Bido.com - Social Auction Platform

[RJ]

NamePros welcomes BIDO as it's newest sponsor.

Check out Bido's revolutionary Social Auction Platform at www.bido.com
All auctions start at $1 with no reserve.

The list of upcoming auctions is here:
http://www.bido.com/Auctions

This is a discussion thread for comments, reviews and feedback about Bido and it's services.

 

[Tribulatio]

I am really glad to see you back: Bido brings something different to the domainers' community, and it is good to have re-launched it.

The major question mark remains: how far can Bido attract a significant number of bidders from outside the domainers' community? I definitely hope that you can find ways to reach such a goal. (I had sold a few names on Bido, insofar I know only one to a non-domainer, thanks to a message I had sent to a few potential endusers.) Still, as it is, Bido makes already a positive contribution to the domain name business.

Congratulations and best wishes!

 

[Erdy]

mitok,
OK, maybe you are right. I take back my previous suggestions. Let's leave those other extensions. It would be enough if I could customise and save the display settings permanently to exclude extensions that I'm not interested in.

 

[mitok]

Erdinc,
I agree with you that it would be good that you check extensions you are interested in. I dont mind to type them in, but understand that some members would like to check few of them they are interested in and search for domains only in that extensions.

My major concern is how to stop members that submit so many low quality domains at once. As by that they put down some good domains and it is hard to get votes if you post a good name now and few minutes later it is 500 slots down because someone submitted at once 500 domains which are maybe in .com but are xyfdfdfd.com type of domains.

I already wrote, it would be great that you can submit only one by one domain and that you must write some description. In that case member who are submitting tons of low quality domains at once would be disabled from doing that and discouraged to write description for each domain as they know that it would be good if they get votes for 10% of submitted domains.

 

[Erdy]

I can't type the extension I want to see every time I visit the site. This makes it an annoying experience. Therefore I wouldn't visit the site at all.

I've bookmarked this link so that I only visit this page and don't see a lot of things that I'm not interested in.
http://www.bido.com/UserDomains

Let's say somebody indeed submitted 500 useless domains and let's assume they are all .com. What I would like to happen is to be able to see 500 domains per page. This way I can scan them easier and much faster. Also I would like to mark them as read or as seen so that I can click another checkbox and chose "don't show seen domains".

I'm used to scanning domain lists. Most of us are. I could easily scan 500 domains in each visit without getting bored. However I don't want to see the same domains over and over again.

I should maybe apply those ideas to my own site (mark as seen idea and saving display settings for extensions).

 

[mitok]

Well, i understand you. Try to contact Bido directly with your suggestions.

It would be better, i agree, but i am satisfied with this way too. Of course, Bido needs active members again, but layout is fine for me.

 

[SpareDomains]

glad to see you back, good luck :great:

 

[htmlindex]

Welcome back Bido, you were gone for a long time!

 

[denzuko]

Thank you for your interest in joining Bido.
At this time, Bido is not available for your country.

Thank you.

 

[daj]

I was going to try the voting thing but I gave up. All I want to see is a simple list of domains but that's not the case. The table rows are too high. There are only 10 domains on whole screen. You have to continuously scroll down and wait until it loads more to see the rest of domains.

I much prefer the basic list on this page:
http://www.bido.com/Auctions

They should add the voting buttons here too. Also I would like to see some checkboxes to filter extensions. I am not going to type the extension. Also I would like to save those settings. For instance if I check only the .com checkbox I want this setting to remain when I visit the next time.

I agree with this. I would prefer a much more simple interface.


Glad to know you guys are back!

 

[MediaHound]

Thank you so much everyone who has contributed to this thread. The kind words and compliments, well wishes, and even the criticism that comes in our direction are all well received. Thanks.

I can see that you are trying to increase the quality of domains that go to auction. You rised the the standard minimum price from $28 to $38. That's good.

How about all those rubbish extensions? Can you please limit non-com extensions to maximum 10% of com's. When I see so many domains other than come, I just close the page.

Thank you for this valuable feedback. We have implemented a new auction schedule and the auctions are based on types of domains being auctioned. Please read more about it here:
http://blog.bido.com/auction-schedule.html
and you may check the schedule here:
http://www.bido.com/Info/Auction+Schedule
So the types of domains in auction are now grouped and you can come to the site at the particular time that interests you.
Please let me know what you think?

Welcome back Bido I look forward to the daily auctions and I hope you guys are here to stay this time around. I sold and bought a few domains on Bido and it was fun bidding in the live chat or watching to see if your domain had got a bid before the time ran out.

Jarred I do have a few questions could I possibly email you them?

Thank you Leo! Great to hear about your success Yes, of course: [email protected]
When you mail me, please send me a backlink that you want, and I'll put your testimonial with it on our testimonials page:
http://www.bido.com/Info/Testimonials

...I would like just that Bido disable multiple submitting domains for voting. As some members submit hundreds of them at once, and that is real junk, not "non .com" extensions.

We now allow only 10 domains per seller to list, per day. This should be a step in the right direction to help raise the quality. We're really committed to raising the quality and you'll notice a few other changes to steer the ship in that direction. Upwards.

I was going to try the voting thing but I gave up. All I want to see is a simple list of domains but that's not the case. The table rows are too high. There are only 10 domains on whole screen. You have to continuously scroll down and wait until it loads more to see the rest of domains.

I much prefer the basic list on this page:
http://www.bido.com/Auctions

They should add the voting buttons here too. Also I would like to see some checkboxes to filter extensions. I am not going to type the extension. Also I would like to save those settings. For instance if I check only the .com checkbox I want this setting to remain when I visit the next time.

Good feedback, thank you. Please help us.. if you would like to put specific ideas on our feedback page, it is here: http://feedback.bido.com
But I hear you loud and clear, and I want to make sure the site is as accessible as is needed for the majority of everyone's preferences. We're listening, and working on many things. I hear what you are saying.

I am really glad to see you back: Bido brings something different to the domainers' community, and it is good to have re-launched it.

The major question mark remains: how far can Bido attract a significant number of bidders from outside the domainers' community? I definitely hope that you can find ways to reach such a goal. (I had sold a few names on Bido, insofar I know only one to a non-domainer, thanks to a message I had sent to a few potential endusers.) Still, as it is, Bido makes already a positive contribution to the domain name business.

Congratulations and best wishes!

Thanks, we plan to do a few things to attract bidders and help sellers reach their reserve prices. We are also open to feedback and ideas from the community as well. This topic is really the holy grail to domain investors, how to easily scale sales to the mass market. We have some ideas ourselves and plan to work on them and improve many areas of the site and the overall mission of the site. Enough speaking about it though, it will manifest with time. Support us along the way and we'll get there.

mitok,
OK, maybe you are right. I take back my previous suggestions. Let's leave those other extensions. It would be enough if I could customise and save the display settings permanently to exclude extensions that I'm not interested in.

Noted as well.

...
My major concern is how to stop members that submit so many low quality domains at once. As by that they put down some good domains and it is hard to get votes if you post a good name now and few minutes later it is 500 slots down because someone submitted at once 500 domains which are maybe in .com but are xyfdfdfd.com type of domains.

I already wrote, it would be great that you can submit only one by one domain and that you must write some description. In that case member who are submitting tons of low quality domains at once would be disabled from doing that and discouraged to write description for each domain as they know that it would be good if they get votes for 10% of submitted domains.

This has been halted. Idea about mandatory descriptions for each is interesting, we'll watch and see if it's needed. This cap we put on submissions is a big change for us so lets watch and adapt accordingly from here. Hope you like the new format.

I can't type the extension I want to see every time I visit the site. This makes it an annoying experience. Therefore I wouldn't visit the site at all.

I've bookmarked this link so that I only visit this page and don't see a lot of things that I'm not interested in.
http://www.bido.com/UserDomains

Let's say somebody indeed submitted 500 useless domains and let's assume they are all .com. What I would like to happen is to be able to see 500 domains per page. This way I can scan them easier and much faster. Also I would like to mark them as read or as seen so that I can click another checkbox and chose "don't show seen domains".

I'm used to scanning domain lists. Most of us are. I could easily scan 500 domains in each visit without getting bored. However I don't want to see the same domains over and over again.

I should maybe apply those ideas to my own site (mark as seen idea and saving display settings for extensions).

This seen idea has been discussed internally for some time. What we thought about doing was if the domain gets a vote since you last saw it, show it again though. I would love to hear your feedback about that idea as well.

Well, i understand you. Try to contact Bido directly with your suggestions.

It would be better, i agree, but i am satisfied with this way too. Of course, Bido needs active members again, but layout is fine for me.

We are here, live and direct.

Thank you for your interest in joining Bido.
At this time, Bido is not available for your country. -- Thank you.

We made changes that were a prerequisite to revisiting the topic. Therefore, this policy that is still affecting you is currently under review. If we can relax it, in time, we will.

To everyone, again, I only quoted direct questions/comments for review, I didnt quote all the thanks, to save some mileage on your scrollbar... but to ALL, thank you so very much for your support of Bido. We're back and in business.

PS, there's a really nice domain currently reserve met, DomainerBlog.com - springboard your blogging venture with this gem:
http://www.bido.com/Auction?name=domainerblog.com

A little less than 4 days to go till this sells to the highest bidder.

If you have similar domains for sale, or otherwise, please list them:
http://www.bido.com/SubmitDomains

Thanks again and kind regards to all.

Jarred

 

[garptrader]

Personally I would be more likely to bid on a quality .Net or .TV domain than the types of .COMs most domainers are trying to sell. One way to clean up the issue of voting and low-quality domain auctions which never receive bids is to eliminate the voting system altogether. The only way for a domain to go to auction is for it to receive a legitimate bid. Every domain in auction sells and by default the domain auctions with paying bidders behind them will be of better quality than was previously the case. As a seller, place your reserve wherever you want but it won't go to auction without a bid. Of course sellers could place a buy it now which a buyer might opt for to avoid the risk of losing the domain at auction.

 

[MediaHound]

Personally I would be more likely to bid on a quality .Net or .TV domain than the types of .COMs most domainers are trying to sell. One way to clean up the issue of voting and low-quality domain auctions which never receive bids is to eliminate the voting system altogether. The only way for a domain to go to auction is for it to receive a legitimate bid. Every domain in auction sells and by default the domain auctions with paying bidders behind them will be of better quality than was previously the case. As a seller, place your reserve wherever you want but it won't go to auction without a bid. Of course sellers could place a buy it now which a buyer might opt for to avoid the risk of losing the domain at auction.

Well, the voters pre screen the inventory for the bidders, and everyone wins. Voters earn money, sellers make sales, and bidders have clean lists of inventory that were filtered by many people before it reaches them. If we eliminated voting, we would be back with the same problem of large lists of items that nobody is held accountable for. Some bidders don't like long lists because they are too fatiguing to sift through to find the gems. Anyway, on Bido, bidders can already currently bid on items that are up for voting, even before they receive enough votes (as you've suggested). We notice that the bidders prefer to scan the already-filtered auction lists versus the list of items simply up for voting+bidding.
Ours is a community driven marketplace where the community votes for what goes to auction and this keeps the bidders coming back, because they find domains to buy more easily in those filtered lists.
I realize you are taking your time to give us feedback, and you mean well. Please realize that we are optimizing a lot of aspects of the platform in order to drive the quality up and reduce the amount of noise. Eliminating voting is simply out of the question right now, its core to what we do and how we do it. If we didn't have voting, we would need to hold sellers accountable with listing fees for all items. Even eBay cant figure out how to do that well. Or we would need to pick the domains for auction ourselves, and that does not do the community any favors either (we tried that).
We think we're on to something with the voting system and would like to hear your ideas how we can improve it, while keeping voting intact.
We watch our sell through ratio and if it becomes out of balance, we'll adjust. But this ratio has never went haywire on us.
We're back now after some months of being away, and we are gathering more data, making more changes every day, and committed to providing a well balanced auction platform. A good topic, thank you.

 

[spammy01]

We think we're on to something with the voting system and would like to hear your ideas how we can improve it, while keeping voting intact.

The voting system is a great idea however, the current user experience when trying to vote is clunky and needs to be improved.

Here are a few examples how I would try and improve things:

1) Go back to paging the grid data or at the very least, just the voting grid. If setup correctly this will address some of the speed issues people experience with live scrolling. Also, without an indication of the number of records, live scrolling does not indicate where the inventory ends or where you are in the list. People have a phycological tendency to give up after the first couple of pages.

2) Take another look at options to filter the inventory and add some more choice. Put these options in a clear separate container. Also, display the categories in tree format with a count of inventory next to each category (no idea where you would find room though. Bit of ajax to pop up the options maybe?). Basically, I feel the voting inventory should be split up a little bit so people don't feel like they have a long endless list to trawl through and sellers get more exposure to their uploaded domains after domains have been pushed down a few pages.

3) Indicate visually the total amount of inventory available (just a pet hate of mine).

4) Address some of the crossbrowser capatibilty issues which slow/crash the Datagrid (I hate IE too) or at the very least indicate what browsers are fully supported and if a java update is required. A unresponsive page, grid and vote system is probaly one of the biggest issues that people get fed up with. Sometimes it's better to go back to basics and address some of these core issues before trying to implement new content.

Regards
Craig aka cannedmeat

 

[the_poet]

Isn't it possible to submit more than 10 domains per day?

 

[MediaHound]

Thank you Craig, appreciate the feedback. We are continuously improving things and so this is helpful for us.

@poet, we currently allow sellers to submit 10 domains per day, please see our recent blog post about this: http://blog.bido.com/2-weeks-in-review-at-bido.html

I would be glad to hear what everyone thinks about this change, if you welcome it or if you have other feedback.

 

[Erdy]

Jarred,
Is there any chance to organise live auctions like the ones we used to have on namepros? These would be auctions that run for a few minutes and start without a reserve.

 

[Ben42]

We really could use a live auction. I really miss the NP auctions. Bido fill the void!

 

[MediaHound]

Hi Erdinc,
We are organizing auctions much more now than we were in the past. Previously, sellers selected their dates and times. Now, we are more hands on with the organization of our auctions. We posted a new auction schedule format on the site, and also link to it and discussed some background behind the recent change on our blog: http://blog.bido.com/auction-schedule.html
You mention auctions that run for a few minutes and with no reserve. Well, we have no reserve auctions already, they start at $38. Technically they are no reserve. But I think you mean start at $1 with no reserve? We actually tried that in the past, and moved away from this format after some time after seeing the results. It is something to think about revisiting in the future perhaps, we like to try new things and find a good balance where its needed. As for durations, auctions that run for just a few minutes, this isn't our main focus right now, but may be possible on occasion. Previously auctions ran for only 1 hour, and many buyers and sellers asked very loudly for longer durations. After thinking about it for some time, and observing, we now also agree. Some interconnected changes we recently rolled out have facilitated doing such, and so that is the direction we've now moved to. Auctions last 4 days now, its the opposite direction of what you're suggesting. But maybe in the future we can think of doing such an event, it would be exciting, but hard to sustain on an ongoing basis. Like Namepros does, they would need to be rare (or well spaced apart) events in order to have really good attendance and positive results for the participants. Great topic, thanks for opening the floor and discussing it.

---------- Post added at 12:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:45 PM ----------

We really could use a live auction. I really miss the NP auctions. Bido fill the void!

Thank you
(I think NP needs a "Thanks" button on posts, I would say thanks to many, much more often.)

 

[mis_chiff]

Just wanted to say thanks for the help Jarred!
You were away too long, I forgot how to do it :D

 

[Erdy]

Yes, I mean $1 auction where all the bidders are present like in an auction room. We used to have these here at namepros.

The exact time for the auction is announced in advance. All buyers who want to join are present. The auctioneer, this would be you, manages the live chat room. Each domain auction lasts typically about two minutes then you continue with the next domain. You could auction between 20 to 50 domains in one sitting.

These domains don't have to be rubbish. You can pre-scan them and allow only good ones.

These auctions are very exciting and they are a great way to gather together the domainer community.

I was thinking these live auctions as an addition to the current system, not as a replacement. The live auctions could be organised once a week and the whole event would last between 1 to 2 hours.

 

[seven]

I've got to say that the new and improved Bido is absolutely spectacular. The system of checks and balances you have going is amazing. It's like when 1 problem opened up, you had an answer. When the answer had a loophole, you filled the loophole. When closing the loophole caused a problem, you made another solution until you had an almost flawless auction system.

There's incentive to vote.

Only the best domains get in.

Plenty of eyes will see the auctioning domains.

It's really kind of ingenious how you guys set this up. The system in place makes everybody with a worthy domain a winner. The more time that goes by and the more buyers visit, Bido will only grow stronger.

I love the business model and I give you guys an A+ for one hell of a comeback.

My two critiques:

1. Is the auction loading speed able to be improved? I've noticed that when I scroll down, there's sometimes a 1-2-3 second delay.

2. Could you adjust the settings for increasing an opening price? Maybe you get like 1-2 redos a month and then have the $8.88 resubmitting penalty behind that.

The reason I say this is because I signed up and listed some domains right away. I put a price in, thinking I could redo it later. Obviously, you guys don't allow price increases after you lock in the domain unless you cough up another $8.88 to be listed. Now I've got 3 really nice domains idle and I'm probably not going to pay $9 to list again. A change here - either lowering the price of resubmission or allowing 1-2 grace submissions per month is my recommendation.

I agree with the logic behind the penalty but not being able to change the listed auction price before bids is unique so it does take a little adjustment.

Those are my only two suggestions. I love what you've done to the place.

 

[MediaHound]

@Erdinc, thanks for your help and valuable feedback. Regarding these fast paced auctions, please put it up for review on our feedback portal: http://feedback.bido.com so we can let the community vote for it and help us prioritize it's demand.

@sevent, very kind of you, thanks for noticing and sharing your thoughts. Friendly tip: If you want to post your testimonial on our blog, maybe on our 2 weeks review post, as it relates: http://blog.bido.com/2-weeks-in-review-at-bido.html, we'll give you a link back to one of your sites from your post.
Speed is under review, yes. This is something that is very much a work in progress. Lately we are making many changes to optimize our server and site design, site code, etc., to make the site load faster and scrolling more responsive, as you noted. It is possible we were actually doing some tests when you saw it being slow. Maybe its faster now?
As for redos, what I can say is we have something planned that addresses this core issue. What I also want to say about this topic, is that, as you know, voters pay to vote on the domains based on their reserve price. The more the reserve, the more it costs to vote, but the more you can earn if it sells. So pricing is hardened by this and should be selected carefully when submitting. However, we are putting some more abilities to give sellers more control with pricing and relisting, and also domain removal. Ideally your /UserDomains page will be less cluttered and a lot easier to understand and to use.
As for your current situation where the system wont let you relist so soon, just mail me at [email protected] with your list of domains and their desired prices, and I will see what I can do to fix it all up for you. I do really appreciate your feedback, suggestions, so thanks a million once again. Trust me, we're listening

 

[Erdy]

Hi,

Nobody from Bido is listening to any feedback. The feedback voting system on your website isn't useful because the low number people visiting those pages.

The Problem:
I can not find a reason why I should visit Bido. There are mainly low quality domains in a lot of unpopular extensions. I have limited time to search for domains. I find it more useful searching expired domain lists instead scanning Bido lists.

The Solution:
Create special events. This will give me a good reason to visit your site. I would like to see two types of events:

#1. Once a week real time live auctions (namepros auctions style) like I explained before.

#2. Run some special subject auctions. Every month you can organise one special auction and hand pick the domains that will participate. The theme for each month could be: adult domains, financial domains, web design & development related domains, geo domains, LLLL.com domains, etc.

These theme auctions would attract new buyers outside the domainer community.

I really hope you start listening to feedback. The auctions you have at the moment will never generate sufficient income nor they will generate the buzz. Bido could be closing down in a few months.

The voting system is too much gimmick. Also I hate domains with reserve on auction. They are not different than 7 million domains listed at sedo. They just sit there with a high price nobody will ever pay. They shouldn't be on auction. Obviously people are misusing the voting system. You should maybe charge a small fee to send to auction or have experts approve the domain quality.

 

[MediaHound]

These types of events we have some ideas for them as well, in time we hope to offer them on our site. There is a lot of work to be done and your feedback is not falling on deaf ears, far from it. We've been awarded and noticed many times for being one particular company who actually does listen to feedback. Thanks again.
Regarding your other opinions, its great to hear how things are portrayed by the community because it helps us know where we need to put focus on education. We actually do have a fee system where sellers can skip voting, and experts do approve domain quality, via our voting system compiled with Voting Power (each voter has different weight, based on how good they are, how much of an expert they are, at voting). Please give us some time, its been 2 weeks since we are back and we are working hard on many things. Kind regards.

 

[smalltime]

So far I am really digging Bido. Its a really cool concept and I hope you guys succeed.