To start off the day Domaining.com had at least five new blog feeds that I could see, Mashable, TechCrunch, Engadget, BusinessInsider and ReadWriteWeb. These five websites took over 95% of the showing feeds. They have professional writers that write several times per day. Out of 20 feeds on the first page of Domaining.com, I’d say 16 of them were non-domain related feeds.
Myself, along with several industry members sent an email to the owner, Francois, urging him to take down these feeds. His initial response, in a nutshell, was that he is doing this because after 2+ years he still has not covered his monthly expenses with advertisers or sponsored headlines. His goal was to reach out to webmasters of the world and pull them into the domain sphere. This is just a summary because I do not believe in sharing private emails. I think it is great that he wants to increase domain awareness, but this was not the route to go.
It seems that after enough complaints those feeds have been removed. Smart move!
Now…I have never, not one single time posted anything negative about Domaining.com, until today. I feel a line has been crossed with this new donation button. As you can see below, the donation button says that our industry leaders have no money and to donate money in order to help maintain his website. This from the man that values Domaining.com at $3,000,000, he shouldn’t need the money. If Domaining.com is a business that is not producing revenue, I hate to say this, but either take it down, create a new business model or seek consultation.

I have to say this is the worst message to send to the domain community and potential advertisers. Who the heck would advertise after seeing a message like this? I personally emailed Francois last year offering my assistance to sell advertising, something I have a knack for. Not once was he receptive to the idea. Instead, what he does is sends a message to potential advertisers that they must advertise with Domaining.com to support the domain community. I’m sorry to say this but Domaining.com is not the community, the people that make up our industry are.
This is not a personal attack towards Francois. Not only have I had some very nice email conversations with him, but I do believe most of his efforts benefit our industry. Unfortunately, this is an action that does not.
UPDATE – Since this post Francois has removed both the donate banner and non-domain related news feeds from Domaining.com. Good job Francois!