2013-07-09

Aftermarket.com offers new domain parking program integrated with sales platform.

Last month Aftermarket.com, a Thought Convergence company, launched its new Park & Sell program. Clients can park their domains with Aftermarket and integrate them into its domain name sales platform.

I reached out to Thought Convergence CEO Ammar Kubba to learn more about the new offering.

DNW: Will TrafficZ, Thought Convergence’s existing domain parking platform, remain a separate program?

Kubba: Yes, TrafficZ will continue to operate as a separate, independent monetization platform. Different upstream providers and monetization partners offer unique implementation flexibilities and rights, while also mandating different implementation requirements. As such, it makes sense for us to continue to maintain and operate both platforms, each based upon the unique needs of our individual clients.

DNW: Do you have to list your domains for sale with Aftermarket in order to use the parking?

Kubba: Our primary goal at Aftermarket is to facilitate the buying, selling, and leasing of domain names and websites. If our clients don’t list their domains, then we can’t help them (or us) achieve that goal. You can still park with Aftermarket, even if you don’t list your domains in the marketplace, but you won’t get access to our premium monetization feed or certain other premium features and functionality. As we all know, the more distribution and exposure that we can provide for your domains, the greater the likelihood of a successful transaction, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain by listing.

3. There’s a lot of competition out there for parking and selling, e.g. Sedo, Afternic and Domain Name Sales. What makes Aftermarket better?

Kubba: We’re no strangers to competition… we’ve been around since the beginning of parking, and we were amongst the first to innovate in the space. With Aftermarket, we’ve already begun to innovate the secondary market, and we’re not going to rest until we’ve achieved our goals. What makes us better, in my opinion, is our background, experience, hunger, and willingness to change the game. While some of the others may have also been around for years, they may not have the parking and monetization experience that we do. On their platforms, parking is more of an afterthought than a focus. We’re bringing our 10+ years of highly-specialized parking experience to Aftermarket, and layering it on top of a fresh, innovative, and (hopefully) disruptive marketplace.

Just a few soon-to-be-released features include: multiple, customizable seller financing options for all listings on Aftermarket; multiple, customizable domain leasing options for all listings on Aftermarket; an affiliate program that pays our clients for any Aftermarket sales that originate through their traffic, whether the domain sold is theirs or not; a seamlessly-integrated, fully-licensed online escrow service; a domain monitoring (and eventually management) portal for your entire portfolio, whether it’s parked with Aftermarket or not; and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

DNW: A lot of people are willing to forgo some parking revenue in order to have bigger for sale messages on their landers. Some are even interested in landers that don’t have any ads, just a big for sale sign. What sort of options do you provide.

Kubba: We’ve been seeing that trend lately, as well. Especially as average domain sales typically yield multiples from hundreds to millions times annual parking revenue, it’s in everybody’s best interest to continually turn over a portion of their inventory. As I mentioned earlier, our primary goal at Aftermarket is to facilitate the transaction of domain names and websites. Everything we do on our platform is designed, engineered, and geared towards that goal. All of our landers, by default, have prominent “Buy this domain name at Aftermarket.com” or similar messaging, as well as inquiry links in the footer, as seen at Caddy.com. Of course, we also offer the option to bypass the parking lander entirely and go directly to the listing page, as seen at OnTheCusp.com. Domains using our Park & Sell platform also benefit from our SEO efforts which specifically target highly-qualified organic search traffic and visitors, and, as always, we’re constantly developing and testing unique landing and listing pages to optimize for different types of domains, traffic, and visitors.

DNW: In your view, what’s the ONE best reason for people to try Aftermarket Park & Sell?

Kubba: That’s easy… a better user experience for you and for your prospective buyers. We believe that Aftermarket clients will earn more from their domain assets, either through increased parking revenues, increased domain sales, or both.

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