Domaining.com ~ Soon to charge you to READ..

[DotWeekly]

I have been a huge fan of Domaining.com and think it’s a GREAT site for not only people who are domainers and bloggers but helps get the word out to "outsiders".

Today in the Domaining.com newsletter Francois has made it clear things are about to change and it’s going to cost YOU and our Domaining industry as a whole.

Francois said:

"Time is come to generate recurent revenue to can at least help maintain this service.
It’s now clear the sale of advertising spaces is not a financing solution.

This is why Domaining.com should switch to a subcription based service within the next weeks.
Don’t panic, the cost should be something between $10 and $30 monthly (still to define).

As a postive note this will lead to major improvements:
- You could select the blogs you want to read.
- You could add your own feeds. "

I personally do not see anything "Positive" about this move besides killing a great service to the domaining community with Money getting in the middle. I really do not think the "money" part of this story is all that true as there just is not that much money involved with the site from what I can tell. The content is provided FREE, the design and software I’m sure is and was very low costs.

Francois has built a large base of "emails" adding in the login feature to read posts awhile back, so that list of emails alone imo is priceless. ExpiringDomains.com was brought to what it is Because of Domaining.com and the domaining industry itself has Grown because of Domaining.com which in return helps the value of Domaining.com itself.

Sometimes Money comes in other forms then the paper stuff all of us love in our wallet!

Charging the people who READ Domaining.com is not the right thing to do, no matter if it’s $1 a month or $30. I hope you reconsider this Francois as this will hurt our whole Industry.

As an industry, WE need to prevent this "charge" from happening.

I think the Clear way of doing this if Francois wants to Charge something is to charge the Bloggers who want their feed included, NOT the readers....

 

[DotUSDomains]

Hmmmm I just thought of something.

I'm sure you guys have heard of the saying, all advertising is good advertising. Well maybe this is his way of creating a buzz about Domaining.com? The issue has been blogged about and talked about in forums...makes you think

Sure good way to get more readers

Nicely done if you ask me.

I'm sure he doesn't need the money and the ads are sufficent.

 

[cybertonic]

Just discover this post. I will come back later and will make some clarifications. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[dodo1]

Just discover this post. I will come back later and will make some clarifications. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks for reacting quickly and removing my feed from Domaining.com upon having confirmed to me that you will charge your users. Don't get me wrong, Francois, I like what you have done with the site and I'd like to thank you for your past cooperation, but I can't let somebody else sell content that I myself am writing and making available on the Internet for free.

 

[gazzip]

Its a very tricky position to be in as domaining.com relies on the content of the contributing bloggers, its a co-operative (of sorts) where both parties gain something from each other but I think charging people is not a good idea....especially if you're thinking of charging the bloggers.

Loosing high traffic will mean loosing advertising power/money/income, somehow you need to find another source (on domaining.com) to generate enough income for you IMO......maybe other NP's could offer you some suggestions ?


...Hope you find another way forward :tu:


.

 

[Michael]

As Reece said, all that likely needs to be done is make the advertising prices more reasonable and money will come flowing in. Charging readers or bloggers would be shooting themselves in the foot because they'll either lose content (and thus readers), or lose readers right away because of the fees. Either way they won't get much money, and they'll have an even harder time selling advertising.

 

[cybertonic]

I invite you to read my comments here:

http://www.dotweekly.com/2008/11/20/domainingcom-is-thinking-green-not-the-industry/

You will discover:
- The paying membership will be optional.
- I don't plan to charge bloggers (at the inverse).
- Our advertising is NOT expensive.

Later I will talk a little about advertising as it's true with low experience and lack of information things look likes so easy and advertising look likes the solution.

Limit ads to a more friendly site:
One of my concerns is that domaining.com don't become too much annoying.
When you show a leaderbord above the fold or sponsored headlines, the content move down.
The first you see when you visit the site or read the newsletter are the ads.
If the ads are advertising an unknown site/service then there is no problem, it can be interesting in fact.
Now when the ads are about a site/service you already visited/know it's annoying.
Worst, if you don't like the advertised service then it becomes a true pain!
I could sell more ads lowering rates but it will lead on having the same sponsors buying ad spaces for larger periods.

Advertising is expensive:
Some are charging $150 to can only post your domain name in their newsletter.
And not a title, a description and a link like we are offering, plus the extra promotion by being sticked at top of our homepage for 24 hours.
I paid a popular forum several thousands just for a very small banner not even visible without having to scroll in their newsletter…
Do you know how much Google advertising cost for related domain name terms?
Think about again and tell me if we are abusing or in fact it’s a terrific opportunity for a very reasonable cost?

The lack of advertisers interest:
Our site have a significant traffic but they are allways the same visitors: The thousands domainers that registered.
All these domainers know Moniker, Oversee, ... all the industry leaders and most of the services elated to our industry.
So why a Sedo should be interested to advertise or a NameMedia? We are a small community where everyone knows everyone.
This is why our leaders don't spend money advertising in domaining information sites.
Ask my friend Ron of NamePros if I am kidding.
I have managed the advertising of DNF, NamePros, JustDropped for +1 year so I know very well about it.
There are advertisers when a new service is launched.
The problem is that there is just few new services launched yearly in our industry and often with very limited marketing budgets.
And when a service advertise in NamePros then he don't feel the need to also advertise in DNF, Domaining.com, ... because it's almost the same audience!
Now you will tell me: OK, then why not try to attract no domaining advertisers?
My friends this is what I tried many times when I was managing all these ad spaces, unfortunately without success.
Domainers rarely spend money except to buy domains...
It was desesperating to see how hundred thousands impressions transformed in just few dollars of sales.

 

[Frank Michlick]

I won't be charging, ever- and you can quote me on that- I'm just tweaking it- working at incorporating it into my newsletter, which will be a combination of news and names for sale. It should be a worthy addition to my new site:- http://accuratename.com/blog

Especially when you repost the full posts like you do in your reblog, make sure to ask the source for permission. For DNN we're fine with other sites posting extracts from our posts with proper attribution.

/FM

 

[DotWeekly]

Thanks for pointing that out Frank.