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We worked very hard to get the Bido.com preview site up and running as it is now with today’s deadline. We still need to polish the pages a little bit and still have allot of work ahead of us in the next three weeks before we start running auctions (March 20th, the first day of Spring).Why is this happening? Why am I missing out on great deals? The answer to it is simple: Because of all of the noise associated with auctions today. Simply put, there isn’t enough time in a day to scatter through all auction listings, especially where a majority of domains are extremely weak at best; do not have listed or expected prices attached, and are held by completely unmotivated sellers. Could some of the domains above have been sold for double those prices? Sure they could, if the auction house made sure to separate quality listings from non quality, then top buyers, those who value their time and have money to spend, would pay more attention.
The domain market desperately needs liquidity. If you bring quality sellers with quality inventory who wish to move their inventory quick (velocity driven) and filter through the inventory so quality buyers would not spend their valuable time scattering through weak inventory, then buyers will follow, pay closer attention, and gladly will vote YES by bidding more enthusiastically with their hard earned dollars.
This is the foundation of BIDO in a nutshell. BIDO is built on fixing market inefficiencies. We started with the release of DNZoom By Bido and will later today release a preview of our auction house and functionalities within at Bido.com. The overall picture, the BIDO team will try and fix inefficiencies in the marketplace, from domain management to auctions at the moment and later expand to other areas that need some attention.
More on Bido later today..
Sahar
“Group hug” before rally starts..
Div and Sahar
“Start Your Engines!”
Dr. Chris Hartnett, Sahar Sarid
Tom Keesee, Sahar Sarid, Dr. Chris Hartnett, Darren Cleveland
From Left: Recall Media Group co-founders Sahar Sarid, Jeff Bhavnanie, Darren Cleveland
(Thanks Chris for the pictures, video!)
Having just returned from the recent T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference in Las Vegas, I was asked by Sahar to share my thoughts with you about the event. Considering the fact that I was the winner of the Bido.com contest (a free ticket to attend the conference), I felt it was my duty to oblige! Actually, truth be told, I would have obliged regardless of the free ticket because of the hospitality Sahar and his team have shown me prior to winning, and even prior to meeting him in person when I was someone he didn’t know posting on his blog, or emailing him with questions about the industry.
Although my partners and I at Typed-In hold almost 10,000 geo-targeted domains, we are fairly new to this industry so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this event. As a former Corporate Controller and Interim CFO for Tony Robbins, I have had the opportunity to attend numerous conferences and tradeshows, and also be a part of the production crew as well, so I know firsthand how much work goes into these events and how hard it is to pull everything off seamlessly. One thing is certain, although Rick Schwartz isn’t at all pleased that I got into the conference for free (something he let me know the minute I met him, half jokingly 
he and the team at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. really had their act together and pulled it off without a hitch; very impressive and Kudos to everyone involved.
In addition to the world class venue, there was plenty of networking opportunities, lots of parties, excellent food, and the sessions were full of expert panels with no shortage of opinions! From my vantage point, it was quite exciting to meet some of the people I have been reading about for the past year who have made an indelible mark on this industry (e.g., Frank Schilling, Dr. Kevin Ham, Dan Warner, Michael Gilmour, Ron Jackson and of course Sahar. Ok, you too Darren Cleveland :). Interestingly enough, I ran into 3 people at the event that live/work in Tampa, where I am from! Seems funny how I had to travel to Las Vegas to meet people that I probably see at Starbucks every day!
As an observer without any preconceived notions, one thing was quite clear to me: the domain industry is still early in its lifecycle and trying desperately to move from adolescent stage to young adult. I have a 17 year old daughter and a lot of the discussion at the conference was like listening to her speak; she wants respect, but doesn’t feel like she gets it.
I understand that domainers must look out for their best interest, and this is a great venue to share ideas about how to make things better for each other. However, quite honestly, there appeared to be a lot of whining about what domainers don’t have, or feel entitled to and I believe that is one reason the industry doesn’t get the respect it not only desires, but also deserves.
Moreover, as much attention and funding this industry has received during the past two years, I was surprised at the lack of venture capital and private equity representation, as well as cross selling of services beyond ‘parking companies’ (e.g., online advertising companies, IYPs, online directories, ad networks, etc.).
The approach my partners and I at Typed-In are taking with our domain portfolio is not the standard PPC approach mainly due to the fact that our geo-targeted portfolio has a better chance at succeeding long term with other monetization models. However, because most of the industry is still so PPC centric, I found it difficult to engage with anyone about anything other than how to make money by parking our sites and leveraging PPC. As a side note, the folks at Bido.com and RMG were the exception to the rule and actively engaged in discussions which focused on the future rather than the history or present.
A shining example of my frustration was during one of my first discussions at the event. This conversation was with Dan Warner. I was truly looking forward to speaking with Dan because of his background, expertise, and some of his portfolio is very similar to ours in the geo-targeted space. But within the first 30 seconds, it turned into a debate consisting of the following:
(Dan) “if you can get 50x - 500x PPC revenue by selling a domain you own, you should just sell it and move on.” Vs. (Bob) “why sell an asset that has intrinsic value from which you can monetize in other ways beyond PPC and achieve a much larger valuation later”
I tried to gauge his belief (actually, I was trying to validate my belief) that there were other long term, residual revenue opportunities by holding the domains and focusing on other monetization strategies that would allow a domain owner to earn income while watching the asset value increase over time. While Dan did say if I found a way that he would agree with me, he also made it quite clear to me that he didn’t believe it would be worth the effort.
Keep in mind, the 50x - 500x number was based on the concept of a niche geo-targeted domain that may make $20 per year revenue and maybe sell for $1,000 to $2,000; of course, if I could sell something at 500x earnings and earnings was material, anyone would be a fool not to sell it. That said, if domains are being sold at these multiples, it’s no wonder the auction performed as my new friend Michael Gilmour predicted; poorly in comparison to prior events. Truth be told, if there were no other ways to monetize a domain asset beyond PPC, I would buy into his argument. However, there are other ways to monetize these assets which by my observation at the event, the domain industry has yet to be able to effectively embracing in a meaningful way.
Don’t get me wrong”I am quite happy that the industry isn’t embracing other means to monetize beyond PPC because that poses an opportunity for my company to acquire additional domain assets for cheap relative to the way our industry currently monetizes and values a domain in our niche. I guess I was just more disturbed to see and hear very little forward thinking or creativity about how we can leverage the high quality targeted traffic and brand-able assets we all own; not even from someone as bright as Dan Warner.
For the record, there is nothing wrong with Dan’s strategy”he is obviously very successful in this space. I am just using this as an example of my key take-away from the conference. It wasn’t just Dan”there seemed to be a predominant theme of ‘old school’ methodologies as opposed to looking creatively at the future of how we can all leverage our traffic to benefit ourselves beyond PPC.
One additional observation I took away from this conference is that the domain industry is still very domain centric. Yes, there are the select few enterprises that are doing a great job of expanding into other areas embracing partnerships and doing deals with folks outside the ‘domain world’ such as NameMedia, Marchex, Oversee, Tucows, ReInvent and RMG to name a few. But if our assets are going to get the attention and value they deserve, I believe we will need to expand beyond ourselves like any other industry. I believe this will be critical to changing the perception away from domainers as ‘individuals’ trying to loot the register, to ‘Domain Enterprises’ that have something the entire web community covets - TARGETED TRAFFIC.
All that said” Overall, I had a great time, met great people, learned a great deal and best of all, created some new friendships that I am certain will last for many years to come. I will certainly be attending the Orlando event (yes Rick, I will pay this time ! Who knows, maybe I will even be able to convince Dan Warner to sell me his portfolio of geo-targeted domains on the cheap next time!!!
Bob DeCecco, CPA
President & COO
Typed-In.com
www.linkedin.com/in/dececco
On Average, How Many Domains Do You Sell A Year?
Total Voters: 17
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