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Putting Bido to the Test

So, I've setup my Bido auctions using the new Bido Credit system. I used 5 credits to set reserves for each of the following domains that will all be auctioned on Friday, November 13 (lucky Friday the 13th!). If you've been following me on Twitter you'll notice some of these are recent hand reg's and some are drop catches. It may seem far fetched to put reserve prices on recent registrations, but these names have huge potential, with tens and even hundreds of thousands of searches (particularly impressive when looking at searches on the relevant "phrase") and/or high CPC figures. I wouldn't ever put these names up without a reserve, but when the minimum fee for Bido reserves cost $30 a pop, I didn't feel comfortable putting them on Bido... until now.

Because these have reserves on them, I feel more motivated to reach out to end users for these domains than I have with the last several of my Bido auctions. I'm not sure why that is, except that I know I won't get screwed over by a poor auction turn out. We'll see how those promotion efforts turn out. But anyway, here's the list.

SpecialEffects.TV - According to Google's adword tool, an estimated 301,000 searches include the phrase "Special Effects" each month. 40,000 exacts! Reserve is under $1k.
KissimmeeHotels.us - 110,000 exact searches on Kissimmee Hotels last month. The place to stay for all the Orlando attractions. Reserve is under $1k.
FauxFur.us - 450,000 searches for "Faux Fur" and it's related products each month. Reserve is under $500!
AdjustableRateMortgage.us - 27,000 searches using the "phrase" with a CPC of over $9! Reserve is under $500 on this one, too.
BuyCubicZirconia.com - 823,000 searches include the phrase "Cubic Zirconia" each month. This site can cover them all, from rings to necklaces, earrings to bracelets. This was going to have a reserve for the full $1k, but for this first trial run, the reserve is under $500!

Let me know what you think of the names and the reserves at http://twitter.com/UtterDomain.

3 comments:

  1. Best of luck in your auctions but at this point in time BIDO buyers are limited to a small group of domainers looking for bargains. Yes, the reserves will protect you from selling names at $30-$40 which happens quite frequently on no reserve auctions. But it won't bring in an end user willing to pay hundreds of dollars. IMO multi-word .US domains are going to be difficult to sell for much more than $100.

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  2. Thanks garptrader. I'm not suggesting that just having the reserve will bring in an end user, but I'm willing to offer better names than (and no offense intended to the seller of this one) "SportAgents.us" because I now have a way to set a reasonable reserve at a reasonable cost to me. That also means that running an auction with a higher reserve, I'm more motivated to get end users in.
    I also think, psychologically, that while no reserves work well in certain cases, it's working against sellers at Bido right now. Having names with a reserve almost makes the name stand out now, where on other platforms it may be considered a negative. And obviously Bido is hoping that it will start attracting better names and therefore more affluent buyers.

    As far as .US goes, I think the trend is against you on that point :)

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  3. CORRECTION: SpecialEffects.TV is being auctioned on Tuesday, November 10th at 1:04pm EST not Friday the 13th.

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