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.