Mystery Domain Auction has shut down.
After just 4 short days, John Motson has shut down his controversial Mystery Domain Auction site, according to a blog post on his site. Apparently Motson was worried about both legal issues and technical problems toward the end of the auction. I would be somewhat surprised if PayPal would allows ist service to be used for the site. And the technical problem — processing bids toward the end of the auction — would have been a big hurdle.
A lot of people will probably chastise Motson for the site and revel in its closure. But I take a different view. Instead of rubbing it in his face, take a look at what he did right: marketing.
Most domainers are horrible marketers. But Motson took a page out of the internet marketing guru playbook and executed it to near perfection. He gave away an eBook to create a launch list of e-mail subscribers for the site. He created quite a buzz on blogs as soon as the site launched (remember, no press is bad press).
It may appear Motson lost money on his venture. Although dreams of a million dollar payout are gone, he has learned valuable lessons. And he still has that e-mail list that he can use to promote other products. His blog surely has more subscribers, too.
I’m sure it’s a let down for him, but others should pay attention and think about how they can apply these lessons in their ventures.
Rob Sequin says
Andrew,
I don’t see how you can put a postive spin on this.
Let me start by saying that I don’t know John and have no reason to see him fail.
However, how is marketing a failed business model a good thing for him or the domain industry.
His plan, or at least that was the word, was that this would be good for the domain industry because it would get the word out about the domain industry.
“And he still has that e-mail list that he can use to promote other products.”
Really?
I’m glad I’m not on that list.
Sorry to be so negative here but when someone wants to be the pro-active face of marketing for the domain industry then shuts down the business because it wasn’t thought out well enough, that’s just not good for anyone.
Well now that’s pretty bad for the domain industry.
And how is this good for him? More traffic to his site? I read that he does not plan to release the name of the domain so now he’s hiding that from his bidders and the domain community?
RegFeeNames.com says
Im sure John has learned a lesson!
Lets not be too hard on him Rob!
He didnt do well with his plaining but that marketing side was good – Im sure he had a massive surge in traffic to his site.
Regards,
Robbie
Andrew says
Rob, when you download a free report it’s standard procedure to opt-in to a mailing list as part of the offer. I don’t recall how John set it up, but if he did it that way then I have no problem receiving email updates (you can always opt-out).
It’s a shame that John wasn’t able to share his idea with others in the domain community to get feedback first. He was probably worried the idea would have been stolen, but doing so would have given people a chance to poke holes in his plan.
As for black eye for the domain industry, I doubt more than a handful of people outside the domain industry have heard about this thing or even care, so I’m not too worried.
2w says
>> I would be somewhat surprised
>> if PayPal would allows
>> its service to be used for the site.
if ….
no any cash were offerred via MysteryDomainAuction
+
only a clearly stated domain were auctionned
there ,
then ….
would PayPal allow its service to be used
for MysteryDomainAuction ?
?
thankyou , 2w
John Motson says
The email lists compiled as a result of the “revolution” promotion and the “mystery domain auction newsletter” have been deleted in aweber.com.
Patrick McDermott says
“He gave away an eBook to create a launch list ”
Andrew,
Remember quite a number of people paid either $37 or $47 for that ebook not so long ago.
I’m sure some of them feel snookered.
I’m not one of them.
I got it free. 🙂
John Motson says
Patrick, as the owner of any product you are allowed to give discounts, freebies or charge money for your products.
Godaddy runs promotions for .com domain names where sometimes they let you buy them for $0.99. Even on normal days you can either pay the full $9.99 or use a coupon to get them for $7.45… Are they cheating any customers by running promotions like these? In my opinion they are not. It’s called capitalism.
Godaddy is just an example – there are 1000s of companies doing the same thing out there, running promotions or giving products of value away for free.
JFM says
I want to thank John for having been an honest domainer: everybody got refunded.
Rgarding Rob’s remarks: please, read the answer that I just posted in the other thread on the auction:
https://domainnamewire.com/2009/01/02/mystery-domain-auction-isnt-about-domain-names/
2w says
>> And the technical problem
>> — processing bids toward the end of the auction
>> — would have been a big hurdle.
techniccal problem ?
?
sorry , Andrew ,
according that term 3
::
http://www.mysterydomainauction.com/buy.php
>>>> Every time a new bid is purchased
>>>> the bid amount is incremented by $0.01,
>>>> But, because
>>>> controlling time and space is beyond my capabilities,
>>>> if by coincidence
>>>> two or more people bid
>>>> at the same time for the same bid amount,
>>>> the bids will be sorted based on bid time,
>>>> down to the millisecond,
>>>> with the latest bid declared higher .
>>>> This criteria will also be used
>>>> to determine the winner
>>>> of this all-pay auction in said scenario.
>>>> If at the end of the auction
>>>> two or more bids are highest with the same amount,
>>>> the bid that arrived last
>>>> will be pronounced highest !
it’s been made very clear ,
so ,
still any techniccal problem ?
?
sorry i do not get it
cheers , 2w
Troy says
I am upset that in the above post and all of the comments the authors fail to mention one major aspect…
The whole business idea was fundementality dishonest.
John was preying on people that thought $3.19 was worth bidding on a name that was worth $10,000 but many of these bidders were not informed enough to realize that their bid was nothing more then simply giving John $3.19.
If the internet was full of knowledgeable and intelligent people then anything would go, John could, in good form, try any legal method possible to create wealth. However, unfortunatly the internet is full of people that don’t always “read the fine print” and Johns idea catered most to them.
I am not arguing legality of whether it was good for the Domain industry. I am simply saying that what John did was dishonest and it preyed on those not informed enough to see the forest for the trees.
I know that many of you will feel that it was “just entertainment”, nothing more but John did not advertise it in that matter. The foundation of his advertising was to promote the idea that you could actually win the domain.
He treated people badly and I think he needs to recognize that publicly.
Troy
Andrew says
Troy – I don’t think it was fine print. It was pretty obvious how it worked. You wouldn’t have bid on day 2 of a 100 day auction if you didn’t realize you were just buying a link.
Paul says
Buying a link for $2.49, or $150 is a bargain if the traffic is right. Was anyone interested in the “prize”? I wasn’t. The part I couldn’t get my head around is how it would end. Maybe a “draw” from all of the paid bidders would be fairer, or would that be gambling? Lots of respect for trying something interesting, and having the courage to back down.
Tan Tran says
John,
Great way of thinking out of the box.
Although it didn’t work out for you this time, I’m confident that you learned alot from the experience and will come back strong on new ideas.
I have to agree with Andrew that the execution of the plan was marvelous and top notch work. There could have been a little more done on the planning side though.
I wasn’t a fan of the concept, but I still think that something like or a hybrid of it would still be doable.
Tan