G'day all. Nice to meet you.
Thanks FirstPageResults for the link.
No need to worry, I'm not a cowboy. I just buy names I like the sound of. I've bought a few names that some people will think are silly, but at this point I am relatively new to the industry and want to see what happens.
I've only been what people deem "a domainer" or "domain broker" for a few months now.
Yep, I bought Givenchy.com.au and adidas.net.au - which may be silly, as they are famous companies - but what's even sillier is... why are they allowed to be bought in the first place?
To be honest, I didn't expect to win them with the amount of money I put on them. I basically wanted to see what would happen.
I did want to buy Flybys.com.au to use as a fast delivery service website (I also own onehourdelivery.com.au - my delivery service in perth) and for some reason I was targeted by auDA for that name because it is on the prohibited misspellings list. This doesn't make sense to me, as Flybys is a word in its own right.
What I am becoming frustrated with, is that Netfleet appear to be selling these names, then the names are being taken off the purchaser by auDA, and then Netfleet are selling them again.
Where I come from, this is called double-dipping and I wrote a blog about it today here -
http://domainbrokeraustralia.com.au/netfleet-auda-complaint-2014
Apart from this - I have purchased 37 domain names so far from Netfleet and, apart from this current debate I am having with them, I enjoy their service.
I don't mean to make enemies.
I do mean to be professional and honest.
I do mean to test the system because I can already tell it's far from perfect and I don't think it is completely fair.
I do mean to voice my opinion and shake things up.
I feel that healthy debate and constructive criticism can make an industry better.
I have various types of backgrounds (musician/author/technology geek/entrepreneur) and I legitimately enjoy buying premium domain names and SEO'ing my customers' sites to the point that their businesses grow enough to make them feel more secure in their lives.
I haven't made my mind up yet about auDA. I have sent a few messages back and forward to Vanessa Stanford - who doesn't appear to be a real person - as I only seem to get template responses. From my limited experience with them, trying to have a conversation with them about why I purchased Flybys.com.au - it seems that they think they can do whatever they want, are completely in the right and no correspondence will be entered into. That doesn't feel right to me.
Anyway, like I said, I'm here for healthy debate and constructive criticism and won't be getting involved in any negative unprofessional street fighting.
Nice to meet you all again and I hope to be able to pick some of your brains for opinions again soon.