If you've ever wondered why it's so hard to get that special domain name that you think of at 3AM (you know, the one that's going to make you instantly rich?), or just how all of those $@#!@! people can afford to register all those domain names about lasik, gambling, viagra, mortgages, etc. and only put ONE page on the domain with just a few google ads... Well, so there's a bit of recent news from the domain registrar folks that might shed some light on this. Bob Parsons (you know.. godaddy founder..) spoke out recently on the proliferation of what he calls the "add/drop scheme".

Basically what folks are doing is registering a ton of domains, pumping junk pages on them with text that is somewhat related to the domain name and (most importantly) some ads. If the ads get clicked during the initial 5 days then they might just keep that domain name. Otherwise they dump the domain name for a full refund. Yuck.

To see the extent of this problem I had to look at a pretty graph (nothing against the clear words of Mr. Parsons, but I like pictures) and so I found a write up on it at Ipwalk. Go take a look at that graph and notice that the "dropped" line is almost the same as the "added" line. bah!

.. it's just crazy. Imagine if 90% of the purchases at a major retailer like Home Depot or Wal-Mart were being returned each week. And think of all the missed opportunities that folks like you missed out on when you went to register a domain only to find that it was taken (but not really taken..). It's nuts..