Alter.com Marketplace

[Deven Patel]

Hi all,

I wanted to introduce a new premium domain marketplace we just launched called Alter. I would love to hear your thoughts! As the world’s largest community of domainers, your feedback would be invaluable.

Let me introduce myself. Although I’m new to NamePros, I’ve been around the block. I’ve been buying and selling domains for my own startup ideas for over 20 years. As a serial entrepreneur, I founded a number of startups across various industries like marketing, web hosting, social networking, blogging, and SaaS. This experience has helped me understand how indispensable a brand name is to a business.

Most new entrepreneurs don’t think twice about their company name. Our goal is to change that! A brand name literally has the power to make or break their business. This is more true today than ever before now that there are countless alternatives to every product or service imaginable. Sure, every business may have their own world-changing differentiator but from the outside they all look the same at which point the main differentiator ends up becoming their brand name. In a world full of distractions, we no longer have the attention span to thoroughly research what we buy so we rely on our emotions. This is why large businesses like Apple and Amazon spend billions on their “brand” alone because they understand that customer perception is everything.

Anyway, I noticed that most marketplaces that exist today are focused more on the seller rather than the buyer. Our goal is to reverse the equation and prioritize buyers because I think they are the key to success in any industry. The domain industry is no exception. Without buyers, there’s no money. This is why we’ve made it our mission to help entrepreneurs succeed!

And what’s with the 30-35% commission rate most of these marketplaces are charging? Unless they’re doing more work than a human broker, I don’t think anything over the industry average of 15-20% is warranted. We’re changing that. Alter has one of the lowest rates in the industry, an all-inclusive 10% commission fee when a name sells. There are no other fees or restrictions.

What do you think? Are we on the right track or barking up the wrong tree?

Deven

This was a promoted post.​

 

[Deven Patel]

Can you guys start sharing monthly sales volume? Say at the start of Feb you tally up total sales from Jan and so on? This will give confidence to sellers and may be a way to increase your popularity.

Will you ever release sales?

You would be making quite the entrance. Game changer

I saw thread; one guy say sold on Alter!

We'll certainly consider releasing this data at some point. But since we just started ramping up like 3 months ago it wouldn't make sense. It's too early for it to be meaningful. We only had around 200 names listed on our marketplace back in September. The sample size is way too small.

That said, I think the data would be more useful for buyers (as validation) than sellers because each seller will have a completely different outcome based on the quality of their portfolio. For example, I think a couple people posted about their Alter sales on this thread. One seller sold a domain in less than 2 weeks while it took a couple months for another seller.

 

[tiletalk]

Thanks for the feedback as always! I understand what you're looking to accomplish with this idea and would love to hear everyone else's opinion on it.

In the meantime, my personal thought is that this would create too much unnecessary complexity for everyone (buyers, sellers, and us).

On the buyer front, once they realize that the marketplace offers discounts, they will be more likely to wait around for them thus reducing the likelihood of an impulse sale (e.g. if you knew that GoDaddy offered discount codes every Black Friday, you would wait until November of every year to buy/renew domains; maybe that's why GoDaddy no longer offers promo codes). Additionally, one of the biggest selling points of a brandable marketplace (vs a regular one) is that the prices are reasonable and set in stone which builds a sense of trust with buyers (they would lose confidence if they knew prices could change especially after purchase; think about how you felt about your cable/internet/phone provider when you found out that new customers were receiving better discounts than you).

On the seller front, it's more work to constantly have to check/adjust prices for your portfolio (especially if it's a large portfolio). Additionally, it would be unfair to sellers who took advantage of these features vs those who didn't as they could potentially see lower STR rates. The way things are now levels the playing field for everyone as all they have to worry about is the quality of their domains.

For us, it would create more unnecessary support inquiries related to discounts which means we would have to invest more resources into the company. This ultimately means we would have to raise our commission to make up for it.

IMO, simplicity always wins. That said, if there's enough concrete data available that shows this actually works in the long-term and benefits both buyers and sellers then I'm all for it.

Thanks for your response Deven.

I am a new starter to domaining so I cannot give any response based on previous experience other than to say it is done by all companies such as amazon, ebay, etc.

I guess a promo every now and then wouldn't hurt and what you ideally want is an active community of sellers not just someone who lists the domains and never logs back in. They could have sold their domain elsewhere and forgot to remove it from marketplace (I guess your verification tool randomly checks for nameservers?). However by asking sellers to opt in to give discounts it forces us to login and make an update.

Also, any plans on adding a message box to talk with designer? I am not doubting their skills but sometimes as a domain owners we may have something in mind which we would like to be taken into account be it colour, the direction of the logo, etc.

Also hoping that the submitted domains will now be reviewed im around 48 hour marks rather than 72 now that we are out of holiday period.

 

[tiletalk]

@Deven Patel Can I add couple of further recommendation. Can you show the number of favourites on the front if more than 5/10 to show that it is hot domain name.

Also, the rejected names go to the bottom but I prefer to delete them once rejected. Can you allow us to select deleted domains at once and delete them rather than 1 by 1. It is not a big deal but tedious.

 

[Lord Antares]

@Deven Patel Can I add couple of further recommendation. Can you show the number of favourites on the front if more than 5/10 to show that it is hot domain name.

I was thinking about the same thing. If people can see that others have favorited domains, they might hurry and buy the domain. However, this might other domains which haven't been favorited. Not sure this is the right way.

If a person favorites a domain, you could send the other favoriters a notification. This would make them think about the domain again and might impact their decision. This might be good. But sending them an on-site notification might be useless as they won't be likely to browse it often and sending it via mail could be considered too aggressive. Many things to think about.

 

[Deven Patel]

I am a new starter to domaining so I cannot give any response based on previous experience other than to say it is done by all companies such as amazon, ebay, etc.

Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts and candor. We're definitely not ruling anything out. Just want to think it through some more. Like everything else in life, offering discounts has its pros and cons (e.g. short-term sales, customer loyalty, brand dilution, perceived value, etc). The answer is always more complicated than we think. Every company is different and makes the decision based on their own goals (e.g. Apple doesn't offer any discounts, Bed Bath & Beyond is notorious for offering discounts, GoDaddy doesn't offer promo codes BUT they offer a discount membership, etc).

I guess a promo every now and then wouldn't hurt and what you ideally want is an active community of sellers not just someone who lists the domains and never logs back in. They could have sold their domain elsewhere and forgot to remove it from marketplace (I guess your verification tool randomly checks for nameservers?). However by asking sellers to opt in to give discounts it forces us to login and make an update.

Actually, our goal is quite the opposite (simplicity). We don't want sellers to keep logging back into their account unless they absolutely need to. After all, time is the most valuable commodity we have in this world so why waste it? The more time we save for sellers, the more time sellers have to do what they love (domaining).

In terms of old listings, our system constantly checks every domain's nameservers and automatically removes the listing if they can't be verified. In case the nameservers were accidentally changed, the seller has an opportunity to correct the issue and relist the domain instantly.

Also, any plans on adding a message box to talk with designer? I am not doubting their skills but sometimes as a domain owners we may have something in mind which we would like to be taken into account be it colour, the direction of the logo, etc.

That's an interesting idea but the risks here are that (1) it's more work for the seller and (2) the seller might unknowingly lock themselves into a niche if they're not experienced enough. We try to keep the logos as generic as possible so they can be used across various industries. We also focus on current trends, etc. Ultimately, we want to simplify the sales process for sellers instead of complicating it.

Also hoping that the submitted domains will now be reviewed im around 48 hour marks rather than 72 now that we are out of holiday period.

We are doing the best we can so please bear with us. Remember, there's no downside here for sellers because they're allowed to do whatever they want with their names while we review them.

 

[Deven Patel]

Can you show the number of favourites on the front if more than 5/10 to show that it is hot domain name.

I was thinking about the same thing. If people can see that others have favorited domains, they might hurry and buy the domain. However, this might other domains which haven't been favorited. Not sure this is the right way.

Great idea! We were already thinking about something like this for the landing pages to create a sense of urgency/social validation for buyers. The question is which domains to do this for (top 10%, top 50%, all?). We can also use the number of visitors with an upper cap so most listings have some kind of validation as opposed to the favorites count (domains are visited more than they're favorited).

If a person favorites a domain, you could send the other favoriters a notification. This would make them think about the domain again and might impact their decision. This might be good. But sending them an on-site notification might be useless as they won't be likely to browse it often and sending it via mail could be considered too aggressive. Many things to think about.

This is a good idea but yea, it could be too aggressive. Don't want it to turn into a ton of endless spam. We already noticed this now (i.e. if we reach out to the buyer too often regarding an inquiry, they're much less receptive). Besides buyers don't have to register in order to favorite names so we don't have their email addresses.

Also, the rejected names go to the bottom but I prefer to delete them once rejected. Can you allow us to select deleted domains at once and delete them rather than 1 by 1. It is not a big deal but tedious.

We'll see what we can do but as you pointed out there's no need to delete declined names.

 

[samuel12]

@Deven Patel what's with alter and made up names. You guys rarely accept two keyword brandables, almost all your accepted domains are made up names. Do you have data that prove made-up names sell more or what's the rationale behind this?

 

[tiletalk]

The quality of the logos produced are really good compared to what I am receiving elsewhere.

Your designer has done excellent job. Well thought out

 

[Reyginus]

The quality of the logos produced are really good compared to what I am receiving elsewhere.

Your designer has done excellent job. Well thought out

Exactly.

 

[Deven Patel]

@Deven Patel what's with alter and made up names. You guys rarely accept two keyword brandables, almost all your accepted domains are made up names. Do you have data that prove made-up names sell more or what's the rationale behind this?

Thanks for asking! Not sure if that's the case. I just checked our listings and around 30-40% of the names are two words. Ultimately, it all depends on the names that sellers actually submit. If good two word names are submitted then we'll certainly accept them.

At the moment we're also giving priority to names that work across multiple industries. Not too keen on names that are super niche. For example, something like "BalloonBlog" is too specific and much less likely to sell than something like "TechBlog". Also, a lot of two word names we see aren't that brandable. See examples below.

Examples that were recently declined (obscured for privacy): DigitalVersify, GreatShroom, BurntLion, StallionFlare

Examples that were recently accepted (actual listings): CuteRoll, PayBlade, KindAim, RealLake, ProudHill

 

[Sammy Jakes]

Great idea! We were already thinking about something like this for the landing pages to create a sense of urgency/social validation for buyers. The question is which domains to do this for (top 10%, top 50%, all?). We can also use the number of visitors with an upper cap so most listings have some kind of validation as opposed to the favorites count (domains are visited more than they're favorited).

I think number of favorites is better than number of visitors. Number favorited shows more social validation and acceptability than number of visitors. Some names have traffic based on the previous use of the domains but in real sense they may not be good fit for buyers.

 

[M0rd0r]

How much time do you usually need to approve or deny a domain name? I have more than 10 domains waiting from last week (7 days specifically)

 

[tiletalk]

How much time do you usually need to approve or deny a domain name? I have more than 10 domains waiting from last week (7 days specifically)

Used to be 2 to 3 days but i am also noticing quite a lot of delays atm. My worst one so far is 7 days.

Because of manual approval process I think there is a bottle neck.

 

[Deven Patel]

@M0rd0r @tiletalk The review process generally takes about 24-72 hours on average but could take longer during peak times like now. Remember, there's no downside here for sellers because they're allowed to do whatever they want with their names in the meantime so it's not really a bottleneck.

In fact, the real bottleneck for us right now is actually with our logo design process. It takes time to produce good logos and we don't want sellers to have to wait too long for it which is what would happen if we accepted too many names at once.

Contrary to popular belief, the mechanics of running a marketplace (or any business for that matter) are always much more complicated than they look from the outside.

 

[tiletalk]

@M0rd0r @tiletalk The review process generally takes about 24-72 hours on average but could take longer during peak times like now. Remember, there's no downside here for sellers because they're allowed to do whatever they want with their names in the meantime so it's not really a bottleneck.

In fact, the real bottleneck for us right now is actually with our logo design process. It takes time to produce good logos and we don't want sellers to have to wait too long for it which is what would happen if we accepted too many names at once.

Contrary to popular belief, the mechanics of running a marketplace (or any business for that matter) are always much more complicated than they look from the outside.

Thanks for letting us know Deven.

Happy to wait a little longer to keep the logo standards as they are at present. As previously mentioned very thought out and good logos.

 

[sellian]

Hi again Deven, I have noticed that some of my domains that were shortlisted aren't anymore. Is this normal? Are potential buyers manually doing this? Thank you!

 

[Deven Patel]

Hi again Deven, I have noticed that some of my domains that were shortlisted aren't anymore. Is this normal? Are potential buyers manually doing this? Thank you!

Are you looking at the same date range as before? Please note that the number of visitors/favorites you see next to your domains are only for the last 30 days. You can view the rest of the historical data on your dashboard by choosing different time frames.

 

[ecomslice]

Well. I certainly accept domains are subjective. But this is my recent average first shown pages when visiting. And it's enough I'll just stand back and we'll question life itself.

 

[Lord Antares]

Well. I certainly accept domains are subjective. But this is my recent average first shown pages when visiting. And it's enough I'll just stand back and we'll question life itself.

I'll have to agree with this. I find their evaluations inconsistent. I've found bad domains there and I agree that those you posted are bad.

It makes sense for those marketplaces which charge for listings so they can rip you off, but not alter. Higher number of domains will bring in more traffic to the site but at the cost of dilution of quality.

 

[sellian]

Are you looking at the same date range as before? Please note that the number of visitors/favorites you see next to your domains are only for the last 30 days. You can view the rest of the historical data on your dashboard by choosing different time frames.

Ok, I didn't know that! I thought that only applied for the views. Thank you