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]

Can you be sure it's anything AN are doing specifically? Do they tell you if it was a sale through the lander or their registry path or a partners registry path etc?

No. I am not signed up for boost. So most just come from network or lander. I have received some emails (about similar names available to some I hold) that I suspect are result of boost initiatives for those who have it activated.

I suspect the market overall has picked up, and small number statistics may not mean much. Lots on social media seem reporting Afternic sales of late.

I guess a hopeful view would be it reflects some of the issues gone, as well as possibly an impact from third-party offerings taking the place of Afternic search and direct some buyers.

Anyway, thought I would do something other than complain, for once at least .

-Bob

 

[DrJacoby]

.

 

[freety85]

I've been critical of Afternic search, Dan closing, and review process, but I must say that Afternic sales seem to be on fire recently. Whatever you are doing the last week or two, please continue!
-Bob

While there's still a long road ahead for improvement, the company enjoys significant trust, particularly among first-time buyers. This strong brand loyalty, coupled with substantial advertising budgets, will likely endure. Despite not being part of the boost, I've noticed a recent sales surge. Brokers are also highly motivated to close deals. It seems they're on the right track.

 

[Dane]

While there's still a long road ahead for improvement, the company enjoys significant trust, particularly among first-time buyers. This strong brand loyalty, coupled with substantial advertising budgets, will likely endure. Despite not being part of the boost, I've noticed a recent sales surge. Brokers are also highly motivated to close deals. It seems they're on the right track.

Bob Parsons? Is that you??

 

[DomainRecap]

Sounds like someone is getting their palms greased with that sweet Afternic cash!

 

[HotKey]

Got a price request from AF yesterday, on a domain I sold through DAN like six months ago. Logged into my Afternic and deleted the domain. It should have been removed automatically shouldn't it have? Just a heads up for whoever cares, the systems aren't in sync.

 

[DomainRecap]

It should have been removed automatically shouldn't it have? Just a heads up for whoever cares, the systems aren't in sync.

Unless you did a 'replace' upload, I think all Afternic did was add those active Dan domain listings to your account.

That's actually the correct way to do it, as some only list their BINs on Afternic and used Dan for all "Make Offer" listings, so it would be very dangerous to synch them and start mass-deleting any differences.

When I sold something at one marketplace, I would have to manually delete the active listings at other marketplaces. It was the same back when GD and Uniregistry were used to list and sell domains.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

This is the core problem with Afternic - the total lack of control in negotiations.

Even the smallest steps take forever and even if you agree to sell for X offer price, you're still probably weeks from closing the deal and seeing your money. That is, if the buyer still wants the domain after all that waiting.

Be reassured that their brokers can and will negotiate a sale quickly. They did so for me.

After a buyer inquiry, Afternic completed negotiations on my domain in four days. The domain transfer went smoothly and flawlessly with Afternic FT. And, having asked for an expedited payout, I received payment the next day from the sale!

So perhaps there are significant positive changes in Afternic now and, even more coming. The negotiations were excellent, and the speed of payout exceeded expectations.

 

[DomainRecap]

After a buyer inquiry, Afternic completed negotiations on my domain in four days.

Sure, but that's an easy transaction that would have probably taken me 15 minutes to complete on Dan, then a payment the next morning. You just can't do that on Afternic and "fast" for them is "under a week".

Anything with delays is only exacerbated by the additional delays in broker response times (they each handle thousands of seller accounts and work 9-5, five days a week) and some transactions can literally take forever to resolve.

With no available "Seller Negotiations" tool I don't see myself using Afternic as my primary marketplace for months on end until sometime in 2025 they release one (that probably doesn't have the features I want). I hate playing the "waiting game" only to find out 10 days later that my initial offer (sent immediately after receiving the lead) was "priced outside of what they wanted to spend".

I literally could have figured that out on Dan in 5 minutes. Instead I need to wait 10 days on Afternic.

Great.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Anything with delays is only exacerbated by the additional delays in broker response times (they each handle thousands of seller accounts and work 9-5, five days a week) and some transactions can literally take forever to resolve.

Well the good news is that this broker was working on a weekend night, and did respond quickly to my communication.

With no available "Seller Negotiations" tool I don't see myself using Afternic as my primary marketplace for months on end until sometime in 2025 they release one (that probably doesn't have the features I want). I hate playing the "waiting game" only to find out 10 days later that my initial offer (sent immediately after receiving the lead) was "priced outside of what they wanted to spend".

When Afternic introduces the self-brokerage option, perhaps that would be best for you?

Having the option of using an experienced broker is nice for those who prefer to leave the negotiations to Afternic.

What might be helpful is communicating up front what the priority is? In other words, whether having a quick sale is more important versus trying to get a maximum price? If the broker has that clarity up front, that may help tailor the negotiations to fit the seller's needs at that time and for that particular domain.

 

[forge]

Be reassured that their brokers can and will negotiate a sale quickly.

Reassured?

This is the Afternic thread, right?

 

[forge]

Sarcasm Boost!

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Reassured?

This is the Afternic thread, right?

That's at first what I was wondering, when I learned of the offer, negotiations, sale and saw the payout in less than one week. Having read the posts here lately, I had some doubts were whether the broker would be timely and successful. He succeeded, and his expertise likely led this to my highest sale yet.

Look, I get it that the integration of Dan into Afternic has not gone smoothly for some folks. And, for domainers with extensive negotiation experience, that's extremely frustrating.

My experience this week has been a very reassuring for me about Afternic's ability to negotiate, sell, and payout efficiently. Perhaps I was simply fortunate to get one of the better brokers. Or, perhaps this reflects Afternic's recent efforts to improve the brokerage process. The reason I am posting this is to hopefully provide some hope for those of you still struggling with the integration issues.

Even without the self-brokering process, perhaps some significant improvements are happening right now at Afternic. So maybe the time machines and flux capacitors won't be needed!

 

[411domains]

Be reassured that their brokers can and will negotiate a sale quickly. They did so for me.

After a buyer inquiry, Afternic completed negotiations on my domain in four days. The domain transfer went smoothly and flawlessly with Afternic FT. And, having asked for an expedited payout, I received payment the next day from the sale!

So perhaps there are significant positive changes in Afternic now and, even more coming. The negotiations were excellent, and the speed of payout exceeded expectations.

@LoveCatchyDomains

It would be nice if the did. However, there are a few who don't...even try.

 

[AEProgram]

@LoveCatchyDomains

It would be nice if the did. However, there are a few who don't...even try.

Show attachment 266378

everyones lead center looks the same. If all landers had a price, the lead center would have almost no leads. The leads are mostly from people that expect a xx or xxx or a very low xxxx price, anything above you will just have a stalled lead in most cases.

On Dan if you listed a price for all your domains, you got a fraction of the leads but when someone did contact you, it was a good chance you can sell them the name, they knew the price before hand.

 

[411domains]

everyones lead center looks the same. If all landers had a price, the lead center would have almost no leads. The leads are mostly from people that expect a xx or xxx or a very low xxxx price, anything above you will just have a stalled lead in most cases.

On Dan if you listed a price for all your domains, you got a fraction of the leads but when someone did contact you, it was a good chance you can sell them the name, they knew the price before hand.

@AEProgram - For the record, priced domains using BIN landers also generate leads that go to brokers. Theoretically, they shouldn't, but they do and I don't care much for that. I price them for a reason.

The point I was trying to make was, for many, there is a severe lack of broker communication between sellers/brokers/buyers.

The example I provided is one of many genuine leads where the broker was engaged in conversation with the buyer and then ceased further communications/updates.

Communication is the key to closing deals. if you have a broker who doesn't believe in communication, you're guaranteed to lose sales.

I miss the dedicated brokers who spoke human, knew how to hustle and kicked ass at closing deals.

I also miss DAN, but I preferred it as Undeveloped. (It was a much better name for a platform selling undeveloped domains. Not to mention, I believe everyone who used the platform at that had a higher STR, but that's beside the point.)

 

[AEProgram]

Communication is the key to closing deals. if you have a broker who doesn't believe in communication, you're guaranteed to lose sales.

I will help you decipher that sales lead thread.

The first three items from the bottom are really one thing that happens when a lead comes in.

The next 5 are also one event, look at the time stamps. The broker spoke to the buyer and probably sent the price. AN does have a message that tells you if the buyer said the price is not in their budget. But what if the buyer said let me think about it for a while?

The lead center should not require domainers trying to look at timesteps to guess.

The whole setup is not good. Every second that passes the chances of losing a sale goes down significantly. HugeDomains is successful (they did not always operate dropcatch and NB) because they list prices and offer payment plans and have a number that someone picks up right away and they did everything to solve the time problem.

The whole lead center has become a source of hope and stress. We must see clear details, we must be able to talk to buyers.

For now lead center for most of us looks like a cemetery, a place domain buyers go to die and domainers keep visiting to mourn them and their own money.

 

[love4ever]

Even without the self-brokering process, perhaps some significant improvements are happening right now at Afternic. So maybe the time machines and flux capacitors won't be needed!

Afternic/godaddy shouldn't have done this step before insuring completely that afternic lander/system/brokering process are all 100% perfect . Thats was not a professional way .

They decide to migrate us and cancel DAN when they are not ready and now trying to fix issues and based on domainers complains/reviews/trials .

It sound like godaddy/afternic decided lets do this idea and later we will learn the issues/problems after seeing domainers reaction of screaming and complaining and showing us the errors/bugs !

So virtually they deal with us like Lab Mice

..

 

[Janoss]

The lead center is very basic and sellers are often in the dark about what is going on even after looking at status updates. Hopefully @GoDaddy adds more details about the actual communication between brokers and buyers such as what was actually said by each party rather than just the basic status updates.

Updates should also be in real-time. Many brokers don't update the statuses on time so even if communication was going on with the buyer the seller won't know until brokers decides to update the status which could be days or weeks later.

 

[DN_Hunter]

Be reassured that their brokers can and will negotiate a sale quickly. They did so for me.

After a buyer inquiry, Afternic completed negotiations on my domain in four days. The domain transfer went smoothly and flawlessly with Afternic FT. And, having asked for an expedited payout, I received payment the next day from the sale!

So perhaps there are significant positive changes in Afternic now and, even more coming. The negotiations were excellent, and the speed of payout exceeded expectations.

How was your domain listed?
What Sale Lander?
Did you have a BIN?
Did you set a MIN OFFER?
Did you have a FLOOR specified -- so the AN Broker knew what price you would accept.

Did AN reach out to you via emails during the 4-day negotiation period? And you provided pricing feedback each time?

In other words, was the 4-day negotiation conducted by the Afternic broker alone, or did you provide pricing feedback based on offers from the buyer?