email received voodoo.com parking

[chrisofmel]

got a email from voodoo.com a new parking company they accept idn domains they also said they are currently paying out 95% to domain holders. any body try them yet?

[Steve Clarke]

Just signed up, to try them out, this morning...haven't heard back yet.

[sarcle]

For allowing IDN they don't accept Unicode when you sign-up. That's worrisome.

I keep getting *we require at least 10 sample domains ಠ_ಠ

Strike one.

[sarcle]

Eh, just finished the application with.

forget.com
it.com
yoursite.com
doesntaccept.com
unicode.com
Icantbearsed.com
toconvertthem.com
intopunycode.com
goodluck.com
withyourparkingsite.com

If anyone has any luck with them let us know.

[Steve Clarke]

LOL...Some pretty good names there

[chrisofmel]

terry,

Not sure if you had heard or not, but I recently started my own Google based
parking company after I got tired of fighting with the declining payouts from
Yahoo. And I know you were one of my customers for years and I wanted to see if
you were interested in trying out Voodoo.com? Right now we are paying 95% of
everything we earn out to our partners and this is translating to about a 300%
increase for people who have been using a Yahoo feed.



Google does a lot of things that Yahoo never supported, like choosing between 1
click and 2 click and full support for all countries.



But the numbers have been really good for everybody so far. If you are
interested in getting an account just signup at voodoo.com or send me a
username/password that you are interested in and I can just create you an
account on the backend.



Just let me know if you have any questions.



Hope you are doing well.



Donny Simonton

[chrisofmel]

yea i will have to check into it further.

[sarcle]

LOL...Some pretty good names there

Thanks Steve! I'm still awaiting my confirmation! Fingers crossed.

[blastfromthepast]

Punycode.

[Clotho]

Donny Simonton has applied for an account here and is just waiting on approval so he can discuss this with us directly.

Other people I have talked to speak highly of him.

[squirrel]

For allowing IDN they don't accept Unicode when you sign-up. That's worrisome.

I keep getting *we require at least 10 sample domains ಠ_ಠ

Strike one.

Does the UI support unicode ? I can't stand Bodis listing domains in punycode only. Unicode is a must

[sarcle]

Does the UI support unicode ? I can't stand Bodis listing domains in punycode only. Unicode is a must

Don't know. But I'm guessing it doesn't if their sign-up can't even handle it. Hopefully we find out some more. It sounds promising.

[tee1]

Donny Simonton has applied for an account here and is just waiting on approval so he can discuss this with us directly.

Other people I have talked to speak highly of him.

Will try and get his approval expedited. They don't let me handle the classified info around here :confused: or I would beam him aboard the kool-aid factory

[bwhhisc]

Will try and get his approval expedited. They don't let me handle the classified info around here :confused: or I would beam him aboard the kool-aid factory

He is showing as registered user....welcome aboard Donny.

[alpha]

Punycode.

I just parked a couple of hundred domains there. but yes, just noticed they only show punycode in the banners. :no:

[DktoInc]

anyone try parking .рф yet?

[Donny]

Sorry guys, was watching football last night and feel asleep. I talked to one of the members here yesterday and he explained the issues that you were having with our signup form. Before we went live we had 3 customers who had IDN's test everything out with us and none of them ever had any issues, but I do remember asking one of them if they put in the domains as punycode or IDN's and they said they preferred punycode. So we went that route.

On Monday we will try to come up with a solution that works for everybody. I know that if today you put in the punycode option, when you pull up the domain we do show the IDN domain correctly. So it's really just our interface we have to work out this issue on. I don't think it will be too hard and will probably take us only a day or so to get it worked out.

I'll keep ya'll updated.

Donny

[Donny]

Also I need to verify with Google that they support IDN.IDN, I haven't even asked that one yet.

Donny

[alpha]

Sorry guys, was watching football last night and feel asleep. I talked to one of the members here yesterday and he explained the issues that you were having with our signup form. Before we went live we had 3 customers who had IDN's test everything out with us and none of them ever had any issues, but I do remember asking one of them if they put in the domains as punycode or IDN's and they said they preferred punycode. So we went that route.

On Monday we will try to come up with a solution that works for everybody. I know that if today you put in the punycode option, when you pull up the domain we do show the IDN domain correctly. So it's really just our interface we have to work out this issue on. I don't think it will be too hard and will probably take us only a day or so to get it worked out.

I'll keep ya'll updated.

Donny

I don't think anyone is complaining about Punycode in the control panel UI

the issue is the landing pages (the page the end user sees) has punycode in the banners

[Donny]

I have no idea why it's doing that, I'll have it either fixed tonight or tomorrow morning.

This was working last week perfectly fine.

Donny

[DktoInc]

Also I need to verify with Google that they support IDN.IDN, I haven't even asked that one yet.

Donny


Sorry to hear, but when you were testing Idns compatibility what were you thinking about? symbols? ex. ᕀ.com or football?

[Donny]

hahaha. :)

We were testing with real customers at the time, and the customers we had did not have any idn.idn. I did verify that we asked at one point if they supported them, but I didn't get a response, which is why they didn't make our final checklist when we went live.

I have already sent an email to my contacts today to see if they support them or not, if they say they are fine, then we will add support for .idn. If not then we can't support them.

Donny

[Clotho]

Hi Donny,

Good to see you here. I was the one you spoke to yesterday.

Unicode on the landing pages is the first concern of course. I think Unicode in the control panel would be preferred by most. The punycode doesn't mean anything to me but the Unicode sure does. I also like the option to place notes for each domain so I can have the translation handy.

[Ryu]

I think Unicode in the control panel would be preferred by most.

I think anyone who can read the language of their IDNs prefer Unicode. It's too much a pain to use puny-converter all the time to optimize and to know which name is earning how much.

[bumblebee man]

I think anyone who can read the language of their IDNs prefer Unicode. It's too much a pain to use puny-converter all the time to optimize and to know which name is earning how much.

Even if you can't read it unicode is better because after a while you'll recognize your babies. Well, the better ones at least. Punycode just doesn't mean anything to anyone.

[IDNer]

I've get my Voodoo ticket and get into my [Domain Manager] control panel -

And it really bring me headache to face the punycode when I try to manage my parking domains...

[Donny]

First thing we did fix the unicode version showing on the domains this morning. We will be talking about the best solution for the interface today and see what we can come up with.

Donny

[IDNer]

First thing we did fix the unicode version showing on the domains this morning. We will be talking about the best solution for the interface today and see what we can come up with.

Donny



Could you please show us some of the Voodoo parking page? (especially the IDN Domains - if there have any) I feel interested to have a look

[Donny]

I'm not allowed to publically post domains that I do not own without the owners permission.

Donny

[blastfromthepast]

I don't think the use of the domain voodoo.com for a parking site is the best use of this domain. Why not sell items related to voodoo?

[Donny]

I don't think the use of the domain voodoo.com for a parking site is the best use of this domain. Why not sell items related to voodoo?

When you go to amazon.com, do you think about buying a boat for your trip on the amazon river. How about when you go to oyster.com, do you think you are going to eat some oysters? :)

There are thousands of other examples, we just decided that the concept of "parking" may not be around forever. But we plan on the business being around for a long time. So let's make the name more memorable.

Donny

[mulligan]

Any increase in revenue anyone?

[sarcle]

Any increase in revenue anyone?

This!

Would also like to hear if people are earning more. I got my rejection email for being a smart-ass. But would like to know if it's worth it before I fill out the form again.

Oh, and welcome to the boards Donny.

[Steve Clarke]

I placed a few domains over to test them.
I havent optimised all of them...but I have honestly tried to set up 4 or 5.
One is a Golf related Japanese domain, with a few uniques/day.

Other than the domain name at the top, I have no Japanese. or Japanese ads on any of the optimised whatsoever.
When optimising at Bodis, Japanese ads show immediately.
3 days in and still no Japanese.
Other languages look to be the same.

There is no spot for a Hebrew keyword.

Maybe down the road...but right now it needssome work to be done to make it IDN friendly, IMHO.

[blastfromthepast]

When you go to amazon.com, do you think about buying a boat for your trip on the amazon river. How about when you go to oyster.com, do you think you are going to eat some oysters? :)

For many years I avoided buying books on amazon.com because the name didn't really click in my mind as having to do with books. I'm sure amazon wasn't thinking the same way, but to this day, the name doesn't make sense for me, and I actually prefer to use other sites to buy. All common sense psychology and marketing really.

[Ryu]

We will be talking about the best solution for the interface today and see what we can come up with.

Donny

It's best if you can show both Unicode and punycode in the UI, but if that's difficult I think you should simply replace punycode with Unicode. That's how it is at NameDrive and Sedo and I've not seen any serious IDNer complaining about it.

Unicode = Some can read it.
Punycode = Nobody can read it.

JMHO, but I think it's obvious which one works better.

[Drewbert]

Punycode just doesn't mean anything to anyone.

I beg to differ. It does to me.

The best option is to allow either in input fields, and list BOTH in reports.

[DktoInc]

I beg to differ. It does to me.

The best option is to allow either in input fields, and list BOTH in reports.

+1

[Donny]

Our plan will be implemented tomorrow. We will be accepting input from ascii or idn domains and we will be storing them in both formats. So if you put in the punycode version we will accept it and show you the domains in unicode format, if you put them in unicode we will show them to you in unicode as well.

It should be done by tomorrow afternoon.

I will let everybody know when it's available.

Also somebody mentioned that their domains were not showing country specific keywords, if you find that please let me know with some examples.

Thanks.

Donny

[Ryu]

Our plan will be implemented tomorrow. We will be accepting input from ascii or idn domains and we will be storing them in both formats. So if you put in the punycode version we will accept it and show you the domains in unicode format, if you put them in unicode we will show them to you in unicode as well.


That's great, Donny!

It would also be nice if you could give us an option to disable 2 click ads shown in the sidebar of 1-click landers. I discovered that quite a few of those automatically generated keywords actually don't show any ads at all when they are clicked upon (and when they do, PPC is usually very very low, probably due to limited competition).

In my experience, 2-click AFS (adsense for search) ads generally don's work well with IDNs, or at least with my Japanese IDNs. I tried them with DomainSponsor and the result was awful. NameDrive uses different system for 2-click ads (I think they are RS feeds which shows adsense for content ads when they are clicked upon), and theirs work well with my IDNs, i.e., good PPC.

[Donny]

Ryu - So if I get this right, which is what I was thinking about today. And this is the way we will probably go if nobody disagrees with us.

1. All IDN's will be 1 click landers.
2. We have created a "master" keyword and we will set that keyword to the unicode from the domain. You will still be able to change the keyword if you want, but this solves the problem if Google doesn't understand the punycode. This means that if you pull up a japanese idn from the US or Japan you will get the very similiar related keywords, that does not mean you will get the same ads.
3. We will automagically translate the master keyword to determine the best images to show on the domain.
4. I'll have to see if we can do this one or not in the morning. But only use AFD ads which are 1 click ads for related links.

Any problems with this?

Donny

[Ryu]

It's great to see you so responsive, Donny.

Here's what I think about your plan.


I don't think it's necessary to force all IDNs to use 1 click landers. You already give us options to choose either 1-click or 2 click landers, so I'm happy with the way it is.
That's good.
Excellent. If you could do that, you'd be the only parking company that offers IDNers with righ images without manual optimization. I really like that.
I'm not entirely sure if I understand what you mean by "AFD ads which are 1 click ads for related links" correctly. But it sounds like what I want.

[Donny]

I would rather make sure we have something that everybody here would like to use, then something that you don't want to use at all. Hope that makes sense.

There are two types of feeds from Google and AFD one and an AFS. AFD is best described as a content match feed, there are ads 100% of the time. AFS is like the ads that show up on Google.com. The reason it would be better to do 1 click and show only afd ads, is that you will always have results, no matter what country you are in.

Maybe what we can do on our side is default all IDN's to 1 click, and give you the option to change them.

Donny

[squirrel]

Japanese traffic could perhaps benefit from the adsense for search feed. Lots of competition for certain keyword and high bids.

[blastfromthepast]

We will automagically translate the master keyword to determine the best images to show on the domain.

Any problems with this?

Donny

Automatic translation of master keywords produces substandard results. You'll need someone to translate them by hand.

[Ryu]

I remember now. We actually worked with NameDrive in the past to translate their "related searches" into various languages. (http://www.idnforums.com/forums/19982-namedrive-rs-go-live.html) NameDrive includes manually selected strong (high PPC) keywords in their related searches. Come to think of it, I think that's why their 2-click ads work well with IDNs.

If you just use AFD feeds for related searches, they often churn out oddly phrased keywords and unrelated ads. That could be as non-performing as AFS feeds. So I can't really say which one works better.

Personally I'd like to have an option to disable "related searches" altogether. Then I can decide independently if I want to show related searches ads based on strength of keywords, relevance, etc.

[Ryu]

Automatic translation of master keywords produces substandard results. You'll need someone to translate them by hand.

I think automatic translation is fine for the purpose of matching photos. Sure, it won't be perfect. But then, we can always manually choose photos we like should the system fail.

[Donny]

As I mentioned, our interface, signup form and add domains form now all accept and display unicode correctly. We are still working on the "search" functionality, it still is showing the punycode version.

As far as 1 click or 2 click we are going to stick with how we do things in the past for now. We will not be defaulting everybody to 1 click like I had mentioned we might do.

We are working on the automatic image selection for the domains which should be done today or tomorrow.

I think that is all for now.

Donny

[Ryu]

I tried adding a couple of IDNs using unicode format. It works perfectly. :)

BTW, do you not accept adult names? I added a few adult Japanese IDNs to VooDoo but no ads show up in landing pages.

[Ryu]

I'm wondering why voodoo doesn't accept keywords separated with comma. (It says "Keywords should not be a comma separated list")

All major parking services I use (Adsense for Domains, NameDrive and Sedo) do accept multiple keywords separated with comma (up to 4 words, I think). Is there something unique about the way you serve ads compared to others?

[Donny]

Ryu,
PM me the domain. Sometimes the problem is Google thinks it's a non-adult domain, but it's really adult. So we can tell them and then the adult ads will show up.

I'll get the comma issue sorted out. I can see it from both sides of the fence. I'll let you know what we decide.

Donny

[Ryu]

Adult ads show up properly when I park them on Sedo or NameDrive, so I doubt if it's got anything to do with what G thinks. I'll pm you names of two sample domains for your reference. Both are adult names. When I park them elsewhere, Google thinks one is adult and the other non-adult, and serves ads accordingly.

[Donny]

Ryu - Thanks. Also we have implemented the ability to add commas or multipel keywords now as well.

Donny

[Ryu]

Nice. Thank you Donny. Please also let us know when you have implemented:

3. We will automagically translate the master keyword to determine the best images to show on the domain.

[sarcle]

Maybe a little quicker on your application processing? I've been waiting well over 24 hours when you only claim an hour and I've already filled out the info twice!

Cheers

[Donny]

Our system if you are approved you will find out within 15 minutes, if you don't hear anything from us in 15 minutes, we have to manually approve it or it's going to be rejected.

I went ahead and manually approved yours because it was rejected before.

Donny

[sarcle]

Our system if you are approved you will find out within 15 minutes, if you don't hear anything from us in 15 minutes, we have to manually approve it or it's going to be rejected.

I went ahead and manually approved yours because it was rejected before.

Donny


Thanks Donny.

[sarcle]

Guess I'll be removing my domains from your parking service today. Thanks for letting me try it Donny.

On the 10 domains I moved my CTR dropped from 30% to 9%.
My PPC went from .29 cents to .05 cents.

So effectively I just threw $15 dollars away yesterday from Namedrive for $1.28 in revenue at Voodoo. Well, nothing at all really since I need $20 just to clear the check at voodoo. And I'm not waiting 20 days to make that money when I can make that in a single day on these domains at Namedrive.

Good luck with your service. I know I won't be trying new parking services anymore until they've proved themselves.

Cheers

[Donny]

Sarcle - Not sure what the issue could have been, maybe you had the keywords set differently at namedrive, I'm not sure.

But one thing we added this morning based on requests from here and a few other IDN specific customers, now when you have a domain with us by default it will show ads from the language of the domain. So if you have a japanese idn, it will show japanese ads even if you pull it up from the US. You do have the option to turn this off, but this will be on by default.

Donny

[has2hands]

i am firm believer that google and parking companies will review your traffic for the 1st week or two and then gradually pay respectable earnings per click.

not always pretty and painful but maybe in long run works out for the best. once traffic gets quantified, earnings do increase.

$.01 and $.05 per click acts as "placeholders".

i am slowly experimenting with voodoo.com, so no comments directed towards them.

[blastfromthepast]

If all parking companies use the same Google feed, then how can they offer anything different from each other? With the black box system in place now, nobody knows what Google is taking and the crumbs are left to everyone else down the line on the food chain.

Looking at Yahoo Japan ads, we know that some of these domains are keywords for $XXX clicks. Yet, high value clicks from Google are very rare.

[squirrel]

For starters there is a difference the CPC for Adsense for Search clicks and Adsense for Domains clicks. I'm pretty sure the Yahoo Japan too would command higher CPCs for search ads than anything else.

[alpha]

i just noticed i received a $9.55 for 1 click a couple of weeks ago at Voodoo :yes:

[Clotho]

I never did move over there. How are you finding them?

[chrisofmel]

i just noticed i received a $9.55 for 1 click a couple of weeks ago at Voodoo :yes:

very nice

[alpha]

I never did move over there. How are you finding them?

can't say really. I've only moved names there that don't perform anywhere else, and this one stood out as being exceptional - hence why I mentioned it

I might move all my ex-AFD names there, haven't decided yet