Sedo: “Unintended Consequence” For Traffic Aggregators

A few minutes ago we heard back from Sedo in relation to our story yesterday. As such we are posting their feedback in full below:

“We can confirm that Google is one of Sedo’s advertising partners, but cannot confirm that they are the source of the change.“

When asked about the effect of the decision on traffic aggregators, Sedo responded:

“As an unintended consequence, it might make things a little more complicated for traffic aggregators.  However, with these changes, it’s a great time for customers to re-evaluate things to make sure aggregators add value for them.  Some may opt for a stronger focus on increasing the domain sales portion (alongside their parking revenue).“

So what do you think? Is this a measure to:

1. Shut out aggregators, or at least make things more difficult for them?

2. Get “quality traffic” to their parking pages?

3. Reduce click fraud (thanks to Acro for the comment yesterday).

What are your thoughts on this? Post a comment and let us know!

Sedo Flags Possible Changes In Advertising Provisions

Early this morning I received an email from Sedo regarding possible changes to the way their “primary advertising provider” monetizes Sedo parking pages.

I’m going to take a wild guess here (I could be wrong) and say that “primary advertising provider” is code for Google, although Sedo does not mention the name of their “primary advertising provider” anywhere in the email.

Here is a brief extract:

“Based on current discussions it is possible that our ad provider will cease its provision of advertising to URL-parked pages and in consequence only support DNS parked domains.

This step is considered by the online advertising provider in response to advertiser feedback and would affect all URL-parking customers at all parking companies worldwide that share this advertising provider.

This change could happen in the near future (potentially as early as the fourth quarter of 2010) and we wanted you to have this information in advance to take into account for your internal planning.“

What’s The Issue?

Let me cut through the spin and give you some context:

1. Traffic aggregators such as Park Logic, KeyRPM & Above use URL forwarding (amongst other techniques) to send traffic to multiple parking companies. URL forwarding allows them to quickly point the domain somewhere else, and therefore identify who is paying the most for a particular keyword. This is essentially an arbitrage opportunity. The problem for both the advertisers and parking companies, is that it makes their traffic numbers (and therefore their revenue line) less predictable.

2. There is certainly “no love lost” between parking companies, traffic aggregators and ad companies like Google. Yahoo. All of them take a slice of the parking pie!

What Does This Mean For Me?

Given the current environment, its a bit of a strange strategy for a “primary advertising provider” to undertake. It seems like its a demand, eg: “you are either with us or against us”.

Here is the bottom line, if you use traffic aggregators, you better make sure they support changing DNS (nameservers), so that you can still use parking companies that rely on the Google advertising feed (such as Sedo). For those that use KeyRPM or Park Logic, you are fine (they support changing nameservers) and I confirmed this with both companies today.

For the record, I have tried to contact Sedo for a comment and will update this post if/when I hear back.

NBC Backs Out Of Women.com & Women.Net Sale – Gets Sued

Its been reported that NBC Universal (GE) is being sued by Done Ventures after the sale of women.com and women.net fell through.

A complaint was allegedly filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Here are a couple of points of interest:

1. Sedo had been hired as a “domain name broker”.
2. The offer for both domains was allegedly accepted (both verbally and via email) for the price of $1M
3. NBC’s “Jeff Zucker has overruled the transaction” and the deal was off.
4. “Sedo…..had earned the commission that was due to them under the brokerage agreement….”

Obviously there are two sides to a story. Its going to be a very interesting case to watch.

GreatDomains (Really?) – May 2009 Auction

I just received this email about the May auction and I have to say, I was not impressed. If you want domainers to buy at auction, are you really going to open up your email with this sentence:

“With a new wave of college graduates entering the workforce, now is the perfect time to acquire a quality domain name to drive traffic to your online business.”

Does that make you want to buy domains at their auction? No – it makes me stop and think “What logic is behind this?”. Now call me harsh (and maybe it was because I haven’t had my morning coffee yet, but get real. Its May, and depending on where you live on this planet, you probably don’t call it college and their graduation might not happen mid-year. But what the hell does this have to do with getting me to buy your domains anyway?

Purely out of frustration (and a little bit of domainer OCD) I went over to their website anyway and checked out what they had to offer. My take is… if you like 3 letter domains, dive right in. I don’t (can’t fathom paying £3,150 for mje.com) but that’s just my preference.

The auction is run by Sedo, so you can buy at Sedo directly or on the GreatDomains site (same thing). Here are a few good ones.

• shirts.net – Sedo or GreatDomains
• bellyring.com – Sedo or GreatDomains
• babyclothing.com – Sedo or GreatDomains
• permit.net – Sedo or GreatDomains
• end.net – Sedo or GreatDomains

Let me know how you go.

New Domain Name Scam – 85% of Appraisal & No Affiliate Links

Like most domainers I get my fair share of spam, scammers, discount offers from registrars and the like. Here is a scam that I received last night.

– cut here –

From: j.jo...@rocketmail.com

Subject: Regarding your domain YOUR-DOMAIN.COM

Hello,
I came across your domain name YOUR-DOMAIN.COM and I would be interested in buying it from you.
Here is my offer, you have to send me a professional appraisal from one of the following companies. and I will pay you 85% of the appraised price.
For payments under $2000 I prefer to use paypal. And for larger amounts of money I prefer if we used escrow.com

I accept appraisals from any of these companies:

-sedo.com
-pedma.com
-accuratedomains.com

If you already have an appraisal from one of those companies please forward it to me, and we will do business.

Regards,
James Johnson

– cut here –

Pedma is a parking page, Sedo is self explanatory and Accurate Domains.. are they? I have no idea.

For me, the interesting question is…. Why would someone refer people to an appraisal website with NO affiliate link? The html version of the email doesn’t have an affiliate link. As such, the only people to benefit from this appear to be Sedo and/or AccurateDomains. That is assuming that the person(s) behind this scam are not going to take your domain away using some other means.

What do you think? Have you received a scam lately? Post and let us know.

Luv.Me For A Price

Not a week goes by where I’m not sent portfolios to buy, auctions to promote, conferences to go to. Such is life. What was unusual about today was that I received an email from someone who actually did their homework! As such I thought it was worthy of a post.

luv.me is for sale at Sedo and is currently at 5,600 EURO. That’s quite a lot of $$ love for a .me.

Anyway, what got my attention was the research they sent through. At first I thought the person was a domainer, but then I found out that the domain is currently owned by two partners of Brands-and-Jingles, an advertising firm. Here is a cut down version of what they sent through:

• Date.me went for $70,000
• Love.me went for $32,000
• A three-letter domain is the shortest you can have with .me
• It sounds better as a statement

According to Wikipedia, Luv or LUV may refer to:

• Luv (song), a song by Janet Jackson.
• Luv (television series), a BBC sitcom.
• Luv, a Broadway play and 1967 film.
• The Dutch pop group Luv’
• The Chevrolet LUV, a “light utility vehicle”
• Linux Users of Victoria (http://www.luv.asn.au)
• The New York Stock Exchange symbol for Southwest Airlines
• The IATA airport code of Dumatubin Airport in Langgur, Kai Islands, in the Maluku province of Indonesia
• Large unilamellar vesicle: a type of phospholipid bilayer micelle.
• The L*u*v* color space, a perceptually uniform color space used in computer graphics
• A heart-shaped friendship token used on Bebo that can be giving out daily
• The windward or “upstream” side of a dune; compare “alluvial”
• Lava (Ramayana), a son of Rama in Hindu mythology

What do I think? Its a good name, very brandable, short, sharp and probably going to end up being a dating site. Best of luck with the bidding. Would I buy it? If I was planning to run a dating site, absolutely.

Why You Should NOT Get Into Bed With Google …. Yet

With the news that Adsense for Domains is now available to all publishers, it may be tempting to think “Screw my parking company – I’m leaving and going direct”.

Before temptation takes over and you jump into bed with Google, think about what you are doing:

Weakening An Industry – Ending Collective Bargaining

Parking companies negotiate rates with Google. Think of it as collective bargaining in the context of a union. What Google has essentially done, is to commence a breakup of an industry, which in the long run will weaken it. If you look at past behavior, I’d suggest they will:

• Establish their own rules
• Decrease payouts over time once they get a handle on where the traffic is

Landing Pages Not Optimized

• The Google landing pages are not going to convert very well (see the image below). I’d assume they will update them over time but right now you might be better off financially, by not moving.
• Parking companies spend $$$$ on optimising landing pages, getting the right graphics, colours etc.. so the page can convert. Its in the parking companies interest for your portfolio to work. If they make $$, you make $$$.

Customer Support

• If something goes wrong, or if I have a question, I know I can call my Account Manager and get a response within 24 hours. Good luck in getting this from Google.

Long Term Strategy and Intent

So how does Google monopolise Internet traffic increase profits? Google analytics knows about your traffic flows. Adsense and Adwords tracks advertising and what you click on. Google search knows what you search on, GMail knows the contents of your emails. All this information is stored and used by Google. The big unknown for Google is obviously anything outside its network. In this case its direct navigation (type it in traffic).

What happens long term when Google knows where your traffic is coming from and decides to alter search results, payouts and change traffic flows? If your domains depend on links from other sites, why wouldn’t Google cut YOU out, because you are the middleman!

Domains You Can’t Park With Google

In case you didn’t know, Google has restrictions on the keywords found in a domain. “Terms in the URL may not contain or be related to any of the following:

• Pornography, adult, or mature terms. This includes, but is not limited to, any terms that refer to or suggest nudity, partial nudity, sexual imagery/acts, lewd/graphic or profane language.
• Violent or racially intolerant language or any other form of hate speech directed against an individual, group, or organization
• Excessive profanity
• Illicit drugs and drug paraphernalia
• Gambling or casino-related content
• Weapons, such as firearms, ammunition, balisongs, butterfly knives, and brass knuckles
• Beer or hard alcohol
• Tobacco or tobacco-related products
• Prescription drugs
• Promotion of an illegal activity or an activity that infringes on the legal rights of others.
• References to tragedies or other sensitive current events
• Any other terms that are illegal, promote illegal activity, or infringe on the legal rights of others.

Summary

I believe that competition is good. Some of the greedy parking companies will probably reduce their % as people will start to compare going direct with Google vs the parking company. That’s good for the industry.

Right now I wouldn’t do anything. It’s a “wait and see” approach for me. The big question is will Yahoo and MSN follow?

Mark Klein – Industry Standards & Self Regulation

Mark Klein is the Director of Business Development at Sedo.

• Sedo has a had a 60% growth in revenue from 2006 to 2007.
• 50% increase in transfers from 2005 to 2006, 2006 to 2007.
• Key message from the presentation is that the community must adopt standards.

Disturbing Factors

• Artificial traffic
• Non commercial traffic
• Trademark violations
• Irrelevant keywords
• Unethical domains

Parking Providers should:

• Fraud prevention
• Conversion tracking
• Rights protection program
• check keyword relevance
• Blacklisting of unsuitable domains

Standards and Self Regulation

• What is considered an impression?
• How is a click measured or counted?
• RPM, CTR, Earnings per click

Torex Appoints Sedo To Sell RSS.com

Jason Richards, global vice president, information services, Torex said “Following our review of our digital assets, we’ve concluded that the domain name RSS, while having significant value in the marketplace, is not totally indicative of the Torex product, support and service offerings on a go-forward basis. Rather than maintaining this asset, we feel that it is better suited for a company in the media, publishing or entertainment sector where it should have stronger market appeal.”

Here are the stats:

• 3,810,000,000 page results for “rss” in Google
• 20,000 unique views a month.
• $750,000 USD reserve

Nora Nanayakkara, director of business development at Sedo stated: “It’s not often a name with such pertinence comes onto the market. As well as being short and memorable, the name has a widespread meaning. It’s a fantastic opportunity for an online media company to acquire it and grow its readership.”

To be honest, I can’t see how this will get $750k. Lets just wait and see.

Sedo Appoints Nunez

On August 1, Sedo’s Chief Strategy Officer Matt Bentley left “to pursue other opportunities”. At the time, Tim Schumacher was reported as saying “Matt will no doubt continue to be a tremendous asset to Sedo in his new advisory role.”

Fast forward a couple of weeks and its been announced that Sam Nunez will handle Product Development, Marketing and Strategy.

You’ve just gotta love those warm, fuzzy, cuddly Germans.

It appears that Nunez has been around the traps. He has worked at both Oversee.net, Ask.com and SGI.

“I look forward to helping Sedo strengthen its market position in the global domain name marketplace,” said Nunez.  “Sedo will continue to leverage its tremendous success with online auctions, as it extends other services such as live auctions, globally.”

Good luck Sam. We will be watching closely to see what pops out of Sedo.

Edit 29/8/8: A point of clarification. I’ve just been contacted by a representative from Sedo who tells me that Sams role is purely product management and Matt is still an advisor with Sedo.