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web hosting media

giuseppe-grillea-namedriveSome say that there are big money in domain after market. I would admit that I used to underestimate this niche and even when I was executive of a web hosting company, we never used expired customer’s domain to park them and to squeeze some money from them. But probably I wasn’t good enough for the job. Because Giuseppe Grillea from NameDrive. I met him on WebhostingDay 2009 in Cologne and he told me that many people used to earn money from their parked domains. It is the same with the company he works for. It makes a lot of money from the domain after market.

If you have to explain what NameDrive is with one sentence what would you tell you prospective customers?

Domain monetization, we create mini-web sites for empty domains and pack them with pay per click advertisements and domain brokerage services where we buy and sell domains for our customers or we put them at auction. Wow that was a long sentence.

Who the other companies, a competitors of yours on the domain parking and after market?

Sedo, Domain Sponsor, Parked, Hitfarm and many others.

Tell me more about NDX Market?

NDX Market is our platform where customers can buy and sell domains. You can buy the domains at a BuyNow price or in an auction. It is very simple to use and it is a free service. Using NDX Market you can also ask our brokers to help with the transaction for premium domains, in exchange of a moderate fee which covers also escrow fees and all the paperwork.

You said there is no contracts. So how do you then guarantee the client’s account In terms of payments and protection of their property?

When you sign up/open an account su NDX Market you agree to our Terms of Service which guarantee the protection of payments and property.  See the link: http://www.namedrive.com/txt_terms/Namedrive_Terms_and_Conditions_en.html

By the way in parking there is no exchange of property. The domains are in our clients’control at all times. They only point the DNS to our servers.

There is something like consulting service on NameDrive’s website called MisterBlog. Would you explain what is this?

Mister Blog keeps our clients and people in the industry updated on our industry. Mister Blogs is well loved and offers advice for free.

In general you can always talk to any of our brokers who will be happy to give you all the advice you need to manage your domains at best.

How much anyone would make from parking their domain with NameDrive on average. I mean if the domain is not that popular. Let’s say I have 10 domain that receive 3,000 visitor per month. What click ratio I would expect to have?

It all depends from the amount of traffic, conversion rate and types of products advertised on your page. Finance, credit card related will get more than say food, news, politics etc…  Also the conversion rate can vary a lot. Tourism portals always have a much higher conversion rate than a finance or electronics domain. The main point is that if you have underutilized domains you should park them and test them with different companies to see where your domain performs best.

There is only one way to find out. Park with us and you will find out :-)

You said in our conversation before the interview that your clients can sell even your domain names… ?

Our corporate partners, hosting and registrar can sell our 5,000,000 domains on their platforms if they choose to integrate with our system in exchange for a big portion of the sales commission. Individuals non corporate clients cannot sell our domains… but they can buy them :D

How long does it take for a customer of yours to get their money? Let’s say someone made $120 for the month of March. When they can expect to get their earning?

You will receive your $120 on the 15th of the following month: on the 15th of  April in your example.

It was good to talk to you. Tell me now do you use NameDrive for your own domains  :)  and send your message to domain name owners.

Of course I would not trust anybody else with my domain investments but our company! Thank you for your time and interview and I hope to see you soon.