GoDaddy is a privately owned, Internet-based company that provides a variety of services including domain name registration, web hosting and e-business software sales. The company, which is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, was founded by Bob Parsons. Parsons previously owned a financial services software company, which he sold in the mid-1990s upon retirement. He came out of retirement in 1997 to form Jomax Technologies, the predecessor to GoDaddy.
Since it’s inception, GoDaddy has risen to become the largest domain registrar in the world, with tens of million of domains registered to its clients. The company ranks as the world’s largest ICANN-accredited registrar; it’s approximately four times larger than its nearest competition. Recent corporate acquisitions include Outright, Locu, Afternic, and Media Temple.
GoDaddy has redefined Internet hosting services, and it has been the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades. Among these awards are the 2001 Arizona BBB award for Business Ethics and the 2011 SC Magazine award for Best Security Team. In 2011, it ranked number four in the Phoenix Business Magazine list of “Best Places to Work in the Valley” and it made the 2012 Forbes list of “Best 100 Companies to Work For.”
Known for its sometimes controversial commercials and interesting spokespersons, GoDaddy also sponsors a number of charitable causes in support of domestic violence and child abuse awareness, and sports events, including NASCAR and the Super Bowl. In 2013, the company shifted its advertising strategy to focus more on small to medium sized business owners (SMB). Reflecting this change, its commercials and advertising materials shifted from “sexy” to smart.
Over the past few days, I received quite a few emails from GoDaddy with the subject “A product’s been removed from your GoDaddy account.” Jamie Zoch mentioned this on X, and I am sure there are many other GoDaddy customers who received the same email.
This email is typically one I receive after letting a domain name expire or when I have sold a domain name and its transferred away from GoDaddy. I typically receive these emails a short time after the domain name is deleted or transferred.
As my portfolio has become larger, I have been spending more time evaluating whether to renew domain names or let them expire and save money. A domain name that looked good to me in 2016 may not look so good today. Renewals for .com domain names may be just in the $10/year range, but there’s no sense in throwing good money after bad money.
When I am evaluating domain names, I look at several factors, some of which are hard numbers and others are gut instinct. Some of these factors include the following:
I’ve sold a few lower-valued domain names using GoDaddy as the intermediary at 5% commission. These are generally deals I want to close quickly, and I am willing to give up $xx or $xxx for the sake of expedience.
The one issue I have had with using GoDaddy and its custom checkout link is that the deals utilized a Dan.com url instead of GoDaddy. This would be confusing for a buyer who is told the deal will be transacted via GoDaddy but then had to click through to Dan.com. I explained it by saying “We can use Dan.com (owned by GoDaddy) to transact.”
I wrote about this issue a couple of months ago:
For the past 15 years, Bob Mountain has held senior roles at NameMedia (then parent company of Afternic) and GoDaddy. During his tenure, Bob’s area of expertise has been business development and partner management, serving in different C-suite and Vice President roles.
Bob shared some personal news with me that he is allowing me to share here. Bob will be retiring from GoDaddy at the end of this year.
GoDaddy has been running a private auction featuring domain names from its NameFind portfolio. I have been following the auctions and bidding on a handful of domain names I like.
Yesterday, I won the auction for Molasses.com. As I shared on X, it was won, paid for, delivered, and a landing page was launched within a few hours. I want to share how I made that happen.
I keep most of my domain names registered at GoDaddy because I find it is easier to manage a portfolio at one registrar. Throughout the year as I acquire domain names at auction, my other registrar accounts grow. I have domain names at Network Solutions, Namecheap, Dynadot, NameBright, and probably a few other domain registrars.
