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]

I see the Alter banner here on Namepros - wow you are really serious about growing the marketplace. Deven Patel, the founder himself really cares about the success of both buyers and sellers, he responds to all messages and constantly keeps improving the platform. This is going to be big - Go Alter!

Thanks a lot! We also market on Google/Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Quora/etc. Our plan is to reinvest majority of our profit back into marketing our inventory (both premium and standard).

 

[Deven Patel]

First of all thanks for the dedication and commitment

Thanks for the compliments!

A B testing is normal for a marketplace that is less than 1year old.

Marketplace STR is a vanity metric which is impossible to A/B test properly. See my reply above.

1) how long will it take you to evaluate if they can be upgraded to premium and are we supposed to receive a notification with the result of the appraisal?

There is no strict time frame but if you don't hear from us within the first week or so then it means your domain isn't eligible for premium. We will only send a notification if it is eligible. That said, our criteria could change in the future where we may still decide to make the domain eligible at a later point. So just because we passed the first time doesn't mean it won't ever be eligible.

2) in your evaluation, will you consider also the traffic (and likes) that standard domains are receiving during their first days of exposure? I have one of them that in just few days listing got more visits than any of the premiums i have in Alter(I got just 10). so i would be surprised if it is not upgraded.

Absolutely, but we've already seen people manipulate traffic and favorites so we can't completely reply on that data. We're looking to upgrade the best domains available on our marketplace. Ones that great products and companies can be built on. They're generally .com, short, catchy, memorable, easy to spell/pronounce, etc (e.g. Nool, Justify, Frolax, Riccan, Kissly, EverCanyon, FairFound).

Again, think of Alter as a hybrid marketplace moving forward where you can list both brandable and non-brandable names at one low commission of 10% which is on par with what you would pay at other non-brandable marketplaces anyway. But with Alter you would be able to take advantage of all our additional benefits (i.e. our marketing, customer service, installment plans, logos, partner syndication, etc).

Both premium and standard domains receive the same benefits except that premium names appear higher in search results. Think of premium as the "Amazon's Choice" inventory on Amazon with a couple other minor benefits like professional logos and appraisals.

So even if your name isn't eligible for premium, you still benefit more from listing it on Alter than anywhere else.

 

[Deven Patel]

Hi
My question :
Is it possible to add parking domains to this promising market?! because we have some domains with Traffic in order to cover the costs of the renewal .

All Thanks @Alter Team@

Best Regards
Devanos

Thank YOU for listing with us!

Right now we're laser focused on selling the names so don't plan on offering parking.

IMO, parking pages also add a lot of unnecessary distraction for buyers and generally don't produce much revenue nowadays as visitors are becoming more immune to advertising in general.

 

[tomcarl]

Q: Do standard listings that are gaining favorites/higher CTRs than others receive increased ranking in search results and mixed in with the hand-picked premiums?

I ask because I notice if I search a keyword and it's a common word, it'll usually be several pages until the end of the line when the standard listings appear, and I'm seeing a lot of great names back there.

 

[cillx]

Closely looking at what you have attracted as standard listings, I'm glad that you don't mix up premium listings and standard listings and had decided to keep them separate. Most standard listings are not even worth the reg fee in my opinion. So mixing them with premium names will hurt the marketplace.

On the other hand, I see some quality names still appear as standard names, without upgrading to a premium listing. This will definitely discourage the sellers will quality portfolios. What I still don't understand is how you are going to increase the size of the portfolio (quality names) by being too picky. I understand you can increase the numbers of domains you have with standerd listing and definitly it will increase the traffic, but do you realy think it will increase the sales, conversion?

If I were you, I will try to win some large brandable domain portfolio holders to list their names on my marketplace. If you want to win the race you need to have a LARGE portfolio of QUAILTY names.

I honestly like your marketplace, I believe you do better negosiations too. Your team is also very polite. I want you to win, not to lose. Good luck.

 

[Henry Y]

I think Alter can try to accept premium listing submissions of other domain extensions, such as .net, .co, .io, .ai and new gTLDs because more and more startups also opt for these extensions. It can have better traffic and sales results as well as higher quality of domain inventory than the standard listing approach.

 

[Deven Patel]

Q: Do standard listings that are gaining favorites/higher CTRs than others receive increased ranking in search results and mixed in with the hand-picked premiums?

I ask because I notice if I search a keyword and it's a common word, it'll usually be several pages until the end of the line when the standard listings appear, and I'm seeing a lot of great names back there.

Yes, standard domains that are popular do appear higher in search results. But popularity is only used when two or more domains match the same search criteria. That said, premium domains will still be given a priority over them because they'll naturally be higher quality.

Can you please give me a couple examples of what you're referring to specifically or send them to support? Ultimately, we want to ensure that buyers see the best domains that match their criteria first regardless of whether they're standard or premium.

 

[Josytal]

@Deven Patel ,
1. Does Alter have the option to import leads and pay less the regular sales commission (e.g. like DAN - 5%)?
2. For standard listing, does one still need to point domain name servers to Alter's?
3. Standard listing and exclusivity, what's the current situation? I mean, can one list same domain on other marketplaces?

 

[Charybdis]

I don't see many new premium domain names published in the last few days. But I see that thousands of standard domains have been published.

Are you still busy reviewing the standard domains?

 

[Deven Patel]

Closely looking at what you have attracted as standard listings, I'm glad that you don't mix up premium listings and standard listings and had decided to keep them separate. Most standard listings are not even worth the reg fee in my opinion. So mixing them with premium names will hurt the marketplace.

Exactly. So it seems like our new approach is working just as intended.

It's super hard to find quality names at other regular marketplaces. We're trying to change that with our manual curation process. However, as we all know quality is often subjective so there's no way we can cover all the bases. I mean every seller thinks they have quality names right? Otherwise, why would they invest in them? That's one of the reasons we decided to change our approach. See my post above for more insight into our decision.

On the other hand, I see some quality names still appear as standard names, without upgrading to a premium listing.

There are a couple reasons why quality names may still be listed as standard:

1. Appraisal Disagreement: We've seen sellers intentionally downgrade to standard if they didn't agree with our appraisal. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just a different strategy that works for them. In fact, I just learned that we had appraised a name at around $15k which the seller didn't agree with so they ended up listing it at another marketplace. And it sold for $40k! Though they had to pay more commission there. With our new approach, they could've still listed it with us and made more profit.
2. Subjective Quality: As I mentioned above, quality is often subjective and there are plenty of instances where a name that we had declined in the past ended up selling elsewhere. On the other hand, there are names that we accepted that still haven't sold. Our new approach fixes that problem because sellers can list their names regardless of what we think of them based on what works for them. We simply surface the best of the best for a little extra exposure through premium.

This will definitely discourage the sellers will quality portfolios.

Not sure why it would discourage sellers with quality portfolios? Quality names will generally get upgraded to premium. But even if they don't (due to quality being subjective), quality names will naturally get more attention by buyers and that attention will result in them appearing higher in search results (even if they're standard). And the best part of it all is our 10% commission.

It seems like the problem is you're still thinking of Alter as just a brandable marketplace. Moving forward, think of Alter as a hybrid marketplace where you can list both brandable and non-brandable names at one low commission of 10% which is on par with what you would pay at other non-brandable marketplaces anyway. But with Alter you would be able to take advantage of all our additional benefits (i.e. our marketing, customer service, installment plans, logos, partner syndication, premium eligibility, etc).

Both premium and standard domains receive the same benefits except that premium names appear higher in search results. Think of premium as the "Amazon's Choice" inventory on Amazon. Just because a product isn't accepted as "Amazon's Choice" doesn't mean it's bad quality or won't sell. Another way to think of premium is the top X% of the names we have. Since it's a limited number, we can't accept everything.

What I still don't understand is how you are going to increase the size of the portfolio (quality names) by being too picky. I understand you can increase the numbers of domains you have with standerd listing and definitly it will increase the traffic, but do you realy think it will increase the sales, conversion?

I don't think we're being picky at all. What makes you think that? Could it be because your definition of quality is different than ours? That's exactly what we're trying to solve with the new approach. There's no way every seller will be happy with our definition. Some sellers may define quality as dictionary words only, others may define "SuperCoolEcommerceShoppingSite" as quality. Where do we draw the line?

With the new approach, we don't have to draw the line as sellers can still list their names as standard even if we don't agree with their definition of quality.

With standard listings, we'll be able to (1) generate more traffic and (2) sell more domains. Even if the STR of standard domains is lower than premium, a sale is a sale. And those additional sales will allow us to spend more on marketing the rest. In fact, we're already starting to receive inquiries for standard domains!

If I were you, I will try to win some large brandable domain portfolio holders to list their names on my marketplace. If you want to win the race you need to have a LARGE portfolio of QUAILTY names.

You're absolutely right. It would be great to have a large portfolio of quality names but we can't force people to list with us. You're assuming that sellers that own quality names already know about our marketplace. A lot of sellers aren't aware of Alter or aren't ready to switch yet. We've been fortunate enough to have a number of quality sellers list with us so far but that's nowhere near what we need to have a decent sized inventory. This new approach helps us grow faster without having to sacrifice quality.

I honestly like your marketplace, I believe you do better negosiations too. Your team is also very polite. I want you to win, not to lose. Good luck.

Thanks! Your support is much appreciated and your feedback is invaluable. Keep it coming.

 

[Deven Patel]

I think Alter can try to accept premium listing submissions of other domain extensions, such as .net, .co, .io, .ai and new gTLDs because more and more startups also opt for these extensions. It can have better traffic and sales results as well as higher quality of domain inventory than the standard listing approach.

Thanks for the suggestion! We'll certainly consider that in the future.

But again, just because a domain isn't accepted as premium doesn't mean it's not a good domain. Think of premium as the "Amazon's Choice" inventory on Amazon. Just because a product isn't accepted as "Amazon's Choice" doesn't mean it's bad quality or won't sell. Another way to think of premium is the top X% of the names we have. Since it's a limited number, we can't accept everything.

Also, both standard and premium domains receive the same benefits except that premium names get a boost in search results (i.e. we market both standard and premium names to buyers).

 

[Deven Patel]

1. Does Alter have the option to import leads and pay less the regular sales commission (e.g. like DAN - 5%)?

Not at this time. Since other marketplaces already offer that option, why not just continue using them for existing leads?

2. For standard listing, does one still need to point domain name servers to Alter's?

Yes, because we still market standard domains across the web (i.e. PPC, social media, retargeting, etc).

3. Standard listing and exclusivity, what's the current situation? I mean, can one list same domain on other marketplaces?

You can list them wherever else you like but we ask that you do not list your domains with any of our partners since we already list them there for you. As an added benefit of us listing there on your behalf, you don't have to worry about dealing with different companies, updating prices across accounts, re-verifying domains, etc.

 

[Charybdis]

I noticed that you automatically generate the keywords, categories and descriptions when adding a new domain.

All good, however I noticed that after you upgrade a domain to premium, you design a logo but then you don't create unique keywords, categories and descriptions.

You wrote unique descriptions and you manually selected the keywords before for premium domains, could you please still do it? Would be a great time saver.

The automatically generated text and keywords are not as good as doing it manually.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

So when I read on here about Alter now accepting non-premium names, I tried adding my first non-premium listing to Alter a week ago (I had a few months ago submitted about 20 something names of which 3 were accepted and are listed as premium names - I have not yet sold any of those 3).

I meant to add more non-premium last weekend, but actually only added 1. I was pleased when 6 days after listing a single domain name I got notice from an Alter rep that there was a potential client but their upper price was less than my listing price. It was a name I felt flexible on, was keen to make a sale, so accepted, and within 24 hr the client paid, name was transferred, I was paid, I cashed out to PayPal.

For now I am not disclosing name or sales price as I am not clear on Alter's policy regarding disclosure of sales? The name is a 5-letter pronounceable name I had hand registered a couple of years ago. I had earlier submitted it to SH and Alter for premium, but was not accepted. The name builds on word in language other than English.

So, so far I am really happy with Alter as a now hybrid platform. Things I liked:

• Listing was easy.
• Verification works fast and well (I now have listed another dozen or so names after my first sale).
• I like the landers. They look professional and include enough detail to help with sales.
• Idea of their lander showing well known brands with same number of letters as your name is a great idea.
• The sales process and payout worked fast and easy.
• The agent I dealt with was professional, helpful and friendly.
• The 10% commission is great for the level of service offered.
• I like the analytics they offer. I can see how many times each name gets viewed, if it gets favourited, where overall traffic to my names is coming from.

A few hints:

1. Remember to use capitalization if your name suits it.
2. Think carefully for the 3 category choices. The list of options is well thought out.
3. While the logo editor is very basic, it does allow you to change the font and colour. Do try some logo options. Note that the background colour changes according to your font colour. I did not at all like the default logo look, but after trying a bunch of fonts and colours was much happier.
4. While Alter will generate a generic description and use an algorithm to assign keywords, and sometimes these are not too bad, you can definitely improve by editing them yourself. You set a one sentence lead sentence, the keywords, and a number of ways the name could be used. This takes a few minutes, but is well worth the time.
5. Remember to take name down from other marketplaces before listing on Alter. They will quickly post it on their partner sites, with a markup to reflect the commission, but you can't keep your own say Sedo or DAN listings and list it on Alter. For names I plan to list on Alter I first take them down everywhere, and set the DNS to Alter before listing so there is a bit of propagation time for verification. Then I list on Alter.

I don't see it much yet, but even with priority system, I am a little worried if a lot of really low quality names will overwhelm the site. I hope our community will show restraint in only listing solid names on the site.

Great job, Alter. Impressed with your service and the depth you answer suggestions here.

Bob

 

[johnn]

I don’t see the option making offer from the landing page. Am missing something?

 

[Charybdis]

I don’t see the option making offer from the landing page. Am missing something?

There is no such option, but potential buyers will contact Alter via the live chat or email anyway if they want to make an offer, and Alter will forward these offers to the sellers if the offer is serious.

 

[wwwulff]

Closely looking at what you have attracted as standard listings, I'm glad that you don't mix up premium listings and standard listings and had decided to keep them separate. Most standard listings are not even worth the reg fee in my opinion. So mixing them with premium names will hurt the marketplace.

Maybe it´s only me but I can´t see the standard listings, how too see them? The lowest price I can see is $1099 and it is listed as premium

 

[Charybdis]

Maybe it´s only me but I can´t see the standard listings, how too see them? The lowest price I can see is $1099 and it is listed as premium

You need to go the last pages of the search result.

I think the min. 499 USD price is a filter itself. If you want to sell a domain for at least 499 USD, then you'd better not list crap, because no one will buy a crap domain for 499 USD or more.

And I hope that the Alter algorithm will only display the crap domains at the very end of the search results. Then the potential buyers can only find them via type-in or after they saw every other domains, at the very end of the search results.

So I think it is not an issue that the standard domains will overwhelm the site. People will only see them after the premium domains.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Maybe it´s only me but I can´t see the standard listings, how too see them? The lowest price I can see is $1099 and it is listed as premium

The standard listings are listed after the premium ones. For example, in the Alter search bar enter the word excel. It currently shows 2 premium (the first two and they have a premium badge and different style of logo) and 5 other listings. Note that while $499 is the minimum you can list at, most non-premium listings are listed for more, in many cases more than the premium listings. Alter gives priority to the premium listings, even when in this case the match to searched word is better in some of the non-premium listings.

It seems to me in most keywords the number of premium listings at this point exceed the number of non-premium, but I expect that to change.

Bob

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I don’t see the option making offer from the landing page. Am missing something?

They do not have a make offer button, but someone can message the agent. That is what happened in my case. She contacted me after talking with the client about their price range maximum, and I agreed to a lower than listing price.

While I am a fan of landers with make offer, there is some evidence from SH that they actually reduce completed purchases. And Alter promote transparent, no hassle pricing, I guess hoping most will just Buy Now, but by individual message a negotiation process is possible.

Bob