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.

 

[GoDaddy]

What does this mean exactly?

The new Make Offer feature allows buyers to send their initial offers directly to our expert brokers through a two-step, on-screen process. Sellers can then monitor incoming inbound offers via the Lead Center.

Is the domain owner interreacting with the buyer directly or the GoDaddy broker?

I would rather interact with the buyer directly, or at least have that option available like with Dan.com.

Brad

Hi @bmugford
You'll interact with offers in the same way that you do from Request Price leads. You'll be able to interact with your Afternic broker, while they're negotiating with the buyer.

We will be introducing a self-brokered make offer feature in late 2024/2025.

Here are some features that truly set DAN apart and that should be incorporated into Afternic.

• Ability to negotiate directly with the buyer, as stated by @bmugford
• Collaboration with external brokerages to handle leads
• Automated communication and handling, with a clear chat history
• Exceptional portfolio display and management
• Account push; holding accounts with multiple registrars
• Same-day Seller payments, often within a couple of hours
• Option to list in major currencies other than just USD
• Fast CSV portfolio uploads, often within seconds
• Low commissions; no tricks
• Significantly less bugs and frustration
• Bugs were resolved resolutely by a relatively small team
• True innovation

I understand that these changes might never be implemented, but I just wanted to share what domain investors truly value, rather than what you might envision yourself.

Thanks, @Future Sensors. We've worked very closely with the Dan.com team to bring the best of Dan to Afternic. While many of these features have been released - Lease to Own, the Custom Lander, Custom Checkout Link, and more, we'll be introducing more in the coming months.

These include introducing learnings from Dan into the Transaction Assurance flow, self-brokered features, and more.

 

[Future Sensors]

@Kyle Tully has provided an update on the issues currently affecting the Afternic Brokerage team.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/mystery-shopping-your-domains.1332675/#post-9240344

@GoDaddy Please ensure that your brokers adequately respond to leads, and actively assist in selling domains for Afternic Sellers. Their current efforts are significantly inadequate, and the level of service provided does not justify the exorbitant commission fees being charged.

 

[Edukar]

OK. guys. All good once ends.
This is final countdown for Godaddy..
They blocked my account a few months ago. And now they are reaping bitter fruits of my fury. They have no chance. Look for other marketplaces.

 

[Future Sensors]

I've created this Poll. Please participate, thank you.

Will you participate in the Afternic Boost program?

https://www.namepros.com/threads/will-you-participate-in-the-afternic-boost-program.1333652/

 

[End User King]

Here are some features that truly set DAN apart and that should be incorporated into Afternic.

• Ability to negotiate directly with the buyer, as stated by @bmugford
• Collaboration with external brokerages to handle leads
• Automated communication and handling, with a clear chat history
• Exceptional portfolio display and management
• Account push; holding accounts with multiple registrars
• Same-day Seller payments, often within a couple of hours
• Option to list in major currencies other than just USD
• Fast CSV portfolio uploads, often within seconds + email confirmations
• Low commissions; no tricks
• Significantly less bugs and frustration
• Bugs were resolved resolutely by a relatively small team
• True innovation

I understand that these changes might never be implemented, but I just wanted to share what domain investors truly value, rather than what you might envision yourself.

Godaddy should be paying you for these insights. You def get it. And summing it up well. Damn it isn't rocket science Go daddy, just listen for once and quit claiming you're innovating anything.

 

[Future Sensors]

Godaddy should be paying you for these insights.

I will propose this!

 

[GoDaddy]

@Kyle Tully has provided an update on the issues currently affecting the Afternic Brokerage team.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/mystery-shopping-your-domains.1332675/#post-9240344

@GoDaddy Please ensure that your brokers adequately respond to leads, and actively assist in selling domains for Afternic Sellers. Their current efforts are significantly inadequate, and the level of service provided does not justify the exorbitant commission fees being charged.

Thanks. We have @Kyle Tully's example domain and will review this experience today with Afternic's sales director.

 

[Future Sensors]

Thanks. We have @Kyle Tully's example domain and will review this experience today with Afternic's sales director.

Sounds like a great experiment. Keep us posted.

 

[Dane]

Hi @Dane
I believe I have your Afternic username already, so we'll connect with the Afternic support lead to understand why they weren't able to help out in this case.

@GoDaddy -- Any updates on this yet? The names are still showing as "Opt-in Required" (and I have not received any emails after de-listing and re-listing the names)

 

[Synozeer]

@GoDaddy -- Any updates on this yet? The names are still showing as "Opt-in Required"

This issue has been around forever. I spent a week with support several months ago dealing with the same problem and supposedly they "fixed" the issue, but I ended up just deleting and re-adding most of the names having that problem and that fixed it for the majority of them.

 

[Dane]

...I ended up just deleting and re-adding most of the names having that problem and that fixed it for the majority of them.

The thing is, I did that -- but it didn't fix it. They really need to provide an easier way to manually Opt-In to Fast Transfer. Especially when the name is registered at GoDaddy. How many years are we going to wait for Afternic to be "fixed"?

 

[silentg]

A day ago I sent a follow up to the broker as the buyer, no response as usual.

Then last night I contacted the broker directly in lead center as the seller, saying that the buyer had reached out to me directly letting me know emails and offers were not getting responded to.

Now this morning there is magically an offer in lead center.

The brokers response to me indicated that he HAD received the buyers other emails -- though this was not reflected in lead center nor were they responded to — and that the offer email had gone to spam.

Oh and another “buyer called logged” so 911 must be wondering WTF is going on at Afternic

Seriously considering pulling my entire portfolio from AN and self brokering at this point. Can only imagine how many of the stalled leads I’ve got were in a similar situation.

August has been the most active at Afternic with leads and majority of them were stalled. Will @GoDaddy check on all leads or just that one particular broker?

 

[Future Sensors]

August has been the most active at Afternic with leads and majority of them were stalled. Will @GoDaddy check on all leads or just that one particular broker?

That’s a very valid question. It’s unfortunate that we have to question this at every step, especially when they are supposed to be the experts, not us.

 

[tonyk2000]

Delisting and relisting, with or without domain deletion, may help if and only if the domain will not go to pending review. A common scenario nowadays:

1. Domain was fine, approved after 1st pending review, with fast transfer enabled (all done in old afternic, where the things worked better).

2. I transferred it to another fast-transfer registrar, so deleted the domain and re-added it.

3. Pending review again (no fast transfer request in the meantime, as was the case with an old system).

4. Domain reviewed-approved by either service@ or account manager.

5. Still no fast transfer auth request (specifically, in cases where it is .com and the new registrar does not prevent immediate transfers - all reasonably set registrars, like Dynadot and Porkbun, are fine in this aspect. Not GoDaddy though..)

P.S. If the domain was pending review and subsequently approved, will delisting-relisting (NOT deletion!) trigger pendingreview again??

 

[jiy k]

For last few days, after keeping Afternic idle even for 15-20 mins, i don't straight away start working on it. I first dutifully sign out and then sign in again. If I have logged into Afternic via Godaddy then i dutifully sign out of both Godaddy & Afternic and then sign in, in both of them. This is giving me peace of mind.
But then again, there is a new development. After signing in when i try to save changes to a domain, it takes me to sign in page.....

 

[Kyle Tully]

August has been the most active at Afternic with leads and majority of them were stalled. Will @GoDaddy check on all leads or just that one particular broker?

Yeah to be clear I’m not calling out this particular broker. It’s the same across all my leads.

 

[Recons.Com]

Yeah to be clear I’m not calling out this particular broker. It’s the same across all my leads.

Afternic is well aware of the issues with brokers, leads, communication with buyers. But it cannot deal with it right now due to focusing on the Boost launch that y'all have been awaiting so eagerly. However (good news!), sorting out the brokerage issues is in our to-do list and is scheduled to be solved in 2027.

 

[Dane]

However (good news!), sorting out the brokerage issues is in our to-do list and is scheduled to be solved in 2027.

Wow, you guys are getting better!

 

[Molly]

Fun Fact, not. When you create an Afternic account from within Godaddy, your affiliate ID — which is visible in the url of your domain, or clicking on any ads — defaults to your email address.

So, if your email address is user.name, the affiliate ID displayed on all of your domains will be your user.name. However, if you create an acct directly on AN, it alerts you to this so you can pick a different username.

So much for privacy/confidentiality. This needs to be made clear to @GoDaddy customers, even if you don’t give them the option to change it.

 

[Maged Khatab]

These are the issues I encountered in the past few days:

- For the past 3 days in a row, I have added some domains, updated LTO, and pointed them to Afternic Nameservers, then tested them and all resolved with no issues. However, after ~12 to 24 hours, when I visited my domains, they all displayed the message "This domain is registered, but may still be available". So, I ended up deleting and relisting them again.

- Sometimes when I bulk update my portfolio using a CSV file, a few domains "previously listed" randomly go to "In Review" status right after the bulk update is done. and I end up deleting and relisting them again.

- Sometimes when I add a domain and goes to "In review" status and after it's approved, the very second day it goes again to "In Review" status and I end up contacting Afternic support to re-approve it one again "This issue has been happening for a long time every once in a while".

- A name that was previously listed on Afternic for a different price than mine, after I verified, listed, and tested it, it's working fine displaying the correct price and landing page. However, after ~12 to 24 hours, when I visited this domain, it displayed the old price while the name had the new price in my account! and I ended up deleting and relisting it again.

@GoDaddy Simple tasks like adding and updating domain names have become daunting and tedious almost on a daily basis. Please boost your work on fixing the current issues before boosting your commission!