discuss Afternic results in steady downtrend - now flatlining for months

[Dot Com Realty]

Hey all. Been domaining for 17 years, and Afternic has been a solid platform all this time. Well, except for the last year. I had 17 sales in 2017, and 22 in 2018, but only 12 last year. And nothing whatsoever in the last four months. This is far beyond the standard deviation from normal. I have been re-investing 150% of profits into higher quality and more names - happy to run negative cash flow to build a solid portfolio. I expected about 30 to 40 sales last year - this would have been normal based on my experience. Most of my names are priced right at the Godaddy appraised price - which has always been the sweet spot. My premiums are more and I have no interest in selling them, and I don't factor in my premiums into my bread and butter sales.

Brandbucket has died. In my experience with them in the last 4 years, they do about .05% sell-through rate at best.
Brandpa - only been with them for a year and have 60 names - priced up to $75k max. Zero percent sell through rate.
Squadhelp - Extremely happy with them. Three sales - mid to high four figures with a 10% sell through rate.
Efty - great guys running this, but just get lots of spam. Hard to get traffic stats with the goog anal system
Dan.com - Seems a clean platform - moved 150 names over recently. Like the traffic stats.

Would welcome any comments, suggestions, experiences and stats to share.

 

[cabotower]

So in your case MLS share is within 15-20% of all sales.
When using Afternic - almost all sales are generated by their DLS, that's why even parking here is not necessary.

-
i recently put .coms and .org on afternic landers and left everything else (cctld,global,online,business) at sedo. going by nb .com and .org do better on an/gd and the others at sedo.

 

[Recons.Com]

Something is definitely going on with Afternic/GD algorithms.

For first 11 months of 2019 I had an average of 2800 names listed on Afternic with 21 sales there (with no landers). Since Nov 30 to Feb 28 or 3 full months, I had zero sales on 4000 listed names there. And just sold one on Feb 29. Statistically, the chance of that happening is really small on that scale. Btw, I haven't revised the prices and new names have been similarly priced. Regarding the quality, it is subjective, of course, but just to give an idea there are 300+ good quality LLLLs, dictionary words, good combos of word+word or word+suffix etc. with 98% being .com

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Related to this: @AbdulBasit.com your account manager told you exactly the stats for the 3400+ names ( I believe you use ns3 and ns4 setup) or just if there was any price request?
From how many listed domains Afternic assign you an account manager? I assume this has to do something with quality as well. Thanks

Yes, the stats were shared after pointing all my domains to ns3/ns4.
No price request since 98% of my domains are set for BIN.
Don't have any concrete answer on what basis account manager is assigned. But surely it mostly depends on the amount of sales you make every year with them.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Nice, that means just over 3k average prices. Can you share a roughly average acquisition price and average holding, I have a guess that the vast majority are not hand regs or closeouts.

My last hand registered domain (for selling purpose) was many years ago. I rarely focus on buying closeouts as well.

Most of my domains are from expiring auctions and private acquisitions. I haven't calculated but most probably between low-mid $xxx is the average purchase price.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

When we talk about Afternic, we are talking the entire reseller network including its owner, GoDaddy.

What I am focused on is my results using ns4 and ns4 versus ns1 and ns2, using bin versus pur, and mostly, the sweet spot pricing.

I answer LOTS of price requests, but so far, it seems the names that sell most are $499-$1299.

Names that I quote $xx,xxx or even $xxx,xxx are a totally different thing.

As you may know, I hand register domains quite a bit. I have had good success with AN selling newly hand registered names even. I have one right now where the buyer had to wait 3 weeks because of 60 day transfer lock. It just finished.

Anyway, I have alot of thoughts. I would love to see more hard data on their buyer demographics, their sales including individual reseller sales data, their inventory breakdown, and their lander results.

It would help my build an appropriate portfolio. I dont mind when my "ultra premium priced" names dont sell because I usually have a specific end user in mind that I know would entertain my price, and could afford it.

I think I will list my names there even if they arent parked there. But if I were to park them there are you saying ns3/ns4 are the better name-servers that lead to sales?

 

[Silentptnr]

I think I will list my names there even if they arent parked there. But if I were to park them there are you saying ns3/ns4 are the better name-servers that lead to sales?

I'm not sure yet. Still comparing to ns1 and ns2 with bin. So far it seems like more activity if on ns3 and ns4 and pricing of 599-1299.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

I'm not sure yet. Still comparing to ns1 and ns2 with bin. So far it seems like more activity if on ns3 and ns4 and pricing of 599-1299.

Thanks for that advice. I think that is what I am most looking for, that range and not so much parking the name for PPC over there. I've got my PPC names at bodis earning very nicely (considering what they used to earn in 2005! ) but to get more exposure I think I will head down this path too. Thanks!!

 

[The Durfer]

have you updated your list also, remember trends and what was popular in 2015 isnt necessarily popular today. But you might have apricot.com idk, im just saying with trends its good to update your list with happening now also. ty and good luck.

 

[wwwweb]

have you updated your list also, remember trends and what was popular in 2015 isnt necessarily popular today. But you might have apricot.com idk, im just saying with trends its good to update your list with happening now also. ty and good luck.

Good advice for all, as we all have leftovers from 3D printers, drones, crypto, self driving, canna all of which have settled down from their highs for mid tier type names.

 

[boker]

My last hand registered domain (for selling purpose) was many years ago. I rarely focus on buying closeouts as well.

Most of my domains are from expiring auctions and private acquisitions. I haven't calculated but most probably between low-mid $xxx is the average purchase price.

With a low-mid $xxx average acquisition price and 3400 domains, is no wonder that you sell for $xxxxxx worth annually. The main thing is to have the guts, the cash and the patience.

 

[garptrader]

Historically if someone searched for a .com domain and it was already registered but not listed, Godaddy would make suggestions of other aftermarket .com domains with the same keyword. In recent years they tend to push new tld with the same keyword but I believe there is still a tab to look for .com domains with the same keyword. Perhaps they have modified the algorithm to promote .com domains from their own inventory rather than domainer-held inventory.

 

[jamie white]

Exactly how does AfterNic work? i list my domains for between 25 and 30% of the "appraisal" values. And nothing - but then again i don't have many there, so maybe tht could be the problem

 

[ArielT]

I have listed some ngtlds on Afternic but they don't show up on GD when someone looks

Historically if someone searched for a .com domain and it was already registered but not listed, Godaddy would make suggestions of other aftermarket .com domains with the same keyword. In recent years they tend to push new tld with the same keyword but I believe there is still a tab to look for .com domains with the same keyword. Perhaps they have modified the algorithm to promote .com domains from their own inventory rather than domainer-held inventory.

Yes, but I wonder why they don't suggest exact mach ngtlds listed for sale on Afternic, I don't know if listed directly on GD would be different

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

If at least 2 days elapsed and you still don't see your nTLDs on GoDaddy - then AfternicDLS doesn't support them...
So try to list directly on GD Auctions...

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

Similar issue with nTLDs and @Sedo MLS...
Each registrar shows only those nTLDs they want (this preferred list is very short) and ignore all other MLS eligible nTLDs (they are shown just as "taken")...
For example: even Premium MLS is activated on my .ONE domains but when checking them at Name.com - just "taken" message.
This issue was reported to Sedo many times - and no any changes, so Sedo MLS is just for fun in all aspects.

 

[ArielT]

If at least 2 days elapsed and you still don't see your nTLDs on GoDaddy - then AfternicDLS doesn't support them...
So try to list directly on GD Auctions...

ok, I will see, thanks

 

[wwwweb]

Curious to know if Name Media’s inventory was ever listed at Afternic, but it was listed via Sedo. I don’t think it was live on Afternic, once those 350K names go live on there. It should further dilute sales for many others also.

 

[JudgeMind]

2019 was one of my best years on afternic. Stay tuned for a post coming about afternic at abdulbasit.com

 

[freety85]

Curious to know if Name Media’s inventory was ever listed at Afternic, but it was listed via Sedo. I don’t think it was live on Afternic, once those 350K names go live on there. It should further dilute sales for many others also.

Good point. Moreover not sure if the recently acquired Uni portfolio will be listed as well.
We should do a search for specific keywords whether those names come up first, or getting better ranking

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Afternic is great i feel it’s increasing not declining you need to look at the domains you own and the pricing...

I spend about 2000 hours each year refining and expanding my portfolio in addition to tens of thousands each year in acquisitions. And with hugedomains and all the newbies piling in at auctions, the costs are now many times higher than just a few years ago. My pricing is mostly at gd valuations. I am happy not to sell my top tiers as they are just increasing in value.

What it seems to me is that gd is not putting the names in the registration path as much. Preferring to highlight all the crap extensions. That, and the general public still does not have any idea what a domain name is and how important it is to their business. Seems like 90% of small businesses prefer to hand register an incredibly bad name, and then spend all their advertising budget on antiquated and expensive advertising. Even larger businesses are guilty of this.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

2019 was one of my best years on afternic. Stay tuned for a post coming about afternic at abdulbasit.com

Good to hear. Mine was steadily increasing and peaked in 2018 with 22 sales. Went to 12 first part of last year, and then nothing for five months. Thus my post here. Makes zero sense at all for me.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

First want congratulate you; posted some DN

it takes courage you open yourself;

Rx2.com makes the complete most sense!!
RX.com (which sold for 1M to an Investor
Rx2 next best, deserves raise, nice alternative

I also like PulseOptions, looks nice,

Sorry “TheMedStore” not a fan; this is where SH worth weight gold; 3 word name, surprised, even if the 3 go together- perfectly. (med/ Wb “themedicationstore”? this sold how much?

How many 3 word names out of the 650?
They get insanely de-valued unless SH etc...

Lastly, believe most afternic to list, not landers.
I too am not a fan of those afternic landers, but believe what sells 24 hour # dedicated rep. Still not worth to utilize,if have use afternic landers.

Samer

Not many three word of course. Mostly two word and if they make sense. And single word brandables. Replacing what I have with similar quality runs several hundred per name now at auction.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

When we talk about Afternic, we are talking the entire reseller network including its owner, GoDaddy.

What I am focused on is my results using ns4 and ns4 versus ns1 and ns2, using bin versus pur, and mostly, the sweet spot pricing.

I answer LOTS of price requests, but so far, it seems the names that sell most are $499-$1299.

Names that I quote $xx,xxx or even $xxx,xxx are a totally different thing.

As you may know, I hand register domains quite a bit. I have had good success with AN selling newly hand registered names even. I have one right now where the buyer had to wait 3 weeks because of 60 day transfer lock. It just finished.

Anyway, I have alot of thoughts. I would love to see more hard data on their buyer demographics, their sales including individual reseller sales data, their inventory breakdown, and their lander results.

It would help my build an appropriate portfolio. I dont mind when my "ultra premium priced" names dont sell because I usually have a specific end user in mind that I know would entertain my price, and could afford it.

Although I think the afternic landers are ugly (and seem to be more steps to take for the buyer) I just finished moving most - about 600 of my names to ns3 and ns4 landers at afternic. You say ns4 and ns4? I am still not sure why ns4 or ns3 and ns4 are different. And, I thought when you do that that you can not do BIN. How do you do BIN with the ns3 and or ns4? I prefer BIN on 2500 and less. Thanks.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Something is definitely going on with Afternic/GD algorithms.

For first 11 months of 2019 I had an average of 2800 names listed on Afternic with 21 sales there (with no landers). Since Nov 30 to Feb 28 or 3 full months, I had zero sales on 4000 listed names there. And just sold one on Feb 29. Statistically, the chance of that happening is really small on that scale. Btw, I haven't revised the prices and new names have been similarly priced. Regarding the quality, it is subjective, of course, but just to give an idea there are 300+ good quality LLLLs, dictionary words, good combos of word+word or word+suffix etc. with 98% being .com

interesting. So it is not just me. Yeah, statistically, as you said. I have been doing this since 2005 and I know the normal variations and slow and good periods. Sometimes a slow period and then a bunch sell. But, my recent experience is like ten fold outside a standard deviation from normal - unprecedented. And looking for some answers and insights.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Thanks for that advice. I think that is what I am most looking for, that range and not so much parking the name for PPC over there. I've got my PPC names at bodis earning very nicely (considering what they used to earn in 2005! ) but to get more exposure I think I will head down this path too. Thanks!!

Would love to hear your results in a few months. I am doing the same.