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In a recent article I provided a path for parking companies so that by TRAFFIC New York next year we could have standards and transparency in the industry.
 Many domainers may not be aware that the lack of transparency is reducing the value of their domain portfolios, which is never a good thing! The fastest way that we can all increase the value of our portfolios is to introduce standards that are adhered to industry wide. I have a great amount of faith in domainers, who like a lion are waking up and are about to roar and say, "Enough is enough! We don't just ask for standards, we demand them!"
A cynical person could say that the reason why there aren't any standards in domain parking is because it's in a parking company's interest to maintain a "black box" and hide the true value they are extracting from domains. I personally think that it's more likely the fact that there is a perception in parking companies that if a standard is adopted then they will be revealing trade secrets and lose a potential competitive advantage.
From my experience in chairing the online advertising standards task force in Australia that many of these concerns about competitive advantage vanish as additional revenue begins to flow from advertisers.
I was speaking with Rick Schwartz last week and we had a really productive discussion around how to bring transparency and standards into the industry. As many of you know Rick is one of the founders of the TRAFFIC conferences and the theme of the Las Vegas event in Feb 2008 will be "transparency".
Can I be ever bold to suggest that if you've ever had a falling out with Rick and Howard then I would recommend that you put it aside and go to the conference as I believe that it will be a MUST go to event. Business is business and my view is that I've never had a higher return on my investment then by attending TRAFFIC and dealing face-to-face with other domainers.
In a new series of articles I will endeavour to unpack the whole notion of standards as the launching point for transparency. Without standards we won't have a methodology to measure whether a parking company is being transparent.
I believe that standards will need to be developed and agreed to for:
- What should be reported back to domainers
- Traffic - what is a unique vs. a URL vs. content request etc.
- Clicks - What clicks are counted and what aren't
- Earnings Per Click - How is this calculated on a click by click basis
- Earnings as a percentage of an advertising partners revenue - How is this measured?
- Pop-under revenue - when is a pop-under counted or not counted?
- RPM - how should RPM actually be counted?
- And the list goes on and on.
Our goal should be to raise the bar for parking companies so that we all (including the parking company) can earn additional revenues by legitimizing the domain advertising channel. This happened to the online advertising industry back in 2003 and it has never looked back as the massive influx of revenue has flooded the industry.
At the moment due to advertising pressure Google has provided a mechanism for advertisers to opt-out of the domain channel. This situation needs to be reversed as advertisers are educated into the benefits of a standards based advertising medium that delivers results.
As I'm sure that you can appreciate this will not be a small task but one that will involve everyone's input. Please, please, please don't stand on the sidelines but I encourage you to contribute to the discussion in a positive manner for all our benefit. No idea will be regarded as stupid as long as it is expressed in a considerate manner.
Wiki: Rick Schwartz, TRAFFIC, Howard Neu
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