Millions of domains are registered every year and a large proportion of these domain names are never developed into websites. They remain parked, using displaying pay per click (PPC) advertisements. When a visitor to the domain name, clicks on one of the advertising links, the owner of the domain name is credited for the same.
Over the last year, the revenue from the parked domain names has reduced by more than 50% in many cases. while this is partly due to the recessionary economic conditions in many countries, many of the advertising feed providers like Google have also reduced the amount they pay. Since they now have an option, many advertisers opt out of advertising on the parked domain.
Earlier, many large portfolio domain owners earned a substantial amount every month in parking revenues. Most of these domains were purchased for resale to either end user or resellers of domains. As the parking revenues have decreased, they are looking at other options for monetizing their domain names.
Development of the domain names into either mini sites or full fledged websites is one of the main options under consideration. However, development of any domain name takes a lot of time and effort. Also PPC advertising is no longer a reliable source of revenue even for developed sites, so it is important to develop the sites in such a manner that they break even quickly.