We all invest in domains for a variety of reasons which includes the choice between a long term or short term investment. There are, of course, different methods and flavors of monetization for short term versus long term investing which can vary for the individual but sometimes parking a domain may not be the best decision for a long term (or even short term) investment. Here's why.

Potential Loss of Search Engine Rank or Inability to Rank

If you purchase a domain that actually has established search engine traffic, parking is incredibly risky. Most search engines will block parked pages. If the domain never ranked to begin with, you miss a valuable opportunity to obtain search rank on at least one of the domain's keywords.

When taking a domain out of parking in order to establish some type of search rank, first assess if the domain is a good candidate to begin with and if establishing a search engine rank fits with your long term goals.

If you want to increase the value of your domain by establishing some sort of mini-business then by all means; take the domain out of parking and begin experimenting. Even a "coming soon" page will jump start your rankings but the longer it sits as a parked page the longer it could take to establish a rank.

If, however, your long term goal is to flip the domain, assess if some type of simple landing page would serve to attract end users via the search engines or if type-in traffic is enough to bring them to your door.

Those Few Pennies May Actually Be Worth a lot More

Parking pennies may add up and fluctuate but you miss out on simple alternatives that actually bring more value to the domain had you applied them. This value can come in the form of leads, affiliates, subscribers, anything that captures and leverages targeted traffic for immediate or future use.

Again, this all depends on your long term goals (and consider the fact that any alternative to PPC will be harder to monetize but more rewarding) but you very well could be leaving money on the table.

Loss of Potential Leverage for Future Negotiations

Imagine being able to approach your buyer with more than just traffic and parking revenue stats but with targeted eyeballs who are ready and eager to see more.

Established traffic, users lists, newsletter subscribers, etc are all positive leverage towards a domain sale in addition to type-in traffic and revenue. A domain sale that comes with 2,000 interested subscribers has more value and weight than $5.00/month in revenue or 20 users a day that come and vanish.

Just as you could be leaving money on the table, you could very well be repelling return visitors and possible future customers.

Inability to Properly Monitor Interest for Full Development

Parking cannot give you the full story of your traffic or help you successfully measure and properly adjust for click through behavior.

At times, it is simply unknown if a development idea will pan out or not. However, one way to gauge interest is to develop a targeted lander, advertise it, collect data and see what happens. The worst that can happen is you discover your idea wasn't so great but without taking the risk of fully developing your site and finding out then.

What Are the Alternatives?

Landing pages or simple opt in email forms are great alternatives between parking and full development stage if you are investing for the long term and want to learn exactly how much value your domain has. Type-in traffic and revenue can only reveal so much but the missing component is: what exactly are users looking for? The answer to that question can mean a bigger sale for you later down the road, lead to better monetization or give you better direction when you are ready for full development.

Related Reading

• Alternatives to Full Web Development & Domain Parking
• The New Under Construction Page
• Domain Monetization Cheat Sheet & Adsense Alternatives

Your Turn

What parking alternative strategies do you employ to measure your domain's worth and performance? Let us know in the comments below.

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