Cheap(er) domain registration prices and cheap(er) basic web hosting packages have never and will never motivate me to choose GoDaddy for any of my domain registration or web hosting needs.

NEVER.

However.

Due to the old RegisterFly fiasco (not my fault!) that happened back in the timespan of 2005-2007, I had a handful of domains that I had been maintaining at RegisterFly get pushed on to GoDaddy while one domain ended up with eNom. Several got moved elsewhere (DreamHost, here I come!) while I let others whose purposes had expired… expire.

Also.

Due to working with various people over the years – paid, voluntary, because we’re friends, and otherwise – I have been forced to interact with GoDaddy as the go-between fix-it and fix-up person.

But those incidents and instances aside, I myself would never – if possible – choose GoDaddy.

Why?

Good grief, but where do I start?

I know! How about in alphabetical order?

ADVERTISING PRACTICES

I really dislike how the offsite advertising in general (TV ads, ads elsewhere on the web) frequently reminds me about how questionable I view GoDaddy’s services to be. In relation, I also really dislike seeing Danica Patrick’s and Bob Parsons’ faces plastered everywhere on the site.

Seeing faces on the landing page, fine. Good idea, even, as it’s part of the branding and marketing et al. But EVERYWHERE?! I DON’T need their faces to sell me MORE domains or whatever other web package is being offered! In fact, the faster I can get through the pages upon pages (see the Web UI and UX bit for more information) of advertising and upselling to get to what I need to get to, the happier I would be!

So that’s one thing.

The other thing is this:

Due to the kinds of advertisements GoDaddy has run and continues to run, seeing Danica’s face everywhere in particular automatically matches her – and the GoDaddy service in general – to a pair/multiple pairs! of prominently displayed High Definition-quality breasts.

Coupled with the frequent and liberal showcasing of the GoDaddy Girls, the word GoDaddy on its own leaves a taste of ‘what the hell kind of a service is this place offering anyways – free email porno with every purchase?’ in my mouth.

It also doesn’t help that Parsons’ blog features ’sexy talk’ (viewer discretion advised!) related to the GoDaddy Girls and girls in general and that the advertisements in the sidebar and elsewhere that link to his blog often utilizes titillating wording to attract attention and the content of such blog posts often involves the objectifying of women.

Making mental comparisons of Parsons to that guy who owns that Bunny Ranch in Nevada, is NOT, in my opinion, good for a professional image for someone who is the head of a web hosting and domain registrar company.

Are you selling an online porno mag or are you selling web hosting and domain registration services? Maybe it’s just me, but I prefer to keep porno with porno and web hosting et al related services with web hosting et al.

Personally, the mental comparison always makes me wonder if I can dare to trust the operation of a company that deals with something so technically involved to someone like that.

RegisterFly, whom I mentioned in passing in my opening paragraphs, had a founder whose professionalism and know-how had increasing reason to be questioned in the lifetime of his ownership of the company. My experience with the company – once rock solid – was all downhill after the first few years. Coincidence? Nope. Correlation.

Do I want to repeat that experience?

No thank you!

Furthermore, where I’d figure that a guy like Parsons couldn’t care less about me hosting all manners of porno sites using his service, do I really want my professional career be tied in with a company that exudes such a feel?

My male clients might not have anything to say about it, but I know my female clients might take issue and I would hardly be able to blame them. As is, I have had more than a few women ask me if there are other hosting options aside from GoDaddy as they dislike how strongly women are objectified by the company and dislike the company’s consequently ’seemingly unprofessional’ tone.

I want someone to take me and my services seriously; not question my ability to make sound judgment calls based on the fact that I am trying to save money by using a service whose advertisements make it look more like an online Bunny Ranch than an honest-to-goodness reliable web host and domain registrar.

My answer?

No thank you.

Listen. If I want my visual eye candy, I’d get it elsewhere – NOT from a web hosting and domain registrar!

Also. If I wanted to be a customer/client under a Hugh Hefner wannabe, I’d go for Hugh Hefner and his Playboy franchise. At least I KNOW that I am signing up for pornography and should therefore expect eye candy at every which click!

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

I have been on the telephone with their customer support on and off for the last few years – for myself, for my clients – and no matter the reason I call in I ALWAYS get someone who is trying to upsell me with services I DON’T NEED and WILL NEVER NEED because the service that it is associated with is a service that I DON’T and WON’T use.

‘Frustrating’ doesn’t cover what I feel when I have called in with a very urgent problem only to be greeted by an upsell.

Who am I talking to – a credit card company?!

Apparently so.

And in relation to that, is:

UPSELL PRACTICES

Anyone who has ever tried performing an action so simple as renewing a domain will know what I mean when I say the upselling that goes on in the process of trying to perform a single task is multiple pages long.

From trying to sell you other related domain names or the same domain name except under different TLDs to selling you privacy protection to selling you email services to selling you all manners of web hosting services and things related to web hosting, the number of pages you need to click through to get to the final page is TOO MANY.

And if that weren’t enough, on your confirmation page is yet ANOTHER chance to purchase something else!

Aside from simply being annoyed to all hell with the upselling, what I really dislike is this:

The upselling content is small-fonted and all cram-jam-packed into each page. If you’re not careful, you very well could end up signing up for something else before you realize what is going on and you could very well end up NOT completing the transaction you were trying to complete.

I HATE how GoDaddy forces its customers to endure page after page of upselling to get to the end point.

Do you want my money or not? Would you rather have someone give you their money to you in peace or would you rather have them accidentally buy (or not buy!) something they didn’t want (wanted)?

Apparently the latter.

No thanks.

To me, that falls under the category of ’shady business practices’.

To use DreamHost as a contrasting example, they offer me all manners of options in the side panel of my account control panel. If I need it, I click it and it opens the service/feature page in question and I have an option to purchase. Additionally, non-sidebar informational text-based links to other services are logically placed in accordance to the service/feature I am utilizing or maintaining. And, if I contact customer support to ask a question about databases they are NOT going to randomly try to sell me an SSL.

Thank goodness!

WEBSITE UI and UX

This goes hand in hand with the ’shady business practices’ and the whole ‘GoDaddy’s advertising makes me question the nature of the services and the quality of the services offered’ topics I covered earlier.

If a potential or current customer can’t access – much less navigate – through a website that loads slower than molasses, then how are they supposed to do any business?

It’s slow on a good day. It’s buggy on a bad day. It crashes my browsers on the worst days.

Additionally, with the way all the damned upselling and advertising is placed helter-skelter EVERYWHERE on every page, how the hell does anyone know where to look for the right services and features to begin with?

I can only manage because I memorized the location of everything and because I’ve had years of dealing with user unfriendly UIs which provide terrible UXs.

How a first-timer manages to get everything set up perfectly the first time, I have no idea.

Now.

After I’ve said all that, I’m sure you’re wondering what could possibly be right after all the things I said were wrong.

Admittedly, as much as I sometimes want to say that GoDaddy gives the impression of nothing but trouble, there ARE a few things that GoDaddy has done right.

The MySpace Username and Password List Incident

There was a lot of hullaballoo about GoDaddy’s takedown of a site that had a list of MySpace usernames and passwords posted (the site archives mailing lists) with people complaining about the takedown being an infringement of the freedom of speech.

Since when does Freedom of Speech include posting usernames and passwords? An act which under almost ANY and ALL TOSes of ANY remotely reputable internet-based service or site is consider illegal and punishable?

Good for GoDaddy and even better for them standing up to their stance on the issue and reaffirming their stance on using their services to perpetuate illicit activities!

The RegisterFly Incident

GoDaddy acquired a whole bunch of domains as a result of the RegisterFly fiasco and during the time where I had to wrangle with figuring out what was going to happen to my various domains that had gotten split up between two different registrars, GoDaddy customer support was very helpful in helping me get everything back in order.

I can’t complain about the upselling because it was the perfect opportunity to do so at the time and they handled my questions and situation well, given the enormity of the fiasco.

To that, I give my sincerest thanks and that leads me to my closing thought:

I wish GoDaddy’s business model didn’t rub me the wrong way as much as it does, but I know as well as everyone else that GoDaddy as it exists now in the form that I on a whole disagree with so much is here to stay for a while and I will just have to agree to disagree with them.

They’re not a bad company, and where I sure don’t agree with their practices, I’m sure others do and will and maybe even encourage it.

In all honesty, I can see the business-related reasoning behind why they do what they do and in that particular sense, I can’t really ‘fault’ the company for its direction. Heavy in-your-face advertising sells. Sometimes really grates on the people whom they are trying to advertise to, but it sells. Sex sells. Sometimes alienates a potential marketshare in the process, but it sells. Aggressive upselling sells. Sometimes sells with disastrous results, but it still sells.

All in all, different strokes for different folks, and since we’re talking about GoDaddy, I think I can get away with that phrasing.

I mean, it’s GoDaddy – c’mon.

~ EMG