IT.COM

Bad Experience with Bodis

NameSilo
Watch

Zeeble Domains

Upgraded Member
Impact
21
I am not very active in domain forums, but I thought it important to write about my recent experience with Bodis, as it may be relevant to other domain investors (and particularly ones that have the same kind of domains we do) when considering Bodis for parking.

My company has been investing in domains since 2014, mostly new gTLDs. We own a large portfolio of them, mostly the kind where the left-of-the-dot keyword and the right-of-the-dot extension together form meaningful keywords (examples: military.equipment, nurse.shoes, snow.shoes, etc.).

We have been using Bodis since 2017, directing hundreds of our domains there. About two weeks ago, I noticed that I could no longer log in to our Bodis account. I opened a support chat and spoke with Troy, who told me that Bodis decided to close our account because one of our domains received a one-day spike in traffic, which Bodis interpreted as us “actively promoting and/or driving referral traffic to our ads”.

Anyone who has invested in our kind of new gTLD left+right “keyword” domains probably knows that some of them occasionally receive temporary spikes in traffic, which are in most cases caused by a combination of the proximity of the dot to the space bar in smartphones, together with most social networks converting these types of mistakes to links. So, for example, if a Twitter user with many followers makes this kind of mistake, the corresponding domain will probably receive a big temporary boost in visits. Here is a random example from Twitter I found by doing a quick search: (in this example, if this particular user had a lot of followers, the corresponding domain would have most likely received a 1-2 day boost in traffic).

I explained to Troy that some of our domains are prone to this kind of spikes, and he agreed to escalate the issue for reconsideration. In the meantime, I tried to search Twitter and other social networks to see if I could find the source of this particular spike, but I was not successful.

Two weeks later, Troy replied that after review, their decision stands. They would not even consider reactivating the account without the domain that had the spike.

Here is what I think Bodis did wrong:
  1. Assuming that we were actively promoting and driving traffic to their ads (which we would never do), and then canceling the account without even speaking to us first.
  2. Not even notifying us that the account was canceled. For who knows how long, hundreds of our domains resolved to a Bodis error page. We may have missed potential leads.
On a positive note, Troy was cordial, helped me escalate the case, and later provided a historical traffic/earnings report for the domains we had pointed to Bodis. I do appreciate his efforts and positive attitude.
 
15
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Bodis is garbage ,unless you were lucky to have added inventory 15 years ago domain parking is a waste of energy. Domaining is a giant circle jerk of people with zero vision that buy and sell the same 1,000 names on repeat.
 
2
•••
Welcome to the club. Unfortunately Bodis is not a serious company as you have seen. (my similar case)
 
5
•••
Crappy company that closes your account before the payment day.
 
2
•••
Hello @Zeeble Domains,

I've just followed up with you by email in response to this thread, as it does contain sensitive information with regards to your Bodis account.

Thank you.
 
2
•••
Hello @Zeeble Domains,

I've just followed up with you by email in response to this thread, as it does contain sensitive information with regards to your Bodis account.

Thank you.

Thanks Troy, I just replied. As I mentioned in my original post, while we didn't reach an agreement on this issue, I do appreciate all your efforts.
 
2
•••
I explained to Troy that some of our domains are prone to this kind of spikes, and he agreed to escalate the issue for reconsideration. In the meantime, I tried to search Twitter and other social networks to see if I could find the source of this particular spike, but I was not successful.

Two weeks later, Troy replied that after review, their decision stands. They would not even consider reactivating the account without the domain that had the spike.

Here is what I think Bodis did wrong:
  1. Assuming that we were actively promoting and driving traffic to their ads (which we would never do), and then canceling the account without even speaking to us first.
  2. Not even notifying us that the account was canceled. For who knows how long, hundreds of our domains resolved to a Bodis error page. We may have missed potential leads.
On a positive note, Troy was cordial, helped me escalate the case, and later provided a historical traffic/earnings report for the domains we had pointed to Bodis. I do appreciate his efforts and positive attitude.
This is a good reminder that there can be unusual traffic patterns with parked domains, that has nothing to do with the owner.
Hopefully, there will be better tools in the future for all the parking companies to help them verify when the patterns are not related to owner malfeasance.
 
2
•••
Faced a similar issue with bodis.

Never had an issue with PC.
 
3
•••
Faced a similar issue with bodis.

Never had an issue with PC.
That's interesting.

Did you ever have the spikes occur with the domains with PC, and they were able to sort it out on their own? If so, perhaps PC has some better software to help sort out such issues?
 
1
•••
Just had the same thing happen with my Bodis account. I was a member since 2018. 🤷‍♂️
 

Attachments

  • Screenshot at 2022-11-21 07-48-43.png
    Screenshot at 2022-11-21 07-48-43.png
    60.4 KB · Views: 146
3
•••
I wonder if using Above.com had anything to do with it... That and DAN were the only integrations I used with Bodis.
 
3
•••
I wonder if using Above.com had anything to do with it... That and DAN were the only integrations I used with Bodis.
That would be very surprising, IMHO. An ad-parking agency, such as Above, would have every interest in maintaining the integrity of parking revenue. They do have representation here on NamePros, and perhaps it would be good to reach out to them to see if there was any glitch that might have contributed to the issue.
In that case, Above.com would have a vested interest in sorting out the matter with Bodis.
Could someone intentionally create "inorganic traffic" on one of your parked domains, and cause you to lose the account? That, hopefully, is not something that no ad-parking agency would tolerate. Otherwise, they could lose potentially quite a few accounts, especially since there are "bots" that could be harnessed to cause unwanted clicks.
Let's say someone with a beef about the parking ads in general decided to systematically start clicking on them repetitively. That's something that hopefully the parking ad software could detect. Then, simply eliminating the unwanted, inorganic stats would be more equitable, not eliminating the account.
Hopefully, your case will be sorted out for a satisfactory resolution.
 
Last edited:
1
•••
@LoveCatchyDomains - Appreciate your response and thoughts. While I cannot say for sure, aside from testing the DAN/Bodis integration early on, the only other thing I have ever done with my domains parking-wise was add my domains and the parking account logins to Above.com and put it on the monetization autopilot. I had a 25% rotating config between several parking companies, with Bodis.com being one of them.

Not saying all parking companies are the same (referring to their data collection/traffic sourcing methods), but it would stand to reason that if anything out-of-the-ordinary traffic-wise was going on at Above.com, it would/could/should also trigger something at any of the other parking services I used. Since the other accounts are seemingly still in good standing (meaning, I can still log in and access them), it is hard to point any fingers at anyone.

I didn't even realize until now that I hadn't had access to my account for months (from June 2022 to Nov 2022)--that's how much (or little) I actually logged in to check or add/remove domains from the parking accounts.

It's not the end of the world or anything, as parking revenue hasn't been all that big of a thing for me. It just would have been a better experience had someone explained in a bit more detail what they think happened or what their metrics showed.

It's more of a relief, if nothing else, as that is one less thing to worry about for me. For now I will stick with one of the other services. If anything similar occurs, I may post something about it here.
 
3
•••
Not saying all parking companies are the same (referring to their data collection/traffic sourcing methods), but it would stand to reason that if anything out-of-the-ordinary traffic-wise was going on at Above.com, it would/could/should also trigger something at any of the other parking services I used. Since the other accounts are seemingly still in good standing (meaning, I can still log in and access them), it is hard to point any fingers at anyone.
Thanks for clarifying that. So Bodis discontinued your account, but the other parking companies and Above did not? I wonder if Above was alerted to the issue? If they rotate the domains through the various parking companies, one might think that the Bodis removal would have been noted by them?
 
1
•••
one might think that the Bodis removal would have been noted by them?

Above.com just leaves it to the user to make sure they have entered their credentials correctly. If I recall correctly, it will show a successful connection/integration message if there are no errors with username and password.

Outside of that, I don't think Above.com actively/persistently checks/notifies a user about a failed login to a parking account. Had that been the case, I definitely would have checked the Bodis account much sooner. Lol, come to think of it, Bodis didn't notify me either--not saying they were obligated to; I would've just found out quicker (probably back in June 2022) that account access had been terminated.
 
3
•••
Just a thought: I wonder if parking competitors deliberately sabotage accounts at other parking providers, hoping that those domains will then be moved to them? After all.. they would know quite well exactly how to do it!

With all the dirty underhanded things going on in the domain industry I wouldn't be at all surprised if this happens some times. Could this have been the case with this thread?
 
7
•••
Afaik, it is rather unlikely for Above.com to be the result of your accounts getting banned from any parking service.
If anything, traffic management services like Above.com and Parkogic, help to prevent something like that from happening since they filter the traffic before sending it to the parking services you use.

[Note that I haven't asked any Above.com rep about this but this happens 100% at Parklogic after they explained it to me how it works in length a few years ago. I can only assume that's the norm in the business.]

I have read many similar threads in the past but one thing that no-one seems to talk about is the strategy one uses to find domains to park. That strategy might be the reason one finds domains that have questionable traffic and will have high chances getting an account banned.

For example,
there are some websites out there that show domains which supposedly have high traffic. What they don't say is, where that traffic is coming from, what kind of traffic it is, etc. ie. the most important facts that one needs to know when having a domain parked.

If one uses those websites as their strategy to find domains to park, I can say for sure you are eventually going to have your account banned. Simple as that.

Of course, these kinds of threads wouldn't exist if there was any kind of transparency in the business. This thing of keeping everyone in the dark, while I understand it up to a point, is causing users to speculate; not a good thing imo.
 
4
•••
@robs01 @Hypersot - I'm not sure what to think about the parking situation, since the most I ever used was the Maximizer product on Above.com with the logins from my other parking accounts. Well, that and also the DAN/Bodis integration occasionally.

So, I can't say that using Above.com is the reason for my Bodis account cancellation. Just adding more data to the pot for when others search for info regarding this issue.
 
3
•••
yes very bad!
this same thing happen with my Bodis account,
bodis closed my account without any notice

bodis said my domains get traffic invalid/click without explain wich domains is get traffic invalid/click

and i still have credit/reveneu there and I CANT PAY OUT!
 
3
•••
yes very bad!
this same thing happen with my Bodis account,
bodis closed my account without any notice

bodis said my domains get traffic invalid/click without explain wich domains is get traffic invalid/click

and i still have credit/reveneu there and I CANT PAY OUT!

Well.... Possible to try to talk to them?
 
1
•••
Well.... Possible to try to talk to them?
i emailed them and explained all but they dont care about it coz they still closed my account
so, i moved all my domains
but its oke, coz NO bodis NO problem!!!
 
Last edited:
3
•••
i emailed them and explained all but they dont care about it coz they still closed my account
so, i moved all my domains
but its oke, coz NO bodis NO problem!!!
Attempting to get any form of explanation doesn't seem to work (at least it didn't for me). So, yeah--one less thing to worry about. When you have a high number of domains in your portfolio, you simply keep it moving.
 
Last edited:
1
•••
Same problem here, everything good till payout day. I'm smaller domainer so i can't compare with some players here, but still it's sad that You can't even get reason of ban.
 
4
•••
Just a thought: I wonder if parking competitors deliberately sabotage accounts at other parking providers, hoping that those domains will then be moved to them? After all.. they would know quite well exactly how to do it!

Another thought: it could be fellow domain investors with similar domain names sabotaging their competition.
 
3
•••
They did similar treatment to my year and half old account too.
 
2
•••
Back