This is a useful and profitable activity that got born as a result of the Internet’s success. Domain parking can be a security measure for online businesses. Since having a catchy domain name got crucial for being visible among millions of other businesses on the Internet, someone saw a chance on reserving them.
What is Domain parking?
Parking a domain means you have a registered domain name, and you put it on hold without relating it yet with services such as email or a proper website. Domain parking is also a service offered by domain registrars for a domain name owner to have a non-interactive, static HTML page. On it, basic contact information and perhaps, a notice about the future purpose of that domain name could be shown.
Either if you do it by yourself or through a domain registrar service, you park a domain because you have a plan to use it later and get some profit. How? Well, there are different things you can have in mind.
How does Domain parking work?
You can register a domain name with different top-level domains (TLDs), “shopexample.uk“, “shopexample.mx“, etc. If they are big markets for your company, you can later create additional sites to offer specific products or promotions for them in the future. You can get the domain names in advance and park them for later use. This can also be a security measure to prevent criminal use of your company name and reputation. Phishing is a possibility. Criminals could register “shopexample.uk” before you, create a fake site there and invite visitors -via emails and links- to register sensitive data for a fake promotion. Your visitors’ data could be really compromised.
If you are creative enough, you don’t need to work on the dark side. Better, develop catchy domain names that could be attractive for others. You park them to sell to the one that gets interested or even to the highest bidder if more than one person wants it. People usually create a portfolio to have more selling chances, meaning they invest in registering and parking more than a single domain name to target different potential clients.
Another option is to park a domain to insert ads on it. You don’t have to develop a complete website. You just create an HTML page, and you are ready for getting a passive income through the clicks gotten on the ads.
Some companies register misspelled domain names.
Imagine that you own an international e-shop, “shopexample.com“. You can also register “shopexample.co“, a very common misspell visitors can have. You get it in advance parked and even redirecting the visitors who mistake this way (missing the last “m” of .com) to the primary domain. You can set a script for redirecting after some seconds.
How to park a domain?
You choose or create an interesting domain name, either for yourself or for selling it. Through a registrar’s service, its availability is checked, and then, in a positive scenario, it’s registered for you.
Once it’s yours, you just go to your domain registrar’s control panel to the “domain parking” option. Activate it, and the domain is parked. Design a landing page with your contact or clarify the domain’s purpose, and that’s it!
To own the domain, there’s a fee. Usually, it’s paid yearly. If you keep paying, you own it, and you can have it parked.
If you are planning to buy a new domain, we suggest you to look the Top 5 Promo TLDs from ClouDNS!
Conclusion.
Domain parking can be very useful for your online business strategy to protect your business, reputation, and clients. It can also be a business itself. That’s why it is convenient to know about this practice!