21 Comments

I Own Jeff Molander… and He is For Sale!

Mar 29, 2006
by

You read that right… I own Jeff Molander. More correctly, I own JeffMolander.com. I really don’t want to but I do. (More on this in a bit.)

It all started when I received the following e-mail from Jeff:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=jeff+molander

People are bidding on my “brand!”

Jeff Molander’s Brand

I wondered if Jeff had a brand. I know that he is all about merchants protecting their brands. Revenews readers have seen that Jeff and I differ on how merchants and service providers can achieve this goal.

The first thing I knew is that I was going to advertise on Google for the term “jeff molander”. That was easy… at least to start. Google decided that an ad offering a link to Jeff’s favorite website with the display URL www.JeffMolander.com and linking to Cashbaq wasn’t Google. Personally, I don’t disagree and neither does Jeff as Cashbaq isn’t his favorite site. (There is no accounting for taste.)

Jeff Molander’s Domain

Then there was JeffMolander.com. I don’t own DavidLewis.com. I wish I did but with a common name, it’s hard to get it anywhere. I do own DavidLewis.us but it’s really not the same as a .com.

Now, Jeff is totally into branding so he must own JeffMolander.com, right? WRONG! I checked and couldn’t believe it, especially since he started this in motion with that e-mail bragging about Return on Affiliates’ ad. So what was I to do? I bought it.

Domain Squatting

I have to point out here that this is the only domain that I am squatting on. I don’t believe in it and don’t domainsquat as a practice. This one was just irresistible.

Jeff comment on Revenews that his brand was “Hijacked by an Affiliate“. This is an inaccurate statement as neither my company nor I are affiliated in any way with Jeff Molander (except that both of us write for Revenews).

What’s the Excitement All About?!?

You’re wondering what the point of all of this is and how Jeff is for sale. I know, many of you think that goes without saying but there is a sale going on here…

I am selling JeffMolander.com! Shocking as it may be, I don’t want to own Jeff or the domain. If you are interested, it is for sale on eBay (of course). Find it for sale here: Jeff Molander

The auction ends Saturday at noon (Pacific Time). Yes, that is the date you think it is but this is no joke. The highest bidder gets to lay claim to Jeff Molander! There are no bids yet and I started the auction at 1 cent. I figure someone will at least put in their 2 cents!

About David Lewis

David Lewis is the CEO and founder of 77Blue which operates online shopping websites. Prior to that, he worked in business development at GoTo / Overture. David was a product manager and accountant in past lives. In 2006, David won Commission Junction’s Horizon Award for Innovation and was a finalist for Linkshare’s Golden Link Award. You can find David on Twitter @thedavidlewis.

Twitter: thedavidlewis
Filed under: Online Publishing
  • http://www.revenews.com Jim Kukral

    Oh my God, this is an instant classic ReveNews post. I'm going to bid!

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Really David you should have saved it up for the Affiliate Summit Orlando…this one would have easily joined the lore of industry pranks.

  • Jonathan (Trust)

    And great timing, auction just so happens to end on April Fool's Day.

  • http://www.anycoupons.com David Lewis

    Maybe I should make a shirt for the winner: I OWN JEFF MOLANDER!

  • Jonathan (Trust)

    Make a bunch of them for the next summit or sell them on ebay. Monetize his ass :)

  • http://www.michaelpolk.com Scott Polk

    I just bid on it … I'm winning YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $15.50

  • Jonathan (Trust)

    Hmm, so many possibilities.

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Wanna bet it gets snapped up and directed to some insane porno site?

    Intriguing experiment David. Personally I think Shawn should purchase it for Affiliate Summit and auction it off. Still I am going to bid on it.

  • http://www.biddingfortravel.com BiddingForTravel.com

    I think this is absolutely disgusting and not the least bit funny and I'm quite disappointed in the Revenews' publisher's comment. Sounds like a few people need to start acting like responsible adults.

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Sorry BiddingForTravel, but I find it ironically funnily. Then again that is perhaps because I, and others, know Jeff and prank each other in turn.

  • http://www.cashbaq.com David Lewis

    We'll have to see what Mr. Molander thinks of it. He didn't mind the "I Hate Jeff Molander" boxers or the "Molander vs. Kirsch" boxing T-shirts.

    I may have to see if the distro list on his "i've (sic) arrived!" e-mails would mind my posting the entire thread.

    Sheryl (aka Bidding for Travel), I guess you can prove those who think it's funny wrong by buying the domain and gifting it to Jeff. By the way, it is good that you registered your personal brand over 4 years ago. You would think that Jeff would have as well.

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    Wanna throw in a blogshares perk David? As a bonus prize of course.

  • http://www.affiliate-software-review.com Peter

    davidlewisisasquatter.com is for sale – maybe you guys should trade :)

  • http://www.cashbaq.com David Lewis

    Peter, maybe I can trade PeterKoning.com for that one. It's a available. Or maybe it's not anymore.

  • http://www.jangro.com Scott Jangro

    David, you might want to contact the recent bidders "gtmissy" and "ggalaxygrrl200" to make sure they don't think that you're auctioning off a date with Jeff.

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    This marketing experiment certainly is taking some strange turns.

  • http://www.revenews.com/wayneporter/ Wayne Porter

    over $100..he has trebled my t-shirt take. now I know what my brand is worth ebitda x 3 + assets.. about 45 bucks.

  • http://www.done.com Ben Padnos

    NIIIIIICE move, David! $108 (the current high bid) divided by the $8 domain cost = 13.5x. NICE ROI! We all wish ALL affiliate marketing was this profitable!

    Ben

  • http://www.revenews.com/jimkukral/archives/001652.html ReveNews – Jim Kukra

    Personal Branding: Is Your Online Brand Protected?

    Take the most recent tom-foolery by David Lewis buying Jeff Molander.com as a perfect example of why you should be concerned about your personal brand online. Is your personal brand protected? Let's run a test on ReveNews authors to see who has thier o…

  • Jonathan (Trust)

    "1) I will not reveal who the winner is."

    I think you can pretty much tell buy just looking to see who won. $250+ damn.

  • http://www.cashbaq.com David Lewis

    The bidders may choose to use eBay handles that are easy to guess or choose to use non-obvious handles. If I know the owner's name, I will not release it.