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By request, we've decided to start a thread dedicated to Sedo. We're looking for invaluable insight into what domainers want and need out of our parking program (and marketplace, of course).
Questions, comments, suggestions, tips are welcome! We're hoping this will be a great discussion about what works at Sedo and what might not (please be constructive and respectful to others in your feedback) so that everyone involved can benefit and learn from it.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas! Happy Holidays!
Honesty, integrety, openess, payment for multiple clicks, quick non-automated replies to emails, good servers, fast payment - or even payment twice a month like some others, buyers who have their contracts broken by the sellers to get immediate refunds, these are just a few of the areas you could start with.
I am sure there will be a lot of posts here very quickly. But hey, you could start by telling us under which section of the contract mTLD has the right to void the recent .mobi auction, and of course publish that contract on here.
Welcome to the 'Sedo.com - Official thread'.
P.S. Keith could you confirm that you will reply to posts daily/bi-daily/once or twice a week/ monthly or is this just a PR stunt to try and garnish good will that you will ignor as you do for the most part on other forums?
Last edited by TheBaldOne : 12-19-2007 at 12:52 PM.
That alone deserves to be recognized and commended.
Before we launch into the myriad of things that can be done better, can you please confirm you really wish to talk about the marketplace issues in this thread (given it's under Parking & Traffic Monetization")
You're certainly welcome to your opinions about Sedo's honesty, integrity, or openness. I wouldn't say that anyone I work with at Sedo lacks any of those qualities, but it's all perception. Maybe someday we can change that.
A couple things for your consideration:
1. Parking: Let me know which domains you seem to be having a multiple-click issues with, and I would be happy to look into it for you and help you get to the bottom of it.
2. Emails to Sedo are never answered with automated responses. Yes, there are some messages that go out from our system that are automated (such as when action is required by a seller or buyer in a domain transaction), but I can assure you that inquiries to support are not automated, in spite of how often we've been asked a particular question. We've been working hard to amp up our support resources to hopefully speed up the process in the near future.
3. Servers: The feedback is helpful. Personally, I wish I could quickly make these changes you're asking for. However, we've been making a shift in our servers, so the issues that occur should hopefully be minimized.
4. Payments and refunds: we do everything as quickly as we can, and sometimes there can be certain internal delays, but othertimes, there may be external influences. Again, get in touch with us if you think your payment should have reached you already. In terms of parking, though, all payments are issued in automatic batches based on what information has been given to us. Depending on what a refund is for, and who initiates it, it might take a bit longer. If you think it's taking too long, let us know.
Right now, we're looking into letting people use parking funds for other transactions, but I'm not sure if or when that will definitely happen.
5. The Third .MOBI Auction: As we don't control the domains, we cannot force mTLD to give them up. As a neutral marketplace, we came to what was deemed the best solution under the circumstance; that was to honor and stand behind mTLD's decision to re-run the auction. It's a double-edged sword; there were people who won the first time around, people who won in the extended auction, and everyone in between. Believe me, it was not a quick or easy decision to make, and everything was a bit frantic in the office. Most people, though, have equal chances of getting the domains they wanted as some buyers may drop out this time around.
Obviously we understand peoples' aggravation and opinions about Sedo. I don't know if all of those opinions are necessarily warranted, but we're trying to learn from our mistakes and move forward (hence this thread). First and foremost, we're people at Sedo and don't like to see others angry, upset, or otherwise disappointed, especially with us.
That aside, though, Sedo has decided to offer up any additional profits from the new commission from the auctions to charity. I don't know all the details, as it hasn't been officially announced. The point is that Sedo isn't getting anything other than what we would have the very first time around, in an effort to remain neutral. I would hope that at the very least, others in the domain industry can respect that we're trying to make the best of a very sticky situation by using the results of this decision for a good purpose.
I hope that clarifies some. Maybe it isn't quite the answer you were looking for, but I'll do my best to be as open with you as I can.
Take care and happiest holidays!
Always,
Keith
PS to Mobi Cheap: This is primarily a thread for parking, but the marketplace is a good topic. I honestly don't know if it's okay to talk too much about the marketplace here, but this section of the forum just made the most sense for a Sedo thread!
hi Keith i have a question for you
i know that sedo accept type-in traffic
what if i have a type-in traffic method that can bring 100 and more real people to my domain for a day
can i use it?(i am talking about 100% real people)
1- What specific rights does a seller of a domain have to declare a Sedo auction void?
2- What specifically has Sedo done to avoid this nightmare in the future? This has cost people an extraordinary amount of time and money dealing with the aftermath of this botched auction and I think it is reasonable as your customers to be told specifically how you have rectified the problem with the servers and sending out erroneous automated winner notifications.
If you read the threads here and on other forums you will soon find that the questioning of the qualities mentioned is not one that I am alone in holding. But then again I think you already know that.
1) As you are well aware I no longer park ANY domains at Sedo.
2) The problem is you do not answer emails, I merely said not by an autometed response so that Sedo did not think they could get away with initiating such a system.
3) So say all those that took part in the .mobi auction fiasco. But more of that elsewhere as I am sure you are aware.
4) Another member here will be in touch with you I am sure!
5) Umm, are we not forgetting a little matter of that strange little thing called, oh it's slipped my mind, umm, ah yes, the law?
Sedo has publicly stated that mTLD have the right to void the auction. What right? Who gave them this right? Was it in the contracts give to all bidders prior to the auction (which they had to sign to be permitted to bid)? In fact can you give any example any where in business where such a right exists (unless national security is involved)?
So your commission goes to charity, well rather any excess commission over the unlawful second auction you mean I think. But what about those who have had their lawful contracts from the first auction broken? What do they get, by the looks of it absolutely nothing. What about those who won the second unlawful auction, what do they get, again absolutely nothing!
I know the case is going to court in the US where these PR stunts will be blazened as pure smoke-screening and in fact will most probably end up with damages being made even higher than they would otherwise have been, but hey, your management knows what they are doing, right! After all the story about the auction from Sedo has changed 4 times to my knowledge.
One major point here, in law my friend, you are not neutral, you are the auctioneers, you are the go between, you are the ones who have 'sided' with the vendor against the buyers, you are the ones who were negligent, you are the ones that operated an unlawful second auction, you are the ones who have announced running another unlawful auction, you are the ones who took money from the vendors and did not return it post haste when agreeing with the vendor to break the contracts. Oh no, you (and in all of this paragraph by 'you' I mean Sedo) are not neutral in the eyes of the law either by your participation or actions.
On another topic does Sedo refund to Google all monies paid by them over that for the first click? You want to be open, here is a good opportunity for you to be so.
What percentage of a Google payment for a click is paid to the small domain holder by Sedo. Hey, you said you were all open and honest, I am sure we would all love finally to be told the answer to this question.
Keith, nothing personal against you, we used to get on well over the phone, in fact have a laugh, but just want to hold you to your word.
It's a bit ambiguous in a case like this, but we ask that you avoid asking or paying others to visit your parked domains, be it by entering your domain into their browser, or through a PPC program/link exchange, etc. Basically, if you've solicited traffic, we won't consider it natural. I'd recommend sending a message to info@sedo.com (if you live in the US/Canada) or info@sedo.co.uk (if you live outside of the US/Canada). From there, we can put you in touch with a member of our Traffic Quality Management team for more answers about traffic.
You should make sure that you are not driving or encouraging traffic in any way to your parked domains. This helps to protect the integrity of the parking program, the integrity of your traffic statistics, and also helps to increase the positive reputation that domain parking has among sponsors and advertisers. The more confident they are in the traffic, the more they'll pay!
' Are you staggering the end times of the .mobi auctions' and all future .com, .co.uk etc auctions where there will be a lot of interest?'
Keen to know, as in a lot of peoples eyes you guys were crazy not to in the first place.
People need utmost assurances it cannot happen again, or at very least every step has been taken to avoid.
On a positive note, after the previous mistakes, i believe the re-aauction was the only logical step, to be held in Jan, subject to you guys tightening everything up.
Lastly, well done for the charity donation. That's a positive. Which charity will beenfit and can we have a vote on which charity gets it?
Preferably a childrens one
Nice to see Sedo moving towards becoming more open and transparent. Just what is needed and hope you get a moment to answer Scandiman above, even if it's just to say that you can't answer him.
Keith,
Welcome to NamePros!
I think that at this time the most important (and interesting) point is the .mobi action.
There were some very good questions and the most important one is why mTLD had the right to void the auction to begin with, and on what ground.
Also, we need to know what really happened there.
I think we deserve some answers for these questions.
Spinoza, I'm sure Keith will address the question I highlighted above as and when practicable, but in the meantime do feel free to have a look at this thread:
I have to start by taking just a little credit for this thread
I had been in discussions today with Monica over at Sedo regarding an issue I had with an auction of mine. After she helped me fixed the problem to my satisfaction, we talked about this message board and I suggested either I could start a thread for them or they could. Now I come home and it is already started and there are many posts.
I have been helped by Monica and Kieth over at DNForum (hope I can mention that here), and I think that they do a great job over there.
Now about this thread and why I suggested starting it. Sedo obviously at times seems to have more questions than they seem to know what to do with. They have been taking steps to improve, and I think that it has shown, since recently my emails are getting answered very fast.
This thread should be like the Parked thread. Please no Sedo bashing. No comparing Sedo to Parked or Namedrive or Bodis. There are plenty of those threads already. This thread is for system specific questions that either involve everyone parking there (e.g. "Is the system down for everyone else?" "When do you payments get processed?" "What is going on with my sale from 2 months ago?") or involves their system itself, things like that.
I would also like to implore people on this board, other experienced membes like myself, and those more experienced to help out Keith and Monica, by helping to answer those questions that we know the answer to, so that they won't get overwhelmed. There are certainly a few questions on here already that I can answer.
I am glad that Sedo is listening to us and taking these steps to improve customer relations. Lets everyone give them a fair chance.
hi Keith,
first, let me say thank you for starting this thread and welcome.
i have more than 1500 names parked with SedoPro and 150 each at two other parking companies. i earn substantially more at the other parking companies which i cannot understand. the names at the other companies are not hand-picked and receive no more traffic than my Sedo names (although the traffic is increasing at the other parking companies while my traffic is decreasing at Sedo). i think one of the reasons that my domains parked at Sedo are not doing as well is because the names seem to never get indexed in any search engines. it would be very beneficial if members could customize our page titles rather than have the simple domain name as the page title. this is a very easy option to provide but Sedo does not. i have let the SedoPro staff optimize my account but this has done very little, if anything, to increase my earnings. Also, without getting indexed in searches, the traffic is continuing to decrease. i have been patient for the past few months to give your platform and the optimization a chance to work but i am very unhappy with the results. my intention was to move away my domains after the beginning of the year if the earnings and traffic did not improve. please let me know what you recommend and what can be done about giving members the ability to customize page titles.
I will answer this to the best of my ability. If I am wrong please correct me, Sedo.
1) The seller does not have specific rights to declare an auction void. Once you agree to list it on auction, you are agreeing to specific terms beforehand, which include not being able to cancel an auction once it has begun and has a bid. If there is a serious error, it may be possible to relist the name, but the auction time cannot be extended, and I think that it would only be possible to cancel and relist something in he most extreme errors.
2) I don't know what they have planned in the future, but currently the only thing I know of that they do to punish people is to close your account down if you don't pay for a domain you won. I don't know about the .mobi auction. I have no specific insight into that situation, and can't give an answer for what they have planned. Also, please get more servers for the next auction.
My suggestions to Sedo, other than canceling people's accounts who don't pay, is to have either a more strict buyer approval process or require a deposit on large bids, or both. It is nice knowing that a non-payer will get banned from Sedo, but if they don't park much there, it is sort of an empty threat. If they do park a lot, than I am sure it won't be an issue with them
SedoPro pays the same as regular Sedo. That is net 45, meaning you don't get paid until after 45 days. Normally Sedo sends you an email on either the 10th or 11th from parking@Sedo.com. The email is titled Sedo Domain Parking [Report December 2007] or whatever month. In this email they tell you your total earnings for the month, and the date you will be paid by. Mine always says "The total amount will be transferred to you via
direct deposit or wire transfer by the 15th of this month."
If you take another form of Payment, such as check, it takes a little bit longer.
I think that you are misunderstanding his question here Keith. There is a long running argument that some parking companies are better than others, because some companies pay us for every click, whereas some companies are only supposed to pay us for the first click. I don't know how you guys calculate clicks, but it is said that you only give us the first click, and that is why we never see a CTR over 100%. With some companies we may get 1 unique visitor and 10 clicks, for a CTR of 1000%.
Let me give my take on CTR and if I am completely off base, someone please correct me. I have heard that Google, Yahoo, Ask, and whoever don't actually tell the parking companies how many clicks a domain got, but rather they just tell them how much money that domain made. It is then up to the parking company to tell us how many visitors and clicks we had. Is this true?? If it is true, then Sedo or Namedrive could pay us $.20 for 1 click from 1 visitor, with a CTR of 100%. Trafficz and Parked could pay us $.10 for 2 clicks from 1 visitor. They would have a CTR of 200% and an RPM that is twice as high. Now I am not saying that these parking companies intentionally would mislead us, but it could just be in the different ways that they track stats. I also do have some domains that get $.50-$1.00 per click
Sedo.com - Official Thread 
