IT.COM

SquadHelp - Marketplace

NameSilo
Watch
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.
 
Last edited:
63
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
SH review May20 - June20

- currently listed premium names 428
- sales “zero”
- number of shortlists / day dropping noticeably
- number of views / day dropping noticeably
- number of submissions to contests by other creatives dropping noticeably
- overall exposure of names in the marketplace reduced.

comment on the last bullet. My strategy over the past few months to gain exposure of names in the marketplace was to pay super boost listings. These are now limited to only 4. The results are noticeably negative. While i understand the limits were put in place to give every seller an opportunity to buy super boosts, I strongly feel that the limits should be weighted based on the portfolio size of the seller. I will follow up to this post on July 20 and update my review.

Squadhelp has grown immensely over the past 12-18 months. The competition in the marketplace is fierce. We have seen the same thing happen with brand bucket, brandroot, brandpa etc over the years. The marketplaces grow fast and sellers STR suffer. Quick growth is great for the site owner but not for sellers. Unfortunately I think we will see our sell thru rates drop drastically and soon be in line with other marketplaces at 2-4%, a far cry from the 20% STR that was publicly reported by SH just over a year ago.

thank you all for continuing to take part in my review thread.
 
Last edited:
25
•••
My last sale was in March so I reached out to SH team 2 weeks ago and asked for tips on how to increase visibility of my names and about the impact of COVID to overall STR. Here's their response:

"Thanks for writing. While we are continuing to see ongoing sales, there is certainly going to have some short term impact because many businesses across the globe are impacted, and that would likely delay their decision making process around buying new brand names, or launching new naming projects."

I have 246 premiums and sold 5 so far.
 
5
•••
I am at 107 and have stopped submitting names for a while to see the results. One thing is the reported STR, the other is what you experience. Also, numbers of the sellers that have been on the platform long might not be reflective of what you'd get.

So far I have had just 1 sale, pretty much in line with what Afternic would have provided. I have sold 5 names from the inventory that was approved by SH, but I did not like pricing and I did not push live. So, while I realize that the sample sizes are small, they don't speak favorably of what SH can do for you.

They have great marketing/seo machine geared, but the benefit of that has a cap, while SH growth doesn't.

Think of it this way: SH at 10000 names. Selling 2000 names a year and reporting 20% sell through. But out of that 2000, 100 might have been the domains themselves and how they are presented, at STR of 1%. 1900 might have been SEO, paid ads, competitions. Those are not easily scalable.

So now, SH is at what? 100 000? Let's say that is the number. The domains themselves probably sell at 1%*100K=1000, plus the 1800 they had from the alternative sources (again, SEO, ads, network, contests) let's say grew by another 5-6%, giving them 2000 sales there. Now they'd be at 1000+2000=3000 sales, giving combined STR of 3% (this might not coincide with SH reported numbers, as their calc method is unusual and my numbers are ballbark ones just to give an idea, so while the numbers might be off, in principle, this is how it works).

Now, if your names are like mine and you don't have better exposure advantage, are not active in the competitions, boosts etc., you'll be stuck on the 1% end of spectrum. With some activity, though you can get closer and a little above 3%, if it is worth your time, of course, and you are into that.

I signed up for passive sales though and they are not happening. I won't be jumping the gun and probably keep the names for now, but BB is currently showing much better and more consistent results for me than what SH is showing.
 
Last edited:
4
•••
The STR and Portfolio Popularity is decreasing rapidly. SH should really come up with a feature that promises atleast a fixed STR for its sellers.
 
0
•••
The STR and Portfolio Popularity is decreasing rapidly. SH should really come up with a feature that promises atleast a fixed STR for its sellers.

What do you mean? Nobody can guarantee a sale or that a name will ever sell. What you guys are seeing is perfectly normal on a site with over 50K names and growing.

Interesting that @Recons.Com is seeing better results at BB who has double that amount of names. I still believe in the end its about the name and the price not the platform. Higher price usually longer to find right buyer. However SH does have heavy marketing and very low prices which may be why many have consistent sales there so far.
 
6
•••
What do you mean? Nobody can guarantee a sale or that a name will ever sell. What you guys are seeing is perfectly normal on a site with over 50K names and growing.

Interesting that @Recons.Com is seeing better results at BB who has double that amount of names. I still believe in the end its about the name and the price not the platform. Higher price usually longer to find right buyer. However SH does have heavy marketing and very low prices which may be why many have consistent sales there so far.

BB is improving. I had a bad year with them but still stuck around. Mostly, because I have enough other names to take care of :-D Since then they are above 2% for me. It is not outstanding, but still better than what SH is providing, especially given that I have joined since they were claiming to sell 20% or so and even now they claim to sell mid-high single digits, so I should be seeing a sale every couple of months if that were true.

PS regarding marketing, again, it is fixed amount whatever it is and not easily scalable. BB might have improved because overall number is not growing, but quality is improving (bad ones drop out and new ones compensate for the number).

BP was really outperforming for a while has slowed down considerably.

Overall, building a business that completely relies on third parties is too risky. It is nice a supplement though.
 
Last edited:
4
•••
Anyone can send impressions about premium review times (with coins) these days?
 
0
•••
@GrantP Expected income statistic is no longer visible on my dashboard. I found that useful. Has it been removed for some reason?
I think sellers would appreciate having that, as it calculates expected payout, after commission, and the more names you have, the mode challenging it is to keep tracking that. Would you consider bringing it back, please? Thank you.
 
1
•••
A few portfolios have recently dumped hundreds of poor domains into SH. I don't see how these domains could have gone through the standard review process. Many of them are of very low quality.

Someone also recently pointed out that one of these accounts lists a .vc domain (and not a particularly strong .vc, if there is such a thing). I didn't know SH allows .vc domains.

Also, one of these accounts has entered only seven contests, has a 0% contest rank, yet had an average of 123 submissions per contest.

Another account has participated in 6 contests, has a 0% contest rank, yet has 285 submissions per contest.

Why would SH allow a particular seller to have apparently unlimited contest submissions?

Does SH give some sellers special treatment, allowing them to list whatever they want and submit whatever they want to contests?
 
Last edited:
5
•••
How did you find this?

I don't think they could just allow a large amount of unreviewed names?
We all might want to add names, but there is a review process.
 
0
•••
How did you find this?

I don't think they could just allow a large amount of unreviewed names?
We all might want to add names, but there is a review process.

You are less informed my friend. On SH, domain expert reviewers are listers. Who knows what SH offers in custom benefit options? May be .vc is custom benefit, may be skipping reviews of 10 names out of per 100 is part of custom benefit.
Screenshot_20200704-103845__01.jpg
 
Last edited:
3
•••
I am not less informed, but thank you. I asked a question. But I do appreciate input and information.
I am aware of the option to contact to discuss moving a large portfolio. I am not aware of that meaning domains are not reviewed.

Yes, it is possible that somehow there is a way to list domains without review that I don't know about.
 
1
•••
1
•••
Thanks. I wasn't aware of any different review process.
I have 350 plus names now, and I had never heard that different people did not have domains reviewed.

Despite the number of names listed, my sales have been low, with just 4 in total. But I am impressed with Squadhelp still. At no point did I ever hear some people didn't have domains reviewed differently.
I simply submit names, and wait to hear.
 
0
•••
I am not less informed, but thank you. I asked a question. But I do appreciate input and information.
I am aware of the option to contact to discuss moving a large portfolio. I am not aware of that meaning domains are not reviewed.

Yes, it is possible that somehow there is a way to list domains without review that I don't know about.
Yes, SH allows sometimes for some, to move thousands of domains without any review( in best scenario, just a look around at full portofolio and not at individual domains)....there are domainers, who have all their domains with SH.
 
3
•••
Thanks. I didn't know that they could just move domains without any review.
 
1
•••
Happy to Report the sale of DigitalXpress.com for $3399 at squadhelp. I really liked this name. Hoping this sale will refuel the engine and the squadhelp gods will shower me in riches for july and august.
 
22
•••
So are Premium Listings still supposed to be exclusive to SH?

I've come across a handful of names that are using SquadHelp landers, but are also listed through Afternic's DLS. Based on the 5-figure price range, they must be Premium listings.

Is SquadHelp not checking for this? Or are they just unable to keep up with the volume of submissions?

Or is this an accepted strategy? (Because in my eyes, it clearly helps sellers to have names listed as many places as possible).

I don't currently have any names listed with them, but I'm looking into it. Thanks for this informative thread.
 
0
•••
So are Premium Listings still supposed to be exclusive to SH?

I've come across a handful of names that are using SquadHelp landers, but are also listed through Afternic's DLS. Based on the 5-figure price range, they must be Premium listings.

Is SquadHelp not checking for this? Or are they just unable to keep up with the volume of submissions?

Or is this an accepted strategy? (Because in my eyes, it clearly helps sellers to have names listed as many places as possible).

I don't currently have any names listed with them, but I'm looking into it. Thanks for this informative thread.

Squadhelp has integrations with Afternic, Sedo, and Flippa.

Sedo and Flippa are automatic. Afternic requires SH authorization and seller submission
 
2
•••
Squadhelp has integrations with Afternic, Sedo, and Flippa.

Sedo and Flippa are automatic. Afternic requires SH authorization and seller submission

That's great, thank you. I'd read about their Sedo integration, but wasn't aware of the other two.
That makes sense.
 
2
•••
2
•••
That's an impressive number of shortlists. You should get a sale soon. How long have you listed them?

Below is my SH stats. My average listing time is less than 1 year because 9 of the 16 listed names was added in the last 3 months.
SH Stats.PNG
 
5
•••
I had been inactive on squadhelp (and other brandable marketplaces) after sailz were so down...

But two days ago, I'd received an email stating my domain had sold via wholesale! Was kinda disappointed because I was in "hodling" mode for this year... forgot i had listed a few wholesale price. It sold for $100

So i immediately did some 23% possible fee calculations...

...but in the end i was super surprised when SH paid out the FULL $100 to my PayPal like 2 days later! That's even better than Dan or buying directly through nP without an intermediary... because both those methods cause some kind of commission / PayPal fees.

THIS WAS LEGIT FEELESS!

hurray huzzah to SH! Might start listing there again lol idk!
 
5
•••
Our marketplace stats as of July 11
upload_2020-7-11_7-45-40.png
 
Last edited:
13
•••
I'm still trying to figure out how the voting system works.

I recently had a few domains accepted as premium. -- though, I didn't receive a 🤲Five of more favorites notification for any of the domains accepted.

The one domain of this recent batch that had received 5 favorites (I think it was 5/12)

upload_2020-7-11_9-3-18.png


was NOT accepted for a premium listing.

upload_2020-7-11_9-9-22.png


:-/
 
Last edited:
2
•••
Back