strategy Crazy commission rates! Enough is enough!

levinsondomains · Jul 12, 2017

Hi friends,
After one year of domaining I can't stop thinking about the crazy commissions that all of us pay to the major companies.
We work so hard, inbound, outbound, auctions, financial risks and everything else and after all we pay something like 15-20% to these companies.
I realized that there is no reason to this unusual rate. And why it's happened? Cause we are like prisoners in their platform,the big ones in this industry works in these companies and everyone go after them "on blind". After each sale we get maybe 65% of the purchased price, this is crazy!(commission+taxes+ other costs). And we are stupid, so stupid. If you stop and think about it for a minute you will understand how absolutely crazy are these rates.
Enough is enough, stop paying for this rates. If we work together we can reduce these rates, or even opening a social company for all of us. 20%!20%!WTF?

AIS01 · Jul 12, 2017

Super Welcome To nP...

DOMAIN ILLUMINATI · Jul 12, 2017

ʬʬʬELCOME @ nP

If you decide to use a sales platform, you decide also to accept their commision.

iHaveThisIdea · Jul 12, 2017

IMO, it's the cost of doing business, unless you do absolutely everything yourself.

You can argue the merits of each business -- and whether they deserve their cut. But if you don't like them, or agree with the commission structure, then why not do it yourself?

I do agree that some companies have "monopolized" things, at least in terms of traffic/eyeballs/awareness and whatnot. Others are "too big to fail."

You can vote with your wallet, though.

Lox · Jul 12, 2017

levinsondomains said:
If we work together we can reduce these rates, or even opening a social company for all of us

Can you elaborate on this.

maksimfa · Jul 12, 2017

I think as the industry matures more and there is more transparency, prices would come down.

Unfortunately... the majority of big deals are under NDAs, and not worth a brokers time to devote to pushing a name they may make $100 on.... hence why need higher fee.

On the low end, you have sites like Flippa which "own" the market and just increase rates.... to get you 10 views or less.... and you end up having to market it more and more yourself. that is where the opportunity is and a few companies are looking at it, I promise you. =)

baseballworld · Jul 12, 2017

Welcome to namepros.

SpareDomains · Jul 12, 2017

I do my own sales landers so most deals come direct with zero commissions. Don't mind Afternic at 20% as it gets your domains in the registrar path https://www.afternic.com/domain-reseller-network which I believe will continue to account for more and more sales in the future. So I'm fine with paying a commission if it gets my domains distributed as the key is quality domains+distribution. The others where your domains just sit with hundreds of thousands or millions buried at a marketplace where offers come in anonymous I don't see much action from them at all.

internext · Jul 13, 2017

levinsondomains said:
If we work together we can reduce these rates,

How? What do you suggest? I don't see big providers lowering their rates

Silentptnr · Jul 13, 2017

I understand your point but the way I look at the subject of paying commissions is a little different.

In every business there are expenses, including commissions, taxes, and other overhead. These expenses should be calculated into the amount you pay for a domain and where you set the price when selling. With careful management of these expenses, you can achieve the same margins of profit hopefully.

On another note, I too wanted to find a more economical way to sell domain names. I spent a year and a half constructing a marketplace website that is totally free. It will be years, if ever, that my site and the hundreds of others popping up, will reach the level that the larger companies have reached.

These companies are there for a reason. They have achieved success and I applaud that. I consider the ability to use their platforms a privilege, not a right.

If you were able to present a logical, sound, realistic and equally effective alternative to the big companies, you would probably have no choice but to charge fees.

johnn · Jul 13, 2017

Everyone want everything for free.
The only thing you will get it free is VIRUS.

You have the option to hire the broker or not. If you don't like to pay the commission then sell the name yourself.

Would you work for free?

maksimfa · Jul 13, 2017

johnn said:
Everyone want everything for free.
The only thing you will get it free is VIRUS.

You have the option to hire the broker or not. If you don't like to pay the commission then sell the name yourself.

Would you work for free?

John, no one is saying working for free but... a few examples.

Is it okay to pay more than $1 per view to list a Flippa auction? And to pay $250 to get it emailed out? On top of the 15% final commission.

With brokers, unless you have a six figure name, can you honestly expect them to put in a good amount of time marketing a name they would make $200 on? When it takes the same effort to market a name they can make $20,000 on.

Brokers, actual domain brokers I feel are a must for top names and you can expect them to do a great job proactively pushing them....

But if you do not have one of those top names.... offering more than 20% and exclusive rights.... what are you getting in return?

That is why I feel most folks who are able to, should try to market their own names first, then go to brokers to reach those they cannot.

But paying 20% to have a broker do almost nothing.... lol

Silentptnr · Jul 13, 2017

maksimfa said:
John, no one is saying working for free but... a few examples.

Is it okay to pay more than $1 per view to list a Flippa auction? And to pay $250 to get it emailed out? On top of the 15% final commission.

With brokers, unless you have a six figure name, can you honestly expect them to put in a good amount of time marketing a name they would make $200 on? When it takes the same effort to market a name they can make $20,000 on.

Brokers, actual domain brokers I feel are a must for top names and you can expect them to do a great job proactively pushing them....

But if you do not have one of those top names.... offering more than 20% and exclusive rights.... what are you getting in return?

That is why I feel most folks who are able to, should try to market their own names first, then go to brokers to reach those they cannot.

But paying 20% to have a broker do almost nothing.... lol

For some reason, individuals have priorities. Some things, we spend without caring about markups and profit margins. Other things, we feel like victims of robbery over small amounts! We feel we should determine the value and cost for another persons business.

To split 80/20 with a partner that is doing the hard part (selling the name), it doesn't seem a bad deal.

maksimfa · Jul 13, 2017

Silentptnr said:
For some reason, individuals have priorities. Some things, we spend without caring about markups and profit margins. Other things, we feel like victims of robbery over small amounts! We feel we should determine the value and cost for another persons business.

To split 80/20 with a partner that is doing the hard part (selling the name), it doesn't seem a bad deal.

Absolutely, I do agree, and for big names a must,

I am just asking how much work can a broker do for a name he may only make $50 to $100 on.

Silentptnr · Jul 13, 2017

maksimfa said:
Absolutely, I do agree, and for big names a must,

I am just asking how much work can a broker do for a name he may only make $50 to $100 on.

I don't think many people in the domain industry focus on $50 to $100 deals. They do those to survive.

Most people in the domain industry think of $XXX,XXX,XXX size deals.

There's a saying in boxing... If you want the knockout, you gotta jab, jab, jab and look for the knockout. If you just look for the knockout, it might never come.

SpareDomains · Jul 13, 2017

Silentptnr said:
On another note, I too wanted to find a more economical way to sell domain names. I spent a year and a half constructing a marketplace website that is totally free. It will be years, if ever, that my site and the hundreds of others popping up, will reach the level that the larger companies have reached.

These companies are there for a reason. They have achieved success and I applaud that. I consider the ability to use their platforms a privilege, not a right.

If you were able to present a logical, sound, realistic and equally effective alternative to the big companies, you would probably have no choice but to charge fees.

Years ago parking paid very well so it made sense to redirect all your domains to Sedo etc... and make the parking income. So basically not only did they make a percentage of your domain parking income the more valuable thing they gained for free was your leads as now they have a lifetime lead they can continue to market to so a lifetime of profits. So basically domainers domains built these companies or filled their end user databases for free. Give em some parking money and we get the leads for free.

Not saying parking is dead but compared to 2002-2003 when I started it's a big difference from those days so easier today to say I'm not giving away all my traffic/leads for parking peanuts I'll do my own sales pages and toss a few affiliate links out of the way on them as well to see if those replace some of the income I'll lose by skipping parking but usually an increase in domain sales replaces that parking income loss as your average internet user (non domainer) is easily confused so a simple sales page really makes it 99.999% sure that they understand the domain is for sale where a parking page loaded with PPC links confusion can happen so I usually suggest if ya have to do parking pick a company with a sales link located at the top of the page and not buried in a sea of PPC links that an end user has to hunt for as quite a few won't find them. Domainers or tech savvy people sometimes forget that end users aren't as sharp on tech stuff, whois, etc... Simpler it is for them to understand and make an offer the better.

Doing your own market isn't really about I gotta top Sedo someday it's more about everything on this site is mine or brokered by me so every single sale that happens I make $ and I build my own end user database that I can remarket to instead of continuing to build the rich guys database for free. Build your future with recurring revenue streams. I personally don't make a ton from any 1 source of income but I have a good handful of small streams that equal a river at the end of each month.

So I'm a fan of doing my own sales pages but I do like and will pay 20% for distribution networks like Afternic as getting your domains in the natural path for end users makes sense and ya don't have to point them there for sales to happen. Pointing all your domains to a market with horrible category/search features and reduced parking payouts not so much rather keep my leads in house and not anonymous as most come from the lander and not the market anyway.

Silentptnr said:
There's a saying in boxing... If you want the knockout, you gotta jab, jab, jab and look for the knockout. If you just look for the knockout, it might never come.

johnn said:
The only thing you will get it free is VIRUS.

iHaveThisIdea · Jul 13, 2017

SpareDomains said:
I do my own sales landers so most deals come direct with zero commissions. Don't mind Afternic at 20% as it gets your domains in the registrar path https://www.afternic.com/domain-reseller-network which I believe will continue to account for more and more sales in the future. So I'm fine with paying a commission if it gets my domains distributed as the key is quality domains+distribution. The others where your domains just sit with hundreds of thousands or millions buried at a marketplace where offers come in anonymous I don't see much action from them at all.

Well said. Exactly.

levinsondomains · Jul 13, 2017

SpareDomains said:
Years ago parking paid very well so it made sense to redirect all your domains to Sedo etc... and make the parking income. So basically not only did they make a percentage of your domain parking income the more valuable thing they gained for free was your leads as now they have a lifetime lead they can continue to market to so a lifetime of profits. So basically domainers domains built these companies or filled their end user databases for free. Give em some parking money and we get the leads for free.

Not saying parking is dead but compared to 2002-2003 when I started it's a big difference from those days so easier today to say I'm not giving away all my traffic/leads for parking peanuts I'll do my own sales pages and toss a few affiliate links out of the way on them as well to see if those replace some of the income I'll lose by skipping parking but usually an increase in domain sales replaces that parking income loss as your average internet user (non domainer) is easily confused so a simple sales page really makes it 99.999% sure that they understand the domain is for sale where a parking page loaded with PPC links confusion can happen so I usually suggest if ya have to do parking pick a company with a sales link located at the top of the page and not buried in a sea of PPC links that an end user has to hunt for as quite a few won't find them. Domainers or tech savvy people sometimes forget that end users aren't as sharp on tech stuff, whois, etc... Simpler it is for them to understand and make an offer the better.

Doing your own market isn't really about I gotta top Sedo someday it's more about everything on this site is mine or brokered by me so every single sale that happens I make $ and I build my own end user database that I can remarket to instead of continuing to build the rich guys database for free. Build your future with recurring revenue streams. I personally don't make a ton from any 1 source of income but I have a good handful of small streams that equal a river at the end of each month.

So I'm a fan of doing my own sales pages but I do like and will pay 20% for distribution networks like Afternic as getting your domains in the natural path for end users makes sense and ya don't have to point them there for sales to happen. Pointing all your domains to a market with horrible category/search features and reduced parking payouts not so much rather keep my leads in house and not anonymous as most come from the lander and not the market anyway.

I actually build my one marketplace these days. I think that the commission is not fair, like everyone here says broker going for you a lot of work and he deserves the commission, he doing some active work for your needs when these companies just offer their platforms and IMO using their platform isn't deserve 20%. How you give your client feel of safety when they purchase domain from your landers? You doing checkout via escrow?

Kuffy · Jul 13, 2017

I'd support a Name Pros sales site aimed at end users.

domeen · Jul 13, 2017

levinsondomains said:
I actually build my one marketplace these days.

Waste of time and money. It would make sence if you own 100 000 domains, but still You can`t compete with aftrernic/sedo ditribution system. They show your names directly to end-users, thats where the money is.
Comission it's the cost of doing business.

Time to time some cheapskate pop-s up in forum and says the same things. They usually don´t last long.

Emmy101 · Jul 13, 2017

I Don't mind the market places commissions as they are part of the deal! though not comfortable with escrow services high commissions!

Josytal · Jul 13, 2017

Business is not charity. Commissions/rewards are necessary "evils" in business, otherwise you can not survive. Running an efficient marketplace is not an easy task. In fact, marketing alone will consume the lion share of your income, not to talk of other sundry overheads.

Of course, competition should be encouraged, so long its laissez-faire, which, of course, is a pipe dream.

Unless you can do it better, run it cheaper and offer better value while you still maintain your reasonable margin that can support growth, don't touch it!

It's not waste of time to try nor have 10000000x domain names in order to get started. I will not support this type of mind frame. After all the biggest names in the industry today started low yesterday, from some point.

Go ahead if you think you can handle it, it's not going to be a cake walk, so make provisions for possible failure.

domeen · Jul 13, 2017

Josytal said:
It's not waste of time to try nor have 10000000x domain names in order to get started. I will not support this type of mind frame. After all the biggest names in the industry today started low yesterday, from some point.

Go ahead if you think you can handle it, it's not going to be a cake walk, so make provisions for possible failure.

I do not agree

it is waste of time, I mean look at your for sale site. Why do you have it? Why?

My god.

Josytal · Jul 13, 2017

domeen said:
it is waste of time.

Time used in acquiring knowledge can never be described as waste.

domeen said:
I look at your for sale site. Why do you have it? Why?

I've setup a for-sale site because I believe my website should be the first POS (point of sale) for my domains. I will update the scripts soon, so come back to check.

I have all my domains parked on the site, so they resolved to just one landing page with contact/inquiry form, with domain description, category, keywords etc. I know I'm on the right track 'cos I've been receiving offers from the pages.

By the way, ask yourself, why is it that every domain marketplace wants you to update your domain DNS to point to their name servers?
If you are a domainer, you should know the answer.

Mind you, my domains are also listed in other marketplaces: afternic/sedo/godaddy/flippa, but they act as supplementary.
If they want 25% it's OK with me. But they should earn it. I'm not obliged to send free type-in traffic to them.

domeen · Jul 13, 2017

Josytal said:
Mind you, my domains are also listed in other marketplaces: afternic/sedo/godaddy/flippa, but they act as supplementary.
If they want 25% it's OK with me. But they should earn it. I'm not obliged to send free type-in traffic to them.

you really belive, that you can make better landing page yourself? better then the big market places?

strategy Crazy commission rates! Enough is enough!

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