DN Media Corporation

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) announced this morning that it opened up Adsense for domains to all North American publishers.  The program was previously limited to large portfolio holders with premium generic domains that attracted large volumes (750k+ UV/Month) of type-in traffic.  There was even talk that Google would close down Adsense for domains entirely after it stopped taking new applications.  Needless to say, the move has the industry buzzing.

Many believe this marks the beginning of the end for parking companies such as Sedo and Fabulous, who already enjoy partnerships with Google.  They feel that cutting out the middle man is an obvious way to increase their bottom line.  However, as things currently stand I’m not entirely convinced.

First of all, parking companies are able to negotiate higher payout percentages because they are able to harness a lot of traffic by uniting domainers.  Individually, the average domainer has no bargaining power and will have to gladly accept whatever Google is willing to hand him.

Secondly, Google’s parking platform is archaic at best.  There are no images, no ability to add custom-written copy, and no ability to add affiliate links.  Also, pointing your domain at Google’s parking platform isn’t as easy as modifying your nameservers, you have to set up CNAME and A records.  Some registrars don’t offer the ability to modify these for free like they do for nameservers, and even if they do, the process is sure to confuse a lot of domainers.  These shortcomings could be addressed as the program evolves, but as it stands the parking companies have an edge when it comes to value added services.

Only time will tell how this will all play out, but Adsense for domains’ success will likely boil down to only one factor: payouts.

Related posts:

1. Interesting Google Trend I was playing around with Google Insights for Search tonight...
2. Open Letter to the “King” Well, since my comment hasn’t made it through the moderation...
3. Mini Sites are Thriving I have to hand it to Rick, he is great...
4. ccTLD Domains Veteran domain name investor Rick Latona has been pushing ccTLDs...
5. Live Web Site Analytics If you think Google Analytics is cool, prepare to be...