Mystery Domain Auction Shuts Down
Mystery Domain Auction has shut down.
Following just 4 short days, John Motson has shut down his controversial Mystery Domain Auction site, as stated by a blog post on his site. Apparently Motson was worried regarding both legal issues and technical problems toward the end of the auction. I would be somewhat surprised if PayPal would allows ist service to be used for the site. And the technical problem — processing bids toward the end of the auction — would have been a big hurdle.
A lot of people will probably chastise Motson for the site and revel in its closure. But I take a different view. Instead of rubbing it in his face, take a look at what he did right: marketing.
Most domainers are horrible marketers. But Motson took a page out of the internet marketing guru playbook and executed it to near perfection. He gave away an eBook to create a launch list of e-mail subscribers for the site. He created quite a buzz on blogs as soon as the site launched (remember, no press is bad press).
It may appear Motson lost money on his venture. Although dreams of a million dollar payout are gone, he has learned valuable lessons. And he still has that e-mail list that he can use to promote other products. His blog surely has more subscribers, too.
I’m sure it’s a let down for him, but others ought to pay attention and think regarding how they can apply these lessons in their ventures.
