What should I do with my unused domains?

**Brian Linton** · 02-09-2009 11:03 AM

Hey all,

I have about 50 .com's and I would like to develop a simple strategy to generate a little income off of them. I'm realistic and not looking to get rich off of this, maybe just a couple hundred dollars a month.

Just last week I decided I might as well put up simple websites with content tailored to the domain name. I will use keyword rich words and then place google ads on each page. The content will entice the readers to read, but ultimately they will click the ads for further reading.

I know it is incredibly simple, but I figured something on the site was better than nothing.

What do you think? Is this realistic? Who has built simple websites on their unused domains and made a little money?

The first domain I have put a little content on is Organics are Good — Reasons To Live an Organic Life. Please let me know what you think I could do to make this work!

Thanks!
Brian

Oh, and here is my personal website on entrepreneurship -- please check it out: www.brianlinton.com

**rogercbryan** · 02-09-2009 11:12 AM

Park them or sell them... a simple site that has no constant optimization or content development will do you no good.

**Brian Linton** · 02-09-2009 11:38 AM

So if I park them how does that generate traffic? It would seem to me that a parked site has no constant optimization or content development. Am I right?

**rogercbryan** · 02-09-2009 11:41 AM

Parked Domains work two ways. If you constantly promote them through link building, advertising, or PPC then you will get traffic. The other way is if your have a common secondary spelling domain like www. gogle .com (extreme example which Google now owns). Sites don't just generate traffic out of thin air so you will have to do a lot of work to get traffic. There is no way around that.

**Shadesz** · 02-09-2009 12:57 PM

I don't see the adds?

It could be a good idea.. a couple days ago I threw one page together on a domain I own... One paragraph... with a vertical adsense banner on the left where a menu would usually go and two squares for content (text only) just right of it. I wondered what it would do so I set my facebook status to ask my friends what they thought of the "look and feel" of my site...

162 page views with a 25% CTR in a day...

problem is... if you do not have good changing/growing content they will not come back. You will then find yourself spending as much (or more) to find new visitors.

Ps, what would you say are "the real reasons you should be living an organic lifestyle?" (I have a synthetic/organic history and am curious to know what you perceive as valid reasons)

**Brian Linton** · 02-09-2009 01:19 PM

Thanks Roger!

Shadesz,

Yea, I haven't put any ads up yet... I will once I get some more content up. I would like to develop the site further and have constant new information, but I don't know if I have any burning desire to do that on all 50 of my domains.

Oh, so about an organic lifestyle...well, I am no expert on this and to be honest, it is just a domain name I liked and I like organic coffee. But I do know, and firmly believe, that we are made up of organic matter and we are what we eat, so why not only eat organics? Something on that line...

Brian

Nothing to Lose - Entrepreneurial Lessons and Adventures

**Shadesz** · 02-09-2009 01:27 PM

Originally Posted by Brian Linton

Thanks Roger!

Shadesz,

Yea, I haven't put any ads up yet... I will once I get some more content up. I would like to develop the site further and have constant new information, but I don't know if I have any burning desire to do that on all 50 of my domains.

Oh, so about an organic lifestyle...well, I am no expert on this and to be honest, it is just a domain name I liked and I like organic coffee. But I do know, and firmly believe, that we are made up of organic matter and we are what we eat, so why not only eat organics? Something on that line...

Brian

Nothing to Lose - Entrepreneurial Lessons and Adventures

Nice guess on the organics. No worries I will not pick it apart.

Anyways I completely understand about maintaining/adding content on 50 domains/sites. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

**Brian Linton** · 02-09-2009 05:36 PM

Haha. So I started going crazy and really started to develop some of my domains.

I've actually developed MYOcoffee.com more than the other site that I previously mentioned...

I would love it if you all took a look at it and let me know what I can do to make it a better, simple, site for monetization using google ads.

I would like to do something similar for all my 50 domains, is this a good idea?

Here is the site: Make Your Own Coffee — Tips and tricks on roasting, blending, grinding, and brewing coffee

**Nordstrom** · 02-09-2009 06:02 PM

Why don't you "give them away" to people working in the industry most related to the URL or bloggers who write about that URL-related topic.

If you have good URL:s I am sure some will be easily given away.

Better than doing the SEO and marketing for 50 sites, and will get you some link-building opportunity (one way links).

**Brian Linton** · 02-09-2009 06:20 PM

Do you mean give away my domain names? What benefit would that have?

**Og Content** · 02-09-2009 06:33 PM

It is going to be difficult to get any significant organic search engine results for competitive keywords like "organics" and "coffee" without constant fresh and unique content.

If I were you I would focus on the domains with the smallest niches or, if you have any, domains that are the keyphrases themselves. IE: goodorganiccoffee.com

Also if you are trying to make money off of sites with little traffic, adsense is the worst strategy IMO. You would be better of with high percentage affiliates that use longer lasting cookies. This way even if someone happens upon your site you can still make money from them even if they don't return to your site for a month.

If you want to develop long lasting organic (free) traffic then there is no substitute for content. You can contract people to maintain the content on your site (obviously I own one) but my point isn't to be self serving here. If you are looking to get it done cheap there are sites like elance.com (mid range pricing) or textbroker.com (super cheap)

You might want to list your domains, it would be easier to be specific with advice if we knew your options.

**Brian Linton** · 02-09-2009 07:08 PM

Hey Og Content,

Thanks for the stellar advice.

I was thinking about hiring people to manage the content, so I'll definitely keep you and those options you mentioned in mind...

As for my domains, I own a lot that have to do with the organics industry and coffee industry, as well as some other odd ball ones. The two I am starting with are myocoffee.com and organicsaregood.com.

So I have another couple of questions maybe you all could address.

1. If I just have a static site with no new content is it worth using google ads and paying for large amounts of traffic...and having the google ad revenue exceeding what I spend on traffic?

2. What is the best way to generate traffic for a static website and have a positive cash flow?

Thanks for the help!

Brian

Check out my personal blog on entrepreneurship (developing websites is not my business! I just want to put the domains I have to use).
Nothing to Lose - Entrepreneurial Lessons and Adventures

**Og Content** · 02-09-2009 11:44 PM

1. That is possible but very complicated. It is called an adsense site. You would need to stay on top of exactly which keywords you were buying through adwords, their costs, how often they are clicked, how often the traffic from them clicks through on your adsense ads, if they click on ads you make a higher return from than you paid for the clicks in the first place etc.

In short without a complicated script to automate the process for you, you will end up spending more time analyzing data and making adjustments than you would creating a less risky content rich site with organic traffic that lasts forever. Profit margins are also low with adsense sites, so you will need all 50 to make any real money.

If you are going to do it I would suggest creating a directory site with an automated adwords and adsense script.

2. Time link building and SEO, but you will get other opinions I am sure. The other option is ppc, but when you stop paying for the traffic, it stops. With SEO the traffic keeps coming. There are people out there who swear by adwords and people who swear by SEO. Maybe try both and see which is for you.

**HarveyJ** · 02-09-2009 11:55 PM

Consider parking with a service like iMODO.
As opposed to something like Sedo, iMODO's got some templates which then scrape sites together based on keywords, and pay you a share of the revenue generated.
You can do a news site, pictorial site, shopping site, whatever... just pick keywords related to your domain, and it'll be relevant. I'm pretty certain they also have some social bookmark features or something, meaning people may actually link your site about the place for you.

**godfly** · 02-15-2009 11:04 PM

Hi Brian!

Wow! 50 domains!

I'm very new to domaining and I have just about 15 websites under my belt. I only have about $2.00 on my adsense account but that's okay since I purchased the sites a couple weeks ago only and only 3 of them have content.

One of my sites that I've been playing around with is ItalianCheeseAndWine dot com (see my sig), I've been working on it for about a couple of days now and I intend to use it as my keyword/SEO experiment.

I will be using 2 of my unused domains as dating websites (affiliate). I signed up just a few hours ago and it would take them 24 hours to review my application so I'm not gonna post the links yet coz I'm not sure if they will be approved. I'll keep in touch with this thread