What Kind of Domainer Are You?

Are you an Investor?  What about a Flipper? You might be a Monetizer? 

Found a fun post over at Media Wizard's blog that divides domainers into 7 general categories according to how they proceed with a domain after purchase.  

The categories are:

- The Investor

- The Flipper

- The Developer

- The Builder

- The Monetizer

- The Broker

- and The Provider

Here's a sample excerpt:

The Investor
"These are the sharpest of them all. Buy good quality when prices are low, hold long term, sell high. These guys hold onto assets, maybe even develop them, ensure that they’re hot and in demand when the market is totally ripe, then sell them. The advantages of emulating this type is that you can afford to sell 1% of your portfolio each year and still manage to pull in the major bucks. The downside is renewals, unless your portfolio generates enough revenue, this cost needs to be factored in. People like Frank Schilling, Rick Schwartz, Sahar Sarid, Adam Dicker, Michael Goldman and probably most of the other big ticket guys will be found in this group."

Take a moment and read the rest of the post here.

And don't forget to comment back  after you decide what category you fit into.

Personally, I think I fit into a couple of groups.  

Domain Tool of the Week: Domain Idea Box

Over at TiaWood.com, Tia has created a brand new domaining tool named the Domain Idea Box that helps domainers generate domain name ideas from a simple keyword or phrase search while also allowing unique data type parameters to be set . It's free and I'm already addicted.

The look is clean, simple, fast, powerful and straight-forward and this is why Tia's new domaining tool is our Domain Tool of the Week.

Let's take a look at in in more detail.

Still in beta, with only one text field and one button, it will take a user about 10 seconds to understand the simple elegance of using the Domain Idea Box. But don't let the simplicity fool you to what this tool can do.

First, you enter in a keyword or search phrase in the text field. Next, you have the option to search by either .com, .net, .org, .info., .tv, .biz or unfiltered.

The next step is to narrow down the data type you are searching for.

The options are:

You finish by clicking on the "Generate Ideas" button and The Domain Idea Box instantly creates multiple suggested ideas right at your fingertips for you to use. The best part is you can check availability on any of the generated results by clicking on the green checkmark box next to each given result directly with Moniker.

Free, easy and simple. And with this tool still in the beta stage, I am hoping to soon see a wider TLD extension selection available that may include .mobi, .Asia and maybe some IDN's. A choice to use other domain registrars to check availability would be nice too. All in all, this tool rocks.

One more thing. I know a lot of domainers out there are skeptical in using any sort of search/generation tool for fear of someone stealing your ideas but don't worry, Tia is a member of the ICA and adheres to a strict code of conduct of not collecting or storing any query data information. Thanks Tia.

Visit Domain Idea Box

The Evolution of Go Daddy (in pictures)

Go Daddy, the Scottsdale, Arizona based company, is by far the world's most popular domain name registrar dominating all other ICANN-accredited registrars due to competitive pricing and shrewd and sometime controversial publicity methods. 

Go Daddy was originally named Jomax Technologies, and it wasn't until late 1999 that it became an ICANN-accredited registrar.  The first domain registered by a customer at Go Daddy was GhettoJustice.com. 

I thought it would be cool to chronicle the evolution of the Go Daddy main web page from 1999-2008 to see how Go Daddy changed their marketing campaigns with the growing popularity of domaining.  All picture and date information provided courtesy of Archive.org.

Enjoy the pictorial timeline!

November 27, 1999

This is the first and original website design.  Go Daddy did not sell domain names yet so the website only offered web site development services and hosting.  For $89, you could purchase the WebSite Complete 2.5 Deluxe Edition.  

May 10, 2000

This was the first major design change for the main web page.  The emphasis was creating  your own website with no experience required.  A Real Estate Edition of their services was introduced.  Notice the lack of sexy girls integrated into the design. 

May 7, 2001

Hey, now we have some color!  A one-year .com registration was $8.95 and a 10-year was only $6.95/yr.  Crazy cheap back then!

November 27, 2001

The domain extensions .biz and .info are introduced and private email accounts cost $11. The design looks scattered and odd.  Get ready for a storm of links and buttons.

June 2, 2002

Another confusing and complicated design with a plethora of links.  It's funny how fully-dressed the female on the front page is.  Don't worry, this will change soon. 

February 7, 2003

It's been 4 years since the original website design and private registrations are going for $9 with Go Daddy offering Federal Copyright Protection for $59.95. Starting to look more and more cluttered.

December 31, 2003

There's a sale for $7.95 .com registrations instead of the regular $8.95 price.  Awards show Registrar of the Year for 2002 and 2003.  

July 1, 2004

Major design change with emphasis on the free extras you get with each new domain registration.  Hosting is now only $3.95  and Traffic Blazer is $29.95/yr. 

  

December 31, 2004

The new look of this Go Daddy main page is by far the best and easiest to navigate.  CEO Bob Parsons begins his blog and links it on the front page. 

 

November 23, 2005

It's 2005 and customers wanting to purchase Domain Privacy now pay $4.95 (was $9).  Radio Go Daddy is introduced.

March 6, 2006

Price drop on private domain registrations to $1.99.  50GB hosting is now only $6.95.  Lots of tabs, links and buttons. 

December 30, 2006

Go Daddy girl, Danica Patrick, makes and appearance and after almost 7 years, Go Daddy begins to show signs of sticking to this template design.  The Domain Name Aftermarket Auctions are integrated into the front page to drive traffic to them. 

Today 2008

And this is where we are today. This screen shot was taken on March 28,2008. Go Daddy has come a long way since their original first design in 1999. Their prices have consistently dropped and more and more services were added on a regular basis. Seems Go Daddy has also taken a liking to featuring some sort of female on their front page and inundating website visitors with a ton of links and buttons. I personally like the web design of 2004 since it seems far less complicated and cluttered. Either way, Go Daddy has shown that they have their finger on the pulse of the domain industry by frequently altering and changing their website to accommodate the changing of the domain industry. I wonder what Bob Parsons has up his sleeve for their next website design concept. We'll just have to wait and see.

Happy Domaining.

-Rudy

GoDaddy Promo Code Not Required

Want to know how to save $2 to $3 off Go Daddy instantly without any coupons or promotion codes... every time?

Check out this quick short video courtesy of JackBorn.com explaining a couple of tips that anyone registering a domain  name at Go Daddy should be aware of .  Watch the video. Save a few bucks.

Japanese Ads Downplay URLs, Encourage Searches

There seems to be a new advertising trend emerging in Japan that domainers need to be aware of. Marketing companies of some major corporations are beginning to encourage potential customers to "search" for their company name and products instead of directing them to type in a specific URL website name. Is SEO ultimately going to trump direct web navigation?

A recent post at Boing Boing highlights how a recent visitor to Japan noticed obvious advertising using recommended search terms instead of the traditional direct URL promotions. AOL has been using this method with their highly-publicized "Search Keyword: ABC" campaign.

I have a few personal thoughts on this. At first glance, I seemed to understand that with the lack of "good" domain names available for companies, relying on keyword SEO was not only probably smart, but pretty much inevitable as a marketing campaign to compete with those generic domain names. But after some consideration, I started to realize that if a company decides to spend tons of money to advertise a specific search term as their primary method of attracting website visitors, the always changing search engine algorithms and blackhat SEO methods could possible skew the search results, letting other sites relevant to the advertised search term to pop up first and benefit from the intended traffic. The company would basically be advertising for another company. Bad business indeed.

Keep your eyes open on how this could effect longer keyword phrase domain registrations and such.

Selling Domain Names on Ebay = Risk

Yesterday, I had some time to spare so I decided to check out the domain name auctions going on over at Ebay. I must admit, it has been some time since I last checked out that marketplace since I vowed awhile back not to sell/buy any domains there due to escalating scams and such.

While searching, I noticed a few things that haven't changed since the last time I visited Ebay:

1. Crappy domains with one good keyword selling for upwards of $15 million dollars.

2. Few decent domains with a "buy it now" price upwards of $5 million dollars.

3. And a plethora of typo/hacks promising "high-traffic and clicks".

4. All of the above had no bids.

Believe me when I say I literally sat there in front of my Mac screen and laughed.

Is the Ebay marketplace dead for domain names?

Is anyone actually buying these "premium" domains for those obscene amounts of money?

Is www.forsalebyownerok.com actually worth the $21,000,000 (that's million!) asking price?

The answer is "no" to all 3 questions.

The Ebay domain marketplace is not dead, no one is buying those crazy priced domains and there wasn't one domain currently in auction even remotely close to being valued anywhere near $21 million.

The reason I say the Ebay domain marketplace is not dead is because there about 4000 active domain auctions in progress. Other than that, it's dead to me. But just because it isn't dead doesn't mean it isn't risky.

Over at Dot Com Domain Names, Craig recently posted an article about not being able to reap the true value of a domain name during a 10-day Ebay auction because you simply don’t get enough traffic from the right buyer during such a confined period of time. I tend to agree.

Other than a few LLLL.com's, most domain auctions have zero bids and ridiculous asking prices. The few LLLL.com's that are being sold are selling for a little less than what they would probably get over at a domaining forum or Sedo. So why are people still selling their premium domains over at Ebay. Who knows. Maybe they are feel if they can sell a used "haunted" toaster for 10K then they could sell a crappy domain for $1 million.

Either way, Ebay is not a place I suggest to sell your domain names. I see it as a place to basically pawn off your not-so-great domains to a unsuspecting chump or to undersell your great domains due to a limited customer base and timeframe.

Do yourself a favor and either list them for sale at a reputable marketplace or simply stop buying worthless domains. Both will save you time and money.

Also check out this post at Fka200 about the recent and controversial COQL.com auction that ended over at Ebay.

Stay informed.

-Rudy

Domain Tool of the Week: Nameish

Stop wasting time thinking of domain names for your project!

Ever racked your brains trying to come up with a killer name for a forum, project, business, blog or idea? Sure, we all have.

What if I told you there's a tool out there that aims to simplify that process by offering you a quick and easy way to find a suitable name that represents your idea so that you may continue on to the bigger tasks at hand? Never fear, Nameish.com is here.

Nameish was created by Jason Hines of Devtwo Creative Software.

Here's his description of this cool domainer tool:

"Nameish is an attempt to help ease the creative hurdle in finding a good brand/domain for your web application. Often when a developer has a good name for a project, they can spend quite a bit of time simply thinking of the right name for it. As we know, proper branding of your project is critical and not all of us have the resources of a marketing team at their disposal."

How Nameish works:

Nameish finds suitable names based on the following logistical steps:
-Synonyms
-Thesaurus suggestions
-Web 2.0" naming suggestions, such as Flickr and del.icio.us
(From these results, you are able to quickly lookup the domain for availability.)

Another cool thing about this tools is that it shows the most recent searches queried by other domainers to help spark even more ideas for you. More features are set to come.

See more at Nameish.com.

And don't forget to subscribe to be informed of the latest domainer tools as they unfold onto the domain scene. Austin baby stores

Enjoy!

-Rudy

wedding news

GoDaddy won't register domain names with 'godaddy' in them

Something may be up over at Go Daddy.

There's a forum post floating around the anti-Go Daddy site, No Dadddy, that explains any domainer trying to register a domain name with "godaddy" in it will get a message that says "unavailable" -- even if it has offensive or gibberish words in it.

I tried it out and confirmed the same thing.  

After trying to register TestGodaddyTest.com, I received the "unavailable" error. Then headed on over to a couple of other registrars and it was available to be registered.  

We'll keep our eyes open and see what plays out. 

Check back.

-Rudy

Domain Tool of the Week: Impulse Domain Lookup Tool

This Domain Tool of the Week has simply blown me away.

Courtesy of The Mad Hat, the domain industry will flip over this Firefox extension that makes it super easy to lookup domain names. The extension lets you perform one click domain searches at your registrar of choice using the selected text in your browser window. Let me repeat that...the extension lets you perform one click domain searches at your registrar of choice using the selected text in your browser window.

It's named the Impulse Domain Lookup Tool and it's freaking sweet.

1. Highlight the text you want to look up.

2. Right-click and select "domain lookup"

The extension will normalize the text, removing spaces and other illegal characters etc, then launch a new tab/window to search for the domain at your favourite registrar.

3. Choose registrar and search. That's it.

Excerpt from The Mad Hat:

"I’ve been beta testing a Domain Lookup Firefox extension from Richard Kershaw at Quality Nonsense. I renamed it the “Impulse Domain Lookup Tool”. Say you’re reading a story in the CNN technology section on wireless earphones and decide you want to check real quick to see if wirelessearbuds.com is available. All it takes is a right click or keyboard shortcut to open a new window and query the registrar of your choice."

Visit the Impulse Domain Lookup Tool.

Stay informed of other new domaining tools by subscribing here.

Rupert Murdoch Outfoxed Over Domain Name Dispute

Found this on Wired about an hour ago.

The World Intellectual Property Organization is concluding that a Florida businessman is the rightful owner to foxbusinessnetwork.com. Still, WIPO said it was "suspicious" that the name was registered the same day the Rupert Murdoch-owned network announced February 2007 it was launching a business news channel.

The decision certifies that Worldwide Directory Services of Sebring, Florida, is the rightful owner of the disputed domain name. Derek Hodges, Worldwide's president, goes by the nickname "British Fox." Hodges had used the term staar test study guides Fox Business Network for legitimate offerings of services, including a domain name registration business and free business web page offerings, WIPO concluded

Read the entire transcript here.

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No Better Time To Be A Domainer

With all the doom and gloom being talked about the domain industry over the past few months I thought it would be nice to throw some positive light on today's overall domain marketplace situation.

The negativity about the upcoming Snowe Bill, the drama over the resurfacing of an infamous domain appraisal scam, and the talk about the IRS domainer tax confusion definitely has some domainers doubting the future of domain name investing and the well-being of the entire industry. While I understand that all three may have drastic and negative implications on domaining, I can't help but still feel that there is no better time to be a domainer.

Our marketplace is still thriving.
Media and public awareness of the domain industry is still rising.
And companies and corporations around the entire globe are beginning to fully understand that a good domain name is a major integral factor in their overall business plan.

Domaining is big business. And it's here to stay.

Below are some articles/posts/opinions that I've read over the past week that indicate that today's domainers still should feel confident in their investments and understand that even though things seem bumpy right now, smoother sailing is still ahead.

Have a great weekend!

New York Times
"Coins In The New Realm"

Ecommerce Times
Getting Ahead in Domain Name Trading

Domaining.org.uk
LLLL.net domains - welcome to the next internet goldrush

American Nonsense
Switching to Domain Name Investing

Go Daddy
GO DADDY IS A TRAILBLAZER IN SAFEGUARDING CUSTOMER DATA

Talk Price
The Secret: Dropped Domains

DomainBits
WHAT EVERYONE OUGHT TO KNOW ABOUT GEO DOMAINS

Learn N Earn
Big Bucks from Domains

The Conceptualist

Making Domains Your Business

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Mix.com - The Worst Usage of a Good Domain Name Ever

Found this humorous article over at Mashable about how the owner of the domain name: Mix.com is not using this short, premium, generic and brandable domain name even remotely close to it's fullest potential.

(sample excerpt)
"The site has a photo of a girl in a bunny costume, holding a tray, with two fire extinguishers in the background. A Daffy Duck effigy, hung on a Christmas tree. A badge that says “We support the Writers Guild of America.” Two links to some CDs on Barnes and Noble, and a very short explanation of “How To Unlock A Password Protected Panavision HDW-F900 Camera."

I can see how this may drive some domainers crazy seeing such a great domain name used in such a nonsensical way. Who knows, maybe they will receive some offers after people hear about this? streampix app

Read the article here.
Enjoy.

Domain Backwording: The Journey Continues

Since my first post on a new emerging domain trend called Backwording, I have, with help from other intrigued domainers, uncovered a little more interesting information, facts and tidbits about this topic. The last 5 days have been very exciting. Here's what we've found:

Things we've found out since the last post:

-- In early 2001, an Israeli firm named LocallyNet, made obscure headlines with it's idea of using a text-conversion algorithm in Internet browsers to allow typed-in entries to be read backwards by the browser. Seems the main motivator was that the CEO of LocallyNet saw the rapidly dwindling supply of domain names available as limitations to a growing Internet. This seems to be the origin of today's current backwording framework.

- As of today, there has not been one WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) domain name dispute case filed citing legal action against a backwards/reversed domain at fault or infringing on any UDRP policies.

- Major domain parking companies seem to often view backworded domains as regular domains and aggregate keyword advertising content as if the domain was not reversed. Examples are sthgilF.com (flights.com) and noisiveleT.com (television.com). [VERY INTERESTING]

- A huge marketplace for premium and generic backworded domains still exist, although each day a few more of our favorites are registered. Maybe people are starting to see this an an alternative method for advertising their websites?

- Google registered elgooG.com on April 7, 2000 and that domain has an Alexa ranking of 572,726. Another fun site is here.

- As expected, we were unable to find any significant sale records of any backworded domains in the past. This is mainly due to backwording still being an undiscovered niche.

- No matter how many people agree or disagree that backwording may become a permanent practice in the future, people and businesses around the world are already using backworded domains, and have been for quite some time.

- We also discovered that there is not a comprehensive list of developed domains that utilize backwording, so a project has been started and will be launched at Backwording.com. This website will be a community for domainers interested in backwording and a way for us to communicate more about the topic. Feel free to send me any backworded domains you have recently registered and developed so we can add them to our developed website directory (info@logistiklabs.com). More news will come soon. Stay posted by subscribing here.

So, as you can see, backwording is causing a small but definable ripple in the domain pool and causing other domainers to take notice. I'd like to thank everyone for their emails, comments and opinions on this emerging topic so far and look forward to uncovering more information about this interesting and hidden domain niche. The excitement is growing. Stay tuned.

-Rudy

NEW Domainer Comic Strip

Check out the adventures of Kevin the Domainer.

It's a brand new comic about the average life of an average domainer. 

F.Y.I. >> The penguin's name is Stanley.

Enjoy!

Read more here.

Link Love Tuesday: Domaining

Lots of stuff going on in the domain industry, and we are lucky to have some great resources that help cover and inform all of us about the current events and present trends.  Below are some articles, tools and news that caught my attention this week.  Thanks to everybody for suggesting some of these reading selections and enjoy the domain link love.

1. Domaining.com - A special thanks to Francois at domaining.com for inviting Logistik Labs to be part of their blog news feed.  What an honor! This site is great for getting all your latest domain headline news in one steady feed from some of the best domain blogs out there. Bookmark this site.

2. URLacademy.com - Good domain article about how the Canadian extension .ca is picking up way better than the .us national extension. Check out the article here. 

3. FractionalDomaining - This blog written  by Neal Voron is a look at the world of buying, selling, owning, developing and monetizing of fractional domains. As fractional domain ownership increasingly becomes a more popular, Neal will be there to cover this every step of the way. Bookmark this.

4. DotSauce - If you don't check out this site on a regular basis, you're really missing out. Mark at DotSauce has committed himself to bringing a constant flow of good information on a regular basis to all domainers. Almost 700 RSS subscribers can't be wrong. 

5. IsItMeOrIsEveryoneElseStupid.com - My day wouldn't be complete without stopping by Julia's domain blog and checking out the latest rant or opinion about our domain industry. Beware, very addictive.

6. What’s Up With GoDaddy’s .Biz Pricing? - DomainNameWire.com article covering the recent price raise in Go Daddy's .biz extension pricing. 

7. Domain-Pop- (tool) I recommend this backlink checker over a few others when checking backlinks for your domains. It allows you to check Link Popularity, Domain Popularity & IP Popularity. 

Wanna get some Link Love? Send us a link to your domain article, tool or post.

info@LogistikLabs.com

Why LLL.coms are no longer "safe" bets

Good thread going on over at the NamePros domain forum regarding one senior domainer's opinion that purchases of LLL.coms are growing inherently risky due to the possibility that the LLL domain can easily be taken away by UDRP. Read it here.

One thing I personally agree with is the suggestion that it is better to "unpark" any valuable, non-generic names due to the fact that you have no control over the advertising feed, which means that one single Trademark/competing link is enought to establish "bad faith use". This is where UDRP comes in.

Any domainer owning a LLL.com needs to understand that development of this kind of domain is necessary to create your own identity with the domain name, so if another entity or business tries or attempts to legally "take" the domain, you can help your case by showing good faith use with no received revenue through advertised/competing parking.

Take a few minutes and read the NamePros post to gain some perspective of other domainers on this subject, especially if you own any LLL.com's.

-Rudy

Domain Tool Of The Week: DBanq.com

"Do yourself a favor and check out this new domain tool!"

One of the best perks for blogging for the Logistik Labs Domaining Blog is the opportunities to find the newest and freshest domaining tools available for all domainers to use. Week after week, we relentlessly scour the Internet to find that one brand new domain tool that we simply can't live without. Some make life easier for the average domainer and some simply don't offer too much to write about. As the week was closing down, I found roughly 3 new domain tools that I wanted to share with my readers, but each seemed to lack that certain something. Just as I was deciding not to post a Domain Tool Of The Week (that would be the first time in a long time), I stumbled across a fantastic new tool that saved the day.

Ladies and gentleman, I'm proud to introduce: Dbanq.com.

So what's Dbanq? 

Simply put, it's the ultimate domain management tool to track, valuate & organize your domain names.

Features: 

--Keep track of when domains were registered and when they expire.

--Organize your domains by your own specific criteria in smart groups.
--Get the Google PageRank for all of your domains.
--Display the number of incoming links to your domain.
--The dbanq valuation tool determines the value of your domain based on a variety of factors and uses a scale of 0-5 to represent how valuable it is.

Example:

And not only does Dbanq group together a lot of the necessary support features to help the modern domainer, but there are also future plans to implement a domain sales area to allow easy purchases of expired domain names. Although in beta, this domain tool is destined to become a highly-utilized tool by amateur and professional domainers alike. 

Basic membership to use Dbanq is FREE, with the option to upgrade (for only $10) to allow unlimited domain monitoring and unlimited smart groups. Basic membership allows 9 domains to monitor and 3 smart groups. Either way, you can't go wrong. 

I personally like the attractive color scheme and the straight-forward interface. 

So what are you waiting for? Get on over to Dbanq.com and sign up for your FREE account to allow immediate access to a great domaining tool that I feel will just get better and better over time. 

And don't forget to subscribe here to stay ahead of the pack and get latest and greatest brand new domain tools sent directly to you from Logistik Labs.

Enjoy the new tool and happy domaining!

Rudy

Got a new domain tool that you want to tell the world about? Send us an email and let us know! Info@LogistikLabs.com

Domain Tool of the Week: DNWatch.biz

"Brings all the latest domain forum posts into one easy-to-read thread!"

If you're like me, you frequent some domaining forums throughout your day. Maybe you visit NamePros, DNForum, AcornDomains, and a few others. Maybe you visit DiscussNames or DomainNameForums and DigitalPoint? Either way, taking time to visit each one sure seems to be rather time consuming but how else can I stay informed and read the latest posts from my favorite domaining forums? 

I'd like to introduce you to DNWatch.biz. 

DNWatch.biz is a website that organizes all the latest posts at the most popular domain forums and processes them into one simple and complete forum thread.  Each quarter hour, the site will feed in the most result threads generated on sites like DigitalPoint, NamePros, and DNForum which pretty much eliminate the need of visiting all three sites unless you see something that sparks your interest. If you do see something your looking to grab, clicking on the thread will bring you there in a new window so you don’t lose your spot. 

This tool rules. 

Check out more of DNWatch.biz here.

Source: ComeDomain

7 Ways To Improve Go Daddy

In the land of today’s ICANN-accredited domain name registrars, one company leads them all. This company is of course Scottsdale, AZ based Go Daddy.
With discounted registration prices, budget-friendly hosting packages, free value added services and the always popular and edgy Super Bowl commercials, Go Daddy has undoubtedly positioned itself as the world’s most popular domain name registrar.

With all this exposure and publicity, it’s easy to believe Go Daddy has figured everything out when it comes to dominating the domain registrar industry. While this may true in some aspects, there are a few things that noticeably need to be improved in order for Go Daddy to not only stay on top, but to evolve into the next generation of domain registrar.

Today, we will be covering 7 Ways To Improve Go Daddy.

1.Chill with the upsells.
This issue seems to be a common agreement amongst most Go Daddy users. If you’ve ever registered a domain with Go Daddy, you know exactly what I mean. Extra available options seem to flood the screen as you begin to process your purchase and every user must be careful not to accidentally add special services or domains to their cart. The default interface assumes every customer wants to also purchase other tld extensions of their domain and relies on you to manually uncheck the option before continuing with your purchase. As you continue, other add-on services continue to complicate the buying procedure and the once simple task of registering your domain begins to turn into an overwhelming marketing attack of impulse buying and upselling. Offering options is certainly acceptable with any domain purchase, but this method needs to be toned down. Even the confirmation email sent from Go Daddy to your email after your domain purchase is riddled with more special offers and promotions.


2.Chat support would be nice
At the time of this writing, Go Daddy boasts an impressive 6 hour response time for email inquiry responses and a 9 minute wait time for telephone support. As good as this may seem, there is room for improvement. Today’s domainers expect a certain level of support from the companies they choose to do business with and Go Daddy has proved they take their customer service seriously. As the world’s largest domain registrar, it would seem the option of instant chat support would be implemented to assure their customers immediate and real-time solutions to possible problems or complicated situations. Just imagine typing out a problem you are experiencing and having a live agent respond back with a simple link you could click on and instantly be taken to the web page that would help you to solve your situation. No hold times, no delayed email responses and the added value of being able to figure out your problem when it’s convenient for you. Extra complicated situations may still need to be resolved with telephone support but most daily dilemmas or questions could benefit from this chat support option.


3.Be more visible at domain industry conferences and events
Now here’s a question: Why is it that the company that sells the most domains in the world is nowhere to be seen when it comes to important domain industry conferences and premier events? Does Go Daddy feel these professional engagements have nothing to offer to them? If so, shame on them. Events such as DomainFest and the GeoDomain Expo have noticeably lacked the presence of Go Daddy even though these prominent events continue to factor the overall pulse of our industry. If I were them, I’d be front and center showing my dedication to the people who drive the marketplace commerce. Oh, and don’t forget to bring the Go Daddy girls.

4.Accept MoneyBookers as a payment method
Go Daddy currently accepts payments by credit card, check, gift card and PayPal. The option to choose MoneyBookers as a payment preference would greatly widen the customer base for Go Daddy. Domain registrar Dynadot offers this choice and benefits from tons of domainers who choose not to deal with PayPal and instead opt to use MoneyBookers. Limiting this popular payment method certainly is not helping Go Daddy reach out to new customers.


5.Better forums, please
Have you taken the time to visit Go Daddy’s latest attempt at a customer forum? If not, don’t feel bad. You’re not missing much. Go Daddy has taken the liberty to launch Go Daddy Connections, a forum-style business community that let’s users post comment threads and such. At the time of this writing, there are only 35 discussions created and 20 of them were started by Go Daddy staff. A lively and interactive forum environment is what I assume was expected but instead, a graveyard of old posts and unanswered user questions is what was produced. Forums rely on a few key characteristics to allow it to succeed and Go Daddy Connections fails to meet the expectations. First of all, a better forum layout, such as at NamePros or DNForum is what domainers seem to migrate to. Ditch the fancy business-theme atmosphere and make it a straight forward user forum that people will actually utilize.
And don’t forget to have a few customer support experts constantly roaming the forum to help and assist members. Go Daddy has the customer-base to create a thriving and huge domainer forum if they want. Maybe enticing people to use the forum by accruing points towards Go Daddy discounts with a certain amount of posts would build the buzz? Just a thought.

6.Uncomplicate the interface
Do me a favor and and check out the Go Daddy homepage and compare it to the homepage of Register.com. Notice a difference? Register.com’s user interface is clean, minimal and a lot less distracting. Registering a domain is the focal point on Register.com unlike Go Daddy’s perplexing multiple click options. With 6 different text fields on Go Daddy’s homepage, a potential customer immediately has to go into “search mode” just to find out where to search for a possible domain. Too many initial buttons and links (there are easily over 50) on the homepage create a sense of unneeded clutter. Do us all a favor and uncomplicated the interface.

7.If at first you don’t succeed, try again
So Go Daddy’s first attempt at a signature auction didn’t exactly do as well as expected. Only 2 domains were sold and domain insiders questioned the quality of premier domains being offered. Chalk it up to learning but I feel Go Daddy has learned a great deal from their first auction fiasco and should be eager to redeem itself as a major contender of aftermarket auctions. The hiring of Adam Dicker of DNForum to head up their Domain Name Aftermaket division definitely gives hope to a possibly upcoming and hugely successful signature domain auction. I personally look forward to this.

As a long time fan and user, I am genuinely pleased with the service, support and pricing I have come to expected from Go Daddy.  As the domain industry grows and the popularity of registering domains become more and more mainstream, companies such as  Go Daddy must continue to stay one step ahead of the pack and pioneer new and exciting endeavors to accommodate the always evolving domain industry.  But hey, that's just one domainer's opinion. 

Cheers,

Rudy

Watch The Banned Go Daddy Super Bowl Video (EXPOSURE)

Here's the internet-only Go Daddy video that was announced to the world during the second quarter of the 2008 Super Bowl.  The title of the video is "Exposure" and features sexy Go Daddy girl Danica Patrick. 

Go Daddy originally intended “Exposure” to be its Super Bowl ad, but Fox rejected it, insisting the word “beaver” be removed. Go Daddy CEO and Founder Bob Parsons refused, saying instead, he would “make lemonade out of lemons.”

Also, I've included the internet-only White Light Directors Cut video.

As the post-game celebrations were being broadcast, GoDaddy.com was already reporting more than 1.5 million visits to its site. Those numbers continue to climb rapidly.

"White Light" Director's Ad Cut