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.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Abdul but you're a vip.

I assure you that if floor is set...no VIP, no call.

I can show 20 price requests within last month or two, price was set, no call, no email.

Aah... if that's the case, it's not good. Everyone should be treated the same no matter how much number of domains and/or the quality of domains.

Thanks for sharing your experience. This at least made it clear that Afternic is treating not equally which is unfortunately sad.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

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.

The problem as i see it is the business model for domaining is DYING. That's not to say you shouldn't continue to list your names/domains with the likes of Afternic, Sedo, Uniregistry etc., but as a realtor, as I guess you are, you should aggressively be targeting your names to potential "end users". Realty names need to be marketed directly to the real estate industry. Restaurant and food related names need to be marketed to that industry, Auto/Transportation names to that industry etc., etc., etc.

I've only been at this two years, but my portfolio of names keeps getting better and better Having been an "end user" myself for 50 years, I know business and I know names/domains better than most. Like Muhammad Ali said, "I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."

I'm sure you get the point...i've been registering my domains at Epik of late because I've gotten to know Rob Monster pretty well. I think he'll look out for me with regards to "inbound" sales, however he knows very little about "outbound", and once I get rolling targeting and marketing industry specific domains to "end users" I'm sure I'll be able to teach Rob a thing or two.

Finally, you shared a few of the names you have at Afternic aka GD that are just sitting and hoping and waiting for a buyer, but I doubt it will happen Listing them with another broker isn't the answer either, UNLESS they employ strategic outbound marketing on your behalf. In that regard, you'll probably need to pay a higher commission, but keep in mind, everything is relative

 

[Silentptnr]

Aah... if that's the case, it's not good. Everyone should be treated the same no matter how much number of domains and/or the quality of domains.

Thanks for sharing your experience. This at least made it clear that Afternic is treating not equally which is unfortunately sad.

I wish there was more communication. I'm starting to follow up with them on some of them. I just want to know what ultimately happened to the prospect.

Perhaps when I first get the price request, I will call them and ask for the assigned salesperson.

 

[Recons.Com]

I just sold one today where it would not have happened if I had set the floor.

The broker emailed me, asked if I would take $500. Said the buyer had come up from $250. I looked up the name, saw I paid $35 and didn't think much of it so I accepted. Within minutes it was done.

Actually, not putting in the floor was a game changer. I don't know why they request we fill that in.

Thank goodness someone else here on NP shared that tip with me a few weeks ago.

I'll take credit for that

 

[Silentptnr]

I'll take credit for that

Oh yes my friend. It was you!

 

[Sinh]

I always receive email or call from Afternic broker when my domains have price requests or offer.

 

[karmaco]

Just reported, yet again, the fraudsters allowed on Afternic trying to add 3 of my names they do not own.This happens every week and why are those accounts allowed to persist?

 

[Silentptnr]

I always receive email or call from Afternic broker when my domains have price requests or offer.

I have seen a sample of your domains. Can you say super premium? I'm gonna get vip status some day.

You guys probably have really awesome dashboards too. So lucky!

 

[Sinh]

I have seen a sample of your domains. Can you say super premium? I'm gonna get vip status some day.

You guys probably have really awesome dashboards too. So lucky!

Thanks David. Actually I think i am lucky too

 

[Dot Com Realty]

The problem as i see it is the business model for domaining is DYING. That's not to say you shouldn't continue to list your names/domains with the likes of Afternic, Sedo, Uniregistry etc., but as a realtor, as I guess you are, you should aggressively be targeting your names to potential "end users". Realty names need to be marketed directly to the real estate industry. Restaurant and food related names need to be marketed to that industry, Auto/Transportation names to that industry etc., etc., etc.

I've only been at this two years, but my portfolio of names keeps getting better and better Having been an "end user" myself for 50 years, I know business and I know names/domains better than most. Like Muhammad Ali said, "I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was."

I'm sure you get the point...i've been registering my domains at Epik of late because I've gotten to know Rob Monster pretty well. I think he'll look out for me with regards to "inbound" sales, however he knows very little about "outbound", and once I get rolling targeting and marketing industry specific domains to "end users" I'm sure I'll be able to teach Rob a thing or two.

Finally, you shared a few of the names you have at Afternic aka GD that are just sitting and hoping and waiting for a buyer, but I doubt it will happen Listing them with another broker isn't the answer either, UNLESS they employ strategic outbound marketing on your behalf. In that regard, you'll probably need to pay a higher commission, but keep in mind, everything is relative

I am not a real estate agent. And I do outbound from time to time with moderate success. I don't do it more because the general public is clueless about domain names and I don't have time to educate them. For instance, I reached out to Riviera Travel who does Riviera cruises and river cruises. I think they did like 250 million pounds per year in revenue. I have Riviera Cruise dot com. They were very happy that I contacted them and said basically that that was their namesake and YES YES YES they wanted it. Well, with HawaiinCruises.com selling at $38k, CheapRiverCruises.com selling at $20k, even HuaoLongBayCrusies.com selling for $15k, you would think that my $20k offer would fly. Well, they said they would be willing to spend like $300 or $400 for it but not more. And then they will surely turn around and spend millions per year advertising. It is like selling an Iphone to someone from a remote tribe that has no idea what it is. Why bother?

If my names are so bad, then why were they selling just fine - no change on my end? 22 in 2018 at afternic and 12 in the first part of last year. That is all inbound, of course. This is the issue that I am bringing up. Five months no sales there with zero change on my part. Only thing is that my portfolio has grown in size and in quality.

Squadhelp has been very good. If you have bad names they are not going to accept them. They accept mine and I have a much higher than average acceptance rate, portfolio popularity and sell through rate.

And as far as brokers are concerned, there are not any that deal in four figure names, which is the bulk of my portfolio. They all want mid to high five, six, and seven figure names. And I think most just like to sit on them passively and field inbound. And domain brokers to me have the same reputation as used car salesmen - a bit on the shady side. Happy to work with them, but zero have impressed me.

I have been doing this more than two years - about 15 years. There has been a consistency throughout the 15 years and the last five months with afternic has been extremely odd. Like if you had a minimart and no one came in for a few days and that never happened before. You might think something amiss. CoronaV? People not eating anymore? A better store opened down the street? But you surely would investigate the odd phenomena. That is what I am doing. Something is very odd. And so many here have given a lot of insightful information and advice. Again, thanks all.

 

[Kassey Lee]

Since Nov 30 to Feb 28 or 3 full months, I had zero sales on 4000 listed names there

Maybe my memory is bad. Did you sell music/area/com and vault/t/com in January?

 

[Recons.Com]

Maybe my memory is bad. Did you sell music/area/com and vault/t/com in January?

music/area was via BB, vault/t was Nov 30 sale, if I am not mistaken. Until then, Afternic was doing great for me. And since then 100 days, 1 sale via them.

Again, this thread has a little confusion built in, because some who are happy with Afternic, are using their landers, but then you are actually driving the traffic and overpaying with 20% commission, when there are 5-9% percent options available. The whole point of Afternic was their power to generate sales incrementally. I did few search tests and they have screwed up by focusing offering either unregistered .com options or available new gtlds, instead of various premium combos. I find it weird and dumb. First, advising all your clients to go vor ngtld is a bad business advice. Second, you could try to sell a premium name and pocket a commission of few hundred to few thousand $ on a single transaction. Instead, you are focusing on selling a new reg earning few bucks.

 

[Domain Monk]

for lot of domains i dint get optin message from godaddy, and lot of names in my afternic shows optin required

 

[Dot Com Realty]

music/area was via BB, vault/t was Nov 30 sale, if I am not mistaken. Until then, Afternic was doing great for me. And since then 100 days, 1 sale via them.

Again, this thread has a little confusion built in, because some who are happy with Afternic, are using their landers, but then you are actually driving the traffic and overpaying with 20% commission, when there are 5-9% percent options available. The whole point of Afternic was their power to generate sales incrementally. I did few search tests and they have screwed up by focusing offering either unregistered .com options or available new gtlds, instead of various premium combos. I find it weird and dumb. First, advising all your clients to go vor ngtld is a bad business advice. Second, you could try to sell a premium name and pocket a commission of few hundred to few thousand $ on a single transaction. Instead, you are focusing on selling a new reg earning few bucks.

Exactly my thinking. Even if they they were totally focused on profits and could care less about their customers - which may or may not be the case. Surely, putting a premium name for 2K and pocket 400 would make more sense than pitching a new tld for 20 per year and waiting 20 years to get the 400.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

music/area was via BB, vault/t was Nov 30 sale, if I am not mistaken. Until then, Afternic was doing great for me. And since then 100 days, 1 sale via them.

Again, this thread has a little confusion built in, because some who are happy with Afternic, are using their landers, but then you are actually driving the traffic and overpaying with 20% commission, when there are 5-9% percent options available. The whole point of Afternic was their power to generate sales incrementally. I did few search tests and they have screwed up by focusing offering either unregistered .com options or available new gtlds, instead of various premium combos. I find it weird and dumb. First, advising all your clients to go vor ngtld is a bad business advice. Second, you could try to sell a premium name and pocket a commission of few hundred to few thousand $ on a single transaction. Instead, you are focusing on selling a new reg earning few bucks.

I started the thread and did not think about the difference. Was just passively getting sales without using their landers. Quickly noticed the difference and possible confusion. Sorry about that. Yes, there is a big difference. I personally took the advice to use their landers - I would not have done so as I do not personally like them - ugly and more steps to purchase. But, seems many are happy with them. Perhaps the general public is happy and more comfortable having someone to talk to on the phone. Go figure. But, I am giving it a go - just moved 600 names over. Will post the results later.

 

[Recons.Com]

I started the thread and did not think about the difference. Was just passively getting sales without using their landers. Quickly noticed the difference and possible confusion. Sorry about that. Yes, there is a big difference. I personally took the advice to use their landers - I would not have done so as I do not personally like them - ugly and more steps to purchase. But, seems many are happy with them. Perhaps the general public is happy and more comfortable having someone to talk to on the phone. Go figure. But, I am giving it a go - just moved 600 names over. Will post the results later.

Did not mean that you created confusion. It is inherently relevant for Afternic, since they are big in both.

I don't think moving NS to Afternic is the best. You are giving them the leads and paying 20% for just processing the transaction. While 20% is more than fair when they generate the sale by themselves. Which they managed to screw up by prioritizing new gtlds in the results and 2-3 .com suggestions in the very end.

 

[ArielT]

Does anyone knows how long they take to send the email for fast transfer?

@Dot Com Realty have you tried the dan's for sale landing pages? these are what i'm using at the moment

 

[wwwweb]

I would assume a lot of people are losing sales to Huge Names who have very aggressive BIN's, and are flooding the platform with a lot of new priced to sell to end user inventory.

Furthermore the addition of Name Media's inventory that will add 3% more inventory to afternic taking it to about 13.5 million names for sale.

On a side not, I have never seen so many newly opened accounts, make $20 offers at Sedo, has to be a bot or something. Just reply with crazy asks, which usually go unanswered, but all of these tend to just end negotiations.

 

[boker]

Does anyone knows how long they take to send the email for fast transfer?

@Dot Com Realty have you tried the dan's for sale landing pages? these are what i'm using at the moment

Usually, it's within minutes/hours to let you know that the domain was transferred out and the payment will be automatically done in the next 7 days. After 8-9 days or so, you will get an email saying that the payment was set for a certain day, usually 11-13 days from when the transfer was done. You get around 3 emails all together., the last one being the one confirming that the payout has been sorted out.

 

[DomainBarracksRob]

......6 pages in perhaps now would be a good time for @Joe Styler to chime in and shed any light on this odd occurrence that you may have some insight on Joe? Would be much apprenticed.

 

[ArielT]

Usually, it's within minutes/hours to let you know that the domain was transferred out and the payment will be automatically done in the next 7 days. After 8-9 days or so, you will get an email saying that the payment was set for a certain day, usually 11-13 days from when the transfer was done. You get around 3 emails all together., the last one being the one confirming that the payout has been sorted out.

Thanks, I was refering to being included. I got an email that says:

In order to get the domains live on the Premium Network: 1) we need to confirm your domain ownership and 2) you need to accept the Premium Network terms and conditions so that your domains are opted-in to the Premium Network. You will be contacted shortly through email to complete the opt-in process. Click on the link in that email to complete the process for the following domains:

Do you think it's if it they sell?

 

[Samer]

I am not a real estate agent. And I do outbound from time to time with moderate success. I don't do it more because the general public is clueless about domain names and I don't have time to educate them. For instance, I reached out to Riviera Travel who does Riviera cruises and river cruises. I think they did like 250 million pounds per year in revenue. I have Riviera Cruise dot com. They were very happy that I contacted them and said basically that that was their namesake and YES YES YES they wanted it. Well, with HawaiinCruises.com selling at $38k, CheapRiverCruises.com selling at $20k, even HuaoLongBayCrusies.com selling for $15k, you would think that my $20k offer would fly. Well, they said they would be willing to spend like $300 or $400 for it but not more. And then they will surely turn around and spend millions per year advertising. It is like selling an Iphone to someone from a remote tribe that has no idea what it is. Why bother?

If my names are so bad, then why were they selling just fine - no change on my end? 22 in 2018 at afternic and 12 in the first part of last year. That is all inbound, of course. This is the issue that I am bringing up. Five months no sales there with zero change on my part. Only thing is that my portfolio has grown in size and in quality.

Squadhelp has been very good. If you have bad names they are not going to accept them. They accept mine and I have a much higher than average acceptance rate, portfolio popularity and sell through rate.

And as far as brokers are concerned, there are not any that deal in four figure names, which is the bulk of my portfolio. They all want mid to high five, six, and seven figure names. And I think most just like to sit on them passively and field inbound. And domain brokers to me have the same reputation as used car salesmen - a bit on the shady side. Happy to work with them, but zero have impressed me.

I have been doing this more than two years - about 15 years. There has been a consistency throughout the 15 years and the last five months with afternic has been extremely odd. Like if you had a minimart and no one came in for a few days and that never happened before. You might think something amiss. CoronaV? People not eating anymore? A better store opened down the street? But you surely would investigate the odd phenomena. That is what I am doing. Something is very odd. And so many here have given a lot of insightful information and advice. Again, thanks all.

Nice post. “Rivera Cruise” anecdote worth its own thread alone. Thank you for sharing

Samer

 

[boker]

Thanks, I was refering to being included. I got an email that says:

In order to get the domains live on the Premium Network: 1) we need to confirm your domain ownership and 2) you need to accept the Premium Network terms and conditions so that your domains are opted-in to the Premium Network. You will be contacted shortly through email to complete the opt-in process. Click on the link in that email to complete the process for the following domains:

It doesn't have to much to do with afternic, except to use a BIN. Everything else, you will set it up with your registrar, each registrar has different setup's
From namesilo and epik you will receive an email and you need to click the link and 'accept', with dynadot is from your dashboard and so on.

 

[ArielT]

It doesn't have to much to do with afternic, except to use a BIN. Everything else, you will set it up with your registrar, each registrar has different setup's
From namesilo and epik you will receive an email and you need to click the link and 'accept', with dynadot is from your dashboard and so on.

it seems that you are right

I searched for techcompany.com and I have techpany. I tought i would show up as suggestion but it doesn't (it's close)

Any paid option on GD for domains to show as suggestion? I think this could increase sales

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Does anyone knows how long they take to send the email for fast transfer?

@Dot Com Realty have you tried the dan's for sale landing pages? these are what i'm using at the moment

Yes, I briefly tried them. Moved about 150 names there for a couple months. Not enough testing of course. I like their platform and traffic stats. Only reason I moved on to Afternic landers was the suggestions from this thread.