Mymotech » Money Makin’

Registerfly: It neither registers nor flies. Discuss!

Michael — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:18:14 +0000

Once upon a time I needed to register a domain. And in my innocence I decided that Godaddy was for wusses and I needed something a little more geeky to register my domains on. Enter Registerfly. They seemed pretty cool and stuff and they also had some cool discounts on domain registrations. Awesome.

Over the next year I registered some 25 domains with Registerfly, because that is how I roll. (most of them $.60 .info domains meant for a small amount of blackhat SEO burnin’ and churnin’. Strictly for educational purposes mind you.)

Of course, in the ensuing time period I’ve had to recommend a registrar to many friends, and I have always recommended Registerfly even though the internet is littered with bad reviews of their service. link link link

Well, two days ago I was finally stung by the registerfly. I needed a new domain name. It was a good one, one that someone else could swoop in at any moment and take because it was awesome. So I registered it right away. All things looked good. I received a confirmation email from Registerfly and I was stoked. We all know that DNS propogation can take a while but what was strange is that the domain that I registered was still showing as available on Godaddy and Registerfly. That was not a good sign. I emailed support, and asked why this was. I have still never received an answer. The next day the registration fee was charged to my credit card, so now I had paid for a domain and been charged but the domain was not registered. This is a bad situation to be in.
Looking for a more direct solution to my problem I initiated a Live Chat with one of their helpful support staff. To their credit I did not have to wait to terribly long to chat with Brandon. He was helpful and polite. After a long wait while he researched the issue, he came back with this.

brandon: We apologize for your inconvenience.
brandon: But we are experiencing some techncail issues with registrations from a couple of days.
brandon: Your registration order also couldn’t pass through
brandon: What I can do is that I’ll refund you for failed attempt.
brandon: and you may register it after some time.
brandon: When the issues have been resolved
mymotech: Are you able to give a timeframe for when these issues will be resolved
brandon: Im sure it will be done in the next 48 hours.
mymotech: so you are saying that I will need to wait 48 hours, then re-register the domain?
mymotech: and in the meantime you will refund my original registration?
mymotech: hello?
brandon: yes sir,

So obviously problem solved right? Well not exactly. As a result of my experience so far I was hiding from Brandon the fact that I was not going to register any more domains with Registerfly because in my mind they were now not trustworthy. I also knew that the refund would probably be applied as a credit to my Registerfly account. This was not an optimal outcome for me since I never want to use them again. I wanted them to refund my credit card.

brandon: I’ve noted down your credentials and you will be refunded in your registerfly account within next 12 hours or so
mymotech: In what form will the refund come?
brandon: It will be refunded in your registerfly QuickCheckout Account
mymotech: that is not a good option for me, what are other alternatives?
brandon: then while regsitering the domain , you may pay from your quick checkout account.
brandon: Im sorry, do you have a problem with that?
mymotech: I would prefer not to carry a balance on my registerfly account
mymotech: it confuses bookkepping
brandon: Ok I can understand that
brandon: So what I suggest is that you generate a ticket addressing 3rd Level Support
brandon: explaining your problem
brandon: because I dont have authority to refund to other than registerfly account.

Well this was a surprising turn. I decided to press the issue.

mymotech: Brandon, it would be easier for me to dispute the charge on my credit card
mymotech: While you have been polite and helpful this is not my idea of a good time
mymotech: and I am not excited about submitting another ticket
mymotech: Please summon the authority to resolve this now, I would be very thankful
brandon: Sir I can understand your problem.
brandon: But kindly try to understand mine too.\
brandon: I dont have the facility to generate ticket on your behalf
brandon: Im sure your problem will be solved
brandon: but 3rdLevel Support personnel can do that
mymotech: Brandon, I guess I am envisioning the “run around” here

So, my only recourse was to submit another email ticket, but this time calling upon the powers of 3rd level support. I was not excited. I did submit the ticket and I was even helpful enough to include the chat log with Brandon in the ticket so that when my prayer is answered the 3rd level support gods will know what I am talking about.

Conclusion: Registerfly errored badly by not registering a domain when they said they did, and charging my credit card anyway. Three separate attempts to get the issue resolved have left the status of the problem unresolved and in the meantime the domain has been registered by someone else. What an amazing series of events. In my opinion, it is without a doubt one of the worst occurrences of customer service on the net.

Registerfly: It neither registers nor flies. Discuss! is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

When is it ok to be a geek?

Michael — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 19:19:46 +0000

I was sitting in a meeting this morning reviewing a statement of work with a client. As we walked through the project plan we were talking about some specifics related to the implementation of a web analytics tool. During our discussion I started talking about some exciting possibilities within the application for applying a whole new level of data analysis, and my eyes must have lit up because everyone in the room just stopped and stared at me for a second.
At first I felt a little bit sheepish, but it became immediately apparent that to the client this was a good thing. By showing a genuine interest in the capabilities of the tool and in the potential impact on their organization, I ended up making the client feel better about hiring us to do the project. Indeed, it was the first time I have ever seen someone sign a statement of work right in front of me.

I guess the moral of this story to me, is enthusiasm can be contagious. And when applied at the right time it can give confidence to the person buying your services.

web analytics, consulting, business thoughts

When is it ok to be a geek? is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Seth Godin is smart

Michael — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 22:02:25 +0000

Seth Godin recently spoke at Google. It was awesome. I have been working on a project from the beginning of the produt lifecycle recently, and there are so many true things about how to market effectively in todays web. This is really long 48min. You need Google Video Player to play this.

Google, Seth Godin, Permission Marketing

Seth Godin is smart is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Blogger’s Remorse

Michael — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 05:29:27 +0000

When I changed the focus of my blog, I wanted all the things that a starry-eyed blogger wanted:

A million bucks from AdSense
A thousand feed subscribers
and a daily mention on BoingBoing or Slashdot

Surprisingly, none of those things happened. Overall, I am happy with my lot in blogging. I have a small but growing audience and a trickle of AdSense income. But what about those successful bloggers that make all that cash? Are they happy? A new post over at Performancing by Chris Garrett gives some good for thought. More and more, bloggers have to face the challenge of who and what they are blogging for. Is my blog just a pass through for a bunch of ad-clickers? or is it a meaningful content web site where I make a contribution to the field that I am a professional in? and can it be both?

These are good questions. I think that the answers are as individual as the blogs that litter the internet.

Blogger’s Remorse is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Emerging internet marketing methodologies

Michael — Sun, 15 Jan 2006 03:00:42 +0000

I ran across an interesting post on SEOBook today. It contained a link to a new site called 1000tags. This site is a new take on the famous Million Dollar Homepage idea that has been in the media a lot lately. This got me thinking about another conversation I have been having with Richard of Apogee Web Consulting. He maintains that while pixel ads are good, that tag based advertising like 1000 tags will not take off. Here is what he had to say:

I don’t think 1000tags is going to work. The first tag is 00000. That’s garbage, junk, spam. Tagvertising might work under a pre-defined taxonomy. Even one that can evolve but not one that’s completely free-form. Look at the tags on their site. It’s just garbage. The difference with pixel advertising is that people have been curious to click on the little pictures they see. Are you curious to click on 00000? I doubt it – you know it’s crap.

I don’t disagree with the fact that 00000 is a complete garbage tag, but there are some consequences to that, in my opinion. First off it only serves to emphasize a smaller pool of relevant tags. Also, I think a tag based folksonomy allows better targeting than a pixel ad. Targeted traffic is better than untargeted traffic, unless of course you are running a bunch of scraper sites. And since these tags will grow along with the amount of sites that invest in them, I think that over time the tag cloud will start to take the shape of the internet.
It will be interesting to see how these copycats of the Million Dollar Home Page fare over time.

Side note: Everyone knows that the original million dollar home page is sort of a hoax right?

pixel ads, million dollar homepage, apogee :), 1000tags

Emerging internet marketing methodologies is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Google and AOL

Michael — Thu, 29 Dec 2005 05:10:27 +0000

Is this the end? As you are probably already aware that Google and AOL recently agreed to a huge business deal. All the details are still being ironed out but AOL is going to get to place ads on Google’s pages and Google is going to attempt to legitimize AOL’s business. I can’t help but think that what we might end up with is a bunch of crappy banner ads and a new set of google coasters. Earlier today Marissa Mayer went on the interview circuit here and here. It appears that AOL ads are gonna be slapped up on Google image search and Google video. Additionally, there is talk of putting more AOL content in the various OneBoxes that Google uses.
This whole thing smells corporate. Frankly, I think it will take Google further than they want to go and stay there longer than they want to stay.

Google and AOL is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Cool new service

mymo — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 23:58:34 +0000

I found a music service via Seth Godin’s blog. It is called Pandora. The concept is that by taking components of music that you enjoy they can suggest new songs that you have never heard that you will also enjoy. I have to say that they are pretty good at what they do. This is a great example of people taking something they love to do and creating a valuable business idea from it.

Hows that for a little bit of insight into my musical tastes sometimes.

Pretty slick. This actually reminds me of the mid 90’s when I discovered broadcast.com. Eventually, of course, they got bought out by Yahoo, then it got corporatized, and then it sucked.

I hope this one continues to be cool. I think that eventually they are going to put commercials on it.

Cool new service is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Baby Steps

mymo — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 21:32:29 +0000

So I added an Adwords account and a Yahoo Search Marketing account. I started one up and now am playing around with the different options available there. Soon I will be placing AdSense words on this site to test that out as well.

It is all very fun stuff. So obviously when you set these things up you have to send your the people that click on the link somewhere, but where to send them?

I though of a perfect place. HERE Since my little sister recently finished up her NaNoWriMo project. I believe that stands for National Novel Writing Month, which was November. Anyway, I figure I would try to direct a little traffic her way to see how successful I could be with words that no one uses. Yippee.

OK, now everyone come back soon because there will be updates soon as I get results.

Baby Steps is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog

Is that a gleam I detect in your eye?

mymo — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 05:33:27 +0000

I should be in bed, but I have been perusing ye old internet as is my custom. And I believe that I am startin to put together a plan.
It has something to do with creating revenue with the internet by stringing together every possible marketing scheme until my reach is universal. Well, it still needs work, and since no one reads this blog anyway I am going to bed.

More to come.

I mean That.

Is that a gleam I detect in your eye? is a post from: Mymotech Web Analytics Blog