Domain names as a source of income

We’ve all seen it more than once… we type a web address and we get a page full of links to other companies instead of a full website…

What does it mean?

Well, it means that someone is making money by using that domain name to drive traffic to paying advertisers!

How does it work?

Domain names can be registered with any domain registrar (depending on the type of domain) or through countless resellers. In most cases, all you need is an e-mail address and a credit card (some countries/registries ask for some paperwork). After a domain name is registered, it’s “assigned” to a single owner (called the registrant).

Once the domain name has been registered, it’s ready to start making some money!

How does it make money?

The most common way to monetize a domain name is to “park it”, which means that it’s forwarded to a company that handles the publisher-advertiser relationships and pays the owner of the domain name a fraction of what they charge the advertiser. Most parking programs work on a PPC (pay per click) basis, which means that they’ll pay the owner for every time a visitor clicks on an ad shown in that domain name.

In future posts I will include how to select a domain name, how to select a parking program and most important, how to make sure that it becomes a profitable business (yes, it’s not easy, but it’s doable).