Godaddys Biggest Mistake Ever

For many years we have been supporters of Bob Parsons, having watched Godaddy evolve. In fact, his “16 Rules of Success” is framed on our office wall. Unfortunately all that business experience has now fallen by the wayside.

Earlier today we discovered a video clip whereby CEO Bob Parsons took a trip “to Zimbabwe and hunt problem elephant“. Caution: The video is very graphic and may offend some viewers.

After watching the video we decided that we could not support an organisation that engages in such practises and have commenced moving our domain name portfolio to other registrars.

Media Coverage

It seems that over the course of the day, the mainstream media has picked up this story with coverage in:

1. LA Times – Bob Parsons under fire for Zimbabwe elephant-hunting video

2. TMZ – ‘GoDaddy.com’ Elephant Killer — PETA Is Extorting Me

3. PETA – In this letter, awarded Parsons the “first-ever Scummiest CEO of the Year Award”.

Is The Elephant Endangered?

The IFAW lists the African elephant as “Endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) and by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). It is listed on Appendix I of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora except for populations in those countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia) which were reclassified to Appendix II.”

Note that Zimbabwe “reclassified” the African Elephant. Of course, this is the country run by President (some would say Dictator) Robert Mugabe.

Where Do I Move My Domains?

Godaddys competitors have also publicly denounced Parsons actions and are giving away domains at below their cost. Earlier this evening we received an email from NameCheap titled “Transfer for $4.99 and Help Save the Elephants”.

“Transfer your domains to Namecheap for $4.99 for the next 24 hours through 11:59pm EST on 3/31/11 (limit 10 per user, valid for all com/net/org domains). On top of that, we’ll donate $1 for each transfer to Save The Elephants. Use coupon code BYEBYEGD and let’s help the Elephants together!”

What Do You Think?

Are you moving your portfolio away from Godaddy? Is this really about “protecting crops” or just an excuse to travel to another (perhaps “less regulated”) part of the world and shoot high powered weapons at large animals?

Have your say, post a comment below and let us know.

Godaddy 99 Cents For New Domains

Earlier today I was given a coupon for 99 cent domains at Godaddy – excluding the 18 cent ICANN fee (for their slush fund).

I’ve tested it and it works right now!

Time to go crazy! Enjoy the Superbowl (11 days, 13 hours and 51 minutes) from now.

P.S. This is for new domains only, not renewals. If you have a good code, please post it!

Six Namecheap Coupons – Just In Time For Christmas

In any domainers portfolio there are always a handful of domains that expire towards the end of the year. I’ve just renewed my last three domains and in doing this I spent some time researching NameCheap coupons.

As such, I thought I’d post them up here for the benefit of others. By the way, its good to renew your domains for multiple years (at least 2). That way it keeps the administration overhead down.

NameCheap Christmas Coupons
1. snowneedle – Gives you $8.88 gTLDs.

2. switch2nc – $6.99 transfers (when you move your domain to Namecheap)

3. xmastree gives you 25% off shared/reseller hosting

4. santa gives you 50% off VPS for the first month

5. snowstorm gives you 10% discount for hosting packages

Remember, NameCheap gives you FREE whois privacy for the first year. I’ve personally found this valuable in keeping away spammers and others who spy on you.

6. WGSPECIAL – If you are renewing WhoisGuard (Privacy Protection) then use this coupon. It gives you Privacy Protection for just $0.99 instead of $2.88. If you do it now (I just tested it) you get a FREE PositiveSSL certificate.

If you have found these useful or if they have saved you $$$, please post a comment and let me know.

New Deal On .Info Domain Names From Afilias

For those that don’t own their own registry, you may be surprised to learn that registrar deals even exist! Every now and again a special offer comes out, allowing you to buy that TLD or ccTLD at a discount.

Most of these secret deals are kept under wraps and are not published; however this has now changed. Afilias (the company that looks after .INFO) has published a deals page! This allows us to keep track of the latest registrar deals, sorting special offers either by date or registrar name. I think its great.

Save yourself some money on .info domain names and check out the deals page before you buy.

Fresh List Of TDNAM & Godaddy Coupons

I was just paying for an auction I’d won at tdnam and went in search of some coupons. Here is a list of what works right now and what discount it got me. Hopefully it can save you some $$$ and time.

1. gdbb776 – .com domain went from $10.69 to $7.50.
2. best3 – .com went from $10.69 to $7.49 – *the one I used*
3. RRTV3
4. hash3
5. chill3
6. MTECH330
7. emma35
8. emma30
9. emma3

Some of the codes from MTECH330 onwards displayed a message stating “Our $6.95 .com promotion has ended and has been replaced with the current $7.49 .com promotion”.

For the benefit of others, please post what worked for you. I was using TDNAM and not the usual Godaddy registration/renewal cart. As such I’d be interested to see how much it saved you. Thanks.

Desperate Times Lead To Increase In Domain Name Spam

It seems that the people sending the domain name postal mail spam have stopped for Christmas; time now to prepare for the electronic kind. Watch out kids, here it comes!

In order to educate consumers and protect the marketplace from this type of activity, I thought I’d post two examples that have recently popped into my inbox.

I’m just presenting the facts – judge for yourself.

Exhibit A – ZipDomains

I received the email below from i...@zipacquisitions.com. Their website (zipacquisitions.com) diverts to zipdomains.com and has i...@zipdomains.com as the contact.

Both domains are registered to:

Zip Domains i...@zipdomains.com. 233 Middleton Rd. Glenside Wellington 6037 NZ and have a US phone number +1 206-202-1813. Of course I had to call it – its just an automated answering service.

If you check out their website, there is a DNOA logo. However, neither email address can be found in DNOA profile lookup, yet they display the certified reseller logo on their site, without the link.

— Start Of Email —

Subject: edited-out-for-privacy.ORG

Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.

The domain name edited-out-for-privacy.COM is expiring and will be available to the public very soon.

We noticed that you own edited-out-for-privacy.ORG and felt that you may be interested.

We can assist in trying to acquire the domain name, as there are likely many interested parties competing for it.

We do not charge upfront, and the fee if we are successful is only $199 USD.

If you are interested, please let us know by December 10 at the latest.
— ends —

I own the .org and the .com is currently in PendingDelete status. So if I say “yeah go ahead”, they just backorder it for me. Who knows…get a few ignorant customers and it might be a nice little earner.

Exhibit B – Register.com

I received an email from register.com with a subject line of “Keep edited-out-for-privacy.COM  Up and Running”.

You can see the graphic below showing “Renewal Notice” in big orange letters. The only thing is that my domain name wasnt due for renewal for another 7 months! But hey, I can pay you $35 for a .com! Now that’s a bargain if I’ve ever seen one!

The ethical issue here is…. a person reading this may think its a domain name renewal notice (therefore thinking their domain is going to expire) and they should pay register.com $$$$. In countries that have relatively mature consumer protection laws (such as Australia) such an email may be regarded as misleading and deceptive conduct. Its important to note that I’m not a lawyer, this is just my opinion – based on receiving this email.

Have you noticed an increase in spam? Post a comment and let us know!

$6.99 Transfers At Namecheap

I just wanted to let you know about a few really good discount coupons that have come my way:

Namecheap

• For the next 72 hours only, transfer most domains for just $6.99 with coupon code: TRANSCHEAP.
• For the next 48 hrs get $8.88 Renewals and Registrations with coupon code: OCTNEWS.

Godaddy

• $7.39 .com registrations with the coupon code: DNF2

Given some of the issues I’ve been experiencing of late with other registrars, I’m thinking that now might be the time to start transferring names across.

If you know about any others please post a comment.

TDNAM Coupon for October 2008

gdbb776 gives you a discount off the renewal component. I have tested this on both .com and .net and they went from $10.69 to $7.50 each.

Edit: By the way, the latest Namecheap coupon code for October is INDIANSUMMER.

If you know any others or it saves you some $$$ then feel free to post a comment.

New DN Coupons & Special Offers

There are a bunch of special offers and coupon codes circulating at the moment, so I thought I’d put them all into one post.

• FREE .biz domain name and private registration with 1 and 1 hosting. Apparently you can get up to 25 of these for FREE. Although there is the $6.95 per year hosting cost. Not bad if you want to develop just one site.
• Register an .mx for $6 if you register for 5 years.

Godaddy Codes

I have tested all of these and they currently work.

Code: WEASEL33 or OYH3
Gets You: $6.95 .com renewals

Code: goxt2001cc
Gets You: $6.85 .com renewals

Code: test99
Gets You: one 99 cent .com

Code: goox3004at
Gets You: $6.95 .com registration

Code: gdm1126a
Gets You: $6 .net

Code: gdm1106g
Gets You: $7.99 com, net, biz, name and mobi

Code: SAVETEN or gb1 or WEASEL1
Gets You: 10% off

NameCheap

Code: summerends
Gets You: $8.41 domain names

Please post a comment if it saves you some $$$$ or if you know of any others.

99 Cent Domain Coupon At Godaddy

The coupon code “test99″ gets you a 99 cent .com domain name. This is not a joke. I’ve tried it myself and it works perfectly. You can only register one domain name though (yeah I tried).

I’d suggest that you get in REALLY QUICK!

Thanks Bob.