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.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Is it possible that the 'in review' status at Afternic is time dependent?

I am getting caught up on getting some names listed. Two days ago every single name I listed on Afternic did not go into review. Yesterday, every single name went into review. These were generic words with no reason I could imagine to go into review (the reviews were all removed today). I have noticed this before, some days everything zips through, some day many names go to review. Is it possible @Afternic that when something gets every now and then overtaxed, and as solution it makes almost everything in review? If so, can that be muted somehow?

Also, is there a way that a name that went into review once, won't do that again every time the name needs to be relisted (e.g. after a registrar change). Or better yet, could you at some time add a column for registrar, so we can change that without needing to delete and relist the name? (like Sedo have)

Has there been a review of Review? Does it serve a useful purpose? Could it be more transparent? Is there a way to reduce the costs of service, representative and investor time through manual interventions? For example, many terms that go into review, you suggest the exact term in various promoted TLDs in your GD search, or offer broker service to try to get it. That does not seem consistent to me.

Do some extensions always go into review? If so does it last forever? e.g. I have for weeks had the name liquidate.my under review. I find it hard to imagine the grounds that this generic term would be under review. It's not that there is a business operating on LiquidateMy. Has anyone got a .my listed at Afternic and not under review? This is my only .my.

So let's say I have a name that was listed at Afternic for years. We all know that every now and then names pop into review for not obvious reasons. If someone tries to buy a name under review, are they still able to start the sale, or are they told the name is unavailable, or urged to pay for your agent fee?

Thank you very much in advance for hearing these suggestions. Any way to reduce friction to listing is good for everyone.

-Bob

 

[Acroplex]

Me too.

The best part is that they consistently send out surveys to gather feedback on their helpdesk performance!

Opened a ticket about how the issue was resolved but that another glitch remains. They didn't fix the glitch but sent me another survey about exactly that unresolved ticket.

The GD middle management needs to be fired and replaced by people that aren't mesmerized by corporate culture but want to do their job with customer satisfaction as their goal.

 

[silentg]

Active website listed for sale at GoDaddy with a BIN but no domain listing on Dan / Afternic.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1834625926128140338

If it's a fake listing, how did they manage to pull it off?

 

[Acroplex]

Active website listed for sale at GoDaddy with a BIN but no domain listing on Dan / Afternic.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1834625926128140338

If it's a fake listing, how did they manage to pull it off?

Because nobody at GoDaddy got fired for rolling out code that's pure shit, that's how.

 

[freety85]

I’ve noticed a consistent issue with the new custom lander on Chrome. When entering a URL, it loads multiple times around the 25-second mark before loading successfully on the second attempt. This behavior has been observed across various domains and TLDs, even after clearing cookies.

I’m concerned that this significant delay, coupled with the additional 28 seconds to reach the GD cart, might negatively impact the user experience and potentially discourage purchases. Could you please investigate this issue to determine if it’s a widespread problem? That would also explain why I have no action on AF since I switched to those landers...

p.s. - what is your plan @GoDaddy for the Afternic supported TLD-s which are not supported by GoDaddy? Custom lander still shows a checkout link error. When do you foresee solution to this issue? Thanks

 

[bmugford]

The end of Dan.com also presents another annoying issue for me.

Because Afternic only allows (1) payee active at a time, I have a few Dan.com accounts so I can control what parts of my portfolio go to what payee. I have more than one entity when it comes to domain ownership.

As far as I know you can only have a (1) Afternic account tied to (1) GoDaddy account, which presents a payee issue.

GoDaddy auctions used to allow the option to set payees on a per domain basis. I guess Afternic "upgraded" by removing that feature.

Brad

 

[tonyk2000]

Afternic MUST fix payee issue ASAP. @GoDaddy please explain what happened and why. Payee change button now links to global account setup. Earlier, it was possible to individually select payee for each sale before the payout...

 

[GoDaddy]

The 'In Review' system is terrible and needs to be overhauled or removed. It is a waste of time for the seller and I'm sure it has resulted in some lost sales for domains that randomly get stuck in review for some unknown reason.

Hi @Janoss,
Absolutely, the review system can and will be improved. The current In Review system is designed to remove listings when certain status changes occur (like Whois changes, transfers, and more), and to prevent trademarked terms from appearing.

There's a lot we can do to enhance the system. First, we can implement new features, and second, we can give sellers more control over processing In Review domains for status changes. This is something we'll be exploring as we move into 2025.

In the Lead Center I can see that you keep pestering dead leads, I mean 10-20x "Email sent to buyer" for 1-2yo leads that never engaged or stopped answering after the first week, doesn't it contribute to the spam score and affect other, legitimate correspondence?

That aside, I would like to be able to preview these e-mails, maybe you could link the contents under "Email sent to buyer"?

Hi @pb
Thanks for your feedback! Yes, some leads are followed up on over a longer period — a strategy inspired by the Uniregistry team's insights. Each broker decides on the follow-up process, and we review it regularly.

We've seen many sales happen well after the initial contact — sometimes even up to 3 years later.

As for buyer emails, we don't plan to include them in the Lead Center for now. But, we're exploring ways to increase visibility and insights into brokered leads.

Afternic keeps saying "Please setup a payee account to receive your domain sales payments.", while the payee account (Paypal) is already set up. Am I missing something, or is this a common error?

Thanks @Bananot, this has been reported to the Afternic team.

A good chunk (most) of my domains are showing the dreaded "This domain is registered, but may still be available."

This can't be good for business. I'm about to blow a fuse!

Hi @NorthernDomains
We're sorry to hear that. Afternic's support team will be able to help you investigate this one.

Is it possible that the 'in review' status at Afternic is time dependent?

I am getting caught up on getting some names listed. Two days ago every single name I listed on Afternic did not go into review. Yesterday, every single name went into review. These were generic words with no reason I could imagine to go into review (the reviews were all removed today). I have noticed this before, some days everything zips through, some day many names go to review. Is it possible @Afternic that when something gets every now and then overtaxed, and as solution it makes almost everything in review? If so, can that be muted somehow?

Also, is there a way that a name that went into review once, won't do that again every time the name needs to be relisted (e.g. after a registrar change). Or better yet, could you at some time add a column for registrar, so we can change that without needing to delete and relist the name? (like Sedo have)

Has there been a review of Review? Does it serve a useful purpose? Could it be more transparent? Is there a way to reduce the costs of service, representative and investor time through manual interventions? For example, many terms that go into review, you suggest the exact term in various promoted TLDs in your GD search, or offer broker service to try to get it. That does not seem consistent to me.

Do some extensions always go into review? If so does it last forever? e.g. I have for weeks had the name liquidate.my under review. I find it hard to imagine the grounds that this generic term would be under review. It's not that there is a business operating on LiquidateMy. Has anyone got a .my listed at Afternic and not under review? This is my only .my.

So let's say I have a name that was listed at Afternic for years. We all know that every now and then names pop into review for not obvious reasons. If someone tries to buy a name under review, are they still able to start the sale, or are they told the name is unavailable, or urged to pay for your agent fee?

Thank you very much in advance for hearing these suggestions. Any way to reduce friction to listing is good for everyone.

-Bob

Hi Bob,
Thanks for your thoughts. As we alluded to above, there's a lot that we're planning to do with the In Review system, and the aim is to reduce friction in the process.

I’ve noticed a consistent issue with the new custom lander on Chrome. When entering a URL, it loads multiple times around the 25-second mark before loading successfully on the second attempt. This behavior has been observed across various domains and TLDs, even after clearing cookies.

I’m concerned that this significant delay, coupled with the additional 28 seconds to reach the GD cart, might negatively impact the user experience and potentially discourage purchases. Could you please investigate this issue to determine if it’s a widespread problem? That would also explain why I have no action on AF since I switched to those landers...

p.s. - what is your plan @GoDaddy for the Afternic supported TLD-s which are not supported by GoDaddy? Custom lander still shows a checkout link error. When do you foresee solution to this issue? Thanks

Slow loading isn't something that we've experienced with the Custom Lander, but we'd like to know more about your experience - can you DM us with a couple of example domains, along with information on the browser you're using?

The Custom Lander has proven popular among sellers and buyers so far. We've already worked on cutting down load times after clicking through to checkout, and we're continuing to make further improvements.

 

[bmugford]

@GoDaddy said the following -

We’re honored to support domain name investors' success. To keep innovating, we're preparing for an exciting change: a merger with Afternic after two years of planning.

A "merger" would include the best of Dan.com which means things like a domain search, self-brokerage, analytics, landers, etc.

I hope the "merger" doesn't mean just shutting down Dan.com, and either not adding or adding half-assed versions of these features.

Brad

 

[johnn]

There is no merger. Here is GD plan.
- Buy the competitor
- Wait for 2 years and hoping that they can steal the customers
- Shut it down

They don't have any plan for sale/marketing and the programmers just sit in the office and doing nothing.

 

[NameGroove]

There is no merger. Here is GD plan.
- Buy the competitor
- Wait for 2 years and hoping that they can steal the customers
- Shut it down

They don't have any plan for sale/marketing and the programmers just sit in the office and doing nothing.

Yea, a $21 billion dollar company just sitting back and doing nothing. Other companies wish they could do as well doing nothing.

 

[LH1]

Whats with the random activity in the lead center? I see new activity but when I check the status, it says stalled with the following message: "The original lead was created prior to the Lead Center, as a result previous activities are not recorded here." Lead was initiated in 2020. If thats the case, whats the point in randomly updating it nearly 5 years later??

 

[4L.com]

I noticed that the landing pages for my domains have stopped functioning properly. Although all my domains in the Afternic account have a Custom lander settings, which includes a fixed price and the option for Lease to Own, all domains have the NS: ns1.afternic.com and ns2.afternic.com. Everything was working fine a couple of weeks ago, but now, for a large number of domains (thousands), when I enter the domain in the browser's address bar, instead of the Custom lander, either the page 'This domain is registered, but may still be available' opens, or a page with 'Get a price in less than 24 hours.' To make this clear, I am attaching screenshots with domains names so everybody was able to verify:

As of 14.09.2024, the problem still hasn't been fully resolved. The price for the domains (instead of broker services) is now displayed correctly on the GoDaddy website, but the correct landing page for many domains still doesn't function. I changed the nameservers for 50 of my domains to Afternic (ns1 and ns2) for testing, and for exactly 10 out of those 50, the incorrect landing page is still displayed: either the page 'This domain is registered, but may still be available' or a page with 'Get a price in less than 24 hours,' instead of the Custom Lander with Fixed price.

 

[JB Lions]

@GoDaddy

Moving domains over from Dan to Afternic. So still no Adult names as far as lease to own? I know they’re not allowed in the fast transfer network. Looks like just a Godday offer page is available?

 

[silentg]

@GoDaddy did the issue with Afternic e-mails ending up in buyer's spam resolved?

Any updates on this? @GoDaddy

So many stalled leads and wondering if this issue has been fixed.

 

[Mister Funsky]

So many stalled leads and wondering if this issue has been fixed.

I too am bothered by the stalled leads. On a few, the broker will attempt contact weekly or monthly. That's okay with me, as long as they attempt a call and/or email once a month at a minimum (this is acceptable ONLY after an intense period of attempting contact/interaction).

The ones that REALLY get under my skin, are the ones that are assigned to a 'broker' and either no attempt is made at contact or only one attempt is made and then nothing.

Leads are a precious commodity and if someone wants the privilege of representing me and my assets (domains), they better bust their ass to make a sale whether it is xxx or xxx,xxx.

 

[phaethon]

I too am bothered by the stalled leads. On a few, the broker will attempt contact weekly or monthly. That's okay with me, as long as they attempt a call and/or email once a month at a minimum (this is acceptable ONLY after an intense period of attempting contact/interaction).

Those have zero success for me. The only value of NS3 is that you see which names the end users are interested in.
But almost all my sales have been direct purchases without or minimum negotiation.
New enquiries 97% of times go nowhere or I receive a low xxx offer.

 

[NameGroove]

Those have zero success for me. The only value of NS3 is that you see which names the end users are interested in.
But almost all my sales have been direct purchases without or minimum negotiation.

BIN is 99% of my names. I feel it's best to put up a price and let people buy the name straight away. MO is for someone who doesn't know how to price their name imo. Why are you bothering with brokers who can't sell, don't respond timely, can't write, etc. Put up a BIN and avoid the nonsense. Obv if you have an ultra premium - it shouldn't be with AN brokers anyway and a real high end broker (imo)

 

[phaethon]

They probably have data that proves chasing end users works. In my case the data is zero.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Those have zero success for me. The only value of NS3 is that you see which names the end users are interested in.
But almost all my sales have been direct purchases without or minimum negotiation.
New enquiries 97% of times go nowhere or I receive a low xxx offer.

I'm just the opposite.

I've never had a BIN thru afternic...only negotiated sales. I must give credit to a stellar broker (still there) that achieved the second highest sale for me in mid xx,xxx range.