Photos of Alleged SnapNames Shill Bidder Nelson Brady & Our Thoughts on the Scandal

Ron Jackson · Nov 5, 2009

Today in the Lowdown at DNJournal.com: Exclusive photos of alleged SnapNames shill bidder Nelson Brady and our thoughts on the scandal that is rocking the domain industry. The company's former VP of Engineering has been fired but the fallout is far from over.
Photos of Alleged SnapNames Shill Bidder Nelson Brady and Our Thoughts on a Scandal That is Rocking the Domain Industry

Semtex · Nov 12, 2009

jollyroaders said:
well, some keywords apparently advertisers pay dollars for but for those same keywords with adsense i get pennies... or sometimes my clicks are not paid at all and the advertisers get their business traffic for nothing... is that kinda like what you are talking about?

I agree with this 100%. I like it how the PPC will say one amount. and the next day they are a fraction of what they were originally. Parked companies are banking while their million members are getting pennies on the dollar.

goodkarmaco · Nov 13, 2009

ha ha

parking companies use a language I guess only they understand when you enquire why this happens they may say" your click was a estimate of the payout for that keyword, but the next day when revenue is totaled you get credited for the actual click price... huh.. what the?

So to get this straight did Snapnames benefit or was this guy trying to grab these names for himself?

cityforums.com · Nov 13, 2009

goodkarmaco said:
ha ha

parking companies use a language I guess only they understand when you enquire why this happens they may say" your click was a estimate of the payout for that keyword, but the next day when revenue is totaled you get credited for the actual click price... huh.. what the?

So to get this straight did Snapnames benefit or was this guy trying to grab these names for himself?

Wouldn't it be great it this scandal spills over to the parking companies ?

goodkarmaco · Nov 13, 2009

Any payout system where transparency is left out opens the window for greed. That may even be true of the big players such as Google with Adsense etc. These things tend to take time to unfold. We have seen so much unravel of the old sweater this past year with the unwinding of the economy millionaires will be made just writting books about the crooked deals, the cooked books, the passing off of bad sub-prime loans to countries around the world, the price fixing and constant Federal Reserve shorting gold to manipulate the U.S. dollar that nothing will surprise me for a very long time.

In the end domainers fair play is what makes any segment of the marketplace grow. Hinder that and after a while it will blow up or fizzle out. For a while (some short prosperous years) we were excited to be part of domaining as parking profits drove their abiltiy to register and monetize domains. Now it seems the wall has been built and tons of effort to monetize are rewarded with a pittance of revenue. Thats the black eye for domainers and the short term future is more of the same. Names are dropping like old fruit on a tree since the orchard has been exploited and not cared for by gardeners with heart and soul.

Why go forward like we did in the past until as a united group we have a solid foundation built that rewards those who pay the price with hard work their intelligence and experience. Seems the shakers and makers block the partnership needed with things like lack of transparency. How does this relate to Snap. It relates in the same way. No transparency no growth as greed will pop its head up and scare the worker bees to another field.

.X. · Nov 16, 2009

goodkarmaco said:
Any payout system where transparency is left out opens the window for greed. That may even be true of the big players such as Google with Adsense etc. These things tend to take time to unfold. We have seen so much unravel of the old sweater this past year with the unwinding of the economy millionaires will be made just writting books about the crooked deals, the cooked books, the passing off of bad sub-prime loans to countries around the world, the price fixing and constant Federal Reserve shorting gold to manipulate the U.S. dollar that nothing will surprise me for a very long time.

In the end domainers fair play is what makes any segment of the marketplace grow. Hinder that and after a while it will blow up or fizzle out. For a while (some short prosperous years) we were excited to be part of domaining as parking profits drove their abiltiy to register and monetize domains. Now it seems the wall has been built and tons of effort to monetize are rewarded with a pittance of revenue. Thats the black eye for domainers and the short term future is more of the same. Names are dropping like old fruit on a tree since the orchard has been exploited and not cared for by gardeners with heart and soul.

Why go forward like we did in the past until as a united group we have a solid foundation built that rewards those who pay the price with hard work their intelligence and experience. Seems the shakers and makers block the partnership needed with things like lack of transparency. How does this relate to Snap. It relates in the same way. No transparency no growth as greed will pop its head up and scare the worker bees to another field.

Well said "goodkarmaco" I agree

One thing that most always gives me a good chuckle, People are like OOOOOOOO when this type of shit comes down on a big "Reputable" domain player.

Wake TFU, This is a dog eat dog industry, With tons of ego flying around. When i say ego, I mean EGO! . And it gets vicious in the trenches.

Have you ever cheated in this industry?? Probably so in one way or another. And if you say you never have. You haven't made a pot to piss in this industry. But there is a difference in cheating and stealing. There is a fine line there though. Experienced domainers know where the line is drawn, And most don't cross it.

When the industry was booming, There was crooked shit going on every where. Not stealing, But crooked dealings. This doesn't surprise me one bit, That being the SnapNames break down. Shill bidding is an undercover way to launch and control a sale. It is going on at most any auction sites. But Snap crossed that fine line.

goodkarmaco · Nov 17, 2009

Can someone fill me in about this as I have not read every post about this and may have missed certain facts.

What I am wondering is was he bidding for his own ownership of the domains or was Snap a benefactor in anyway?. Well sure Snap would benefit if a name goes higher as the commision would be a little higher.

JulieLA · Nov 19, 2009

I'm still confused. If he was in it for himself - which would be the case if Snapnames had no idea what he was doing - what, exactly, did he get out of it?

I can see how it would benefit Snapnames, but why would he do something for their benefit, without their knowledge, when there was no benefit to him?

Or am I missing something totally obvious because I need more coffee?

smn84 · Nov 19, 2009

FantasyCombine said:
I agree with this 100%. I like it how the PPC will say one amount. and the next day they are a fraction of what they were originally. Parked companies are banking while their million members are getting pennies on the dollar.

I'm pretty sure the parking companies are not pulling a fast one here. I guess this is what Ron was referring to in his article when he said this would be like "a dirty bomb going off in a metropolitan area, the radiation will contaminate innocent people as well as the guilty."

That said, from what I have read, the way the upstream partners calculate payouts for the parking companies is very complex (way beyond me) and is not finalized in real-time... so I can see why this would make some people feel paranoid.

On a side note, a few days ago I received some clicks on a domain of mine... at first the estimated amount was $0.37/click then I checked a day later and the new value was over $4.50/click.

Maybe my parking company decided that their profit was too high :hehe:

JamesDavid · Nov 20, 2009

smn84 said:
I'm pretty sure the parking companies are not pulling a fast one here. I guess this is what Ron was referring to in his article when he said this would be like "a dirty bomb going off in a metropolitan area, the radiation will contaminate innocent people as well as the guilty."

That said, from what I have read, the way the upstream partners calculate payouts for the parking companies is very complex (way beyond me) and is not finalized in real-time... so I can see why this would make some people feel paranoid.

On a side note, a few days ago I received some clicks on a domain of mine... at first the estimated amount was $0.37/click then I checked a day later and the new value was over $4.50/click.

Maybe my parking company decided that their profit was too high :hehe:

In regards to the Parking Companies. To my knowledge (correct me if I am wrong) Most Parkign Companies never tell you WHAT percentage they are passing onto you, do they? I mean does Sedo say 40% of the payout goes to the domain publisher? no.

They are offering a service and they can charge whatever they want....

HeyNow · Nov 21, 2009

JamesDavid said:
In regards to the Parking Companies. To my knowledge (correct me if I am wrong) Most Parkign Companies never tell you WHAT percentage they are passing onto you, do they? I mean does Sedo say 40% of the payout goes to the domain publisher? no.

They are offering a service and they can charge whatever they want....

Yes, you are probably correct. In my experience, they don't make it easy for you to ascertain what % they are passing on to you. In some (perhaps most) cases they purposely make it impossible.

Domainers better wise-up and quit depending on other companies like parking companies for income, honesty, and transparency. Domainers better wise-up and figure that most (if not all) auctions are fixed or rigged to the advantage of the auctioneer, as recent history has proven for Snapnames and Godaddy (at least Godaddy employees, including Godaddy VP Adam Dicker, who won SPYWARE.US at a TDNAM auction while he was a Godaddy employee Vice President).

This industry is full of pond-scum waiting to screw you out of a substantial $. Keep your domains, don't park them with any parking company, don't jeopardize your registrant rights by parking which provides TM infringing search results, don't trust registrars, auctioneers, and domain "news" sites which are owned by dick-sucking dweebs whose main goal is to inflate the value of their respecitve domain portfolios.

gazzip · Nov 21, 2009

JamesDavid said:
In regards to the Parking Companies. To my knowledge (correct me if I am wrong) Most Parkign Companies never tell you WHAT percentage they are passing onto you, do they? I mean does Sedo say 40% of the payout goes to the domain publisher? no.

They are offering a service and they can charge whatever they want....

True, I guess we are on "a need to know basis" and they have decided that we don't need to know !

I'd actually be happily shocked if it was 40% we got, when I look at my €/Click rate I can't help but think it was well under 10% we are getting paid.

...one day someone/somewhere will spill the beans !

.

goodkarmaco · Dec 7, 2009

Thats what I think too. Someone eventually gets out and they will spill the beans.

repeatgrade · Dec 7, 2009

gazzip said:
True, I guess we are on "a need to know basis" and they have decided that we don't need to know !

I'd actually be happily shocked if it was 40% we got, when I look at my €/Click rate I can't help but think it was well under 10% we are getting paid.

...one day someone/somewhere will spill the beans !

.

If you are a good customer at a domain company you can negotiate your rev share. In excess of 5K a month will get you better % up to I have seen as high as 90%

---------- Post added at 06:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 AM ----------

smn84 said:
I'm pretty sure the parking companies are not pulling a fast one here. I guess this is what Ron was referring to in his article when he said this would be like "a dirty bomb going off in a metropolitan area, the radiation will contaminate innocent people as well as the guilty."

That said, from what I have read, the way the upstream partners calculate payouts for the parking companies is very complex (way beyond me) and is not finalized in real-time... so I can see why this would make some people feel paranoid.

On a side note, a few days ago I received some clicks on a domain of mine... at first the estimated amount was $0.37/click then I checked a day later and the new value was over $4.50/click.

Maybe my parking company decided that their profit was too high :hehe:

In the last couple of months (longer truth be told) I have been getting clicks PAYING ME between $60-72 a click Yes that is per single click no I wont tell the niche and yes it is at a well known parking company

---------- Post added at 06:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:54 AM ----------

discovernow said:
Ron Jackson who I personally know and have had lunch with him and his wife at the domain conferences is one of the best and most honest guys in the industry. Ron is what gives this industry a good name. If I had a vote for domainer of the year, it would be Ron.

Thanks, Jim

because we all know Opinions are Like AZZholes I will offer mine up. I have met and shared drinks and dinner with Ron and I didnt care that much for him. Not that he did anything to make me think he was shady. Just didnt care for the man. Truth be told 99% of you would be doing the same thing if you had the chance.

pollcolingwood · Dec 8, 2009

Hi Duke,

Though it being old to me still it's really a wonder article. It's very interesting. Thanks a lot for posting this article.

Cheers.

exsedo · Dec 18, 2009

Domainers have been complaining to snapnames continually since 2004 about user ' halvarez ' being a shill bidder. They even worked out that he must have been an employee, and told snapnames. They replied on another forum, saying that they were satisfied that he was not an employee but a high volume customer. The sheer number of auctions he participated in more or less proves that he could not do his job AND be involved in all these auctions. So it looks like he was not acting alone.

Photos of Alleged SnapNames Shill Bidder Nelson Brady & Our Thoughts on the Scandal

Top Member

VIP Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

In God I TrustTop Member

Established Member

Established Member

Established Member

www.JamesDavid.comEstablished Member

MemberRestricted (85-100%)

First Time Poster !VIP Member

Established Member

Account Closed

New Member

VIP Member

Similar threads

We're social

Pinned

Appreciation

Agreement