Domaining.com no longer free

[internext]

Got my usual daily email, clicked a link and got the domaining sign-in page rather than the story I expected. No problem, I logged in only to find the following:

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Unfortunately the Domaining.com membership is no longer free. We started to charge a low annual fee to help us pay our bills: hosting, data transfer, ... For this reason free accounts have been closed. If you are serious about domaining then we invite you to SIGN UP AGAIN HERE.

 

[Broker]

free here too

 

[Michelle]

Looks like the email has just been sent out informing the site will no longer be free - just received mine saying my account is now closed, no more newsletters and asking for $35 p.a. Doesn't seem much, I know, but I'm afraid I won't be signing up.

What about the bloggers - what are your view on this? Will you be looking for other ways to promote your blogs to the domaining community?

Not had mine as yet but im sure it will only be a matter of time... I personally will not be paying. I know the few I like to read what they have to say and will just go directly to them. I would also feel alittle down if I had just paid to have a name listed for sale there with so many not now going to visit.

 

[Charley]

That also means I'll stop listing "featured domains" for sale at Domaining.com now knowing that a very limited number of people will be viewing my name listed for sale.

Yes, exactly. That will become obsolete.

 

[Keral_Patel]

Who wants to bet a dollar with me that this thread will be included in tomorrow's newsletter.

 

[Charley]

Who wants to bet a dollar with me that this thread will be included in tomorrow's newsletter.

:D

 

[-REECE-]

It certainly would be a good thread to include -- one of the most popular threads on Namepros at present

Nothing wrong with making mistakes -- we all make them. Important think is to fix them when possible.

In this case, the solution is very obvious -- listen to the feedback from customers (eg. all of us) and don't make any changes which will detrimentally affect the user experience of people unwilling to pay (apparently most, if not all of us).

Who wants to bet a dollar with me that this thread will be included in tomorrow's newsletter.

 

[Broker]

pretty smart marketing on cybertonics part, no banner up top get everyone talking. you all fell right into that trap lol

 

[-REECE-]

pretty smart marketing on cybertonics part, no banner up top get everyone talking. you all fell right into that trap lol

It's not a trap.. His website isn't making money and he wants to monetize it. That makes perfect sense. I know how much it costs to advertise across the entire Namepros site -- it's not cheap and Francois has been doing it for months. He has no doubt invested a lot of time + money into Domaining.com and it's perfectly understandable that he wants to monetize it. I just think he's going about trying to monetize it the wrong way.

I would be looking at getting companies like Snapnames, Hitfarm, Domain Capital (eg. companies which advertise on popular domaining websites) to subsidize costs and help achieve whatever monetary goals there are through advertisements instead of charging us.

 

[Broker]

I dont know if i'd say his site isnt making any money. His fees to list for "3 Days?" (A little rediculous if you ask me and I've sent him emails on imo better ways to go about that) and he has sold a few domains making the 10% Now does that compare to what hes spent on advertising, absolutely not. And Reece, I do agree with you 100%

 

[deleted984054565403]

I've sold a few domains through the featured listing platform. It works fine if your names are priced to sell. Although I wasn't a big fan of paying twice (listing fee and commission) for names I sold, I was able to sell directly to a wider audience of domainers. It was a good way for the owners to make money.

Unfortunately, I can't do that anymore now that they've gone paid. :td: Oh well -- their loss.

 

[lzy]

I can't even access the site right now.

 

[Keral_Patel]

He has no doubt invested a lot of time + money into Domaining.com and it's perfectly understandable that he wants to monetize it. I just think he's going about trying to monetize it the wrong way.

Exactly Domaining.com has lots of scope for other type of monetization. This hurts them more by monetizing it in this way.

 

[Rudy]

Yeah, I got the email saying my account was closed too. I honestly haven't spent time reading the articles, but I did get the email every day and did glance through it some. No longer...

 

[kev]

Stupid idea from the owner.

Plenty other ways to monetize that gem of a site.

Awful time to ask for an annual fee right after christmas aswell :D

 

[Michelle]

Just got my email so :wave: bye bye from me

But from one domainer to another I do wish all well and hope it is a success

 

[Rich]

Yeah this makes me sad especially since there's many other options for monetizing this great name, I did enjoy getting the headlines in my e-mail but I do not see reason to pay for it when the content is free... Bookmarked :bingo:

 

[liquidcherry]

wohoo, got my email just a minute ago....bye bye domaining.com newsletter, what an unbearable loss for me, sniff :lol:

Btw, i just registered www.domainnews4free(.)com, anyone cares to sign up?(will be always free!!) LOL

Cheers

Frank

 

[Broker]

I'm sitting on domainersbusiness.com anyone want to partner up and make a nice website? Seriously :kickass:

 

[yilduz]

I've never used it and didn't know what it was before now. I've seen the name, but figured it was a site you had to pay for so I never went.

Obviously I won't be going now.

I'll sign up, liquidcherry.

 

[dotnom]

I perceive domaining as a close community of people that understand and respect the value and the power of internet domain names.

I respect anyone to his decision to make more money but i agree with most of the people here that forcing a paying membership is not the right way to do it

However i didn't notice any problem to my account , logging in or clicking at "submit domains" ....

 

[GF]

:wave:
Bye, bye Domaining.com

No way I'm paying $35 for news I can get from OTHER people's blogs.

 

[shreder]

He said he launched the domain sales campaign instead of charging the monthly fee.
Now he has also made a fortune from fees of sold domains and he is now also charging for people to read this?

This is nonsense, it's not even his own information, he just gathers it from other blogs!
If he is charging money for this, he MUST pay the bloggers that he takes his information from.

It's like selling WAREZ (Well, not really but the same idea...)

Bye bye to domaining.com AND I doubt he will be able to continue with his domain sales platform with no readers...

 

[DotWeekly]

Domainers are Cheap and I think Francois is finding this out and will find out More with this charge.

Making money with a "domainer" type site is tough stuff I must say. All domainers want things for Free. Why that is, I'm not sure. I think he overpaid for Domaining.com and the advertising dollars were miss spent (here). Why market and market to people who already know what and who you are and do?

I have blogged about the domain business and I can bet that if I had a "Donate" button on my site, I would have gained $0 for the year. Just like most of my ads that rarely get clicked. I didn't do my blog to make money, but it's always nice to make a buck. But when I teach somebody something that makes them Hundreds or even Thousands... I guess $1 or $10 is a lot of money to them.

Domaining.com helps us all as a community, so seeing this charge will hurt all domainers in one way or another. (I have yet to get the email, so if somebody could forward it to me, I'd like to see it )

 

[MrRhee]

none of us know what his costs are...
none of us know what his revenue is...

many of us are saying we could do it better, cheaper, for free, etc...

until you've run a popular free service, you have no clue what costs are involved.

however, there are several other revenue strategies I would have tried first, before the latest tactic, but it seems like he'll never get a chance to try anything else because of the mass exodus to other sites.

I could have a similar service up this week, but the ad market is drying up, domainers have voiced their opinion that they won't pay for the service, bloggers aren't going to pay, so what is the benefit to launching a competing service? what is the revenue stream?

His best option is to flip the name now that it has very little, if any, members left. Perhaps that was his strategy all along. I'm sure the line of buyers would crash sedo's servers.

Good luck to him and all the clones that will rise out of the ashes.

 

[npcomplete]

The internet was invented to route around damage. This is damage, and users will simply route around this site. I think Yofie's comments are good, and that some blogs might see an increase in traffic. Charging for content that is freely provided by the original authors... hmmm... let me think about that.

It is just another scraper using trivial technology.