Dotph domain Prices too high?

Here is a comment I made in response to a thread I found on Yugatech.

I just recently discovered this thread, and I thought I'd directly respond to the group. Hopefully, people are still willing to discuss this topic.

My understanding is that most of the readers here are Adsense/SEO people? If so, I'll try to address my thoughts appropriately.

First of all, DotPH pricing at $35/year is the retail price. The wholesale price is a lot cheaper, and goes as low as $15/year, depending on your volume of registrations. This has been the case as far back as 2000, when very few ccTLDs were selling below the $35 level. The Registrar prices are located here.

As you can see, the discounts begin once you have at least 12 domains to register.

So it might make sense for some of you to join forces, and buy in bulk - so you can enjoy larger discounts - or work with one of our existing Registrars. We have over 150 Registrars - practically every ISP in the Philippines and Webhosting company is a Registrar. (Now whether they wish to pass on the discounts to you - that is entirely another matter).

If your need is to get lots of domains so that you can point them to your main website (so as to increase its Google rank), then perhaps we can discuss creating some price that favors the SEO community.  If some of you recall, we actually gave a way 18+ character domains several years ago  - for free. This way you can get domains with your desired keywords, then direct people to your main money site. Or you can monetize them with SEDO, DomainSponsor, or some similar domain monetizing company. We've also toyed with the option of lowering price for net.ph & org.ph - but we'd like to get more feedback first.

But if you are domainers and want to buy domains, hold, and sell them later, you might want to look at mail-only domains. These only cost $5/year and can be later updated to full functionality (once you pay $35/year). So this means you can speculate (if you wish) and grab all the domains that you think will be of value in the future. They you can sell them later at a profit.

I am currently at the ICANN conference in Portugal, and Tim Schumacher of SEDO tells me that the average resale price these days for domains is about $20k. That's a pretty impressive amount. Naturally, ccTLD domains don't sell that high - but once more and more Philippine businesses get online, you should find the aftermarket price for PH domains going up.

If you have ideas, please feel free to post comments on my blog at jed.i.ph (it is unmoderated). Or if you prefer, you can call/email us directly. (The contact details are here.

This way, we can respond more quickly to your concerns.   

I haven’t received my Adsense checks since November 2006. Have you?

Looks like there is a racket going on in the Post Office Department, and Adsense checks from Google are being routinely stolen then encashed in provincial banks.  Perhaps Google should just wire funds directly from Citibank to Philippine banks? It'll be easier for everyone, including Citibank.

Here is what one Pinoy blogger has to say:

Stolen Adsense Check Found in Benguet

Just to give you an idea on how far Benguet is from Quezon City, look at the image above. I haven't been to Benguet but according to Kuya Noli, it's an approx. 8-hour drive.

Google just sent the copy of my stolen check and according to the stamps and computer prints on the check, it was deposited last February 15, 2007 at the La Trinidad, Benguet branch of Allied Bank.

I've already called the branch and according to Allona, the person I talked to, my check was deposited by a Money Changer. The money changer apparently bought my check from the person who "stole" it. Deja vu?

The bank said that they will immediately notify the account holder (money changer) and would contact me again in a few days. She was even surprised when I gave my phone number as the area code is (2). I asked her, "Hindi ba kayo nagtaka at Quezon City yung address nung check at dyan pa umabot sa Benguet?". She keeps on apologizing and said that she would do her best to help me. She also said that I shouldn't be worried and I will get my money back once they've notified the account holder and receive a notice from Citibank.

Not to be worried? Suuure… my Adsense check for this month might already be in the hands of these postal bastards and I should be worried? Everyone using the Philippine Postal Service should be worried.

 

 

Google doesn’t care about Blogger?

Reprinted from Valleywag: 

Google hasn't really cared about Blogger since the start. The search engine company bought Pyra Labs, maker of Blogger, on a whim, after Sergey Brin ran into Evan Williams and thought what he was doing was cool. The blogging platform, like many acquisitions and whimsical internal projects, has always had to wait in line for engineering time. Google's hardcore techies don't really get blogs. The product's interface has been cleaned up, and reliabilty improved, but the functions have been neglected. And now there's a new charge to the indictment.

Jason Goldman quit as product manager of Blogger, back in August. That happens. He'd been working at Google for more than three years, he was nearly fully vested, and he wanted to travel. The APM — or assistant product manager — is supposed to be pretty good. But Goldman's role has been left unfilled for nearly three months, and no word on a permanent successor. Sure, it's hard to find technically and managerially competent PMs, but it looks as if Google HR can't really be bothered.

Does it matter? Blogger seems to be holding its own against competitors such as Myspace and Livejournal. (Health warning: bogus Alexa numbers behind that link.) One could argue that the blogging platforms often fail by adding too many features; Blogger's virtue was always its simplicity. Blogger has benefited from integration with Picasa, which makes it easy to upload photos to a weblog.

But Blogger could be so much more. Since the long-term competitor is Myspace, how about enhanced friending, to allow bloggers to see what's new on their favorite blogs. That's not too complicated, is it? At the very least, Google ought to be able to index the Blogger content as soon as it's posted, to allow for search as close to realtime as possible. I always thought that the thinking behind the initial acquisition. Turns out there wasn't much thinking at all. If Google's not serious about Blogger, let some other company make the most of it.

bike trip - what i’d like to try next: candaba swamp