung-fu-movies.com at this point.

Of course, if the intention is to possibly convert this NPI! domain into a Site Build It! site, it's important to pick the correct domain now. Imagine if you were to discover that your "perfect domain name" was no longer available then because you chose the wrong one now.

So do be rigorous. If you're an SBIer, go about choosing these types of domains just as diligently as you chose your first one.

If you're not an SBIer, read the SBI! Action Guide and proceed through the first five DAYs to thoroughly understand the process for determining "your perfect domain." Even though you can't use Brainstorm It!, there's enough good information within the free Action Guide to help you decide.

There's one more advantage to reserving an NPI! domain for future use...

If you ever decide to upgrade an NPI! domain into a full SBI! site, it's easy. No need to transfer a domain from another registrar (which is usually a headache)!

Click here for more information about upgrading your NPI! domain name into an SBI! site.

Reason #2) Insurance

Prevent others from "knocking off" your primary domain name. When you become well-known in your particular island of expertise, others will try to ride on your coat-tails. So...

Park a domain purely for "never-use"... protect yourself from someone taking a domain name that's similar to yours.

The strategies here are pretty obvious -- dashes, plurals, etc. It was already too late for the owner of anguilla-beaches.com (with dash) to reserve anguillabeaches.com (no dash).

However, registering anguilla-beach.com is an insurance move, protecting the "singular" version of anguilla-beaches.com. And you can employ this strategy while you're also reserving domains for future use, which is the reason for these pairs.

This is also the motivation behind the following anguilla-beaches.com domain names...

Note: The reasoning behind the "insurance strategy" is fundamentally different from "future use." It is strictly defensive. There is no "future use" plan for one of the domains in each of the above pairs, nor for anguilla-beach.com.

Name Park It! protects you. The domain name is yours and no one can take it away from you. It's cheap insurance against knockoffs -- and you can put the unlimited domain and subdomain redirects to good use, as we'll see later.

Reason #3) Strategic Ways To Redirect Traffic

Name Park It! ("NPI!") provides important functionality...

This is extremely useful.

If you're a 5P Affiliate...

This is a great way to redirect affiliate-oriented traffic. Use your domains and subdomains to create "tight-purposed URLs" to redirect to "sloppy URL destinations."

Clean up what would otherwise be a very long and messy destination URL. For example, suppose you want to write a wonderful article in your e-zine about Search It!. The content has a special focus on the "Competition" category, and it highlights how useful the "Google Multiple Keyword SUPPLY" search is, delivering SUPPLY data for up to 1,000 keywords with a single query. But...

Your 5 Pillar RR URL is "search42.html." Yes, SiteSell has grown (just a bit!), so many common words have numbers after them. And even though...

"searchit.sitesell.com/search42.html"

... is better than those infinitely long Amazon and Commission Junction affiliate URLs, it would be more effective to have a cleaner domain. So...

You register "search-methods.com," which opens up the possibility for great subdomains like "best.search-methods.com" and "smart.search-methods.com." Each of these can be redirected to your SiteSell RR URL, or to those long and sloppy URLs of any other affiliate program.

So now, at the end of your brilliant article on Search It!, you close with...

For more information, please see...

http://best.search-methods.com/

That redirects to your SiteSell RR URL for Search It!. Isn't that clean? And here's a second benefit... there's no way for the visitor to "cut off" your affiliate URL. If they want more information, they have to click on your nice, tight link -- heck, it's not even clear that it is an affiliate link.

Special Tip

SBIers can even track the number of hits to each link by redirecting their subdomains to a tracking link in SBI!'s Tracking Library. Total trackability!

If you're an SBIer...

Beside the affiliate redirects (if you are using the affiliate Monetization Model), use an NPI! domain and its subdomains to refer visitors to various parts of your site.

We'll continue using our anguilla-beaches.com example...

Most of the above domains were not registered for the specific purpose of redirecting. And some have been left at the default redirect, anguilla-beaches.com. Other redirects illustrate different kinds of non-affiliate redirections.

Generally, though, SBIers use NPI! for "future use" or "insurance" purposes. The redirecting is just a "free bonus."

For affiliates, however, the redirecting functionality is powerful. The option of unlimited subdomains provides incredible functionality. In this case...

If you want to use a domain and its subdomains for "clean links" to your affiliate URLs, the selection of the domain will be based upon what you're trying to achieve. You may even want to park several domains, if you have several different kinds of campaigns planned.

Here's a simple way to generate and pick domains to register for the affiliate-oriented purpose of redirecting to "clean URLs"...

  1. Use specific categories in Search It! to...

    • brainstorm domain names (see the Brainstorming category)
    • verify their availability (see the Domain Names category)
    • do a trademark search to make sure that your domain name does not violate anyone's trademark (see Site Legalities category)
  2. Return here, purchase NPI! "credit(s)" and then register your domain(s) through Name Park It!. (Be very careful not to register through any of the research locations you may use through Search It!.)

Reason #4) "Accidental" Ways To Redirect Readers/Visitors

This is a useful strategy for SBIers. This announcement by Netcraft pretty much says that "a rose.com by any other name can be very sweet." Indeed.

Did you happen to spot the final two NPI! domains that anguilla-beaches.com registered? They appear as the final two in the long bullet list just above.

By checking her Keyword Searches Report, this entrepreneur (well, her Dad, actually) noticed that people were finding her site for the misspelled word, "anguila." And so the last two NPI! domain names were born, this time to generate "accidental traffic"...

Tip: If you purchase any domains purely for "accidental redirection" purposes to your SBI! site, redirect them to tracking links (create them in your Tracker Library).

For example...

anguila-beaches.com redirects to the tracking link...

www.anguilla-beaches.com/anguila-beaches

... which goes to www.anguilla-beaches.com.

-AND-

anguilabeaches.com redirects to the tracking link...

www.anguilla-beaches.com/anguilabeaches

... also going to www.anguilla-beaches.com.

Even if each of these generates only 100 visitors per year, the $9.95 is more than worth it. The tracking links will register and report every time someone passes through either of these two domains.

And that brings us to the final Return on Investment (ROI) measures...

1) $9.95 per year is cheap for any domain that you think is important for "future use" or "insurance purposes."

2) $9.95 per year is also insanely cheap for any affiliate who wants clean URLs. Register as many "concept-specific" domain names for various companies, campaigns, etc., as you may need. Within each domain name, of course, you have an unlimited number of subdomains to keep your URLs attractive and effective.

3) $9.95 per domain for "accidental" traffic is a great idea. Attach tracking links to be sure of your ROI. Use your imagination and creativity -- there are lots of great ways to take advantage of this concept.

Conclusion

Whether you're an SBIer or 5 Pillar Affiliate, or both, NPI! is a powerful service that can protect and grow your business significantly, not to mention protect its future.