Sedo.com - Official Thread

[Sedo]

Hi All! :hi:

By request, we've decided to start a thread dedicated to Sedo. We're looking for invaluable insight into what domainers want and need out of our parking program (and marketplace, of course).

Questions, comments, suggestions, tips are welcome! We're hoping this will be a great discussion about what works at Sedo and what might not (please be constructive and respectful to others in your feedback) so that everyone involved can benefit and learn from it.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas! Happy Holidays!

Always,
Keith
(on behalf of Sedo)

 

[Sleepys]

Sleepys you are doing a great job answering questions. Very nice of you. Reps Added.

Edited: I cannot add any more reps as I had done it earlier in another thread. But you certainly are doing an excellent job together with Keith.

Wow, thanks for the Rep. Maybe soon I will have as many green bars as you. What do the little stars represent? I think that people on this message board (myself included) tend to not give rep points for good posts enough, but for easier more superficial things like a million appraisals (not that there is anything wrong with appraisals ) I am going to start repping more for posts I like.

I have never actually spoken with Keith, but have seen him posting on "the other board", since before I was domaining. I have spoken to Monica and I believe she is going to be helping here too. I know that they both do a great job, I just don't want them to get overwhelmed, especially at the beginning. The Parked thread is a huge success, there is at least as much to discuss with Sedo, if we can keep the thread reasonable.

 

[Mobi Cheap]

Wow, thanks for the Rep. Maybe soon I will have as many green bars as you. What do the little stars represent? I think that people on this message board (myself included) tend to not give rep points for good posts enough, but for easier more superficial things like a million appraisals (not that there is anything wrong with appraisals ) I am going to start repping more for posts I like.

I have never actually spoken with Keith, but have seen him posting on "the other board", since before I was domaining. I have spoken to Monica and I believe she is going to be helping here too. I know that they both do a great job, I just don't want them to get overwhelmed, especially at the beginning. The Parked thread is a huge success, there is at least as much to discuss with Sedo, if we can keep the thread reasonable.

Have some more rep Sleepys, you deserve it.

Stars correspond to length of membership at NP - each star equals one year.

And I fully agree regarding the need to focus on rep for good posts.

I have previously urged people to give rep for tremendously insightful posts by Varon and NetMeg for instance, both of whom still have a much lower number of green squares than they deserve.
:imho:

 

[Pound]

Hi All! :hi:

By request, we've decided to start a thread dedicated to Sedo. We're looking for invaluable insight into what domainers want and need out of our parking program (and marketplace, of course).

Questions, comments, suggestions, tips are welcome! We're hoping this will be a great discussion about what works at Sedo and what might not (please be constructive and respectful to others in your feedback) so that everyone involved can benefit and learn from it.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas! Happy Holidays!

Always,
Keith
(on behalf of Sedo)

It is common knowledge that Sedo has the poorest CPC in the industry; maybe an increase in revenue share to attract larger traffic portfolio holders? If I knew that the amount per click was not so low I would move my entire portfolio over due to the added bonus of having more views of the sales pages.

 

[Sleepys]

And I fully agree regarding the need to focus on rep for good posts.

I have previously urged people to give rep for tremendously insightful posts by Varon and NetMeg for instance, both of whom still have a much lower number of green squares than they deserve.
:imho:

I admit I have appreciated posts by them and not repped for whatever reason. I will start though.

It is common knowledge that Sedo has the poorest CPC in the industry; maybe an increase in revenue share to attract larger traffic portfolio holders?

I agree that regular Sedo does have some of the poorest CPC. Who knows what the revenue share is?? I do think that anyone that is serious about domaining will eventually make the cut for SedoPro, which I think is very competitive in the EPC department. Not for all of my names though, definately for a lot of my adult names.

 

[Varon]

Wow, thanks for the Rep. Maybe soon I will have as many green bars as you. What do the little stars represent? I think that people on this message board (myself included) tend to not give rep points for good posts enough, but for easier more superficial things like a million appraisals (not that there is anything wrong with appraisals ) I am going to start repping more for posts I like.

I have never actually spoken with Keith, but have seen him posting on "the other board", since before I was domaining. I have spoken to Monica and I believe she is going to be helping here too. I know that they both do a great job, I just don't want them to get overwhelmed, especially at the beginning. The Parked thread is a huge success, there is at least as much to discuss with Sedo, if we can keep the thread reasonable.

Ah... the green bars don't mean much... You will definitely be able to see more green bars soon. My 5 bars are 5 members whom I was able to help this year. They are doing well with their portfolios now. that is reward in itself.

Thanks for the kind words mobi. Appreciate it.

Keith...reps added for coming forward to answer questions on behalf of Sedo.

 

[netmeg]

Welcome to the forum -

I had consistent traffic/clicks with SEDO (albeit at a very low cpc), which was the first place I landed after trying GoDaddy. And I sold a domain at a tremendous profit the first month out. So I was pretty happy with SEDO. But I think where you kind of lack an edge is with the inability to set the page title and meta description, and you need some more (and more professional looking) lander pages. IMHO.

 

[scandiman]

Keith,

A few questions to help me put this mess to rest:

1- What specific rights does a seller of a domain have to declare a Sedo auction void?

2- What specifically has Sedo done to avoid this nightmare in the future? This has cost people an extraordinary amount of time and money dealing with the aftermath of this botched auction and I think it is reasonable as your customers to be told specifically how you have rectified the problem with the servers and sending out erroneous automated winner notifications.

Thanks.

I will answer this to the best of my ability. If I am wrong please correct me, Sedo.

1) The seller does not have specific rights to declare an auction void. Once you agree to list it on auction, you are agreeing to specific terms beforehand, which include not being able to cancel an auction once it has begun and has a bid. If there is a serious error, it may be possible to relist the name, but the auction time cannot be extended, and I think that it would only be possible to cancel and relist something in he most extreme errors.
2) I don't know what they have planned in the future, but currently the only thing I know of that they do to punish people is to close your account down if you don't pay for a domain you won. I don't know about the .mobi auction. I have no specific insight into that situation, and can't give an answer for what they have planned. Also, please get more servers for the next auction.

Sleepys, I'm specifically addressing the .mobi Premium auction, I'm not talking about deadbeat buyers. In the case of the bumbled .mobi auction, the Sedo release says that "...DotMobi has exercised its right to declare the auction results void and will conduct a new auction...". As a seller at Sedo myself, I want to understand the circumstances that I or anyone here can exercise this same right. Kieth, please don't duck the question, it is too important to everyone here.

 

[Sleepys]

Yeah, I don't really have an answer for that, exept that I had an error on one of my auctions, and when I asked for an extended period, they said that auctions can not be extended for a few days due to the nature of their auction system, but can only be cancelled and restarted (not nesessarily that I could). So, my guess is that if there is an extreme error that you can prove to them somehow greatly decreased your selling price, then the auction can be cancelled and restarted. The .mobi auction had extreme errors I guess and so, is not being withdrawn, but relisted.

I do hope that they handle the next one better.

 

[vbigdeli]

Keith,make a dedicated thread for SEDO Pro members

 

[Sedo]

Okay, here goes!

I'm not a lawyer, so there's not much more information I can give out about mTLD, the decision to re-run the auction, or other things closely related. I can say again, though, that this decision was not made lightly, and all possibilities were considered in making it. As far as I'm concerned, the decision is final and is not bound to change. If I can disclose any more information to any of you, I most certainly will. I hope you can understand the limitations of discussing this one.

Moving forward from that, Sedo has pinpointed the cause of the problem that occurred on the last day of the .MOBI auction. Our tech staff has been working non-stop to make all the necessary changes to our database and systems to ensure that this doesn't happen again. I don't work closely enough with our tech staff to know all the details, but I'm hoping to have some more information on that soon. We're confident, however, that future auctions should be more than fine. More information will be forthcoming once I get my hands on it.

@ arnie: I've spoken with a few people here, and there is a good chance that there will be a vote on what charity the money will go to. It's not certain, but it's been received as a great idea. Thanks for that!

re: revenue shares: Sedo pays out at least 50% of what is issued by the ad provider. In many cases, the percentage is more than that. It's on a case-by-case basis, but is always at least that 50%. If any of you have issues specific to a given domain, a specific payment, or anything else that doesn't seem to be a widespread phenomenon, feel free to write to us directly through our site.

re: double clicks: Checking on that now. I will get back with the info as soon as I have it.

LASTLY: Thanks especially to Sleepys for helping out, and to everyone else for the encouragement and the feedback. I'm really hoping that this will become a problem-solving thread above all else.

Take care!

Always,
Keith

PS -- Sorry if I miss anybody's questions. Feel free to PM too, as it's easier to keep track of the more pressing (time-sensitive) issues that way.

 

[Sleepys]

First, no problem on helping. I will do what I can and I am sure other more experienced members on here will be able to help too.

re: revenue shares: Sedo pays out at least 50% of what is issued by the ad provider. In many cases, the percentage is more than that. It's on a case-by-case basis, but is always at least that 50%. If any of you have issues specific to a given domain, a specific payment, or anything else that doesn't seem to be a widespread phenomenon, feel free to write to us directly through our site.

I had never heard an actual number quoted. Is the 50% minimum revenue share the minimum for regular Sedo, or SedoPro as well? It seemed like my revenue share more than doubled when I switched, even though I guess that is not possible. I assume that there is a different revenue share minimum for both Sedo and SedoPro?

Thanks

 

[Sedo]

Hi Sleepys,

The revenue share is across the board as being Sedo's starting point. However, SedoPro members get increases in revenue shares as well as other bonuses, based on the traffic to their domains and the quality of the names overall. The revenue share for a given SedoPro member is determined by the account manager and those specific amounts cannot be disclosed to the public.


Always,
Keith

 

[creature]

Keith. Would you consider changing auction bidder numbers to handles? It's nice to see who you're up against as on Snapnames.

 

[Sedo]

Hi creature,

There's been talk of how to make the auction platform on Sedo work better for all people involved. However, there's a bit of a conflict between fully protecting the indentities of our users (yes, even their usernames) and making the marketplace more immediate. For the time being, the auctions will stay as-is, but there may be changes on the way. I'll pass this feedback along.

The idea of setting up a rating system has been mentioned as well, but I haven't heard anything on that front for some time now.

Always,
Keith

 

[spinoza]

Thank you Mobi,
What bothers me, is that after closing the extended auction, Sedo gave mTLD the option to void the results. If Sedo felt the extended auction was not fair they should have canceled it right away.

Spinoza, I'm sure Keith will address the question I highlighted above as and when practicable, but in the meantime do feel free to have a look at this thread:

http://www.namepros.com/dot-mobi/403517-what-happened-on-sedo.html

It documents events in the critical hours of Dec 5 as domainers saw them.

This is the shortest thread that does that, and it's not mine - I have a much longer version if you need more detail.

Happy Holidays!

 

[Sleepys]

You've Earned a Present for Parking your Domains!

I just got my amazon gift certificate from Sedo for the parking for presents promotion. I am sure that means that everyone else should be getting them now too, so check your emails.

 

[netmeg]

How about more (new) landers, Keith?

 

[Kate]

How about more (new) landers, Keith?

Thanks for posting that, I was about to ask the same question :] IMO the current set is decent but I wouldn't mind a few more templates. Maybe visitors are going to get tired of seeing the same screens over and over

Additional questions/suggestions:

• What about compliant HTML code ? Shouldn't be hard to achieve
• What about optimizing the meta tags (keyword, description) for the search engines ?
• What about customizing pages with our own pictures (like Bodis) ?
• What about other customization features like choice of fonts and colors (so we can build variations around the existing templates)
• What about seasonal templates (Halloween, Xmas etc)
• More to be added...

 

[Sleepys]

How about more (new) landers, Keith?

I agree. More graphical landers like the Retro/Phoenix/and Adult Templates. I don't know if I need more font choices or things like that, but that is just me personally. Sometimes it seems like there are too many options, I don't need so many options, just the really essential one.

As far as new templates, some more specific ones would be nice. Trafficz has very good sports related templates. Both Trafficz and Namedrive have very good Real Estate templates. This is a category that should definately be made. Also, I have many video game/computer game related domains. I think that it is a shame that I have to lump them all under the "Casino" category. There should be a category for gambling related names, and one for gaming names.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Keith (and this is specifically to Keith not 'Sleepy'), if I remember rightly I saw a post either on here or DNF where it was disclosed that Google pays Sedo 42.5% of advertising revenue (I will do a search for the specific post later). You say that every domainer then gets a minimum of 50% of what Google pays Sedo, i.e. 21.25% of the advertisers bill. Therefore if an advertiser pays $1 for a click then the domainer will get at least $0.21 per click.

Now let us work a little sum backwards if we may please. If a domainer gets $0.02 per click then this equates to the advertiser paying only $0.10 per click to the advertising company. Can you confirm this please so that with a little investigation we can all find these advertising companies that charge so little to the advertiser.

Your co-operation would be much appreciated on this point.

Also can you specifically answer 'Scandiman's' comment about the Sedo statement and the 'right' that Sedo gave unlawfully to mTLD. It is Thursday today, so if you check with the legal od-bods you can post their answer tomorrow on here. Or is it a case whereby your legal team do not even know what day of the week it is at the moment.

By the way, congratulations for getting those little christmas gifts out, only 5 days later than promised.

 

[Sleepys]

Keith (and this is specifically to Keith not 'Sleepy')

:hehe: I wouldn't be able to answer any part of that one anyway.

 

[netmeg]

Now let us work a little sum backwards if we may please. If a domainer gets $0.02 per click then this equates to the advertiser paying only $0.10 per click to the advertising company. Can you confirm this please so that with a little investigation we can all find these advertising companies that charge so little to the advertiser.

I'll stand up to that - I'm one of those advertisers. For my clients, I run about 15,000 keywords in Google, and maybe 5000 in Yahoo & MSN, and thousands of those are running anywhere from .02 to .10. It's my job to get the cheapest advertising for my clients that I can.

I also run keywords for which we pay up to $27 per click as well.

 

[TheBaldOne]

Well I will wait for Keith to answer so that it is official, but Netmeg, if you can do that then please advertise your services on here because a lot of us would be paying through the nose for advertising it would seem. Nutmeg this could be your opportunity, take it with both hands and then we can all deal with you.

but if you are paying $0.02 a click for your advertisers that means that a domainer would get $0.0045 a click, in other words nothing, so why should the domainer have your adverts on their domain parking page? If this is what Sedo are doing then they are not looking after the interests of the domainers at all.

 

[Mobi Cheap]

Well I will wait for Keith to answer so that it is official, but Netmeg, if you can do that then please advertise your services on here because a lot of us would be paying through the nose for advertising it would seem. Nutmeg this could be your opportunity, take it with both hands and then we can all deal with you.

but if you are paying $0.02 a click for your advertisers that means that a domainer would get $0.0045 a click, in other words nothing, so why should the domainer have your adverts on their domain parking page? If this is what Sedo are doing then they are not looking after the interests of the domainers at all.

TheBaldOne, you are having a problem with the market as far as I understand what you're saying, not netmeg (BTW, note the two E letters).

Right?

 

[netmeg]

I got all the opportunity I can handle. And maybe there just isn't any incentive for the domainer to run ads at that level, but there's still the search networks and the content networks that will. If I take on a client's PPC account, my obligation is to him.

Now, I'm a domainer too, AND a publisher using AdSense. (I deliberately don't work in any niches for which I have current PPC clients, to avoid conflict of interest. But I have learned about niches from previous customers) And I'm not crazy about .02 clicks either. But they're a fact of life. The search engines are *never* going to let anyone set a minimum bid for advertising on their website or parked page, because obviously nobody would choose the two cent and five cent clicks, and that would leave the search engines (particularly Google) with either a whole of low priced ad inventory that it can't place, or a whole lot of pissed off advertisers not willing to pay more.

This is the SEDO item, and I apologize for kind of hijacking it with this. But I hear all the time, from domainers and from publishers about how they don't want to have clicks below a certain level on their site. And if you're talking about search engine ads, that's just not going to change in the near future.