Today in the Bido chatroom we will discuss those recent developments, and try to understand better what went wrong, where, why, and how you can avoid those issues in your own dealings. We’re inviting all to participate, including but not limited to somain professionals, attorneys, search engine professionals (Search engine optimization, Search engine marketing), investors and venture capitalists, and web professionals in general.
As you all know we work extremely hard on Bido. We do so because we truly believe this is what domain owners need. How do we know? Because we own a large portfolio ourselves. Building liquidity is essential to the health of the industry.
The stronger the liquidity in the domain channel the better we all are. If you do not agree with this statement better stop here and surf away. This post is not for you.
If you are still reading.. I’ve talked much about liquidityinthepast, about the importance of accurate pricing. What I did not talk much about is how you can help build such liquidity, how you can do so with Bido.
1. The public is tired of being “sold” into things
Aren’t you? The internet finally gave us all easy access to unbiased opinions. From travel to cars to funerals and marriage. “Hard selling” is out, unbiased is “in”. We welcome all with open arms to contribute at Bido. You may apply for a Bido expert status and contribute your unbiased commentary on domains listed. All commentaries are submitted to the site in real time and without any manual approval by us. All we ask is to stay on topic and be professional.
2. The more buyers, the better we all are
By participating you are helping to attract more potential buyers into the domain game. As the public is tired of being sold into things, they highly appreciate your unbiased commentary. It is what we believe to be one of the main reasons why buyers continue to come back to Bido.
3. The more turnaround, the safer your holdings are
The more domains are sold in the domain channel, the safer your holdings are in case you need to liquidate. Liquidity creates a healthy market environment, it creates a vibrant market. Without liquidity there would be no domain sales. The more liquidity means more buyers, more options. Your best alternative to a given buyer is to have another buyer.
Of course there are many more reasons and benefits to participate than commentaries, from building your own brand, to building your site links, to market your services through your Bido profile tabs, or to win exclusive prizes which are only offered to Bido experts (last prize we gave away to a Bido expert, Traffic ticket, valued at US$ 2,000). No matter what reason brings you to Bido, what we want you to know is that Bido is for you as much as it is for us. Together, we’re so much stronger.
Just a quick note, today during auction, Bido guest in the Bido chatroom will be Mike Berkens. Mike is a veteran in the domain space, operates the popular blog The Domains, owns some 50k+ domains that are being sold through his site Most Wanted Domains, and an attorney. In addition, Mike is a very good friend of mine and neighbor here in South Florida. Whenever I need an advice related to domains, Mike is on top of the list of people I would reach out.
Should be well worth attending. FYI, you must be logged-in in order to participate in chat.
Not sure what you are up to, but I know here, there’s no stopping this train. Here’s some things I’m involved with, working on:
1. Contacts: If you want to get deals done, getting to the right people through the right channels is extremely important. Building the network, or tapping into existing networks through associates, I believe has much potential. This isn’t something you do on your free time but something that well worth focusing on and do right.
2. NDP: Still working on our directory business (see FuneralHomes.com). It’s been tough but the best decision we’ve ever made. Getting your own advertisers, owning the cash register. What else can you ask for? Should you do it though? I would say this isn’t for all as it is A. expensive and 2. require teams. My suggestion is to partner with others who have done well and can work with you.
3. Bido: Our auction platform, we’re happy with the progress we’re making and appreciate all the help and participation. New partner program will be introduced in the next 60 days. This program will not only introduce many to a new way to sell domains but also, it will finally open the platform to multiple auctions per day. Later in the year we plan on opening the platform completely where you will be able to log in, start your auction, and manage your listing on your own.
4. Content platforms: I’ve been working on a couple of content platforms, mainly to monetize our domains a little better. Still in the early stages of these platforms. The idea is take a domain, create a brand, build traffic, momentum, get direct advertisers. If Domaining is going where it seems to be going I believe many of you will get direct advertisers in the future as well, either by directly soliciting or by using your parking companies to bring direct advertisers to your domain name. Once an advertiser signs up it opens up an opportunity to bring those direct advertisers together on a shared platform where they can buy from similar sites with ease. If metrics are similar, quality is graded, and data is quantified and easy to grasp, it makes perfect sense. Instead of buying from one site, this gives them the ability to buy from many, focusing on a budget and quality and not so much on the site itself. This is of course a much better way of buying advertising.
Couple of other projects are in the work I cannot elaborate on. Each of the above has sub-projects as well. And lastly, I’m quite sure missing something.
But what about you? Are you busy these days? Are you excited about tomorrow? Are you struggling? The best defense is an..you know the rest. In our office there’s a big sign, it says “Go Big Or Go Home”.
I think that one of the reasons Silicon Valley creates so many entrepreneurs is, you work next to someone who has started a company and you say to yourself, ‘That guy has been successful and he’s a dumb $#@$ ‘ Bushnell says. “I saw these guys at Nutting who were not smart folks, and yet they had this successful company. So I said to myself, ‘I couldn’t possibly screw up more than them.
I started this series here (part I). Why understanding the market value of your domain is important? I believe it is all about creating opportunities. Let’s explore further shall we?
Donations to charity are tax deductible expenses. These donations can reduce your taxable income and lower your tax bill. Not everyone will be able to deduct their charitable contributions, however. You will need to itemize your tax deductions in order to claim any charity.
“You may deduct charitable contributions of money or property made to qualified organizations if you itemize your deductions.” (IRS Publication 78)
The better you can relate the value of a domain when needed, the easier it is to claim a charitable donation.
If the value of your property changes.. you get the picture. If you can show it in a cut and dry manner you make the job that much easier.
3. Insurance
Self explanatory here. If you want to insure your assets, understanding their value is essential.
4. Inheritance
Understanding the value of your assets will give you a better picture what you are leaving behind to your loved ones, and possibly, how to split it between those.
5. Joint ventures
If partners bring in assets, quantifying them with dollar amounts ahead is the smartest way to go about it.
6. Funding/Equity
Raising money, giving equity. For you and for your potential investor, you must know and relate what you have before discussions get meaningful
7. Loans
Getting a loan on a domain? Whoever loans you the money must understand the value of what you have. The more accurate you can relate it, the better and faster the process will be.
8. Trades
No two domains are alike, some are worth slightly more than others, some are much more than others. You can conduct a fair trade between domains even if they don’t match value. First, convert the domains in question into dollar amounts. Than, once agreed by both parties, trade may occur and one may end up paying the other some in order to make up the difference. In such a trade scenario, accurate pricing is a must.
Would love to hear your thoughts on the above and other reasons you may have in mind.
Knowing what your assets worth is fundamental business practice. It helps with insurance, taxes, attract investments and partners, marketing, selling, and various other business dealings. The benefits are there but how to do it? To understand better we need to look at related industries. Take gold coins for example. To understand the value of your holdings you look up comparable sales data. Various companies in the gold coin industry provide grading and authentication services (PCGS, NGC, ANACS, others). One of my favorite videos I often send to associates is of PCGS’s president/founder David Hall. See below:
As you can see, the process of grading coins is complex. It involves highly trained professionals, processing, blind testing, and some more testing. Over the years I bought PCGS coins “sight unseen” simply for the fact these coins were sealed and graded by PCGS. I could count on quality, authenticity, and a name behind the coins. Why grading is important? PCGS says this:
If rare coin dealers only dealt with other rare coin dealers, there would be no need for coin grading. The two would simply decide on the value of the coin and conduct business accordingly. However, the coin market has expanded far beyond dealer to dealer transactions.
When the rare coin market was limited to a small number of numismatists trading with each other, three broad definitions were enough to determine grade: “Good” — a coin with most of the detail intact; “Fine” — a coin with clear detail and some luster on its surfaces; and “Uncirculated” — a coin which had never been in general circulation and therefore retained its Mint State condition.
As the market grew, collectors realized that some “fine” coins were finer than others. Even some uncirculated coins rose above the rest in detail, luster, and general appearance.
Soon terms such as “very fine” and “extra fine” began to emerge, as collectors sought to further define the condition of their coins — and increase their value. In 1948, Dr. William Sheldon, a renowned numismatist, developed the Sheldon Scale, assigning grades from “one” through “70″ to coins on the theory that a “70″ would be worth seventy times as much as a “one”.
Although coin collectors agreed on the scale, they could not agree on the standard — and assigning a Sheldon Scale grade to any given coin was still a matter of subjective opinion.
Industry leaders were deeply concerned that without standardized grading the rare coin industry could face major problems.
Over the course of many months of meetings, the blueprint for the Professional Coin Grading Service evolved.
The advent of the third-party appraisal of a coin’s physical condition, backed by a guarantee, and a national network of reputable coin dealers could provide an extremely reliable form of protection for rare coin consumers.
PCGS would create a climate in which consumers could participate in the coin market with greater confidence.
Selling these coins a day later for about what I paid for isn’t a problem as PCGS is recognized for quality and service within the coin trading community. Because of that price consistency, one can use PCGS price valuation for various business dealings, as mentioned above.
My two main questions in last few years are 1. How to build liquidity in the domain space similar to PCGS? and 2. How to push this further and even do a better job?
Before I go into my thoughts on this I’d like to invite all for a constructive discussion about this. What do you think? How would you go about achieving such goal? Is it even a goal worth pursuing? Is it important to you?
As you may know Bido recently opened the floor to ccTLD’s. Here are the three two ccTLD’s auctions we’ve ran so far as well as one .Mobi domain, and results:
I’ve been a fan of domain name auction platform Bido for awhile, even though I’ve had my reservations. My most recent complaint was domain quality. But Bido seems to be picking up the slack in that category. And a funny thing has happened as quality has improved: domains are starting to sell for “good” prices.
Just moments ago TechSupport.mobi sold for $540. As an outside observer of .mobi, I’d say this is a nice sale for the owner of this domain. Today.us sold for a very strong $2,409 last week. And nize.com sold for a solid $2,142.
We’re definitely pushing forward and today’s auction (Recycle.IT) is a clear indication of our willingness to try new things. In the coming days more ccTLDs are coming to Bido:
If you are not yet familiar with ccTLD’s or interested in learning more, log on to Rick Latona’s ccTLDs.Com.
More from Bido: In recent weeks we’ve introduced a cashback program, live videos, and chat guests (see each of the auction links above, log in, and view chat history). Of course we’re not done and we still have a long way to go. I would like to extend our invitation to all to participate, whether by submitting quality domains, becoming a Bido expert, or any other way you may see fit. As always, we welcome all feedback, comments.
The domain name TechSupport.Mobi, one of the better dotMobi domain names out there, is up for auction on Bido today. US $1.00, No reverse. Many wonder what is the state of dotMOBI these days, are domainers still chasing them? Are they still optimistic about their future? I think in the next couple of hours we will find out much about the state of dotMOBI for the domain investor. In addition, today’s in the Bido chat room during auction we welcome Pinky Brand of the dotMOBI registry. Last few days I spoke with few who trade in the space and word on the street is Nokia will introduce some dotMOBI innovation soon as well as banks tend to really like dotMOBI. What do you think? Join us in the Bido chat room during the auction for a lively discussion. The goal? For all to learn more.
Have a great day,
Sahar
Did you know: Get 2% Cashback if your Pre-Bid* Wins Auction
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Old friend and web professional, 
Just a quick note, today during auction, 
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