Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I really don`t like BuyDomains.com. I see their adds running on this site and it makes me queasy. Why?

http://www.circleid.com/posts/president_of_buydomainscom_res ponds_to_wls_issue/

Why would anyone buy a domain from this company?

And...

http://www.boycott-buydomains.com/

The company has a chance to get its message into these message boards but I think the readership here deserves to know *all* the facts.

What`s the problem? They buy ad space here and have every right to do so.

If you don`t want your domain name to expire, then pay for it for seven years upfront or remind yourself to renew prior to it expiring. Duh.

As for making money on popular domain names, what`s wrong with that? This is not a site to post `Boycott a Sponsor` messages. Sponsors pay for this site in the first place, and while you have no obligation to do business with them, you also don`t get a platform to disparage them, either.

Netsol is now guilty of the same practice ... I was trying to snap a domain name up for a client and WHOIS has it listed as expired. However Network Solutions holds on to it for up to 35 days while people who have placed bids on it through their proprietary backorder system can duke it out. This system is completely unfriendly at best.

When you try to transfer a domain name away from Network Solutions, they do this bizarre holding pattern where they "hold" the domain for over a week, in case you change your mind (!). During this time, they send you daily emails and actually call you on the phone to bring your back to their services.

(I had my older domains all at netsol.com because when I purchased them, that was my only real option.)

If people only knew the back story of so many of these major players ... like Register.com for example, they purchase all of their hosting space from a former host of mine and then upcharge it to death. You`re basically just paying for customer service to people who have no real control over the physical hosting of the sites.

For me, it`s GoDaddy all the way. You have to love Bob Parsons ... he`s all about sticking it to the man.

I do think that this all brings up an interesting question about domains, hosting and ethics though. They had many court rulings back in the day when people were snatching up domain names. For example, I couldn`t run out and buy eddiebauer.com first and then sell it to Eddie Bauer for $100K ... I could only sell it for the price I paid for it. This is exactly what early domain registrars were doing.  I remember this whole discussion because I owned princessleia.com and had every right to ... as long as I didn`t send a letter to Lucas Films and ask $400K for the name. (I did sell it for the price of a transfer to the person who still owns it today, however.) So why should any company have the right to take my business name, shortcut the system, and then try to sell it back to me for $1,000?

The internet is full of fishy people. I think this topic does bring up a lot of issues that people here should know about when they are dealing with these sorts of things.

I believe we are also entering into a very interesting period concerning the internet, as a lot of domains right now are going back onto the auction block. People that bought them all up in the late 90s lost track of them, and they are all expiring. I expect to see a lot more to come of this war in the coming months and years.

As I said earlier, the way to prevent this from happening in the first place is to keep up with your domain renewals. That way, no one can take anything from you. If I was Lucas Films, I would have sued you anyway under ICANN regulations because that is a trademark, and you didn`t have legal rights to it.

Domain speculation is done by a lot of people, large and small.  These things come up for renewal every day, not just recently.

Moral of the story: get a good calendar and a yellow highlighter.

So many issues so little time.

I think if CookieMonster doesn`t like BuyDomains then he is welcome to voice his opinion. Just because BuyDomains sponsors this site does mean that people forfeit their rights to free speech. Nor does it mean they should get any special treatment.

I do agree that if you want to keep your domain name, then sign up for it and don`t let it lapse. If you let it lapse and then want it back a month later when it is 10X more then it is your fault. On the other hand, these big registrars do take extreme advantage of the system. Especially Verisign.

I think my biggest problem with the whole thing is when they hold the pages for years trying to get thousands when nobody is bidding.


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SecurityDistro Arm Your Toolbox

Domain Names, Domain Names, Domain Names!!!
This topic comes up very often in the forum. Cookie Monster, I agree with you I don`t like BUYDOMAINS.com, First of all because they are competitors, and second of all I hate their business practice. I hate almost every domain registrars business ethics. Its easy to register a domain aname with them and a pain in the rear end to manage it and its like the minute you want to transfer it they call you day and night with these promotions to try to keep you. If they would have done their work you wouldn`t be transfering in the first place. Let me give you an example: I don`t know if you`ve ever registered a domain name with Yahoo.com?

In reality. you are not registering it with Yahoo. The name of the company you are actually registering your domain name with is MELBOURNE IT out of Australia. (same goes for Microsoft free domain registration)
So lets say you decided to start working on your web site, transfered your hosting, but need to point your domain name to another servers such as: ns1.nuevohost.net, here is where the real problem begins... Even worse try adding name servers to your domain. A name server is when you register an IP address to your domain (advanced domain name features) then you are out of luck. If you can afford to call MELBOURNE IT be my guest.
As for go Daddy? what can I say his empire is about to end very soon... I am transfering domain names for customers at a rate of 40 a day. Thats alot..

As for your domain name expiring? Please don`t let that happen. As of July of last year the rules have changed... Did your registrar tell you that? If you let your domain name expire you have 15 days to renew not 30, If you don`t renew within the first 15 days it goes into grace period, where you can still get it back. The second step is Redemption Period,  once your domain name goes into redemption period it`s tough to get it back. It will cost you about $260 throu 350.00 to get it back. The final step is Deletion, where they hold it for another 30 days and they do not tell you when it`s available. So the total time it takes for your domain name to hit the public domains is "90 days", now here is the thing. It is not elegal for you to own a domain name lets say for example: Lucasfilms.com... If I registered it, hey I registered it... There is no law governing that Only Lucas films can register that domain name because they have full rights over the name Lucas Films.. Here is where people get scare. Here is where people are under the assumption they are going to sued..
If George Lucas didn`t dish out 10.00 bucks for his domain name and I registered it, It is mine... As long as I don`t call him and try to sell it to him I am fine, Im just going to sit on it until he makes me an offer. Anyone can register a domain name regardless if the name is a trademark.. He might have his paperwork stating that his name is a trademark, but not the domain name... two different things...

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Edgar Monroy
Web Developer / Owner / Consultant
When starting your own business the need to "know-how" is greater than money!
http://www.nuevolution.net

So you are saying that its wrong for someone to take a domain name (that has expired) and sell it for a price. But it`s not wrong to use a name of someone`s invention, personallity, or movie star.

Come on, it all comes down to buying and selling domains is a business. Whether they are an advertiser or not. That is the way they are going to do their business.

Is it any different than a storage unit that you have rented and "forgot" to pay the bill to renew it for a month or year whatever. They are going to take your articles and sell them. Either by auction or one heck of a garage sale.

Nevertheless if it was important to you, you would not have let it expire!

Nuevolution,

When I started reading I saw Yahoo and Domain names together and automatically knew your problem. I had a customer sign up for a Yahoo domain name once. Needless to say, 5 weeks later I couldn`t map it to a hosting service and went through all kinds of craziness just to figure out how to type in a non Yahoo host. Terrible interface for domain management. I have never had a lot of luck with large/popular hosting companies. I have two different ones that I have used for years and they haven`t let me down yet.


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SecurityDistro Arm Your Toolbox