Domain parking is not something we advocate here, however it does have its place as a holding area for domains that are waiting to be developed or sold. I have listed the top domain parking companies below. You should visit their websites and familiarize yourself with the ‘look and feel’ of the different parking companies’ layouts. Test your domains at several different services and then consolidate at three to five different services. It’s amazing how drastically performance will vary by moving a name from one parking company to another. Unfortunately, there is no magic formula – its all trial and error.

My preferred parking companies:

Domain Sponsor
Text only landing pages. Auto-optimizing layouts. Excellent reports.

Fabulous
Good provider, but unfortunately, I don’t think they accept new applicants anymore.

GoDaddy Cash Parking
Good for international domains. They charge to enter their program though. That’s bogus.

NameDrive
Excellent layouts. Park and Sell program lets buyers see stats and bid on your names.

Parked.com
Payouts twice per month. Excellent templates. Upload your own photos. Good for adult.

SedoPro
Good for international payouts. Excellent reports. Invite only. Must get an invite.

At this stage in the game, you can safely assume that 99.9% of the good names have already been registered and that you’re not going to become the next Rockefeller by going out and hand registering a bunch of names. I learned this the hard way. Don’t make the same mistake. The renewal fees will kill you.

If you have $1,000 to invest in domain names, it is always better to take your time and buy just one or two really great domain names for $1,000 than to hand register 125 names for $8 each. From then on, you’ll be on the hook for $1,000 per year to renew your 125 names instead of just $8 or $16 per year to renew your one or two great domains.

Since so many domainers are overextended right now, if you have a little bit of cash, you can buy some great domains in the $500 – $1,000 range from domain investors in the aftermarket or at auctions. The only time you should hand register a domain is if you are 100% sure you’ll develop it.