WLS will be a HUGE improvement for those that know what they are doing, and aren't asleep when the starting bell fires. If the "small players" can't afford to subscribe to lists like Exody and do the research, I think its possible they shouldn't be "playing", and that we are in a nice "grace" period that has allowed things to be more "chaotic".
Some people are amassing names without any real clue what they'll eventually do with them. With every new drop-order company that opens up and starts doing well... sadly, its another opportunity for me to lose a name (I'm already vested and monitoring, now there's an open chance someone else will too). SnapNames just informed me this morning that I'd lost to Pool.
If only "SnapNames" and "NameWinner" were around, it'd be tolerable, but when "choice" or "competition" is a fancy way of saying "look at how many different bases you have to cover"... suddenly it equates to spending more time for the same result. I had to BUY a GoDaddy back-order just to see if a name was taken already (and it was). Getting ridiculous.
Current list of major/minor bases to cover:
> SnapNames - easy check $69 for use
> Pool - easy check $60/Auction for success
> NameWinner - easy check $8.95/Auction for success
> GoDaddy - purchase required/$18.95 for use
> eNom - purchase required/$99/per month/auction for use
For each auction you need to watch to make sure you're not outbid near the close, for each name you are trying to acquire. Difficult conditions given that even bidding by proxy runs the risk of having someone max bids on any/all of your names currently in the system. For balancing cost vs. return (if I had this name, then I wouldn't need this other one), it can make it difficult. For instance, you might say you wanted to bid a maximum of $100 for a collection of 10 names. If you're outbid by a dollar, you'd consider going up by that (though not $10). If outbid by $20, you'd probably give up on it. Makes for fairly irkesome conditions.
Everyone will have as much an opportunity at the WLS landrush as anyone. It's good SnapNames made scanning more difficult as WLS approaches. Competition on those slots will be tight. Network Solutions is already gearing up for pre-orders.
Yeah, I'm PRO-WLS. What we're experiencing now is only "competition" in so much as all the services are competing with each other for bragging rights and perceptions of performance. Serious customers quickly note that they aren't offered any real advantage picking one service versus another, when "features" and "payment" methods PALE are NOTHING if the service simply cannot deliver the expected result. When people "choose" any one drop-service... it is because they are too tired or strapped financially to cover the other services, and assume the one (or ones) they "choose" as the highest liklihood of success relative to how much they can invest. Rough waters to be sure. If a service opened today that started getting the best names 85% of the time, only communicated by e-mail and required people to call a number to give credit card details... it would quickly be the most popular service, even if it sent your domain names to the worst registrars in the business. Customers would hate it, but results talk... not the "choice".
"Choice", in my opinion, is finding a name that doesn't have a WLS sub, and back-ordering it at the registrar you prefer. Done deal. All your domains stay managed exactly where you want them. Will you even find the name? Scare tactics. No one knows. I'm getting up at 6:00 am this morning to make sure I get a park here in the business district of downtown Boston. There'll probably already be a line.
First come first serve. In all honesty, how the drop-game even works today, WLS just moves the clock so that people aren't staring at it every day.
~ Nexus
