If you’ve purchased a few new domain names or were able to acquire a few free domains, then you may be curious about what options are available to you. Obviously the point of a domain is to build a website, but you may not have the time or desire to build a new website for every one of your addresses. Additionally, you may actually want to buy a few domains with the intent of never building a unique website at that location, and there can be some benefits to that as well. Use this quick guide to explore a few of your options when it comes to domain names.

One of the first things that you can do with free domains that you have but don’t want to develop will be to park them. You can think of parking a domain as just putting it on ice, you’re basically letting it sit there and exist but aren’t putting up any content or anything like that. Now, a parked domain can advise people that your website is coming soon and to expect it, or a parked domain can actually be a way for you to make some extra cash.

For example, let’s see you have a few free domains you got that have fairly decent SEO in terms of the keywords included in the address. You don’t have time to build websites around them, but you would like to earn some money from them if it’s possible. What you can do then is park them and use a service which places parked ads on the address. Now an elaborate series of ads related to the domain are displayed, all without any effort on your end, and when people end up at your web address, you can end up making some more money.

Two more options for your domain names will be forwarding and pointing them. Now, keep in mind that forwarding and pointing domains are essentially the same thing. You’ll have the same net result, which is that when people type in your web address or land at a certain web address, they will be immediately redirected or passed along to another web address of your choosing.

The difference between these two is how they are accomplished. Pointing domain names occurs from your web host. Forwarding domain names on the other hand occurs higher up the ladder so to speak, and is accomplished right from the domain name registrar itself. Either way, as mentioned, the same basic thing is accomplished, and you send a visitor to the new address or your choosing instead of what they typed in or clicked on.

As you can see, you’ll have a few different options available to you when you have a few extra free domains or a few domain names you purchased but aren’t building up. Whatever your reasoning is, you’ll have options to earn more money, gain more control, and even direct more traffic to your existing websites, as long as you take advantage of the right opportunities mentioned above.