I was doing some SEO work and analysis on Exdon.com, one of our brands, and came across a very interesting Namepros forum thread.

Now I am not in any way annoyed or upset with the thread. The thread starter stated that he had listed his domains at Exdon.com and that he had received an offer of $4,500 on one of them. He was not too familiar with Exdon.com and was asking if Exdon.com was a scam.

There were 2 replies to the original post when I read it. One replied saying that Exdon.com looks like a scam.

The other gave a more diplomatic, sensible and mature reply citing that Exdon.com is registered to a Kevin Jackson, who runs a blog at eBusinessDomains.com. This person also went on to say that if the thread starter had any doubts, this is information that could easily be retrieved from a simple Whois query.

I believe the second reply was so damn good; I didn’t even bother to make an OFFICIAL reply.

Regardless of the fact that there are a few sophisticated scammers out there hiding behind some top-class websites, I find it really hard to even imagine anyone could have the slightest impression that Exdon.com is scam. Seriously.

I spent thousands of dollars to build and redesign Exdon.com (twice) and even more to promote it. As a matter of fact, Exdon.com is the predecessor of eBusinessDomains.com. I vigorously promoted that site in the past.

Exdon is an acronym for Exchange For Domain Names. This was a site that I was passionate about from day one. I worked hard to build that brand, and got it to number one placement in quite a few search engines for some very popular domaining terms. This was despite the fact that it is not a keyword-rich domain name, but rather a brandable/concept domain name.

After a few years of promoting it, I realised that the open membership facility of the site was causing my domains to be buried under a mountain of other domains. So I took an executive decision to launch eBusinessDomains.com as a domain marketplace selling purely premium domain names.

I didn’t want the hassle of running 2 domain marketplaces, so I disabled the escrow services at Exdon.com, making it a commission-free marketplace.

When sellers receive offers, they can negotiate with and sell directly to buyers without paying a cent in commissions. It would be the buyer or seller’s responsibility to take any necessary precautions such as using escrow services.

We initially offered escrow services, but after some legal advice decided to cease this service. Any queries we now receive regarding escrow services are simply replied with a recommendation to use Escrow.com.

I believe Exdon.com is self-explanatory. So, let me now ask the question that I really want to ask here.

Is it that the domain industry is so rigged and infested with scams, scammers and unscrupulous persons that people by default just seem to think that everything and everyone is a scam?

Have domainers been so unscrupulous in their business affairs that we exist in a business environment that is shrouded in mistrust? How can we really expect to take this domain name industry to main street reputable levels if we can’t afford to conduct ourselves in a dignified manner?

I am happy that domains are receiving offers at Exdon.com. But, was it a case that the thread starter was only too excited about getting an offer? Of course, thinking about it, I can see how a scammer could use a marketplace setting to scam domainers. But quite frankly, if you are that damn stupid, you should not be doing any kind of business on your own without your mama standing behind you. Leave the domain business to the pros.

It seems like people think that if they register any domain name and list it at a marketplace for x amount of money, they will immediately become a domainer. A domainer is someone is making real money from his or her domaining activities.

If you don’t know about domain names, the best you can do is learn. Assuming that everyone is a scammer is not a good way of learning. I get suspicious of people who speak too much about scams. It is a clear sign that they cannot see beyond the petty “dog behind a computer” mentality.

We need to start doing real business in the domain industry in a dignified and trustworthy manner. Mistrust breeds mistrust. Contempt breeds contempt.

I think I will end here. Don’t have any more time to waste typing this.

Registering domain names will result in identifying information being exposed to the general public. The Whois information can be a gold-mine for spammers.

Domain owners can eliminate this problem by opting get their domains privately registered, where their details are kept absolutely private. This however is concern for some that the private registration of domains will have a negative impact on their search engine rankings.

Google has now affirmed that private domain registration won’t hurt search engine rankings.

The Search Engine Roundtable post quotes,

“According to JohnMu, it typically doesn’t impact rankings, so you need not worry if you are already implementing it. However, if you’re a business, why would you hide your identifying information? What does that say about your company? What happens if your web site gets hacked and there’s no obvious or working contact form on your site? It’ll be hard to get reached by Google or someone else who stumbles upon your site in that case. Thus, while it’s a hassle at times to have to worry about your identifying information, losing your rankings altogether due to intrusions can be a lot more costly to your business”.

Here is an interesting article written by Rebecca Burn-Callander from Real Business wrote. It emphasizes the caution that one should exercise when buying premium domains.

When Pat Reeves and Rohan Blacker decided on the domain name sofa.com for their online sofa retailer, the acquisition trail took them to the US – and into a whole heap of trouble.

“We knew we had to have that domain name,” says Blacker, who co-founded the firm in 2006. “There are so few four letter words that are a product that can be sold online. It was an opportunity we couldn’t miss.”

The pair tracked down the owner, a chap named Steve Galstad of Dinesen’s Leather in Milwaukee, USA. Blacker and Reeves duly contacted Galstad and asked him if he was using the domain, to which he answered “No” so they then attempted to purchase it.

At first, Galstad asked for the exorbitant sum of $1m. The pair had the domain name valued by an independent consultancy, who worked out that the name was worth more in the region of $35,000. Reeves and Blacker offered Galstad $50,000.

“But he [Galstad] was very reticent to accept,” says Reeves. “He refused to speak by phone, would take up to four weeks to reply to emails. Finally, we agreed on the sum of $200,000. He asked to meet in New York to complete the deal. But he wanted me to bring the money in cash!”

When Reeves turned up without a locked briefcase, Galstad became very jumpy. The lawyers convinced him to sign all the legal papers and he eventually agreed to have the money wired across. Two weeks later, the domain name technically belonged to the entrepreneurs, but when they tried to transfer it from the States to the UK, they found a block.

“It turned out that he didn’t actually own the domain name,” says Reeves. “He was just the manager of the company.

“The account number he’d given us for the money transfer was his personal account. And he’d absconded to South America with a stripper from Vegas!”

Luckily, the contract was airtight, and even though Galstad was not technically the owner of the firm, he still held “apparent authority” at the time of the deal. Reeves and Blacker got to keep Sofa.com. And Galstad’s luck soon ran out.

“The money ran out ten months later,” says Reeves. “So the stripper left him. He started working as a bartender. When he won a “Bartender of the month” prize and ended up in the paper, the police tracked him down. He’s still serving his sentence now.”

Original article: realbusiness.co.uk