Let me tell you a true story. A friend of my who likes to collect domain names was describing a few that he had acquired. While he has a wide range of domains in various categories, these particular domains were all related to web hosting.
Some of the domain names were similar to existing web hosting company names (or derivatives of web hosting company names). Others simply had hosting, host, or a related term in the domain itself.
So my friend and I were talking and he said something like, Yeah, its a shame if only I had the time to develop some content for some of these domains then I might make some money form them. It turns out that he had no content on any of the domains just parked pages, or no content at all. When I investigated the domains, it turned out that there was a small but steady traffic stream that visited these domains. Some simply typed in the domain, others apparently found the domain through a search engine that had categorized the parked page.
So I suggested the following to him why not use a service that will take the domain as is with no content whatsoever and suggest search options that generate revenue for each click He took my advice, grudgingly I might add, and guess what He made $50 the first month from just a few of his domains.
He was so excited that he asked what he might do to further increase his revenues from his domain names. I suggested that he use his parking pages (these can be customized with some hosts) to test banners from affiliate programs with the highest paying hosting companies. He placed only three banners at the top of his pages with a brief description of the companys product offerings taken straight from their web sites. This also proved to be a great success and his revenue stream increased.
My friend has since invested some time and energy in monetizing his other domains. He has either pointed the domains to a pay per click search engine, or listed affiliate links on almost every domain. This has turned a lackluster domain speculation business into a profit generating pay per click and affiliate business that requires almost no effort to maintain. Needless to say, my friend has taken my out to lunch a couple of times since then.
If you have parked domains and what to try getting paid for search results on those pages, check out this service offered by Sedo (there are others out there as well):
Good luck in transforming your parked domains into cold, hard cash!
About The Author
Derek Vaughan has been actively marketing on the Internet since 1995. Mr. Vaughan has marketed products at the Walt Disney Company as the online marketing manager of ecommerce for . Mr. Vaughan is also the founder of Cheap Hosting Directory - a web hosting review site. Mr. Vaughan holds degrees from both the Indiana University and Purdue University. He has also received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Owen School at Vanderbilt University. Cheap Hosting Directory - - is a part of TechPad Agencys network of web hosting portals.
As your Internet business grows, the value of your domain name increases. The issue of a domain name trademark should move to the top of your list. You need to guard against unscrupulous competitors that may try to incorporate your domain name in their meta tags to obtain search engine rankings under your name. If you have a domain name trademark, you can go after these individuals and compel the search engines to remove their listings.
What Is A Trademark
A trademark is a distinctive item that is used to identify a logo, product, device, package or service. The trademark identifies the item as being provided by a particular firm. To protect these items you can obtain a mark from the patent and trademark office that prohibits others from trying to gain economic advantage from your mark.
Domain Name
The patent and trademark office views domain names in a unique way. The office views the http://www element as a part of the file transfer process, not your domain name. The .com, .net, etc., designations are considered top-level domain identifiers and are also disregarded for the purpose of a domain name trademark. For example, our domain name is http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com. If we submitted the domain name for registration, only the sandiegobusinesslawfirm portion would be considered for a mark.
Locators Cannot Be Registered
A domain name is a locator for file pages. When you type in your domain name, a server locates and displays files. If a domain is used solely for this purpose, it will not be granted a mark. Instead, the domain name must be incorporated into the site. For instance, Amazon is recognized as an online bookstore and the site actually has the word Amazon on every page. Since Amazon.com is more than a locator, Amazon can apply for and receive a trademark. If Amazon used the domain name, bookstore.com, the company would be able to register Amazon, but not bookstore.
Generic and Descriptive Terms
Domain names that are generic or descriptive in nature cannot be registered because they fail to designate a distinctive product or service. For example, sandiegobusinesslawfirm is comprised of generic terms and describes who and where we are, to wit, a San Diego business law firm. This domain name cannot be trademarked. The same result would occur with bank.com, book.com, advice.com, etc.
You may be thinking, What about Coke Coke is a trademarked term because it is a distinctive term for a soft drink product. It just so happens that a brilliant marketing plan has convinced most people to refer to soft drinks as cokes, even if they actually prefer another brand!
Trademarks are an important factor in protecting your Internet business. Armed with a trademark, you can keep competitors from pulling traffic off the search engines when people search for your site.
Richard Chapo is with - a law firm providing legal advice to California businesses. This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.