Time to kill off sedo

[Bailey]

Following Sedo sales above US$1k as reported at DNjournal, .COUK It isn't that great a percentage of their turnover, In fact it's relatively small probably less than 5% for all business. (working on the 2-3% for the higher <1K = £660 figure sales)

To think your going to dictate any operational terms with them is a big over estimation whatever you think of their commission structure. The hard fact is, that as we've all tentatively agreed in the past, is that UK sales are predominately Domainer to Domainer. If you ever really want to have an impact on UK sales, then whatever can be done to raise awareness to the German .de levels would probably be more beneficial.

 

[Edwin]

What a load of old bullocks.

Why?

It costs REAL MONEY - lots of it - to hire a sales force, to snail mail out custom sales proposals and respond to enquiries, to hit the phones to drum up interest in a domain, to take out targetted ads in relevant niche publications and on category-specific websites, and to do all the other things that a truly PROACTIVE brokering service would have to do in order to drive sales volumes and create end-user interest where currently there's none.

That's probably why nobody's doing it at the moment, but if there's a hole in the market it's what I've identified above, not something to sell low-end domains (for which there's alreay Acorn, DL, Afternic, Sedo, eBay, NamePros, DNForum, A4U, etc. etc.)

Sedo is the eBay/Gumtree of domaining, but there's potentially a need for a Christies or a Sotheby's.

 

[Rob_F]

I think Alan means the seller pays no commission for a year...

That's what I meant, Dale.

- Rob

 

[rob]

I would disagree with that as most sales I am aware of are unreported, and even ones that are on here dont reach DnJournal.

I would guess a fair bit of sedo sales are unreported as well, as some of the bigger stuff I heard is not reported anywhere.


As for parking I binned that after DRS threats due to ads, which is alot of hassle.

Sedos 'automated' system changed keywords to trademarks on a nice generic, that was the final straw for parking.

http://www.kkk.co.uk is one of three holding pages I use now, custom stuff.

Replying to enquiries is much better direct than via Sedo and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Likewise there are areas of value you might not realise, for example a recent 5k sale came from an enquiry a couple of years back. I couldnt have chased that up via sedo....! Emails come in with full IP info and auto searches etc.

Incidently the Google CSE has a decent CTR - 50-60%.

I like the idea of a collective sharing and building something, but to do it yourself would take a couple of hours - tops.

Would anyone be interested in a guide / script?

 

[Rob_F]

Personally, something that would appeal to me is for a long time domainer/developer (dropsystem, caught, etc) to develop a white label, hosted and managed domain trading platform/site with similar features to Sedo. An annual or monthly fee would be charged to use the system/platform, no commission payable ever. Not talking about a basic domain sales site here, would take a lot of time and effort to develop I'd imagine.

- Rob

 

[aZooZa]

That's what I meant, Dale.

- Rob

Sorry Rob - I'm half asleep as usual :smile:

 

[Brassneck]

Do you mean with ads still or purely sales driven like noktadomains.com

Sedo will stick a page up like the one used for www.madeinbritain.co.uk if you ask them.

That's a decent holding page - wonder why Sedo don't proactively market that option?

 

[Brassneck]

Also, I am having a lot of success with www.bodis.com. Parking revenue is higher than Sedo and I have been getting 10 times the domain enquiries which you receive directly.

Example landing page here - www.harpenden.org.uk

Stephen.

 

[aZooZa]

According to WHOIS, Bodis.com is now owned in China? Also:

7. Contacting Us

If you have questions regarding our Privacy Statement, its implementation, failure to adhere to this Privacy Statement and/or our general practices, please contact us or send your comments to:
Bodis
Attention: Privacy Statement Personnel
Suite 502A-18825, Block A
Shekou Technology Building 2
Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518067
China


No big deal, but is this a new change of ownership?

 

[rob]

Click 'buy'...

Next page says "Sales Price: 3,995 £"

ok.... click buy again...


1 Purchase of the domain madeinbritain.co.uk
(3995 GBP) 4414.00 Euro
1 Secure Escrow service and assistance with domain transfer 0.00 Euro
Total Sum 4414.00 Euro


Why does it kick to Euros?

Likewise they ask about VAT to me the buyer but there is no mention on that page if that is inc or ex vat or the implications.

Similarly the number 1 question I get asked when selling is 'how does the transfer work?', no info on that.


I realise there are shiny 'sedo protected' badges with green ticks, but this is hardly great considering they want to be / are the 'market leader' and experts.

Saying that, in my experiance it was left to the seller to sort the transfer and hand hold, and in some cases educate Sedo on how .uk works.

 

[rob]

re: Azooza

It can make a difference legally where transactions occur, or acts of abuse.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer not to use Escrow.com , likewise with Sedo when I had a dispute taking legal action would have required to do it in Germany as their 'UK base' was all but fiction.

For odds and sods it probably would not matter, but for bigger stuff it is something that is worth factoring in.

 

[Bailey]

I would disagree with that as most sales I am aware of are unreported, and even ones that are on here dont reach DnJournal.

I would guess a fair bit of sedo sales are unreported as well, as some of the bigger stuff I heard is not reported anywhere.


As for parking I binned that after DRS threats due to ads, which is alot of hassle.

Sedos 'automated' system changed keywords to trademarks on a nice generic, that was the final straw for parking.
.

I am going to disagree on your first points Ron Jackson and Sedo have a good bit of history - All their sales above US$1K are reported - unless specifically requested otherwise.

I agree with you about the parking-pages and possible infringements. But that happens everywhere. Those of us that were registering domains as at the late 90's or earlier, are always at the possible "Whip-end" of somebodies late arrival. I supposedly had a account rep overseeing my portfolio at a well known parking company (Not Sedo) anybody would have thought he went out of his way to step-on-toes. So no I don't park anywhere unless it's overwhelmingly generic

 

[Brassneck]

According to WHOIS, Bodis.com is now owned in China? Also:

7. Contacting Us

If you have questions regarding our Privacy Statement, its implementation, failure to adhere to this Privacy Statement and/or our general practices, please contact us or send your comments to:
Bodis
Attention: Privacy Statement Personnel
Suite 502A-18825, Block A
Shekou Technology Building 2
Nanshan District, Shenzhen 518067
China


No big deal, but is this a new change of ownership?

Yes - not sure about the set up but if you look here - http://www.namepros.com/484866-bodis-2-0-a-77.html - that's page 77 of a namepros thread. I've been with them more or less since the start and never had any problems. If you read that thread you will see the guy who owns it is very transparent and open.

I switched everything there after a whole bunch of my domains got banned in Sedo for parking revenue (apparently by Google) - but these are monetising well in Bodis (using one of the different feeds they have).

Stephen.

 

[rob]

I am going to disagree on your first points Ron Jackson and Sedo have a good bit of history - All their sales above US$1K are reported - unless specifically requested otherwise.

Yes, thats what I meant, they are not reported as they are requested not to. I think sedo charge extra for this privacy but the bigger deals I had heard of had this chucked in free.

I agree with you about the parking-pages and possible infringements. Those of us that were registering domains as early 90's are always at the possible "Whip-end" of somebodies late arrival. I supposedly had a account rep overseeing my portfolio at a well known parking company (Not Sedo) anybody would have thought he went out of his way to step-on-toes. So no I don't park anywhere unless it's overwhelmingly generic

Even generic stuff can be at risk by 'automated' systems.

In terms of people stepping on toes, it comes back to whos interests they represent. If you are a parking company employee your first loyalty is to the company not the client, and increasing rev, sorry, optimising a portfolio is dead easy if you increase risk.

 

[Rob_F]

Also, I am having a lot of success with www.bodis.com. Parking revenue is higher than Sedo and I have been getting 10 times the domain enquiries which you receive directly.

Example landing page here - www.harpenden.org.uk

Stephen.

Do you think having perspective buyers have to make there offer in USD puts them off at all?

Some I'd want to park, others I'd want to go directly to a 'for sale' lander.

How's ND these days from domain selling/parking perspective?

I do like Sedo's negotiation system but there's no way I'm prepared to pay 15% commission so I need to look at other options.

On reflection, a custom build is probably the way forward as I'm not sure I'd want to list all of my domains on a central site. I'll probably go down the custom lander route, but with some sort of negotiation functionally similar to what Sedo offer.

P.S: You can select that Sedo 'for sale' lander via your CP.

- Rob

 

[aZooZa]

re: Azooza

It can make a difference legally where transactions occur, or acts of abuse.

This is one of the reasons why I prefer not to use Escrow.com , likewise with Sedo when I had a dispute taking legal action would have required to do it in Germany as their 'UK base' was all but fiction.

For odds and sods it probably would not matter, but for bigger stuff it is something that is worth factoring in.

I understand that. I can see no mention of any legal entity in the PRC in any of their disclaimers and T&Cs, nor the name of any responsible individual. Just "Bodis". Doesn't sit well with me either.

 

[rob]

I understand that. I can see no mention of any legal entity in the PRC in any of their disclaimers and T&Cs, nor the name of any responsible individual. Just "Bodis". Doesn't sit well with me either.

That address also seems to be a forwarding company http://www.eto.cn/contact.asp

Agreed with the 'doesnt sit well' comment.

 

[Brassneck]

Do you think having perspective buyers have to make there offer in USD puts them off at all?


On reflection, a custom build is probably the way forward as I'm not sure I'd want to list all of my domains on a central site. I'll probably go down the custom lander route, but with some sort of negotiation functionally similar to what Sedo offer.

P.S: You can select that Sedo 'for sale' lander via your CP.

- Rob

Thanks Rob.

There is a comments box on the Bodis contact link - people have used that quite often - no evidence that the $ is a problem. Across 4,000 domains getting 2 or 3 enquiries per day resulting in about 2 or 3 sales per week. Not huge prices but plenty for XXX which suits me. Equivalent domains with Sedo virtually nothing - don't buyers have to pre-reg at Sedo etc first - that must put a lot off.

As for custom landers, if you use adsense to monetise (and I have seen others on here using it) isn't there a massive risk of getting your adsense account banned due to having it on low content pages. No expert but I think this is a risk. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if earnings were pretty good while it lasted though.

Stephen.

 

[Pred]

MASSIVE OWN GOAL for sedo this
they are getting slaughtered on forums and blogs. awful pr getting indexed and frankly i love it

get delisting those domains and requesting account closure guys

probably 80% of all domains listed are by pureplay domainers on the major boards, the rest from the BIG domainers like schilling and buydomains who sell mainly through direct enquiries and their own sites anyway

a grassroots movement could take them out in weeks

its what the general public should do with the gutter press
if people stopped buying the sun, star, mail, express etc they would disappear and go bankrupt in days/weeks

we can dream

 

[foz]

I am going to disagree on your first points Ron Jackson and Sedo have a good bit of history - All their sales above US$1K are reported - unless specifically requested otherwise.

Sedo are selective in what they release, I have sold plenty over that threshold and they go unreported. Which is fine by me.