It is now day 2 of the “so called” Revolution created by John Motson and I wanted to share my two cents. I would have given my full opinion yesterday but I was upset about the launch and didn’t want to say anything without at least taking it in and processing everything. Well, now here is the truth!!!
First let me start off by saying how extremely disappointed I am in this. Let me give you some background, only a couple months ago I sold a few copies of his Domaining Manifesto (ebook) through this site. Why? Because I personally bought his product about six months ago and believed for the price it provided a good value. After selling a few copies of the ebook in November, John began to give the ebook away for free in December. I would not have encouraged my readers to BUY something that would have been free less than 30 days later. So I asked John, why is it free now. Word for word here was his response…
“The reason I am doing this is to build a launch list for a secret domaining project I have been working on for over a year – it is something no one has done in the past – domainingrevolution.com“.
His response really lead me to believe that he was creating an educational package that would blow everyone away. Maybe that is my fault for thinking this, but John certainly didn’t lead me to believe anything else. So what happened to the Domaining Revolution anyway? It was a front for this Mystery Domain Auction.
Who benefits from the Mystery Domain Auction? I have to say two parties if this is pulled off, John Motson and his affiliates. Oh did I say affiliates, I did, I’ll come back to that. If you notice the domain auction winner and link buyers were left out. Pretty much John is asking us to fork over ONE MILLION DOLLARS worth of bids and he is only giving away $10,000. That is a serious joke, everyone makes him in essence a millionaire and he gives back 1%. Ok now back to the affiliates, he is giving them 50% of your bid purchases. This makes the affiliates and John the winners of this process.
Now, I know someone is going to come back and say what about the traffic that the link buyers will receive. That traffic is garbage, I purchased a link to test the system and received six site visits. Visitors that I probably already had and if not I may not have wanted anyway. A visitor to this type of site is clicking on the links out of curiosity and curiosity only. I say this because I did it myself, I literally clicked the links to see the pages and closed. Please, instead of placing a bid spend the money on targetted Yahoo or Google traffic.
What would make this fair? Well, the original creator of The Million Dollar Home Page came back with a second contest called Pixel Lotto. Pixel Lotto in my opinion is the best contest for everyone. You buy a pixel for $1, your name is then entered into a drawing when the site is sold out. At that time, if your name is called, you are given HALF of everything collected. Now that is an idea; make one million dollars and give back half to the people that made you that money!!!
And one last thing, please don’t give John praise for creating MysteryDomainAuction.com. It is not a unique script or idea, it has been used before. The only thing John did was add a domain name to the equation which, get this, the domainers don’t want, they want the cash.
***UPDATE***
John has now made the affiliate program available to everyone, before today it was private and for a select few. Hmmm, maybe the mention of the affiliate program in this thread sparked a change. Oh and by the way, you can’t collect any money until you have sold at least $30 worth of links.
If you are interested in cashing in on John’s million dollar scheme then feel free to visit MysteryDomainAuction.com/affiliates.php
Also, want to read what everyone else is saying? Here are just a few articles.
Mystery Auction Is Not About Domains by DomainNameNews.com
MysteryDomainScam.com – Far From Revolution by DomainDeveloper.com
MysteryDomainAuction.com by DomainNameScams.com
Very good post. I think its a waste people bidding right now at least because it doesn’t matter. Only the highest bidder will win at the end, which is still 98 days away. Any money paid now is just thrown in the garbage it seems. I’m actually thinking about creating a site similar, but would be for “sites” instead of domains. I have several new ideas and features that I plan on adding, so hopefully it does a lot better. We’ll just have to wait and see though. If anyone wants to give me any tips, click on my name (to go to my website), and then use the Contact page. Thanks!
Thanks DNK,
Before reading your post, I was like “this seems like the dumbest idea ever. what a waste of money”. The best thing that could happen is the total amount ends up being less than $10,000 and thus John would lose money. However, this assumes the “mystery domain” is even worth $10k which is highly unlikely IMO.
Great post
Cheers
-Mike
Patrick, appreciate both of your great posts on this matter. I grabbed a few links yesterday, let’s face it, that’s all they are. I too got 6 hits on one of them, and hmm, looks like 0 on another one. Well in the end, if he leaves the links up for 5 years, it’s a rather cheap one way link, but I’m sure not going to pay more than $1 or so for the links. (It may not even get PR, and why would he promote it past 100 days?) It will be sort of interesting to see what happens as the end nears. Someone will get $10k cheap and Motson will make a nice chunk of change, though what happens if the bidding stays so low that he barely makes the $10k prize? Happy New Year, keep the info cooking Chef!
If John Motson has to use this contest to pay for a ticket to the Traffic show, what will happen if he doesn’t earn enough money to pay out the $10,000 cash prize? Sure, the winner could take the domain name, but I would bet his domain name isn’t worth close to $10,000 (just because a domain auction has it “valued at $10,000″ does not mean anyone in their right mind would pay that). Anyhoo, based on your statement that he is giving away 50% to affiliates, the guy might need up to $20,000 to pay out the winner.
What will happen if he cannot afford this? Did he purchase contest insurance to make sure he is able to afford the payout?
Norman you raised an excellent point about the domain name. It was valued at a current auction for $10,000 but here is the kicker, it didn’t sell.
Doubt he purchased contest insurance and I will not speculate to the kind of money John does or does not have. John does seem like a good person and I’m sure he will fork over what he needs to.
I thought he had a pretty clever idea. Then again I wasnt mislead by him either.
As I mentioned in my blog, I think bids will dwindle off to a trickle by the time it hits $5.00. This leaves him a bit in the hole especially if someone chooses the cash over the domain.
My first reaction was that it was clever too Bob.
For being mislead, I don’t think that he intentionally did it. Sometimes not giving someone an answer though can be misleading.
I think your reading too much into it…look at it as entertainment. The most someone will pay will probably be in the $10-20 range. That a few coffee’s.
several hundred of us will have some fun watching too.
milliondollarhomepage didnt give people targetted traffic either but was good fun.
The difference to me with MillionDollarHomePage.com is it was the first. That was pure genius along with coming back with the lotto idea to split the raised money.
Your right, its entertainment value, part of that entertainment value come from posts just like this
I think your dead on, I see this thing stalling around the same price range maybe a little less $5-$15.
So after only “day two” your mad because you’ve only had a few visitors ? Was that what you really wanted to begin with – Traffic ? He’s not promising that … Maybe YOU should have spent your bid on targetted Yahoo or Google traffic.
Everytime someone comes up with a new twist online – It’s either duplicated like hell or tore down by those who didn’t think of it …
Give it a chance (More than 48 hours) before trying to draw attention to yourself like this.
SourGrapes…great name.
So out of 616 words you read that I am upset about traffic. I strongly urge you to re-read as you are incorrect. Believe me, for my $0.93 bid I was expecting zero traffic. I am merely setting the expectation for future bid buyers not to expect traffic. If it comes it would be a bonus, but low quality.
Hi guys,
Once again, thanks to Patrick for giving us all a medium to give our unbiased opinions on this matter.
Let me address some of the concerns here.
Firstly, I have put away $10,000 of my own money to cover the costs of paying out the value of the domain name if the highest bidder opts for the cash no matter what happens in the auction. I don’t have to disclose my online income sources but I will – I can point you to my blog DNXpert.com (advertising and premium forum memberships add up to over $1000 a month in profit). Then there are past Domaining Manifesto sales, and present affiliate product sales etc.
I would not risk losing credibility that I have built with DNXpert and other ventures over this – not to mention the continuous income my ventures bring in. My aim is to bring positive attention to this project, bidders and the domaining industry as a whole.
Secondly, the mystery domain name is a good one. Why would I go into this with a crap name when I have to reveal it on day 50 of a 100 day auction?
Thirdly, as Tim Davids rightly puts it in a comment above – guys, relax and enjoy the ride. You comments about the lack of quality traffic 24 hours after the launch are a bit funny? Give it a bit of time before you make a judgment like that.
Fourthly, Patrick, you mention PixelLotto. Alex Tew first made a million with the pixel idea before he went with Pixellotto didn’t he? Easy to make your statement in hindsight.
And finally, I plan to email all Domaining Revolution and Mystery Domain Auction subscribers with the opportunity of join my affiliate program within the next few days. As I say on the front page of mysterydomainauction.com and in the faq “I am aiming to auction off a mystery domain name for an accumulated $1,000,000.” – I am aiming to auction off the domain name for the accumulated value of $1,000,000. I don’t have to get the whole $1,000,000 myself.
John
Fair is fair, your allowed to speak your peace.
Great idea to get every one involved on the affiliate program John. Now we are talking fair.
As my kids would say, sharing is caring
Oh and finally, Patrick, in all our conversations via email, I never once said my secret project was educational. All I said was that I couldn’t disclose what it was, and that it hadn’t been done in the domaining industry ever before. Both true statements.
The project being educational was your assumption completely.
John
That is correct and I also said right after that sentence “Maybe that is my fault for thinking this, but John certainly didn’t lead me to believe anything else”.
When I first saw it I said wow and then I saw a post by Jamie Parks and now this.You gotta be careful on who you give your money to,K
So what happen to domaining revolution?
Are we still gonna see a domaining revolution at domainingrevolution.com ?
I think this is the domaining revolution
Uh oh….
Following on my past comment, I have just made the affiliate program available to the general public:
http://www.mysterydomainauction.com/affiliates.php
John
Minimum payout of $50 is quite high though. And you’re giving out $20 to all those who join the program??
Yea, when folks join they get $20 towards their total but they need to make $50 in total ($30 plus the $20 that they start with) to get paid out. It’s a standard affiliate script from http://www.idevdirect.com/
And the $20 for joining is done by everyone – SEOBook.com is one example: http://www.seobook.com/rf/
It’s the default settings in the program.
John
I’m sure you could have it customized.
HATERS!
We are all adults. Read the rules. If you agree with the terms and conditions participate. If not, Leave the guy alone. He is not committing a crime.
STOP THE HATE and NEGATIVE TALK! I think some of the negative naysayers are just upset that they did not think of it first or perhaps they are upset because they lack THE COURAGE to Carry it out. They are not willing to risk the little reputation they have built for themselves.
Its recreation if nothing else. We will soon find out if he will keep his word. If he does not keep his word then you will have ample and justifiable reasons for criticizing him.
I have personally bookmarked a few links of sites that have patronized the auction. I will patronize them in the future. Initially, we may not see the benefits of posting our links immediately. However, in the long run it may lead to that big break we were looking for.
Please, remain optimistic. If we must criticize let it be with a balanced and non biased perspective.
God Bless
1st Amendment = Freedom Of Speech
Bottom line is everyone has the right to say what they want.
You raise some very interesting points here Patrick (and other commenters). I am currently in the process of interviewing John Motson about the Mystery Domain Auction.
I would just like to let you know that although I am interviewing (and I hope you read/comment the interview) I am staying neutral. I expect John knew before he started that he would be walking a very fine line, I just wonder how it will end!
Thanks,
Shane Hudson
Success Circuit
Sure as soon as your done with it Shane send me a link.
Good luck witth the idea. From the experience that I have with these kind of sies, i do not think it will be that sucessful. And it will take a lot of time and effort to reach 1 million, I personally think it is not going to reach it, but who knows.
I think domainers are the wrong market to target.
It seems like auction ended…
All bids are currently being refunded so please stand by. I will update this page when all bids have been refunded.
I will pay all affiliates that made commissions on this out of my own pocket.”