I was having a chat with a good friend who deal is super premium domain names and he was telling me about a chap in the industry who is pissing everyone off by registering all the best dropped domain names using a modified domain catching script. When he told me that so many people were going nuts I had thoughts that he must have been attacking other servers during the drops or doing something illegal but the truth was he was simply manipulating th system better than anyone else.
For people who do not know a drop catcher simply queries a domain name until its available for registration then when it becomes available it register it using a encrypted PGP system. This method of registration has been used by Nominet for years and in my opinion needs a serious update as its outdated and not efficient.
Nominet Tag holders pay a yearly fee to have special access to the whois system which allows a limited number of searches in a 24 hour period. This chap simply registered a number of tags to increase his chances of obtaining the domain name.
When I looked at creating a drop catching system I had the exact same idea as this chap is using as I know it would be the best way to obtain a competitive edge over other systems. I did some costs and realised that even after setting up a number of shelf companies, leasing multiple servers, purchasing multiple tags and query licenses and having the system coded it would be possible to pay for the entire project with the registration of a single premium domain name.
I personally do not understand why these other domain domainers have issue with what this guy is up to as they are doing the exact same thing by using a competitive advantage then selling the domains back to the public at an premium price. If it comes to ethics then the question for the domainers should be is it ethical to charge a company 100 x the registration value of a name because you manipulated the system to get it.
I often see the exact same argument in affiliate marketing when someone comes up with a innovative concept to improve conversions. We have all seen the problems caused by innovative voucher code sites which at the time were said to become the final nail in the coffin for affiliate marketers, a few months later and the concept is now being used by a ton of sites.
Domainers and markerters are trading in a market which is still in its infancy but there actions are what are being used to define how the industry matures. I see no problem with using forward thinking tatics to make money as long as the end user gets the result they are looking for.
Popularity: 25%
May 15th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Morning
It seems everyone criticises the stuff that works better than the stuff they have.
Doug