Domain Marketplace 3% commission?

[Sirbigman]

Hi NP,

Me and my team are thinking of getting a new domain marketplace (ie. Undeveloped, Brandbucket, Brandpa) which would work in the favour of the seller and buyer by charging a small fee of 3% per sale with escrow fees included. The marketplace would be very simple but effective, user account for buyers and sellers, auctions and websites for sale. To keep the scammers away we would verify each seller and a monthly fee of $30 would be required. My company would use those money to advertise the website in Google AdWords.

The golden question is, would you sign up for something like that?

 

[BrandMart]

This is market research basically but in a friendly way not in an annoying survey filling way. How would this be unique? It wouldn't be based on greed, first of all, you would already support the project by paying your monthly fee, the development would go on, we would advertise to right audience by conducting an extensive keyword research. Everyone would reach the front page at random, it would be easy to use and friendly.

So, a person will pay you $30/mo + 3% so he can list his domain and sell on your portal? A seller pays commission only on sale.

Lets do this via an example.
I have a domain - xyzabc.com, I list it on SEDO, it gets sold for $1000 in 16 months, I paid regfee + 1 year renewal + SEDO commission (10% - 20%, see https://sedo.com/us/what-we-offer/price-list-for-services/)

that makes sedo commission of around $100-$200 max. So total investment $200 (max commission) + domain reg+renewal - $25= $225. I get a profit of $775 approx.

Now, I list the same domain at your marketplace and it gets sold for $1000 in 16 months. I paid regfee + 1 year renewal + your commission (3%) + $30/mo listing fees, which you will use for advertisements.

So my total investment comes to - $30 (your commission) + $30*16 months ($480) + domain reg+renewal - $25 = $535. I get a profit of $465 approx.

So which marketplace gives me more exposure and profit? Yours or SEDO / Afternic etc?

 

[alcy]

don't bother.

and correct yoru title to include $30 per month fee for sellers.

otherwise you're already doing false advertising before you even started the site.

 

[xynames]

Efty collects monthly fees, but they have existing traffic. So all these guys on here posting that "no domainer will pay monthly fees" are wrong, many do. BUT - as in my franchiser example, I believe that you must have something going on before you may justify monthly fees.

https://www.efty.com/pricing/

I personally do not pay efty a dime, I don't need to, but some obviously do.

 

[BrandMart]

I know exactly how much traffic they are getting, 3k unique on a good month. I don't know how much email and direct traffic but the organic traffic is around 3k.

You think SEDO gets around 100 odd unique visits / day, making it 3000 unique as per your research?
care to see: https://www.similarweb.com/website/sedo.com#overview

 

[Sirbigman]

I'm guessing a thousand+ people have had your idea. But you aren't going to compete against the big boys in a co-op type build

The big boys are counting on the fact that the domain investors are on their side, I think a bit of solidarity would make a difference. As a domainer, I would like to say: "I'm going to list my domains there because I like it and it works." How hard can it be?

 

[Sirbigman]

You think SEDO gets around 100 odd unique visits / day, making it 3000 unique as per your research?
care to see: https://www.similarweb.com/website/sedo.com#overview

I was referring to undeveloped, sorry.

There you go. That's only organic traffic.

 

[xynames]

I know exactly how much traffic they are getting, 3k unique on a good month. I don't know how much email and direct traffic but the organic traffic is around 3k.

I assume you are referring to undeveloped. 3K unique per month is nothing, I get far more than that on my forums. And is that 3K unique from domainers thinking of listing, or from people looking to buy domains?

 

[Sirbigman]

I was referring to undeveloped, sorry.
Show attachment 84647
There you go. That's only organic traffic.

And their PPC keywords.

 

[maxtra]

The subscription business model will be very difficult to pull off, as there is to much competition in the marketplace and I believe the vast majority of your potential sellers would rather pay higher commissions than an upfront fee.

Maybe once you have an established clientele and proven sales, you could charge a monthly fee.

 

[Sirbigman]

I assume you are referring to undeveloped. 3K unique per month is nothing, I get far more than that on my forums. And is that 3K unique from domainers thinking of listing, or from people looking to buy domains?

I'll let you realise the relevance.

 

[xynames]

Yeah, it looks most of those looking for undeveloped...already knows it is there...and are just too lazy to enter the URL directly.

 

[Sirbigman]

The subscription business model will be very difficult to pull off, as there is to much competition in the marketplace and I believe the vast majority of your potential sellers would rather pay higher commissions than an upfront fee.

Maybe once you have an established clientele and proven sales, you could charge a monthly fee.

The subscription plan would only be for sellers. I'm starting to think this approach was wrong looking at the feedback.

 

[maxtra]

The subscription plan would only be for sellers. I'm starting to think this approach was wrong looking at the feedback.

If I were you and launching this venture, my only focus would be providing the most value and gaining marketplace share, not profit, similar to the Amazon approach and how they are dominating ecommerce. Long term patience would be the key, IMO.

 

[Sirbigman]

Yeah, it looks most of those looking for undeveloped...already knows it is there...and are just too lazy to enter the URL directly.

No advertising or SEO, all you have to do is research what people are looking for and advertise with those keywords on Adwords. undeveloped doesn't market your domains at all.

 

[Sirbigman]

If I were you and launching this venture, my only focus would be providing the most value and gaining marketplace share, not profit, similar to the Amazon approach and how they are dominating ecommerce. Long term patience would be the key, IMO.

It would have to be a game changer to work.

 

[Sirbigman]

and your previous successful projects are ???

I didn't mean to ignore your question, I run a small SEO agency, we worked with various business owners and helped them increase sales through SEO and PPC. We also design websites.

 

[1Darko]

This marketplace is free of charge https://www.prycr.com/ - run by our member @Silentptnr

 

[Sirbigman]

So, a person will pay you $30/mo + 3% so he can list his domain and sell on your portal? A seller pays commission only on sale.

Lets do this via an example.
I have a domain - xyzabc.com, I list it on SEDO, it gets sold for $1000 in 16 months, I paid regfee + 1 year renewal + SEDO commission (10% - 20%, see https://sedo.com/us/what-we-offer/price-list-for-services/)

that makes sedo commission of around $100-$200 max. So total investment $200 (max commission) + domain reg+renewal - $25= $225. I get a profit of $775 approx.

Now, I list the same domain at your marketplace and it gets sold for $1000 in 16 months. I paid regfee + 1 year renewal + your commission (3%) + $30/mo listing fees, which you will use for advertisements.

So my total investment comes to - $30 (your commission) + $30*16 months ($480) + domain reg+renewal - $25 = $535. I get a profit of $465 approx.

So which marketplace gives me more exposure and profit? Yours or SEDO / Afternic etc?

Good point and accurate calculations, the difference is that Sedo doesn't do anything to advertise your domains unless you pay more for a featured listing. In my vision, all the assets listed for sale would get an even amount of exposure on the front page which would be advertised to the right audience every day. The buyer wouldn't pay any fees.

 

[Sirbigman]

This marketplace is free of charge https://www.prycr.com/ - run by our member @Silentptnr

Looks tidy but I don't think it's getting much traffic.

 

[xynames]

undeveloped doesn't market your domains at all.

Yes, that is why they seem to be able to sell only via the landing pages that they create for people, which in those cases your sale has little or nothing to do with undeveloped, and everything to do with your domain name.

 

[Sirbigman]

And their PPC keywords.
Show attachment 84648

I assume you are referring to undeveloped. 3K unique per month is nothing, I get far more than that on my forums. And is that 3K unique from domainers thinking of listing, or from people looking to buy domains?

Did you notice how Sedo is only advertising for sellers? Looking at their AdWords keywords: "sell domains", "sell my domains" etc. They probably rely a lot on domain investors to pay their featured listings.

 

[1Darko]

Looks tidy but I don't think it's getting much traffic.

I don't know about that - but maybe @Silentptnr will join the thread.

 

[xynames]

Well, if I google "domains for sales" at this moment, Sedo is actually the very first organic SEO that comes up, under the four Ads.

 

[Sirbigman]

Yes, that is why they seem to be able to sell only via the landing pages that they create for people, which in those cases your sale has little or nothing to do with undeveloped, and everything to do with your domain name.

Yes, you can just create a simple landing page, use relevant keywords to optimise for search and leave it be. What's that gonna cost you? $3 per month for hosting? If you have a lot of domains you can use the same one for all of them.

 

[BrandMart]

Good point and accurate calculations, the difference is that Sedo doesn't do anything to advertise your domains unless you pay more for a featured listing. In my vision, all the assets listed for sale would get an even amount of exposure on the front page which would be advertised to the right audience every day. The buyer wouldn't pay any fees.

You have ambition, but i don't think anyone will pay $30 to someone who will use it to promote the marketplace. Remember, it's the Marketplace which will get the traffic not the domain itself. The person who pays $30 isn't promised any sale plus it's monthly, which will not be acceptable by many.

Better, get the concept and project running. Get an outside investor to fund your project. Maybe register it as LLC and get funds from market. Promote it and get steady traffic, ask for domain sellers to pay one time listing fee. Get the business rolling. You can even ask for 10% commission on successful sales. People don't mind paying 10%-30% commission when a sale happens.