2009 July archive at Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

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Archive for July, 2009

Bido Review: Evolving With Time

Published on July 30, 2009 in Bido and Domain Names. 9 Comments

(image source)

It’s been less than a month since we’ve integrated the new multiple auction format on Bido. Our goal for July was to complete 100 successful auctions (achieved). We treated this month as a trial month as we had to make sure all systems are stable, and work any sort of fixes as we find them. Luckily the issues for the most part were minor and were addressed quickly. In addition, we wanted to continue and talk to the community, get feedback, and evolve as needed to create a better balance between buyers and sellers. Some things we’ve learned in the process:

1. All completed transactions cost us money, whether it’s a $1 or $1000 transaction, Bido has costs involved. On a “one domain a day” format this wasn’t an issue, but as we scale up and run hundreds of transactions a month, it becomes a major issue. The transaction fees combined with managing the auctions and transfer process all take resources, from personnel to service fees (credit cards, banking), as well as technology,

2. Sellers are not happy with $1-$10 sales (below registration fees). While it’s what the market is paying, many sellers said if they could they would have not sold. Sure, call it “seller’s remorse” but we do understand to a certain degree, and because the percentage of those who said it was higher than we would like, we plan on addressing this issue and exploring further. We hope everyone realizes we are after the best user experience for everyone and while you can never make everyone happy, we continuously try our best to find the best balance to all.

3. We’re true believers in the idea of “auction events”, that is, making sure bidders are attending and competing in the live portion of the auction. If you are a seller you definitely want buyers to attend the live portion, as buyers who attend may increase their bids in response to others. This of course cannot happen when buyers are simply placing proxy bids and aren’t attending. We’re exploring more ideas and concepts to incentivise bidders to attend.

4. Nothing new but a validation, Bido members like our chat platform. When we first started the multiple auction format, we had a “Channel Chat” which was surprisingly mainly used for Bido tech support. Many members want the chat back, or at least an enhancement to the current chat format, and we have plans on addressing this in the very near future.

And just a market observation, .Info, .US are on the move, with very decent trading numbers (volume, prices, activity)

As always, we’d like to hear more from you, your thoughts, ideas, & feedback. Thanks in advance and we hope that as time goes by, we continue to exceed your expectations time and again.

Best

Sahar

During These Times, Information Overload Is No Joke

Published on July 24, 2009 in Business. 5 Comments

It’s no secret times are challenging. With everyone I talked with lately all are taking steps to look closer at their financials, reduce expenses. For me, I always lived with this paranoia of “circumstances happen”” and today, with the current economy crisis, it is truer than ever. So what am I doing? Besides working hard, I’m working even harder. More hours, more drive, more everything.

The one thing I don’t need more though, is information! Tell me one more story about Twitter/Facebook/Apple/Google/Microsoft and I’m sure to throw up. How much of it can one take? Twitter does this, Twitter does that. New iPhone app is out, did you check it out? Google to take over yet another industry, and Microsoft to buy Yahoo, once again.

How much can one read, how much can one observe, how much can one process? Yesterday I was out for four hours (unusual for me these days) and when I got home, I checked my news reader to find out a couple of hundreds articles screaming at me “read me!”. I didn’t. I looked up the “read” button and marked them all as “read” (so sue me!).

Forget the news, forget what others are doing. Move away from the trends, be original, be creative, don’t drink the same water everyone is drinking (one of the benefits of living here in South Florida vs. Silicon Valley). Twitter did not start because they were following the news, they did their own thing. Same goes for Facebook, Apple, Google, etc. What one to do? The answer is simple: DO!

Have a great morning,

Sahar

Chef Patrick: Bido Marketing Techniques

Published on July 24, 2009 in Bido and Domain Names. 0 Comments

Getting the word out about your auction event should be your # 1 priority once getting listed on Bido. It isn’t easy and you may want to consider hiring someone to help you with it. If you take sales seriously, if you want to maximize the bottom line, there are no shortcuts.

(Thanks Chef for the vid)

How Many Votes Does A Domain Need To Get Listed On Bido?

Published on July 20, 2009 in Bido and Domain Names. 10 Comments

We lately gave Bido experts the ability to vote on which domains go to auction. We were asked then (about 10 days ago) how many votes does it take to get listed? While learning what constitutes the right number we did not have an answer but what we did learn, with the volume of domains in submission area (over 1K now) Bido experts were overwhelmed. Learning that, we now opened voting to all verified members but the question keeps coming back, what does it take to get listed, how many votes? And the answer is the same again, we just don’t know yet. We have to experiment, see the level of activity, and get some feedback from the community.

To vote, log in, click the “submitted” tab. To submit domains to Bido, click here.

Have a great day,

Sahar

Bido: Voting Is Now Open To All Verified Members (And Few More Site Updates)

Published on July 20, 2009 in Bido and Domain Names. 1 Comment

Quick note about a few updates to Bido.

1. Voting on the submitted domains is now open to all verified members, viewing submitted domains is now open to all members. In order to vote on submitted domains to see them go to auction, you must authenticate your account with either paypal or a credit/debit card. In addition, browsing the submitted domains is a lot more intuitive. You can sort by when they were added, how many votes they have gotten, as well as filter to show just adult or mainstream listings. Starred entries are Staff Favorites, and you may filter to see only these Staff favorites as well. Log in and click the Submitted tab to participate in voting.

2. Channelchat is gone. Originally it went into trial, however it was used mainly for tech support. Since we now have a new ticketing system in place (support.bido.com) ChannelChat is now gone. We ask all chat participants to join us in the individual Item Chatrooms. Each auction still has its own dedicated chatroom.

3. For sellers of domain names, the Bido sales contract process is now greatly improved. For No Reserve auctions, you wont be asked to fill the contract till after you get enough votes. In addition, Reserve listings are much more of a self-serve process. A future version of Bido still in the works will improve on the contract process a step farther. We are listening and adapting so bear with us.

4. Pick your date and write your description. If your submitted domains get enough votes, you’ll get a notice. You’ll then be able to pick your desired date and time of your auction, as well as type your description right there in the Bido site. Previously, descriptions and dates were handled over email.

5. Numerous other enhancements have been made throughout the Bido site. The above are just the major highlights that we feel are of greatest interest. We think you will enjoy the new incarnation and ask that if you notice anything out of the ordinary, please let us know.

Thanks for reading. As always, we welcome all comments, feedback, questions.

Cheers

Sahar & The Bido team