GoDaddy’s TDNAM Expired Name Auction Changes
Unless I’m missing something, GoDaddy’s Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM.com) really screwed up a great thing they had going for domain buyers. Their Expired Name Auctions had always set a minimum bid of $10 for every expired name. It didn’t matter if the name was a premium name or a crap name. If it was a good name, the bidding naturally caused the price to be bid up to its free market value.
But GoDaddy has just changed the rules. They are now making a determination as to the value of the expiring domain names that they consider “High Traffic” names, and are setting a higher (often MUCH higher) minimum bid on those names. The minimum bids for High Traffic names begin at $20, and as of today, go up to $2,010. You can see the current listing here.
I checked their FAQs to learn about these High Traffic names. They say that these are names that are “parked on our name servers and have above average daily traffic” and are “Names identified as High Traffic are among the top 1% of all the expired domains that enter TDNAM on a daily basis.”
As for the pricing, they say “Our analysis on the traffic patterns of these domains suggest that the pay per click revenue potential is high. We’ve adjusted the minimum bid upward to reflect a percentage of the revenue potential. The minimum bid amount is based on the traffic patterns we expect over the next 12 months. Regardless of the minimum bid amount, we feel the pay per click potential per year exceeds the minimum bid.”
But, here’s the problem, illustrated in the FAQ that answers the question: “Can you provide specific traffic information?” The answer: “No. Our analysis is based on actual traffic today and expected traffic in the future. Our analysis model predicts future traffic based on many factors. Even though we are confident with our analysis, we understand traffic and click-through rates can vary.”
A better solution would have been to go ahead and categorize these domains as High Traffic names, but share their traffic statistics. Then, let the bidding proceed naturally from $10 as before. This would have benefited both the buyer and GoDaddy.
The buyer would benefit because with stats in hand, he’d feel better about bidding on a name like ultrabbw.info, instead of trying to guess at the stats and starting the bidding at $1,100!
GoDaddy would have benefited because most all of these names would have received bids instead of having their auction expire with no bids what-so-ever becuase the opening bid was so high.
I’ve picked up 84 names from TDNAM in the past couple months. I very much like it and appreciate the ease at which I can sometimes pick up a name for $10. But, it isn’t all $10 bargains—good names almost always get bid up to their free-market value; the last name I bought was $755. There was no need for GoDaddy to restructure the Expired Names Auctions in a way that artificially set the opening bid. I sure hope that sites like SnapNames.com and Pool.com don’t follow suit.
It just doesn’t feel like an Expired Domain auction to me any more. It feels more like I’m dealing with a name broker. And that’s a shame, because I really love my daily TDNAM hunts.
If I’m missing something, please correct me in a comment.
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I agree, TDnam auctions are really screwy now, but the question still remains, if these domains recieve no bids, do the domains get awarded to the BO holder, reauctioned, get held by godaddy in limbo while they profit from the ppc, or are they released to the general public?
hmmmm.
I have been a satisfied GoDaddy customer for several years but their TDNAM service is a SCAM! I am a seller. TDNAM as the inermediary on a transaction, communicated an offer, confirmed the buyers price offer, my acceptance of the offer and the buyer’s acceptance as well. Now the buyer has backed out — I have no way to renegotiate the price, and TDNAM has collected a fee from the buyer and will collect a commission from me — I was forced to join their service. It all feels like bait-and-switch to me! Watch out!!!
Burned by TDNAM!!
Same here satisfied with Godaddy. But they came to me with an offer a few weeks ago which never panned out. Had to put the name as “sold” on tdnam. I already have a tdnam account so I didn’t get charged to join though. But the buyer never appeared.
As a buyer and seller on tdnam I will say that tdnam really does suck! As a seller they illigally and purposely do not disclose that they will be holding your funds for 30 days!(making interest money off your sale no doubt) There TOC states a vague discription and does not disclose the actual waiting time of 30 days. You find this out after a 30 miniute wait phone call explaining you have not received moneys after the legal transfer of your domain to another account. Being that Godaddy will not allow any transfered domains from one account to another, to be transfered away from godaddy registrar, why do they have to hold my money and when using paypal shouldnt it be between the buyer and seller and not godaddy as a 3rd party escrow? Pay pal offers both buyer and seller protection. Its called double dipping and is grounds for class action suit! Oh and did I mention you better save your emails of all transactions through tdnam because they wipe out the history of your transaction in the tdnam My account admin leaving you clueless through your admin as to when you should get paid. Total sham! The TDnam customer support told me to notify them if I havent received money after 30 days.
Just registered an account with tdnam few days ago and got a domain with multiple back links for just $16. Do you know any site or other places where you can check for expired domains and also get back link / traffic information?
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Dating Software:
Try FRESHDROP.net . They are the only place that I know of that will list out TDNAM domains with backlink data.
Best part is it is for free!
Bob