WhyPark is a unique company whose platform can allow you to customize dozens, hundreds or thousands of domain names into websites with fresh daily content and multiple monetization options for just $.99/each (or less in bulk). Instead of solely relying on type-in traffic to produce revenue via parking, your site has a much better chance at being indexed in Google, which is especially valuable for long tail keywords, as the search engine rankings tend to drive a majority of the traffic.
One of the things I like best about WhyPark is the ability to integrate a custom design, logo and content, while getting the added value of their platform. Initially, I had commissioned a custom design and logo for Oenophiles.com (oenophiles means “wine lovers” in Latin), and had about 25 articles custom written for the site. With WhyPark’s help, I now have a regularly updating website that looks great and is easy to manage. I also chose to use the WhyPark feed to monetize the site, but you could choose to use Adsense instead if you would prefer.
I had a chance to talk about WhyPark with company President Craig Rowe as well as VP of Business Development, Stephen Douglas. Both of these guys are knowledgeable about the domain industry and the company is thinking like domainers to solve domainer problems. I am happy with how Oenophiles.com looks, and maybe WhyPark can help you, too.
EJS: What are the advantages of using WhyPark over domain parking, and in your experience, what revenue impact are you seeing on WhyPark names that were previously parked?
CR: WhyPark’s market isn’t competing with traditional parking services such as Parked.com, Domainsponsor.com, or Trafficz. We are looking for domains that would be better suited in gaining organic search traffic from content development as opposed to the ever popular, more elusive “naturals” (typein traffic). Most domainers have a large portion of their portfolios that contain longtails and domains that have “brandability” but aren’t getting that direct navigation.
Using WhyPark, the first benefit for domainers is that for only $0.99 per domain, they can get relevant content on domains they are selling to end-users. My own experience is that end-users get a better “feel” for a domain they want to buy if the content on the domain’s website matches their products or services, so getting a simple content website (which the customer can enhance by adding more content and graphics) helps a domainer get better interest in their domain, and possibly enhancing the overall value of the domain.
On the other side, if a domain is getting no traffic at a parking service from typeins or backlinks, then the only other solution is to try to get organic search traffic from search engine results. This is a hard game to play, because every website that is built with the intent on making money is trying to get into the top ten search results on every search engine. However, the game can be played many different ways. If you have a longtail domain, you can vary your keyword placements to bypass the ‘common’ search words, and submit more esoteric and niche oriented phrasings. This will give your domain a better chance at coming up in the first page results of a search. This is the secret to monetizing non-performing domains, but you need to think about your keywords, or hire WhyPark’s professional team to do the keyword research for you.
WhyPark’s advantages over traditional parking services really kicks in when you are dealing with domains that aren’t performing. Not only does our content give you the chance to get relevant traffic in your domain’s niche, but it also puts your domain in the position of getting indexed by search engines, which again adds value to your domain.
EJS) What types of names are ideal for WhyPark’s platform?
CR: Longtails, brand names (non TM’s), niche generics, and especially ccTLD’s and Secondary Level Domains, such as .Pro, .name, .me, .mobi, .biz, .info, etc. These domains don’t normally get typein traffic, and depend on content to gain visitors from organic searches. Many of WhyPark’s customers are putting their non-TLD’s, even one word generics, at WhyPark and seeing traffic for the first time.
EJS: Since inception, what improvements to WhyPark’s platform are you most proud of, and how are they benefiting domain owners who use WhyPark?
CR: It is extremely simple for anyone to add their domains, get content on them, add your own original content, select templates, change templates on the fly, add their own adfeeds and revenue generating links, add graphics, and generally have a good time playing around with creating a website they want with their domain, and at a starting cost of only $0.99 or less (depending on the amount of domains you bring over at the start of your account). We think our user interface is one of the best-designed systems in the domain industry. Simple to use!
EJS: For someone with 500 domain names, how easy is it to set up an account, load the domain names, and set them up?
CR: First of all, if someone wants to bring over 500 domains, they can request a discount pricing instead of $0.99 each domain. Secondly, adding their domains is simple. The longer involvement is in the setup of the keywords, because we give you the opportunity to add 20 different keywords or phrases to each domain to pull in the relevant articles that will help get your domain indexed on the search engines and provide a good user experience for the visitor. However, in bulk amounts, we can give customers affordable pricing per domain and our team will set these keywords up for them… with 500 domains, the cost for “managed setup” per domain could be as low as $2.00 per domain. Surprisingly, 500 domains that don’t perform or get indexed by parking them elsewhere will get relevant content and setup for less than $1500 at WhyPark.
EJS: Other than Oenophiles.com, what are some of the best sample WhyPark sites?
CR: AirlineRewards.com, DigitalMammogram.com, SkiTrips.travel, FullTextFeeds.net, SportsmansWeb.net, PregnancySafe.com, ClevelandOhio.travel, Cgi-Java.com. These are examples of sites that wouldn’t otherwise have seen any type-in traffic, but now do.
EJS: With WhyPark’s platform, what types of revenue generation strategies can be used (Adsense, affiliates, WhyPark feed…etc)?
CR: WhyPark is unique in that it allows users to add all types of their own third party ads, affiliate offers, download links, storefronts, third-party ads, and more, as long as they are legal, of course. We also offer our integrated ad feed that work similar to that of a two-click landing page. Each page on a WhyPark site that uses our feed has related search terms and a search box. Clicking on one of those terms or searching for a term generates a page of sponsored links that are monetized through PPC. Also, on each content page, we have related terms that are associated with that page’s content. So, it provides a highly relevant experience for the visitor and ultimately funnels the visitor through to a revenue event for the domain owner.
EJS: What features scheduled to be rolled out in the near future are you most excited about?
CR: While we can’t talk about the specifics until they’re done, we are excited about a lot of the new features in the works and just completed. We rolled out a suite of new managed and promotion services in the new platform. So, for those customers who want unique content, design customizations, link building, etc. while still having complete control over their domains, we offer low-cost solutions to do it for them.
We’re always working to improve the monetization, performance and overall relevancy of sites as well. So, we continue to source and license new content and make changes to create better sites. We launched ContentPromote.com a few months back to connect with bloggers and authors to distribute their content through WhyPark sites and we’ve added about 500 new sources of quality, screened content through that program alone, with more being approved daily. We’re also developing some new monetization methods to allow domainers to earn revenue in ways that aren’t available with traditional parking. As this industry continues to evolve, we’re looking forward to being a part of it and offering solutions to help domainers develop their names inexpensively and efficiently.
