SnapNames.com had a very trying Wednesday to say the least with breaking the news about the alleged insider shill bidder Nelson Brady. I think it was the right thing for SnapNames to do. They could of kept quiet but they didn’t.

Since the news broke yesterday and it was big news, it also happened to take away the normal press about the extended T.R.A.F.F.I.C. auction that ended yesterday as well.

With little press about the auction ending and a lot of bidders distracted from the auction itself not only will hurt SnapNames commission, but once again, SnapNames customers!

I am not sure if it was an oversight on SnapNames party that the extended auction was ending yesterday or not but it wasn’t a wise move releasing the bad news on a day they had a big auction ending that IMO they needed strong results from due to the poor results from the live auction.

Clearly the bad news overshadowed the auction ending.

I visited SnapNames twice yesterday but it wasn’t to bid in the extended auction. I checked my bid history once (which was mainly gone) and I checked the FAQ’s that SnapNames released about the inappropriate bidding. I think many others did the same and many of those would of been bidders in the extended auction if they were not distracted with the bad news.

I feel bad for those who had domains listed in the auction as clearly they didn’t see this news coming and to top it off, be released on the day the auction ended… which is normally always the busiest day of bidding!

Some more bad news for SnapNames is likely to hit on November 20th with the change to their new affiliate program. SnapNames current program is well liked by marketers but a pay structure change from 20% to 5% for existing customers looks to kill the good of the program for affiliates.

Not making marketers happy simply will make the ones who promote their domains not do it any longer because the payout is not worth it. Add in the shill bidding news on top of this and that adds up!

It will be interesting to see how Snap handles all this. One good thing for Snap is if they keep good domains coming in (expired domains), bidders will be around as well. Maybe not as many as before, but it’s hard to keep investors away when profit potentials are there and you don’t have to worry about Halvarez being in all your auctions anymore as well!