So back in July of last year I wrote a post about new gtlds and advertising on domain blogs. That post was sparked by a conversation I had with a domain investor friend who said:
I bet you and all these other bloggers can’t wait for the advertising money that will come in from all these new extensions. He went on to say that bloggers that take advertising money from these new extensions are a fraud if they don’t believe in the new extensions. He pointed out that as an example right now some blogs are taking money to advertise .pw on their website and they would never register one, so there is no truth in advertising on their website.
We went round and round and you can read that post, and read the comments. Elliot Silver after reading the post did one of his own which I thought was excellent.
The above mentioned article was written months before the new gtlds were launched, now the comments are more frequent and in full effect. There have been those posting comments on blogs and forums and I have had numerous conversations on the phone about the Domain Blogosphere and New gTLD advertising.
Take the post Morgan Linton did last night ( Full disclosure: I am a contributing writer on MorganLinton.com) Morgan wrote about an industry divided, I have felt the industry has always been divided, now with so many blogs and social media, many more people have the opportunity to express their likes and dislikes.
Jonathan left a quote that said the following:
Part of the problem is I think there is some distrust growing between domainers and some of the bloggers, registries etc.
A lot of advertising is going on, so are a blogger’s views truly their own or is it more of a paid ad dressed up as a post? A friend helping a friend out? Basic networking? Plug me now, I’ll help you out later on.
You have situations that I don’t think have been fully addressed.
All those .link domains going over to that other company.
The current situation with Network Solutions and .xyz, one you haven’t touched, but others have in your comments.
I remember the Namejet auction for .xyz which to me was one big joke, since the winners didn’t actually have to pay. You were in those auctions. Was that helping a friend out? Did you win and pay for any of them? Can you understand how some of this looks?
Another problem are ridiculous statements, marketing cliches etc. The post for .xyz I think rubbed a lot of people wrong, one of the most ridiculous things I’ve read.
Even in this post you made:
“While I think TLDs like .XYZ, .CLUB, and a few more will hit 1M registrations in their first year”Is that something you really believe? .club regs have slowed. There is no way they hit 1 million, they would be lucky to get 10% of that.
I think the blogs out there that keep it straight and upfront with their readers are going to grow over this time. Some that look like they’re pumping a little too much, buddy marketing etc. are losing respect/readership.
Also noticed this when I was about hit submit:
Automatically checked off.
Sign-up for the MorganLinton.com Newsletter (no SPAM ever)
There have been numerous comments on TheDomains.com where I am managing editor where people have accused Mike of being a new gtld promoter or fan boy.
There was this comment on Namepros,
Most blogs are now pretty much paid for, another one sold out today. So take those with a grain of salt as well when you see the pumping going on.
When I read it I was not sure who the poster was referring to, another domainer told me it was in reference to Domain Shane and that he had taken .XYZ on as an advertiser. I read the post I did not think Shane said anything wrong, and no I am not taking the side of a friend looking for something on the back end. He is running a publication, he said why he is going to register some, he did not tell anyone to spend a dime.
Ammar who I know from .tv said this on a post about .xyz at onlinedomain.com
I will go on record and say I have commented on other’s blogs about my feelings on .XYZ only to have them deleted.
I replied asking him to state which blogs have done that.
Ammar replied it was Morgan Linton, the full text is in the comments.
There is someone starting a poll on Namepros:
What New Cause Should I undertake ?
There are countless more comments and critiques.
So let me give my views and I welcome hearing comments because I think this an important topic. This is a cottage industry and if people think that the space where they get a large chunk of their info is bought and paid for, that’s a problem.
Content creation, writing, consulting is what I do for a living. This is not a hobby, I don’t consider it fun, it is a business. I founded this blog and run it, in addition I am the managing editor at thedomains.com and theartofthename.com. I also write for DomainCrunch.com, MorganLinton.com and have written for DotWhatever.com.
I have never been paid by anyone to write a story, positive or negative, (negative SEO is not the only black hat content vehicle out there). I write what I believe, I have given opinions that were honest opinions and I talk about things that I have done and products and services I have used. Someone can think that company sucks or had a bad experience but that does not mean I have crossed an ethical line. If you had a bad meal at a restaurant that I frequent and enjoy, should I stop going because you had a bad meal ?
This is a small industry and shy of hitting 3 straight black jacks with Elliot Silver at a domain conference in Vegas, or going to the Playboy Mansion without contracting Legionnaires disease, it is pretty dull on a day in and day out basis.
The new gtld program came along and it brought about what gets the most attention in any business shy of a sex scandal, it brought about controversy. The new gtld space is news in this industry. I respect the fact and understand those that don’t want to hear one word, but there are people that do want to hear about it.
I don’t have a universal like or dislike for new gtlds, I believe they are high risk from a domain investor standpoint, I have said many times that I think new domain investors should avoid them, if they feel the absolute need to participate then go slow, reg a couple and don’t buy another one til you sell one of the first regs. Get a little proof of concept going that shows you that you can buy right and also sell right.
I get to see a lot of data, and go deep inside the stats, I have had the opportunity to work with Mike Berkens and Adam Dicker, two gentleman who are much bigger names in this business and have had much more success. There is no doubt that overwhelmingly the domain investor community is negative on the new gtld program. That being said there are many who have expressed negative sentiments that have also indeed regged some new gtlds. I think that is because there is not universal contempt for every keyword combo in every string possible.
So now back to the publisher – advertiser relationship. Every blog is different some are hobbies and some are not. From what I see and they can weigh in with their thoughts. Andrew at DomainNameWire, Michael at DomainSherpa, Kevin at DomainIncite, Theo at DomainGang/Acro, this is their full time job covering this space, Elliot at DomainInvesting and Michael at TheDomains derive not a full time income but certainly a healthy income from their blogging activity.
Guys like Shane at DomainShane, Morgan at MorganLinton.com and Konstantinos at OnlineDomain may have other gigs but there is certainly a lot of time devoted to blogging and they have business relationships within the industry.
Eric Borgos from Impulse Corp who is one of the most knowledgeable guys I have spoken to, lamented in the Morgan Linton article that he does not have as much traffic as he would like.
I write my blog (which has no ads or sponsors at all ) just to write, but it is depressing that I get very little traffic to it. I want more traffic because otherwise it is a waste if nobody reads what I write. So, if a somebody needs ads (and therefore lots of traffic) to make enough money to allow them to write their blog, it is a fine line.
Eric does not write everyday and that is why his traffic is low, if he wanted to write everyday he would have no problem with traffic or finding advertisers imo.
So now that we have established that many are doing this as their livelihood or a decent chunk of their livelihood, you are going to have advertisers, no one in this industry is paying for content, and I am not suggesting they should, just pointing out that would be the other alternative.
It makes sense that new gtld registries, registrars and service providers want to advertise on the leading publications of their industry, and since there is a diverse audience of people reading these publications, there will be plenty of people who want to read those stories and click those ads.
Any domain blogger can tell you there is a group of readers that only email you, they will not post a comment ever. Reasons include: I am low key, I don’t want to be ridiculed, I don’t want to debate anonymous people, etc…
So even if the vocal majority does not want to see posts about new gtlds, it does make sense in the business of publishing.
What I have not read is domain bloggers telling anyone to buy anything, I have not read, again I can only speak for myself, but I have not read the top publications in the space use catch phrases like get em while their hot, or snooze you lose. I think publishers have tried to present the current state of what is going on.
If I disagree with an advertiser I will tell them, if they are so thin skinned that a comment would end a relationship then for me that is good to know. This is a niche industry and it makes sense to ask questions, and have your skeptic hat on, it is too easy to con people online, so the questions and the probing makes sense and I think that will and should continue.
I can tell you from working with Mike, he writes an article on what the ICA is doing, how they trying to help domainers, low traffic. Write a post about is XYZ and Network Solutions giving away free domains ? Huge traffic, that was not a puff piece, it was not a Go Daniel Go piece, it was a critical piece of the whole situation, and the traffic was huge.
It is the one truism about writing online, a digital meritocracy so to speak, if no one is interested in the topics, the traffic goes down. the traffic at thedomains and TLDInvestors is the best its ever been. I cannot speak for the whole blogosphere but I can say I think they all try to do a good job. Sometimes our work doesn’t measure up how we like and that is shown by traffic dips and the number of advertisers who do or do not want to work with you.
Let me also say you don’t need a blog with advertisers to have an agenda, a network of negative comments goes a long way to spread an agenda, when you forget the name you used and you have 5 aliases under the same ip all with the same message, that’s shady too.
Everyone who reads these publications should reach out with an email if you think something is a bit too over the top, the writers that care about their reputation will get back to you and explain the premise of the article. Secondly always do your own research and read a lot.
Everyone is free to make their own decisions here and may not fully agree, I don’t mind disagreement, I mind people thinking the new gtlds are running the ship and dictating content. I know both Mike and myself and I am sure many others do but I can’t speak from a place of fact, but I know we both tell advertisers we are going to write what we see. I have had no problem with that policy. Mike has turned a ton of money from people requesting paid posts.
For fun the first five people who read this whole thing and leave a comment, I will send you $2 by Paypal for your time. 1 comment per person, and no proxy ip addresses. So if you hide your ass then you are getting no cash.
Todd says
Whoever got paid for xyz ads, promos, banners etc etc should refund it and renounce this practice, if they want to be taken seriously. It’s one thing to write posts with a slight bias and another to not renounce this type of practice – IMO.
Raymond Hackney says
No blog where I have any say or influence has a .XYZ ad. Thanks for the comment
Todd says
Great article Ray. How many Todd’s do you allow on your blog?
I guess I’ll have to change to a more original moniker.
It’s bullshit that these blog systems allow multiple people to use the same name.
Raymond Hackney says
I knew it was not you by the email and ip address.
Richard says
Wow that was some post. I get paid for reading it, me likey. You paying the fee too right? : )
Raymond Hackney says
yes fee will be paid too.
Anticareer.com says
Send my $2 to Daniel… I think he needs it most to buy polish to get the tarnish off.
Raymond Hackney says
Is charity ok ?
JJ says
Great article Raymond, there is a line that is there, some cross it and others don’t. I have never thought people like elliot or michael or andrew have done that, nor have you. I am sure most just try to come up with something to write.
xyz looks bad, I don’t know who’all is advertising them, but they need Daniel Negari to speak up for their own credibility.
Raymond Hackney says
Thanks for reading JJ
Bram says
Nice article Raymond.
You can send my $2 to charity (if I was on time to post)
Raymond Hackney says
I will put it in the charity category, I think only Richard wants to be paid so far, haha
brand says
I still own none of the new extensions, but this is the most fun i have had in a long time, reading all the blogs.
I’m not buying anything anymore anyway except in the after market if the price is right on a .com.
Keep up the good work and i don’t have paypal so if i’m number 5, past it on to number 6.
Raymond Hackney says
Thank you for reading Brand.
Andee Hill says
Great article. I always enjoy reading your thoughts. Send my $2 to the ICA.
Raymond Hackney says
Thank you Andee.
Robin Jilderda says
It’s time to quit blaming others and take responsibility for our own decisions.
Name one domain investor who has not bought or registered a piece of pigeon shit domain in .com, and who is to blame for that… a blogger or advertiser.
Bloggers share an opinion and information and sometimes a point of view. I do not consider myself so gullible that if an owner of a one of the new extensions predicts an exceptional success that I have to believe them.
On the other hand many people were sold swamp land in Florida and to some it was just swamp, then again some drained and dredged the land and created exceptionally valuable real estate from it.
As the Zen master would say about all this “we shall see”
I rely on bloggers and advertisers to inform me and I use this information to make my own decisions.
Raymond Hackney says
Thank you for reading Robin.
Acro says
Raymond – Reporting on domain-related news & issues is not my full time job, but my sleeping patter is unusual. 🙂
I think the issue is less about sponsorships and more about reaction of said sponsored bloggers to “scandals” of their sponsors. Promotional write-ups stick out a mile, even by those that proclaim to be unbiased.
The domain industry is far too small to survive on pure news and natural traffic. Overall, the bickering goes down to choice and taste differences among domainers, and much less as the result of registrar competition.
In other words, this is not .XYZ jousting with Uniregistry or fighting off Donuts, it’s domainers who want the Internet to stay as it is (was) instead of adopting change. Resistance is among the minions, not the overlords.
We all know, though, that refusal to change equals death. Hopefully, in our life time, we will experience some great things on the Net and life in general.
Raymond Hackney says
Sorry Theo I know you have a design business as well I just knew you covering domains almost 24/7.
Eric Borgos says
Everybody always has some business affiliation or motive that could cloud their judgment, even if it is not shown to the public (like certain ads/sponsors on their site). For example, my blog has no ads, but I have a big interest in .com staying at the top since I own a lot of .com domains, so I am sure that gives me a certain bias. Somebody reading my blog may not know that though.
Shane Cultra says
One of my favorite posts you’ve written. I appreciate the support. Am I more supportive of advertisers that pay us? Absolutely. It’s human nature to support those that support you. But I am certainly not going to overlook things that I think are wrong. I said this morning that Daniel’s posts and lack of transparency were hurting XYZ more than helping. I supported XYZ and took advertising money because I thought he could drive this gtld to popularity. I agree with everyone that so far that has not been the case. But the only person he has hurt is himself and we are all adults. I haven’t told anyone to buy anything. I even said publicly what I bought and why I bought it.
It’s easy to see that Daniel and Morgan are good friends. Morgan will never have anything but nice things to say about Daniel, and rightly so. But you don’t hear people bashing Ron Jackson. He has had the same positive tone, although he did say Daniel has a few questions to answer.
If people think I’m a sellout so be it. The minute you write a blog you’ve put yourself out there to be judged and ridiculed. The minute you make money you become a sellout. I have been kicked out of Domain Boardroom, called all kinds of names, and criticized both in emails and behind my back. Emotionally it’s hard to write a blog. People forget we are real people and say some tough things. But it’s all worth it because I’ve made some great friends, make great money buying and selling domains, and I have a voice in the industry.5 years of posts detailing who I am and what I believe. I’ll keep writing and if people want to keep stopping by then we’ll keep writing.
Kassey says
Thank you Raymond for your detailed blog about the industry and your view.
I read almost all the blogs listed on Domaining.com everyday. I thank blog writers because I can learn so much from them — FOR FREE!!! For this reason, I can’t make any command to the writers who have spent hours in creating the contents. It’s free for all to read after all!
Each blog writer may have a different motive for writing their blogs, and I feel it’s MY RESPONSIBILITY as an individual, free man, to judge the contents and pick out what I determine to be good knowledge for me.
I’ve found that by keeping an open mind and by reading a variety of blogs, I have gained a lot of knowledge without having to pay.
Thank you blog writers. I appreciate it.
Deano says
I found it amusing and I saw your comment about people telling online domain they like investigative journalism when it was your investigative journalism. Reading is fun.
Raymond Hackney says
One point in the article was Ammar from Legacy Fund saying that other bloggers were deleting .xyz comments. I asked him who and he now replied:
Ray,
To be fully transparent it was Morgan’s blog. Morgan and Daniel have some close relationship so I stated to Morgan he needs to serve as a better guide to the industry for all the newbies that are reading his material. A lot of the blog’s seem like a constant sell and big circle jerk for sponsorships and making an extra buck. Morgan has endorsed people from Rob Monster, building thousands of sites on Google for Adsense, brands, etc and it’s not fair to guide folks that way.
It’s now happening on the gTLD debate. Pick a stance. Either say .com is the leader, but there is market share for others. Don’t pick one side when you feel like it. Morgan then reached out to me via private email to further discuss why Daniel is a visionary and success will be there. He was open to a phone call, which has not happened. (no fault of his). If there is one thing I have learned, it is that past success doesn’t mean shit. It’s what you are doing in the current state and how your vision is reached.
We as an industry need to do better due diligence on who we make the leaders in our space. It’s disheartening and daunting for new entrants in the space.
Deano says
If Morgan did that that’s not cool I get what Shane is talking about friends but not accepting any negative comments that’s not good.
Konstantinos Zournas says
Hi Raymond,
great article.
Can you please define what you mean by “business relationships within the industry.”
On another note, I have traffic but have no sponsors except from domaining.com and Francois. Am I too annoying for some? Maybe so.
But I am not as annoying as I would like to be.
The companies I like don’t prefer me for ads or don’t advertise at all.
@Eric I have .com as well and would like them to do well but I also have org and .info and .biz and .us and New gTLDs. And of course .gr. My motive is to make money but I will not take crap from anyone.
Raymond Hackney says
I was not implying anything nefarious, I know you put a lot of time in and have a big portfolio, I knew you had Francois and thought you had another advertiser, so it was more a comment on not leaving you out of the mix of guys who take this seriously.
Thanks for reading.
Konstantinos Zournas says
I didn’t say you did. I just needed to understand what you mean.
You are right. I had .club for a month.
Sukhjin says
Raymond
Even thedomains.com is biased in one way or another. Sometime there are articles there to pump people to reg names. But usually those are not written by you. I understand the whole articles does not give feel of it although there is somewhat biased articles that leans towards their advertisers more than anything else and that is why I don’t read thedomains.com anymore. It’s ok to support advertising and it’s another thing to write biased to pump people.
Although I enjoy your article here. I think one of the heavy advertising that berken got was from club so I can understand but anyhow I am not part of that crowd no more.
One of the best blog I enjoy is onlinedomain.com it is top notch and best informative and on the spot blog. I continue to support and in future will donate whatever I can afford to onlinedomain.com
Thanks kantos for your content and he was the first one to raise issue regarding net solution facts of .xyz
Raymond Hackney says
Look first off thank you for reading and you are certainly entitled to your opinion. My opinion is not superior, I would just say I work with Mike everyday, he went out of his way to tell people Dot Club is a client of his consulting company Rightofthedot.com. I think if someone tells me that an extension is their client, I understand they like it, just so long as they don’t tell people to register them, or give advice with predictions of making money that is fine.
I believe Michael looks out for the industry and he tries, I will make it as straight as can be, I ask him once a week why do you do this and work so much on the blog ? He has a great portfolio, a great wife and he does not need anyone to register anything in any extension, it is not affecting his quality of life.
He has taken more companies to task and called out a lot of companies in the business and taken flack for it.
This is not just a one way street, the new gtld registries get pissed, Paul Stahura and I had an exchange on Twitter after Elliot Silver was kind enough to tweet this article.
Here is that exchange:
: As per the usual, Ray @TLDInvestors wrote an excellent article: http://http://t.co/eFkksN2lMl 4:56pm, Jun 04 from Twitter Web Client
TLDInvestors
TLDInvestors: @DInvesting Thank you Elliot 5:15pm, Jun 04 from Hootsuite
stahura
stahura: @TLDInvestors @DInvesting Blogs promoting?… economically incentivized anonymous/proxy comments demoting is much worse/hidden problem, imo 5:41pm, Jun 04 from Twitter Web Client
TLDInvestors
TLDInvestors: @stahura I think you will see Paul I mentioned that in my article too. Thanks for the tweet 5:44pm, Jun 04 from Hootsuite
stahura
stahura: @TLDInvestors yep I did see that, esp in last para, just thought it needed more emphasis. no need for $2 for reading whole thing 🙂 5:50pm, Jun 04 from Twitter Web Client
TLDInvestors
TLDInvestors: @stahura well you did not leave a comment on the blog so no $2 5:54pm, Jun 04 from Hootsuite
stahura
stahura: @TLDInvestors I already have enough economic incentive to leave comments 🙂 5:58pm, Jun 04 from Twitter Web Client
TLDInvestors
TLDInvestors: @stahura Ok well I think my article was spot on if you disagree I don’t know what to say to you. 6:05pm, Jun 04 from Hootsuite
stahura
stahura: @TLDInvestors I agree with your article. I think incentive (paid) comments/bashing (often time anonymous) should get bigger press is all. 6:08pm, Jun 04 from Twitter Web Client
I think Konstantinos does a good job and that is the beauty of all this, people can go wherever they like, I have always thanked everyone for reading and it is not some bullshit meaningless gesture, I know people have options and limited time.
Thanks for the comment.