Category: Domaining

What Is Adsense For Domains?

Update 4/12 Adsense for Domains has been discontinued.

Came across a long thread on a Google forum today which led me to believe that for some, this isn’t as obvious as I might have thought…

Adsense for Domains is used to monetize Type-In traffic, ie. people type your domain name into the Browser Bar and hit Return. That’s it! If you register a domain and discover it’s getting lots of traffic, it’s probably because you stumbled on (not likely now with so many generic keyword domains already registered) a phrase that a lot of people are looking for-so many that the tiny percentage of people who type the phrase into their Browser Address Bar amount to significant traffic. If you’re not getting hits/clicks on your Adsense for Domains domains it means you probably have an average domain name. Not meaning it’s a bad domain name, but it’s probably not a generic term that people are searching for. For example, you would be wasting your time entirely trying to monetize a domain (using AFD) like Figgs.com. OTOH you MAY earn a buck or two a month with a domain like usedfashionwigs.com Mostly I think Adsense for Domains is for ‘Domainers’ who, due to fortuitous timing and insight, picked up a lot of generic search term domain names early on. Rather than ‘park’ their domains at places like Sedo, Park, etc etc. they now have the option of parking with Google directly.

[Update 122209 Answered a question on another site]
The Google Adsense For Domains instructions are pretty good.
https://www.google.com/adsense/support/bin/answer.py?answer=76049
Problem is, you don’t know if they’re going to accept your domain before you submit it and go through the entire hassle of changing your A records etc. And while the directions for setting it up are pretty good, there are no directions informing you how to change back. So keep good notes. I would recommend taking a screen shot of the settings before you make any changes. You might only discover that Adsense for Domains isn’t working for you a few months from now and have completely forgotten how the settings look. Ask me how I know đŸ˜‰

There should be an easier way to submit domains for consideration BEFORE you go through the whole A record hassle. For instance, two of the 5 domains I initially submitted were declined by Google. 2 others did worse than when parked. One did a little bit better.

Traveling

Back from a very busy travel trip. Barely enough time left over to monitor the domain space. Did I miss anything? One of our stops was Mumbai, India. I had the opportunity to look and ask around about .in What I saw and heard, although I wasn’t speaking with professional Indian domainers, was that Dot Com is still king (carries extra credibility). I can also confirm the extent to which English is spoken. Had a wonderful time there. Can’t even begin to tell you how good the food is.

MouthShut.com is a US/India review site.

VisaliaTulare.com

For Sale. Domain name only ..
VisaliaTulare.com

visalia-tulare-craigslist.jpg

Visalia to Tulare is 15 miles. The area is 55 miles SE of Fresno CA.

Results 1 – 30 of about 166,000 for “Visalia Tulare”.
Results 1 – 30 of about 348,000 for Visalia Tulare.

visalia-tulare-map.jpg

For comparison- recent Geo domain sales.
BoiseIdaho.com $175,000
Branson.com $1,600,000
Buckhead.com $250,000
Detroit.info $10,000
FountainHills.com $15,000
Houston.info $17,000
Lowell.com $50,000
Myrtle-Beach.com $25,250
Nevada.info $13,162
New-York.info $22,864
NewYork.info $70,000
Penticton.com $75,000
Pittsburgh.org $14,250
Sacramento.org $24,500
Vancover.com $123,000
BeverlyHillsRentalProperty.com $600
Hackensack.com $20,000
CentralMissouri.com $3,000
MaltaIllinois.com $250
Oakland.info $5,000
ShortHillsNewJersey.com $1,000
DallasRealEstateBroker.com $2,500
FtPierceFlorida.com $1,000
Sacramento.org $24,500
LagunaBeachHouses.com $10,000
FountainHills.com $15,000
SouthParkColorado.com      $600
eBrooklyn.com $2,250
SeattleWashington.us $2,500
SantaMargarita.com $1,250
Murrieta.com $19,000
SantaYnezCalifornia.com $1,000

Organic Coffee Sticks – Hemp Stirs Hemp Sticks HempStirs.com HempSticks.com

500 billion cups of coffee served a year. Every time I reach for one of those wooden stir sticks at Starbucks for a 3 second stir of my coffee I get creeped out thinking of those logging trucks full of beautiful trees rolling out of the British Columbia forests. If you already know about industrial hemp, this will make a lot of sense. But whether it’s hemp or flax or sunflower stocks – why can’t we get a non-plastic stir stick for our coffee that doesn’t hurt trees?

Hemp + Coffee = HempStirs

Good Domainer / Bad Domainer

Domaining ethics? Do I hear you laughing? See a lot of strange, creepy, domaining going on? This post will offer a suggestion for how we can make a positive contribution as well. But first…

I’m always shocked when I hear about giant corporate brands not ‘getting’ domain names–spending huge dollars advertising billboard slogans they haven’t even registered as domain names. We read about it in a blog or Forum post, often from the domainer who registered the slogan. I don’t have a problem with this if the slogan or phrase commandeered for the advertising campaign comes out of the public space. If the advertiser has taken the time and expense to develop their own slogan, then they should have had the sense to register the domain. Some do.

Personally, I would register a last OR first name (for ultimate sale to an end user), but not a first-last personal name. Holding personal names hostage with $2k price tags seems kind of creepy to me. Are people making money doing that? Personal names are protected from cybersquatting.

And of course, the darker side of domaining–typosquatting.
I know I made a few Trademark blunders right off the bat. But after reading about URDP decisions and getting it drilled into us from every corner of the Domainosphere we figure it out. I guess there must be money in it. Plug any brand name into DomainTool’s typo-checker and you discover domainers with hundreds or thousands of domains. Have a look.

And what about domainers that register and park .com versions of well-known non-profits with .org domains? Isn’t that sleezy?

Then there’s the ambulance chasers. Just to see, I looked into what was available the morning after that kid died from suicide online a few weeks ago (November 2008). Wow! Everything I could think of related to OnlineSuicide was gone. (What’s the business model there again?)
ERROR: ONLINESUICIDE.COM is unavailable and has been removed.
ERROR: SUICIDEONLINE.COM is unavailable and has been removed.
ERROR: SUICIDELIVE.COM is unavailable and has been removed.
ERROR: DEADCAM.COM is unavailable and has been removed.
ERROR: WEBICIDE.COM is unavailable and has been removed.
ERROR: WEBSUICIDE.COM is unavailable and has been removed.
ERROR: INTERNETSUICIDE.COM is unavailable and has been removed.

I do think that great domain names can bubble out of the news. But trying to figure out how to profit from other people’s tragedy is exactly the kind of behavior that makes domainers look bad.

Making a positive contribution as a domainer?
Here’s an example. I’m not meaning to blow my own horn here. I really just wanted to help the guy out, and the reason I’m writing about it is because I think it might be a way for domainers to generate some good will.
The thing is, after all your reading and research, you, as a domainer, have a valuable set of skills that can easily and affordably be used to do good.
In this case, I was listening to a podcast, KUSC’s Weekly Signals. An interview with Tyler BoudreauTyler Boudreau's Packing Inferno, twelve-year veteran of the Marine Corps infantry, on the subject of his new book, Packing Inferno: The Unmaking of a Marine. It’s a fascinating story…

Boudreau is a twelve-year veteran of the Marine Corps infantry. He trained and committed himself physically and intellectually to the military life. Then his intense devotion began to disintegrate, bit by bit, during his final mission in Iraq. After returning home, he discovered a turmoil developing in his mind, estranging him from his loved ones and the bill of goods he eagerly purchased as a marine officer.

I couldn’t help but notice that at the end of the interview Tyler could barely remember his own blog URL. I only found it when I got home because I had written it down. http://www.deeperthanwars.blogspot.com/. I also checked out the url for his non-profit http://collaborativerevolution.org/ It turned out to be parked. So I decided to do a bit of pro-active domaining on behalf of Tyler.

I bought him PackingInferno.com and also CollaborativeRevolution.com. My thinking was that I could make a much larger impact with a $15 donation in the form of domain names. I did it first and then sent him an email about my donation afterwards.

Hi Tyler,
I listened to your interview on WeeklySignals. I heard it as a podcast just yesterday.
As someone who spends a lot of time looking at/for domain names I couldn’t help
but notice that you had a little trouble with your blog URL on the air. Then when
I got home I checked out CollaborativeRevolution.org and found a parked page, i.e.
you bought the domain name but don’t have any content there yet (so what we see
is the ads the registrar puts there in the meantime).
I also found that PackingInferno.com and CollaborativeRevolution.com were available.
I purchased both those domain names and offer them to you as a donation. Right
now I have them pointing to your deeperthanwars blog. If anyone types either URL
into their browser they will end up at your blog.
If you would feel better actually owning the domains I’m happy to transfer them to
you. That would be to a GoDaddy account, as that’s where I have them registered.
If you open a (free to open) account there I can easily ‘push’ them to you without
any money having to be spent.
I just thought you had a very compelling story and hope that a lot of people hear it.
I’m thinking that being able to tell people to go to PackingInferno.com will make it
easier for them to find you.

Tyler wrote back and was very grateful…
“Thank you for your interest and your help. Above and beyond! Excellent.”
It turned out that in the meantime Tyler had picked up tylerboudreau.com–he was on the case! Not the easiest domain to spell, but between us I think we have it covered now. Tyler’s doing a lot of readings and planning a summer bicycle book tour. Tyler has an important message. I’m just happy to be able to help make it a little easier for people to connect to.

Do you have a favorite charity, cause, or non-profit? Check out their domains. You might be able to easily help them out with .com purchase for their .org. You might see an obvious domain acquisition that would get them some organic traffic. Leverage your domaining skills to help spread a message you care about.

P.S. Do you have a philanthropic domaining story? Please feel free to post it in the comments or send me an email and I’ll be happy to post it on the blog.

.

CombatTrainingGames.com CombatTrainingGame.com

Domain Names For Sale:
CombatTrainingGames.com
CombatTrainingGame.com

PRICE FOR TWO DOMAINS $6000.
From Stars and Stripes:
Not playing around: Army to invest $50M in combat training games
November 23, 2008 …Game development has become a multibillion-dollar industry in recent years, with large game studios employing thousands of developers and sales that compete with Hollywood’s blockbusters.
…In addition to the $50 million, the Army gaming unit has an undisclosed additional budget to purchase a state-of-the-art commercial video game system that will be fielded for training in February.

——
And if the military develops its own games, wouldn’t they be freely released and have little or no copyright restrictions as in (I’m not a lawyer!) public domain? I found free games to download from the Army, Navy and Air Force. One could easily have CombatTrainingGames.com up and running as a download hub or directory for these and future games coming from militaries all over the world.
Or maybe you have an inside connection with the military. It was difficult to find those free game downloads. Might not someone in a position of power see the wisdom of having a one-stop download site for all the US Military’s various combat training games?
Hell, this always happens. By the time I finish researching all the possibilities around a good name, I don’t want to sell it any more.
But with all that money floating around combat training games, doesn’t it seem like $1000 is a reasonable price to ask for the category-killer domain name? What do you think?

PrivateFireCrews.com PrivateFireCrew.com FireCrews.com

Domain Names For Sale:
FireCrews.com Google: 832,000 for “fire crews”
PrivateFireCrew.com 34 for “private fire crew”
PrivateFireCrews.com 2,280 for “private fire crews”
Why generic domain names are a better way to brand your business.

Photo by Oldonliner

Price for three domains $3500.
A recent LA Times headline

Private fire crews gaining ground in the field

Some residents whose homes were saved in the recent blazes thank response teams dispatched by their insurers. But public firefighters express uncertainty about the private sector.
reminded me of a talk I heard some months ago wherein Naomi Klein discussed her observation that amongst the ruin and rubble of burned out houses after the 2007 San Diego Witch Fire, there could be seen single, perfectly intact homes. She later discovered that those homes had been saved by private fire crews hired by the owner’s insurance companies. The gist was that we can look forward to a two-tiered level of firefighting. If you’ve got the cash for upwards of $10k a year insurance premiums, your’s might be the only house left on the block.
I think this means that in the not too distant future, private fire crews are going to be huge.
Hopefully you’ll never need one, but if you did, do you think it possible you’d soon find yourself at PrivateFireCrews.com?
Or maybe you’ve got a couple of summers of US Forest Service firefighting under your belt and you’re ready to put your crew on the market. Need a domain name?
Perhaps you’re a just a savvy domainer with experience in the Job/Recruiting CPA affiliate marketing end of things and you know how to turn these domains into little online oil wells. I may end up developing these. But right now they’re for sale. Please contact me if you’re interested.

 

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