Confessions of a Fitness Diva....: The Web Diva Gets Jacked!!!

Yep. Just like getting knocked over the head on a dark street and having your wallet taken while you lay bleeding on the cold, hard pavement.

As I mentioned in earlier posts, my main mission this year and beyond is to establish myself as a web entrepreneur and independent businesswoman. I have been out here building websites, buying domain names to build on, and learning to work the web from every angle possible. So far, it's been a great education!

Now, I own about 30 domain names, on everything from business to fitness to doggywear, and my registrar, GoDaddy was holding the brunt of them. Since I registered with them, I decided to take part in their cash parking, which is where you can make $$$ off your parked domains (domains that you haven't put a site on yet). So, being the quick learner that I am, I figured out that the way to make $$$ on cash parking is to market the domains just like a website. In the past few months, me and cash parking became one happy couple, me logging into my account every evening to see the day's cash totals on each domain, a glass of merlot in my left hand... The money was piling up softly like snow...
After I got my first payout, it was official -- I was IN LOVE! Me and my cash parking got really tight, and I worked the hell out of it, and saw good results.

The better my marketing skills got, the higher those cash totals went. It was bliss! My bank account was a happy camper too!

Imagine my surprise to come home the other day and see an email in my box saying "GODADDY CASH PARKING ACCOUNT SUSPENDED!!!". WTF??? Oh, HELL no!

Come to find out, they had issues with some of the methods I used to market my names, like using Google Adwords and placing inexpensive classified ads. Funny thing is, they don't say NOT to use Adwords in their TOS, so to me, that's a slimy little loophole they get to exercise whenever they get ready. I'd been using AdWords and classified ads, ALL YEAR LONG, and they didn't seem to have a problem with it.
Well, GoDaddy invoked their rights, and pulled the carpet right out from under me. And with a nice cash balance that was to be paid to me in the two upcoming months, to boot. Yes, they get to keep that, and I have NO recourse. Gotta just let that money go.

Well, that pissed me off, and I've come out fighting. I found myself a new hosting/registry company and transferred half my domain names to them. You don't treat me good, you NO get my $$$$. I am happy to say that I am now using LUNARPAGES HOSTING, and so far, they seem pretty cool. In addition to customer service people that are actually knowledgeable and helpful, they also give you FREE Coffee Cup web editing software (which I just started using a trial version of, and really like). In fact, you get the entire Coffe Cup library of web tools, for chat, blogs, video on your site, creating animation, forms...everything! AND FREE WordPress for blogging.
Lot's of cool little toys to use, experiment and play with! You also get a C Panel, which GD doesn't provide. I just LUVS me a C Panel to check my web stats with!

HELLO! A new relationship has just been sprung! I asked them about their terms of service when it comes to how you market your sites and parked domain names, and they said "as long as you don't do anything illegal, or anything that hurts the servers".
Hmph! Sounds DAMN good to me! I'm in!

After my experience with GD, I went and searched on other people who have had problems with GoDaddy, and found a ton of horror stories. Some people had their main accounts suspended for similar reasons as me, AND had their domain names held ransom by GD, and were allowed no logical way to resolve it. Apparently, if they suspend your account for any reason, you are guilty until the cows come home, and trying to resolve it is damn near impossible! If you have revenue generating sites up and running, you're SCREWED big time, and you get charged $199 (per domain name) to get your domain names back. Some people that posted had like, 60, 80, 100, 200 domain names. Oh, they don't just suspend the "offending" site, they wipe out ALL YOUR SH*T!. Whoooo.....scary stuff for ANY webmaster to have to contemplate, much less deal with.

Before signing on with Lunarpages, I did quite a bit of research, and they are in the top 10 of host/registry companies, (ranking like first or second, I forget) among all on the web. So far, they seem to be living up to it. I'm gonna post their link for anyone wanting to get their web business on, or change from the crappy web host you now have:

Lunarpages.com

This has also lit a fire under my butt to go ahead and build my sites for each domain name that I have, instead of relying on cash parking for most of them. In the end, I'm gonna make that $$$ anyway. I'm ready to knock it out!
Lookout, Baby...I am BACK in the saddle!