Is pickydomains, legit?

[PickyDomains.com]

Originally Posted by khakigirl

I know I did more suggestions than that - I had a whole spreadsheet with them...some of those I don't even remember submitting. Perhaps I had an account under a different name?

Oh and I don't find it very professional publishing our submissions and I doubt anyone here would either, especially because you assumed that because the usernames match that these are definitely our accounts. I have run into several other people who use the username khakigirl. Those are my submissions and I did log into that account to check the submissions and try out your system again but I think it was very unprofessional on your part.

Call me unprofessional, rude, etc. - that's fine. I deal with people every day who tell me - hey, I submitted by suggestions, but never got paid - something is going on. Well, we have 44.000 contributors and 1,200 clients, so there is no way for everyone to get paid. It's simple math. And nobody is stealing anyones suggestions, with the exception of few instances of theft that we really did have. I am glad we had this discussion, because it help us find a bug after we upgraded our system mid May (thank you and Lihem for that). I hope this puts this 'scam' issue to rest at least on this forum. I am sure that in a few months on some other forum two people who submitted few suggestions that nobody picked with get together and will say something like 'Hey, I worked with PickyDomains.com and never got paid' 'Me too!' 'Oh my god, it's a scam!' Than one of our paid contributors will post a reply that he or she has worked with us and got paid maybe on several occasions, like Nancy who posted there. And this post will be interpreted as a proof that there is a big conspiracy going on to steal people suggestions. This post will be brought to my attention and I'll waste another few hours digging into data just to discover that nothing fishy is going on and then I'll waste another few hours writing back and forth and then I'll get pissed that people don't understand very basic things and say something rude and people will call me unprofessional or something.

[khakigirl]

Originally Posted by PickyDomains.com

Is it just possible that PickyDomains in not a scam, but rather there are a few individual contributors who ARE MISINFORMED and when two misinformed indivuduals get together they seem to interpret their error of judgement as proof (i.e. "if my suggestions weren't picked, I must be a scam" or "if for some strange reason I can't find my suggestions where it says 'My Suggestions' then there aren't suggestions, there fore it must be a scam')?

Can I go now?

Yes, it is possible that it isn't a scam however there are many red flags that pop up concerning your website. First, you REQUIRE that paid contributors go out and promote your website. That sounds like paid advertising and a PR campaign to me. Who's to say that YOU don't "choose" someone's domain, pay them and get some very cheap advertising out of the deal. Second, for being a business based solely on the internet and relying on the internet and computers to make money, your IT department sucks. What kind of IT guy doesn't have an account he can log into and check to make sure all the upgrades went okay? Finally, you are unprofessional. You created an account here to defend your website, which in an of itself is okay, but you attacked me and another user for being "misinformed" and you insinuated that we are stupid. You stated "If my suggestions weren't picked, I [sic] must be a scam". I am NOT stupid and I don't believe that. I understand that it is purely a creative endeavor and not all clients will like all submissions. I am a graphic designer so believe me when I say that I understand rejection. You also stated, "If for some strange reason I can't find my suggestions where it says 'My Suggestions' then there aren't suggestions, there fore it must be a scam." Yes, I'll agree I jumped to conclusions but let's be honest here. If you were on the fence about someone's credibility and they did something or said something that you found to be untrue, wouldn't you err on the side of caution and say that person is probably not credible? I think most people would, especially with the number of scams that are around in the work at home field.

To answer your final question, you can leave anytime you want but if you want some tips on how to make the contributor side of your business better, send me a message. I have been working from home for 5+ years and one of my gigs is posting legitimate work at home jobs on my blog. I can spot a scam and if I'm in doubt, I err on the side of caution because I don't want anyone to get scammed. I can help you correct the red flags I mentioned and make your website more successful for everyone.

[PickyDomains.com]

First, you REQUIRE that paid contributors go out and promote your website. That sounds like paid advertising and a PR campaign to me

That's because this is exactly what it is. People would claim we are a scam and tell me 'why aren't there people online writing that they got paid?' We had a few folks who had their own blogs and got paid write about this on their own, but apparently that was not enough. I mean there will always be more people who never got paid by a service than those who did get paid. So I started requiring people who get paid to mention it online. This is a PR campaign of sort. I am tired of wasting my time on proving things to people. I am going to require every single paid contributor mention it online. This way after a year or so there will be so many posting by people who got paid that I don't have to waste my time on this nonsense. This is exactly my intention. I am not trying something sneaky. This is not a hidden promotion under false pretenses. I am telling people who got paid to tell others that they got paid, so I don't have to waste my time any more.

[khakigirl]

Here are 5 ideas on how to make your website better for everyone so you can "stop wasting time" on people who claim you're a scam:
1. Create a rewards system for those who submit domains. Maybe give 1/2 point per submission, add another 1/2 point for a "liked" submission and allow clients to report very bad submissions (ones with slang, curse words, gibberish) and have that contributor lose 1/2 for that submission. The rewards could be something simple like stickers and other promo materials and range up to something really good like gift cards and small electronics. If possible, put in some small rewards that won't take too much work to earn. As soon as people start getting their rewards, they will start to realize that your website probably isn't a scam.
2. Give some guidelines to the contributors who are posting positive experiences. Remind them that it looks spammy to join websites JUST to post about your website. Encourage them to post on their personal Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, blog and also on forums they are already active on. These are the kinds of testimonials you want anyway.
3. Force the client to like or dislike a domain when they view it. Part of the reason people are so quick to call it a scam is because so many submissions sit there and never get rated. That is frustrating and disheartening.
4. This suggestion may already be in use but in case it's not, change the system so that when the client dislikes a submission, they can NEVER see it again. If they don't like it, there is no reason for them to view it again.
5. Create a way for contributors to easily check if their submissions have been registered. You are on the right track with the current system (with the newest update ) but it could be even better if we could click on the domain and be directed to a page that shows whether it has been registered.

I hope you can take my suggestions to heart and consider them.

[PickyDomains.com]

Originally Posted by khakigirl

Here are 5 ideas on how to make your website better for everyone so you can "stop wasting time" on people who claim you're a scam:
1. Create a rewards system for those who submit domains. Maybe give 1/2 point per submission, add another 1/2 point for a "liked" submission and allow clients to report very bad submissions (ones with slang, curse words, gibberish) and have that contributor lose 1/2 for that submission. The rewards could be something simple like stickers and other promo materials and range up to something really good like gift cards and small electronics. If possible, put in some small rewards that won't take too much work to earn. As soon as people start getting their rewards, they will start to realize that your website probably isn't a scam.
2. Give some guidelines to the contributors who are posting positive experiences. Remind them that it looks spammy to join websites JUST to post about your website. Encourage them to post on their personal Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, blog and also on forums they are already active on. These are the kinds of testimonials you want anyway.
3. Force the client to like or dislike a domain when they view it. Part of the reason people are so quick to call it a scam is because so many submissions sit there and never get rated. That is frustrating and disheartening.
4. This suggestion may already be in use but in case it's not, change the system so that when the client dislikes a submission, they can NEVER see it again. If they don't like it, there is no reason for them to view it again.
5. Create a way for contributors to easily check if their submissions have been registered. You are on the right track with the current system (with the newest update ) but it could be even better if we could click on the domain and be directed to a page that shows whether it has been registered.

I hope you can take my suggestions to heart and consider them.

1. We are working on this one. It's going to be called 'picky points'. People will get points for 'likes' and then will be able to exchange them for things likes games or free advertising. The idea is to reward those whose suggestions weren't picked with things other than money.

2. Known.

3. No. We thought about it, but client is king, he (she) is the one with money. We did, however, change the system - we now pause orders have have been inactive for over 7 days.

4. Interesting. Have not thought of that, makes sense.

5. This is a technical issue with whois servers. There are only so many quires we can send in a time unit automatically. We do check domains for availability, but we can't check all domains every hour, for instance. We've had to get special access from Verisign for that, took us (them, really) a long time, still working out all the kinks in direct access to whois servers.

[stuart44107]

I signed up with them the other day. And so far everything is going swell. I'm submitted quite a few domain names, a few got rejected. However I've submitted a few and they took them.

Coming up with names on on your own is very difficult. And I find this to be a fun thing to do. To me it's a fun challenge.
Whether they accept my names or not. It's still fun. On one work order I submitted 17 domain names and they were all accepted. I hope this thread gives people enough faith to go and give it a try. I'm bound to get a bite on one of these names I've submitted.

Anyhoo, sorry for such a long thread, just very happy I've found something that is so much fun. I do recommend this company. Two thumbs up. =)

[khakigirl]

Originally Posted by stuart44107

I signed up with them the other day. And so far everything is going swell. I'm submitted quite a few domain names, a few got rejected. However I've submitted a few and they took them.

Coming up with names on on your own is very difficult. And I find this to be a fun thing to do. To me it's a fun challenge.
Whether they accept my names or not. It's still fun. On one work order I submitted 17 domain names and they were all accepted. I hope this thread gives people enough faith to go and give it a try. I'm bound to get a bite on one of these names I've submitted.

Anyhoo, sorry for such a long thread, just very happy I've found something that is so much fun. I do recommend this company. Two thumbs up. =)

Just a note: just because your domain submission gets "accepted" does NOT mean that it will be chosen by the client. But thumbs up on coming up with 17 unique domains. That's pretty difficult especially with some of the crazy guidelines some of the clients come up with, lol.

[starbirdy66]

In addition to khakigirl's suggestions about points, I think it would be cool and an extra bonus for the client, if other contributors voted on names so the client has a focus group of sorts on what names are popular. But that could be a second tier service after all the submissions have been made so future submissions aren't influenced by the creativity of others.

I've contracted with many companies for brand names/logos etc., and clients pay hundreds of dollars for a package of ideas to be submitted to them. I commend you if you are truly helping out small businesses and matching them with creative ideas with an affordable price tag, but it is fair to wonder about your intentions.

To not appear a scam, why not make it known who owns pickydomains.com. Why is the registration set to privacy. "Domains by Proxy"

Are you a marketing/branding firm getting ideas from others while collecting top dollar from businesses whom you service? Are the owners of pickydomains.com actually most of the clients? Are you a domainer? Why the secrecy? I don't think there is any shame in what you are doing if you are not hiding it. People join focus groups and forums all the time to earn small amounts. What you payout seems fair (unless you are just registering names for resale and not compensating others at all for their ideas), let the business seem more legit.

In regards to paying for backlinks, you are encouraging spam (although you clearly say no spam, if you are paying for comments/backlinks...50 in a day...that is spam!) You should probably invest in a pr/social media person who could handle this better. Our rules on this forum state we do not allow paid backlinks.

This service should be successful without spam as many small businesses or companies that want to spend their money wisely could take a crack at getting so much from the service you offer than they would if they went with a marketing firm that asks for x amount of dollars (at least 3 times more than what you claim to claim to charge them) and will deliver only x amount of ideas for them to choose from.

I think an affiliate program is good and encourages word of mouth, but you have to think outside the box. A pr person can get the word out effectively so that businesses are signing up, and I think you need more businesses right now than you do creative people. Do you know what the ratio is of contributors to clients? Clients: 1298 | Contributors: 44688 and there are only 32 available orders. Lets face it, the client count is meaningless to contributors, available orders is all that matters because a client might only use your service once. You definitely have something to offer clients (even if only a portion of that 44k was active).

And I had to do the math to figure out how many completed orders there are on your site. There are 436 (is that to say none of these were refunded?)

If you are a legit business, get the word out to businesses because the majority of them aren't on the web and you have to account for that, because when they want to get on the web, they would love your service, then all of the creative people will flock to your site.

Regards

[funmommy]

I decided to give it a try for the heck of it. Came up with one name but the client doesn't seem very active in reviewing their names unless it's possible they didn't like the few hundred of names submitted? I may decide to just register the name myself actually.

[PickyDomains.com]

In addition to khakigirl's suggestions about points, I think it would be cool and an extra bonus for the client, if other contributors voted on names so the client has a focus group of sorts on what names are popular. But that could be a second tier service after all the submissions have been made so future submissions aren't influenced by the creativity of others.

I've contracted with many companies for brand names/logos etc., and clients pay hundreds of dollars for a package of ideas to be submitted to them. I commend you if you are truly helping out small businesses and matching them with creative ideas with an affordable price tag, but it is fair to wonder about your intentions.

To not appear a scam, why not make it known who owns pickydomains.com. Why is the registration set to privacy. "Domains by Proxy"

That idea was often suggested but it's a non-starter. If you suggest a name to PickyDomains, only three people will see that suggestion.

1. You.
2. Client.
3. Admin.

Voting on suggestions would mean giving access to your (unregistered) suggestion to hundreds of people. That would certainly mean troubles. So we decided against it long, long time ago.

As far is ownership of PickyDomains.com - too much spam so we had to make it private. It's no secret who owns PickyDomains.com - my name is Dmitry Davydov, I am one of the top ranking bloggers in Russia. I blog about PickyDomains regularly on my blog - davydov.blogspot.com. Domain is actually registered by my partner's name who does all tech stuff. Ownership of PickyDomains.com has never been a secret - I've done tons of interviews. I also go by 'David' online - this is my highschool nik (derived from my last name).