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.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

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.

I am not thrilled with giving them 20% on inbound leads with zero effort. But, it seems so many inexperienced buyers feel more comfortable dealing with a large company like GD and having someone to talk to on the phone to hold their hand.

Couple years back I was working with a buyer on InjuryAttorneys.org. My outbound lead, my work, my negotiations. The name was at Afternic for $9888. They then reached out to Afternic and the broker contacted me with a 9k offer. Screw that and I said no firm at $9888, which they took. I probably would have taken 5 or 6, but they did not want to deal with me. Afternic gets 2k for doing nothing. Buyer pays more and feels good about it. I get paid. Not ideal, and I dont like to share money for doing nothing, but it is the trust factor. Like when you have a little eCommerce store and they go to your store, but then turn around and get it at Amazon. They get money for nothing. What can you do?

 

[Recons.Com]

I am not thrilled with giving them 20% on inbound leads with zero effort. But, it seems so many inexperienced buyers feel more comfortable dealing with a large company like GD and having someone to talk to on the phone to hold their hand.

Couple years back I was working with a buyer on InjuryAttorneys.org. My outbound lead, my work, my negotiations. The name was at Afternic for $9888. They then reached out to Afternic and the broker contacted me with a 9k offer. Screw that and I said no firm at $9888, which they took. I probably would have taken 5 or 6, but they did not want to deal with me. Afternic gets 2k for doing nothing. Buyer pays more and feels good about it. I get paid. Not ideal, and I dont like to share money for doing nothing, but it is the trust factor. Like when you have a little eCommerce store and they go to your store, but then turn around and get it at Amazon. They get money for nothing. What can you do?

Well, personally I am focused on building my own trusted platform. And, again, if a client insists that they want to do business via them, then great too. That automatically means they deserve their cut. But pre-sending them your leads doesn't make sense to me. My average commission for past 2 years have been around 16 percent. If I can cut that by half, that could mean thousands that I can use as marketing/advertising/development budget to grow even further...

 

[xynames]

Afternic:

I always set floor and BIN both and brokers have contacted me where buyer has come up significantly but not quite to my floor.

Also as mentioned where I’ve set both floor and BIN my domains have sold frequently at the full BIN.

As far as giving them 20% it’s for full brokerage effort on the phone with the buyer! plus payment processing (versus say giving DAN 9% for doing nothing other than facilitating/processing the payment). Mentioning an isolated instance where the buyer started communicating with you and ended up buying at Afternic is not typical, but when it does happen it comes down to trust and that buyer was not comfortable buying directly from owner.

 

[freety85]

100% true. I really don't know how they sell so many names. I have no idea how people find these names that I sell on Afternic.

@Silentptnr maybe you are selling upgrade names which would have been sold on other platforms as well.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

First of all, thank you for the valuable information. Outstanding results. Congrats.

They show you have great skills picking domains. For example, dotDB reports 79 matches of Banxa on various extensions, but I failed to find any end user. Google search shows Banxa.com has been developed as "an internationally compliant fiat-to-crypto gateway solution for exchanges, wallets and other cryptocurrency businesses".

1. When did you acquire the domain Banxa?
2. Did you pick it purely because you liked the name and you thought it could be a great brand?
3. Godaddy appraisal for Banxa is 3747. Was it the same value when you acquired the domain?

Thanks.

I picked up Banxa like 2 years ago. Was in like day three of closeout. Appraisal then was half that. Just seemed a solid name. Lots of people do not like the X. I do.

 

[poweredbyme]

Most of my names are priced right at the Godaddy appraised price

GD appraisal isn't accurate. Don't rely on it.
Your problem has been solved.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

All 3 names you mentioned above are great, only think I can think of is if your not asking enough for your domains? What would you price the 3 at ? If people sell there names
To cheap, they won’t be able to support all the laggards in the portfolio.

Yes, I all too often sell way too cheap. I got about $5500 for Rx2, 4299 for TheMedStore, and 4099 for OptionPulse (on monthly payment).

 

[Dot Com Realty]

GD appraisal isn't accurate. Don't rely on it.
Your problem has been solved.

Of course it is not accurate. I ignore it on my tier one names. But, for about 90% of my names they are cheap sweet spot values. IMO most buyers have no idea of the valuation and when they buy the name they think they are buying it from godaddy. This strategy worked for the last 15 years for me, but now with the afternic changes, it is dead. Like when google killed off the mini sites. So will be keeping my premiums high and throwing the baby out with the bathwater and liquidating my portfolio due to afternics failure.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Just an update. So I moved about 600 names over to N3 landers at afternic a few weeks ago. STILL nothing but crickets. It is now six months with no sales here. And again, I have not changed my system or pricing and have had tons of sales over the last 12 years. Clearly their changes is the cause. Only difference is that I have more and higher quality names, and my pricing is low.

Now with these landers, afternic keeps you in the dark with traffic. They have the data but refuse to share it. Why would that be I wonder. So, now going to ditch them.

Unireg? Dan? I need to have traffic stats at least. Any suggestions?

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Just an update. So I moved about 600 names over to N3 landers at afternic a few weeks ago. STILL nothing but crickets. It is now six months with no sales here. And again, I have not changed my system or pricing and have had tons of sales over the last 12 years. Clearly their changes is the cause. Only difference is that I have more and higher quality names, and my pricing is low.

Now with these landers, afternic keeps you in the dark with traffic. They have the data but refuse to share it. Why would that be I wonder. So, now going to ditch them.

Unireg? Dan? I need to have traffic stats at least. Any suggestions?

What kind data they refused to share? I'm asking because they do share with me on monthly basis and I may be able to help you out.

 

[poweredbyme]

Just an update. So I moved about 600 names over to N3 landers at afternic a few weeks ago. STILL nothing but crickets. It is now six months with no sales here. And again, I have not changed my system or pricing and have had tons of sales over the last 12 years. Clearly their changes is the cause. Only difference is that I have more and higher quality names, and my pricing is low.

Now with these landers, afternic keeps you in the dark with traffic. They have the data but refuse to share it. Why would that be I wonder. So, now going to ditch them.

Unireg? Dan? I need to have traffic stats at least. Any suggestions?

You have to host your domains if you want full stats. If you love their design you may try hosting their landing page embedded under frame if framing is not prevented by http header response. So you could watch your server stats and could likely add anything you want including statcounter-analytics codes. I haven't tried it. I think marketplaces would not be happy if you successfully took some control over your own domains. They would likely want to punish you for this. I would not bother with their landing pages for aesthetic-cosmetic concerns. I don't think good design is important. Frankly, I also don't get the importance of stats. I would want to host my own landing page just to have full control over my own domains. Full control would help more than stats especially in selling high quality domains.

 

[garptrader]

Domain sales can be sporadic - months can pass with no sales whatsoever and then a couple of sales can occur in a short timeframe. No doubt people are spending more time indoors than normal and many businesses have been adversely affected by the corona pandemic. I look forward to being able to go back to the gym or watch a football game at a local sports bar or go to a movie with my wife. But in the last few days I have had three sales - one low $xxx, one high $xxx (the $xxx sales are though Afternic) and another much higher going through Escrow currently. We'll see what happens in the coming weeks.

 

[Dot Com Realty]

Yeah, thanks. I would just like to see how many people land there. And I think the aftermarket platforms have ugly landing pages, but if they can field the lowballers it is fine with me. Also, a theory which I believe, is that some people like to be able to talk to a human and have their hand held going through the process.

I am negotiating one now through Afternic. Probably settle in at $800. Got the name on Ebay for $60 a few months ago, so will just take it.

I think I will try another platform, maybe Uni or Dan. I will probably pull my top tier and tier 2 and create landers, and then throw the bulk to the best aftermarket.