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- Apr 15, 2002
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Some time ago I did a lengthy post regarding the fact my experience has been that auctions simply do not work for domains or websites. At that time I mentioned I had an excellent active website (this was several yrs ago when domains were in their heyday).
It had some great and costly Cold Fusion data based programming, it was up and running approx 2-1/2 yrs., had good traffic with about 35,000 (over 2 plus yrs) hits, was ranked well in the SE's, we even had more that 1,000 PAID MEMBERS who paid a $67-yr fee to participate and got some other benefits too, not directly related to the auction site,
Out of the 1,000 or so domains (some with developed sites) listed for sale (many good names), we had ZERO sales and few bids, that's right - no sales at all. Granted, the average asking price was more than the ridiculously low prices at DNF auctions, but I feel were still reasonable based on the overall quality of the domains.
The prices were NOT the problem except in only 1 case I was aware of. The fact is almost no one wanted to bid. Lots of traffic but little activity. We also sold finacial books on the same site and they always sold good. In fact, the books sold so well we ran out of inventory and stopped selling books.
After much thought and discussion and hearing from other domainers we came to the conclusion the domain auction process is totally flawed and fudamentally unsound. Few if any buyers want to engage in a bidding process on domains. I finally closed the website in disgust, after losing lots of money on it and untold thousands of hrs of time too over 2 plus yrs.
Why would buyers want to compete with others and drive up the price or deal with unknown buy prices beyond the reserve when there are zillions of names for sale? It is so much better to simply check Whois and send an email or PM and make an offer with no competition from others as in an auction environment.
It is a buyers market, not a sellers market, and auctions are often best used on something which is conceived as or is in short supply or a unique product and service, and in mostly a buyers market. Most of the domains are not that good and as such are far from being unique and in short supply as there are so many other options including similar names which are unreg'd.
These are reasons I have not been concerned about my total inability to even visit the live auctions since day one due to my computer setup not being compatable with the auctions Javascript. I would never use the live auctions as a seller or buyer, even if my Java worked so I did not worry about it.
P.S. I should make it clear my site was not a live auction site like dnf. It was an auction site but did not have bids only at certain times but 24X7, similar to Afternic. I really don't think that matters much, in fact I feel a live auction site may even be less successful overall, it simply is a flawed concept overall.
Just my opinion. Any thoughts from others, perhaps other domainers who had auction sites, I know there are several of them here (and understand they were also unsuccesful).
It had some great and costly Cold Fusion data based programming, it was up and running approx 2-1/2 yrs., had good traffic with about 35,000 (over 2 plus yrs) hits, was ranked well in the SE's, we even had more that 1,000 PAID MEMBERS who paid a $67-yr fee to participate and got some other benefits too, not directly related to the auction site,
Out of the 1,000 or so domains (some with developed sites) listed for sale (many good names), we had ZERO sales and few bids, that's right - no sales at all. Granted, the average asking price was more than the ridiculously low prices at DNF auctions, but I feel were still reasonable based on the overall quality of the domains.
The prices were NOT the problem except in only 1 case I was aware of. The fact is almost no one wanted to bid. Lots of traffic but little activity. We also sold finacial books on the same site and they always sold good. In fact, the books sold so well we ran out of inventory and stopped selling books.
After much thought and discussion and hearing from other domainers we came to the conclusion the domain auction process is totally flawed and fudamentally unsound. Few if any buyers want to engage in a bidding process on domains. I finally closed the website in disgust, after losing lots of money on it and untold thousands of hrs of time too over 2 plus yrs.
Why would buyers want to compete with others and drive up the price or deal with unknown buy prices beyond the reserve when there are zillions of names for sale? It is so much better to simply check Whois and send an email or PM and make an offer with no competition from others as in an auction environment.
It is a buyers market, not a sellers market, and auctions are often best used on something which is conceived as or is in short supply or a unique product and service, and in mostly a buyers market. Most of the domains are not that good and as such are far from being unique and in short supply as there are so many other options including similar names which are unreg'd.
These are reasons I have not been concerned about my total inability to even visit the live auctions since day one due to my computer setup not being compatable with the auctions Javascript. I would never use the live auctions as a seller or buyer, even if my Java worked so I did not worry about it.
P.S. I should make it clear my site was not a live auction site like dnf. It was an auction site but did not have bids only at certain times but 24X7, similar to Afternic. I really don't think that matters much, in fact I feel a live auction site may even be less successful overall, it simply is a flawed concept overall.
Just my opinion. Any thoughts from others, perhaps other domainers who had auction sites, I know there are several of them here (and understand they were also unsuccesful).
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