@nitg16 /
@Axc --
To respond to a couple of your questions..
1) If we submit unregistered names, what if people who appraise domains at BB register these names for themselves if they think the names are good. Is there a some kind of company policy that prohibits it?
I had that concern initially, however, can tell you that one of my employees has submitted over 220+ names over the past 90 days and had 60+ Accepted. The average time for name review was 5 days.
As a benchmark, during the past 90 days we had only (1) name that was registered during that 90 window. The person who registered the name was not one I recognize (it was not under Privacy) and the name was not that strong a name. Having participated with BrandBucket for the past 3 years, we happen to know most of the names of the top players on the site and our conclusion was it was a
mere coincidence. (59 of 60 that were available to reg the day the Approval email arrived in our inbox is solid results - and something you can develop a business model around).
From these results, we are confident there is no cherry picking going on.
As an outside party (non-BB employee / etc) I will report we had several unregistered names appraised at over $2,500 upon submitting to BB the past 90 days and NONE of them were cherry picked by BB staff.
You would think - if someone were going to cherry pick - they probably would hit the higher appraisals. But since none were scoffed, we are confident this is not happening.
So I believe BB's "no cherry picking" policy is being honored.
One suggestion I do have - the moment you get your Approval, make your decision on which you want to keep and immediately register them.
IF YOU DON'T - and 30-60 days goes by, you may find someone out of the blue registered them and it is instinctive to think "conspiracy".
IMO - delaying registering after an Approval is not prudent, and not a conspiracy if someone out of the blue does register it months later. (not directed at anyone mentioned above, only my personal opinion on how we as investors should promptly act once the "green light" of Approval is provided).
2 ) What is the average review time for BB submissions?
In my experience, it varies from 3-7 days. Likely the variance is due to volume fluctuations, weekends, and a staff member being out. Average over the past 90 days: 5 business days.
FYI - And if you happen to submit a name that was coincidentally Approved previously, you might get a quick auto-approval email within 24 hours.
3) I recently submitted names to BB for first time and two names were approved. I saw a publishing fee of $0 in front of them. However after proceeding to the next page, it is still showing me $10 fees. Currently these names are in "Pending editorial" status.
If you have an older account, you might be under the older program.
HOWEVER - you have mentioned in an earlier post that you recently opened your account and new accounts currently default to the new Growth Program.
So, I looked at my account this morning and realized your statement is 100% correct, but permit me to mention here's what you are "possibly" observing. (please verify for us)
The "Publish $0 Fee" shows up in ORANGE text under the SUBMITTED tab when the name was Approved. Correct?
Then - the "$10 Listing Fee" shows up in RED text under the LISTED tab after you clicked on the ORANGE "Publish $0 Fee" text to move the name to the Editorial stage. Correct?
If so, then this is common as BB does happen to display the "$10 Listing Fee" in RED along with (for example) the "$100 Logo Fee" in RED text prior to your hitting the BIG ORANGE BUTTON asking you to "PUBLISH" on the Listing tab.
HOWEVER - when you did click on the ORANGE "Publish $0 Fee" back on the SUBMITTED tab you were not actually charged 10 (or 9) Credits. Meaning, your Credits tally was not reduced. Correct?
In this situation, the RED "$10 Listing Fee" is a bit out of context (and is confusing), but does not mean that BB actually charged you 10 Credits. BB just happens to have some older code displaying the old "$10 Listing Fee" text on the screen
I hope the above info is helpful.
-John
Cougar
cc: Hi
@Keith DeBoer - is this consistent with your observations?