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.

 

[Acroplex]

I disagree with that. Afternic is way better at converting than Dan. I am not discussing reasons, just stating the results of testing.

So, basically, even if Dan would get 10-20% more visits/leads (assuming they are proportionate), if they convert 50% less than Afternic, Afternic is still a better option.

Now, of course, Afternic has a lot to improve and build upon. SSL issue is one big untapped potential and easy fix, but someone in GD/Afternic management in charge of the technical aspects has been grossly unprofessional and negligent to realize and implement a fix.

Other two big areas are a) improving Afternic's own site, its appeal and useability; b) allowing inserting Google Analytics code. As of now, not only I have to give my traffic to Afternic to get the favorable commission, but I am entirely giving up on the wealth of information I could use for improving my portfolio and make other important decisions.

All of the three "changes" are easy and straightforward and shouldn't cost more than $100k for potential upside of millions or tens of millions a year.

Obviously, I'm not suggesting they shut down Afternic without switching on its features on Dan.com. Afternic only performs well due to its DNS structure and being a destination for the inquiries via GoDaddy.com.

What I am suggesting is to stop trying to fix the obsolete code at Afternic and switch to Dan as the primary platform for handling what Afternic does now. There is no proof that there will ever be an improved Afternic that interfaces well with new technologies and flow of transactions.

 

[davidc1]

near to no support these days

 

[Recons.Com]

Obviously, I'm not suggesting they shut down Afternic without switching on its features on Dan.com. Afternic only performs well due to its DNS structure and being a destination for the inquiries via GoDaddy.com.

What I am suggesting is to stop trying to fix the obsolete code at Afternic and switch to Dan as the primary platform for handling what Afternic does now. There is no proof that there will ever be an improved Afternic that interfaces well with new technologies and flow of transactions.

This is not about inquiries from godaddy.

I have compared landers to landers and Afternic is way better. No need to switch. Just fix the obvious.

 

[Acroplex]

Which landers? The ones that can't be customized at Afternic? Or the ones with ads that get blocked by certain antivirus as phishing/scam?

Let's not lie to ourselves, Afternic performs only because GoDaddy sends its domain searches to it. The process is antiquated and the issues are listed repeatedly without a proper resolution.

But Dan won't be its saving grace unless those who are keeping the dinosaur alive are retired as well.

 

[Recons.Com]

Which landers? The ones that can't be customized at Afternic? Or the ones with ads that get blocked by certain antivirus as phishing/scam?

Let's not lie to ourselves, Afternic performs only because GoDaddy sends its domain searches to it. The process is antiquated and the issues are listed repeatedly without a proper resolution.

But Dan won't be its saving grace unless those who are keeping the dinosaur alive are retired as well.

I tested Dan landers vs ns3 and ns5.

Each basket had 6000 names. All were listed at Afternic fast transfer.

Dan lost handily. So tell me how exactly did Gd send traffic to the lander?

If you mean search pathway at registrars, then those also counted for Dan in case name sold from its basket. AND DAN STILL LOST.

 

[Acroplex]

I won't be able to convince you to stop using Afternic. If I had 6k domains (I do not) I would be looking at other options. Curious how you gauge performance in sales when the same result can't be replicated once you sell the domain on either platform. Offers volume? Or sales volume across different timelines, that again skew the results?

Afternic was made to make quick money for GD by completing (generally) undersold domain transactions. They kept a whopping 20% for years, so the current drop to 15% is the only real discount from the Dan/Uni price-jacking.

 

[Recons.Com]

I won't be able to convince you to stop using Afternic. If I had 6k domains (I do not) I would be looking at other options. Curious how you gauge performance in sales when the same result can't be replicated once you sell the domain on either platform. Offers volume? Or sales volume across different timelines, that again skew the results?

Afternic was made to make quick money for GD by completing (generally) undersold domain transactions. They kept a whopping 20% for years, so the current drop to 15% is the only real discount from the Dan/Uni price-jacking.

For me, it is purely business, so I avoid that kind of rhetoric.

Now, if you had 6k why would you be looking at other options and which ones? Any science, tests, or even hypothesis to support this?

Now about gauging. Here is how:

I had around 18000 domains at the time. I RANDOMLY split them into 3 equal baskets of A/B/C and assigned them to Dan/Ns3/Ns5. All the names were at Afternic FT, so no additional advantage for any basket. All the difference in sales would come due to the effects of the landing page, as that was the only difference.

I was planning to run it for 6 months, but after one month the results were so lopsided that I stopped it.

NS3 was the winner and Dan did the worst. Again, the afternic sales were also counting for Dan if it happened for a name from Dan basket.

Btw, prior to experiment, I had my names with Dan landers for 5 months because so many people were saying that Dan is doing fine, especially factoring in 9%, plus I was getting stats that AN fails to provide. In those 5 months, my sales went down and I probably lost around $60k and that actually prompted me to do my own test.

 

[Acroplex]

The "rhetoric" exists because the majority of domain investors want options to sell their domains at max value and the numbers that Afternic cooked up after the fee increases at Dan/Uni don't reflect that.

Do whatever works best for you, I will not be touching Afternic with a 10ft pole until they fix their broken code. My sales take time to maximize and I certainly don't have 18k domains to renew or sell.

 

[davidc1]

I tested Dan landers vs ns3 and ns5.

Each basket had 6000 names. All were listed at Afternic fast transfer.

Dan lost handily. So tell me how exactly did Gd send traffic to the lander?

If you mean search pathway at registrars, then those also counted for Dan in case name sold from its basket. AND DAN STILL LOST.

How did you know if your sales comes from landers or afternic partners ?

 

[Recons.Com]

How did you know if your sales comes from landers or afternic partners ?

Incremental attribution.

If all names are listed with Afternic and its partners, and the only difference is the landers, then the delta in sales should be attributed to the efficiency of the lander.

 

[davidc1]

Incremental attribution.

If all names are listed with Afternic and its partners, and the only difference is the landers, then the delta in sales should be attributed to the efficiency of the lander.

ok, let's see I started a split test yesterday, should have result within a few days...
maybe it will not be so easy to know the result as I use LTO on dan...

 

[Recons.Com]

ok, let's see I started a split test yesterday, should have result within a few days...
maybe it will not be so easy to know the result as I use LTO on dan...

My Dan was set up to BIN or LTO 12 months. My hypothesis was that with LTO enabled Dan should beat Afternic landers. But did not happen.

At the end of the day, the most important KPI for all of us the the total sales in $ (of course, factoring in replacement costs, time spent acquiring etc.). This experiment is basically essential for determining how to maximize the bottom line. If one of your baskets is handily beating the others, provided that the baskets got allocated completely randomly, then you ought to apply that basket settings to your overall portfolio. It is that simple.

Please note that I experimented in May 2022, prior to GD takeover and GD logo appearing on landers and some minor changes to both Dan and GD landers. My working assumption for now is that it hasn't affected the outcome enough to spend time experimenting again. Plus, I do still use Dan landers for a short period when I just get new names to test traffic, but haven't noticed anything spectacular conversion-wise to retry them for overall portfolio.

The only new tests I am planning in near future are:

1. Price elasticity at various pricing points
2. If the last two digits of the price make any difference (i.e. 95, 88, 50, 00 etc.)
3. BIN vs PUR for below $2k.

 

[davidc1]

My Dan was set up to BIN or LTO 12 months. My hypothesis was that with LTO enabled Dan should beat Afternic landers. But did not happen.

At the end of the day, the most important KPI for all of us the the total sales in $ (of course, factoring in replacement costs, time spent acquiring etc.). This experiment is basically essential for determining how to maximize the bottom line. If one of your baskets is handily beating the others, provided that the baskets got allocated completely randomly, then you ought to apply that basket settings to your overall portfolio. It is that simple.

Please note that I experimented in May 2022, prior to GD takeover and GD logo appearing on landers and some minor changes to both Dan and GD landers. My working assumption for now is that it hasn't affected the outcome enough to spend time experimenting again. Plus, I do still use Dan landers for a short period when I just get new names to test traffic, but haven't noticed anything spectacular conversion-wise to retry them for overall portfolio.

The only new tests I am planning in near future are:

1. Price elasticity at various pricing points
2. If the last two digits of the price make any difference (i.e. 95, 88, 50, 00 etc.)
3. BIN vs PUR for below $2k.

What is PUR ?

My dan's portfolio is in EUR with 60 months max LTO.

I see that you use your website for landers, dont you be afraid of having 25% fees for afternic sales ?

 

[Recons.Com]

What is PUR ?

My dan's portfolio is in EUR with 60 months max LTO.

I see that you use your website for landers, dont you be afraid of having 25% fees for afternic sales ?

PUR = Price Upon Request, i.e. NS3 of Afternic.

Dan: since most of my domains are priced at $2500 and lots of LTOs don't complete, I decided that I don't want to do more than 12 months.

Website: it is work in progress. For now I have only few hundred names pointing there. Once the conversion work is complete and converts better than AN, the 25% won't matter, because my cost at Rightbrand will be only 2-3%. Regardless, I have full control there and can choose and pick how to implement it to achieve the lowest combined commission.

 

[davidc1]

Website: it is work in progress. For now I have only few hundred names pointing there. Once the conversion work is complete and converts better than AN, the 25% won't matter, because my cost at Rightbrand will be only 2-3%. Regardless, I have full control there and can choose and pick how to implement it to achieve the lowest combined commission.

PUR is a waste of time for me...

depends of your % of sales landers/an... Even with 0% fees if you sell much more on afternic than landers, you'll lose money not using their ns

 

[Recons.Com]

PUR is a waste of time for me...

depends of your % of sales landers/an... Even with 0% fees if you sell much more on afternic than landers, you'll lose money not using their ns

Well, I guess there is no formula that works for all.

Regarding the fees. My target is to achieve 1%+ through my landers at Rightbrand, plus 0.5% or so from AN/Sedo etc.

If I get to that conversion even at 1%, then here is how the weighting will work:

for each 100 names sold at 25% commission, I will have 200 names sold at 3% commission.

My weighed commission, then, will be around 10%.

Btw, even if my own landers give me just 0.5% on par with AN network without landers, my weighed commission will be 14%, better than AN's 15% with landers. In short, I need to do 0.5% or better on my landers before switching everything.

 

[justlife]

I hope Afternic can provide a feature where we can just click and download a pdf receipt for our domain sales (like Dan), for tax filing purpose.

 

[Mostano]

Based on my experience, Dan provides a good user experience without any complaints. However, I noticed that Afternic's user interface looks outdated, resembling a website from the 90s. Rather than focusing solely on selling commission policies, can you consider revamping Afternic's interface design, particularly for the beta version? The current layout is buggy and terrible from my point of view.

 

[kor]

Since they haven't bothered to fix any critical issues for years, it seems they're busy spending those millions of dollars that they easily earned.

 

[DomainBarracksRob]

Please put the the "Pending Sale" back and remove the hideous, nerve racking, anxiety provoking "On Hold" tab

"On Hold" gives me flash backs to early summer when I had 2 "On hold" in GoDaddy listings dashboard before I called my Rep to see what the deal was and what it meant. They were Priced 125k and 280K too. They sat there unlisted for week’s until I called to have it manually removed, as they never sold …& your system never put them back on market until after I called.


Also I noticed Today, price changes in Afternic are taking Forever to show / apply to GoDaddy. Also …BETA dashboard is BUGGY, not only do the price change not show, but when I search for the names I changed …they don’t Even Show in Beta Dashboard! I have to switch to Afternic classic to see that that are still listed in my portfolio.

As buggy as the the system is and has been, I can’t seen how adding the Dan interoperability into the mix is gonna make things run smoother…I list on Dan and Afternic separately, because activating the Dan Distribution Network Inside Dan on Names that are already listed and approved on Afternic will only cause me buggy situations with listing and emails .


“On Hold” Sounds So NEGATIVE as one Twitter user put it …please change it back.