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Statement by the ICANN advisory committee ALAC:

On Domain Monetization
We note that there is a meaningful difference between Domain Tasting and Domain Monetization. Monetization is a straightforward arbitrage between the cost of domain registrations and the revenue from as much pay-per-click traffic as the domain owner can get from people who visit web sites in the domain. It’s a fundamentally sleazy business, since the web sites have no useful content and the way they get the traffic is basically by tricking people, either via typos or recently expired domains. More importantly, the presence of such website makes web-surfing by ordinary users far more difficult and confusing than they should be.

Sure, developed web sites might be nicer and more useful than parking pages, but this does not mean that domain monetization is a “sleazy business” or in any way misleading people. Quite the contrary is the case. What is more useful: An error message saying that a domain that has not yet been developed does not resolve or a parking page with targeted links that help the visitors find what they are looking for? The answer is very obvious, in my opinion.

You can read the full ALAC statement here: http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org/2007q1/000431.html

The following is the Domain Owners’ Bill of Rights as it was developed by the Internet Commerce Association (ICA):

1. Having paid the full cost of registration, Domain Owners will not have their rights or interests trampled upon by others who covet their assets.

2. The wishes and intentions of Domain Owners must be considered in decisions affecting the property or contract rights or taxation of their Domains.

3. Domain Owners, acting in good faith, shall have the right to have Domain Ownership claims heard by an efficient, industry-aware, objective, and equitable body of competent jurisdiction.

4. Domain Ownership conveys no right to abrogate law, ethics, and time honored industry practices.

5. Domain Owners have the right to be protected and catered to in the transfer and ownership of Domains, in Domain Disputes, and against Domain Hi-Jacking.

6. Domain Owners shall have the full cooperation of Domain Registrars and Registries when they request transfer of their Domains between Owners or Registrars.

7. Domain Owners shall have the full cooperation of Domain Registrars and Registries in promptly returning stolen Domains to the rightful Owner.

8. Domain Owners are entitled to protection against reverse hi-jacking attempts. Owners forced to defend against such actions shall be entitled to recover their expenses when arbitration panels, courts, or legal bodies of agreed upon jurisdiction rule that that an attempted reverse-hijacking has occurred. The Domain Owner should also be awarded punitive damages from the party initiating a reverse hijacking attempt.

9. Domain Owners shall not be deprived of their property & contract rights without full due process of law, and shall be entitled to full and just compensation in those rare instances when deprivation occurs

10. ICANN’s powers shall be confined solely to the limited and distinct mission set out in its ByLaws of technical coordination of the domain name system and policy development as it is reasonably and appropriately related to that narrow technical function. All other aspects of legal use and enjoyment of domain names should be reserved and protected by traditional law and regulation for those who have paid for the registration rights - Domain Owners.

The ICA is a business organization that represents the rights of domain owners and web entrepreneurs. You can now join the ICA. For more information on becoming a member go to http://www.internetcommerce.org/membership_application.

Google announced the testing of a new pay-per-action (PPA) advertising service yesterday. So far, Google has primarily sold PPC ads, but the launch of a new PPA service has long been rumored.

PPA reduces click fraud to a minimum, because advertisers only need to pay when the visitors coming through the advertising links actually perform some sort of action (e.g. fill out a form, purchase a product). Therefore, PPA is more profitable and secure for online advertisers. In the long run, advertisers will probably migrate from PPC to PPA. This will result in direct navigation traffic going up in value, as targeted type-in traffic converts better than traffic from search engines or links. After all, Google’s new advertising product will increase the value of quality generic domains, while junk traffic domains will go down in value.

Although Google isn’t doing this yet, it is possible that Google’s system will automatically rotate CPM, PPC and PPA ads at some point in the future to generate the highest revenue possible for publishers and domain owners. Hopefully, this combination of advertising models will then be made available to domain parking programs, making it easier for owners of generic domains to optimize the parking performance of their portfolio.

Google also announced a new text link format for PPA ads which will allow webmasters to place PPA text links within the content of their site:

Text links are hyperlinked brief text descriptions that take on the characteristics of a publisher’s page. Publishers can place them in line with other text to better blend the ad and promote your product.

For example, you might see the following text link embedded in a publisher’s recommendatory text: “Widgets are fun! I encourage all my friends to buy a high-quality widget today.” (Mousing over the link will display “Ads by Google” to identify these as pay-per-action ads).

Though the maximum length of a text link is 90 characters, we’ve found that shorter links perform better because they allow the publisher use the link in more places on her/his site and in different context. The maximum length is 90 characters but less than 5 words is best. Even better, just use your brand name to offer maximum flexibility to the publisher.

Google currently accepts applications for their AdWords and AdSense PPA beta tests:

Beta Test Requirements: At this time, the pay-per-action beta test is only available to advertisers in the United States. In addition, you must already be using conversion tracking or be able to implement conversion tracking code on your website so that we can track your completed actions.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin adding advertisers to our beta test.

You can signup for the beta test here.