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.

 

[gazzip]

Again:
No need to be a member to see news. It's FREE. EDIT << understood

You need to be a member to receive the newsletter and can buy/sell names. it's FREE for old members. EDIT << don't understand ?

If you are a member and want receive new domain for sale 24 hours before the others pay the $25 fee or if you want to sell names.<< understood

I'm really confused now , I was an "old member" but now I can't log in ??

Just get > IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Domaining.com membership is no longer free.
Free unactive accounts or with a fake identity were closed.
If you are serious about domaining then we invite you to SIGN UP AGAIN HERE. <<< so is this still free for "old members" ?

phew please clarify



.

 

[Asmro]

My account is still working just fine. No issues, and I have a free account. I wouldn't think that Domaining.com would do that, but who knows, my account is still up and running smoothly, I hope nothing will happen Sorry to those who this happened to.

 

[Chef Patrick]

I'm really confused now , I was an "old member" but now I can't log in ??

Just get > IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Domaining.com membership is no longer free.
Free unactive accounts or with a fake identity were closed.
If you are serious about domaining then we invite you to SIGN UP AGAIN HERE. <<< so is this still free for "old members" ?

phew please clarify.

You no longer need to be a member to view the news. You can jump on the site and browse around and click on articles without having to sign on.

 

[traderJack]

An update:


Once the membership paid you could:
- Join/participate in our affiliate program that will offer from next week a $5 CPA deal.
- List featured domains for sale.
- Buy sponsored headlines.
- Receive one day before anyone the new featured names for sale.

I'm sorry but you are missing the whole point IMO, you are charging for the privilege of:

Join/participate in our affiliate program that will offer from next week a $5 CPA deal.

Since when did people charge for a affiliate to be able to sign up and promote your service and earn you more money?

- List featured domains for sale.

you charge for domains to be listed! why would anyone pay a membership for the right to be able to PAY for a domain to be listed for sale?

- Buy sponsored headlines.

again, you want people to pay a membership for the right to then be able to pay for sponsored headlines???

- Receive one day before anyone the new featured names for sale.

This IMO is one of your biggest mistakes, when your newsletter was free paying to advertise a domain for sale was well worth the money, but now you have destroyed the service, i have no idea the size of your "paid list" but if this thread is anything to go off its a lot smaller than the full list, I would now not consider advertising in your newsletter as it as lost its effectiveness, the domain would now only be advertised to a smaller list, as I'm sure most other subscribers will agree, for those that get the list of domains a day later they wont even bother to look in most cases.
When i used to get your list i would make sure i checked it early to see if there was a bargain or two to be had, now i don't even look, knowing its already been out to some the day before.

As I'm sure most will agree, you had one of (if not the) best domainers lists on the internet, but you have systematically destroyed it.

IMHO you really need to take professional advice, your business/site/newsletter have great potential to make you a lot of money, but you are going about it completely wrong, you are biting the hand that feeds you.

Your newsletter contains nothing (from you) it contains the blog feeds that are free anyway and whilst this is handy for domainers, its not something they will pay for, and your domain sales, the revenue you receive for advertisements is your payback for supplying a useful service of with the blog feeds.

I've expressed my point of view earlier in this thread on how noone should have to pay for the service, however, if anyone should pay, surely it should be the blog writers themselves as effectively it is advertising. Obviously you aren't writing for the money (and, once again, this is why noone should pay), however, writers must receive significant traffic from Domaining.com.

I am sure there has been an increase in readers to all the blogs that contribute to Domaining.com, thus giving even more reason for high-quality posts. I genuinely am very disappointed by the effects we'll see from Domaining.com's demise; just as a site brings the community together, in one fell swoop it can, once again, be dismantled.

I agree 100% it is sad to see.

when the notice of charging for the newsletter first reared its head i immediately felt although it was handy for the blog feeds all in one email, its not something worth paying for.
I was going to un-subscribe, then came the email saying i wouldn't be receiving it anymore and to subscribe.
Then it came back, now its changed to the point where its useless, clicking a blog link just takes you to a subscribe page, so I'm sad to say i will be un-subscribing as i feel many other will too.

the list that was once one of your greatest assets is being destroyed by the day and you wont need to take my word for it, you know the original size of your list, you know the size of your subscribed list, and as the newsletter is now useless you will see the lists diminish to nothing over the next few days/weeks.

although i don't expect you will publish the figures, It would be interesting to see:
the size of your list before announcing the requirement to pay?
the size of your paid list?
the size of your original list in one weeks time?

On a final note i would just like to say, its not about the $25, its the principle of paying for what is free.
I truly wish you every success in your business, but strongly urge you to take professional advice on how best to monetize your site before its too late.

 

[TheWatcher]

The rss feeds are free everywhere... why bother.

I hope Francois will reconsider.

Good luck,
EM @ KING.NET

 

[jeffoverman]

I been poping inn and out of this thread.

Surly sounds tense and all of this backfiring on the owner imo. Feeds are free. He isn't cutting the domain bloggers a cut. He is wrecking a loyal fan base and people were behind them 100 percent when it was free. Its all about eye balls and his advertising revenue alone should have covered his expenses and draw an income. Maybe charge a small amount for other areas like commissions on domain sales and join the vip chat room with a paid membership

Hope all of this is figured out. I only read couple blogs daily so this dosent impact me.

If dnjournal ever charges a fee imagine the trickle down impact that could have but in that case he writes his own stuff, does content. Domaining is just using peoples brains, set up an rss feed and sits back and collects cash.

 

[equity78]

Rep added Jack for by far the best post in the thread.

 

[Pound]

Honestly I wish the owner would stop abusing the fact that everyone sees it as the only source for domain-related blogs. Although harsh, of all the people I know on the internet, he has the worst idea of business I have ever seen/heard of.

We keep getting different stories as to what will happen. Basically, he doesn't even know himself and so changes it, waits for a response, adjusts it accordingly, and so on.

We were told you could access the headlines without an account but then you would not be able to do anything else which seemed like a fair compromise. It seems now that, once again, you require an account.

-RJ- says the newsletter is "worth the $25 a year". Honestly, the domain are overpriced and the headlines can all be found elsewhere anyway.

All I know is that there is no way I am ever using the Domaining.com service again. Even though it worked well before, other services offer exactly the same experience and it is too much to expect people to be continually toyed with and bear with it. A service that relies entirely on its users should look at the customers first and foremost, then, and only then, look at ways to generate revenue.

 

[DotWeekly]

Again:
No need to be a member to see news. It's FREE.

I noticed today you have to be logged in to read again?

 

[gazzip]

You no longer need to be a member to view the news. You can jump on the site and browse around and click on articles without having to sign on.

I could yesterday but NOT today I can only see the news headlines but if I click a link to a blog...say, www.dnkitchen.com :tu: it goes to the login page which apparently you need to sign in to view your blog article.

My user email + password no longer works so I guess I must fit into the "unactive accounts" group (even though for months I have visited at least 3 times a day)......or the "fake identity" group, hmmm

I honestly wish him the best with it but all this nonsense is wearing a little thin now

Again:
No need to be a member to see news. It's FREE.
.

So basically what you mean is its FREE to see the headlines but if you want to click to read the News you must PAY ?



.

 

[godolphin]

I've become a paid member.

 

[gazzip]

I noticed today you have to be logged in to read again?

Yup, just noticed that


.

 

[Chef Patrick]

I could yesterday but NOT today I can only see the news headlines but if I click a link to a blog...say, www.dnkitchen.com :tu: it goes to the login page which apparently you need to sign in to view your blog article.

That's odd, your right I did the same test yesterday and today. From my understanding of Francois explanation you should be able to link through to the articles.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

The site asks for too much personal info.

I'm not comfortable with that, so I will set up my own feeds.

But I wish Francois best wishes.

*

 

[gazzip]

oh...its working again, no need to log in to view the content !

must be technical issues ??



.

 

[Pound]

oh...its working again, no need to log in to view the content !

must be technical issues ??



.

I'm sure...

 

[bizman4life]

I can not be too surprised because things are really hard this days and it takes lots of courage to suceed. But bro but more effort and try help us keep it free.

 

[Dimester]

I see too much instability in business focus to trust paying. If I pay will it be the same tomorrow. I also don't want to provide all the personal info just to read.

Domaining is using part other blogs content to gain traffic with out providing an open link back to the blog. How is that right? When I click on a link it go to a register page.

 

[MinionDH]

Here's the problem with today's Domaining newsletter (Jan 10th):

Normally the Featured Domains section appears prominently at the very top of the newsletter, which makes sense because domain owners pay $5-$20 for a 3-day listing (Note: Sedo charges $39 for a 30-day listing that appears directly on their front page).

Today's newsletter format is significantly different because the Featured Domains section has now been pushed down "below the fold" so Domaining.com can advertise their domain sales service. Is this fair to the domain owners that paid their listing fees for today's newsletter? No. (For the record, I'm not one of them but I was considering advertising in the future)

I'm curious to see if the format returns back to normal tomorrow. If not, why would anyone pay these high listing fees for their names to appear in the *middle* of a newsletter?

"Below the fold" = Less exposure, which eventually will = less advertisers

 

[cybertonic]

MinonDH:

Sedo featured listings are rotating listings. If you do calculations you'll see you should get less exposure there you get at domaining.com and for a lower cost.

Your suggestion make sense as advertisers aspire to the max exposure and to be honnest we don't care to pass our subscriber's message under the featured domains and sponsored listings.

I just did not realize, a good point.