A new alternative for parking .co.uk names

[NameDriver]

UPDATED 22ND AUGUST 2006.
Original post was 22nd August 2005, so no need to read anything other than the last page Just wanted to celebrate a Year of ND!

Ed

Original post 1 year ago:

Hi everybody,

This is my first post on this forum, so, hello, it's a pleasure to be here.

My name is Ed Russell. I believe some of you may have dealt with me in the past. I was once Director of UK Marketing at that great establishment, Sedo. I have since moved on, and, I would like to think, Up.

I'm here to introduce a new parking service for you people in the UK, namely, NameDrive. It seems there is a glut of new companies starting up in this sector (not specifically in the UK, but parking in general), so I'd like to show you how we're different.
I have to say that, having worked for Europe's current #1 parking company, I'm really excited about this new venture with its great features and advantages over the rest of the parking programs out there. I'm sure you'll all be very impressed and satisfied with our service.

What we offer:

- The obligatory Google feed to ensure extremely competitive payouts. Additionally, we are currently implementing other feeds so that each domain receives the most targeted, highest-paying advertising.
- A team of domain parking professionals who realise that there cannot be only one solution for every domain parked with us. We offer you a choice of industry templates to customize the way your page looks, one-click and 2-click pages to match your domains' traffic and have more options in the pipeline so that your entire portfolio is not stuck with the same, static one-click parked page solution.
- Very much in line with this, we offer a service that no other parking company offers: If you park your portfolio of 100 domains or 100,000 monthly views for 30 days, then we will carry out a full portfolio analysis free of charge and advise you as to how best to monetise your traffic. We can naturally provide solutions for all of our recommendations! This includes, among others, professionally-customized pages for high-performance names.
- If you are looking to sell your domains, you will be able to receive offers on your domains directly through your parked pages and our site. No need to pay commission on your sales!
- The first 50,000 domains that park with us will receive a 10% bonus on their first 3 months' parking revenue (and highly competitive payouts thereafter, of course).
We are launching this week and are currently only taking private registrations, so, if I have whet your appetites or you would like any further information, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
I very much look forward to hearing from you and hope you'll join us as we inject the UK market with a dose of much-needed impetus.

Thanks for your time!

Ed from NameDrive

 

[retired_member9]

Hi Ed!

Well, this sounds promising.. I dealt with many parking providers and have not found anything yet which would suit all my domains and how I would like them to look.

I have not seen a decent parking provider who would utilize Google's feed.
SEDO does it well, but their revenue share is not attractive.

What is your commission by the way?

I am currently looking for a parking provider who would allow me to have feed
implemented on my site the way I think it should be done. With personalized design for every domain. Overture and E-spotting / MIVA do exactly this,
but with every big company their rules, demand and restrictions are far from reality.

Do you think NameDrive could offer something of that sort?

 

[charlie]

Good questions - also interested Ed would like to see your answers to vizzys points

 

[Nigel]

Hi Ed

Good to hear from you again. Sedo is a fine ppc company who look after their customers but there's certainly room for a little bit more competition here in the UK. It seems as if most of the major ppc providers (apart from sedo) have always concentrated on the US market which has left options a little limited for UK domainers.

I would be interested in seeing a sample site (as soon as one is up and running) and am also interested in commission share information as already requested. All the best.

Kind regards,

Nigel

 

[NameDriver]

More info on NameDrive

Hello everybody,

Thanks very much for your interest. The replies here and in my inbox suggest that our concept has not fallen on stony ground.

I'd just like to address the issues that have been raised on here. I will write to all those who contacted me personally during the course of the day.

Firstly, here are some sample pages that we are currently servicing: www.animation.com
http://www.computadoras.com and http://www.b2binfo.net/

You may think that they are not the prettiest pages in the world, but we have consulted several of the world's biggest players in he domain parking industry and they are all convinced that the prettier a parked page is, the fewer clicks it receives. They are all very positive about these pages and I have to say that we are very happy with the performance of these pages.

This brings me nicely onto the next item: Customization. This comes in several forms. Firstly, we offer industry templates so that your domains in the travel section will have a travel header, business with a business header etc. This will be available for all domains.

The next stage is customization for high-performance pages: It is clear that, in a portfolio of 500 domains, 400 of them may perform averagely with the remaining 100 performing well, and in some cases, extremely well. It is therefore obvious that there must be a different solution for high-performance names. We will offer professionally-customized solutions for high-performance names. If anyone is interested and receives around 1000 hits a day on their top pages, then send me an email and I can send you an idea of what we can offer.

I think Vizzy may have been talking about customizing your own page and implementing a Google feed into it? Is that correct? This is something that we'll have to go into on a one-to-one basis. Obviously, implementing parking adverts on a developed site is contrary to the idea of a parking page, whereas, a customized parking page for highly-targeted traffic is well within our capabilities.

I will be honest here: Currently, we are offering a great PPC program with proven results. We are so confident in our ability, our team and our strategy that we will guarantee to match your portfolio payouts if you park with us for 30 days. If you continue to park with us for 3 months, then you will receive a 10% bonus on your earnings.
On the other hand, we are new and new internet companies invariably suffer bugs. We have a tip top technology development team and have done everything we possibly can to ensure that the site and member area works perfectly. Our parking program has been tested time and again and we are very confident you will be satisfied. Addmitedly, there may be times when we will have to ask you to bear with us when the gremlins hit. However, you really have nothing to lose as, if you move your portfolio over for the 30 days test (and free portfolio analysis), we will guarantee that we match your first month's payout, continue to payout extremely competitively AND pay you the 10% bonus at the end of 3 months! We really are that confident. Now I'm sounding like a washing powder ad... Seriously, though, we are extremely grateful to anyone willing to test with us and feel that you should be fittingly rewarded.

On a 'commission' basis, I'm sure you can understand that, as the only other major player in Europe with a Google feed, we are not particularly keen on saying an exact percentage that we pay out. I can assure you that our payments are highly competitive, without wanting to go into too much detail.

Now, I'm sure you're all itching to get going. We are currently only taking registration by email so, what I'd like from you if you are interested is an email to [email protected] with the sort of numbers of domains you would be looking to park and just a little bit about your portfolio. I know some of you have already written to me with this info and I'll get back to you before the end of play today.

Thanks again for your time. I'm hoping my posts will get shorter as time goes by! I very much look forward to hearing from you.

Ed

 

[domaingenius]

Hello Ed


Just out of interest, who is Gregory Manriquez ?

DG

 

[rob]

Hello Ed


Just out of interest, who is Gregory Manriquez ?

DG

http://icannwiki.com/index.php/Gregory_Manriquez

 

[NameDriver]

A little background info

Hi there DG,

I can't say that was exactly the question I thought I'd next be answering on this thread. But, to answer your question, Greg Manriquez was head broker at Sedo and, after seeing the limitations in its and other parking company's services, set out to found a parking company more comprehensive than any other on the market.
Focussing on his credentials, despite including brokerage of some of the industry's biggest sales and praise from the highest quarters (DNJournal, would, I feel, take the focus from NameDrive's competances and what we can offer the UK parking community. Let me just say that he has built a solid team around him that is absolutely dedicated to providing the most extensive, dynamic, rewarding parking program possible.
I have to say that I am delighted at the response that the Acorn group has shown to our new program. Keep the emails coming and I'll keep showing you how we can implement you into our services.
Thanks so much for the support guys. Feel free to post your ideas on this thread. I work domainer hours, so am usually around to reply

Ed

 

[NameDriver]

LOL, Rob. I asked him if I was allowed to put that picture up and he professed it was the worst picture of him of all time.
At least no-one will be jealous of his dashing good looks!
You'll be harder pressed to find a photo of me though.

This is not it.
Not Ed

Seriously, though. Feel free to post any ideas or thoughts you have on what we can offer you, what you'd like us to offer you etc. We are open to any ideas whatsoever, that's the only way to go...

I look forward to it.

Ed

 

[charlie]

Has anyone taken a serious look at this yet?

Ed has sent me the details and i did have quick browse around but havent got time at the moment to give it the focus it deserves.

I've used sedo from the start and got onto them just through recomendations. I got to say that ease of use is the best thing about sedo. Personally i'm not into spending time changing my parking screens prefering to spend my time doing actual websites.

 

[Brassneck]

I might have a play with this tonight. I may put up some Sedo names which get a lot of traffic but few hits to see if this works better.

Will let you know if I have any success.

Stephen.

 

[charlie]

i'll move just for a change if they can promise similar returns. As namedrive is based on the google system then i cant see how different it can be.

willing to give it a go just need to know it will be the same if not an improvement?

PS: do 123-reg to bulk domain updates?

 

[domainer]

I Tried and got 2 domains listed then it kept coming up with:

Domain name is already in its listing process with NameDrive

Can't seem to get domains to add.

 

[Paullas]

.

just added a domain but when i visit the name http://www.apply4.co.uk it asks for a password ????

 

[NameDriver]

Hi there,

Greetings from your friendly neighbourhood nightowl...

This is because, as stated in my other post, our DNS servers are still learning the ropes. In fact, our technician is currently configuring them which is why there is a password protect on there currently. He assures me that, by the time you all wake up, it'll be ready to go and I'll give the all clear. Until then, we recommend URL forwarding which works like a treat.

Let me know if you have any other comments. If it's anything to do with DNS servers, bugs in the system or anything else, let me know by email and I'll get it sorted for you. You should all now be able to input your bank details with no problem.

Thanks,

Ed

 

[Paullas]

.

hi ed

great..ok which will be beneficial url forwarding or dns forwarding ?? Also not sure if my email are working today but did you not say we can put a for sale sign on the pages where they can email us direct for a domain enquiry.....

 

[NameDriver]

NameDrive Update

Hello Everyone,

Super Ed is on a scouting mission into the heart of the Benelux, and asked me to say some words. I apologize if my pitch does not resonate with the same cheer, there is after all, only one Ed.

First:

I hope you find the pages snappy and loading times significantly decreased. I am afraid I am to blame for this one. I had no idea our team and concept would catch on on so quickly.

Second:

CTR. We have a solution in place, and by all account is SHOULD be the best on the market - related searches targeted to the users geo region. Perfect? But hold on, many of you are asking for 1 click because it returns higher CTR's and aren’t the other guys 1 click ads delivering 20% CTR?

Well, this is a frustrating one for us, because with our sometimes lower CTR's you are still seeing better PPC and total revenue, so you see that lower CTR and think, I could be making SO MUCH more if the CTR were higher, and guess what we feel the same way. If we can beat the competition on CTR the way we are doing on PPC, then we feel we are well on our way.

Right before the attacks we were designing our improved optimization solution that should deliver the same quality RS, more targeted 1click ads, and topical headers. So expect some new tool roll outs in the coming days.

Third

It has come to my attention that many of you are being approached to lock yourselves into a contract.

This is so counter-intuitive to the ND (adam smith) philosophy of open market that I had to check it our for myself. Why can't you get top notch service without imprisoning your domains? Why must you make the huge sacrifice in trust and time to receive the rewards that you have earned in the first place?

This is the core issue for me. We are delighted to have your business. It is your foresight, help and diligence that makes a company like ours feasible, so why would I hold you and your names hostage to our service? If we cannot meet your expectations then we expect you to search out alternatives.

Is the promise higher payouts? Well, why weren't / aren't you receiving those now? After this contract are your domains magically performing better once the ink dries. Strange reasoning.

Is the promise more attentive Customers Support? Huh, I will only return your phone calls and emails once you have pledged over all your names which I never have to service again anyway because you have signed them over to me.

While we will never make YOU sign any contract WE will make a simple pledge to you: Every email, phone call, suggestion, comment will be answered, returned, taken into consideration and implemented as fast as we can.

Fourth

I encourage all of you to check back with us. My personal goal is to provide you with useful new tools on a weekly if not daily basis. The more we know about our domains, the more successful we can be.

Wow, if any of you know me or have ever met me, I am never this POSSITIVE and full of Sunshine. It must be the Ed factor.

Take care everyone, have a nice weekend and keep on truckin'

gjm
ceo, NameDrive LLC

 

[charlie]

Another i might have missed - but do we get commission off clicks derived from Related Searches as well as those in the main Sponsored Links section.

 

[Edwin]

Sounds like you guys have the same great attitude as the Fabulous.com folks have. I mention them here because for many years they've been working a similar magic in the .com parking market (they're not overly strong for .co.uk) and have insisted on earning their position through outstanding customer service and responsiveness, rather than the artifice of a binding contract. Several of their staff are highly visible and "contactable", which again you seem to be doing right... keep it up!

 

[NameDriver]

Thanks for the praise, Edwin. We do our best

Charlie, you get earnings off everything clicked on your page. We are currently working to get the Related Searches as high-paying as possible for you, actually.
Partly following on from what Mr. Edwin has said, we feel it is absolutely vital to consult our clients as much as possible as you are the people this service is for. We have done this, among other things, for our related searches and we feel that the new targeting, which dynamically analyses what people search for and click, will really help to get the best out of your domains.

If you think that we started, surprisingly enough in this very thread some 4 or 5 weeks ago. We had: very plain parked pages, no way of actually showing people what they earned, no optimization, no industry headers, no website etc. etc. Astonishingly, people were even impressed with us then!!
Now, we have all of these things. I have stated it a couple of times, but we are genuinely looking to improve on a weekly basis, adding new features all the time. If you think we achieved all we have in 4 weeks with a week off to cope with the DOS attack and server problems, things are looking good...

For those of you who haven't yet tried us out, there is certainly now grounds to do so if you were waiting for the early teething problems to be sorted out. I can't guarantee that we won't have one or two more hiccups, but we ensure that nobody loses out from them (apart from us ... )
For those of us who have tried us out, thank you and keep with us, good things are around the corner. And do feel free to tell the other Acorn people how fabulous we are ...

Having said that, I've come full circle. Fabulous are renowned for their 24 hour service, and we do provide pretty much 18 hour service (time now: 1am...) and our nocturnal tech team keep things ticking over while we sleep, so we try to get things done as soon as possible for you.

Comments, questions, as usual, here or to [email protected]

Ed