BEWARE OF THE GODADDY DOMAIN DUNGEON
March 28th, 2008 Posted in Bad Registrars, General Domain News | 4 Comments »
I have about 100 domains with Go Daddy. The amount varies because I buy and sell domains with people who have Go Daddy accounts. I’m not a big fan of Go Daddy for new domain registrations because their prices are much higher than other domainer-friendly registrars (what domainer wants to pay $10 a domain?) and transferring domains out of GD is a bitch.
If you don’t look closely at Godaddy’s webpages during the registration process, you could go through ten webpages of “extras” just to register a domain. I discussed this with Go Daddy over two years ago and they asked me to help them implement a work-around. I came up with a simple solution to bypass their upsell pages - add a checkbox that said “I’m an expert. Let me register my domains without the special offers”. They added this shortcut and it is still in use, but with different text. Look hard for it if you’re registering new domains with them. It will be in plain text at the bottom of the third page of the registration process and it will save you precious time.
DOMAIN EBOOKS! There’s quite a few of them out there. For those who are novices and professionals, you might think you don’t need to buy a domain ebook because you’re “so well-informed and got it going-on as a domainer”. Think again. There are some MUST HAVE ebooks, whether just to re-organize your mind, or to introduce new ideas you hadn’t considered before. I admit, each ebook I read showed me one or more of some new way to look at domain monetization or inspired me to enhance previous knowledge I had about domain value.
There’s been a lot of talk around the industry of late regarding the changes in Google and Yahoo ad syndication. The changes don’t seem to be favorable to domainers, or to the future of adlink pay-per-click (PPC) monetization. I personally don’t have inside contacts to know the intent of those who provide the “non-transparent” revenue for domainers’ landing pages, nor to state which direction they’ll eventually go.
It’s been bugging me for several years now, but the term “direct navigation” is really not going to work in teaching the public about “type-in traffic”. It doesn’t define very well the process of reaching a website by typing in a domain name, but it seems to have caught on amongst the domain industry pros. However, this is a perfect example of how esoteric terms can sandbag a new and misunderstood industry in its efforts to break out into the mainstream. For me, it’s a ridiculous term for us domainers because it creates an image of a guy in a little boat trying to “navigate” his way across a lake by focusing on a rock pile or house along the shore.
Not much to say, my good readers. I could yell out “To Arms! To Arms!”, but I’d wake up the house and it isn’t 1774.
