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.​

 

[Reyginus]

Alter is making it happen! Congratulations @Deven Patel and team!! Keep up the hard work.

The crown ain't safe on who (SH) is wearing it.

 

[xeroox]

Is this normal? http://prntscr.com/y9nwcf http://prntscr.com/y9nwzf
Using edge, no adblock, no zoom

 

[Embrand]

So good to see the many innovations made by Alter. And the dashboard looks great! It seems we sellers are spoilt for choice at the moment.

One small thing: When I look at an Alter listed name on my mobile phone, the text in the descriptions seems to jump a bit. Not sure if this is only on some devices.

 

[Deven Patel]

@Deven Patel It would be great if there is an option to download/export the listed names.

Great suggestion! We'll certainly consider it. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to support if you need a CSV export.

Edit: We just released a bulk export tool that allows you to download a CSV of your listed domains. You can access this tool by logging into your Alter account and then clicking on Domains > Listed > Export CSV (cloud icon found next to the search bar).

I just lowered the price of some of my domains. I wanted to know if potential buyers (people that have shortlisted a domain) are in any way informed about this change?

Great question. Buyers actually don't have user accounts and don't need to submit their email address to us in order to favorite a name so there would be no way for us to reach out to them. We didn't see a point in creating more friction for them in today's privacy-centric environment.

I'm kinda concerned about the amount of sales you guys are having based on the amount of reported sales at NamePros, which is usually a good indicator about how well a marketplace is doing but I'm going to submit a few more names and we'll see how things progress moving forward. Rock on.

Thanks for your continued support! In all fairness, we only have around 3% of the inventory compared to our competitors and most of that is of lower quality names since sellers that own high end names aren't going to switch right away. Long story short, you wouldn't see the same type of sales activity for us on NamePros right now. Also, please note that not all Alter sellers are on NamePros or are comfortable with sharing their sales. In fact, we have sellers who have already sold multiple domains.

The crown ain't safe on who (SH) is wearing it.

Thanks for the compliment but I have high respect and regard for all our competitors. Everyone started at the same place and they're all doing what they need to in order to succeed just like you and I. Competition is the backbone of our economy and necessary for innovation. It forces us to do our best.

Is this normal? http://prntscr.com/y9nwcf http://prntscr.com/y9nwzf
Using edge, no adblock, no zoom

One small thing: When I look at an Alter listed name on my mobile phone, the text in the descriptions seems to jump a bit. Not sure if this is only on some devices.

These UI issues seem device-specific. Can you please reach out to support with information about which device/OS/browser you're experiencing this on?

 

[sellian]

Great question. Buyers actually don't have user accounts and don't need to submit their email address to us in order to favorite a name so there would be no way for us to reach out to them. We didn't see a point in creating more friction for them in today's privacy-centric environment.

Thanks for your reply Deven!

But wouldn't it be a good idea to give buyers the option of entering their email addresses to receive a notification when there is a price reduction on the domains they have favorited? It could be just a window somewhere or some kind of pop-up message when the visitor is about to quit the site.

This is also a good way of gathering the emails of potential buyers which you can use in the future for marketing campaigns or something similar.

 

[NameWell]

@Deven Patel Can names that were rejected in the past be resubmitted again sometime in the future (i.e. after 3 or 6 months)? With each month and each closed sale you learn more and more about what resonates with your buyers and branding trends are also constantly shifting. So it's quite possible that a name that was rejected now may be a good fit after 3, 6, 12 or 18 months.

 

[Deven Patel]

But wouldn't it be a good idea to give buyers the option of entering their email addresses to receive a notification when there is a price reduction on the domains they have favorited? It could be just a window somewhere or some kind of pop-up message when the visitor is about to quit the site.

This is also a good way of gathering the emails of potential buyers which you can use in the future for marketing campaigns or something similar.

Ah, you're referring to email subscription boxes and exit-intent popups. Yes, those are some ways to collect buyer emails among others. We do have this on our roadmap but haven't had a chance to think it through yet. One thing at a time.

When we do get to it though, it will be a tough decision because we're living in a more privacy-centric environment today (i.e. visitors are beginning to get more and more frustrated about personalized experiences). That doesn't mean it won't work but the portion of people we piss off by doing it will grow over time and ultimately tip the scales in the other direction. Like every other new marketing channel every discovered by mankind, there are always bad actors across the web that overdo it and ruin it for others.

A study found that just one bad experience is enough to stop 51% of customers from ever buying from that business again. Anyway, just pointing out that this types of decisions have lasting consequences so we want to think it through properly before releasing the feature.

P.S. Most people don't know this but Alter offered personalization software to marketers before pivoting to a domain marketplace so I know a thing or two about this stuff.

 

[Deven Patel]

@Deven Patel Can names that were rejected in the past be resubmitted again sometime in the future (i.e. after 3 or 6 months)? With each month and each closed sale you learn more and more about what resonates with your buyers and branding trends are also constantly shifting. So it's quite possible that a name that was rejected now may be a good fit after 3, 6, 12 or 18 months.

Yes, you can re-submit declined names after 6 months if you like. We also re-review previously declined names every so often when our criteria changes so you don't necessarily have to re-submit them.

 

[NameWell]

Yes, you can re-submit declined names after 6 months if you like. We also re-review previously declined names every so often when our criteria changes so you don't necessarily have to re-submit them.

Awesome!

 

[xeroox]

@Deven Patel I have never seen in the other marketplaces, a small notification in the submitting form to alert us if is there a backlog of work and reviewing is delayed? or anyway more information to keep seller updated

 

[tiletalk]

couple of recommendation...
1) increase the speed tone by around 20% so so its faster. sounds slow and boring atm.

2) allow bulk/all selection of listed domains to be selected to increase/decrease prices and change installment settings.

 

[Joe Styler]

I wanted to comment on this thread and say we are not aware of any partnership with this marketplace, Alter.com, either with Afternic or Uniregistry. If there is any misunderstanding please feel free to contact us.

 

[Deven Patel]

I wanted to comment on this thread and say we are not aware of any partnership with this marketplace, Alter.com, either with Afternic or Uniregistry. If there is any misunderstanding please feel free to contact us.

Thanks for the reply, Joe.

I just sent an email to Bob Mountain detailing the phone conversation I had with the Afternic team. I also included screenshots of my email communication with both Afternic and Uniregistry. If you would like me to copy you on it, please DM me your email address.

I sincerely hope that the answers your team provided haven't changed because it would be very disappointing for both us and our sellers. I look forward to hearing from you.

 

[Future Sensors]

Hi @Deven Patel

May I request a feature, that listing my domains at other marketplaces is optional at Alter?

If I don't opt-in, things will remain the same (current model).
If I do opt-in, Alter will manage my listings for me, including listing them elsewhere (new model).

 

[Joe Styler]

Thanks for the reply, Joe.

I just sent an email to Bob Mountain detailing the phone conversation I had with the Afternic team. I also included screenshots of my email communication with both Afternic and Uniregistry. If you would like me to copy you on it, please DM me your email address.

I sincerely hope that the answers your team provided haven't changed because it would be very disappointing for both us and our sellers. I look forward to hearing from you.

Bob is the right person to speak with regarding Afternic partnerships.

 

[Deven Patel]

Important Update

After clarifying our relationship with Afternic, it appears that there was a misunderstanding between our teams. So unfortunately, we will no longer propagate domains listed on Alter to either Afternic or Uniregistry at this time.

However, we will still list your domains on the following partner marketplaces and registrars:

• Sedo, DAN.com, IONOS, Namecheap, Network Solutions, Name.com, Epik, NameSilo, Hover, Dynadot, Register.com, BigRock, 101domain, SnapNames, Sav, Hexonet, Internet.bs, Moniker, Rebel, InterNetX, Dofo, WebNames, and more

In order to protect our relationships with these partners, you cannot list your Alter domains with any of the companies mentioned above since we will be doing it on your behalf moving forward. If they are already listed there, please remove them from there before February 15th. Otherwise, you are free to list them anywhere else you like including on Afternic and Uniregistry by yourself.

In order to make this process smoother for our sellers, we have released a bulk export tool that allows you to download a CSV of your listed domains. You can access this tool by logging into your Alter account and then clicking on Domains > Listed > Export CSV (cloud icon found next to the search bar).

We are very sorry for any inconvenience the prior announcement may have caused. Thank you for your continued support!

 

[xeroox]

Important Update

After clarifying our relationship with Afternic, it appears that there was a misunderstanding between our teams. So unfortunately, we will no longer propagate domains listed on Alter to either Afternic or Uniregistry at this time.

However, we will still list your domains on the following partner marketplaces and registrars:

• Sedo, DAN.com, IONOS, Namecheap, Network Solutions, Name.com, Epik, NameSilo, Hover, Dynadot, Register.com, BigRock, 101domain, SnapNames, Sav, Hexonet, Internet.bs, Moniker, Rebel, InterNetX, Dofo, WebNames, and more

In order to protect our relationships with these partners, you cannot list your Alter domains with any of the companies mentioned above since we will be doing it on your behalf moving forward. If they are already listed there, please remove them from there before February 15th. Otherwise, you are free to list them anywhere else you like.

In order to make this process smoother for our sellers, we have released a bulk export tool that allows you to download a CSV of your listed domains. You can access this tool by logging into your Alter account and then clicking on Domains > Listed > Export CSV (cloud icon found next to the search bar).

We are very sorry for any inconvenience the prior announcement may have caused. Thank you for your continued support!

Does it mean we can't list on afternic? Some of those registrants are in the afternic network

 

[Deven Patel]

Does it mean we can't list on afternic? Some of those registrants are in the afternic network

Good question. I clarified my message above. For now, you are free to list them anywhere else you like including on Afternic and Uniregistry. Just not directly with any of the companies mentioned.

 

[tiletalk]

Deven, any chance you guys could also handle non-premium domains? I would love if I could control the listing and delisting of domains from 1 website...?

 

[NTLK]

Hi @Deven Patel

May I request a feature, that listing my domains at other marketplaces is optional at Alter?

If I don't opt-in, things will remain the same (current model).
If I do opt-in, Alter will manage my listings for me, including listing them elsewhere (new model).

I second this suggestion.