Today, millions of purchased domain sites names are sitting unused with no real web designs or concrete purpose coupled with them. Why would not owners engage a web-hosting domain-parking hotel so they can earn money through eyeballs advertising or click revenue while their sites sits unused? Parking hotels claim access to passive domain monetization through advertising programs tailored to generate revenue via automatic web page generations containing tailored advertisement.
When visitors access these web sites, revenue is generated for domain owners. This study sought to investigate if parking hotels’ advertising claim, that you can make money through them, carries substance. Hence, is it possible to generate sufficient revenue using a parking hotel’s advertising revenue model to pay for the cost of domain ownership and, if possible, generate excess revenue?
The study’s epistemological approach, trying to distinguish the truth about the hotels’ claims, stems from a ontological discussion around web hosting hotels’ advertising vehicle existence and its ability to generates revenue. The study challenged a parking hotel’s claim through an inductive quantitative approach by watching advertising revenue for 59 domain names over 105 days.
Quantitative data concluded, through a statistical approach, that there were insufficient advertising income, approximately a nickel, to cover the annual cost of approximately $6 USD. Therefore, the study concluded that the advertising claims were misleading and recommends that sites are not purchased, or renew, for the purpose of making money through web hotels’ advertising models.
Source: Umeå University
Author: Andersson, Håkan