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tips I'm really happy to pay 20% or even 30% commission to good platforms. Here's why.

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twiki

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I just got a comment today, that 30% SquadHelp commission is an insane amount. (It's not the first time I get such a comment though). And I know it's a judgement error, so here's my response and some advice for other NP members here.

In domaining, there is a mindset of scarcity, and also a mindset of abundance. I choose the latter. Why? Because it's the only one that works. And in business in general.

When someone tells me that 20% commission (Afternic) is too much, or 30% at SquadHelp, well, I know this is a actually a fair percentage. That's also why it is accepted by sellers. And here's the reason.

I don't care how much the other guy gets. What I care about is, how much I am left with. And what do I get out of it. So should you.

This sale I just got, for A/d/a/p/t/y/v/e/ .com would probably have never been made outside of SH as this is a brandable. Unless listed at SH or another brandable marketplace with a lot of traffic, chances would have been nil. Why? Because with Afternic network or Sedo, if your domain is not a searchable one (this isn't), chances are nobody will ever buy the domain. Also the landers don't generally help at all because such domains don't get search engine traffic. They're in a black zone, unless brought to light by a brandable marketplace.

So I just got 70% of the $2299, instead of 100% of nothing.

The same thing applies with Afternic fees which are the highest in the non-brandable marketplaces zone.

I pay 20% at Afternic, and less than 10% elsewhere (e.g. 9% at Dan). Yet all my landers are currently pointing either at Afternic (20% commission; searchables) and some at SH (30%; brandables). Why? Because this brings me the most money overall. Even after deducting all those extra % fees.

With NS5/NS6 at Afternic , that GoDaddy name + a phone where anybody can call means I get a LOT of good sales which otherwise won't be accomplished. The GD name brings trust; many domain buyers are quite wary of online buys.

Also the phone number improve conversions a lot. This is why 20% commission here actually means more money in the pocket for me, rather than say 9% or 10% at another platform where I only get a lander sale, but the buyer never heard of that platform and also there is no phone to call. Side note Afternic brokers are also very good = more sales.

Now with SH what I get is an entire tier of domain sales that would never have existed. (Or with any other brandable marketplace you'd like). SH has a lot of AI and merchandising behind their platform; stats; category based sales; great logo designers; classification experts bringing best categories and descriptions for your domain; contests pushing your domain sales and more. Plus instant support.

All this costs money, much more than yet another lander. But it brings sales - ton of extra sales, and high value sales for domains because of all that merchandising. That's why it is worth it. I can for example double my sales for the same portfolio size, by paying a measly 10% extra. That's quite cheap if you do the math. Even if I get just one more sale at each say 7-8 domains sold elsewhere, it IS worth it. It means profit.

Also, about scarcity.

I've seen a lot of people losing in this business because they're not flexible enough, they value their domains too much or are too attached to them. Al these choices are bad ones.

If you're not willing to give out another 10% of your commission in exchange for far better sales, you're losing, not winning this game.

Because in domaining the most important factor is sales ratio. I'm gonna say this again, just to make sure you understand it. In domaining, the most important factor is sales ratio. Keep this in mind. Do everything you can to improve that factor. Do the math. Your platform choice is a very important factor that can make the difference between success and failure with domain selling.

Say a given platform like Afternic has 10% more commission. But if, again, they bring 20% more sales, you're in profit because overall you sold more and you're left with more money. Use the difference to buy a few more great names, or - why not? Pocket the profit and spend it as you'd like.

This is why you should always test and measure such things. Math on paper.

And yet another thing about scarcity:

"I'm selling too many of my names and too much % goes to others" etc. Many inexperienced domainers apply this kind of scarcity thinking to their names. Well - did you ever do the math properly? Did you A/B test platforms? Is it good to choose selling LESS names instead of giving out a larger % but for much more sales, which, in turn, will leave you with far more in the pocket?

What many less experienced domainers also forget, is that domain sales ratio usually ranges at 1...2% per year in case of 4-fig domains for example which make the bulk of the market. This means that your feeling of "giving out too may of your names or too much %" is just... a scarcity mindset that actually works against you.

That means, say in one year if you have 100 names and sold 2, you have 98 domains. And you might have made some money, or not - because you have to pay for renewal of 98 names, which costs a lot (98x$10 = $980 for example). But if you sold 4 names, your profit skyrockets because you have DOUBLED your income, and all those extra sales will be 100% profit. And you still have 96 names left to sell, which means, you sold 2% of your portfolio for a multiple-fold profit. With the extra profit you got, you can easily pay for a few more names to cover the few you sold AND still have a lot more in your pocket.

Those extra SH sales will bring me at least a solid extra 5-fig over this year. That's why I use Afternic, SH and would use any other decent but perhaps high priced marketplace. Because without them, overall I'd be at a loss.

Do the math, guys. Always do the math. And avoid the scarcity mindset.

Happy domaining!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Yours ,I agree that afternic godaddy has a lot of eyeballs and partners ,but your using a but it now lander why not just use a site like biix that Uses escrow.com to clear funds ,if you still want to list a godaddy ,list it at the same time but make price higher
Have you had success using Biix? The 2% commission sounds very appealing. Also, do your listings need to be exclusive to them, or can they still be listed elsewhere at the same time?
 
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What is the best marketplaces to sell on?

I’ve sold a few on Sedo, but obviously they were very searchworthy.

I get way more emails by simply parking on park.io than anything else I’ve tried.
 
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it's no brainers.. I'm happy to pay 90% to market or broker if he can sell a.name.i.was.ready to sell for 100usd.. for say 1000usd or more... in other words if any market can get me a roi of more.than I expected...or could get myself... cause they do outbound or what not... then hell ya they can even take 90prrcent lol
 
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I just got a comment today, that 30% SquadHelp commission is an insane amount. (It's not the first time I get such a comment though). And I know it's a judgement error, so here's my response and some advice for other NP members here.

In domaining, there is a mindset of scarcity, and also a mindset of abundance. I choose the latter. Why? Because it's the only one that works. And in business in general.

When someone tells me that 20% commission (Afternic) is too much, or 30% at SquadHelp, well, I know this is a actually a fair percentage. That's also why it is accepted by sellers. And here's the reason.

I don't care how much the other guy gets. What I care about is, how much I am left with. And what do I get out of it. So should you.

This sale I just got, for A/d/a/p/t/y/v/e/ .com would probably have never been made outside of SH as this is a brandable. Unless listed at SH or another brandable marketplace with a lot of traffic, chances would have been nil. Why? Because with Afternic network or Sedo, if your domain is not a searchable one (this isn't), chances are nobody will ever buy the domain. Also the landers don't generally help at all because such domains don't get search engine traffic. They're in a black zone, unless brought to light by a brandable marketplace.

So I just got 70% of the $2299, instead of 100% of nothing.

The same thing applies with Afternic fees which are the highest in the non-brandable marketplaces zone.

I pay 20% at Afternic, and less than 10% elsewhere (e.g. 9% at Dan). Yet all my landers are currently pointing either at Afternic (20% commission; searchables) and some at SH (30%; brandables). Why? Because this brings me the most money overall. Even after deducting all those extra % fees.

With NS5/NS6 at Afternic , that GoDaddy name + a phone where anybody can call means I get a LOT of good sales which otherwise won't be accomplished. The GD name brings trust; many domain buyers are quite wary of online buys.

Also the phone number improve conversions a lot. This is why 20% commission here actually means more money in the pocket for me, rather than say 9% or 10% at another platform where I only get a lander sale, but the buyer never heard of that platform and also there is no phone to call. Side note Afternic brokers are also very good = more sales.

Now with SH what I get is an entire tier of domain sales that would never have existed. (Or with any other brandable marketplace you'd like). SH has a lot of AI and merchandising behind their platform; stats; category based sales; great logo designers; classification experts bringing best categories and descriptions for your domain; contests pushing your domain sales and more. Plus instant support.

All this costs money, much more than yet another lander. But it brings sales - ton of extra sales, and high value sales for domains because of all that merchandising. That's why it is worth it. I can for example double my sales for the same portfolio size, by paying a measly 10% extra. That's quite cheap if you do the math. Even if I get just one more sale at each say 7-8 domains sold elsewhere, it IS worth it. It means profit.

Also, about scarcity.

I've seen a lot of people losing in this business because they're not flexible enough, they value their domains too much or are too attached to them. Al these choices are bad ones.

If you're not willing to give out another 10% of your commission in exchange for far better sales, you're losing, not winning this game.

Because in domaining the most important factor is sales ratio. I'm gonna say this again, just to make sure you understand it. In domaining, the most important factor is sales ratio. Keep this in mind. Do everything you can to improve that factor. Do the math. Your platform choice is a very important factor that can make the difference between success and failure with domain selling.

Say a given platform like Afternic has 10% more commission. But if, again, they bring 20% more sales, you're in profit because overall you sold more and you're left with more money. Use the difference to buy a few more great names, or - why not? Pocket the profit and spend it as you'd like.

This is why you should always test and measure such things. Math on paper.

And yet another thing about scarcity:

"I'm selling too many of my names and too much % goes to others" etc. Many inexperienced domainers apply this kind of scarcity thinking to their names. Well - did you ever do the math properly? Did you A/B test platforms? Is it good to choose selling LESS names instead of giving out a larger % but for much more sales, which, in turn, will leave you with far more in the pocket?

What many less experienced domainers also forget, is that domain sales ratio usually ranges at 1...2% per year in case of 4-fig domains for example which make the bulk of the market. This means that your feeling of "giving out too may of your names or too much %" is just... a scarcity mindset that actually works against you.

That means, say in one year if you have 100 names and sold 2, you have 98 domains. And you might have made some money, or not - because you have to pay for renewal of 98 names, which costs a lot (98x$10 = $980 for example). But if you sold 4 names, your profit skyrockets because you have DOUBLED your income, and all those extra sales will be 100% profit. And you still have 96 names left to sell, which means, you sold 2% of your portfolio for a multiple-fold profit. With the extra profit you got, you can easily pay for a few more names to cover the few you sold AND still have a lot more in your pocket.

Those extra SH sales will bring me at least a solid extra 5-fig over this year. That's why I use Afternic, SH and would use any other decent but perhaps high priced marketplace. Because without them, overall I'd be at a loss.

Do the math, guys. Always do the math. And avoid the scarcity mindset.

Happy domaining!
Hi! Thank you very much for the useful information.

So you don't use DAN.COM landers but instead 50% SquadHelp or Afternic?

Since most of my domains are brandable ones, I'm looking for the best strategy for this kind of names.

Have you ever tried BrandBucket? I just submitted my first 25 yesterday. Waiting for their reply.

And what about the GoDaddy thing you were talking about?

So you list your domains on GoDaddy.com with which pricing strategy? And then you point the lander on either SquadHelp (if they got listed here) or Afternic with only a BIN price?

Why don't you use DAN? Because Afternic has a direct phone number and some agent who can help you close the sale?

Thank you for the help!
 
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If your domains are generally under $5K, NS5/NS6 is a great choice.

If higher priced, try NS3/NS4.
Can someone explain to me what is the difference between these two and why?
 
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It appears you're not using SH, yet giving advice about it.

One cannot "find your name at SH" then go to a 10% marketplace lander, because with SH you need to point your domains there at all times via DNS, otherwise they are delisted.

But in essence, this is not the only way. Many will choose a 9% or even a 5% lander. I'm just explaining why I make this choice. Anyone can have another choice as they please.

Also, the Afternic landers with GD branding and phone number have brokers behind that help selling domain names. This is why I use only Afternic today: I have the best conversion rate.

I've tested about any other lander out there, for long time, including my own landers with Escrow embedded. Guess what? Even after that commission, the financial results with Afternic are best due to the conversion rate it brings. Dan.com came in second but at a large distance.

I'm advising anyone to first test and then decide. I'm speaking from experience not just taking sides, based on the mere impression that cheap is always better.

Edit: The Afternic lander choice is not even my invention. It has been posted in 2020 by @AbdulBasit.com - read the interview here. I was surprised by the choice but after testing long enough, I found this to be true. The most important conversion factor is, in my opinion, the phone number and speaking to an Afternic broker over the phone.
OMG I was looking for this info for so long.

I do conversion rate optimization for landing pages on daily basis and I was a little bit puzzled about this.

Since I can't test my own landing page I was going crazy to understand which one is better.

From a design perspective, there is no doubt DAN.COM is one of the best. But I didn't consider other factors that you mentioned here. It makes 100% sense. Sad we cannot test our landing as we want.

I would love to do that :)

Btw thank you so much again!
 
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Basically, almost 17k domains with Dan landers. 98% .com, brandables, 4Ls etc.

I have just started (7 weeks), so to early to say. Certainly, I was expecting more, but, again, too short time.

I am planning a 6 mo A/B test comparing Afternic and Dan landers. That should give a better picture.

At Dan, I have BIN + LTO 24 mo, no make offer. To give an idea, my most typical price is $2500 and my average sale price is in $3k-3.5k region most of the time.
Sorry I'm not following you.

How can your average sale is 3/3.5k and your average price is 2500$?
 
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Sorry I'm not following you.

How can your average sale is 3/3.5k and your average price is 2500$?
That's clearly an error on my part, I was definitely tired at the time. You are correct.

Usual range is $1500 - $3k (final sale price) and you can also see that in my many reported sales in the sales thread.

The average price is as they are listed, but I haven't computed an actual average (math). I do have lots listed at 2488 and above; but generally the cheaper sell faster, no wonder there. So real average might be in the 2k+ range but lower than 2500 currently.

Anyway meanwhile things have changed significantly. I've determined that Dan does not sell for me. Moved everything to Afternic.

In fact I must thank you for this comment, bcause I've been running another Dan test (to get this out of my head forever) and forgot about it. Was just wondering why the low sales in the last 10 days or so... Just switched it back to Afternic. (note, I have 3 other businesses on my head and therefore I'm prone to making mistakes).

And another note on numbers, I only have 8k names currently and aiming to keep them even lower.
 
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That's clearly an error on my part, I was definitely tired at the time. You are correct.

Usual range is $1500 - $3k (final sale price) and you can also see that in my many reported sales in the sales thread.

The average price is as they are listed, but I haven't computed an actual average (math). I do have lots listed at 2488 and above; but generally the cheaper sell faster, no wonder there. So real average might be in the 2k+ range but lower than 2500 currently.

Anyway meanwhile things have changed significantly. I've determined that Dan does not sell for me. Moved everything to Afternic.

In fact I must thank you for this comment, bcause I've been running another Dan test (to get this out of my head forever) and forgot about it. Was just wondering why the low sales in the last 10 days or so... Just switched it back to Afternic. (note, I have 3 other businesses on my head and therefore I'm prone to making mistakes).

And another note on numbers, I only have 8k names currently and aiming to keep them even lower.
I would love to have 8k domains :D

Yes, I thought that the numbers were messed up.

Thanks for clarifying this.

So you still use SH or everything is on AfterNic?

Can you please tell me which strategy were you using on DAN that didn't perform well?

I'm just starting out and doing my first tests.

I own around 150 domains. Mostly brandable or keywords. Listed all of them on SEDO with BIN + MAKE OFFER, listed on AFTERNIC, landers at DAN with BIN + INSTALLMENT PLANS.


Thanks!
 
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I would love to have 8k domains :D

Yes, I thought that the numbers were messed up.

Thanks for clarifying this.

So you still use SH or everything is on AfterNic?

Can you please tell me which strategy were you using on DAN that didn't perform well?

I'm just starting out and doing my first tests.

I own around 150 domains. Mostly brandable or keywords. Listed all of them on SEDO with BIN + MAKE OFFER, listed on AFTERNIC, landers at DAN with BIN + INSTALLMENT PLANS.


Thanks!
1 k at SH, everything else Afternic.

Any strategy I tested at Dan didn't really work.
 
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1 k at SH, everything else Afternic.

Any strategy I tested at Dan didn't really work.
Thanks again!
You provided so much value really.

Have you ever tried domains.io?

It seems a good solution to help you maximize all the best outcomes of every marketplace
 
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Thanks again!
You provided so much value really.

Have you ever tried domains.io?

It seems a good solution to help you maximize all the best outcomes of every marketplace
domains.io is for sale
 
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1 k at SH, everything else Afternic.

Any strategy I tested at Dan didn't really work.
Did you ever do a trial with with Afternic Fast Transfer versus their regular service?
 
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Hey @twiki the domains you are selling through SH are all listed as PREMIUM or you can sell them as well just with the REGULAR LISTING? I just submitted mine but most of them got rejected for the premium listing.

Can you give us some tips about this?

Thank you!
 
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Hey @twiki the domains you are selling through SH are all listed as PREMIUM or you can sell them as well just with the REGULAR LISTING? I just submitted mine but most of them got rejected for the premium listing.

Can you give us some tips about this?

Thank you!
All my listings are premium.

Tips: There's only one, really. Get better names.
 
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All my listings are premium.

Tips: There's only one, really. Get better names.
LoL Thanks :)
I'm still waiting for the approval of 10 over 50 submissions
 
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So I've got approved 5 domains over 50 submissions.
Saying that their average approval rate is around 5%, I'm doing pretty well :)

Btw @twiki what do you do when they reject your domains?
They don't give you the reason. Do you try to resubmit them again and again or you just give up?
 
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So I've got approved 5 domains over 50 submissions.
Saying that their average approval rate is around 5%, I'm doing pretty well :)

FYI, the approval rate is usually much higher than that in reality. Here's a screenshot from my dashboard, for example. My approval rate is 41%, sitewide is 11.85%.

The 5% approved number must be old.

Of course its hard to compare because if you submit crappy domains, your acceptance rate is going to naturally be lower. Once you get the hang of which types of domains they want your rate should get much better.
 

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FYI, the approval rate is usually much higher than that in reality. Here's a screenshot from my dashboard, for example. My approval rate is 41%, sitewide is 11.85%.

The 5% approved number must be old.

Of course its hard to compare because if you submit crappy domains, your acceptance rate is going to naturally be lower. Once you get the hang of which types of domains they want your rate should get much better.

FYI, the approval rate is usually much higher than that in reality. Here's a screenshot from my dashboard, for example. My approval rate is 41%, sitewide is 11.85%.

The 5% approved number must be old.

Of course its hard to compare because if you submit crappy domains, your acceptance rate is going to naturally be lower. Once you get the hang of which types of domains they want your rate should get much better.
Oh wow, congratulations! Okay I need to get better :)

Btw if your domains get rejected you resubmit them again at least once or do you just move forward with something else?
 
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Oh wow, congratulations! Okay I need to get better :)

Btw if your domains get rejected you resubmit them again at least once or do you just move forward with something else?

Don't resubmit, there's no point for that.

Try on another marketplace such as BB for example.

Note, I have about 13% approval rate but the actual rate on brandables is much higher - because I had an offer from them and submitted everything to them, just in case some might still be picked (a few did).

Should I have only submitted the proper brandables, above 30% at least, estimated.
 
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Well thank you, yeah I submitted also a few to BB but since the 28th of March I didn't get an answer yet.

Is this normal? Already SH took a week, but from BB I didn't get any news.
 
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Well thank you, yeah I submitted also a few to BB but since the 28th of March I didn't get an answer yet.

Is this normal? Already SH took a week, but from BB I didn't get any news.

I don't use BB. Their support is terrible if you ask me.
 
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