See latest update near bottom (in red)~

Earlier today I saw a thread on NamePros.com that was titled Domaining.com no longer free. I myself did not receive an email from Domaining.com but that is also because I provide content to the site.

You may have seen a message when going to Domaining.com today that looked like this:

What do I think of this charge?

  1. Since I will not see a penny of it, it’s a bit upsetting to me since my content is used. Is my traffic that I get from Domaining.com worth the money they will make since my content is part of the site? Maybe… but I also see this traffic taking a Big Hit
  2. It’s going to hurt the domain industry as a whole
  3. One of the biggest things, is with the new feature of Selling Domains on Domaining.com, unless you have an account you can not click or purchase the domains listed for sale. The submission will greatly drop

Now $35 for a Year is not that big of a deal. A lot of great information is provided on Domaining.com but the content can also be seen on the blogs that are writing the content that is provided on Domaining.com .

Part of paying the $35 fee,  you get the Daily Domaining.com newsletter which features domain names for sale 24 hours before the domain(s) are listed on the actual site. Secondly, it speeds up your reading process instead of visiting all the blogs you like to read via RSS or directly. The third, the fee will keep spammers down for Francois. (Domain buyers)

When this idea of Domaining.com going to a pay site first started around November 20th, I wrote about it and the majority of people were very unhappy to here this. You can see that post here and the 50+ comments as well.

After that post, I had really thought that owner Francois was going to be happy with the new Domains For Sale section to prevent the site going to a pay site but I think the dollars coming in for that have not reached the dollar amount he was happy with.

Now some will pay the $35 annual fee, but many will not. Since many of these people that will not pay to use Domaining.com are also the same people that WERE paying to submit domain names for sale on the site. The ultimate question will be, will the people that pay the $35 yearly fee total up greater then the ones that would of submitted, sold and purchased domain names when the site was free?

Since Non-paying members will No Longer be able to purchase domains, this will be a Huge Hit to that feature that was just offered. I know I will not be listing any unless non-paying members that want to purchase Can or proof of paying members is High.

I also think that many people will be using the RSS features on blogs that they like to read. If you are interested in using the RSS feature on DotWeekly.com, it’s up in the header next to the search box. Just click the Little Orange Box. or just click here.

I hope something positive comes of this $35 annual fee, but I am just not seeing it currently for readers or the domain industry as a whole. Will the bloggers that fill Domaining.com with the fresh content ask for their feeds to be Removed since Domaining.com will be making further profit off their content and have less visitors visting Domaining.com? Again, something we will see with time.

I wish Francois the best with this decision, but my gut is telling me the site will be back to Free but many will have left and will not look back to it in the future.

UPDATE: Domaining.com seems to have a quick change of heart? Posted by the owner on NamePros.com thread mentioned above.

"Hello,

Penny pinchers, this is a funny english term I learnt today reading this thread.

For the adepts of this community I have two good news:

- First, there is no longer need to register or be logged to access the pages linked by the headlines in domaining.com

- Second, I restored most closed accounts. So you could continue receiving your "favorite" daily newsletter.

I admit I have been a bit sharp, and decided to let you a pair of weeks to better valuate if our service worth these tremendous $35.

Enjoy the end of the year,

Francois"

Now from what I can tell, you still have to be logged in to purchase a domain from the domains for sale section. Since you no longer need to login to read the headlines, I am just not very clear if you need to pay to buy now? It seems things are changing (probally no sign ups) pretty fast, so I will let the dust settle for a bit and do a follow up post Next Year!