Conceptualist.com, By Sahar Sarid

Since we took Bido offline due to tech issues we’ve been very quiet about progress, giving you a date when we will bring Bido back. The original plan was to bring Bido back a couple of weeks ago, in November. Due to unexpected turn of events this was not possible. December did not make much sense to us to bring Bido back as it is a shorter month, and when people are more then ready for their yearly break. Most likely Bido will be back sometime during January. It will come back at the same format as it was last time with the addition of a chat option as well as other unique modules which were built, but will be introduced slowly one by one. The bigger news, we will also open the platform. What does that mean? We’re still working the details on this so I cannot tell you much more at the moment. The big picture, the one we never took our eyes off from the very beginning, Bido was built with scalability in mind from day one, and as we progress we plan to provide a lot more than what you have seen so far.

When Bido was running Bido had a life of its own. Reading the daily comments, interacting with experts and users was a lot of education and fun to all of us here. I’m just an anxious as many of you to see Bido back.

And a little heads up, there is another major venture we are working on which will be introduced next year to the domain industry. As with Bido, it is built with scalability in mind and will broaden its horizons as we see activity, experiment, and learn.

And lastly, if you need help with your portfolio you may visit Bido’s PortfolioHelp.com or for domain management, DNZoom.com

Have a great day,

Sahar

If you look at sales generated on Bido since release you may not see the high ticket items you initially wanted to see. For the most part Bido, as today most members are from the domaining community, was released at the worst time possible however, it is for the same reason we’ve built Bido in the first place. Domainers are taking a big hit with PPC revenues and are struggling. While it may seem sales are strong in the marketplace remember most of these, by far, are end-user sales where end-users approached, negotiated and bought. Unlike most sales in the past, these sales are not driven by domainers anymore.

A little history. Let’s look at the dynamics prior to the change, 05/06. Moniker is making waves all over the place with their Targeted Traffic auctions, breaking the 10 million mark in one auction. Seems to be like there’s no end in sight. SnapNames, with their exclusive Network Solutions contract, are making even bigger bucks due to their unique dynamics. On one hand domainers who are making more than ever due to increasing PPC payouts from the major search engines and are looking to increase their domain inventory, traffic, to make more, as well as paying end-user prices as money comes easily. On the other hand, SnapNames has tapped Network Solutions mass reach via WHOIS and their site and are luring end-users to their auctions. Bidding pressure from Domainers, from time to time, is getting end-users to pay even higher. Great dynamics, if it only lasted!

On the other hand, 05/06, Moniker is extremely selective what makes it into their auctions. If that is not enough, the money pool, buyers within Moniker auction, is for the most part limited to what Domainers have to spend. SnapNames does not yet accept aftermarket domains in their platform (when they initially do there was no user adoption for a while), and the rest of the domaining community’s only choice is to list with other sales platforms such as Afternic and Sedo, and wait for the right buyer to come by. With inventories exceeding ten million listings between the two, few get lucky.

Come 07 and PPC payouts are starting to drop, first slowly but towards the end of the year it is all too real. 30% fallout isn’t unreal anymore and in some cases, as we are learning now, it has reached 50% levels.

The few Domainers who drove the market in 05/06 have almost completely vanished. Today they make significantly less however they still invest, but elsewhere. Their picks today are things like Real Estate, Startups, Tech, web development (building their own we properties), stocks, others.

SnapNames sale to Oversee has changed the landscape a bit, as Namejet picked up the contract.

Today, since Domainers have stopped buying (again, for the most part, in comparison), most sales occur because end users are stumbling upon domains they want, usually, via Sedo and Afternic (and BuyDomains).

This is where Bido comes in. We saw most of those issues and thought a better solution was needed, one where users can liquidate inventory when they need to, not waiting for the right buyer to come by, just let the market decide what is right, and live with it, for the good, and the bad. As it is today, Bido is not the perfect place to sell. We have a long way to go, from getting the word out to working on our technologies to accommodate more buyers and sellers. We are well aware of these issues and are working day and night to make things happen quicker. In addition, as I wrote before somewhere on the blog, things do change. What we first envisioned for Bido has changed after release and now our direction has shifted to where we believe we can do a better job, where Bido has a better potential. We will still follow on our plans, but they have now expanded, Bido, as expected, took on a life of its own.

As for the question above, we are extremely happy with Bido, as it has attracted thousands of buyers in a very short time. We got to see, work, and improve our technologies, as well as to continue and build towards our objectives, which are now much broader than what Bido was meant to be initially, by far.

All in all, things are good, could be better, will be better.

And a piece of advice to Domainers, to those who are unsure what to do today. Back in 01 many thought the web was doomed. Few forgot to get the memo, got heavily into the domain business, bet the house, and won big. If you think the web is doomed it is time to stop investing in domains (as Franky says, “domain names ‘are the Internet“) however, if you believe in the internet, in advertising on the internet, in the Search industry and in the value of a click, maybe you too should bet the house today?

Some food for thought.

Have a great day,

Sahar

(image source: Flickr)

Bido.com has an in house sales team that contacts potential buyers (end users) and lets them know about upcoming domain names, the opportunity, etc. Basically spreads the word. In observing one of our sales managers yesterday doing a prospecting call to a real estate office in Phoenix, really clued me in as to why businesses still don’t get it.

The call went something like:

Sales Manager (Mike):”Hi this is Mike with Bido.com, is the person in charge of internet marketing available?”
Receptionist: “Sure hold a moment,”( Mike figured great I will discuss the opportunity with the decision maker and get an end user in on the auction, right?) Sure…
Mandy(Internet Market Manager) “This is Mandy how can I help you?”
Mike: “Hi, Mandy this is Mike with Bido.com, we are going to be auctioning off SouthPhoenix.com tomorrow and wanted to let your firm know about the auction.”
Mandy: “Mike what are we going to do with another website, we already have four?”
Mike: “Four wow, that’s great, this can only add to your current marketing efforts and position your company as the leading real estate firm in South Phoenix.”
Mandy: “Really we don’t need anymore websites. I told you already we have four of them.”
Mike: “Mandy do you know how much business you are generating from those websites?”
Mandy: “A lot.” By the way, this is where she gets LOST!
Mike: “Wow, great, (this is where the fun starts) “So you are telling me you have no interest in buying Phoenix.com for your company?” (Guys, Phoenix.com! Read closely)
Mandy: “No, we don’t wouldn’t want to change our domain name.”
Mike: “You wouldn’t have to change your domain name just add it to the four websites you are currently generating leads from. A premium name like Phoenix.com will obviously generate you a ton more calls than the websites you are currently operating.”
Mandy: “You obviously don’t get it, we are not interested in changing our domain name and not interested in what you are offering.”
Mike: “Well ma’am do you have any recommendations as to a competitor or someone else whom might be interested, I am sure there has to be someone in your area interested in buying Phoenix.com”…

So what is the moral of the story? It’s not that Mike didn’t get it, it’s that small businesses in general don’t get it, most businesses don’t get it. A few things I want to point out, The “internet marketing manager” failed to ask so pretty important questions:

1) How much is the domain name? (Or starting price.) Guys, the starting price is $1. No Reserve!
2) Is there any traffic associated with the name? Or any other vitally important question(s)…

Mike didn’t even have the opportunity to present her with some internet math, our well trained sales force knows what to say to get the wheels spinning when they have the opportunity…(Something to the nature of):
“How much is just one sales lead worth? Let’s say the average home in South Phoenix sells for $150,000 and assuming your firm receives the standard 3% commission for representing the buyer, therefore generating $4,500 in commission and let’s just say by placing a simple lead capture form on SouthPhoenix.com with minimal content related to the area, you generate say one lead a quarter that is four per year, well then you can expect SouthPhoenix.com to generate $18,000 in commission this year and every year after. Are you interested now?”

I don’t blame her for treating Mike like any other solicitor but the fact is instead of taking a couple of minutes to understand what was being offered and the opportunity at hand, she like most people turned a blind eye and let this (truly) once in a lifetime opportunity pass but she was lost long before Mike ever got to the nitty-gritty, I mean come on, he said he was selling Phoenix.com and she still didn’t bit, he could have said he was selling any domain name and it still would not have peaked her interest. This domain will be one that will pass many and in five years from now, this lady(if she is still employed) or other firms when buying leads from the now owner will say, “shoot I guess I should have bought that domain name when I had the opportunity.” This is one of the obvious problems with all small businesses and the challenges we face within our industry. Don’t get me wrong some businesses are wising up but they are the exception not the rule. While companies like BuyDomains.com and Moniker.com are making progress at spreading the word and educating the world beyond domainers of the values and potential of generic domain names we are a long way from home Toto, a long way from home.
This like so many other high quality generic domain names reminds me of the classic of all classics, Hotels.com…Need I say more.

Above: Live comments on Bido.com

After all the work we finally seeing what other sites (DomainNameWire.Com, DomainNameNews.com) are saying about Bido, interacting with Bido. We’re still hard at work here polishing as much as we can, listening to what others say, and addressing immediate users’ feedback.

Two events to report today:

1. We noticed a fun contest at NamePros called “Bido Game” In short, it is about guessing what prices domains on Bido will sell for. Sean Stafford of DNZoom By Bido thought it would be cool to sponsor the contest, and we all agreed! So.. here are the details:

Some of the good people over at NamePros.com have decided to start a friendly contest to figure out the selling prices for some of the domains on Bido.com. To show our appreciation for their excitement, we are going to sponsor their contest and give away a few prizes.

The prizes will consist of an autographed copy of The Domain Game by David Kesmodel.

The two people who are closest to guessing the TOTAL selling price of the first eight domains up for auction will receive the book. Please break down the selling price of each domain so we can see your thoughts on the individual prices, but the total selling price of all eight is the number we will count.

The two people that are closest to the total will win the book. The cutoff date to for bids is 1:00PM EST on June 18th (which is exactly when the first auction starts.)

Visit NamePros.com and get into the guessing game!!

Go here and post your guess.

Thanks!

Sean

Pretty neat. I said two events though..here’s the other!

2. Our marketing team put a newsletter out today calling all you domain experts to join in the fun. While I won’t bore you here with registration info (just log to the site) I wil ltell you a little about what the comments are all about:

Intent of Comments
…The intention is to have robust, enjoyable commentary on the highlights and characteristics of domain names. Keep it clean and fun, and we’re looking forward to chatting with you.

That’s it for the day, I need to get some rest!

Sahar