Reasons to Use GoDaddy

• Search Domains
  Their whois search is good at recommending similar domains. This is helpful during domain selection in the campaign’s creative strategy phase.
• Cheap Registration
  GoDaddy has always offered the most competitive registration rates for commercial domains. Be sure to get a significant discount using the GoDaddy promo codes from the Live Codes blog. This can be a significant savings the client will appreciate, especially when registering hundreds of domains purely in defense of domainjacking.
• Smooth Domain Administration
  GoDaddy offers one of the easiest control panels in the industry for domain renewals, DNS changes, domain transfers and bulk administration. Domainers can also lock accounts and plan auto-renewals for up to 10 years.
• Wide TLD Variety
  GoDaddy allows registration with a large number of top level domains, including some TLDs reserved for country codes and sponsored entities. Use the convenience of a single source.
• Flexible Terms On Hosting
  The GoDaddy hosting model is engineered for a high volume of low traffic sites. I once produced a campaign that generated so much traffic on GoDaddy servers, they had to temporarily take our site offline to move it to a different production environment. We got a surprise series of bills for the burstable load, our hosting bill jumped from $200 to nearly $20,000!

  Despite our success in marketing, I negotiated a significant price reduction. GoDaddy graciously agreed to accept a fraction of the cost, and they allowed us to move the campaign to a host provider better equipped to scale rapidly during traffic crunches.

• You Can Reach a Human Being
  Unlike many smaller registrars, you can talk to a real people at GoDaddy. Call (480) 505-8877. This can be crucial when dealing with odd situations like sponsored TLDs, renewals, transfers, emergency DNS administration or chasing down account access due to poor management during campaign staff turnover.
• Proactive Customer Service
  Update I got this brief voicemail from GoDaddy just checking in to make sure everything is a-ok. Nice touch.

Reasons to Avoid GoDaddy

• Excessive Upselling During Registration
  I don’t even ask my most savvy brand managers to suffer the endless stream of GoDaddy upselling during the registration. My campaigns rarely need the privacy, promotional or hosting add-ons. It can be tricky navigating the registration process, especially by domain owners that aren’t sure about what services are needed.
• Enough with Old Man Perv Thing
  Bob Parsons is a great example of a corporate video blog from a high-profile CEO. It’s a good mix of personality, education and inspiration for domainers.

  However, his boorish persona steeped in adolescence and keenly expressed in the company’s sexually charged Superbowl ads is kinda creepy (he really should consider leaving Guyland). Judging by his fan comments, he has managed to build a cult following a la other web celebs. But is his regression really such a feat in the shadow of Hugh Hefner? I’m just sayin’. Have some fun, but think a little more Richard Branson or Larry Ellison and less Tila Tequila.

September 21, 2008 to September 27, 2008

# 7Wario Land Shake It!
The Twittersphere lit up with this week linking to this clever YouTube channel.

http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

# 6Lizzer Simplifies Content Aggregation
Lizzer has a private beta for its online publishing tool. Community managers, bloggers, extranet and web publishers can search Lizzer for links, pics and videos by subject and get simple embedding code. Check the demo at Lizzer.com

# 5Moximity Delivers Location-based Ads
Moximity delivers location-based offers through social media on mobile devices.

I used to co-office with the founders of Wayport and this was the original idea behind their network of hospitality & travel center hotspots. I guess they were just 10 years ahead of their time.

# 4UGC Helps Opex Scaling
@deckermarketing Posted an excellent article on user-generated content in terms of its operation expense scaling – a value proposition that is sure to please CFOs in tough economic times.

# 3Hack the Debate
TV & social media continue to converge. Current TV & Twitter partnered to show real-time feedback during the debates. Jeremiah found it distracting.

# 2Rapid Response Interactive Media
Alan Edget (@ACEdge) is an F500 social media strategist behind those clever FreeCreditReport.com ads (I love these; their funny & work well on TV & radio). He blogs about his attempt to create an algorithm that measures ROI on interactive media placement. The goal is to be able to rapidly respond to the market & change placements, kind of like options trading.

# 1 First Day of Autumn 2008
I see a few SEO companies are leveraging Google’s logo changes for fresh untargeted traffic. This is a clever ploy to prove their SEO mettle and generate a little buzz. Free and easy, this tactic is bound to become a meme. I built upon their accomplishments to develop the Quirky Holiday SEM Strategy.

BONUSDid you know that Google saved all their holiday and event logos for posterity? I love the preservation of campaigns. It’s a good practice for entertainment, history & long-tail traffic.

Seth Godin and Ed Welch have 101 ideas for brand managers on how not to take care of their customers. Here are my favorites related to online advertising.

• 3. Don’t ask for feedback from your customers. Make them take surveys but never engage them in a conversation with you.
• 5. Do everything you can to keep your customers from creating a community – you don’t want them talking to each other.
• 15. Don’t take viral marketing seriously. How fast can a message spread anyway?
• 22. Never try to build customer evangelists – mass advertising has always worked better!
• 31. Routinely email your customers without their expressed permission. The more frequently you send email, the better.
• 42. Don’t browse the internet – don’t look for what people are saying about your company.
• 69. Be sure you understand that internet marketing is just like “old school marketing”.

Read the whole list: 101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe