Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

When Sedo.com introduced themed domain auctions, it was clear that they are targeting a particular segment of the domain market. For example, their Geo Auction was about geographic domains, the Jobs Auction was related to domains pertaining to the employment industry, and so forth.

Themed auctions allow for a group of sellers to attract a particular group of buyers, interested in the specific domain auction theme. Sedo advertises these themed auctions that usually last for a week on its network of affiliated sites and on their pages under Sedo.com, by displaying related prompts, text and graphics ads.

Sedo is having an Adult Auction starting August 6th and for that purpose they created this adult banner ad (view at your own risk) right here. The ad is displayed with at least a 40% “weight” – in other words, 4 ads out of 10 impressions would show the adult banner; the rest would be unrelated banner ads.

The problem lies with the way that this ad – which features a semi-nude blonde seen from the back – appears on any Sedo.com page, without regard to the audience that might be viewing it. For example, it appears on offer pages for domains listed at Sedo for sale. Anyone with the intention to place an offer on a domain, stands a chance of seeing the ad, which also contains three domains from the adult inventory up for auction: DirtyVideo.com, Pornos.net & SeePorn.com

With thousands of visitors viewing “offer pages” of domains parked or listed with Sedo daily, almost one out of two viewers would face the adult themed ad without any warning or preparation of any kind. For example, someone might be browsing for a domain that is about kids’ toys, or books or medical supplies and will see this ad alongside the offer page for this non-adult domain.

Since I reported the consequences of such a thoughtless promotion at a DNForum thread yesterday, a Sedo representative responded with the following statement:

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We apologize for any offense that was taken to the banner advertisements; it was not Sedo’s intention to offend anyone with this campaign. While we understand our users’ concerns, this image does not contain any explicit adult material. Also, this specific advertising banner is cycling through the offer pages and should not appear on every offer page viewed.

Your concerns regarding this have been shared with the appropriate people for review; a response with more information will be posted shortly.

Almost five hours later, the ad is still visible without any changes made to where it is displayed. With the Internet moving faster than corporate bureaucracy permits, this blog post is now #2 on Google for the terms “Sedo porn“.

Perhaps this will be the catalyst in removing the ad before it causes additional financial loss and negative publicity, both to domain portfolio holders and the unsuspecting visitors of Sedo pages.

Update – 8 hours later:

It appears that Sedo has removed the image frames that displayed the porn domains. While not a fully satisfying solution, I am glad that Sedo responded to my justified reaction to this unwelcome imagery. Let’s see what Sedo will announce officially tomorrow.

Revenue is severely down across the domain parking industry, as PPC companies slowly but surely pass the “benefits” of trickle-down economics to the domainers.

Meanwhile, the main advertising providers, Google and Yahoo post record revenue while they’re reducing ad revenue paid to domain holders. Time to develop your domains.

Click on the image below and enjoy your Friday!

No matter what you do, don’t offer a free service. Ever. Unless you are prepared to wade through an ocean of ingratitude.

Time is money, or at least, virtual money invested against your very own lifespan. Especially if your time is dedicated to making a living, you should never consider offering freebies.

Since the introduction of the Internet, there is a misconception that information is free; music is free; entertainment and even products should be offered for free.

And that’s just wrong.

The definition of “free” changes when the scale of freedom reaches critical mass.

And that happens, when people start to expect or even *demand* the things your provide; when they display no appreciation for whatever you offer; when they become disruptive of your efforts; when they turn rude, annoying and just plain nasty.

So next time you want something for free, remember that someone spent a considerable time of their lives creating it; when you are upset that a free feature is terminated at no loss to you, remember that its creator or provider decided to allocate their time to something else.

I too, want my MTV. And I pay for it.

Fireworks are lighting up the sky as millions of Americans celebrate Independence Day – the anniversary of July 4th, 1776. More than 230 years ago, the people decided that paying ransom to a king across the ocean would no longer be considered a necessity of their existence in a land that, while it featured a hostile terrain and hosted wild dangers it also provided fresh ground, room to grow and new horizons to explore.

In our age, technology has eradicated the barriers and information-sharing has integrated the world’s races into a global village that often breaths its daily life in an electronic format. We seem to have forgotten the meaning of certain words that have existed for centuries and yet have been forced to take new meaning under the aspis of technology.

Freedom - the inherited need of humanity to exist without being forced into physical or mental slavery, to grow and to create its own path in life, with respect to others; human, animal and the environment.

Compassion – the leaning towards those in need, regardless of the circumstances, to pause and end conflicts of any kind; to offer to the needy and to try to heal the suffering of others.

Dignity – the behavior of people in a respectful manner towards eachother, without animosity or aggression, the treatment of other genders, races or religions with respect and equality.

Understanding – the acceptance of one’s individuality, their differences, their uniqueness; as both a genetic and character element. The co-existence of races and groups of people that, while different, share a common ancestral set of parents on the same planet.

As the fireworks light up the sky, it’s the very light that pierces the darkness and creates entertainment, elation and joy; as if we’re discovering the stars in the sky as we did thousands of years ago, before technology lit up the planet at night, depriving us of the galactic view.

Let us remember the basics, the raw elements that created us, our civilization, our very existence on Earth and celebrate these daily, with every action we perform in our lives.

I am happy to announce that Francois of Domaining.com has acquired DNGator.com – the Domain News Aggregator – to further expand the offering of services, including delivering up-to-date news related to the domain industry.

Domaining.com recently launched a domainers’ profile service, at Domainers.org which is free for all users of Domaining.com