Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

I’ve been using the Sedo platform for six years; during those six years I’ve watched the company grow both for itself and for me.

Some of the initial heat that I gave Sedo was justified during its time, but after attending the SedoPRO conference one thing became obvious: the single most important asset of Sedo is its people.

It’s easy to raise one’s tone through emails, or to get frustrated over delays and share that frustration during a phonecall.

What is not easy, is understanding that the human network of a corporation deserves a human approach as well.

The SedoPRO conference in Boston was fantastic, not because of the drinks we had – and I had many – not because of the tour on the river, the scrumptious food or the brainstorming conference discussions – and there were plenty of each during those two days.

I went to Boston wanting to bridge the impersonal gap that after six years of utilizing the services of a company felt so abnormal to behold. In time, there is a need for all humans to stop sending out smoke signals and instead meet eachother down the valley or up the hill.

The Sedo staff, from support personnel and account managers all the way to the top are a group of highly energized, intelligent individuals. The US and European core teams work together daily to achieve corporate success through the success of their clients, which include me. They are friendly, understanding, patient and open to suggestions and constructive criticism. I’m well aware of the fact that in the past I also gave them the occasional lashing or two; but I also praised every single instance of excelling well beyond the completion point.

This post is not about documenting what was discussed; I will simply say that the SedoPRO conference was very focused and productive. Meeting other domainers, customers of Sedo was the cherry on the pie; we all share the same aspirations: to increase revenue and to make more sales.

The SedoPRO conference was an opportunity to see these people collectively at work, to witness the beehive at production time. And my time, as much as it was productive it was also fun and entertaining to spend together with a group of domainers and Sedo staff that share the same industry with me.

A big thank you goes out to Sedo for showing me that they are indeed the industry leader; having worked for highly productive, ultra-corporate companies I must say I am envious of the ultra-casual Sedo dress code. But they deserve to wear whatever they feel comfortable in and focus on their work, which they do love and are proud of.

And that’s a sign of a healthy company, when its people are truly happy doing their job.

Quite often, I wonder if my definition of quality customer service is too demanding but the answer comes back as a flat “no”.

Having used the services of many companies over the years – from retail to banks – I can honestly say that I’m just an average Joe with regards to what I expect from their procedures, workflow and customer support.

Today I will discuss an incident that, despite my goodwill and thorough participation in the process, kept me on the phone for 60 minutes; all while three companies involved in the domain business did less than their allocated part to assist me with resolving the issue.

A few hours ago I received an email from Register.com with regards to authorizing a domain transfer to them. The email did not list which domain was being transfered; the subject line simply stated “Transfer of .com”.

My first thought was that this was spam; after examining the email headers it was proven legit. Since I had not personally authorized a domain transfer to Register.com I felt compelled to call their support department.

I was able to get through their inbound transfers department quite easily; the wait time was barely a minute. The support associate was polite and explained to me that the domain had been authorized for transfer via the use of the auth code; she would just not let me know which domain that was due to their protocol. She advised me to contact eNom and talk to them, as they’re the losing registrar.

Usually, I don’t sweet-talk female associates on the phone. Being “neutral” and professional is the best way, however, when my property is at risk I feel that anything is permitted. So I sighed, explained that out of thousands of domains I’d have to guess the one that’s at risk of being lost; so judging by her voice that she was so friendly and nice, could she please (PLEASE) help me out?

The Register.com associate laughed, then disclosed that the domain was unlocked; a quick search at my eNom account narrowed that down to 9 domains. I applauded her professional skills and laughed jovially at the same time; this got me the TLD in question: it was a .biz

Not sure if she crossed the line of information disclosure but at that point I was left with 4 potential candidates. I thanked her, got a reference number and called eNom.

Going through eNom’s phone queue took about 5 minutes, at which point a live person got on the phone. After explaining the situation and while he was researching for any unauthorized access, it literally hit me. I asked him to put me on hold and went to Whois.biz – the official WHOIS for the .biz Registry – at which point my hunch was confirmed.

It was a matter of eNom not having synced the WHOIS info with the .biz Registry; the culprit was a .biz I sold via Sedo almost 3 weeks ago. Although upon pushing the domain to the Sedo account with eNom I had opted not to retain the contact info, the domain’s contact info was never updated at the .biz Registry by eNom; it was still mine, according to the WHOIS.

Gotta love false alarms.

Still, I called Register.com and this time I waited 20 minutes on the phone to get someone at the other end of the line, in order to update the ticket. After that, I went ahead and authorized the transfer via the link that had arrived at my email.

So who’s fault was it that I spent one hour on the phone over a situation that I did not initiate?

eNom.com – When I pushed the domain to the Sedo account, they didn’t sync the WHOIS with the .biz Registry.

Sedo.com – When they got the Auth code for the domain from their account, they did not first confirm the WHOIS at the .biz Registry.

Register.com – They would not give me the domain name – which was not mentioned in the email either – but I had to extract bits and pieces by social engineering their associate on the phone.

It’s clearly the fault of every company involved – all three are guilty of doing less than their expected part in a process that involved a buyer and a seller of a domain. Had I not taken an initiative to resolve this, these companies would receive additional inquiries and complaints from the buyer for days to come.

After all this was done and finished, I felt good for an extra reason: I had material to write a blog post on this otherwise slow and boring Sunday evening.

Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/acroplex

In the past, I’ve been critical to the point of harshness with Sedo. The multi-national corporation that monetizes and auctions domains is definitely a major player in the domain industry; an industry still in early infancy.

With that in mind, when things go wrong I often go off on a “rant” to make it clear that I, the customer, is always right. Although I strive to maintain a level of professionalism in my statements, I make it loud and clear so that I’m heard.

Over the years, Sedo has improved their services, methodology and even their PPC. Yes, there are times that things get frustrating: low advertising volume causes loss of spending and loss of revenue for the Sedo accounts.

However, Sedo’s customer service has always been top notch, hard-working and eager to resolve any issues that might arise. In the end, even when a situation appears to be frustrating Sedo’s customer service has delivered.

The Sedo platform is without a doubt the biggest domain selling market on the Internet. Sedo’s customer service is always eager and willing to listen to suggestions, recommendations for improvement and often offers a surprising and satisfactory resolution to customer issues.

It’s an opportunity for everyone to adjust their ways of communicating their problems and to ensure that business is improved and expanded, in the wonderful world of domaining.

As I reported in my previous blog post, Sedo.com responded to my reaction towards their pornographic banner invasion, by removing the text referencing certain adult domain names for their upcoming adult auction.

In a nutshell, their amendment of the original ad retained the main image, which displays a semi-nude blonde seen from behind. This version of the banner was deemed borderline acceptable for the thousands of unsuspecting visitors to the offer pages of my non-adult domain portfolio, parked at Sedo.com, and for the millions of other domains owned by other Sedo customers.

Only a day later, on August 1st, I discovered that Sedo reversed the changes and re-instated the explicit banner ad, which contains the names of pornographic domains rolling over the image of the semi-nude blonde.

As of now, Sedo displays this pornographic ad on millions of pages of Sedo customers’ domains; visitors who want to place an offer or go through the sign-up process are facing an image and words which are completely incompatible with the average visitor’s definition of conducting business. The ad is *not* displayed on adult domains only, as it should have been the case.

Sedo has yet to comment on this reversal of a decision. Meanwhile, other vendors and publications that innocently pull in ads from Sedo, are displaying the explicit version – this is an image from DNJournal with editor Ron Jackson’s picture next to the Sedo porn ad. (image was captured from this URL)

Knowing Ron Jackon and his professional role in the domain industry, I am certain that he would not approve of this adult image being displayed next to his picture – if only he were aware of it!

This unexplained change leaves Sedo exposed as a company with a focus on the domain business and tarnishes the image of thousands of domain owners that are unaware of the pornography being displayed at the offer pages of their non-adult domains. Sedo has been advised to remove the image without any further delays.

Update:

Sedo has now changed the image so that it does not contain the offensive domains, for all English-speaking traffic.

Right at a turning point for the economy with good signs of improvement, Sedo begins a week-long themed auction of “Career” domains. With more Americans looking for employment than ever, it’s a good opportunity for businesses and individuals to invest in domains that represent a large portion of the job-related keywords searched daily.

Two of my domains appear at the auction:

CorporateCareers.com – Registered since 1996, this Google PR2 domain is best suited for Human Resource (HR) professionals that want to possess a dynamic pair of keywords in their domain portfolio, or domain investors that plan to build a database of international, national or regional jobs. A lot of the job searches specifically look for mid to upper management positions that also pay premium salaries.

Job-Hunting.com - Registered since 1995, this Google PR4 domain is ideal for professionals that seek employment, or “headhunters” who want an aggressive domain that supplements their corporate brand. The keywords turn up a solid 5.75 million results in Google, in quotes! The domain is taken in all major TLDs; that’s another indication that well it’s sought-after. Do not let the dash deter you, these are top notch keywords for SEO!

Each domain goes on auction with a reasonably low reserve price of $1,500 which will pay itself many times over when used to promote and facilitate career placement functions.

Careers Auction – Starts June 3, at 12:00 PM EST and ends June 10, at 12:00 PM EST

When I acquired 360.org a little over a year ago, I was not intimidated by its seller’s asking price. In fact, the purchase of 360.org took very little negotiation behind the scenes; I was willing to pay the $2,500 price tag but ended up paying five hundred bucks less. To me, paying two grand for a perfect number was worth it.

Wikipedia explains why 360 is such a special number. You don’t have to be a freak of numerology to recognize it as the definition of a full circle in degrees, and the circle as a shape does seem to maintain both actual and apocryphal qualities.

When I acquired the domain name, I envisioned creating a web site about earth, communication, the environment – something global and related to nature. A lot of companies use domains that end in “360.org” and I did have several inquiries from such entities, claiming “not for profit” status and thus making rather symbolic and unsatisfactory offers, which I had to decline. I am in this business for profit and although charity has its place in my personal and professional life, I was not going to let go of this domain cheap.

A few months later, I listed 360.org at TRAFFIC / Orlando 2008, with an optimistic reserve of $6,000. At the live auction, the Moniker guys presented it by gesturing the shape of a circle to the bidding crowd. It was instant recognition of what the number signifies.

Fortunately, the domain did not sell; I realized afterwards that a room full of domainers looking for single word .com’s with traffic did not present me with the best selling options. However, it’s interesting seeing that none in this educated crowd shared my 360-degree vision!

At the end of 2008, a year after the domain’s acquisition, I received a couple of private inquiries – one of them was a rather arrogant email “demanding” a selling price instead of bearing the burden of placing an offer through Sedo. I have little tolerance for behind-the-keyboard snubs and my response was definitely a non-politically correct one.

Right before Christmas, the second inquiry started with a low offer of $2,000 via Sedo and ended at $10,000 with the bidder withdrawing their bid when I asked for more. Now, I am not one who shuns ten grand easily, as it represents a considerable amount of money; after the bidder canceled their round of offers I had that clutching feeling in my stomach thinking, “Did I just throw $10,000 in the garbage?”

I contacted Sedo and attempted to learn more information about my mysterious bidder; they responded that although they were not an active member they were a company. This small bit of information gave me the chance to a) feel better about having just declined a ten thousand dollar offer and b) initiated a secondary round of contact via Sedo’s brokers. They were instructed to inform the bidder that the domain was worth much more than their final bid and that I was willing to negotiate a sale – if only we could meet in the middle.

The secret to successful domain sales seems to be simple: stick to your gut feeling guns. Evaluate a domain’s worth using your own intuition and don’t listen to the obligatory surrounding noise telling you that the economy is down, that the domain’s worth a registration fee, or that you’re simply crazy. At least, be objective with the value of your own assets and learn the methods required to evaluate them.

Right after New Year’s, the same bidder placed a direct offer at Sedo, much higher than the previous one. At that point I was confident that this transaction was almost complete; despite that, I took the chance of counter-offering a higher amount (the “stick to your guns” element) but lower than what I wanted during the first round. The bidder responded with a counter-offer a few thousand dollars lower; I played my final round of “cat and mouse” with one more offer, confident that they would accept it and close the deal.

I went to bed that night knowing that in the morning I’d have a sale.

So the agreement was made a week ago and the exchange occurred this week, making the transaction complete and official. As far as I know, it’s the largest recorded sale of a 3-number .org; perhaps of any number in .org. After all, a perfect number like 360 requires a perfect sale!

To find out the exact selling price, check out DNJournal next week. For several years now, Ron Jackson’s highly commendable efforts of recording and re-energizing the domain community through the research, publication and analysis of domain sales have been producing superb results for our industry.

Have a fabulous new year!

Less than 24 hours after introducing a series of features that exposed seller data to anyone with the will to acquire it and basic scraper-scripting skills, Sedo.com changed the way the “Meet the seller” link functions.

In a dry and short statement issued on DNForum, Sedo’s Customer Relations Associate Monica Ibrahim said:

“As a quick FYI, our tech team has made sure to remove all personally identifiable member ID data from the Seller’s Activity Index. We apologize for the initial issue. Please note that member IDs are not present in the Seller Activity Index or on the Domain Portfolio Links (which can be deactivated if you wish as mentioned earlier)”

Prior to this statement, Sedo vehemently denied that any privacy breach had taken place while maintaining their position that the newly introduced features will benefit the sellers and buyers that use Sedo.com as their domain marketplace.

Indeed, Sedo programmers scrambled to change the database interfacing from using an open sequential id to a hashed (encoded) string unique for the period of time the user clicks on the “Meet the seller” link. Upon my suggestion that Parked.com should offer assistance to the Sedo.com programming team, Donny Simonton exclaimed:

“I wish we could offer some help. As a programmer I do understand what they are trying to do. They are being lazy, been there many times. I would think they could easily change it to a md5 hash of the id + the domain or something similar. Something that can not be reversed.”

Despite the fact that these changes were quickly implemented upon my public announcement of how exposed the seller info has been, Sedo has yet to fix the way their auctions are referenced, using the same non-hashed open id. Currently, all 39,000-something completed and on-going auction pages are exposed to scraping by data miners.

Most importantly, Sedo has not changed the way the new features are utilized under a user’s profile: the user’s country location, seniority at Sedo, arbitrary ratings (zero to five stars) as a seller and a buyer and how long a particular domain has been at Sedo – all these are openly available to any logged-in user, without permitting the account holder to turn these features off.

Sedo has so far kept a low profile on the matter, but the reaction of the serious, active traders has been sharp and full of negative criticism towards the way that Sedo has decided to shove down the throat of users these new features. With offices in the UK and Germany, Sedo is challenging a series of strict laws protecting the privacy of individuals and corporations; stricter than US regulations about personal data safekeeping. Meanwhile, Sedo has stated that if a user decides to leave the Sedo selling platform and delete their user profile, their data remains with Sedo indefinitely. This has serious implications for any potential data breach in the future: user accounts contain a lot of financial and other private information and Sedo’s programming methods reveal a lax approach to security.

Keep contacting Sedo via the email support@sedo.com and their support hotline at (617) 499 – 7200 (keypress 3) to voice your opposition to the lack of an ON/OFF switch for the newly introduced features.