Domain Profit Sharing:  Be the Destination, not a Gate on the Road

Domain Profit Sharing (DPS) is an innovative system pioneered by ClickShops Inc. that allows owners of great domain names to make substantial money from their domains with very little effort.

The Problem

In the past, owners of domain names (domainers) could make significant income from their domain names simply by putting up ads on their sites.  For years, Google would rank these sites well in the search results by virtue of the names alone, and the names could generate significant ad revenue.  However, within the last couple years, Google has recognized that ad-sites do not take Google's patrons directly to destination sites, which causes frustration to the patrons and makes Google results less “relevant.”

Consequently, Google has devalued ad-sites for ranking purposes, and in many cases, actually excludes them from Google’s results.  The impact on domainers has been immediate and painful.  No longer can they simply park the domains with a company that serves up ads, at least if they expect a return on their money.

Furthermore, in 2008, Google began allowing its advertisers to opt out of ads served to parked domains, dealing another blow to domainers.  Finally, in late 2008, Google announced that it would start serving up ads for parked domains directly, effectively cutting out the middlemen that so many domainers had relied on for total management.  While this last blow at first blush seemed to be a good thing for domainers, it will actually severely limit one of the benefits of domain parking—no hassle.

The Solution

The obvious solution for most domainers is to add real content to their sites and actually either sell products or offer real informational content.  With such content, their sites become more helpful to Google’s patrons, and Google begins ranking them again. 

Unfortunately, for most domainers, the work of designing a site, making arrangements with manufacturers, optimizing and marketing the site, and handling customer service is daunting and undesirable.  They didn’t buy domain names because they wanted to get tied to a 24-hour job.

On the other hand, many of them spent significant money on their domain names, and they want to see some kind of realistic return.  Many of them have turned to variations of the domain parking system that try different methods of networking many sites and adding content automatically in order to maximize the revenue.  Some are even trying to use social networking to generate traffic and content. 

By and large, however, these variations all suffer from the same fatal weakness—they don’t actually offer new information or real products.  None of them is more than a middle-man imposed between the shopper and the products the he or she wants.  In short, they all rely on ads for revenue.

That’s where ClickShops and Domain Profit Sharing (DPS) come in.  ClickShops builds a regular product site on the domainer's URL, makes arrangements with manufacturers and shippers, markets the sites, and gives the domainer a share of the total sales. 

ClickShops was founded as an online retail company. We have been designing, building, and marketing our own niche product sites in-house for many years, and we handle our customers throughout the purchase process.   Its owners began in 2004 with a system that kept the entire vertical process in-house, acquiring domain names on its own account and taking those names all the way from good idea through product manufacturers and customers to cash in the bank.

As successes with generic domain names piled up, ClickShops started looking for additional excellent domain names for new niche product lines.  Initially, it acquired www.MassageChairs.com and built a new site and product offering around that name.  Shortly thereafter, it acquired rights to www.GunSafes.com and did the same. 

However, it became apparent that many of the best product-specific domain names had been taken and were either not for sale or so expensive that making a profit and purchasing the name would be impossible.  Against this impenetrable wall, ClickShops decided to give domainers what they wanted—consistent returns on domain names without any risk or work.

How it Works

The result is DPS, Domain Profit Sharing.  Under a DPS arrangement, ClickShops builds a niche site, provisions it (making arrangements with manufacturers and adding products), markets it, and provides all the customer service.  Domainers are paid a percentage of the total sales on the resulting site, usually 3%.  So if a product sells for $5,000.00 (a common occurrence with some of our sites like MassageChairs.com and GunSafes.com), a domainer gets $150.00.

Does it Work?

ClickShops does not share numbers for sites it manages for its clients, but we can share numbers from sites we operate privately, and www.Gunsafes.com  is a great example.  For the month of November, 2009, that site sold product in the amount of just over $268,000.  In December, the amount was $372,000.  For January, the sales dropped to $269,000.  An owner with a 3% agreement would have made an average of $9,090.00 each month.

Depending on your domain name and the search volume for your name in the search engines, you can expect to make similar returns if you DPS with ClickShops.

ClickShops will prepare projections and agree with the domainer on minimum revenue levels.  If the domainer does not receive the indicated amount of money within the time frames agreed upon, the domainer has the option of taking back the domain name.

Why Does it Work?

DPS works so well because it harnesses both direct traffic, which is the staple of most domainers’ incomes, and search engine traffic.  As domainers understand all too well, Google and the other search engines are consistently devaluing parked domains.  Why?  Because they create a level of frustration for people searching for something specific.  You know personally that when you go to Google and type in your key term, but the only result you get is an ad site, you’re disappointed.  You also know that is occurring less and less, because Google is ensuring that its results do take you directly to what you want.  DPS solves that problem by allowing you to be the destination, not just a gate along the road. 

ClickShops Limiting Factors

ClickShops focuses on product sites.  While it will sometimes consider DPS arrangements with exceptional non-product domain names, its focus is on products.  And it only works with “keyterm.com” domain names.  In other words, the target search term must appear in the URL alone, with a .com extension.  GunSafes.com and MassageChairs.com are great examples.

Furthermore, the search volume must be significant, at least 200 per day for the exact term, as measured by WordTracker.  ClickShops will sometimes make exceptions for exceptional terms, where per-order revenue is high, but as a rule, the 200-search requirement is fixed.

Finally, ClickShops accepts only a limited number of sites for DPS development each quarter.  ClickShops is currently accepting applications for the next calendar quarter.  We reserve the right to develop only the sites we choose in our sole and absolute discretion.

How Long Does It Take?

Depending on the level of the competition and the history of the name (how long it has been registered, whether it has been banned by Google, etc.), keyterm.com names can take anywhere from three to 12 months to reach page one in Google.   In the meantime, ClickShops usually agrees to pay the domainer each month an amount equal to twice the average amount the domainer earned parking the site in the 12 months prior to signing up with ClickShops.

Do I Keep Control of the Domain?

Because ClickShops is devoting so much time and money to building the domain, it must assure that the owner cannot transfer the site while ClickShops is working on it.  Consequently, ClickShops either requires that a third party escrow service control the site during the DPS term or that other satisfactory arrangements be made, subject to the owner’s approval.

ClickShops also prefers to receive an option to purchase the site for a set period of time.  That amount is also agreed at the beginning of the term, so the domainer can know what to expect.

How is ClickShops Different?

To our knowledge, ClickShops is the ONLY company offering this service to domainers.  So in one sense, everything is different.  However, we expect others will follow our example.  But knock-offs will not be able to match our background in website development, search engine optimization, and customer service.  We urge you to visit our corporate site www.ClickShops.com and visit many of our niche stores.  You’ll find features not found on other sites, and when you call our customer service representatives, you’ll find they are professional, courteous, and knowledgeable about the products we offer.  This is the perfect combination for profit-sharing domainers.

Another big difference is that ClickShops has a history of developing and marketing its own sites successfully.  Just go into Google and type in “gun safes,” “massage chairs,” “garage cabinets,” and “computer desks.”  For those and thousands of other terms, you’ll find our sites at the top of page one.  We have a proven record unmatched in the industry.

Finally, we invite you to come to our new store and offices in beautiful Sandpoint, Idaho.  You’ll see that we are real people and understand how to do real business to benefit everybody involved.  

What Do I Do Now?

If you have a good keyterm.com name and good search traffic (at least 200 searches per day), and would like a DPS proposal from ClickShops, please go to the application page and submit an application.  We will get back to you as soon as we're able to do some research on your URL.