The owner has posted a recent update from my last post about Domaining.com charging for it’s service. Here is the status of Domaining.com for it’s members and future members. The following is from Francois:
"Well I think this time I definitively got the point as now Domaining.com is FREE:
No need to register to read headlines!
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The membership for existing members will continue FREE like in the past. Free members could receive our daily newsletter but will only see featured domains 24 hours after paid members. So if you are not receiving our newsletter your account has been deleted as there is no interest to maintain it.
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Now membership for new members will no longer be free, we will charge $25/year or $10 per quarter.
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This fee as you understand is no longer a fee to read news or receive our newsletter, it’s simply a fee to do business:
- Receive new featured names before everyone.
- Can list featured domains.
- Can use professional services to come, like auctions."
The basics as I understand them! It’s free to be a reader of Domaining.com but the newsletter is in question yet. By the statement by Francois, it sounds like it’s still free but with a free membership you would not see domain names for sale until 24hrs after paying members. If you would like to list domain names For Sale, you will need to be a paying member kind of like it is on Afternic.com .
All in all, I think this outcome came out fair for the majority and Domaining.com .
RegFeeNames.com
I think this is a better way for Domaining.com to go.
I wouldnt pay for the lists of domains 24hr in advance.
I personally think that Francois should stick a donation button on the site and allow us to donate what we feel is an amount that suits the indvidual.
Regards,
Robbie
**Jamie Says**
Thank you Robbie. I personally think that “Donate Buttons” are for the birds and people simply will not donate. Just my 2 cents.
Kevin Davis
So glad to hear it.I always like coming here and checking out how the pros do it.
Reece Berg
That’s great to hear. Thanks for the update Jamie and nice to hear Francois has arrived at a compromise which will allow him to make money and also keep his site visitors happy.
**Jamie Says**
No problem Reece. I think it was a very wise move on Francois part.
Lance
I paid the $25 fee. Since I use the domaining.com service on a daily basis, I had no probelm paying for it.
Johnny
He still should put a donation button on the site.
I’d give him something from time to time just to help out.
Good outcome, however.
Terence Chan
Nice compromise, Francois. I paid for the sub the day I got it because I think its much better and more timely than the checking my Google Alerts or rummaging through everyone’s blog to look for any good updates. It saves me time, and time is money.
Wire
This is a nice temporary solution, but will it change again as it has twice already in six months?
Also I am confused why those who are willing to submit domains, which not only cost a listing fee, and a commission fee, also now pay a subscription fee?
It’s amazing to me that some people can get hold of technology like this, do great work on getting a site going and keep it satisfying for readers, and manage in the end to stumble on the marketing/income component – you know, the part where you get paid for all that hard work.
I hope he manages to find his way through the fog one day and stick to a delivery system.
**Jamie Says**
I wondered as well about the “Listing Fee” and if that would still be around with the paid membership.
Francois
Regarding the listing fee:
- All we want free promotion for our names for sale.
- All we think our names are the best: we rarely accept the critic and often overvaluate them.
- All we prefer make money with our unwanted names and keep the best ones.
For these reasons the result when you accept to feature names at no charge is:
Much more garbage submitted, with a higher volume that probably we could not satisfy and with unreasonable BIN prices.
In others words: More work, more members complaining, and less sales.
The idea behind the listing fee is try to refrain these negative points responsabilizing the domain seller.
Now between the theory and the reality there is a gap.
Probably the listing fee is still insufficient as I am obligated to cancel some listings and fight to have BIN prices decreased.
The next that is going to be implemented is a realtime calculation of domain metrics of the submitted name.
Basically the BIN you could set should be capped based on the domain metrics.
This I hope should allow to propose better priced domains and maximize sale chances.
If this happen then we could decrease the current maximum listing fee from $25 to $20 or even $15.
Jim
Domaining.com is a distribution site that is a collation of articles by other bloggers interested in the domain industry. But the site conditions keep changing, membership etc. The blogger doesn’t benefit financially from the set up apart from traffic.
It is about time that domain bloggers realise they need to take control of the central distribution and publishing of their articles as a group through their own collective site or else they will loose out heavily. They will still receive the traffic like Domaining.com but would share in revenue, have input into how the site is run and control over the distribution of their articles.
Francois
Jim,
you are right, maybe I should ask to the bloggers to participate in the payment of the +$200k domaining.com already costed me.
And maybe better, ask an advance on future expenses as it look likes it’s not tomorrow this service will have his monthly expenses financed (hosting, advertising, development and management).
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Most serious:
First, all the bloggers accepted, or asked to be present in domaining.com I did not added myself any feed without the full consent of the blog owner. Worst, for few months we are asking a symbolic $100 setup fee for new bloggers that join.
With bloggers it’s a WIN/WIN situation where the blogger get or improve his recognition and traffic in exchange of his approval to show his blog headlines in our pages.
Now as I am (probably too much) a “good guy”, it’s in my TODO list to find a way to share benefices with bloggers (I have absolutely no obligation).
But if some bloggers continue complaining or putting barriers every time I try to launch a financing idea then I can tell you it’s not tomorrow I could share any benefice (today we still not cover a quarter of our monthly expenses).
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I admit I start to be seriously tired of comments like your when I invested myself so much money, time and the only one that benefit for the momment are the bloggers.
Jim
$200k in web development and hosting fees seems a lot for a one page website.
However, I was only pointing out to industry bloggers the risk associated with them not controlling their IP via their own controlled distribution / headline site. It will cost them in the long run.
**Jamie Says**
From my understanding, the domain Domaining.com was in the $1xx,xxx range alone. Advertising on NamePros.com (top banner) is $4,000 per month and I saw a banner up their for Domaining.com for sometime… Having a newsletter using a service like Aweber.com is Not cheap. Setting up the affiliate program, site design, logo, hosting all adds up quick. I can see the $200K invested.
Mick
Well its a good news bad news thing for me Francois. There goes my latest and greatest domain venture afterdomaining.com. I even dressed it up for you. Looks like u will survive and I may have to look for a ‘mystery’ domainer to market my now defunct website.
We all learn out of this Frank and Im sure you will benefit from what has happened moreso than others. Afterdomaining.com is really tounge in cheek and I hope you dont take to much offense, but if we take domaining too seriously and dont take time to small the roses and have a laugh at ourselves then where is the fun in doing anything.
I applaud you for trying to recoup costs for your website, hell we all try to do that but its unfortunate that on this occassion that strategy hasnt worked as you had planned. But you will survive and prosper and my now defunct afterdomaining.com wont.
Its obvious you are on a good thing with domaining.com, even the negative responses agree and in time you will make your money. I hope for your sake and ours its sooner than later.
Mick from Downunder
Will Castillo
It seems almost fair enough, however, as far as I understand, Domaining.com is no longer free… It is free only for existing members.
I think there is still room to improve things for everyone:
- Two types of memberships, like estibot and many other.
If anyone wants to check it out, s/he should check it for free… If s/he likes the service or needs the paid services, he should paid for them.
Johnny
So long, and thanks for all the fish! This is greed. Have fun rationalizing guys.
There are too many great domaining newsletters, boards, and forums that would love to have any of us on their mailing list. There’s nothing here that can’t be found elsewhere.
Nobody has to PAY for any of this.
Fortunately for F, there are always fools and their money…
I am outta here.
Jim
Anybody know of an alternative blog aggregator with no requirement to sign up? You can preach all day long that all we need to do is sign up but nobody only a few die hards will.