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.

 

[DN_Hunter]

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?

When broker spoke to the buyer -- it would be helpful to clarify the BUYER CALL LOGGED
a) Afternic called the buyer
b) Buyer called Afternic

If the Buyer called Afternic, (especially after a few days of negotiation) it would help me determine how serious/interested the Buyer is

 

[411domains]

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.

Thank you @AEProgram, but I didn't need help deciphering the sales lead.

I didn't care for the lead center when it was it was with DomainNameSales and Uniregistry, but at least the brokers knew the importance of transparency and updates.

If a buyer wanted time to think about it, the brokers would update the lead accordingly.

Communication is key.

 

[Joe drake]

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.

Wheres The Thread ?

 

[DomainRecap]

@AEProgramI 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.)

Undeveloped was by far the better brand, as this expressed exactly what its business role was in a single word. These digital properties are UNDEVELOPED. It created promise and untapped potential in every listing, which all seemed poised "to be developed". All these needed was a buyer with some vision.

But in order to get GoDaddy truly interested in buying them, the owners of Undeveloped needed to spice things up and make some juicy headlines. No way they were selling an "old site" for $71 million and changes needed to be made.

So there was a big hype drive about an upcoming new brand name, an updated site design with hot new features, and the addition of registrar capabilities. The new 3-letter DAN.com domains elicited oooohs and aaaahs from the GD brass, while Dan becoming a registrar created furrowed brows and worried looks. Something needed to be done!

So GD bought out Dan and subsequently closed it, and while the Dan founders were purchasing yachts, sportscars and villas in Europe, the poor and trusting Undeveloped customer base was, unfortunately, getting royally screwed.

 

[411domains]

When broker spoke to the buyer -- it would be helpful to clarify the BUYER CALL LOGGED
a) Afternic called the buyer
b) Buyer called Afternic

If the Buyer called Afternic, (especially after a few days of negotiation) it would help me determine how serious/interested the Buyer is

@DN_Hunter, If I recall correctly, that's how it used to be at DomainNameSales and Uniregistry.

 

[DomainRecap]

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.

This is very true of GoDaddy/Afternic, and it has nothing to do with the lack of BIN prices.

Due to their high customer volume, they attract more Domain Hobos than anywhere else, and you will likely never achieve a market-leading price on Afternic, simply because of customer expectations. Listing a premium domain on Afternic is like setting up a Fine Art Gallery selling 6-figure paintings in the local strip mall, next to the Subway and Dollar Tree.

Who do you think is going to walk in and what will be their price expectation?

One very successful domainer once told me that if you want to hit the high prices, stay far, far away from generic GD marketplaces with their built-in "unwashed masses" hoping to buy a 1-word domain for $50 and instead use your own landers.

That way you control the entire transaction from start to finish, and there will be no false expectations - it's just you and the potential buyer. You'll still get lowballers, but that's not ALL you'll get.

If you want to have a shot a the brass ring, you need to take the transaction back, and stop letting a disinterested 3rd party have total control over your customer leads and negotiations.

Remember, there is no brass ring at Afternic and there never was.

 

[Altetra]

Why Afternic is blocked by ISP Airtel in India?

This is of a serious concern, but not bigger than what I found recently, it seems that an ISP can block domains in such a way that they look as non registered, too good I went through all of them and discovered this, I even have reg one domain in a gTLD freshly and same thing happens with it.

 

[NicTraders]

Thats was not a professional way .

Sorry, you came to the wrong place if you're looking for anything professional.

 

[kesen]

We still not get the payment of 1 domain sold at the end of Oct., transferred done at that day, dont know what Afternic checking now. TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW.

 

[BigTree]

Where can I find sale invoices in my Afternic account?
With other aftermarkets it takes seconds to find and download them but with afternic I cannot do simple thing like that.

I am asking here because I sent an email to afternic but you probably know how slow customer service is in afternic from just reading old and new threads on Namepros (unfortunetly nothing have changed for years in that matter). I have not gotten any reply yet.

 

[BigTree]

We still not get the payment of 1 domain sold at the end of Oct., transferred done at that day, dont know what Afternic checking now. TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SLOW.

My advise - just move to other marketplace.
With afternic problems are everywhere.

 

[GoDaddy]

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

Congrats on the sales, Bob! Great to hear of your recent success.

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.

Hi @HotKey
Afternic and Dan.com were two separate systems. If you sold a domain via Dan.com, it would not automatically update at Afternic for a number of reasons.

GD search really needs an overhaul. The results are pretty horrible.

e.g. I search for DrugMedia -- I get the .com.au come up first as I'm in Aus, but the .com is in position 17??! Behind the world-leading .it.com mind you

I'm guessing the .com is not boosted so you punish it, but this is hurting not only this sellers sales but likely sales of the other TLD's as they would benefit from the price comparison to the expensive .com

I's also not very good at spotting exact match searches for a name such as DrugMedia, where the second keyword has a matching TLD.

e.g. It does not surface the premium name Drug.media unless I do an exact SLD.TLD search for it.

Again I'm guessing this is a non-boost punishment but just results in worse options for the end user.

And it's not like it can't recognise the keywords because it shows me drug.com.au... although its offering me it for $16.49 and I can guarantee it's not available and certainly not for that price.

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.

Thanks, @Janoss. Adding more granularity to the Lead Center is something we've discussed with the team in the past. We'll check in on this.

Where can I find sale invoices in my Afternic account?
With other aftermarkets it takes seconds to find and download them but with afternic I cannot do simple thing like that.

I am asking here because I sent an email to afternic but you probably know how slow customer service is in afternic from just reading old and new threads on Namepros (unfortunetly nothing have changed for years in that matter). I have not gotten any reply yet.

Hi @BigTree
We replied to your separate thread, but we'll share the response here, too:

For Buy It Now sales at Afternic, we can issue Payout Transmittals that document the amount you received, minus commissions.

To access these Payout Transmittals, go to afternic.com/sales, click on any domain sale, and then select the "Payout Transmittal" button.

We do provide invoices for commissions on Lease to Own transactions at Afternic, as mentioned in the blog post you linked to. However, this option isn't available for Buy It Now sales.

 

[GoDaddy]

Today I tried to bulk update my portfolio using a spreadsheet and I chose "Replace" instead of "Update" because I had some domains to delete. Here's what happened:

- My entire portfolio was deleted except for 70 domains only!
- I re-uploaded the CSV file again and all names were added again.
- More than +100 domains are pending review now, 0 before this update.
- 5 domains Pending sync.
- All my Fast-Transfer statuses have gone.

Not to mention the amount of random errors in different tabs.

@GoDaddy What the heck is going on?!

Hi @Maged Khatab
We've shared this via email with you, too, but our engineers did find an error with returning the information required following your upload, and a fix was released late on Friday. Thanks for highlighting this, Maged.

 

[Future Sensors]

We've shared this via email with you, too, but our engineers did find an error with returning the information required following your upload, and a fix was released late on Friday. Thanks for highlighting this, Maged.

It's a bit cryptic. Does this mean that the CSV "Replace" option will not send pre-existing domains in portfolio to the Pending Review status anymore?

 

[Jannes]

For Buy It Now sales at Afternic, we can issue Payout Transmittals that document the amount you received, minus commissions.

To access these Payout Transmittals, go to afternic.com/sales, click on any domain sale, and then select the "Payout Transmittal" button.

We do provide invoices for commissions on Lease to Own transactions at Afternic, as mentioned in the blog post you linked to. However, this option isn't available for Buy It Now sales.

Is there a (good) reason why those Payout Transmittals don't include the marketplace information until the most recent sales? At least that's what I see. The document looks almost defective when the Marketplace (=payer/≈buyer) column is there but it's blank.

 

[DN_Hunter]

It's a bit cryptic. Does this mean that the CSV "Replace" option will not send pre-existing domains in portfolio to the Pending Review status anymore?

This has been my experience for the last few weeks. I have uploaded multiple BULK files (mostly BIN / MIN Price changes). I used to get a handful of names go to Pending Review -- but lately none of my names are going to Pending Review.

 

[DN_Hunter]

@Future Sensors
My apologies as I misunderstood your question regarding the "REPLACE" option. I read your question thinking I am replacing an existing name with new Pricing info. But I Just realized you are asking about the REPLACE option (I want to replace my current portfolio with this file). I have not used that option -- I only use the UPDATE option -- which Adds any new names, or Updates existing names. So my experience has only been with the UPDATE option where I am changing pricing on existing names (about 800 of the same names in each of the CSV files I processed -- just playing with BIN pricing until I find the "sweet spot").

 

[BigTree]

Is there a (good) reason why those Payout Transmittals don't include the marketplace information until the most recent sales? At least that's what I see. The document looks almost defective when the Marketplace (=payer/≈buyer) column is there but it's blank.

This document looks like a joke. This is next reason why people should stay away from afternic as later may have a problem during filling taxes.
In my country, for example, document like that is not acceptable.
But the most rediculous part is that all reputable aftermarkets out there do not have any problem to give a proper invoice to sellers, only afternic has a problem with that.

 

[DomainRecap]

Anyone else feel like the transition from Dan to Afternic has drained all of the fun out of domaining?

I used to love going to Dan to check offers and updates, negotiate with buyers and maybe send a message or counter on some old transactions (some of which panned out). Dan was an interactive experience and you had total control over the transaction, whether you chose to handle it yourself or toss it to a Dan broker.

Now on Afternic, there is absolutely nothing to do and you cannot actively take part in anything. It's a pretty sad existence, waking up every morning and checking your Afternic Dashboard to see if there have been any updates (there haven't) before you head off to work. Then doing the same (no updates) when you get back.

Selling on Afternic is a lot like being a Eunuch in Rome.

 

[silentg]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1858929605605806205