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.

 

[King]

This is part of an ongoing experiment. Buyers want more information to assist in their decision-making, and it's proving popular so far. We'll continue experimenting with this to support aftermarket conversion rates, but your feedback is appreciated.

Are there stats for this? Where are you getting this insight from? End users don't care about that crap.

I am yet to sell a domain on Afternic since migration. I expected sells to go up, not die.

 

[silentg]

More issues:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1859788682846437422

 

[bmugford]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1859360729444339816

This is a huge security issue.

Care to comment? @GoDaddy.

Brad

 

[Jannes]

Time to stop this experiment sabotage

https://twitter.com/x/status/1859848654447931555

 

[DomainRecap]

Negotiations on Afternic is like watching someone opening an Advent Calendar with no prizes.

 

[silentg]

Is this also an experiment @GoDaddy?

GoDaddy adds insult to injury with email add-on upsell during domain checkout​

https://domaingang.com/domain-news/...h-email-add-on-upsell-during-domain-checkout/

 

[Mister Funsky]

Is this also an experiment

I assume daddy is cash strapped.

They have to get infusion wherever they can.

 

[DomainRecap]

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse...

We all know GD is doing everything it can to raise profits and satisfy their extremely-vocal investor groups, so it's hardly surprising they're using our traffic and digital properties to upsell potential buyers.

Even so, they're taking a big risk that this bad press doesn't spread and drop revenues lower than the ill-advised upselling raises them.

 

[Altetra]

I have my own solution, invest in my secret knowledge, domainers and NP staff, then we build a marketplace which will make all the others to sink, including Godaddy with all it's acquisitions. There is still some time left.
So my price remains for domainers 100K for a big company even 1mill is too much for such a secret, oh wait Godaddy knows only how to plagiarize other peoples ideas that is why they wait it for free to be released world wide, same as most of domainers here.

 

[DomainRecap]

I assume daddy is cash strapped.

GD is a profitable company, but several of their large investor groups have been demanding ever-increasing profits and threatening to either fire the executives or push to sell the company off.

This is not rumor, as this content has been made public in various letters from said investors.

So basically, the GD executives are now acting like drug addicts looking for a fix and using short-term strategies (like fire-sale-ing their premium domain assets, mass layoffs and business consolidation) to quickly increase revenue and lower costs in order to keep their jobs. This tactic inevitably amounts to long-term pain, and we might all be on the 'struggle bus' with the GD execs real soon.

 

[Mister Funsky]

GD is a profitable company, but several of their large investor groups have been demanding ever-higher profits and threatening to either fire the executives or push to sell the company off.

This is not rumor, as this content has been made public in various letters from said investors.

So basically, the GD executives are now acting like drug addicts looking for a fix and using short-term strategies to raise money in order to keep their jobs. This tactic inevitably amounts to long-term pain, and we might all be on the 'struggle bus' with the GD execs real soon.

True. I was being obtuse...they (company) are pandering to the big stock holders.

In time, I am hoping for a return to the daddy of the founders era. A pipe dream to be sure but it would so great to see them truly hungry for business again not associated to pressure from a group of whining investors...but in response to customers needs.

 

[DomainRecap]

True. I was being obtuse...they (company) are pandering to the big stock holders.

Exactly, and due to internal pressures the GD execs are "acting poor", and my comments were mostly targeted at informing the forum at large, as you know the deal.

 

[GoDaddy]

My patience is quickly running out on Afternic.

I will say this again: Lower-value domain sales DO NOT need a broker and in many ways, the use of a broker can negatively affect sales.

For example, let's say someone offers $2500 on a non-premium that you're willing to accept $3500 on, do you know how easy it is to put at least $3K in your pocket? I used to do this at Dan in a few minutes when I needed quick cash to buy some domains.

I ask $3500 and the buyer either accepts or offers $2750. I counter with $3250 (or stay at $3500) and he either accepts or offers $3K, etc. etc.. Then I have at least the option of accepting his $3K (or higher) offer, and go and buy some higher-quality domains. Easy-peasy. At these sub-$5K price level domains, real buyers are ready and eager to buy and all you need to be is provide speedy responses and be ready to sell.

Do you know how long a simple negotiation like this takes on Afternic? Weeks. Yes, weeks.

In my experience, each step takes 2 days for the broker to respond one-way and then 2 days for him to respond the other way, so 4 days each step. Then take out weekends, and a single multi-offer transaction can take 2 weeks or more to complete. That is, if the buyer doesn't get tired of waiting and waiting and waiting for Afternic to respond (just like we sellers do) and takes off.

Response times at Afternic are laughable to the extreme. Remember those "Seller responds in an average of X minutes/hours" notes that would appear on your Dan profile? Well, Afternic's rating on Dan would be in DAYS not minutes or hours.

Remember, these same people who buy domains also buy other things at a similar price level. Imagine if your potential buyer needs a big OLED TV for the boardroom, and sends the company van down to pick one up at BB. Then BB proceeds to take 2 weeks (with long breaks) to go over the specs and pricing and options and extended warranty and financing and installation - how long do you think the guy in the van is going to sit there idling and waiting for his $3K OLED TV?

It's 2024. People want to buy things fast and get crap done, so by Afternic transporting buyers back to Greece in the 1930's where.... everything.... moves.... at..... a.... snail's.... pace.... they are absolutely killing sales. And killing sellers as well.

Hi @DomainRecap
We'll connect with our sales team to review your account to understand your experience a little better. Thanks for sharing.

I would request anyone who notices why their inquiries are down to find a Afternic inquiry landing page, and go thru the motions. Upon taking all their personal data on the first page, the second page offers them to YES, continue, or NO, cancel page. Page 3 is another questionaire type survey, Step 4 creates a Godaddy account with the button "Check Out Your Other Options".

So if a buyer continues thru all these invasive prompts, maybe you get an inquiry out of it, unless they find other options.

This inquiry should be completed by the second page, and 2 clicks, not 5, and a required Godaddy Login.

A simple inquiry, is leading to a full out interview, and intrregation, people still value privacy online to a degree. It doesn't take much to see what is going on here. It is an opportunity to upsell, and collect data first.

In return we are required to pay 5% extra for boost, when our traffic, and inquiries are being looted with no compensation.

Hi @wwwweb
Request Price landers are a three-step process - inspired by Uniregistry's lead form (you can read more about that).

I'm currently unable to access my Afternic dashboard. The page just continuously tries to load. Also having issues signing into my GoDaddy account.

Hi @boziffous
We recommend reaching out to Afternic's support team through afternic.com/contact. They'll be able to look into this further.

I agree 100% with what @Smooth has written.

Do we have a response on when this will be addressed, @Afternic? Thank you in advance.

I really think, and I know some will complain about the bother of TXT verification, now that there is a smoothly working TXT verification system at Afternic, that you should require verification for all new listings, not just ones where the name has been listed already, so the practice of listing names owned by others can be shut down.

The notice showing the Afternic account that listed the name when we are asked to confirm through our registrar is an excellent one as well. I presume this would require both Afternic notifying the registrar which Afternic account the request is coming from, and also the registrar to modify their message format to include this information.

-Bob

Hi Bob,
Thanks for the feedback. Verification on all new listings: for a vast number of domains (higher value), we do require verification before they're listed for the first time on Afternic. We want to balance this with a frictionless experience for domain sellers, and we're looking at some additions to Fast Transfer that will add an a step to the process. We'll also look at that change to include the Afternic user ID.

Afternic needs to have a page with all logs with date and time:
Log includes these:
Added domain
Deleted domain
Fast transfer activated
Fast transfer deactivated
Bulk transfer status
Bulk import status
Bulk Delete status
Domain sent for review / cleared
Sold domain

Thanks @silentg. We're close to bringing the first part of this to sellers - we'll be providing logs of your CSV uploads, along with a report for your records. Once we launch it, we'll share it here.

Is this also an experiment @GoDaddy?

GoDaddy adds insult to injury with email add-on upsell during domain checkout​

Show attachment 266599
https://domaingang.com/domain-news/...h-email-add-on-upsell-during-domain-checkout/

Hi @silentg
If you're referring to the checkout process from our Custom Lander, this is the current experience. What Theo refers to is traffic originating from GoDaddy search.

Many aftermarket buyers through GoDaddy are small businesses, and GoDaddy's email offering can complement and speed up the set-up process. This is not new - GoDaddy has long offered additional services/products through the cart process.

 

[DomainRecap]

Hi @DomainRecap
We'll connect with our sales team to review your account to understand your experience a little better. Thanks for sharing.

It all comes down to 1) a total lack of seller control in the negotiation and 2) the incredibly slow speed at which negotiations progress. These problems can all be cleared up with a functional seller-negotiation system like the one we had at Dan. But alas, that is still an "upcoming feature".

Smaller transaction do not need that extra "buffer" of a broker. I used to work these $2K-$3K deals out ASAP (one way or the other) on Dan and then move on to the next one. Most of the time I am offering these lower prices to make a "quick sale" to fund a domain purchase, which in my experience, is virtually impossible to do on Afternic.

These small Afternic deals can drag on for weeks, whereas I would have booted a lot of these "buyers" to the curb long ago, which tends to result in a sale more often than you'd think. To sell lower priced domains, I require the ability to respond fast and move fast, and if someone is a time-wasting tire kicker, the ability to boot his or her ass to the curb fast.

I'm just not sure how much longer I can stand being an Afternic Domain Eunuch.

@GoDaddy

 

[Jannes]

I'm just not sure how much longer I can stand being an Afternic Domain Eunuch.

I decided to grow a pair and leave. (They can't expect to be the only ones with an experimental attitude.)

 

[bmugford]

I have been getting several of these "Price Requested on your AfternicDLS Domain" emails daily.

When I look at the lead center the status on most is "qualifying". It is "negotiation" on some.

None of the "qualifying" ones show an actual offer.

Where are these inquiries coming from? @GoDaddy

What does this mean exactly?

A lead indicates that someone is interested in the domain, but is not prepared to buy it yet.

Brad

 

[DomainRecap]

A lot of times those are phone calls to Afternic/GD from hobos, bums and deadbeats who don't want to hit the 'minimum offer', so I don't even respond to any 'lead' without a viable offer.

I think part of the "Qualifying" step is to confirm an opening offer that hits or exceeds your minimum, so check back in a few days to see if anything has changed. Expect a lot of the "Confused" or "Stalled" as from my experience, these guys usually have $50 in their pocket.

 

[Mister Funsky]

I got those 'price requested' emails every few days on average a couple years ago.

Finally got wise to the process and started replying similar to: "So, they clearly met my min offer otherwise you would not have contacted me. Did they exceed the min...if so, by how much?"

Now I only get contacted when there is a real offer...they must have gotten tired on my emails triggering a need for a human to reply.

 

[DomainRecap]

In the interest of being fair, as I tend to harp on Afternic a lot, I got a very nice surprise this afternoon.

The broker (Josh - who seems to be a real dynamo) made a sale and actually got me more money than I asked for. He was also very quick with the updates (the inquiry was on Nov 21 and after a price + counter, he sold it a day later), so kudos to him for that effort.

This is what happens when you strike while the iron's hot.

P.S. @GoDaddy - Please assign Josh all my future domain inquiries.

 

[411domains]

@GoDaddy - Here’s a suggestion I think everyone will appreciate.

Incorporate an opt-out option next to the “Afternic Boost” opt-out that allows users to opt-out of experiments, tests, etc.