Today is another exciting day for Domainer.com.au – we are publishing our second podcast interview. Many more planned in coming weeks.
In the “hot seat” today is the CEO of Domain Shield – Anthony Peake. We discuss the following:
- His background, and how he ended up starting Domain Shield.
- How Domain Shield works – and why it is different to Drop.com.au and Netfleet.com.au.
- Some of the great domains he has caught for people like me. š
- The future of Aussie domains – including his opinion on “direct registrations”.
Most importantly though, we’ve been able to talk Anthony in to offering Domainer readers a very special deal for joining Domain Shield.
Normally it would require a $500 deposit “on account” to join. However, Anthony has agreed to reduce this to just $100 for the first twenty people to sign up for a new account.
- $100 deposit “on account” to join. This is not a fee – the money is a credit on your account and gets applied to any purchase.
- Anthony has also said that if you don’t like his service and don’t use it (for whatever reason) – he will give you your $100 back! 30 day time limit.
The special promo code to use when signing up at Domain Shield is PodcastWithNed
Only 20 spots at $100 – then it reverts to $500. So if you’re serious about catching domain names, and you’re not already a Domain Shield client, then join today.
Speaking from personal experience, you’ll be glad you did!
Finally, if you have any comments / questions or constructive suggestions, please post them below. Anthony has said he will answer them all to the best of his ability!
Thanks Ned and Anthony.
Thanks guys – great service and offer. Much appreciated!
I signed up to DomainShield a while ago but never signed up for the domain drop service (I figured $500 was a bit rich when we don’t know each other yet) – but this got me in. Ā Thanks for the podcast guys.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to listen to this podcast and make comments already.
More than a quarter of the discounts where redeemed within four hours of this being published.
Anyone sitting on the fence? Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions here.
Hi Robert,
Thank you for taking the time to listen and comment. You raise an interesting point which I did not touch on during the discussion with Ned today and that is around dealing with queries.
Firstly I need to acknowledge that issues do occur. I’ve had the opportunity to secure over four thousand .au domains in 2015 alone, but I did not manage to do that without a few hiccups. Some of these hiccups took weeks and thousands of dollars to resolve but I would like to believe that apart from a few spelling mistakes I have resolved all the hiccups to date to the satisfaction of my clients.
Secondly I want to say that I am going to make mistakes again. Only today our invoicing process got stuck in a loop and billed our clients twice. I will however contact clients when I discover issues like this and I will make them aware of the issue, hopefully before they are even aware that the issue has occurred.
It’s so refreshing when people admit to mistakes. Ā A lot of people seem to think we need to hide behind our corporate masks and pretend we’re perfect. Ā We’re all human and we all make mistakes. Ā It’s how you respond to them that matters.
Exactly. I wrote about this in another thread. Good old Zig Ziglar said:
These podcasts are great for my drive home, thanks Ned! .. I’ve been with Domain Shield for one year now, and very happy. Anthony some feedback -you need to make it so that if you are outbid (though having been the high bidder formerly), you are notified(!) and given the chance to bid higher. At present there is no knowing whether you have been outbid prior to auction close.
Thanks Sam – appreciate you posting (and the feedback). š
Hi Sam, thanks for the feedback, it is a great question and one I am asked quite frequently.
To be totally honest, I do not think that would achieve the best result for me. Eeek did I just admit to being greedy? š
I am of the opinion that at the moment you are motivated to get an offer in early for somewhere between half of your best offer to close to your best offer.
I can see how one might put down a $25 offer and if you knew someone else thought it was worth $50 you might consider going to $100.
I cannot however see many offers of $400 increasing to $1,600.
If you did get a warning you would have to quadrupal your current offer in order to get back into the lead, so another course of action would be bidding on a competitors platform instead. This action is not in the best interests of me nor the person who made the better offer. In other words my interests are best served by looking after the current best offer and keeping you in the dark.
I am sorry if this sounds rude or seems unfair but it is worth bearing in mind that the door swings both ways and when you are the one making an offer on a higher level you can be assured that I will try to look after your best interests.
Thank you for taking the time to explain the rationale, Anthony. Do consider however that higher level names likeĀ DIY.com.au, which are the most profitable for you, are lost opportunities in this regard.
For example if $12,800 has been hit already, then that bidder may operate under the false assumption that they’ve ‘locked in’ the name on your platform. They would need to seek feedback from bidding patterns onĀ Drop.com.auĀ as to whether they ought to have bid higher.
Unfortunately, however, one common tactic is to avoidĀ Drop.com.auĀ altogether since it rarely gets the big names anymore.
This then means that two users (for example, an outgoing registrant wishing to reclaim their name and a PD complainant wishing to secure it) using your platform may never outbid each other. One may have secured the $6,400 level and the other $12,800, both thinking they are in the lead.
In such a scenario, you are possibly leaving at least another $12,800 on the table, which is nothing to scoff at.
I am conflicted on how to respond because you are using a pending delete domain as an example.
I could write an entire blog post on why I think a 14 day trial, 3 day stay and summary execution, occasionally without representation by the defense is not fair.
Do you mind if I make a more generic response relating to a theoretical domain or would you like to hear my views on why a minority of PDs are unfair and lower the value of all other .au domains?
Respond however you like Anthony, but the reality is, regardless of the status of the name being deleted, you are leaving money on the table.
Take today’s Mudgee.com.au for example. Both the $200 and $400 levels have probably been hit by different bidders, but the bidder at $200 has no way of knowing whether they have been outbid at $400 and ought to hit $800, which price would not be unreasonable for a name with 4,400 exact match and high competition. Moreover, initial bidders at the $50 and $100 levels might quickly have raised their bids upwards had they been notified that they were outbid early on. This in turn would possibly have seen Mudgee.com.au achieve an even higher result.
Finally, a word on publication of results. -Your refusal to publish results on the basis that doing so lowers domain values is erroneous because the higher results achieved on Domain Shield would lift wholesale prices which in turn would lift retail prices.
You are also losing out on valuable repeat traffic to your site in two ways:
(1) Failure to advise bidders that they have been outbid and affording them an opportunity to up their bid means fewer visits to your site; and
(2) Failure to publish auction results means fewer people become aware of your service and visit your site.
Again, I am a great fan of your site and service, but would welcome improvements in these areas.
Actually @Anthony as you know I haven’t used your site to bid on dropped domains yet, so I speak as a newbie, but the above comment from @Sam sounds like very solid advice. Ā If I was to bid on a domain on your site, I would want to know to come back if someone else has bid over me. Ā You already tell the current bidder if they should bid higher when they place their bid right? Ā What’s the difference? It actually seems quite insensitive and inconsiderate to NOT tell your customer who has already placed their trust in you that they are about to lose the domain unless they come back and bid higher.
Just my 2c
Great interview. Anthony, you’ve sold me on Domain Shield – so I’ve finally signed up š
Thanks Luke, was my first time but Ned made it easy. I have just activated your account š Great to have you on board.
Excellent, thanks Anthony. I look forward to taking the platform for a test drive (to use the car analogy from the podcast!). From first glance the interface looks nice and easy to use.
Not sure how to take that! š
For all you newcomers to DS, you will find it a bit confusing at first – particularly with all the levels. I did.
But you will get the hang of it. I did. And I acquired some great domains.
The secret is to get your bid level locked in before anyone else. That way, someone has to pay double your bid if they want to win it. This is a two edged sword obviously – there will be times when you are faced with a decision whether or not to go to the next level.
It can be cruel – but it also can be kind.
What I do appreciate though is the transparency at the end of the auction (and when domains have dropped). If someone else has outbid you, it will show a message like “Queued at a higher level for Domain Syndicates”. That means I have decided I wanted the domain more than you, so I doubled the bid. So will know that you got beaten “fair and square”.
Whilst you are learning, if you make a mistake with your bidding levels, get on the phone to Anthony. He will sort it out for you – provided it is not too late.
Final tip – remember a bid for $400 on DS does not become $400 + GST + buyer’s premium. It is $400 inclusive of everything. Makes a big difference.
Good luck to you all – if you beat me on a domain I will be pissed – but competition is a wonderful thing when it is done transparently.
Thanks for the great offer and back story
For any of you newcomers to Domain Shield, they caught some good domains today! Here are a sample:
vinylwrapping.com.au
manuka.com.au
ann.com.au
belconnen.com.au
limohirebrisbane.com.au