The Story of Domain Parking

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7 February 2007

Author: Mind Posted under Knowledge

Domain Parking is one of passive income source on Internet. The way it’s works is pretty easy. Just place your unused domain name on a company whose managing domain park, and let it go. If you’re lucky you will receive amount of money after several weeks or months, that’s what I heard from many people.

Then I try to monetize my dormant domain name without developing new website. I have 5 domain name almost abandoned because I’m still thinking about their contents. What I did first is find out where I can park my domain name and I finally comes into two companies www.sedo.co.uk and www.parked.com. The first one was suggested by friends and the other from searching on Google.

I prefer using Sedo because I can apply my 5 domain names there while in Parked.com I have to apply with minimum 10 domain names. Parked.com promising higher yield though.

The application was quite easy, but I suggest not to use free email address to apply. During application there’s also option to put domain name on auction, just to make fun I put 10.000 $ on my asked price. Then I wait for confirmation email.

After I receive confirmation email, I have to change name server setting of my 5 domain to the name server of Sedo. It was done easily using control panel from my Domain Registrar. I use GoDaddy as my registrar and I just login, got to my domains menu, selecting domain name I want to change, and click name server change the default with new name server from Sedo. That’s all.

But some people has warned of possibility receiving scam after parking your domain. I aware about this as well. Today I received my first ’scam’ email related to my domain and it says :

Hello,
My name is John Newmann. I saw your name for sale on the web. Can you give me a price for the name in the subject line?
Domain names is not my main business. Just another way to make money online on domain reselling. Our company develops software in databases in Delphi and MS Access.
If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.
Looking forward to do business with you.

Regards,

John Newmann, Ph. D.
President
SNY Digital Software Systems

But if you compare it with another email received by my friend which says :

Hello,
We are interested in this name. Please send me price for your domain.
Did you get offers from other people already?
Our company develops client-server systems ( Delphi/ Interbase ), so
investing in domain names is not my main business.
Looking forward to do business with you.

Best regards,
Bjorn Hallmark, Ph. D.
CEO
TG Technologies.

Quite interesting offers but those email has similar pattern, I guess it was made automatic or at least they have one email template and send it to every domain name owner. Some of my friend followed those offers by saying He asked 15.000 Euro for his domain name. But he received another reply, I think it just like automatic responder, which says :

15,000 euro. Ok.
Do you sell a web site or just the name? We are mostly interested in domain
names.
Do you have an appraisal certificate?
Domain name is an investment for me. In other words I’m going to sell your
name later and make a profit. If I overpay I won’t be able to make a profit
in the future. It’s very important for you and me to know the current market
value of your domain.
Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging a reputable appraisal
company. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals.
I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I know and trust.
To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies
in a forum
http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/75039.htm
Juck check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.
I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.
After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or
wire?
Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

So that’s the point he want to sell - an appraisal service. If you agree with his offers then he will continue to ask you using a “High cost appraisal service” a.k.a His own appraisal Service. Just take a look on this last email received by my friend :

I need a proof that our price is fair. I hope you understand the
importance of this question.
Usually, people who are selling names or web sites, provide buyers with
appraisals. This is a common practice and I’m not going to change this rule
because it’s the best way to protect an investment.
I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals. So I
cannot accept appraisal from each and every site. I will only accept
appraisals from independent appraisal companies I know and trust.
Reading responses from experienced sellers I was impressed by one reply:
“Many Internet users are not smart enough and popular domain brokers are
using this fact to make money. They offer them cheap appraisal services. But
if their customers would have something in their heads they’d understand
experts could not make a professional research for $15-$20. These appraisals
are made by machines. Easy money for such appraisers as
http://www.Afternic.com and several other major brokers that offer cheap
auto-generated appraisals. In my eyes, all services under $60-$65 are not
manual and the results are generated by special scripts. I don’t trust
auto-generated appraisals.”
The same is true for GoDaddy and SEDO. Their services are not manual. They
are just collecting money using their well-known names.
Thank you for understanding. I’m looking forward to do business with you.

And he never receives email from this guy any more. The moral of this story - don’t accept direct offers nor negotiate with potential buyer of your domain name without using Sedo as mediator. It’s quite logic because you parked your domain name on Sedo and therefore people should contact Sedo first before could buy your domain name, by that way - Sedo promising security on our transaction.

PS. Image source http://www.picture-newsletter.com