Let’s face it. As domain investors, we are a part of a small community, where nearly all of us are connected in some way. Some companies have partnerships, many people are close friends with others, and some people have known others via forums, chat board and industry functions for years.
No matter what someone writes nor where they write it, there will always be some sort of conflict of interest due to friendships, partnerships and other relationships. With that said, it’s important as shrewd business people and entrepreneurs to see where conflicts of interest exist and to note them in the back of our minds.
Just about all of us have created our own path to get to this little known industry. Using the same gut instinct that brought us here, we should also use it to determine if someone’s blog post, news article or other public statement is self serving or if its going to be genuinely in the interest of the industry. I have found that while some posts may appear to be self serving at first glance, the content of the post is actually helpful and informative.
For the most part, most of the public domainers (those who keep a public profile) do so to help and encourage others. While some might have conflicts of interest, people shouldn’t be so quick to publicly knock that person down simply because of a known overlapping business entity or relationship.
It’s difficult or impossible to not have any conflicts in certain posts that I make (especially those where I interview friends or discuss products/services I use), and it would be ridiculous if I had to put a disclaimer in every post. We need to use more common sense before being so critical and judgmental.
I disagree. I think these conflicts of interests create a perfect opportunity for a savvy business person. Someone needs to launch DomainerConflictsofInterest.com and track these issues. We need a watch dog for this industry and we need it NOW !
@Borat;s Sister – I am honored to have zee best prostitute in all of Khazikstan writing on my blog.
I think the biggest conflict of interest is when some “famous” domainer (I have seen several do that) urges to list good domains on auction with low reserve. We all know that 19 times out of 20 that good domain will sell at the low reserve with no bidding war.
Auction promoters need to be honest and say that if you really need the money, you need to put a good name on auction cheap and accept that it will sell cheap.
All the fluff about how low reserves encourage bidding wars really hurts credibility of whoever says it.
Jon V,
“urges to list good domains on auction with low reserve. We all know that 19 times out of 20 that good domain will sell at the low reserve with no bidding war.”
Ok I get it. The auctions should continue to list overpriced domains that get 0 bids, rather than getting 19 out of 20 domains sold. If nobody is bidding at a lower reserve, they aren’t going to come beating down the doors at the higher reserves.
Auction promoters need to be honest and say that if you list a good domain with low reserve, 19 times out of 20 it will sell at this low reserve with no bidding war.
The problem, or should I say the bad faith is when auction promoters keep talking about how low reserves on good domains result in bidding wars, while they know full well that that bidding war will only happen one time in 20.
Jon
Everyday for the past 7+ years SnapNames has proven your theory wrong.