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.

 

[domainer8888]

Interestingly, we did tested two versions. 1: hide "zero" values, and 2: display "zero" values. Both increased conversions for aftermarket names, but displaying "zero" values performed the best, with the biggest increase in conversion rates in this statistically significant experiment.

I honestly don't know what to say to this.

The stats are broken but conversion testing showed 0 is better than nothing?

 

[domainer8888]

GoDaddy has no insight into "visitor" stats if the lander does not point to Afternic. Furthermore, these statistics do not add anything to non-domainers: the small business owners that GoDaddy is -or should be- targeting.

My first example was for a domain of mine with an Afternic lander and Afternic stats.

 

[Jannes]

Time to test if ”This domain name is pigeon shit” increases conversions?

 

[kesen]

It was Net.cn, but most of our domains all sync at aliyun.com, even if, we can not find the synced domains at namecheap.com as well.

@kesen Is Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud) part of the Afternic Partner Network? It's not listed in the overview at https://help.afternic.com/s/article/Afternic-Partners

 

[Recons.Com]

Hi @enterscope,
Thanks for highlighting this. It sounds like, in this instance, these domain prices haven't synced fully. Could you DM 2-3 specific domain examples showing this issue? This will help our team investigate why your price changes aren't fully propagated.


Hi @domainer8888,
GoDaddy research showed visitors were asking for more information to assist their aftermarket buying decisions. We put this to the test with a structured experiment throughout October by using Domain Insights, inspired by Auctions, as an added data point on GoDaddy Search.

Our hypothesis was that by adding data insights like GoDaddy Auctions, we'd increase the conversion rate of aftermarket domains through GoDaddy search. Through a statistically significant experiment, we did increase the conversion rate.

Interestingly, we did tested two versions. 1: hide "zero" values, and 2: display "zero" values. Both increased conversions for aftermarket names, but displaying "zero" values performed the best, with the biggest increase in conversion rates in this statistically significant experiment.

So your study showed that showing zero for EVERY name even if it has hundreds of visits a month increased conversion???

You realize what people are saying is that the number is always zero even for names with afternic lander that shows many visits?

 

[Janoss]

I wish @GoDaddy can be more open about how exactly they did some of these A/B tests because the results are hard to believe.

Hope they can do a blog post about some of their tests in detail like how showing 0 visits in search path for all domains increased sales and how they concluded that indexing properly in search engines didn't increase sales.

 

[Future Sensors]

I wish @GoDaddy can be more open

That's an interesting theory.

 

[alcy]

wait
I was sure we pick boost onoff per listing

now I just saw global on off

which is it?

 

[NicTraders]

wait
I was sure we pick boost onoff per listing

now I just saw global on off

which is it?

As far as I'm aware it's only ever been global. That was one of the (many) issues. People wanted to be able to just boost some names, but they couldn't - it was all or nothing.

 

[Future Sensors]

wait
I was sure we pick boost onoff per listing

now I just saw global on off

which is it?

There's only one place to set it for the whole account. There were many requests to do it on a per domain basis, but Afternic said no.

 

[alcy]

There's only one place to set it for the whole account. There were many requests to do it on a per domain basis, but Afternic said no.

ah ok
I could swear I saw boost word somewhere when i went to edit a listing..

 

[Jannes]

I wish @GoDaddy can be more open about how exactly they did some of these A/B tests because the results are hard to believe.

Hope they can do a blog post about some of their tests in detail like how showing 0 visits in search path for all domains increased sales and how they concluded that indexing properly in search engines didn't increase sales.

Exactly. Trust is broken on so many fronts that those "trust us bro" comments are pretty hard to swallow. I'm sorry @GoDaddy but without peer review my/our intuition beats your research.

 

[alcy]

trying upload Csv folio. just filled required 2 columns.

it tells me invalid format... is there a bug? my Names are as links... could that be it..

 

[love4ever]

Interestingly, we did tested two versions. 1: hide "zero" values, and 2: display "zero" values. Both increased conversions for aftermarket names, but displaying "zero" values performed the best, with the biggest increase in conversion rates in this statistically significant experiment.

Showing ZERO values increase conversions & performed the best !!???
Have you make this test on customers aged below 18 years old, or on a segment of psychopath mentally retarded population !!?

Please respect the readers mind/brain !


.

 

[alcy]

trying upload Csv folio. just filled required 2 columns.

it tells me invalid format... is there a bug? my Names are as links... could that be it..

lol
what the hell..
I open template in Google sheets phone.. add my names.. click export.. save as.. pick csv... and I get pdf file on the end. wow.

 

[rh2000]

wait
I was sure we pick boost onoff per listing

now I just saw global on off

which is it?

It is for all of your domains. I still don't know if boost improves sales or not.

 

[DomainRecap]

I still don't know if boost improves sales or not.

The Simpsons will explain it all to you.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

wait
I was sure we pick boost onoff per listing

now I just saw global on off

which is it?

I wish it could be turned on/off at the domain level (I would boost some if so), but I am pretty sure it has always been a global either on for all of your domain names or off for all domain names.

It would be possible for people to do A/B portfolio testing if it was a per domain thing. Now the only way is to turn it on for a period and off for a period on all domains, but since the market goes up and down with world events, it is hard to make any conclusions that way.

-Bob

 

[alcy]

I wish it could be turned on/off at the domain level (I would boost some if so), but I am pretty sure it has always been a global either on for all of your domain names or off for all domain names.

It would be possible for people to do A/B portfolio testing if it was a per domain thing. Now the only way is to turn it on for a period and off for a period on all domains, but since the market goes up and down with world events, it is hard to make any conclusions that way.

-Bob

I may have mixed it up with that featured listing thing we see when editing listing. the wording is pretty confusing.

so they just make it global... and on for all by default.

wow. that's like next level greed

 

[Recons.Com]

For anyone baffled by James new-found skill to spin, sugar-coat and confuse matters and wanting to know the reality, here is what is happening:

GD experimented with showing data vs no data and, depending on your faith in GD's "ability" to make truly scientific a/b tests, concluded that showing data helped.

So they hooked up DBs carrying those numbers to search pages to spit out the figures when someone searches. But, as always, they also planned for their standard issue: DBs not being available most times. For that case, they always have something like "if timeout within xx seconds, then populate with standard value". The standard value can be something like "Singapore" for visitors location or "zero" for the visitor number. Of course, the "geniuses" didn't figure out that they could've put "N/A" in this case (or choose a country without extra 9% tax as in the case of Singapore).

Now, for visitors, it has been showing "0" for long time and I don't know if anyone saw anything positive there (pun intended) ever. So, apparently, they have cached the traffic values from a static table that is being created from actual DB, but probably cannot complete the cycle, so again it is always zero.