So, what is zero click parking?

Essentially, your domain forwards directly to an advertisers site, so, instead of visitors first seeing your parked landing page they will be directed right to an advertisers site without having to click on any links.

There have been mixed reviews on whether this is a good or bad development, but, it does seem to be moving forward across the board with parking companies like Sedo, Trafficz, and Smartname on board.

Unconfirmed, but my guess would be that these leads wouldn’t pay as much as essentially the visitors are unqualified. Instead of making them show interest in an add they are brought to the advertisers site based on a URL they visited alone. Likely this will result in a higher number of paid visitors but at a lower cost per ‘click’.

One negative to those looking to generate sales leads through their parked domains is the loss of the ‘This Domain Is For Sale’ link. Potential buyers may type in your domain, see that it is being forwarded to a developed site and assume that the name isn’t for sale.

The next few months should answer a few questions as to how successful this roll out will be and to who exactly this program will bring success.

If you have a project that you are thinking of working on and need to grab a cheap domain to get started then this code is for you..

LEAP149 will get you a new domain (not valid for transfers, renewals etc.) for $1.49, but you can’t pay using paypal, credit cards only.

This is a temporary code which will expire after 10,000 redemptions which will go surprisingly quick.

I figured there had to be a Jeremy Lin site similar to Tebowing.com and it didn’t take me long to find it. The obvious name was Linning.com and sure enough Linning.com is made up of people ‘Linning’. Now I don’t know if Jeremy Lin actually does this or if it’s just made up by the site owner, but, either way it’s a smart way to further fuel what’s sure to be a surge of traffic as of late.

So, what is Linning? According to the site it’s using your hands to make a pair of geek glasses!

Whois shows that the domain is privacy protected, but, it has been registered since 2004.

It’ll be iteresting to see if Linning takes off. The site is worth a chuckle anyways.

My newer sites have gone from PR0 to PR1, but the greatest increase amongst my sites belongs to none other than EGVU.com! Starting out as a PR0 it is now a PR3 (at least for now). I have had sites in the past quickly gain page rank when they are new only to fall back down with the next page rank update. Seeing as I haven’t made any posts recently I figured I should give google some love and get the word out that it’s time to check your sites.

All that being said… not many people put much weight into a site’s page rank. Overall I don’t really care what my sites page rank is as long as it is getting traffic, ranking high, and with some sites earning money! I do enjoy the updates though, if nothing more than for the novelty of it all.

“For questions regarding Parked.com, please contact PartnerSupport@Parked.com”

From what I understand Parked.com and WhyPark.com are both being merged into one site at DomainApps.com

Users of parked.com will be able to log into DomainApps.com using their Parked.com log in details. On your initial log in to DomainApps you will be prompted to enter or confirm your information and complete the merger of your parked.com and whypark accounts if applicable.

All of my domains that were parked with parked.com are still resolving and stats are accessible within DomainApps.com

Although, the changes appear to be positive developments many users have expressed frustration over the lack of communication from parked.com in regards to the change over.

You’ll find a link in the column to the right of this page called EGVU Social Network that will take you to the interactive part of EGVU.

Invitation is currently set to invitation only, but, I will be happy to extend an invitation to anyone that asks and can show that they have a legitimate only presence in working with domain names and/or websites. I’ve done this to introduce an extra step in keeping out people that will be interested in only spamming the community. If you have an interest in being a pioneer of this network please let me know by either posting here, PM’ing me on one of the forums that you know me from, or emailing me at mike@domainlink.org (Temporary Address).

Members should provide their established forum handle, domain/site/tech blog, or a sample of their portfolio to be granted access.

The big question up to now is probably why would I want in to this community? Well, that part of EGVU isn’t even 24 hours old yet, so it’ll be a learning process for all. The idea of the EGVU social network, however, is to showcase who you are, what you are currently working on, domain names for sale, developed sites etc… all in an interactive format. Your EGVU profile can be edited, you can write mini-blog posts highlighting and linking to your projects, share links (Digg style), discuss industry news, and the possibilities go on.

I encourage you to sign up, participate, and give feedback on the new section of EGVU.com

One name that I really wanted was my last name dot ca, but it has been held by a car dealership in Ontario since 2000. That is until this week.

I have been watching this name for a few months and figured out that it would be on this weeks ‘TBR’ list and although I knew I wanted this name I was too cheap to pay for a back order and was confident enough that it wouldn’t be picked up by anybody else. My plan was to hand register the name after it drops for reg fee. Seems simple enough, but the only problem was that I neglected to educate myself on how .ca names actually drop.

I thought that every Wednesday a TBR or ‘To Be Released’ list of domains would drop and be up for grabs. Although, this is partially true the names can’t be hand registered that Wedneday. The names on the TBR list have to be ordered through a registered company that participates in the TBR process. It’s somewhat similar to backordering domains in other TLD’s. As an example, I can place an order at Pool.com for egvu.ca and if there are other bidders and pool.com gets the name all previous bidders will enter an auction for the domain. There are some big differences on how these companies are able to catch .ca domains compared to drop catching gTLD’s, but, I won’t go into detail there for this post.

Instead I want to discuss what happens after the TBR process. From what I gather the TBR process starts at 1100 Pacific Time and lasts for about an hour. Once TBR ends the names that were not picked up enter ‘pending delete’ status (whois didn’t reflect this change until the next day). This is what I didn’t realize, I wasted a lot of time checking for availability of my .ca domain name in the hours that followed TBR.

Luckily for me I was able to get some advise from the members of Domain Names Canada. There were some differing views on exactly when my name would become available, but all agreed that I could relax at least until the next calendar day (EST) and possibly until 24 hours post TBR.

I set my alarms for different intervals to check on the availability of my name starting at midnight eastern time. In this particular case the name didn’t show up available to register until shortly after 1230 Pacific time or roughly 24 hours after TBR had closed.

Now whether those time frames remain the same with every release, I don’t know, but I do know that if I have a .ca name that I really want in the future I will place an order during TBR with a few comapnies. It just isn’t worth the headache of trying to track down when the name opens up for general availability. I may however check every now and again to see what was passed over during TBR and hand register some decent drops if I find any, but, not my last name. What was I thinking?

Please share your experiences with TBR or .ca domain names in general.

My live auction at Sedo is for Princip.al with a current bid of $500 and the auction ending in less than 24 hours.

The ccTLD .al is the country code for Albania. These domains are registered through the registrar service at Host.al for 16 euros and hold the same price once it comes time to renew.

At first glance Host.al appears to be a site completely written in Albanian, but, this is not the case. The control panel is very friendly for English speakers and the support staff working at Host.al are happy to communicate in English.

For those unfamiliar with ‘hack’ domains, hacks are generally short domains that include the extension as part of the keyword. In the case of my current auction, the domain Princip.al, would be used as the keyword Principal.

These types of hacks are becoming increasingly more popular, particularly when used with smartphone and tablet apps. Already fairly well used on sites like facebook, Instagra.ms is an example that may be familiar to many readers. Soon to be launched Sign.al is an example of a great hack being put to excellent use in the .al name space.

Perhaps the best thing about hacks is the relative low price for many of them in today’s market. A keyword like ‘principal’ would sell for much more than $500 in other top extensions. With the increased use and steadily growing acceptance of developed hacks as quality sites the price of these type of domains is sure to increase, so, the time is right to buy some up and develop those apps you’ve always envisioned.

Update:
Well, I had a successful New Years celebration. I’m a little tired this morning though.

As I look forward to a great year in 2012, I am aiming to create a sustainable online presence. Excess renewal fees on domains that collect dust should become few and far between in my portfolio. As my portfolio shrinks to about 50 domains, I’ll be able to focus on quality content on my developed sites and a manageable mix of domains that I’ll hold with future plans.

That’s the general outlook for my 2012 goals. ‘The Floundering Domainer’ has been a tag line used in a joking manner based on actual events, but hopefully I’ll move closer to making it a nod to the past as the year moves on.

That’s about all I have for a foggy headed New Years Day morning.

Happy New Year to all!

There is a short video at TED.com that shows some possible insight into what helps Matt strive for success.

Matt’s 30 day challenge seems to be a simple idea packed with great potential for those that decide to give it a try. I haven’t yet committed to a 30 day challenge, but, it has got me thinking about the potential benefits that could be seen by following a 30 day challenge through to the end when it comes to optimizing domain names.

When I started this blog I guess I was taking on a form of the 30 day challenge without really realizing it. Don’t get me wrong I hope this blog lives on longer than 30 days, but the first 30 days could prove to be very important. If I commit to making one post per day I’ll have a nice little base of articles after one month that should result in an increase in traffic and some inspiration to carry on for the next month.

Matt makes mention of setting challenges that are reasonable and obtainable if you want the challenges to be sustainable past the 30 days. I’m sure that it gets harder as time goes on to find topics to write on each and every day, but, it isn’t a completely unreasonable goal for the longer term.

Are any readers up for testing out a 30 day challenge on one of their domains collecting dust? Take one of your names that lends itself to a topic that you’d like to write about and then start doing it. One article per day for 30 days. You can bet that at the end of thirty days your domain will be doing a lot more than just collecting dust and you may just be on your way to being an expert on a new subject.

I’ll be setting plans for some 30 day challenges both online and offline… I’ll be sure to post some updates down the road.

If you are looking for more ispiration than just the video check out Matt Cutts’ 30 day challenge blog!

Reading his blog reminds me that I already completed a 30 day challenge back in November as well. I too grew a moustache and raised money for prostate cancer research and awareness for Movember.

Watch the video, read the blog and challenge yourself!