Park! Why?

I was just granted a free trial account at WhyPark.com for one domain. There has been some discussion on Namepros.com about this service that you pay about $100 dollars for and that allows you to set up as many as 100 domains. As an alternative to domain parking there system allows you to enter in some information including some ad network code like AdSense, and quickly set up something like a web site that pulls in articles that are on the topics for keywords that you choose.

For my test, I selected the domain http://www.music-download-universe.com that has been parked for several months and earned perhaps a dollar. I choose this domain name because it does get a lot of traffic, so I won't have to wait, but also because it gets few clicks and those clicks pay very little.

The setup is about the same as a parking page where they provide you with options to customize your parking pages. Unlike parking, there did not seem to be any defaults, so if you have a lot of domains you are going to be spending time getting each domain name set up. The good news is that each site should not take you long one you get started. They include a tool to help you find keyword for you domain and it looks like the data may be coming from WordTracker, but I could not tell. The search terms have numbers so you can see what it popular. I added "free music downloads" and a few other related phrases.

Then there are two areas where you can enter in your ad network code. I added normal AdSense at first and then after thinking about it I pulled that out and replaced it with the AdSense for referrals. This works much the same, but I think there are more interesting ads and many of them can pay you a LOT more than normal AdSense. I picked some categories for music/entertainment and consumer electronics.

I may experiment with this and see just what I can get away with in the manner of creative coding such as links and iframes... Since you just pay for the service once, I don't think WP will care unless you create sites that look trashy or broken, or cause problems for their servers.

You can choose a number of domain templates and customize one as well. You can also add new pages. I will see how the basic setup goes and then consider doing more work on my site. You will find they sites look much like what we are used to from Made For AdSense (MFA) sites, so adding a contact, about, and other pages could "round out" the site so it really looks like a site. One of my suggestions will be to WP that they offer pre-configured pages like an about and contact page for users to make this easier. I would like to create one page of content for an about page and then have that as a default that I can edit on a site by site basis.

Winding up for now, there was on feature that was something I just suggested on the forums the other day. When domainers buy and sell domains, there doesn't seem to be any way to easily transfer the domain within a parking service. You must contact support and have them verify you are now the owner of the domain and then you can set it up under your account. It would be a big plus to be able to transfer the domain parking page set up to the new owner so they can easily maintain the current earnings. WhyPark has this option now for site owners. Yes, you do have to open an account with WhyPark, but at least you don't have to re-create all the settings and start from scratch. I would like to see WP charge the new domain owner $1 for the transfer of the domain name to their account. That way they would not be forced to pay the full fee for something they may not really want, but there would be some incentive for them to leave the domain with WP which may not provide much income, does provide continued advertising for their system.