A parked domain is a domain name that is registered but not currently connected to an active online service like a website or email hosting. Instead of pointing to a website, parked domains usually redirect visitors to a generic page, display ads, or show an error message.

So why bother paying to register and renew domains that don’t actually do anything? As it turns out, parked domains can be extraordinarily useful.

In this guide, we’ll answer common questions about parked domains, like:

• What is a parked domain and how does it work?
• Why do people register parked domains?
• How can you monetize a parked domain?
• What are the risks and downsides?
• How do you set up and manage parked domains?
• What’s the difference between parked domains and add-on domains?

We’ll also share actionable tips to help you make the most of your parked domains, whether you’re an entrepreneur, marketer, or domain investor.

Let’s start from the beginning…

What Exactly Is a Parked Domain?

A parked domain refers to any domain name that is:

• Registered and renewed with a domain name registrar
• Not currently in use hosting a website, email, or other web service

Instead of connecting users to a functional website or service when visited, a parked domain usually shows a generic page or error message indicating that the domain name is registered but inactive.

For example, if you were to visit a parked domain in your browser, you would likely see something like:

Some domain name registrars will set up basic parked domain pages that display pay-per-click ads, while others will let you create custom parked domain pages:

Either way, the key thing that separates parked domains from regular, active domains is that parked domains are not currently linked to unique, hosted content or services.

Instead, they’re held onto for future use, protection, monetization, or investment purposes (more on why people register parked domains shortly).

Now that you know what a parked domain is at its core, let’s look at some of the main reasons people register them.

Why Do People Register Parked Domains?

There are many reasons companies and individuals intentionally register domains that they have no immediate plans to use, including:

1. Squatting on Valuable Domains

Domain names are highly valuable online real estate, especially when they closely match brands. So people and businesses will often buy up domains they think may be useful down the road, even if they have no immediate plans to launch a website or service using that domain.

By holding onto a parked domain, they prevent competitors from acquiring this domain or launching competing sites using a confusingly similar domain.

2. Protecting Brand Names and IP

Similarly, businesses will sometimes proactively buy up domain names that include their company names, product names, trademarks, etc. in order to prevent cybersquatting or trademark infringement.

Cybersquatting refers to when someone else registers domains containing others’ intellectual property or personal names with the intent to sell those domains at an inflated price.

By securing domains proactively, brands mitigate the risk of confusion, fraud, and reputation damage. These protective parked domains can redirect visitors back to the companies’ primary sites.

3. Planning New Sites or Brands

Entrepreneurs or product managers may have a business idea or startup name in mind that they want to reserve the matching .com domain for before competitors or copycats beat them to it.

They can buy and park this domain for the several months it may take to develop the initial business plan, secure funding, build a website, etc. before the new domain goes live.

4. Creating Domain Redirects

Companies often use parked domains to create domain name redirects, a technique where they register alternative domains that all route users to their one primary site.

For example, a company with the main site AcmeWidgets.com might also buy and park domains like:

• AcmeWidgets.net
• GetAcmeWidgets.com
• ShopAcmeWidgets.com

By redirecting these domains to their primary domain, they account for common user typos and anchor text URLs. This helps prevent losing traffic from users landing on error pages.

5. Temporarily Deactivating Domains

If a company decides to temporarily shut down one of its existing websites — for example, to redesign it from scratch — they may choose to park that domain rather than delete it.

That way, they retain ownership over the domain and prevent another site from potentially buying and using that dormant domain name in the meantime. The domain can then be seamlessly reactivated once the rebuilt site is ready to relaunch.

6. Monetization and Investment

Lastly, some more domain-savvy individuals or investors buy up catchy domain names with the sole intention of parking them temporarily to display ads or eventually reselling them at a profit:

• Domainers and afternic sellers may specialize in snapping up domain names and parking them temporarily just to collect ad revenue. Or they invest heavily in domains believed to be valuable that they can sell for exponentially more later.
• Domain parking services provide a turnkey way to show pay-per-click ads on your parked domains and earn ad commissions. While typically most valuable for very high traffic domains, this presents a relatively passive monetization option.

In short, there are plenty of strategic reasons — from IP protection to contingency planning and traffic redirection — why individuals or businesses intentionally register domains without plans to immediately launch an active website or service at those domains.

Now, let’s look at how you actually go about registering, managing, and monetizing parked domains.

How to Set Up, Manage & Monetize Parked Domains

The process of registering and managing parked domains is almost identical to buying and renewing domains for active sites. The only difference is what happens after securing those domains.

Here is a step-by-step overview:

1. Find Available Domains to Park

Your first step is to brainstorm target parked domain names that fit your plans or goals. As with active domains, .com top-level domains (TLDs) tend to hold the most value, but you can consider other TLDs like .net.

Check domain name availability using WHOIS lookups and ICANN checks. You can also try adding domains to your cart at registrars like GoDaddy or Namecheap to confirm whether they’re still available for registration.

If your desired domain names are already taken, you may want to reach out to the current owner via WHOIS details to inquire whether they’d be willing to sell that domain. Be prepared to negotiate, as premium domains can demand hefty price tags.

2. Buy and Park Domains

Next, purchase your desired available domain names from a domain name registrar like GoDaddy, Google Domains, Namecheap, etc.

As part of the checkout process, select domain privacy/protection if you want to keep your personal ownership details hidden. Also toggle on auto-renewal to secure that domain name for future years.

At this point with a registered domain name secured, you officially have a parked domain — albeit one not yet set up to redirect visitors or display ads.

3. Set Up Domain Redirects or Parking Pages

This next part is optional, but highly recommended:

You can configure your newly registered parked domains to display parking pages with ads, create custom parked domain pages that share updates with visitors about your plans for those domains, or set up domain redirects.

For quick domain parking pages with display ads, enable a parking service from your domain registrar like GoDaddy or Namecheap. Just be warned the ads shown may not match your domain or brand.

For more professional custom parked domain pages that reassure visitors the domain will have a future purpose, create HTML pages hosted on low-cost shared hosting plans (or upload to free GitHub Pages hosting).

Finally, to create domain name redirects where visitors automatically get sent to one of your primary active domains, configure this at your domain registrar or by updating name server (NS) records.

4. Renew Domains Before They Expire

Like active domains, parked domain names must be continually renewed each year for you to retain ownership rights over that domain.

Depending on your registrar, they may notify you via email in advance of pending domain expirations with options to renew those domains for another year or longer:

So periodically check in on domain expiration dates in your registrar account and renew parked domains you want to keep. If not, those domains may get deleted or resold to others.

5. Unpark or Sell Parked Domains When Ready

The final step when working with parked domains comes if or when you want to graduate them from their parked status into active use, or decide to offload ownership rights to another buyer.

When you’re ready to launch websites or email hosting on those domains, simply connect them to active web hosting, DNS, etc. to replace the domain parking pages.

Or alternatively, you can list parked domains for resale on aftermarket sites like Flippa or GoDaddy Auctions and transfer ownership (along with renewal fees) for domains you no longer need.

Next, I want to briefly clarify the difference between parked domains and add-on domains or aliases — two other types of secondary domains found in web hosting control panels.

Addon Domains vs Parked Domains: What’s the Difference?

If you use cPanel or Plesk web hosting, you may notice options for both add-on domains and domain aliases/parked domains in your control panel.

It’s easy to confuse addon domains and parked domains, but there’s an important difference:

• Add-on domains: Additional domains hosted on the same hosting account, used for separate websites with separate logins, content, and databases from main site
• Parked domains: Secondary domains that redirect to main site domain — NOT used for separate sites or logins

In other words:

• Add-on domains = Multiple unique sites on one hosting plan
• Parked domains = Multiple domains for the SAME site

Add-on domains are for hosting entirely separate, additional websites on your existing hosting server. This allows managing multiple sites from a single cPanel login.

Whereas parked domains are domain aliases — alternative domain names purchases that ultimately still serve the same site content as your primary domain upon visit.

Hopefully this clears up how addon domains and parked domains differ!

Now that we’ve covered the basics of what parked domains are and how they work, let’s shift gears to exploring why you may (or may not) want to use them.

The Pros and Cons of Parked Domains

Parked domains can be extraordinarily useful in the right circumstances — such as buying niche domains to resell at 10x value years later.

But parked domains also aren’t necessarily right for every situation. There are tradeoffs around usability, security, costs, and more to consider.

Let’s look at some of the notable upsides and downsides:

The Pros

Domain Investing Potential

Popular domains containing valuable keywords or brand terms can exponentially increase in resale value over time. Savvy investors buy and park domains that may be useful down the road to eventually auction at huge profits.

Low Cost

Annual domain renewal fees are reasonably inexpensive — often less than $15 per domain per year. Securing multiple domains for future ventures orredirects costs very little upfront.

IP Protection

Parking domains matching brands, products, and trademarks creates a protective barrier against scams, impersonation sites, or cybersquatting.

Contingency Planning

Parking strategic domains offers insurance if you ever need to suddenly launch new brands, alter domain structures, recover from outages, or change web hosting providers.

Ad Revenue

While typically modest for most sites, parking pages that display pay-per-click ads provide passive income that helps offset domain ownership costs. High-traffic domains can earn thousands.

The Cons

Annual Renewal Fees

Although affordable at first, renewal fees add up over decades for large domain portfolios. This makes dropping domains challenging if the costs start outweighing the value.

Security / Reputation Risks

Allowing third-parties to host content on parked domains means limited control. Questionable ads or redirects could negatively impact brand perception.

Domain Squatting Controversy

Some view buying domains without using them right away as unnecessary domain squatting. This frustrates entrepreneurs who find their perfect domains already taken.

Hosting Still Required

Redirecting domains requires maintaining some hosting plan. Failing to renew web hosting may cause domains to point nowhere, losing all redirects.

In summary, parked domains represent low-cost, low-risk investments that provide long-term flexibility and monetization upside. But over-investing in unused domains can burden you with renewals for diminishing returns.

Tips for Maximizing Parked Domain Success

Parking domains you may need in the future or as brand protection can be smart. But how do you choose which domains to buy? And how many parked domains should you aim for?

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind:

Stick To Valuable Extensions

Prioritize registering .com domains whenever possible, as these tend to hold the most value long-term. Resist the urge to bulk register domains across dozens of new TLDs.

Be Choosy When Selecting Domains

Not all domain names have equal investment potential or resale value. Focus on securing domains with objectively valuable roots like industry keywords, short catchy words, or trending tech.

Point To Strong Redirect Destinations

Use domain redirects judiciously to avoid damaging credibility. Redirect parked domains only to established authoritative sites with positive brand recognition, not random blogs or empty hosting.

Monitor Registration / Renewal Dates

Use domain management tools to stay on top of expiration dates across your portfolio. Revisit domains nearing renewal to validate keeping them versus letting expire.

Promote Parked Page Plans

Acknowledge parked status by explaining plans or timing for future site launches on parked domain pages. This demonstrates continued interest in activating the domain someday.

Consider Aftermarket Listings

If holding onto a parked domain longer-term with no website plans materializing, consider auctioning it off. Afternic, GoDaddy Auctions, and Flippa connect motivated buyers.

Key Takeaways

And there you have it — We covered everything you need to know about parked domains!

To recap, the key points about parked domains:

• Parked domains are registered domain names not currently in use hosting sites or services
• People buy and park domains to reserve valuable names, protect brands, redirect traffic, make money from ads, and domain investing
• You can set up basic domain parking pages that display ads using services from registrars like GoDaddy
• Creating custom parked domain landing pages and configuring domain redirects require web hosting
• Regularly renew parked domains you want to keep to avoid losing ownership rights
• Addon domains are for hosting additional sites on the same server; parked domains serve the same site content

Hopefully this breakdown demystifies parked domains so you can leverage them effectively for your websites and online projects!

Let me know in the comments if you have any other parked domain questions.