Afternic - Official Thread

[GoDaddy]

Hello NamePros!
By popular demand, we have launched a dedicated feedback thread for Afternic, the GoDaddy-owned domain name marketplace.

We have created this thread as a way for you to tell us what works, what doesn't work, and what features you'd like to see at Afternic (please be constructive with your feedback). We're looking forward to hearing from the domain investment community to help us shape the future of Afternic.

We will also be sharing Afternic product updates in this thread.

Please note that this thread is not meant for support. Please email our support team at [email protected] for assistance.

 

[tonyk2000]

are now actively indexed via https in Google

This is how it is supposed to work. Indeed, indexing of forsale landers is no more prohibited by GD. Earlier, it was expilicitly prohibited by GD (via robots.txt). Unfortunatey, it is still not working like it is supposed to.

1. Google randomly selects the version to show - with or without www, with ot without httpS. Not good. This is because GoDaddy did not bother to (internally) select and configure canonical version of each forsale somedomain.com to be indexed. With such a selection, there should be two redirects on each forsale domain - 301 redirect to canonical, and only the canonical should be redirected to godaddy.com/forsale/... For example:

http, httpS with www, *.somedomain.com --> 301 to httpS ://somedomain.com
httpS ://somedomain.com --> 302 to godaddy

2. More importantly, BIN landers are indexed with the following content: "This domain is available for sale! Get a price in less than 24 hours. Fill out the form below. One of our domain experts will have a price to you ...". If the domain has BIN price, why GoDaddy returns "price request" pages to Google, still showing correct BIN landers to human visitors?

@GoDaddy

 

[Jannes]

2. More importantly, BIN landers are indexed with the following content: "This domain is available for sale! Get a price in less than 24 hours. Fill out the form below. One of our domain experts will have a price to you ...". If the domain has BIN price, why GoDaddy returns "price request" pages to Google, still showing correct BIN landers to human visitors?

I actually prefer it that way. It prevents outdated price data in SERPs.

 

[tonyk2000]

I actually prefer it that way

What is cloaking in SEO?
Cloaking is a technique where a different version of web content is returned to users than to the search engine crawlers. This technique might be used for search engine optimization (SEO) to move a page up in search engine rankings by exposing a version of the page to search engine bots that satisfies criteria needed to increase ranking while displaying different content to users.

Cloaking is one of many types of black hat SEO, a set of techniques designed to exploit weaknesses in search engines.

Cloaking violates Google's rules and will cause your website to be deindexed.

Source: SE journal

 

[Jannes]

Google bends the rules when it comes to big ad spenders like GoDaddy.

 

[Donmarick]

I did not mention that there is still about 6 months or more problem with random redirects from parking ads domains to sell pages when it's set strictly for cash parking.

 

[phaethon]

There is also an issue when you try to cash park a domain you own on Afternic, you get an old cash parking lander from the previous owner. I had this issue with a couple names. Is there any solution?

 

[tonyk2000]

Even worse. I just made an "exact match" google search of a .com domain, which is using afternic dns + BIN, and got the following:

Yeah, G may show the results in any way they like, with no guarantees. In this particular case, not only it shows price request description on pure BIN domain, but also it is unclear that the domain is for sale in the first place. It just indicates that the visitor may receive some price in 24 hours. Combination of page title, meta description and h1 header might help G to show more appropriate output. SEO basics. It appears that GoDaddy did not bother to set either

 

[Embrand]

Does anyone know for how long offers made at Afternic are valid? There is no information about this when you make an offer or in the offer confirmation email from Afternic. I can't see anything in their FAQs either.

At GoDaddy Auctions, an offer is valid for seven days, so probably the same at Afternic?

 

[DrJacoby]

Does anyone know for how long offers made at Afternic are valid? There is no information about this when you make an offer or in the offer confirmation email from Afternic. I can't see anything in their FAQs either.

At GoDaddy Auctions, an offer is valid for seven days, so probably the same at Afternic?

Yes, I believe it's valid for seven days.

 

[GoDaddy]

Does anyone know for how long offers made at Afternic are valid? There is no information about this when you make an offer or in the offer confirmation email from Afternic. I can't see anything in their FAQs either.

At GoDaddy Auctions, an offer is valid for seven days, so probably the same at Afternic?

Hi @Embrand,
Offers at Afternic are valid for 7 days. Thanks for checking out the FAQs. For future reference, the answer you're looking for is in this section

 

[Embrand]

Hi @Embrand,
Offers at Afternic are valid for 7 days. Thanks for checking out the FAQs. For future reference, the answer you're looking for is in this section

Thanks. I do think it would be a good idea to mention this in your offer confirmation emails as well.

 

[kor]

Every time I update my portfolio by uploading a CSV file, a few random domain names fall into the "pending review" status and stay that way for days, sometimes weeks. Then I have to send an email to the Afternic support team and have it fixed manually. The strange thing is that the domain names falling into this "pending review" status are the domain names that were already actively listed just before the update.

Even though I have asked many times why this is happening and what I should do to prevent it from recurring, I cannot get any answers.

As a result, a domain name that is not listed for sale means no sale. So it's lose-lose for all parties.

 

[Future Sensors]

The Afternic Beta dashboard is not working at the moment. Only a blank page is shown in several browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Unfortunately, switching back to the old version is not possible either, because of the blank page without any visible elements.

 

[Andrut]

The Afternic Beta dashboard is not working at the moment. Only a blank page is shown in several browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Unfortunately, switching back to the old version is not possible either, because of the blank page without any visible elements.

Same here. Access to 1.0 possible only if you clear your browser cache for afternic page.

 

[Future Sensors]

The Afternic Beta dashboard is not working at the moment. Only a blank page is shown in several browsers like Chrome and Firefox. Unfortunately, switching back to the old version is not possible either, because of the blank page without any visible elements.

It seems to be working again (without emptying the cache, in my case).

 

[tonyk2000]

Is an issue with self-signed SSL certs. on Afternic landers 100% resolved? I added a new domain to afternic and set DNS about ~12 hours ago, and it still has no SSL. Earlier, new domains were set with SSL instantly (after the 1st visit). Visited the domain myself ~12 hours ago, so there is at least 1 hit on it, but no SSL cert. generated...

 

[GoDaddy]

Every time I update my portfolio by uploading a CSV file, a few random domain names fall into the "pending review" status and stay that way for days, sometimes weeks. Then I have to send an email to the Afternic support team and have it fixed manually. The strange thing is that the domain names falling into this "pending review" status are the domain names that were already actively listed just before the update.

Even though I have asked many times why this is happening and what I should do to prevent it from recurring, I cannot get any answers.

As a result, a domain name that is not listed for sale means no sale. So it's lose-lose for all parties.

Hi @kor,
We appreciate your focus on the Pending Review system and while it plays an important part in the management of listings at Afternic, the system can be changed to reduce the number of domains you see going into Pending Review state.

We're analyzing the entire Pending Review system (which is large and complex, managing the 23 million listings at Afternic), and we anticipate making some adjustments once this analysis is complete. To set expectations, this work will take some time.

For now, working with the support team (https://www.afternic.com/contact-afternic) is best.

Is an issue with self-signed SSL certs. on Afternic landers 100% resolved? I added a new domain to afternic and set DNS about ~12 hours ago, and it still has no SSL. Earlier, new domains were set with SSL instantly (after the 1st visit). Visited the domain myself ~12 hours ago, so there is at least 1 hit on it, but no SSL cert. generated...

Hi @tonyk2000,
SSL certificate generation on new domains can take some time. Thanks for your patience while we continue rolling this out fully.

 

[tonyk2000]

SSL certificate generation on new domains can take some time. Thanks for your patience while we continue rolling this out fully.

I just checked - and it is still not generated (waiting 7 days already). Should we guess that GD does not generate _new_ ssl certificates anymore [for new domains added to afternic and DNS]?

 

[kor]

We're analyzing the entire Pending Review system (which is large and complex, managing the 23 million listings at Afternic)

I don't think the total data size has anything to do with the algorithms executed during the update.

I still don't understand why a previously listed domain name falls into "pending review" status after a portfolio update.

The domain name is the same, the expire date is the same, the price is the same, everything is exactly the same. There is no change. However, some domain names are excluded from the listing randomly and unreasonably.

 

[kor]

Access Denied​

You don't have permission to access "http://www.afternic.com/add_domains/upload" on this server.

I missed this bug.