Selling Domain Names

[Tom]

Parked domains have been a racket for some time, but I was still rather shocked to come across this clear statement of how to work it:
http://www.sedo.com/services/tour_parking.php?tracked=&partnerid=&language=us

I was toying with the idea of another gardensomething domain - and almost every remotely relevant domain I could think of was taken. Network Solutions then offer to 'help' you buy the domain for prices upwards of $2000. I think (1) its a restraint on trade (2) if it wasn't in their commercial interest to let it happen, Google could find a way of giving such domains negative pagerank. As a public company they are, of course, compelled to act in the interests of their shareholders - not many of whom would support a policy of 'Don't be evil -even if being evil makes bucks'. Would the police be against crime if they got a juicey percentage of the proceeds? Evidence from corrupt drug squads suggests not.

[David]

Although Google do not penilise such use of domains, they do the next best thing, which is to give higher status to sites with domains registered for longer periods. They consider parked domains are usually only registered for one year at a time and so these domains are given lower priority. CADTutor.net is currently registered until 2015.

[Tom]

True but (1) maybe the parked domains are registered for long periods - I have read of people making billions out of them (2) a lot of parked domains seem to do remarkably well in the the SERPs.

[rob]

Although Google do not penilise such use of domains, they do the next best thing, which is to give higher status to sites with domains registered for longer periods. They consider parked domains are usually only registered for one year at a time and so these domains are given lower priority. CADTutor.net is currently registered until 2015.

Is this documented somewhere? I have researched how long the domain names of potential competitiors are registered for as part of my thesis research.

Thanks

Rob

[Tom]

I had my eye on a domain name which the registration expired on 12th Jan - but it was automatically renewed and the owner (a big organization) thinks its worth $2000.
The Whois database will often state how long a name is registered for (ie unless the owner pays extra for keeping the info private). I have heard that 'Google likes long registrations' but have not found any hard evidence and wonder if its a bit like the 'Google likes pink websites' type of theory!

[David]

This is no myth. As this article (http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Google-Optimization-Help/Google-Says/) shows, one of teh Google patents uses the fact that domains are registered for only on year to be a flag for potential spam site. The longer the registration period, the better.

While searching, I came across this very useful SEO checklist (http://www.vaughns-1-pagers.com/internet/google-ranking-factors.htm).

[Tom]

Be careful with GoDaddy and Network Solutions when checking out potential domain names. If you research a name on a few occasions without buying it then they buy it themselves (not very expensive, I imagine) and sell it to you at a very much higher price. I have taken to checking potential domain names by just entering them in the URL slot.

[arnet]

My cousin wants a simple website, just a start up showing what he does in the music industry, and he was asking if he could almost get a free domain name, but I'm not sure. Do you know if he can get a free domain of some sort?

[Tom]

Welcome to the Forum - sorry I got your name wrong yesterday! There are no free domains but some can be obtained very cheaply. In order to help your cousin, I suggest doing some keyword research for her/him and trying out some keyword combinations at one of these sites:
https://www.godaddy.com
http://www.networksolutions.com/

For example www.musictoobee.info costs $2.99/year.

I would further like to suggest that, in the interests of cousinly love and as a good educational experience, you buy a domain, arrange some cheap hosting (many people offer cheap packages for both), then design and publish an easy website for your cousin. The experience will be very useful for you and the work should only take a few days. The way to start is (1) get answers to the questions about business, commodity, firmness, delight (2) do some keyword research (3) knock the website together (4) do some promotion to the search engines. Having done this will put you in an excellent position for doing your web thesis next year. I look forward to some progress reports!