news Alter ceasing operations

[Mkt Sales Leads]

Email received today:

Farewell​ Hi there, First and foremost, I would like to thank each and every one of you for using Alter to sell your domain names. We couldn't have come this far without your invaluable support. Over the last couple years we've been on a mission to transform the domain industry. However, despite all our attempts we weren't able to find a sustainable business model. So it is with a heavy heart I write to you today to say farewell. On April 2nd, all third-party domain listings will be removed from our marketplace. Seller accounts will remain active for the foreseeable future so those with a positive balance or pending installments can continue to cash out. Lastly, we realize this decision wouldn't be fair to sellers who spent money to have professional logos designed on our platform. So we have refunded all relevant payments back to your account balance which can be cashed out at any time. We truly wish you all the best in your future endeavors. It’s unfortunate that this wasn’t the outcome we wanted but we’re thankful to everyone that came with us on the journey. Sincerely, Deven Patel Founder & CEO

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I don’t think there is any relation.

The Biix marketplace and NameWorth appraisal are related (same owner).

Alter developed their own 6-factor appraisal system which is part of Alter.

Thank you for clarifying that. I've appreciated the free appraisal services of Alter and Nameworth. They both are newer domain-related businesses, and I was hoping to see both thrive and expand their services. Perhaps Alter can spin off their appraisal services? We'll see.

 

[F.E.]

The whole point of buying the company would be for the revenue. If a domain investor is trying to buy Alter for their own portfolio, it wouldn't make any sense, since they may as well just run their own site because it would be a lot cheaper.

Anyway, if your purchase is successful, I wish you the best of luck with the new vision.

I can't remember when was the last time anyone acquired company with main goal being to increase profit. All company valuations today are based on growth.

As for the sense, let me give you few reason why Alter.com:
- off-site SEO: backlinks from forbes, yahoo, washington post and others
- established site: already has tons of monthly views
- premium name: Alter.com
- growth potential: reputation in market, trustable name.

And thanks for kind words, I really appreciate it

 

[MadAboutDomains]

You could rename it Falter.com

 

[DomainNature]

My assumptions are that some domain investors are trying to buy Alter.com for their own portfolios, and not sure if they did already, but I just got it touch with Mr. Patel and if he's willing to sell Alter.com Inc as a whole business, I'll be acquiring it and probably leave things as is for some time, but I do have different vision for it, still in domaining industry.

Yes, have think the same.
There is a reason why this keyword is special, might be some corp want to acquire the domain.

 

[buydomainnames]

Waiting for @Deven Patel comment

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

You could rename it Falter.com

Ouch!

 

[Jason Baudendistel]

I dm'd them and asked about doing a fractional COO arrangement , kicking the tires on seeing if I can help them salvage it. Will keep everyone updated.

 

[F.E.]

Maybe you should try e-mailing him, but not sure if he's going to do that. Seems that my transparency did brought other interesting parties as well, so I'm assuming decision has already been made.

I'm going to send offer letter tomorrow and we'll see how things are going to move after that, will keep you posted

 

[F.E.]

LOI sent to Deven, hopefully transition will start early next week, once Definitive Agreement is final and Escrow transaction processed. Let's shake things up in brandable domain marketplace

 

[koolishman]

LOI sent to Deven, hopefully transition will start early next week, once Definitive Agreement is signed and Escrow transaction processed. Let's shake things up in brandable domain marketplace

Good luck!

 

[aoxborrow]

what would you change to make it profitable?

 

[F.E.]

If I become the one who goes through acquisition, here are some key points.

1. Business model: at the moment, Alter is inline between general marketplace and brandable domain marketplace. My first goal would be defining that business model clearly and then we go to 2.
2. Marketing - Concluding on point 1. whole marketing strategy should be rewritten. "Business name generator" although in some sort true is not Alter's usp (unique selling point). That being said, I'll put more efforts into making clear: what Alter is, what visitor can expect and reason why choosing Alter.
3. More aggressive advertising - I'm going to follow you throughout the internet from a moment when you view one buy now page (will try to exclude sellers though haha).
4. Building community - Keeping up with the engagement standards @Deven Patel and the team did on various communities, getting more engagement in social channels.
5. Support excellence - Key of making Alter success is keeping up with both buyers and sellers throughout a day and making sure that every step of Alter journey as easy as it can be.

There will also be some key operating changes: depending on the final decision of first point, I might introduce tougher vetting process, so we could actually focus on domain quality more than on quantity. This is, of course, if I decide to continue with Deven's initial plan and build brandable domain marketplace. Otherwise, if I open up doors for all domains, there will be major revamp of search function.

And lastly, I'm going to introduce more free tools to boost up marketing: free business name generator tool, advanced visitor analytics for domain names, and many more. And yeah, I forgot: I'm going to hit hard on competition by keeping the existing rates and adding more advertising efforts. Essentially, burning the money until Alter is THE go-to place for brandable domains.

 

[aoxborrow]

Alter vs. SquadHelp is a fascinating comparison. Alter has created one of the best looking brandable sites out there, extremely professional design and well built, and the logos are of relatively high quality. In contrast, Squadhelp often looks and feels like it was built by duct taping WordPress plugins together. But the difference in inventory is just as striking. Looking at .IO domains at Alter feels like I'm scraping the bottom of the expiring barrel. No amount of logo design is going to fix this domain:
https://alter.com/names/ooio.io

At Squadhelp I see piles of premium names, and many at very affordable prices:
https://www.squadhelp.com/name/Lug.io

Because most brand markets are exclusive, you are facing an uphill battle to attract premium inventory away from incumbents. Why should someone move domains away from Squadhelp if they know they are much more likely to sell there? Their ad spend must be ridiculous, you cannot escape their ads. Even a 10% difference in commission doesn't matter if the domains aren't selling.

Another factor is that Alter lets you set your price, which inevitably leads to lots of overpriced garbage (see above), where Squadhelp mostly curates their pricing and only lets big portfolios control pricing. Better curation = more sales.

Finally, I think Squadhelp does some innovative things on the backend with crowd curation, their wholesale market, and the coins. The result is that lower quality domains have to pay to play, which not only creates revenue for them, but a better market for buyers.

 

[F.E.]

Exactly, and everything you just said I told you in one point: past Alter operated in between brandable marketplace and general marketplace (like dan, sedo and others). There was no visible line on what Alter was in reality, as entry bar was so low which also led to compensating quantity over quality.

As previously mentioned, if I buy it, Alter is going to shift directions in one of two niches (either general marketplace or brandable marketplace) and depending on that shift, there will be major changes in its operations.

In case I decide to go brandable marketplace route, this would essentially mean reviewing every single domain name and probably parting ways with many sellers, as entry line will be much harder to reach, but on a contrast, once you're in, you'll be having much more visibility as I'm willing to invest deep into advertising and creating much more exclusive marketplace: where one that comes to buy domain name actually ends up buying it.

I'm not into this mainly to make money, but to set a new heights for domain investors, which would probably make a lot noise among competitors.


And as for competitors: From one hand, you have one competitor which is acquiring everything he can in order to be major player, with mislead advertising as well (recently made a tweet about it), while from the other there's an actual competitor who deliver on quality and success rate, but compensate that by having awful UX/UI. So if I am capable of hitting success in advertising space (and my track records in advertising industry says I can) while delivering simple onboarding and portfolio management with awesome support, I'm sure those competitors will take that hit long-term.

 

[aoxborrow]

LOI sent to Deven, hopefully transition will start early next week, once Definitive Agreement is final and Escrow transaction processed. Let's shake things up in brandable domain marketplace

Are you saying he has accepted your offer in principle and you are purchasing Alter.com?

 

[Future Sensors]

As previously mentioned, Alter is going to shift directions in one of two niches (either general marketplace or brandable marketplace) and depending on that shift, there will be major changes in its operations.

I have not received any official communication about these plans from Alter. What is your source?

 

[F.E.]

Are you saying he has accepted your offer in principle and you are purchasing Alter.com?

Officially not yet, as some previously interested parties returned to the table, but I believe I would be the one who's going to close this deal most def, as money is just waiting for it to happen.

I have not received any official communication about these plans from Alter. What is your source?

I am that source, I'm currently in a process of initiating Alter's acquisition and hopefully acquiring it pretty soon.

 

[Future Sensors]

I am that source, I'm currently in a process of initiating Alter's acquisition

I would then like to advise you to choose your wording about the future of Alter much more carefully. The word "hopefully" sounds very different from your other statements about what Alter will look like in the future. I think you can only say something about that after a possible deal has been concluded.

 

[F.E.]

I believe that each of my post contains very careful wording, as that 'hopefully' or something similar exists. If you're following this thread from very beginning you'll probably figure that out

EDIT: last one didn't, sorry about that. updated it

 

[johnn]

I would not say anything until the deal is done and the transaction is complete.
Every one has a dream but not when the sun is out.

 

[F.E.]

Everyone might have a dream, but not the money to pursue that dream I do.

 

[johnn]

Sorry, I did not know that you are rich.

 

[F.E.]

Just got lucky enough with several small bets (like Gamestop and AMC) and few long term (BTC, ETH, FAANG) fyi.

edit: as traders would say, one of those stupid millenials

 

[Charybdis]

Even a 10% difference in commission doesn't matter if the domains aren't selling.

Yes I would rather sell a domain for 30% commission than not sell a domain for 5-10% commission.

 

[F.E.]

Yes I would rather sell a domain for 30% commission than not sell a domain for 5-10% commission.

that's the whole point of any marketplace: to generate sales. I'm 100% positive that Deven had best intentions and plan for Alter, but that plan required capital sacrifice and operating in net loss for many years, and investing your own money if you'd like to compete with others. Aside that, low commission also brought a lot of lesser quality names which also polluted overall domain portfolio, and blurred lines (I talked about this previously) between brandable domain marketplace and general domain marketplace, so Alter ended up competing with Brandbucket, Squadhelp and others while in reality all that time, those were not its competitors.