In the May issue of AVN Online, I discussed what makes for a high-quality adult domain name — short, generic and descriptive terms that can naturally drive web traffic. AdultSex.com, Sex.co.uk, Bone.com, and Fornicate.com are great examples that are currently available on the Sedo.com domain marketplace.
Yet, while savvy entrepreneurs may recognize the investment potential, they may not know what to do with these domain names once purchased. Domain parking — whereby idle domains are used to host relevant ads that pay out per click — provides a viable temporary or permanent solution following domain purchases. While there are several factors to consider when parking a domain, such as page cosmetics and selecting related links, keyword selection has the greatest impact on parking revenue.
Keyword Relevance: the Key to Profit
Top domain parking services receive their ads through the Google Adwords pay-per-click ad network, which offers businesses options for placing their ads alongside keywords in Google search engine results, keyword-related content sites, and on parked domain names that are relevant to the keyword. When parking a domain, the owner must identify a master keyword for which relevant ads will be offered on their site. The selection of this keyword has a huge impact on profit, as visitors are much more likely to click on an advertisement if the ads shown are highly relevant to the subject matter of the domain name. In other words, a web visitor who types “AdultVideos.com” is more likely to be interested in finding links related to adult videos than, say, loans or hair-loss formula.
When selecting a keyword, some testing may be in order, as the most important factor is the relevancy of the advertisements displayed to what the site visitors are looking for, and that might not always be obvious. To understand what its visitors are seeking, domain owners can check the most popular user queries for that domain through their parking service. For example, visitors to the domain name LiveNudes.com could be searching for a variety of content related to “live nudes,” but the search inquiries should give an indication of what specific content or service most visitors are looking for.
- Mistress.com, for example, has 41 percent of its traffic coming from North America, 11 percent from the United Kingdom, and 8 percent from Italy. Parking services such as Sedo.com provide geo-targeted ads resolving in the language of the visitor. It is recommended to select each keyword based on the geographic diversity of that domain. For example, because Luscious.com has 77.7 percent of its traffic coming from North America and 4 percent from the United Kingdom, keywords would be set to “beautiful girls” and “sensual girls” for those regions respectively. Websites like Archive.org, which provide the history of domain names, can also reveal what the domain name was used for in the past, and can hint at leftover traffic. Additionally, a simple Google search on the domain term or the domain itself should provide a broad idea of the most popular topics and services for that term.
Keyword Sexiness: the Deal Breaker
Once a relevant topic area is determined by the type of visitors traveling to the adult domain name, owners must consider “keyword sexiness,” meaning that some sub-categories within an interest area just seem to attract more clicks than others do as keywords. For the LiveNudes.com example, keywords such as “adult webcam,” “erotic dancer,” or “virtual sex,” while all related to the domain name, could have drastically different kinds and quantities of ads. It’s best to test the ads for each of these terms through the parking service to determine the interests of the majority of your visitors.
Keyword Value: Commercial Potential and Competition
In addition to relevance, there are two additional important factors to determine the value of keywords — commercial potential and keyword competition. Commercial potential considers not only how much money a single ad conversion on a certain keyword could make, but also how often the keyword could generate conversions.
For example, a person searching on the web may pay more for the services in ads related to “erotic dancer,” but searches for “adult toys” may convert more frequently. With keyword competition, many companies competing for traffic in the same keyword area often drive prices up for these keywords.
Even after choosing a keyword, parking results should be monitored over extended periods of time, as every keyword will vary in traffic based on the season, the economy and other outside factors. This practice of monitoring traffic, clicks, and conversions through domain parking provides a deep understanding of the visitors to a site, which can be a huge advantage should the owner decide to develop their domain name at a later time. Whether it’s a plan to buy domains for a monetized portfolio of parked adult domains, or a temporary solution while pondering a successful online adult business, domain parking provides an instant avenue for unlocking the potential of quality adult domain names.
Jeremiah Johnston is chief operating officer of the online domain name and website marketplace, Sedo. Johnston oversees a variety of responsibilities for Sedo including marketing, legal, and strategy. He represents Sedo as a founding member of the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) and sits on the board of directors in the role of association president, helping to shape the future of domain names in the political space.
This article originally appeared in the August 2009 issue of AVN Online. To subscribe, visit AVNMediaNetwork.com/subscribe.
