5 min read

You may have heard of domain flipping and you may have even seen some of the ads on different platforms. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, domain flipping is essentially when you buy a domain name that is already owned by someone else. Put simply, a parked domain is when you buy a domain name, typically with some sort of monetary gain, but you do not use it for web hosting or email. In short, the domain is not actively being used by its owner. Instead, it is socked away for later use. In this article, I am going to explain what is a parked domain and what are the reasons behind domain parking.

Domain parking can be good for the future. If you have knowledge and skill, domain flipping can become quite profitable. First, you can sell the domain name back to the domain seller later. There are several domain parking websites online where you can contact sellers to purchase their domain names at a discount. In addition to selling the names back to the website reseller, you may also be able to sell the site later to another company or individual.

What is a Parked Domain?

A parked domain is also known as a registered domain that is not linked with any website or email hosting service but is reserved for later use. In fact, it is not actively used but registered for future use.

For example, if you own example1.com and it is your primary domain name and you have another parked domain example2.com. You can set up example2.com as an alias domain. Now, each visitor accessing example2.com will experience that the content of example1.com is loading in the browser. The address bar will show example2.com.

In order to know what to do with a domain name that is parked, it is first important to understand how a domain name is parked. There are different platforms that offer you to list your domain name and the interested people will contact you. The domain name is essentially an identification string for the website of the registered owner. Once you have gotten in the habit of reserving your domain name for future use, you will receive a notice that the name is available. That is because the domain name has been placed into a special pool of names waiting to be claimed. Whenever someone makes a request for the domain name, your name is added into the pool and becomes available for transfer.

The benefit of using a domain parking service is that it allows you to park your domain name and avoid incurring any penalties for re-use. Most services provide you with a small fee, which is usually taken from your monthly billing cycle. This fee helps defray some of the costs associated with maintaining and running a website, such as a web hosting fees. As a result, you do not incur any additional charges when you park your domain name and you can move on to making money. The problem with using this method, however, is that you do not own the actual website that has been parked. You are merely using another people’s website as a mirror.

Why Domains are Parked?

There are several reasons why individuals or companies park their domains. You can get the following advantages:

• Securing common misspellings of your main domain name
• Registering your primary domain along with other Top-Level Domains (TLDs)
• Saving domain names, you can sell in the future
• Additional email accounts creation using your alias, which forward messages to your primary domain

However, there are other common reasons why people register and park domain names.

1. Brand Name Reservation

Name reservation is one of the biggest reasons to park a domain name because it is understood attractive domain names tend to go pretty quickly. Nowadays, it is very hard to find out an easy to remember and business-oriented domain name. People try to register their desired domain names before they have any solid business idea. It is highly recommended to search and reserve your desired domain name before anyone else does.

2. Cybersquatting Protection

Many established businesses have to deal with cybersquatting because it is a real threat. Cybersquatters don’t care about the existence of any trademark and take profits from others. The United States actually created the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. It happens when a user registers a domain name with a trademark of a well-reputed company, he is able to sell the domain names at an inflated price.

If your company has an established user-base and people searching your domain name and you don’t have any control over the squatted domain. It means, the content your audience or potential clients are directed to is completely out of your hands and badly affects your bottom line.

Keep in mind, ICANN (Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers) also has an arbitration process to resolve these types of issues but you have to avoid the problem altogether with domain parking. Be proactive and register all your trademarks and variants of your brand name.

3. Under construction Message

If you register your brand domain name before the website development phase then no one will be able to take your domain name and you have a great option to show a message “website is under construction” to let your visitors know you will be live soon. Hurry up and register your domain name then take your time to develop a perfect website.

4. Handsome Income Generation

You can monetize your parked domain name and generate an attractive amount of income even while it is not being used. You can run display advertisements on your parked domain name and get paid when someone visits your page and clicks on an ad.

Another income opportunity is domain name flipping. Many individuals take it as a business and register domain names (that have greater value in the near future). In fact, the domain is registered at a lower price and sell it at a higher price. The selling amount depends on the domain name and the interest or dedication of the buyer.

5. Multiple Web Addresses

Many big companies choose to register several possible domain name options and use the redirection to their main website. It is one of the best marketing tactics. You can park your domain names and link to a single hosting account with multiple add-on domains as Temok offers you the unlimited add-on domain and a free .COM domain with its Shared Hosting Business plan.

Final Words

If you find yourself wondering what is a parked domain, it may wish to be mentioned that this is where your AdSense or other pay-per-click campaigns will be parked. They will earn money for you by displaying ads on your website that match content provided by you and affiliated sites. This may wish to be noted since you will not directly be making any money off of these ads. Instead, they are earning money for you indirectly through AdSense or similar programs.

So, now that you know what a parked domain is, you may wish to get the full details about how it works. As a matter of fact, there are two basic types of parked domains. First, there is the actual name of your website itself that is parked. In this case, you will probably want to choose a domain name that is easy to remember or one that is related to what your site is about.

Second, there is the scenario in which you are not actually purchasing any domain names but instead are signing up with an escrow service. As you may be aware, many domain name registering services charge you a fee in exchange for the right to register the names. These fees are placed on a payment plan and are usually very affordable. You may wish to consider signing up with one of these escrow services in order to make money through what is called an affiliate marketing program.

An affiliate marketing program is a great way to make money online because it involves creating ads that link back to the merchant’s website. This is a great way to generate income because through the ads, you can potentially sell products that are linked directly to the merchant, resulting in direct revenue.