Marketing Through Domain Parking
Reference | in reseller hosting guides
Domain parking is the process of registering a domain name and placing it on hold. Simply put, many Web hosting companies and resellers will allow consumers to "park" an Internet domain by adding the consumer's domain name to its domain name service (DNS) servers to act as the authority for the domain. Such a service accommodates customers who only need to register and secure their domains without having an active homepage yet in place. Many consumers appreciate domain parking.
The latest estimates predict that over 40,000 names/month are currently being registered. With that in mind, parking a domain name guarantees that when a consumer is ready to build their Web site, their name will be ready. Increasingly, people are registering .com, .net, and .org domain names to prevent others from using their business name. Because a consumer does not need to have a Web site or e-mail address associated with their domain in order to register it, domain parking has emerged as an extremely popular option.
Most consumers can "park" their domain names free-of-charge with a Web host or reseller, once they have registered them for a nominal fee from an established domain registrar. Domain parking however does not only benefit consumers. Resellers can make use of domain parking for marketing and sales purposes. Domain parking is an excellent marketing tool because it allows Web hosting companies and resellers to propagate their brand identity. Most hosting companies will provide a free "under construction" page to registered domains that are not in operation.
Usually this under construction page will feature a Web host or reseller's logo, brand identity and hyperlinks to information about their service offerings. In effect, domain parking serves as another method to advertise your business. If thousands of consumers elect to park their domains with your reseller operation, then you are creating thousands of separate, individual advertisements. Under construction pages usually propagate in search engines. Further, under construction pages also receive a varying rate of type-in traffic. For this reason, domain parking is a very appealing product to offer consumers.
Domain parking can also provide a potential revenue stream for resellers. Many established registrars will offer Web hosting companies and resellers financial incentives for reselling domain names on their behalf. With many of these registrars, it is possible to utilise automated scripting technologies to quickly register a client's domain name and have them parked on your domain name server. Once the domain is registered, many domain registrars will provide the reseller with a discount if they purchase the domain up front for the consumer, or with a small referral fee. If a Web hosting reseller is registering and parking thousands of domain names through their service, then revenue can be considerable.
Most importantly, many Web host resellers utilise domain parking to build a solid database of prospective customers. In order to both register and park domains, users must yield important personal and consumer information. This information, once collected, can be utilised by hosting companies and Web hosting resellers for telemarketing purposes. Consumers of domain parking services will eventually require full-service hosting, if they desire to deploy a Web site or use e-mail services. Domain parking is thus the first step towards establishing an Internet presence. For this reason, domain parking should be integral component of any large scale hosting reseller operation.
 |
OLDER: Writing Effective Press Releases | | | NEWER: A Synopsis of The Hosting Reseller Business |  |
Read Back Issues of WHIR Magazine
October 2009 - Web Hosting's All Star Team
This has been, for us, one of the most interesting, exciting and challenging build-ups to an issue of the magazine yet, Web Hosting's All Star Team. The balloting process was our first experiment with a kind of user participation we're planning to do a lot more with in the months to come. We had thousands of ballots submitted, with hundreds of write-in suggestions and a demonstration of user engagement that has us feeling super positive about the project.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
July 2009 - What am I Worth?
One of the interesting luxuries of working on a project like the printed WHIR magazine is that it allows us to play with things like our point of view from one issue to the next. In recent months we've been giving added attention to the kind of practical and applicable advice aimed at smaller hosts and resellers. This issue carries on with that point of view, asking, in our cover story, "what am I worth?" It's a complicated question without a clear-cut answer.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
May 2009 - The Blueprint for a Small Web Host
I was a little surprised by how difficult it became to see this idea through. We set out to assemble a blueprint for a small hosting business, but butted up pretty quickly against the general impossibility of covering all the territory that was out there to be covered. The basic constraints of a printed magazine, and the less-than-infinite amount of time we had available forced us to face the fact that we could never produce an exhaustive guide to starting a hosting company.
About This Issue | Read Digital Edition
Comment anonymously or log into your WHIR account
Logging in allows enhanced commenting features (such as external linking) in news, features, blogs and more.