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Domainers have watched over the years a great decline in PPC marketing and are in the middle of a great shift that will leave some of you out in the cold. PPC Death will come, whether it be tomorrow or five years from now. Domain parking is only one example of this. Any website taking advantage of a PPC model will be affected. Think of all the MFA (made for adsense) websites you have in your portfolio. Imagine them as *poof* gone. Are you prepared? Will your income survive?

Clarification: This article is not declaring the death on ALL PPC advertising. This article is geared towards a domainer audience and claims death to domain focus FOR PPC marketing as the main source of domainer income. Sorry for the panic!

Domain Portfolio Auditing

Audit your portfolio and choose domains that contain good keywords or generic words. Save this list in Excel or Notepad for future reference. The shorter, the better. Try to look at your portfolio through the eyes of a consumer: what would be the best names that are easiest to remember and describe a product or service best? For instance, let's say I have two names: BestBicycleParts.com and BicyclePartsOnline.com. You would think "Best Bicycle Parts" would be better to develop. However, the word "best" is easily replaceable: GoodBicycleParts.com, GreatBicycleParts.com, AwesomeBicycleParts.com, etc.

Where Does Your Knowledge Lie?

What are you good at? What topics interest you the most? It's easier to focus on a project where you have personal interest than to drag yourself through research in something that bores you. Put domains with topics that interest you the most at the top of your list, even if you have better domains in topics that don't interest you.

Best of the Best

After you find names with topics that align with your personal interests; choose the top five (top one or two is fine) that you feel are the best brandable and marketable keywords. It is okay if others do not share your passion for these names. I find your gut instinct is your best compass with development.

The Business Plan

I personally dread this part but it is essential to development success. You do not have to draft a full scale business plan on paper but you should know where you want the focus of your development to aim. Think of this step as a discovery process more than a formal business plan research paper. Find out who your potential competitors are, discover marketing options, explore gaps in the topics and brainstorm ways to fill them. Find out where the demand is and draft a supply.

Attack and Focus

You can't attack and focus without a plan. You can't head in the "right direction" unless you know where you want to go. You shouldn't develop a website without knowing how it will be completed. This doesn't mean plans or focus will not shift and change. I guarantee you change will come along the way. But the end result is the same: a scalable product (website) that is unfathomed by PPC decline.

Conclusion

I'm not saying there is reason to take all your domains away from a parking or PPC model just yet. Keep them there until the well runs dry. However, it's time to focus on a few domains and work towards securing your future.

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