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SquadHelp - Marketplace

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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.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Dayum, how come I'm getting 0 sales in 4 months with SH? I thought maybe my stats suck, but I see they are pretty decent.

Maybe low amount of names and high prices? IDK, feelsbadman.

Shortlist/views, no idea what that is about


Show attachment 167899
If we be serious about SH algo...

it says right there in the figure will take 32 weeks to hit a sale. You just 16 weeks in.

But we all know its just fugazi.
 
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You will just frustrate yourself if you try to wrap expected time to sell on names accepted.

It needs to be recognized that marketplaces choose names most likely to sell to their customers or the target audience they are advertising to. That means that you may feel a name is amazing, & maybe it is, but they (whatever marketplace) knows they don't have enough interest in that market or maybe they have 4 names too similar & need to ensure a mix.

Marketplaces are a waiting game. It took almost 2 years (with 180 names listed) for my first sale on BrandPA, BB was 8 months or so (with about the same # of names listed), & SH was the oddball for me in that I had a sales in 5 weeks.

I have sales on each market of names the other didnt accept - so it really comes down to finding the best place to see the names you have to the audience that is looking for them. Maybe that's Afternic? maybe NameJet, maybe a Brandable Marketplace?

Just try to save the stress of expected timelines, it's hard, we all feel it.

GL
 
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Two important SH forum threads for those who use SH WLM

1. https://squadhelp.com/t/upcoming-changes-to-our-listing-types/8854/27

2. https://squadhelp.com/t/...that-i-think-could-really-help-sellers/8913/2
 
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It's funny. I just came upon SH and was looking here on NP to see if there was any info. :)

I'm also checking out nameforce. Although SH looks better.

I just joined Name Force after reading this. They are more user friendly than SH and a lot less competitive for the namer but what's to keep someone from registering the domain name that coincides with the business name being submitted?
 
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1. https://squadhelp.com/t/upcoming-changes-to-our-listing-types/8854/27
@GrantP this is a great change now that we can use SH to sell our domains at our own prices with your very competitive 7.5 commission.
Would be great if you could improve it further to allow standard listings without having to use SH nameservers (TXT record verification instead). The reasons to use own nameservers are (but not limited to):
– using the domain email
– using subdomains
– NS-record confirmation at other marketplaces where the domain is also listed
Hence not losing control over the NS settings is a much preferred way to have one's domain listed with any marketplace.
 
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@GrantP this is a great change now that we can use SH to sell our domains at our own prices with your very competitive 7.5 commission.
Would be great if you could improve it further to allow standard listings without having to use SH nameservers (TXT record verification instead). The reasons to use own nameservers are (but not limited to):
– using the domain email
– using subdomains
– NS-record confirmation at other marketplaces where the domain is also listed
Hence not losing control over the NS settings is a much preferred way to have one's domain listed with any marketplace.

For the standard listings, you do not need to use SH name servers. You can simply add a TXT record to verify ownership.

There are certain benefits such as "Marketing Exposure Upgrade" which are not available if the Name servers do not point to SH. However if you are just looking for a landing page without using SH name servers, you can do that by adding TXT records.
 
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Does anyone know how to list a domain using TXT record confirmation? I can't find the information anywhere.
 
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What was SH's decision process for not accepting recent hand reg drops? The age of a domain shouldn't matter if it's a high quality name that goes through a rigorous evaluation.
 
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What was SH's decision process for not accepting recent hand reg drops? The age of a domain shouldn't matter if it's a high quality name that goes through a rigorous evaluation.

Yes grabbed few nice brandable names recently but they were rejected because of they were recent backorders.

Not sure if age is such a big deal especially in brandable names.
 
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@GrantP

TBH... WLM refund policy makes me feel a bit worry and not necessary, what if the buyer change their mind and canceled the sale?

Buyer had a lot of time to think before make a decision, giving them 5 more days after hit the BIN is unfair for seller, IMO.

Can you please remove the policy for WLM ? none of other marketplaces (Afternic, DAN, Uni and Sedo, EPIK ) use it or even put on their lander.

Many thanks :)

SH refund policy.jpg
 
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@JudgeMind, thanks for sharing your dashboard and your insights. I am sure you will sell another name still this month, last time happened the same :xf.wink: Just wondered if SH indicates the WLM sales also on dashboard vs leaderboard ( only premium marketplace sales? ) .

upload_2020-9-24_17-37-3.png

upload_2020-9-24_17-37-20.png
 
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@JudgeMind, thanks for sharing your dashboard and your insights. I am sure you will sell another name still this month, last time happened the same :xf.wink: Just wondered if SH indicates the WLM sales also on dashboard vs leaderboard ( only premium marketplace sales? ) .

Show attachment 168257
Show attachment 168258

When the WLM was launched, they did include all sales on the leaderboard. Now the leaderboard shows only SH premium marketplace sales
 
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What was SH's decision process for not accepting recent hand reg drops? The age of a domain shouldn't matter if it's a high quality name that goes through a rigorous evaluation.


Evaluation was mentioned few times here already, I also believe it sucks.. but what can we do?

I had these names recently rejected (which I believe are great brandables) :

eteria
bewey
secria
folmy

and some others.
 
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Evaluation was mentioned few times here already, I also believe it sucks.. but what can we do?

I had these names recently rejected (which I believe are great brandables) :

eteria
bewey
secria
folmy

and some others.

What can we do about it? Come together as a group of sellers to encourage change.

Many voices are stronger than one.

DM me if interested
 
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We? Nothing lol, their house - their rules, accept or leave.

All I'm saying is that there are much worse brandable names getting accepted, that's it.
 
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We? Nothing lol, their house - their rules, accept or leave.

Not only are there worse names getting accepted, the rules are different for different sellers... not right.

"Their house" is made up of domains that we, as a group of sellers, own.

If enough of us come together to try to change something, we will be a lot more persuasive than just individually whining about it on NP
 
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Not only are there worse names getting accepted, the rules are different for different sellers... not right.

I've been following Squadhelp's progression over the past year and couldn't help but chime in about their forever fickle selection process and ridiculously slow selling time.

I have got over 300+ shortlists and haven't managed to get a single sale yet after 11 months of being on the platform. I've tried all the tricks in the SH book, played their coin games and now I am starting to feel there is certainly something amiss.

Here's the fun part, I did get an interested buyer from a naming contest 4-5 months ago who wanted to purchase my domain for $200. An SH representative got in touch with me thereafter and I offered a 20% discount and asked them to close the deal or at least tell me how things went through even if the buyer didn't accept my counter-offer.

Guess what? the rep never got back to me, didn't even mention that the sale didn't go through because of blah blah blah. Nothing nada.

In a nutshell, out of all the brandable marketplaces, SH has disappointed me the most thus far...

Kinda ironic because I had the impression that they were the best brandable marketplace insofar as sales are concerned. If only...

Edit: The domain was priced at $3400. I wonder what made the naming contest buyer think they are gonna get it for $200. I don't blame the buyer though. The SH rep should have done the hard bargain and/or explained the situation clearly to both the parties.
 
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Edit: The domain was priced at $3400. I wonder what made the naming contest buyer think they are gonna get it for $200. I don't blame the buyer though. The SH rep should have done the hard bargain and/or explained the situation clearly to both the parties.
This must have been a $200 contest where the contest holder (CH) believes that their contest fee entitles them to any of the domain name submitted to the contest.

I have stopped submitting premium names to contests because most of the CHs just want a name they can handreg. High ratings, low ratings resulted in no sale. However, I have sold a name shortly after I got a notification that it was viewed by a CH though the name was not submitted to the contest. My conclusion is that CHs who want a premium name will seek them out.
 
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The policy in question specifically prohibits using any promotional content. Here are the specific content guidelines stated in the policy:

"Please keep your content original, balanced and factual. Please avoid posting promotional content. We recommend sharing your own experience with specific facts such as specific domain sales, or any other relevant information. ".


With that said, it is understandable how this can be misinterpreted. More importantly, it can call into question the experiences shared by individuals even if they did not receive any coins.

As a result, we will be terminating this policy effective immediately. However we encourage everyone to continue sharing their feedback (positive or negative).
SH marketplace update for August 2020

Pending the unlikeliness that a sale comes in in the next day, August was the first month in 2020 I did not complete a sale on the Squadhelp marketplace. Although my portfolio of premium marketplace listings is over 500, the sh marketplace has grown immensely. Sell through rates continue to decline and imo will soon be in line with the STR of other marketplaces 2-3%. In August views and short lists on my names dropped to 0% in the second and third week but went back up a little bit towards the end of the month. Despite purchasing 6 super boosts each week , views and short lists dropped. In the past, purchasing super boosts would bump my names to the first page. In August something changed, I no longer see my super boosted names on the first page of the marketplace.

While August was my worst month of the year for me, july was one of the best with 3 decent SH marketplace sales.

I did close one sale in the BrandAim.com WLM for $1,049. This was my 5th sale via my sh WLM since launching in early July.

Had three other sales in August, each were afternic fast transfer. One for $899 one for $5000 and one for $1999

Are all your names forwarded to your WLM?
 
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Edit: Issue fixed, I just got a message from support.

GrantP, I requested for a logo design. I have $5 balance but I'm getting "Insufficient Funds" error. I chat to the support he said "Currently, the system is allowing to submit logo design requests using account balance only when the balance is >$5."

It doesn't make any sense. It costs $5, I have $5. I don't get why it's not allowed.

upload_2020-9-25_23-19-0.png
 
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This must have been a $200 contest where the contest holder (CH) believes that their contest fee entitles them to any of the domain name submitted to the contest.

I have stopped submitting premium names to contests because most of the CHs just want a name they can handreg. High ratings, low ratings resulted in no sale. However, I have sold a name shortly after I got a notification that it was viewed by a CH though the name was not submitted to the contest. My conclusion is that CHs who want a premium name will seek them out.

I never submitted the aforementioned domain in question to any contest as far as I remember. As in your case, the CH viewed my domain and got interested and subsequently contacted SH with their low ball offer. Matter of fact, I've received several notifications where prospective buyers (CHs) viewed my domain(s) but I never heard from them again. Strange.
 
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@GrantP

I still don't understand the mystery way SH calculates the STR.

I have had around 65 names for 1.5 years with SH, another 45 for about 0.5 years. 3 names have been sold in that time from around 110 names.

Normal math would mean STR of around 2-2.5%, SH says my STR is 8.33% for both annual and 6 months.

Maybe you guys will stop with the BS "alternative math" and go with traditional normal one? And certainly it shouldn't deviate by 4 times???

Consider this: Brandbucket sold 10 names from 360 in 12 months for me and and shows STR of 2.7% for the past 12 months.

So they have performed better than SH for me, yet somehow your STR shows 3x+ higher than theirs.
 
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I still don't understand the mystery way SH calculates the STR.

I have had around 65 names for 1.5 years with SH, another 45 for about 0.5 years. 3 names have been sold in that time from around 110 names.

Normal math would mean STR of around 2-2.5%, SH says my STR is 8.33% for both annual and 6 months.

Maybe you guys will stop with the BS "alternative math" and go with traditional normal one? And certainly it shouldn't deviate by 4 times???

Consider this: Brandbucket sold 10 names from 360 in 12 months for me and and shows STR of 2.7% for the past 12 months.

So they have performed better than SH for me, yet somehow your STR shows 3x+ higher than theirs.

@Recons.Com

Here's how we calculate STR:

12 month Sell through: Total domains listed for 12 month or more which SOLD / Total LISTED domains for 12 month or more

6 month Sell through: Total domains listed for 6 month or more which SOLD / Total LISTED domains for 6 month or more

I just took a quick look at your portfolio and here is what I see:

I see that there are a total of 33 active premium domains, listed for 6 month or more

and there are 3 sales from the domains listed for 6 month or more.

The remaining 71 domains were added on April 24 and April 26 2020 respectively.

Therefore, the 6 month STR = 3 / 36 = 8.33%

The same STR applies for 12 month because in this case all these 36 domains were listed for 12 month or more.

If you believe you have 65 names listed for 12 month or more, we would be glad to send you a full list of domains along with the published date so that you can compare it with your records and let us know if you see any discrepancies. This information should also be available in your Marketplace Listings page.

We believe a portfolio Sell through provides a clear view of the overall sales from the portfolio, however if you would like us to add alternative methods of STR calculation and show them in addition to portfolio Sell through, we would be happy to consider adding additional views.
 
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A more accurate (and useful) annualized STR would take into account the number of days each name was listed. Not hard programmatically.

Saying a 6month or 12month one as you currently do is misleading and not a useful metric for most.
 
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