I Think Bido Has Turned the Corner

When a commercial site is created it has to provide three things.   1. Provide a service to the user   2. Have an interface that is easy to use  3. Make money.   In a constant battle to do all three, Bido has been an ever evolving endeavour that most likely has Jared and Sahar sitting up late at night thinking of ways to make the site better.  The difference between Bido and many other sites is the fact they DID make it better.  I will be the first in line to say the “middle” transition was rough.  There was no incentive or reason to actively take part in determining what went to auction.  Once it did go to auction, the site was flooded with junk names, many of which are lower end tlds.  All this mediocrity led to domain auctions that were an endless stream of $28 junk names with Bido getting little cuts from a lot of names. I quit going to the site once the non-sold domains reached a 8 to 1 ratio.  But not it works and here’s why.

They knew they needed to provide a way to get users to help choose which domains went to auction.  The answer was simple, pay them.  The quicker you point out a good domain, the more money you make.  It’s not much but it will add up if done properly.  It also gives sellers incentive to put up domains.  Now that people become “investors”, they have incentive in getting the good names to market for a good price.  They want high priced names in the auction because they get a piece of the action.  Good names get noticed. You can still buy your way to the front, putting a few questionable names up,  there but if I was the owner of the site I’d offer the same thing. Although I would make it $20, to be paid back if it sells.  That would keep more of the bad names out and keep the direct to auction price just high enough to make people think twice about putting in mysistersnameismary.im  The leads to the buy abilities functions.  The modern day website always offers buy your way into anything and Bido is no different.  Want more votes? Buy them.  Want to skip the voting process? Buy pass, pun intended.  Didn’t make it through the first round of voting?  Buy 30 more days to try again.  A great business move and as long as the site doesn’t get too crowded with junk at the auctions, this is a great business plan.

The search function for new names needs a tiny bit of work.  I think the search is all there but it takes a while to figure out what to push and where to type to get the domains up you are searching for.  The problem of an abundance of lower end tlds is there, making sifting through the domain submissions a bit tough but that is what the voting process is for.  The amount of votes people get is too high as well.  There aren’t enough good names being submitted to use your points so a lot of questionable names are getting put through to auction. I’ve also had quite a bit of trouble with their bot verifying my domains but we’ll see how that works it self out.

Despite the little issues, Bido has turned the corner and I truly believe they are here to stay.  They have created a profitable, usable, fun site that engages the users and gives all a chance to make money. Even if you don’t own a domain you can still make money.  I am going to experiment this month and guarantee I bring at least $50.  No Sahar has not sponsored this post.  I am often critical of people so therefore I feel I need to commend someone when they are doing a good job. I  would now like to be in on the Series A round.