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.

 

[copper]

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.

Agreed.

I think domainers are penny pinchers.
Let's say you have 1,000 domains.
Every penny you save on renewal means $10.
Paying $.10 less per domain means $100 saved.

This is why domainers seek out coupons and/or
cheapest registrar although cheapest doesn't mean best choice.

You do this everyday for years, you become penny pinchers :D

However, in general, domainers are not fools.
Most domainers are smart.

Most domainers will gladly pay $35 annual fee if it's worth it.
Hell, for one membership site, I paid almost $800/mth for about
one full year. I cancelled only when I decided I learned all I
could from that site. That's almost $10K/year fee and best
money I ever spent!

I really DO wish Francois succeed with this change, however...

Like anything else, domaining.com's value will be decided by
membership signups with price tag of $35/year.

 

[lzy]

Hell, for one membership site, I paid almost $800/mth for about
one full year. I cancelled only when I decided I learned all I
could from that site. That's almost $10K/year fee and best
money I ever spent!

That must be one hell of a program! Care to share? I'm really curious to find out what's worth $800/month.

 

[Fixhotep]

i'm willing to pay for a service that provides a unique/valuable service that I can't get anywhere else, such as the 'other' forum. I am not willing to pay for an RSS aggregator when I can get the info elsewhere for free. And I think even though Domainers are generally penny pinchers, they would mostly agree with me on this.

Now, if Domaining.com offered some unique/valuable service in addition to the RSS aggregator, I would consider paying. Depending on the service, of course.

And like Jamie at DotWeekly, I am still a member and can submit names and everything.

 

[staffjam]

Copper - i'm also interested in this site that you paid $800 a month for - and what exactly they were teaching you as that is a pretty hefty price tag.

 

[Seabass]

IF he MUST charge then he should have charged by the month. $3 a month sounds a lot better than $35 a year......also if it is recurring billing folks let it ride a lot longer and may never cancel.

However, I will not pay for this, and it looks like 100% agreement from all other domainers here that they feel the same way.

 

[snoop]

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

The thing is the site isn't offering anything unique, it is just a listing of blog posts. I can't imagine people in any industry paying for that. It would be like google trying to charge for its news service. Anyone can do much the same thing in a few hours of coding.

 

[Broker]

At the top of the website now...

Dear member, your $35 annual membership is due - PAY IT NOW

Better off with a donation button Cyber and another way to make money. 3 Day listing fees for selling domains at the same price for a 30 day featured at sedo doesnt get it for me either. Nice knowing ya :wave:

 

[cybertonic]

Hello,

Penny pinchers, this is a funny english term I learnt today reading this thread.

For the adepts of this community I have two good news:

- First, there is no longer need to register or be logged to access the pages linked by the headlines in domaining.com

- Second, I restored most closed accounts. So you could continue receiving your "favorite" daily newsletter.

I admit I have been a bit sharp, and decided to let you a pair of weeks to better valuate if our service worth these tremendous $35.

Enjoy the end of the year,

Francois

 

[DotWeekly]

Free again... Sweet! That was a quick change.

 

[Zcorp]

They will be so doomed when they switch to paid.
They will lose the money from domain listings for sure and tons of visitors, but whatever, bad marketing move 100%

 

[footodors]

any publicity is good publicity!

 

[DotWeekly]

any publicity is good publicity!

Not sure about this going back and forth...

 

[internext]

Free again... Sweet! That was a quick change.

...decided to let you a pair of weeks to better valuate if our service worth these tremendous $35.

If I am reading this right, Domaining.com access has been only temporarily restored for another 2 weeks so we can reevaluate whether to remain members (by paying the annual fee). I dont see that Francois has decided to make it free again.

Hopefully the two weeks will give him time to reconsider other revenue options. In any event, I hope to see a good outcome for all concerned.

 

[deleted984054565403]

Thanks for listening to us, Francois. Happy New Year.

 

[DotWeekly]

If I am reading this right, Domaining.com access has been only temporarily restored for another 2 weeks so we can reevaluate whether to remain members (by paying the annual fee). I dont see that Francois has decided to make it free again.

Hopefully the two weeks will give him time to reconsider other revenue options. In any event, I hope to see a good outcome for all concerned.

Considering the change lasted some 12 hours and was switched back to free (you don't even have to login to read again) who knows why it was switched to 2 weeks or whatever.

Currently it's free.
2 weeks from now, not sure. Tomorrow, who knows...

Maybe nobody signed up in the 12 hours it was a pay site? Traffic dropped? Either way, Domaining.com as a pay site is not the right way to go IMO.

 

[Jackie]

Whether the owner of Domaining decides to charge or not charge any fee for access to the site, this going back and forth is silly.

This is the process...
Francois sends an email out saying the site won't be free anymore > someone posts it on NP > others chime into how ridiculous it is & threaten to leave the site > Francois comes on here and posts to defend his decision > others keep threatening to leave and say how Domaining.com is going to have no visitors > Francois comes back and says the site is going to stay free.

It's happened twice now, come on.

:imho:

Anyhow, I too feel that a fee isn't needed to be charged to the readers to provide an RSS aggregator. I respect Francois' decision to make Domaining.com a paid site, as it is his business as others have said, but there will be alternatives.

I've taken the time to build my own Domaining news site http://DN.vc/ and take my word for it, it will stay FREE for readers to read and FREE for the bloggers to have their site syndicated there. I encourage you to give it a try (you can sign up for a daily email newsletter, as well).

 

[VisionEdger]

I found domaining.com to be one of the top 5 sites for the industry and the fact that they are charging to access it now is a drag. They say its to pay for costs to run the site which is warranted however doenst that site owner make enough from their domains to at least take the hit and offer a free site to the industry??

Man another domianer trying to make even more $ from who else?? OTHER DOMAINERS!! This industry is one loaded with opportunists BIGTIME and whereever a buck can be made EVERYONE is fair game.

 

[yilduz]

Well, before this thread, I didn't fully understand that what the site was. I always thought it was a pay site, so never looked. Now that it's free again (for now), I figure I'll join.

As stated a few posts back, even bad publicity is good publicity.

 

[corgi]

The subscription model can be a tough sell - I mean everything is basically readily available already for free.

For that model to work, it really has to be exclusive, professional content...that's worth paying for, that will return greater than the fee.

Just sell ads, or have value-added services...but don't charge a fee for the basic stuff.

 

[Chef Patrick]

I am personally tired of everything with Domaining.com going back and forth. Do I think Francois should lose money, definitely not, he is a great guy. BUT he needs to pick one method and stick with it.

The one major problem I have with this is he has EVERYONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS!!! Really, he has built probably the largest if not second to largest email list along with Rick Latona. Those email addresses are GOLD. Having to charge a membership fee should be the last resort.

There are alternatives...
domain-name.alltop.com
dnheadlines.com (which has twitter feeds)
socialdn.com (np member)
popupnews.com/about/domains (np member)