I’m sure those of you who visit Domaining.com on a regular basis have noticed that it has been dominated by feeds which are not related to domaining today and aside from that, you’ve probably also noticed the “Our industry leaders have no money” donation button. Here’s what I think happened:
Is Francois Protesting?
The “Our industry leaders have no money” donation button speaks for itself in my opinion and if you take a look at the 300*250 ads, you’ll notice that all of them are promoting sites owned by Francois.
In my opinion, this move is basically his way of saying something along the lines of “it’s outrageous that the #1 domaining site has no advertisers” and this attitude is understandable because let’s face it, his projects are definitely helping the industry.
What do you guys think?
February 4th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Personally I think it’s bullshit. He obviously has plenty of money and asking for donations from people like me who dont have a pot to piss in just makes me want to delete the site from my faves.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Francois has been trying to do something for the domain industry for a long time. At first, I wasn’t impressed by a few tactics he pulled BUT I have watched him improve and grow through the years.
Nobody gets it right the first time and everyone makes mistakes. If you take the chance to get to know him you would discover he is actually a kind-hearted, intelligent individual who does want to provide us with something we can use.
Besides, I don’t see anybody else making the efforts that Francois has to give us niche services & content. I believe his efforts should not only be recognized but supported in any way this industry can.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
The only problem is his PayPal is in French and he does not say who gets the money, and for what.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
I also have to say I agree with Tia…..nobody else is trying to bring this industry together.
And, about who has money and who does not, those are all just assumptions, so getting irate and calling someone’s efforts bullshit when you don’t have the facts is bullshit in and of itself.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I am actually deleting domaining.com for real..
Sick of this crap..
Going to my 5 favorite blogs by type in/bookmark case closed
February 4th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
I agree with Andrei and everyone who said he has done a lot for domaining and I’m surprised there are no advertisers right now. There used to be an ad for mardigras but it probably expired in January. Maybe he could try lowering his prices for a while.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Let me get this straight. This guy promotes only his properties on the right side, no advertisers, and says that industry leaders have no money?
Maybe he should allow advertisers to advertise in the top spots instead of strictly frontrunning his properties.
Absolutely ridiculous. Business is business. There is no crying. If you aren’t making money than change your business model.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I love domaining.com and read it multiple times a day. That being said, if the site continues to flood with non-domaining related blogs (especially if I can’t block them), then I am moving to NameBee.com. I simply don’t have the time to go through pages of unrelated blog posts. Francois, I hope you are reading this. Don’t ruin a good thing and lose your loyal visitors.
February 4th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
@Silly: he does let advertisers buy the ad spots you’ve mentioned, he is only using them for his own sites at this point because they haven’t been bought yet. Here’s a link to the Domaining.com advertising page:
http://www.domaining.com/advertising/
February 4th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
@Dave: the headlines which are not related to domaining have been removed, he was only trying to get a message across IMO
February 4th, 2010 at 2:54 pm
I feel for Francois. Domainers, IMO, are a self centered and CHEAP bunch of people. Never came across a worse group of penny pinchers. Who want the world (good domains and domain services) but do not want to pay a cent. Hope you guys received my donation.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
It’s understandable to want to make money off of his website. I just think that Francois doesn’t have a clue when it comes to tact. He is the king of the knee jerk reaction and I am finished being the victim of the points that he trys to make. He’s already lost me with the crap that he pulled on Valuate.com (another story).
I, btw, found DomainingTips.com from NameBee.com not Domaining.com.
February 4th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
@Donny
Don’t hate the players, hate the game..
February 4th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
I used to love Domaining.com, but I think Francois is NameBee.com best sales person.
February 4th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
@Donny S – LOL! I can think of worse
I agree with the sentiment that Francois does do alot for the domaining community. Perhaps I was oblivious to the fact that he was not being compensated or recognized enough by the community? If that’s what this was about. Instead of an in your face reaction though, starting with a simple header link saying ‘donate to domaining.com’ or something is a pretty effective way to tell your reader base.. ‘hey, help me out here… eh?’ Give people a chance before assuming they are just greedy. My $.02
February 4th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
Simple supply and demand, cut your prices in half and once you’ve found advertisers slowly increase them. You and the advertisers will meet somewhere in the middle and everyone’s happy.
February 4th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Also, remove premium domains from your sidebar. It’s just occupying space, you should reach out to end users with premiumdomains.com and not domainers. Keep bargaindomains.com and make some changes to encourage lower prices.
February 4th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
@ Donny S.
I would not call domainers “penny pinchers”. Word has it at Traffic Las Vegas they were spending $500 a night for table-dances at the “strip clubs”:)
Thanks, Jim
February 4th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
In an industry where we all must work together in order to advance the industry as a whole and the values of the assets we hold I find it truly comicial anyone complains that Francois puts a donate button or decides to add feeds outside of the domain industry
Lets be real – domains are one segment of the online indstry and many domainers read nothing more than domain news for the majorty of thier news – bringing tech crunch and other feeds in to the mix is HELPING you .. and .. oh btw you can DELETE any feed from your view with ONE CLICK — lazy domainers .. you cant be that lazy … it takes more energy to complain than to remove the unwanted feed from your view.
Francois is one of the greatest assets to this industry and could be spending time doing much more profitable projects however he continues to build and innovate for domainers.
It kills me how petty this topic is and that I just wasted 3 minutes of my life talking about.
Francois – shut the lights off for a day – see how many people complain then.
February 4th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
I wonder what explanation Francois has for this?
February 4th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
Trying to monetize a site like Domaining.com through donations is not worth the trouble, practically nobody will donate. At least not an amount worth displaying the banner for. The banner takes away from the attention the other banners will be receiving which in turn affects how much people will be willing to pay for those banners.
February 4th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
asking for donations is extreme,that’s my opinion as well.like others suggested,decrease your prices at least for a short time…
February 5th, 2010 at 12:43 am
I’m glad you agree with me extreme, this problem has a very simple solution and that’s decreasing the prices (like I said before). Let the market do the rest and if all of the banners will be sold after a while, then he has good reasons to increase prices again.
February 5th, 2010 at 12:47 am
Or a possible alternative solution would be letting advertisers pay for advertising with a 1 week minimum instead of 1 month. Then he can keep prices as they are and just divide the monthly price by 4. 1 month may be too much for some people, 1 week gives advertisers enough time to test and decide if they want to continue.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:16 am
I think he has developed many nice things for domainers, but they are not always running smoothly.
I recently paid to get newly listed bargain domains one day in advance, but then he suddenly removed my email from the list and has not put me back on despite my request. This is certainly not the way to encourage me to buy other of his services.
February 5th, 2010 at 2:40 am
At least he got some publicity out of this
February 5th, 2010 at 8:06 am
Francois Carrillo aka Cybertonic.com is the king of the knee jerk reaction like Greg said. He is also a very poor domain investor. He is well known for spending money lavishly on mocus.com, domaining.com, footing.com…
Ms Jello was laughing all the way to the bank (domaining.com sale), same for DNF user Focus (Mocus.com). Ridiculous business behavior imo. Not the first time, not the last.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
First off Donny S agree 100%.
Secondly, selling advertising on that site is hard. What domainer even a new one, does not know who most of the companies in the industry are ? So as an advertiser I know I am spending money on a place where everyone already knows my product. On top of that I am spending money on what is one of if not cheapest industries in the history of the world.