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Go Daddy Billboards in Times Square

Elliot Silver
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17

Go Daddy in Times SquareI noticed a Twitter update by GoDaddy CEO Warren Adelman, and I wanted to share it with you. Go Daddy has several very large billboards in Times Square, which were erected last week (click image to see full size). By the looks of it, the billboards are on 42nd Street near the intersection of 7th Avenue and Broadway, which is certainly a high traffic area.

This billboard campaign is  reminiscent  of the Times Square billboard created by the .CO Registry, although this campaign appears to have a much greater presence.

With two Super Bowl advertisements on tap, this is even more exposure for Godaddy and the domain name industry. If people know it’s easy to buy domain names, they will likely be more inclined to try and buy premium aftermarket domain names, many of which are owned by domain investors, and some of which may be listed for sale on Go Daddy’s website. This  is certainly good for those of us who invest in domain names.

Since I don’t visit Times Square very often, the accompanying photo was not taken by me and I have not seen the billboard in person.

Go Daddy Moving Back Into Private Auction Space with .Pro Auction

Elliot Silver
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8

I received an email this morning from Go Daddy announcing a private .Pro auction event. Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don’t recall Go Daddy ever hosting a private auction event in the past, and if that’s the case, it’s pretty big news in the domain industry (update: a friend told me they hosted “Signature Auctions” several years ago).

According to the email I received, “Go Daddy Auctions is holding a special event auction for some fantastic .pro domain names. They are one, two and three character names never before released to the public.

Go Daddy is facilitating the auction, but does not support .pro TLD … yet.”

The auction will begin on January 10 at 7am PST and run through January 17. Some of the domain names at auction include the following:

  • 1.pro
  • 2.pro
  • b.pro
  • x.pro
  • go.pro
  • pet.pro
  • xxx.pro
  • we.pro
  • buy.pro
  • inc.pro

Auction starting prices range from $50 up to $5,000 for the single letter and number domain names. I don’t know if $5,000 for a single letter/number .pro domain name is a good price, but the market will tell us.

For the most part, I’ve only seen private event registry auctions like this held at auction venues like Sedo, Pool, Snapnames, and NameJet. With new gTLDs around the corner, this could be a foreshadowing of events to come. Perhaps Go Daddy has hopes of securing special event auctions on premium domain names in new TLDs. It might be a wise idea to hold a private .CO auction in conjunction with the .CO Super Bowl commercial.

Personally, I don’t see a whole lot of investment value with .Pro domain names, but this particular auction will certainly be worth watching considering the audience may include far more end user buyers than usual.

Why I Am Not Transferring Domain Names from Go Daddy

Elliot Silver
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33

I am entirely opposed to SOPA, and I’ve made my opinion known to people who are able to do something about it. I know that Go Daddy was originally in favor of SOPA, and then didn’t support SOPA, and the company is now supposedly firmly opposed to SOPA.

A number of  influential  people and companies have called for a boycott of GoDaddy. They feel that they should not support a company that supports a bill that can harm the Internet. Several companies have been giving special offers to transfer domain names today (like Namecheap).

That being said, I am a client of Godaddy’s (among many other registrars), and I am not planning to move my 100+/- domain names to another registrar.

From a financial perspective, I can think of many other things to do with $1,000 than spend that money transferring domain names. For $1,000, I can have a site redesigned, pay for an advertising campaign for some of my websites, can buy a nice domain name in the aftermarket, make a donation to a politician while letting him or her know I oppose SOPA, or just spend it on an expensive dinner and bottles of vintage wine. Whichever I choose, it’s better than wasting it on unnecessary domain transfers.

I also don’t believe that transferring domain names away from GoDaddy will do anything at this point. They’ve heard their customers and Internet community loud and clear. Whether they really are opposed to SOPA or are just saying they are opposed to SOPA because of the outcry is really a moot point for me.

I don’t feel badly at all for Godaddy. They made a terrible decision in my opinion and are doing what they can to rectify that decision. My account representative at Godaddy has always been helpful to me, and I don’t think spending my money on domain transfers from Godaddy is going to stop SOPA or make it more difficult for SOPA to pass.

I think Godaddy would be well served to start campaigning to their elected officials on why they now think SOPA is bad. That’s the least they can and should do to show that they now mean what they said.

I might not have the need to pinch pennies, but I am not going to wastefully spend my hard earned money to prove a point that has already been clearly proven.

Win a Trip to the Super Bowl Courtesy of Go Daddy

Elliot Silver
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6

Not only is Go Daddy a Super Bowl advertiser, but they are also sponsoring a sweepstakes that will send someone to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. The prize includes the following: a trip for two to Indianapolis (airfare), two tickets to the game, three nights in a local hotel, and transportation to and from the game. The sweepstakes is valued at $12,000.

According to the official rules  of the Super Fan Sweepstakes, “to participate in Go Daddy’s “Super Fan” sweepstakes (“Sweepstakes”), you must navigate to the designated page on www.facebook.com/GoDaddy and “Like”  the Go Daddy Facebook page, and then complete the specific entry form that includes your name,  telephone number and email address, and agree to these Official Rules.”

There are a whole bunch of other  eligibility  rules (like US residents only), so check them out before entering. People can enter to win the sweepstakes through January 4, 2012, and the drawing will be held on January 9, 2012. The Super Bowl will be played on Sunday, February 5, 2012 – right after DomainFest.

There is no cost to enter the sweepstakes and no purchase necessary, but you do need to give permission to the application on Facebook to sign up. Also, this isn’t a paid or sponsored post… just want to pass this info along.

Go Daddy Headlines Inaccurate

Elliot Silver
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9

First off, I want to be very clear in stating that I am ardently opposed to SOPA as it is currently written, and I think anyone who makes a living online should be opposed to SOPA right now. In fact, I met with a US Congressman a couple of weeks ago, and I told him that was the most important issue I wanted to discuss with him when we met.

That being said, I think some of the headlines about Go Daddy losing massive amounts of domain names and/or customers are borderline ridiculous. Take for example a headline that was on DrudgeReport.com yesterday, linking to the article at Techi.com. The article title was “GoDaddy lost 72,354 domains this week. It’s not enough.”  The author appears to attribute this large loss of domain names to GoDaddy’s original support of SOPA, which it later retracted.

While 72,000 lost domain names in a week sounds like a huge number, especially when you take the revenue figure into consideration, it really isn’t all that significant when you look at previous weeks. According to DailyChanges.com, during the same week last year, Go Daddy lost over 86,000 domain names:

As  Mike Berkens mentioned, you need to keep in mind that not everyone uses the DomainControl.com DNS, so these numbers may not entirely reflect the actual changes that have occurred. However, the same could be said about last year’s numbers as well.

I think it’s pretty appalling that GoDaddy would publicly support a bill that many technical and Internet experts say will cause major problems for companies that operate online, even if they did retract that support later. However, reports indicating a mass exodus of domain names at GoDaddy (or a widespread boycott) seem  erroneous to me based on a historical look at the data that others are citing.

Guest Post: Saga of a Stolen Domain Name and How it Was Recovered

Elliot Silver
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5

This is a guest post written by Name.com Community Evangelist, Jared Ewy. This article discusses the theft of DavidWalsh.name and how it was recovered.

At Name.com we like to take care of the customer.  We know buying something online can sometimes feel like a lonely endeavor that ends with money dropping into the tinny nethers of the ‘net. Our goal is to make sure your experience is the exact opposite, filled with real, handmade help that leaves you knowing you’re not alone. When you buy something from us, or if you simply have a question about one of our products, we’ll take care of you. Many of the questions we get are simple enough to be handled in 140 characters or less. Sometimes they get fairly complex, and sometimes they lead to downright dramatic international capers. The latter would be the case of the missing domain DavidWalsh.name.

It seems impossible by now that someone wouldn’t know that David Walsh’s domain was stolen (check out our dramatization here).

From the time Mr. Walsh first Tweeted @namedotcom about his missing web address, to the time it was retrieved, the entire ordeal has been a primer on the power of social media. David Walsh shared with us this situation:  his domain had been stolen and he was wondering if we could help him get it back.  A few tweets later we had enough information to find the alleged thief in Ukraine. Meanwhile Walsh and his thousands of Twitter followers started trending the hashtag #FreeDavidWalshDotName. It was big and getting bigger.

We hadn’t planned on contacting the alleged thief, but it turns out he was more accessible than a certain other company’s customer service!  Even more amazing, the alleged thief (he says his friend stole it using his account) used his actual phone number on the Name.com account that briefly held the stolen domain. After giving up on traditional means, Name.com Domain Operations Manager Scott McBreen decided to put some pressure on the suspected domain wrangler. With The Ukraine on speed dial, Scott was able to get the purported scofflaw to transfer the domain back to Name.com, where we were able to give it back to Mr. Walsh.

It was exciting and stressful. The domain had originally been held by GoDaddy before it was stolen and briefly registered with us, and then whisked off to 1and1. It seems the thief would have kept moving the domain around while sending cryptic ransom notes to Mr. Walsh if it hadn’t been for the heroics of our domain operations manager, Scott.

We’re happy to have helped get the domain back.  Customer service defines us as a company…  it’s what we do here.  In our spare time we’re obsessed with Twitter and Facebook. If you leave a comment, we’ll get back to you.  With a situation like Mr. Walsh’s we felt a little like the  Blues Brothers  and on a divine mission to make the situation right (and if you don’t get that reference then stop what you’re doing and educate yourself with the Aykroyd/Belushi classic.)

In the end everything worked out. David Walsh got his domain back, Scott has been enshrined on Twitter as a legend, and we have this opportunity to remind you that most all Ukrainians are good people. In light of all this we’re celebrating with the promo code “DAVIDWALSH”. Use it to get $7.25 COM/NET transfers in and $6.99 .NAME transfers. All of your transfers to Name.com include a year of registration.

If you’re looking for a domain registrar with world-class customer service and people who strive to simplify hosting, web sites and SEO, then you’ve found your place. If you need any more info just hit us on Twitter @namedotcom for Facebook.com/namedotcom.

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