Silly press releases for eBay auctions abound. Here’s how they work.
OK, Elliot. You got me.
Earlier today Elliot Silver sent me and e-mail with the subject “BREAKING DOMAIN NEWS”. The body of the e-mail read “Big News… thought you might want to cover this…” and then there was a link to a press release on PRweb.
Elliot sends me news leads from time to time, so I anxiously clicked the link. That’s when I knew I’d been had.
The link was for a press release about a domain name for sale on eBay. As you and Elliot know, it drives me crazy seeing some of these stupid releases. This one may take the cake:
President Barack Hussein Obama.com Auction Scheduled
Oh boy.
The press release reads like most eBay domain name auction press releases:
Establish demand for your domain
“Responding to demand from conservatives and liberals worldwide, the owner of the widely acclaimed and controversial domain name PresidentBarackHusseinObama.com has decided to sell it in a 10-day online auction…”We anticipate extremely high national and international demand and intense bidding in this auction’s final few days,” said a spokesman for the domain name’s owner, Fix Bay, Inc., a Nevada-based corporation”
Quote top DNJournal domain sale prices to show domain value
“According to the online DNJournal domain name sales reporting service, top domain name sales this year have included $9.9 million for fund.com, $1.659 million for DataRecovery.com, both in March, and $1.015 million for Invest.com in September, after international stock markets began to tumble.”
Say why your domain is worth as much as those million dollar sales
“Although we are not making predictions on the final dollar amount, there is a possibility this auction could smash those records,” the Fix Bay, Inc., spokesman said. “If Barack Obama is elected Nov. 4, the term ‘President Barack Hussein Obama’ will forever become an integral, undeniable and perennial part of American heritage. This compelling and irreplaceable domain name would become embossed in the U.S. and international psyche.”
It appears at the owner of this particular domain name is looking to drum up publicity for his own political campaign rather than sell the domain name:
“Wayne Melton, President of Fix Bay, Inc., a Democrat, and a candidate for the Reno City Council, said he launched the auction four days before the general election to generate publicity–and hopefully, votes–for his own campaign. ”
If that’s his goal, then I bit. But I don’t think the publicity will help him get elected.
Can you say “bad faith cybersquatter!” Who would buy a domain which could be taken on Anti-Cybersquatting Act threat letter or UDRP arbitration?
I do not know if I should laugh or cry!
laugh for the absurdity of this release or
cry because this is yet another story that protray a negative image of domainers.
Trick or Treat?
This one is defo a trick to other domainers.
Happy Halloween
Another idiot making us in the industry look like assholes.
Thanks douche bag city councilor LOSER.
Elliot got me too, except I was out of office and forwarded it to Michlick without reading it and asked him to follow up on it. 🙂 lol
Adam, I can see Frank scratching his head and wondering “crazy Americans”. lol
BTW: I let a domain name expire, and when I was updating my domain database (filemaker pro custom database), I checked the whois on the domain and found that a developer in — I’m not kidding — WASILLA ALASKA had bought the domain. The scary thing (for some people, I suppose) is that the domain was a religious domain that I purposely let expire because I don’t believe in profiting off of religious-based domains. I’d received the domain in a bulk domain purchase a year ago.
It was weird seeing the whois data with this address on it, considering I’d never even heard of Wasilla before our possible next president was introduced to us.
I googled for that domain and found the domain actually still available for sale on Ebay, $51 is the current bid and you won’t believe, its Free Shipping :). lol
Hi Andrew, can you point me to an example of a good press release used to sell a domain name? Next week I have HR.net going up for auction on Godaddy
Thanks
Jason
After read this I found it to be quite insightful.. It’s really nice that you spent the time to do all of this. I must say, I probably spent about hours on your site. Absolutely worth the time, regardless.
When you normally think of Crock-Pot and slow cooker meals, the word “quick” probably doesn’t come to mind. Many recipes take eight hours or more, and while there is little work to be done during those long hours, it’s still a time-consuming cooking process that can take over a large part of your day. If you have time in the morning to get your slow cooker dinner prepped and turned on, when you get home from a long day, there’s a meal waiting for you to enjoy. But, if you’re like me and appreciate, nay, require your beauty sleep, setting the alarm to get a roast ready in the morning doesn’t sound like the best way to start the day.