Atom marketplace (formerly Squadhelp Marketplace)

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[karmaco]

Yes you just hit change wholesale price and you remove the price

 

[karmaco]

I want to post a warning for all members that enter contests at SH.


I am very sure someone who works for SH is watching contests and poaching

good domain name submissions.


This has happened several times and the names always wind up for sale on SH.


Several good names that I entered but did not get around to regging have been taken.


These are very uncommon names.


Of course there is the possibility that someone came up with them and regged them,

but they all seem to end up for sale on SH within a day or two of my entering them!!!!!!!!!


What are the odds?


If they are for sale at SH it is probably not the contest holders.


That only leaves SH employees who, I am sure, have complete access to all the

names submitted to contests.


If it is not SH employee directly, then the names are being given to a friend

outside the platform to reg and the proceeds are split between the SH employee

and the friend.


This has happened way to many times to be a coincidence!!!!!


From now on I am going to reg good names right away, before entering them

in a contest.


This is serious BS!!!!!!!!!!


By the way, if you report a domain registration to SH using their process they either

never get back to you or they tell you they found no wrongdoing.


Their way of checking is to merely "ask" the contest holder if they regged the name.


When they say no - of course they are going to say no - then the case is closed, end of story.


They want you to believe they have your back when it comes to protecting your domain submissions,

but this is BS too.

I have been entering the contests and never enter any unregistered names that I personally want. If I want them I register immediately. One thing I noticed is it tells you if a similar name has been submitted and doesn’t allow you to submit that one. If enough people get that they might just go ahead and register it since it’s not eligible for that contest.

We all get the same brief and same ideas are likely. Many domains are registered every day— you snooze you lose.

This is however a strong accusation you have made and I am sure @GrantP will respond.

 

[GrantP]

@Cdomains

These are some very serious allegations. Have you reported these issues along with the specific examples to the team? It would be extremely easy for us to see who has listed the domain in the Marketplace and determine if there is a pattern of misuse. Based upon your recent post (as well as your post from few weeks ago), it seems you are fairly certain that someone is registering your domains and listing them for sale - however as far as I can tell, you haven't reported the specific examples yet to the team.

If you are not comfortable sharing them here, can you please send those specific examples to me via private messaging, or directly to the team? Also, when you say "This has happened way too many times to be a coincidence!!!!!", can you please share how many instances are you referring to?

It is not uncommon for multiple creatives to think of and submit the same name - in-fact many times when such issues are reported, we find that another creative had previously submitted the same name to contests, and eventually decided to register it, or list it for sale.

Having said that, we take such issues extremely seriously, and would urge you to share the specific names as soon as possible.

 

[capybara]

I did look there, but the list was empty at the moment, but now they have appeared. Shall note to expect a delay next time.

After few more attempts I see that their interface is quite buggy. The list does not appear every time.

Also, when you submit an unregistered domain, and want to submit second, you need to reload the page. Because when you click on "Submit an unregistered domain" button second time, it opens the window with fields populated with values you've just submitted. They should be clearing after previous submission, of course.

 

[bojan1]

@Don Gondon I am having a lot of problems when filling description after the domain is approved. When I add many details in description I cannot scroll down description window... and I must publish name first, and after that I can edit my description and add new details.

 

[Regietron]

Their review time is slower these days, guess they are overwhelmed. In my experience, all unregistered names submitted on Fri-Sun is usually reviewed by monday max.

Now names submitted from wednesday, are usually reviewed by Monday of the next week.

Friday-Sunday used to be slow paced days, now it is from Wednesday.

 

[Gube]

Just received an email telling me they accepted one of my names as premium
It took 3 days for them to review it.
Now let's see if it sells

 

[YairDD]

I'm trying to submit a domain but it says it is still available for registration even though I regged it yesterday.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

I want to post a warning for all members that enter contests at SH.


I am very sure someone who works for SH is watching contests and poaching

good domain name submissions.


This has happened several times and the names always wind up for sale on SH.


Several good names that I entered but did not get around to regging have been taken.


These are very uncommon names.


Of course there is the possibility that someone came up with them and regged them,

but they all seem to end up for sale on SH within a day or two of my entering them!!!!!!!!!


What are the odds?


If they are for sale at SH it is probably not the contest holders.


That only leaves SH employees who, I am sure, have complete access to all the

names submitted to contests.


If it is not SH employee directly, then the names are being given to a friend

outside the platform to reg and the proceeds are split between the SH employee

and the friend.


This has happened way to many times to be a coincidence!!!!!


From now on I am going to reg good names right away, before entering them

in a contest.


This is serious BS!!!!!!!!!!


By the way, if you report a domain registration to SH using their process they either

never get back to you or they tell you they found no wrongdoing.


Their way of checking is to merely "ask" the contest holder if they regged the name.


When they say no - of course they are going to say no - then the case is closed, end of story.


They want you to believe they have your back when it comes to protecting your domain submissions,

but this is BS too.

This is the sort of thing I decided to not participate in contests with unregistered names. SH then saw I am submitting only premium names and then decided to limit my account so that I cannot submit the same name for 3 or 4 or even more days to another contest. I have significantly stopped participation, in fact, completely in recent months.

My names had zero history, they were not registered by other sellers and put up for sale, but I believe the CHs did it and SH checking process is exactly how you said it. Many of the best names O submitted has been registered and same service started on the domain so it cannot be be just a coincidence at all. I submitted cosmetics, beauty, lift, dating names, never been submitted in the system and boom same day or next day registered, underprivacy at popular SH used registrars like Namecheap and Namesilo, and then the service is made live. Reported and I am told no, or sorry, it has been more than 30 days so we wont check.

It is simple. Dont participate in contests with unregged names. You are working and wasting your time for free 100%. I remember when a CH tried to create a name from a name I submitted, and said is this better? I said no, that does not make sense. He or she then said you are right, then loved and shortlisted my name. The rest...I dont know.

 

[Cdomains]

This is the sort of thing I decided to not participate in contests with unregistered names. SH then saw I am submitting only premium names and then decided to limit my account so that I cannot submit the same name for 3 or 4 or even more days to another contest. I have significantly stopped participation, in fact, completely in recent months.

My names had zero history, they were not registered by other sellers and put up for sale, but I believe the CHs did it and SH checking process is exactly how you said it. Many of the best names O submitted has been registered and same service started on the domain so it cannot be be just a coincidence at all. I submitted cosmetics, beauty, lift, dating names, never been submitted in the system and boom same day or next day registered, underprivacy at popular SH used registrars like Namecheap and Namesilo, and then the service is made live. Reported and I am told no, or sorry, it has been more than 30 days so we wont check.

It is simple. Dont participate in contests with unregged names. You are working and wasting your time for free 100%. I remember when a CH tried to create a name from a name I submitted, and said is this better? I said no, that does not make sense. He or she then said you are right, then loved and shortlisted my name. The rest...I dont know.

Thank you for validating what I have been trying to warn other members about for a while now.

 

[capybara]

@GrantP
Why do we need to change nameservers to submit domains for review? I believe it is absolutely unnecessary at that stage, you could require a TXT record to verify domain ownership instead. Reviews take some time, and having domains dwelling in nonexistence may hurt interest of potential buyers, if any happen to try the domains during this period.

 

[vravis9]

@Don Gondon I am having a lot of problems when filling description after the domain is approved. When I add many details in description I cannot scroll down description window... and I must publish name first, and after that I can edit my description and add new details.

Hey I just faced similar issue...

This was I in chrome...

So tried in Firefox..it helped but still sometimes getting same problem....using zoom out and fill in the tiny page...

Surely lot of improvement required..

 

[vravis9]

@GrantP
Why do we need to change nameservers to submit domains for review? I believe it is absolutely unnecessary at that stage, you could require a TXT record to verify domain ownership instead. Reviews take some time, and having domains dwelling in nonexistence may hurt interest of potential buyers, if any happen to try the domains during this period.

I checked with cust support and we don't need to change nameservers for submitting for review...

It needs to be changed after getting approved...

 

[Avinash S]

I strongly believe that there should be some changes made to the SquadHelp staff particularly the team who accepts the domains into "premium category",

Some of that team has really poor knowledge, I still wonder how can they accept some crap names and how can they reject some good names?

 

[karmaco]

They been doing this awhile and they know what sells on the site and what gets rated well in their countless contests.

SweetBullets should be singular and bullet is not some hot word. Not sure who would use that. Maybe a gun enthusiast Plus the two words don’t really go together well.

If you are going to take time to critique someone else’s name I felt comfortable critiquing yours. If you study the brandable market more you would understand in that space Digizia has a better chance to sell than SweetBullets.

 

[Brian L.]

I just submitted and had approved, my first domain entry to SquadHelp. Do they just create a logo at some point or do I have to initiate that somehow?

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

They been doing this awhile and they know what sells on the site and what gets rated well in their countless contests.

SweetBullets should be singular and bullet is not some hot word. Not sure who would use that. Maybe a gun enthusiast Plus the two words don’t really go together well.

If you are going to take time to critique someone else’s name I felt comfortable critiquing yours. If you study the brandable market more you would understand in that space Digizia has a better chance to sell than SweetBullets.

Was about to post about that zia, it works and many have been sold, ZA also gets sold.

 

[BrandPlease]

Big Thumbs up to SquadHelp! 15 weeks with them and had a sale, NOT BAD at all!!! Premisis (com) was the name, if you are interested. Only on their site for 15 weeks and just about 20 names listed... I think it says a lot about the value in the level of "choosiness" in name selection and rather aggressive (but reasonable IMO) pricing.

 

[Branded Domains]

Hi
Friends

I listed 29 names now.(38% domain accepted)
Previously I used to get inquires these names when I listed in different market place.
But after listing on SH I got 0 inquiries..I stopped adding names(will resume after one sale at least) .But my likes are increasing like 12 likes per name..but till now not converted into sales.....

Still their platform is good,I see their adds in various places on websites..which is a plus point(for more domain exposer).
Also their review system is very fast(within 24 hrs).
Support is instant(including weekends).

Brandbucket/BrandPa/SquadHelp.......All got their own strategies....
I have good times with Brandbucket and Brandpa...and other marketplaces.....
Lets hope I get a sweet taste of SquadHelp Shortly..

Best of luck to all the sellers of Brandbucket/BrandPa/SquadHelp

Thank You
Best Regards

 

[Candace]

So, a quick question I would like to ask. Perhaps it's been addressed in this discussion before but I wasn't following prior, and unfortunately, I don't have time to go back 20 pages.

Who exactly screens names for Squadhelp? Are they branding experts? What's the procedure exactly? How come I can ask for names to be re-reviewed? Does this mean that the people initially looking at the names are not experts? @GrantP

I like to play around with SH really to increase my feel/knowledge of what people are looking for in terms of brandable domain names. I don't consider myself a brandable expert by no means (I'm more of an outbound girl). In fact, my friend @SuperBrander is the real MVP for brandables.

Anyway, I had the name "Fear The Fire" in king rejected by SH, kinda to my surprise, because I thought "What an awesome phrase! What a cool brand!" (think TV series, survivor type shows, think anything adventurous, 'naturey' etc)

Anyway, don't know if it would sell or not, but the same name was accepted at BB for like $7.5K or something in that range. Could it just be buyer/customer differences between the two platforms?

 

[SuperBrander]

@Candace Thanks for the kind words. I'm certainly no brandable MVP. The likes of Ablebrands, good old Michael Krell and plenty of other NP members like Brandzen and others are much more suited for that ambiguous title.

As for SH, I'm sure Grant will chime in but from my perspective- though SH is new to domaining per say, over the years they've accumulated an abundant wealth of data and insights about end users and the names/domains they choose via their naming contests. Since launching the marketplace- that knowledgebase keeps growing and they keep evaluating all that data and make acceptance/rejection decisions based on that and their accumulative experience in seeing what sells.

Since SH's staff don't have a domaining background, at least at this point in time, and sort of landed into domaining with a bang, they don't think like domainers and have a different approach to evaluating names, pricing etc. as a result. I think with time that will evolve. Either way, SH is a unique player in the brandable game and giving the old brandable marketplaces a run for their money with innovation and massive investments in marketing so it's great that they're around and challenging the other marketplaces to step up their game.

 

[GrantP]

Who exactly screens names for Squadhelp? Are they branding experts? What's the procedure exactly? How come I can ask for names to be re-reviewed? Does this mean that the people initially looking at the names are not experts? @GrantP

@Candace We have a small team of branding professionals who review the names in Marketplace. They have a fairly broad experience in branding, and they work directly with hundreds of companies (startups to large corporations) to assist them with their branding projects. We also take into account quite a bit of analytical information and insights while evaluating the names for approval and pricing. In addition, we've also done thousands of audience tests (where we have tested names with the real end-users - target customers of companies who launch contests with us). These audience testing results give us an additional level of insights regarding what names might resonate with target audiences of our buyers.

Our team analyzes each name from the point of view of an end-user and if they feel that it will resonate with our buyers, they will likely accept it. Having said that, there is subjectivity in the process, and there are probably many examples where we missed out on a good opportunity (and vice versa).

The review process is designed to correct some of those human errors. Once the seller submits a name for another review, and provides some additional rationale for why that name might be a good fit, we take a fresh look at the name, and will gladly accept it if it aligns with our understanding of our customers.

 

[YanaT]

I have 22 names live now.
waiting for my first sale..
Great thing is you get exposure of every name you add.

Regards

Not every name Most of the exposure goes to the premium domains The Basic entries appear to get ZERO exposure.

 

[YanaT]

Wow, this is something I did not know.

So far, I have only submitted names as premium names.

I did not know there was no approval required for the basic listing.

I doubt very much those names that are not approved get any exposure at all.

 

[Bernard Wright]

@GrantP I have a premium listing that was given a logo I didn’t care for. I requested a review and a new logo was provided. Honestly, this new one is probably the worst logo I’ve seen on the site. Can I just make my own and send it to you? Such an option might be appreciated by others here as well.