Are You Properly Aging Your Unused Domains?
December 3rd, 2008 | by Mark | Published in Domains | 26 Comments
Hello everybody -
Yesterday I registered two new .com domain names at ProudDomains.com for a manufacturing business my father-in-law is hoping to start in the next couple of years. He’s not even sure if the idea will pan out, but I told him we might as well buy a couple of domains and age them just in case.
So, I bought the domains, added them to an existing hosting account I already have set up, and installed Wordpress on both (so I can easily put some “placeholder” content on the sites).
With all of that finished they still weren’t set up to age in a way that would make them more valuable. Can you guess what was missing?
Quick story. Yesterday I also had a conversation with Michael - a nice guy down in New Orleans who’s investigating the coaching program. As I completed the most important step with my new domains I thought about what Michael had told me on the phone:
“I own about fifty .com domains.”
Me: “How many of them are indexed by Google?”
“Three.”
Michael, I hope you’re reading this, because having three out of fifty domains indexed just won’t do.
If you want to make all fifty domains ten to twenty times more valuable, point a few links at them and get them into Google’s index.
You see, it doesn’t really matter when a domain was registered. If you want it to increase in value and ability to rank, it needs to be indexed by Google. The magic number seems to be nine to twelve months before its ranking power really jumps.
When I got on my computer this morning the first thing I did was check to see whether my new domains had been indexed during the night, and sure enough - one of them was already there. The other hasn’t shown up yet, but I know it will within in the next couple of days.
If you already have a portfolio of domains - and I’m sure many of you do - make sure you’re getting them indexed. Not only will they rank much more quickly if you ever get around to using them, but they’ll also gain value based strictly on their age.
I’ve paid $100 to $300 for aged domains, which means my friend Michael’s portfolio could be worth between $5,000 and $15,000 on the open market if he made sure they all got into Google’s index for the next twelve months.
I suppose you could take this advice one step further by purchasing a few domains per month, aging them, and then selling them. Might not be a bad little stream of income…
Hope you’re all having a great day.
- Mark
Title: Are You Properly Aging Your Unused Domains?
URL: http://thekeywordacademy.com/are-you-properly-aging-your-unused-domains/
Sorry maybe it’s just me, but I think it’s just common sense not to have any of your domain names parked by any domain name company.
Matt you’re absolutely right and that makes it even more amazing that so many people have their domains parked…???
If you go through the domains being sold at TDNAM.com (GoDaddy’s used domain site) you’ll find that almost all of them are parked and also not indexed. Mind blowing.
Given the fact that domains can be worth that much, I can see the value in it. Thanks!
thanks for that Mark.
Sometimes I hear another view: Google goes by whois date?
little confusing.
Roger there is actually more than one thing going on with Google as respect to this. Google uses whois data but also uses site history. For example if a site has been online for three years, indexed with unique content the whole time, it will be a lot better off than a site that was registered three years ago and got indexed today.
Site history is a very interesting part of Google’s algorithm - a part that can’t be fudged. Your site is either indexed with content or it isn’t. If it’s not, it’s not aging properly even though there might be some benefit to having an aged domain that isn’t indexed.
Yet another thing I have not been doing. Thanks for bringing this up and writing about it. I’ve got some work to do tonight now.
Also, what might you think about a domain that is ready to expire. How might you figure out if it is worth re-upping the ownership on it and attempting to sell it the second year?
Good question WJ. It’s almost ALWAYS worth renewing your domain. Even if you can make a couple bucks a month it’s worth it and over time it becomes more valuable. Hang onto in and make sure it’s indexed!
Does it matter where the links come from when linking for indexing? Does it take 9 - 12 months for a good ranking no matter what you do?
Hi Andy -
If your only goal is getting the site indexed, it doesn’t really matter where the links come from, other than the fact that the sites you’re getting the links from also need to be in Google’s index, and getting crawled relatively frequently.
And no - it’s not always going to take 9 to 12 months to get rankings, but it will take that long to rank for the tougher keywords.
The way around that waiting period is to buy aged domains.
Good advice. I’m curious though, how do you go about selling domains? I’ll have to look into this.
There are lots of different marketplaces online for buying and selling domains Chris. A few Google searches should help you uncover them.
Hi Mark,
Does the link to the new domain matter if its no-follow or not? If it doesn’t matter then thanks for getting me indexed
Cheers,
Sean
Sorry Sean - it does matter! You’ll need to get some links that are not no-followed to get the desired effect.
I have about 30 domains aged right now. I think pretty much all of them are indexed because I used Domain Embarking for them all. I like Embarking instead of parking because you can make much more money by organic search traffic.
I am getting almost 1 click per day on the adsense ads I put on them, sometimes more. I know I can probably make more if I tweak them correctly but it will take some time. I am slowly going to take each one and put wordpress on them someday.
To those of you who think this is “common sense” - you obviously haven’t been working with less than web savvy clients!!!
GREAT POST!! GREAT ADVICE!!! Stumbled AND Tweeted!!!!
Thanks as always Kathy. Very kind.
Hi,
Great post
very informative keep it up…
Hi,
I am ashamed to admit that I am one of those people, I have about 30 domain names at the domain company I am using. I intend to implement this right away. My question is how much content should I place on these sites while they age?
Is that you Nikki? Glad you stopped by!
Court may say otherwise, but I’d say if you put 200 to 300 words of original, keyword targeted content on the homepage of the site that would be more than enough.
Hope things are going well for you.
Often, simple things happen to be the most crucial ones. Your post has just reminded me of a few dormant domains I have.
Simple, yet effective advice. Thanks.
I got a lot of domains that are wrinkly and old like me… we’re just not aging very well. I’ll have to put some moisturizer on them…
Hi Mark,
Yes its me, Nikki. I am sorry I have not been around for awhile. I made a commitment after the coaching with you all to implement everything that I was taught. My income has increase substantially and I am totally loving this! I have been getting paid monthly with adsense, which is a big change from where I was before doing the training with you. Keep up to good work guys : )
I have found some domains seem to age better than others. I haven’t really looked into it but it would be nice to know what the magic ingredients are.
Wow. How stupid have I been! I’ve got well over a hundred domains, some of them over 5 years old … and they’re just sitting there. Thanks for the wakeup call. I’m getting to work on them right away. Just goes to show, even an old fart like me can learn something new.
Could you expand on where to sell aged domains.
Good point-
I recently purchased a domain and didn’t realize it would take so long to get a Page Rank. Alexa is pretty quick, though.
I have several domains (8?) that I have but haven’t really aged correctly.
Funny thing is, I have a domain that I opened about 9 years ago that basically only has 1 real link, but it’s from a PR3 site. My domain, on which I have have not changed content lately, has a PR1. Go figure.
Augie