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Scott Day has become a pretty good friend of mine..  He's a legend of the domain industry.  Back when I was knee-high to a pile of dirt, the nascent domain industry abounded with rumors of "the Watermelon Farmer"

A quiet individual who had managed to cobble together one of the most prolific portfolio's of domain names ever, all while farming watermelon in Oklahoma. No small feat in the days before publicized drop times, domain forums, Yun Ye and genetically modified fertilizer ;).

Recipes.com, Webhosting.com, GrandCayman.com  ..  If the value of Internet based businesses were judged on the reach, resonance and drawing power of their domain names alone (as many value domain investors believe they should be), Scott's portfolio would be a billion dollar enterprise. The man is a Marine, a decent human being... and his portfolio of names is pure Gold.

Well, catching up with Scott at the last TRAFFIC conference reminded me to check out some of his less known, less traveled sites and let me tell you folks.. Scott is showing us all that the future of parked pages are virtually indiscernible from fully developed websites.

Dress.com

NameBrands.com

DiamondsDirect.com

Haunted.com

ShoppingDirect.com

Make no mistake ..  These are real websites.. no better or worse than the BizRates and Shopzilla's of the world..  Many pages deep with Yahoo Shopping content.. The pay rates on sites such as these 'far and away' eclipse standard PPC revenues which constitute today's benchmark for "multiples of traffic sales revenues" that underwrite deals. A scalable template system with genuine content .. and which can be arbitraged to.

These sites are the genuine article. Scott can market these sites by purchasing related keyword visits from third party publishers and keyword marketplaces, offsetting the cost he pays on that traffic against the revenue he can generate by selling products and services.. and other higher paying advertising.

The decision of when, whether or how much to market the site rests entirely in the domain registrant's hands..  They can turn the marketing machine on or off and decide how much more they want to make, when and why.. spending accordingly.

Compare this dynamic to a large portal site without type-in traffic that has to buy traffic in order to survive..  For domainers, arbitrage is a luxury ..  for the traditional shopping portals you've heard of, it's do or die.  Which would you rather invest in?

All type-in-traffic domainers enjoy the same tactical advantage.

I see these sites and I really see the future of parking.  An indiscernible line.  Imagine millions of different sites such as these..  each driving real value and a fairly significant measure of return visitors.

Want to know what the Internet will look like in 5 years?  Look at these sites and then imagine that every parking page you stumble across is set up something like this.

These sites make money..  Domain owners will create implementations like these because they make money.  They make money, because visitors are pleased by the content they see there and click through.  It's a magical symbiotic equilibrium that makes everyone happy. Well everyone except Google. 

How do you rank algorithmic search results when domainers with "money making sites" and deep marketing pockets can afford to build better, more user friendly websites than Web2 startups with 50 staff? How do you create an SE algo to block sites that actually give people what they want, without harming your search engine?

At what point does Google turn over their power to another content website and is advertising content?.. Wikipedia has a page for everything I Google.  Lately I've been starting about half my searches directly at Wikipedia (bypassing Google) .. I know Wikipedia has the content I'm looking for.  Now Wikipedia's founder is talking about starting a search engine. That's what you call a paradigm shift..  An early adopter like me leaving Google.. some of the time.  A new search engine created by the folks drawing me away. If Google removes wiki results out of professional jealousy, it weakens Google's Search offering.

Quality domains with related adver-content like Scott's act in a similar way. The reason I like keyword domains with high search counts is that it shows that people actively seek out that phrase..  A search engine can try to steer people away because it doesn't like adver-content, but thanks to type-in-traffic some people will still find you.. Build sites like Scott's which are so satisfying they build return visits and further reinforce the 'type-in' behavior.

Scott has always led the way with ground-breaking parked domain innovations.  Years ago he was one of the first to put relevant pictures on his landers.. now that's a minimum standard.  Today he's built a scalable templatable system of turnkey shopping sites to overlay on his killer names, (names which garner type-in traffic of their own from outside the Google/Yahoo algorithmic search traffic framework) ..  What happens if everybody does this? These sites make more money than traditional parked pages, so you can bet every domain registrant will be doing this in 5 years time..

If you own a domain name,  the Internet is coming "your way".  If you own a good one, You are going to make much more money than you do today .. give it about 5 spins around the Sun.

Search is an ongoing puzzle that requires ever greater resources to organize information while keeping competitors at bay..  If I was Google/Yahoo I'd be buying a small tranche of every meaningful domain name and content site on the web.. or I'd buy part of those doing the aggregating (Demand Media/ Marchex)  It wouldn't be that expensive,  and would secure their position at the center of the web for decades to come.

Comments

[Derek Giordano]

VERY interesting and well written! Thanks for sharing Frank!

[VS]

Scott's site are visually very appealing and i bet they make a lot more money than previously. I must also add that Scott has always been very innovative in the way he designed he sites. Not just innovative for a sake of something new, but doing it the right way.
Looking at the sites and than doing some checking i've also noticed that his sites appear to be banned in google and on top of that are NOT SEO optimized. Looks like Scott has a lot more work ahead of him to pickup the cash he's leaving on the table.

[Andy Sweet]

Frank,

I'm glad to see people leading the way to better parked domains and I believe that these developments greatly help the domain industry.

I stopped being a direct-typer (URL instead of search engine query) a long time ago because my user experience with that method wasn't as satisfying as my search engine experience. I would direct type and only end up with sites with no content and only sponsored links with marginal descriptions. Frequently, after clicking on those links it would take me to another site with no content and only sponsored links. The frequency of these events with direct type is what caused me to use search engines.

After all isn't satisfaction with the results the name of the game, whether it be a direct-type or search engine? It's why search engines regularly tweak their algorithm. Without consistent results satisfaction, people won't keep doing it.

I would feel a lot better landing on a site like Scott's if I were to direct-type. These sites don't feel 'parked'. In fact, I wouldn't even consider them so. To me, they're developed. Sure it may just have a different look and feel serving up the same results, but the high quality presentation affirms my search. As the consistency of my satisfaction increases with direct-type, so do my direct-types instead of search engine queries.

[seth godin]

Scott's the real deal. I think the transition from 'real estate' to operator is going to happen in this sector and he's at the forefront.

[DomainerPro]

Fantastic. I never heard of Scott Day before. Does he still farm watermelons?

I agree with Andy, Scott's pages really cannot be called "parked" in the sense that we understand the word. They are more like shopping content aggregators. And yes, I would probably return to those pages if I found products I liked.

[Danno]

Hi,

I took the keyword out of the domains listed:

Name Brands
Dress
Web Hosting
Recipes
Grand Cayman
Haunted
Shopping Direct

This is the trouble...not one of these sites are listed on the first page of Google for the keywords above.

Why should NOT each one of these sites be listed in the #1 spot on Google for the keyword it represents?

They should...with no back links, page rank, and all the BS. No reason any other website should rank above them for the select keyword search.

Do you know how much more money and revenue these sites should be making.

Do you realize how much more value is 'naturally unleashed' when quality sites with a quality keyword domain is given its fair spot in this world.

For example,(hypothetically) 'web hosting'(webhosting.com) might this domain,if this were to be ranked in the #1 spot in Google for the next 100+years without a change and everyone on the planet knows this...what might happen to the value of this cyber real estate asset?
___

Hypothetical Numbers And Comments:

Current Value: $2 Million (no search engine traffic)

Future Value rank #1 in Google for next 100+ years:

$4 Million (search engine traffic added)

Now every web hosting company on the planet wants it....because they can count on consistent SE placement and traffic. Maybe save thousands in advertising for this keyword. Now, might the value of this domain skyrocket as its plain for everyone to see the added and consistent value of this asset.

Now this domain could bring offers in everyday of $6 - $20 million or more from company's providing web hosting services.

The natural inherit value as now been FULLY unleashed.

And its ok, right now as PPC gets much better, that great keyword domains rank in a search engine in the #1 spot with just PPC ads on them... Because sooner or later they will be bought by someone looking to expand their own development on quality keyword domain assets...so with time... all valuable assets like this will be forced into development by natural market forces.

That's if someone finally sees the value in ranking at least the first two pages of search results by keyword domain(s) and corresponding keyword search.

As good keyword domains keep moving in this direction...its 'totally absurd' to have the most popular and used search engine to keep ranking website results like they currently do.

Do you realize that the domains listed in this post by Frank are having more than 1/2 of their true value determined by Google.

%$#^ Google....

Who is Google to determine the value of this mans domain assets?

Should not the free market determine the value of these domain address assets? The free market is currently determining about 1/4 -1/2 of the true market value of these domains...through direct navigation and generic brand recognition.

But Google is determining the rest of the value...by not ranking these domain assets correctly in their search engine.

What google is saying for example: Is that for the keyword search term 'web hosting' that the following 'internet address assets' are of great value and your internet asset webhosting.com is of almost no value.

#1. www.webhostingbluebook.com/

#2. b2evolution.net/web-hosting/top-quality-best-webhosting.php

#3.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_hosting_service

#4.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/webhosting/

#5. www.siteground.com/

#6. www.webhostingstuff.com/

#7. www.findmyhosting.com/

Now some of these sites may have great content with great products and services...but that's not my point...my point is Google has determined that these Internet assets are more valuable than webhosting.com when it comes to someone doing a keyword search on the Internet for 'web hosting'.

This is far far far from the truth and is so so very wrong.

Again, I ask every domainer and website owner, WHY are we letting Google (Yahoo, MSN) to determine over 1/2 the value of OUR assets?

Starting to get worked up....LOL....I better just say....

Peace! (for now)
Dan

[Sumbini]

Great post Frank, like you say generic, single word and phrase, domains are only going keep going up in value, in the years to come, as internet industries such as search engines will need to keep changing just to survive!

[Ed]

"Why should NOT each one of these sites be listed in the #1 spot on Google for the keyword it represents?

They should...with no back links, page rank, and all the BS. No reason any other website should rank above them for the select keyword search."

Because a domain holds the exact keyword the search engine user uses for their search does not mean the domain has a automatic right to the #1 spot as you're saying.

This would corrupt the whole relevancy of a search engine and user experience.

A keyword is just that, a keyword and if you don't provide anything else then a keyword then you have no place in the search engine results.

You want proof?

Type in Germany.com and tell me you would still think that keyword domains should rank #1 purely on the keyword?

Above listed domains are holding a little more relevance i agree but evidently there are better sites out there, that is why Google doesn't rank those sites at #1

[Danno]

Hi Ed,

Thanks for your reply...in the case of germany.com...your right.

so,

germany.net goes in the #1 spot and if that has a cats photo on it than ,maybe the .info or ,org gets the first spot...

At least until the natural market forces that are taking effect now...takes over Germany.com and then as soon as the new owner puts up relivent and useful content...boom...#1 spot.

Of course it will take sometime to work every keyword domain into the correct 'pecking order' of search results...no doubt.

But, we have already enter the 'era' when this can be done...because of the importance of domain names and the value the now represent.

Thoughts like this...were not even a possibility...5-10 years ago.

Now, I think it is...thats all.

BTW: this is just one small part of the whole Internet search puzzle.

Best,
Dan

[Danno]

I forgot,

"This would corrupt the whole relevancy of a search engine and user experience."
___

Its already very very corrupted...your just so used to it...like myself and everyone else...it can be very hard to see... if your not specifically looking for it.

Again, generic domain keywords are just a part of the puzzle...but if you put enough of the pieces of the puzzle together, I think you could have an Internet search engine that could take 12% - 25+% of ALL Internet search quires within 2-3 years...At the same time adding Multi Billions of dollars of value to domain names.

Not a small thing.

Best,
Dan