Alter.com Marketplace

[Deven Patel]

Hi all,

I wanted to introduce a new premium domain marketplace we just launched called Alter. I would love to hear your thoughts! As the world’s largest community of domainers, your feedback would be invaluable.

Let me introduce myself. Although I’m new to NamePros, I’ve been around the block. I’ve been buying and selling domains for my own startup ideas for over 20 years. As a serial entrepreneur, I founded a number of startups across various industries like marketing, web hosting, social networking, blogging, and SaaS. This experience has helped me understand how indispensable a brand name is to a business.

Most new entrepreneurs don’t think twice about their company name. Our goal is to change that! A brand name literally has the power to make or break their business. This is more true today than ever before now that there are countless alternatives to every product or service imaginable. Sure, every business may have their own world-changing differentiator but from the outside they all look the same at which point the main differentiator ends up becoming their brand name. In a world full of distractions, we no longer have the attention span to thoroughly research what we buy so we rely on our emotions. This is why large businesses like Apple and Amazon spend billions on their “brand” alone because they understand that customer perception is everything.

Anyway, I noticed that most marketplaces that exist today are focused more on the seller rather than the buyer. Our goal is to reverse the equation and prioritize buyers because I think they are the key to success in any industry. The domain industry is no exception. Without buyers, there’s no money. This is why we’ve made it our mission to help entrepreneurs succeed!

And what’s with the 30-35% commission rate most of these marketplaces are charging? Unless they’re doing more work than a human broker, I don’t think anything over the industry average of 15-20% is warranted. We’re changing that. Alter has one of the lowest rates in the industry, an all-inclusive 10% commission fee when a name sells. There are no other fees or restrictions.

What do you think? Are we on the right track or barking up the wrong tree?

Deven

This was a promoted post.​

 

[Deven Patel]

@sellian @timestamp Your hearts are in a good place but as @SuperBrander @Lord Antares pointed out there are too many loopholes for something like that to work efficiently. The existing system already seems fair enough so I don't see any benefit to introducing an unnecessary level of complexity to the equation.

In terms of Alter implementing this, although we're not completely ruling it out, at this time we don't want to waste resources policing the marketplace when we'd rather focus that energy on acquiring more buyers which ultimately benefits everyone.

As others have suggested, maybe it makes sense for one of you to start a separate thread to discuss the idea with the broader audience. If you can get a considerable number of sellers to agree on it and can work out all the kinks then we would be happy to seriously consider it at Alter.

 

[Deven Patel]

Hi @Deven Patel , I would like to feedback on the loading time for each name. It take a little bit longer than others.

Alter took around 9-10 sec for loading, while the other took below 5 sec to loaded.

PS. I am from South East Asia

That is odd. Have you tried accessing our site at different times around the day on different networks (i.e. on your phone, at work, etc)?

I just did a speed test from multiple locations and here are the results:

0.6s - US (Washington DC)
1.6s - US (San Francisco)
1.8s - Europe
4.3s - Japan
5.0s - Australia

Granted our servers are on the east coast of the US, those results make sense.

 

[Deven Patel]

Ok, it's been less than 48h and everything has gone very fast and smooth on the platform.

This is my performance:

74 names submitted, 14 accepted (around 19%). Price average: $2320.

I am quite happy with the acceptance rate of my domains. I'm curious to see what the logos will look like

Thanks for your honest review!

Though as I mentioned before, please exercise caution when comparing acceptance rates with other sellers. A lot of these stats are vanity metrics that shouldn't be used to determine success. Each seller will have a completely different outcome based on the quality of their portfolio. The same holds true for sales/conversion rates. It all depends on the quality of the domains.

For example, if a seller submitted 100 domains and 99 were low quality then the success rate would only be 1%. On the other hand, if a seller submitted 10 domains and 9 were high quality then the success rate would be a whopping 90%!

No two sellers are the same because no two domains are the same.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

What payout methods do you provide? As a seller, I like to deal with marketplaces which provide many different types of payout options.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Just checked and you are providing Paypal and Wire @Deven Patel but with the wire, you have a catch....

Wire transfers are only allowed for amounts larger than $5,000 USD. Please select a different payment method or wait until you have a larger account balance.​

You are the only marketplace doing this for a wire...maybe we know why you chose this?

 

[Veneris]

Please include payoneer in your payment method, many of us are happy with that option.
Click like if you agree with me that payoneer is a good payment option for domainers.
@Deven Patel please take note of this suggestion.
Thanks

 

[Deven Patel]

Due to popular demand, we just added Payoneer as a withdrawal method for sellers on Alter. So now sellers have the option to withdraw profits through PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfers.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! @myfavorite @Abdullah Abdullah @Veneris

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Due to popular demand, we just added Payoneer as a withdrawal method for sellers on Alter. So now sellers have the option to withdraw profits through PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfers.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! @myfavorite @Abdullah Abdullah @Veneris

That was quick and amazing. Thanks

 

[sellian]

Though as I mentioned before, please exercise caution when comparing acceptance rates with other sellers. A lot of these stats are vanity metrics that shouldn't be used to determine success. Each seller will have a completely different outcome based on the quality of their portfolio. The same holds true for sales/conversion rates. It all depends on the quality of the domains.

Hi Deven, thank you for your reply. I apologize if I shared sensitive information regarding my acceptance rate! I will be more cautious with that in the future, promise. So far I am happy with most of the logos your team has come up with for my names. Landing pages are appealing and smooth too

 

[Veneris]

Due to popular demand, we just added Payoneer as a withdrawal method for sellers on Alter. So now sellers have the option to withdraw profits through PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfers.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! @myfavorite @Abdullah Abdullah @Veneris

Thanks alot. Amazing you're buying into seller's opinion. This will be very helpful. Thanks again.

 

[myfavorite]

Due to popular demand, we just added Payoneer as a withdrawal method for sellers on Alter. So now sellers have the option to withdraw profits through PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfers.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! @myfavorite @Abdullah Abdullah @Veneris

Thanks for listening and giving your current/potential customers more withdrawal options. It's highly appreciated.

 

[Votumejero]

Due to popular demand, we just added Payoneer as a withdrawal method for sellers on Alter. So now sellers have the option to withdraw profits through PayPal, Payoneer, and wire transfers.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! @myfavorite @Abdullah Abdullah @Veneris

Super awesome

 

[etruscan]

Hello Deven, why while we have to wait for the logo, the so called "editorial status" you do not show in the landing page "coming soon" next to our domain name and put also an "inquiry" form for potential buyer to bid for the domain or simply ask 4 info about it? If I type my domain name now in the landing page I see your entire marketplace and no reference to my own domain name, basically free advertising for Alter.

 

[Deven Patel]

Hello Deven, why while we have to wait for the logo, the so called "editorial status" you do not show in the landing page "coming soon" next to our domain name and put also an "inquiry" form for potential buyer to bid for the domain or simply ask 4 info about it? If I type my domain name now in the landing page I see your entire marketplace and no reference to my own domain name, basically free advertising for Alter.

Great feedback! Done and done.

 

[etruscan]

Great feedback! Done and done.

Thanks for taking action so quickly Deven, much appreciated!

 

[sellian]

Hi Deven, can I ask you why you choose to show the age of domains? I am not sure if this is a good idea as it adds complexity for the buyer who only needs a great name. Thanks!

 

[sellian]

“Older domain names generally rank better in search engines like Google and Bing because they have higher SEO potential.“ Is this also true for old brandable domains that have never been developed as websites?

 

[LUP]

@Deven Patel
can you publish domains that have been sold?

 

[Sammy Jakes]

@Deven Patel
Kindly work more on the description of names on your marketplace. 95% of my names have the description of "Perfect for business ideas like a blog, a SaaS and more" even when the name clearly doesn't fit into blogging and SaaS.

 

[etruscan]

Hi Deven, can I ask you why you choose to show the age of domains? I am not sure if this is a good idea as it adds complexity for the buyer who only needs a great name. Thanks!

Agree 100%

 

[Deven Patel]

@Deven Patel
can you publish domains that have been sold?

Thanks for the feedback! We'll certainly consider it.

 

[Deven Patel]

Hi Deven, can I ask you why you choose to show the age of domains? I am not sure if this is a good idea as it adds complexity for the buyer who only needs a great name. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your perspective! There are a couple interesting articles about this:

• https://seo-hacker.com/in-seo-domain-age-matters/
• https://www.ecreativeim.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/17/is-domain-age-important-for-google-rankings/

I remember this was a tough decision for us too when we decided to add it to the landing pages because we understand that visitor experience (UX) is a huge deal. It's always better to keep things short and simple especially in a day and age when visitor attention spans have drastically dropped (we have ~7 seconds to grab their attention before they bounce).

But after weighing the pros and cons, we decided to keep it for two primary benefits:

1. It helps rank the landing pages better. Generally, the more unique information there is on a page, the better it ranks. This means more potential buyers for your domains through search engines.
2. It provides an indicator for buyers to determine domain quality. Since there's no solid consensus on what age is good or bad, quality domains would automatically get an added boost as they would naturally be older. This is also why we label the age as "GOOD" right above the description even if the domain is a couple months old.

That said, we're constantly talking to buyers so if we do notice a negative impact with them then we'll certainly consider removing it in the future. Ultimately, our goal is to sell domains just like you.

 

[Deven Patel]

@Deven Patel
Kindly work more on the description of names on your marketplace. 95% of my names have the description of "Perfect for business ideas like a blog, a SaaS and more" even when the name clearly doesn't fit into blogging and SaaS.

Yup, we're working on it! That second part of the description you referenced is automatically created with some AI using business ideas that are available in our database. Once we add more ideas, that description will automatically adapt.

 

[Joe N]

Thanks for sharing your perspective! There are a couple interesting articles about this:

• https://seo-hacker.com/in-seo-domain-age-matters/
• https://www.ecreativeim.com/blog/index.php/2011/02/17/is-domain-age-important-for-google-rankings/

I remember this was a tough decision for us too when we decided to add it to the landing pages because we understand that visitor experience (UX) is a huge deal. It's always better to keep things short and simple especially in a day and age when visitor attention spans have drastically dropped (we have ~7 seconds to grab their attention before they bounce).

But after weighing the pros and cons, we decided to keep it for two primary benefits:

1. It helps rank the landing pages better. Generally, the more unique information there is on a page, the better it ranks. This means more potential buyers for your domains through search engines.
2. It provides an indicator for buyers to determine domain quality. Since there's no solid consensus on what age is good or bad, quality domains would automatically get an added boost as they would naturally be older. This is also why we label the age as "GOOD" right above the description even if the domain is a couple months old.

That said, we're constantly talking to buyers so if we do notice a negative impact with them then we'll certainly consider removing it in the future. Ultimately, our goal is to sell domains just like you.

Recently submitted my first round of names. I'm waiting on 15 listings. The site looks good, and I appreciate the quick turnaround of reviews, and the great job you're doing with feedback here.

I like the idea of showing the age and the accompanying info if the domain is at least a few years old. However, I would prefer if this space were dynamic, and showed entirely different info if the domain is "young".

Right now buyers are getting conflicting messages when they see that aged domains are a good thing, and also that a two month old domain is considered to have a "good" age. I see your point about the "good" definition being subjective, but I think even non-domainers will know that a six month old name cannot possibly be considered aged.

 

[sellian]

Recently submitted my first round of names. I'm waiting on 15 listings. The site looks good, and I appreciate the quick turnaround of reviews, and the great job you're doing with feedback here.

I like the idea of showing the age and the accompanying info if the domain is at least a few years old. However, I would prefer if this space were dynamic, and showed entirely different info if the domain is "young".

Right now buyers are getting conflicting messages when they see that aged domains are a good thing, and also that a two month old domain is considered to have a "good" age. I see your point about the "good" definition being subjective, but I think even non-domainers will know that a six month old name cannot possibly be considered aged.

Agree!