Domain Tasters May Go Hungry
Google announced yesterday that Google Adsense will start looking for domain names that are repeatedly registered and refunded – a practice known as “domain tasting” or “domain kiting” – and as of February 11, 2008, will begin blocking Adsense ads from appearing on those domains.
Domain tasting is the practice of registering a domain and testing its marketability during the five-day grade period during which the registration is eligible for a refund. Income is generated by placing Google Adsense for Domains on the newly registered sites. On January 24th, 2008, Jay Westerdal of Domain Tools reported that “It was disclosed in court that one partner that Google had was generating as much as $3 million dollars a month from the practice and that was after Google’s revenue share“.
And the practice is extensive. According to Wikipedia, “By February 2007, the CEO of GoDaddy reported that of 55.1 million domain names registered, 51.5 million were canceled and refunded just before the 5 day grace period expired and only 3.6 million domain names were actually kept“.
Although I’m always thrilled to see a reduction in web crap, I can’t help but wonder if Google’s recent lowering of Adsense referal bounties (from $250 to $100) and eradication of the $2000 bonus was implemented to somewhat offset what they’ll lose by by killing off the domain tasters. Goodness forbid that honest marketers should make a few pennies when the big revenue generators (profiteers) are removed from the mix.
What do you think?
[tags]domain tasting,Adsense,Google,domain kiting[/tags]
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Rosalind Gardner is a Super Affiliate blogger, author, speaker, and Internet marketing consultant.
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I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you.
Aaron Wakling
I am a little concerned about all the crackdowns that are occuring by very large corporation as of late. I understand google’s position but I also understand that as a affiliate marketer we are constantly trying to find profitable domain keyword names. Now, I don’t appreciate crappy websites that only carried google adsense and nothing else. Or websites that have one page with one comment and google adsense.
But I still see these crackdowns as a means to slow down marketers that have found way to make exceptional money.
Just a little concerned…
Kenneth Elliott
Because there are so many ways to exploit the Internet protocols, software and revenue programs, I feel that it will be impossible to effectively manage abuses.
As a programmer and gamer, I actually am impressed with the ingenuity of some of these exploits.
I read the article and comments over at DomainTools.com and, really, the conversation could just as well be about subprime lending: the cat is out of the bag, now who do we blame?
I still believe in the mutability of the internet. To hit you with one more metaphor: after a category 5 hurricane churns up the sea, the waters return to their usual level of ebb and flow.
Of course, domain tasting is more like a digital tsunami in that its aftermath is more devastating. (oops another metaphor.)
Rock on, Roz!
Mitch
How the heck do these “tasters” manage to figure out the profitability of the domains in five days? And if they are making so much money “tasting”, then why are the domains given up?
This area of marketing is a complete mystery to me.
These aren’t domains that are developed or marketed in any real way, just quickly parked and put out to try to find a little type-in traffic. If the domain shows any chance at real profitability, I’ll bet they do go and register the domain.
But for those that are marginal at best – earning say a penny a day – there is no incentive to incur the expense and actually purchase the domain name. Especially when they can get it for free, by tasting and re-tasting and re-tasting, essentially forever.
Repeat for a couple hundred thousand domains, and that free penny a day is starting to look pretty good…
I didn’t even know that Goog was paying a bounty at all.
I wrote an article about the issue, though, a week ago.
greg
This has a lot more to do with personality types than anything else. Why look for anything real to sell when all your time is spent looking for cracks in the system.
Real content pertaining to real products, digital or otherwise, bears honor and a sense of corporate responsibility.
Randy Leaf
Hi Rosalind,
The “nefarious” angle to domain tasting is that it may be a practice used by some registrars who will “taste” domain names as suggested by client searches.
Let’s say you go to a domain registrar site and search for myniftysitename.com to see it is is available. You find that it is available, but you are not ready to complete the transaction by registering the domain name, so you leave the site. The registrar site then secures the registration and uses it for the grace period to test its popularity, etc. Thus, if you return within the grace period (or even after if the name has some value) you’ll find the name is now taken!
So, rather than go to a registrar site you might just use your browser for early probes … and go to the registrar when you’re ready to plop down the cash.
Enjoy your site!
Jeff
Excellent suggestion, Jeff. I HAVE had that happen to me with a few good names an suspected that was probably the case. Grrr…
Ros