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guide How Useful Are Marketplaces Without Changing Nameservers

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Reyginus

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By marketplaces here I am talking about sites like Dan and Sedo. I had names on both places for months without a single visit but immediately I changed ns to one I started seeing visits and sales.

So, basically, it seems they are just Landers. Am I missing something? If they are merely Landers, besides listing for accidental sales (e.g a person viewing one of your names and then end up viewing others), is it really worth listing?
 
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I don't get you.
Listing on GoDaddy/Afternic and Sedo gets you listed on many different registrars in their network. When people type in your (or similar) domain name it will give them the option to buy it/make offer.

The same cannot be said about DAN.

Uniregistry - nowadays listing on Uni pushes your name also to Afternic (not sure about their network however)
 
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you must understand that everyone will give you a different answer based on there experience no answer is right and no answer is wrong
 
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Listing on GoDaddy/Afternic and Sedo gets you listed on many different registrars in their network. When people type in your (or similar) domain name it will give them the option to buy it/make offer.

The same cannot be said about DAN.

Uniregistry - nowadays listing on Uni pushes your name also to Afternic (not sure about their network however)
I understand others but Sedo is not like Afternic. There is a reason I used Sedo and Dan. They are more like Landers and not registrars. They only seem to serve as Landing Pages for people searching a name pointed there. And that depends on changing the NS. People don't really visit them to search for names. It is the search for a name that leads them there.

Now, my question is, are they useful without the Landers? If the Nameservers are not pointed to Sedo or Dan what then is the point of listing in these places since they will never be seen by anyone either by visiting the site or searching for the address? You get me?
 
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you must understand that everyone will give you a different answer based on there experience no answer is right and no answer is wrong
Yeah but I think this one has a definite answer. Just waiting for more comments.
 
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I understand others but Sedo is not like Afternic. There is a reason I used Sedo and Dan. They are more like Landers and not registrars. They only seem to serve as Landing Pages for people searching a name pointed there. And that depends on changing the NS. People don't really visit them to search for names. It is the search for a name that leads them there.

Now, my question is, are they useful without the Landers? If the Nameservers are not pointed to Sedo or Dan what then is the point of listing in these places since they will never be seen by anyone either by visiting the site or searching for the address? You get me?

For that I don't have a definite answer. Maybe it's just marginal benefit, but every place counts and gives you more chance to get noticed.

But Sedo also has option like Afternic - gets you listed with other registrars (not in Afternic network, smaller compared to theirs).
 
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I understand others but Sedo is not like Afternic. There is a reason I used Sedo and Dan. They are more like Landers and not registrars.

You are wrong about Sedo.

Sedo has a network of hundreds of partners where they sell domains.

I sell several domains per month at Sedo and I don't use any of their landers.

Edit: When you sell at Sedo, the fee % is different depending on whether the sale happened via your lander, via their website or via their partner network. So they also tell you where the sale came from if you simply look at fee details.
 
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You are wrong about Sedo.

Sedo has a network of hundreds of partners where they sell domains.

I sell several domains per month at Sedo and I don't use any of their landers.

Edit: When you sell at Sedo, the fee % is different depending on whether the sale happened via your lander, via their website or via their partner network. So they also tell you where the sale came from if you simply look at fee details.
That's not my bone of contention. What I'm saying is, if the Nameservers are not pointed to Sedo or Dan, does it make any sense listing there? I had zero views in months from names listed on them because the Nameservers were pointed elsewhere. If these two sites requires you to point Nameservers to them before you even get views, what's the point of even listing one name in both of them? I don't know if you get me.
 
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That's not my bone of contention. What I'm saying is, if the Nameservers are not pointed to Sedo or Dan, does it make any sense listing there? I had zero views in months from names listed on them because the Nameservers were pointed elsewhere. If these two sites requires you to point Nameservers to them before you even get views, what's the point of even listing one name in both of them? I don't know if you get me.

Have you really read my response? edit: regarding Sedo

Since I don't use their landers, I have no nameservers pointing there. I use Dan and Afternic for that purpose.
 
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That's not my bone of contention. What I'm saying is, if the Nameservers are not pointed to Sedo or Dan, does it make any sense listing there? I had zero views in months from names listed on them because the Nameservers were pointed elsewhere. If these two sites requires you to point Nameservers to them before you even get views, what's the point of even listing one name in both of them? I don't know if you get me.

Nine times out of ten, most of your sales will come via the platform where your NS is pointed to. Which is why most brandable places insist that your NS must be pointed to them throughout the duration of your listing. So, in a way, most brandable marketplaces as well as places like Dan, Epik etc are basically glorified landing pages.

Having said that, there is that 1% chance that a sale can come through a marketplace despite not having your NS pointed to them; some more than others. Some marketplaces are popular in Europe like Sedo and Dan. Others, like Squadhelp, spend a lot of money on retargeted ADs. Not every sale comes from type-in traffic. Some sales even come in via Whois without any listing anywhere.

The general rule of thumb is to list at Afternic, choose where to point your NS like Epik, Sedo or Dan etc, then list everywhere else that allows non-exclusivity.
 
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Nine times out of ten, most of your sales will come via the platform where your NS is pointed to.

I have to disagree with this. Where did you get this blanket statement from?

In your experience, perhaps. But that ain't valid for everyone else.

Most of my sales have always been from Afternic. About 70%. Yet I did not use afternic landers. I always used Dan for landers.

about 15% of sales come from Sedo

about 15% come from Dan via landers (Edit: where my nameservers are pointing to)

So 85% percent of my sales are NOT COMING via the platform where my ns points to.
 
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I have to disagree with this. Where did you get this blanket statement from?

In your experience, perhaps. But that ain't valid for everyone else.

Most of my sales have always been from Afternic. About 70%. Yet I did not use afternic landers. I always used Dan for landers.

about 15% of sales come from Sedo

about 15% come from Dan via landers (Edit: where my nameservers are pointing to)

So 85% percent of my sales are NOT COMING via the platform where my ns points to.
The reply is in regards to OP's question on Dan and Sedo. Afternic's MLS is not factored in here.
 
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The reply is in regards to OP's question on Dan and Sedo. Afternic's MLS is not factored in here.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for making it clearer.
 
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@Reyginus , indeed your original assumption is correct. With most marketplaces, where there is no partner network, you basically don't get sales unless you park with them (via nameserver).

There might be a sale here and there but basically sort of "by accident".

This is why I don't bother listing on marketplaces like that. Waste of time.

The only exception are Afternic and Sedo which will bring sales even if your nameservers point elsewhere, this is due to their partner network including hundreds of partner sites that sell your domains.
 
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I get good results using Afternic's ns3/4 landers, while also listing the name on Dan.
 
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It's not only about the extended listings in the Afternic partner network. It's also about being in the registration path at Godaddy (even if you're not pointing your landers to Afternic). So I have to agree with @twiki here.
 
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I have to disagree with this. Where did you get this blanket statement from?

In your experience, perhaps. But that ain't valid for everyone else.

Most of my sales have always been from Afternic. About 70%. Yet I did not use afternic landers. I always used Dan for landers.

about 15% of sales come from Sedo

about 15% come from Dan via landers (Edit: where my nameservers are pointing to)

So 85% percent of my sales are NOT COMING via the platform where my ns points to.

I've had all of my names pointed at Dan and had all of my sales through Afternic, as well.
 
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I've had all of my names pointed at Dan and had all of my sales through Afternic, as well.
But you just stated that you use Afternic's NS3 and NS4 nameservers
 
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But you just stated that you use Afternic's NS3 and NS4 nameservers

I use Afternic ns3/4 now. I was getting all of my leads and sales through just being listed on Afternic, so I switched from Dan landers to Afternic, yet stayed listed on Dan.
 
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It cannot harm you to have your name listed at multiple platforms as long as you only have one buy it now set where the NS points. The others must be make offer.

I also disagree that people don’t search Sedo or GD or Afternic for names. Domainers do looking for deals all the time. If you are gearing for higher amount and end user sales its not odd to have names not get an offer for months. The reason to list at multiple places is exposure and some prefer to buy at one versus another.

Having zero views on a non Dns listing is not that strange as its only collecting site views which obviously someone has to be typing your name or keyword into the site search to find your name. You should pay more attention to the views where they are pointed.
 
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Very interesting replies. It seems like the issue with all these answers is that they're all biased (including mine below). Unless you can find someone that has an almost identical portfolio as yours to share their numbers, you're not going to get a conclusive answer.

For example, some portfolios may lean heavily towards made-up words in which case they won't see much search traffic across registrars/marketplaces. Others may rely on popular keywords and trends in which case they'll see a ton of search traffic. Every seller's portfolio is based on their own unique strategy so it's hard to compare numbers.

Additionally, every marketplace has a different marketing budget and the budget isn't always consistent over time which makes it even harder to predict the numbers.

All that said, I'm sure everyone here would agree on one thing. That more exposure is always better regardless of how much it is (i.e. you never know if that one dude or dudette on marketplace X ends up falling in love with your domain even though that marketplace only brought in 1% of the overall traffic). So more eyeballs are always better.

Now onto some useful data... Alter now has close to 4,000 brandable listings that all point to our nameservers (bias = brandable, although our inventory is pretty diverse). Since last month we've also been automatically listing our inventory with our partners.

Here's what our traffic breakdown looks like across the board for last month:
traffic-breakdown.png

Marketplace: Visitors learned about the domains from our marketplace.
Partners: Visitors learned about the domains via our partners (estimated).
Direct: Visitors learned about the domains by typing them in their browser.

Again, every seller's numbers will vary based on their own unique portfolio (if you're using Alter, you can see your personalized breakdown on your dashboard).
 
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By marketplaces here I am talking about sites like Dan and Sedo. I had names on both places for months without a single visit but immediately I changed ns to one I started seeing visits and sales.

So, basically, it seems they are just Landers. Am I missing something? If they are merely Landers, besides listing for accidental sales (e.g a person viewing one of your names and then end up viewing others), is it really worth listing?

If you started seeing visits and sales after you pointed your NS to Sedo, it looks like your traffic was from backlinks or search traffic, and not traffic via Sedo.

Did the traffic die off after a while?
 
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I think our replies are all rightfully subjective as no two portfolios are the same. There's no right or wrong answer here. Just find out what works for you by experimenting.
 
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I don't get you.

u do not get many people..I noticed in yer posts..plz..just pay more attention.. people give ya good tips here...and u get no bill for it.
 
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@Reyginus , indeed your original assumption is correct. With most marketplaces, where there is no partner network, you basically don't get sales unless you park with them (via nameserver).

There might be a sale here and there but basically sort of "by accident".

This is why I don't bother listing on marketplaces like that. Waste of time.

The only exception are Afternic and Sedo which will bring sales even if your nameservers point elsewhere, this is due to their partner network including hundreds of partner sites that sell your domains.

what??? u forgot the biggest of all..the king of all sales...gd auctions.. u can flush all others.
 
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