I have many opinions, but to share my constructive criticism.
Thank you, my friend! Constructive feedback is always more useful and can benefit everyone in the long run. Even with everything else in life, people would be much more productive if we were able to put our differences and egos aside for the greater good. So I truly appreciate your and everyone else's constructive feedback.
what % estimate of buyers use the " Price Low / High " Search option ?
This is very unfriendly as it currently shows any " make offer " first, which im sure will tire the buyers,
The other option you would have is show a ton of the low ball no premiums and there is a ton of wacky Geo's , 3 words , and low ball low quality domains. I suggest a base price for all.
Not many. I looked at our data and it seems like ~3% our visitors sort by price (high to low) and ~1% sort by price (low to high). It's also hard to differentiate between how many of these are buyers vs sellers so the number is actually much lower for buyers.
I agree that in a perfect world this would work better but if we want to give all domains an equal chance then I think we'll have to make this minor sacrifice. It's a damned if we do and damned if we don't situation. Before, we received complaints from sellers that their non-premium names weren't showing up when sorted by price. This approach solves that problem.
Anyway, as you can see above it's not going to have much negative impact because sort by "relevance" is used majority of the time. Buyers almost never sort by price without filtering the names down further using the search bar so they'll never want to sort our entire inventory by price. And in the rare event that they do, they would simply use the price filter to weed out the outliers.
Also, there is an advantage to this which is that buyers who do see the outrageously priced domains will appreciate the well priced domains even more (i.e. if you see MyTechShop.com listed for $100K and TechShop.com listed for $10K, you would feel like the latter is a great deal and would want to purchase it instantly). So in a way, it helps motivate sellers to price their names competitively.
That said, if you or anyone else has a better way of dealing with this please feel free to share your thoughts. We're always learning and more than happy to consider your ideas.
That being said the other non user friendly thing I see, is a buyer can only skip 3 pages at a time, and or 270 pages. no in between options,
This is normal. I think BB uses the same strategy. Generally nobody would want to skip pages (i.e. think about how often you skip pages during a Google search). And having the last page there helps those very small number of curious buyers see the end of the results. Even Amazon uses the same strategy. See here:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=camera
You need to figure out how to start paying sellers in crypto if you want more sellers bringing their names to Alter.
Agreed. This is already on our roadmap. We typically prioritize new features based on demand so thanks for your vote.
Well done. You made an algorithm to pick out domains based on their length and pronounceability. I do notice, though, that most of the domains shown are made up brandable words. The only one on the first page (for me) which isn't is HugeCode.com but I'm sure that's a coincidence as your system detected it to be an 8 letter pronounceable domain. So short brandables are preferred to two word domains like HerbalZone.com, CodingCity.com etc.
This isn't necessarily bad, I just want to know more about this if you don't mind. Was this made on purpose because made up brandables are universal and would work on multiple niches (generally speaking)? So then, when someone lands on the front page, they are shown these general purpose domains but if they filter by niche, like coding & programming, they are shown domains like CodingCity.com, HugeCode.com etc.
If so, that would make sense. Do you have a rough overview of how these made up pronounceables are doing on Alter?
We don't specifically prioritize between made up vs keyword based names. The algorithm relies more heavily on buyer feedback. This means the ranks can change based on new trends, etc (just like SEO). Unfortunately, I can't give you the specifics because then some sellers would try to game it. But I can tell you that we use a variety of factors and buyer signals to rank names. Also, note that it can often take a few days or weeks before a name finds it's true position in the results because the algo is continuously collecting and assessing new data for each individual name.
There's a loophole in that kind of thinking. If there is no difference in STR with a price increase of 10%, then I could increase the price of all my domains by 10% and keep the same STR. Then after that, I could increase it by 10% more and still have the same STR and so on. It's well known that higher price -> lower STR although it may not matter on a small sample size.
We're not talking about double or triple the price. If you know that the buyer likes a domain and is willing to pay $1,000 for it then $1,100 isn't a deal breaker but $3,000 would be.
It's all about the pros and cons at the end of the day. What I often ask myself before making a decision about anything is... how much is my time worth? In other words, how can I best leverage my time to generate the most value?
After we set a portfolio page, How about showing a link to our portfolio on the landing pages of our domains And if we disable showing similar domains from the landing pages, it should be replaced with other domains from our own portfolio.
That's an interesting idea. But I wonder, would showing unrelated domains really be that useful to buyers? Does it actually generate more sales for sellers? I wonder if anyone has any data or valuable insights around this. We would be happy to implement it if there's a tangible benefit.
Alter's inventory now has domain names of high and low quality.
What kinds of domain names in Alter are advertised in Google and social media platforms?
All of them.
So there are primarily two types of ads we run on Google/social media: retargeting ads and general ads.
The retargeting ads target specific domains. When a buyer visits your domain's landing page, they're tagged with a cross-site cookie. Then when they visit another website like Forbes for example, they'll see an ad with your name that points back to your landing page.
The general ads target specific keyword and category pages on our website. This is where your name's ranking comes into play because most buyers will only browse through the first few pages of the results (just like you do on Google when searching for anything). All names are treated equally when they're added to our platform. Over time, our smart algo will determine which ones rank higher than others based on a number of factors like the domain's extension, length, price, brandability, popularity, etc (just like how SEO works).
Beyond ads, there are other ways buyers can find your name like if it appears under another name in the similar business names section, if it appears alongside one of our trademark pages, etc, etc. We're constantly finding new and innovative ways to drive traffic to your landing pages.
The only thing you have to work on is finding
quality names to invest in because there's no substitute for quality. In other words, no amount of traffic will help you if your names are low quality.
I miss the free logos
I understand that the problem was that some sellers kept removing the domains too frequently.
But you know who the trusted sellers are who don't keep removing the domains constantly.
Could you please continue designing logos for free for the trusted sellers? But not for every domain. If your AI appraisal tool calculates 1999 USD or more value for a domain name, then you could take a look at that domain and if it is really a good domain and the seller is trusted, you could design a logo for free.
Or you could provide free logo credits for trusted sellers based on the quality and quantity of their domain portfolio, should these sellers keep their domains at Alter long enough.
It would be a win-win since the logos improve the quality of the marketplace and help to sell the quality domains faster. And free logos are an incentive for sellers to keep their domains at Alter, because new sellers won't receive free logos, only the sellers who keep their domains at Alter.
I do understand your concern. But the issue is if we were to do that, we'd have a bunch of sellers come out of the woodwork and start complaining again about why we didn't choose their names or give them the free credits. The current approach levels the playing field for everyone. In fact, the "unfair" complaints dropped significantly since our last announcement.
If you're worried about the cost, here's a strategy I would suggest. Order professional logos for only a few of your top names at first. Then once you sell one, you can reinvest that profit in the other names slowly over time. By then you should also get an idea of whether you want to even keep some of the other names in your portfolio by sorting them by visitors, favorites, offers, etc. And of course, all the logos we designed for your old premium inventory are still there.
Domain stats are not updating and domain appraisal is too limited, we reach the daily limit too quickly.
We're not aware of any technical issues at the moment. Which stats are you referring to? Please note that the data on your dashboard is displayed in real-time. The stats you see on the Domains page update every 24 hours or so as mentioned on that page.
Regarding the appraisal limit, I asked you this before but never received a response. How many domains are you trying to appraise? We have a daily limit to prevent abuse. Though the limit for logged in users is much higher than for visitors.
I just found out that pointing your nameservers to Alter is a requirement to list there.
No, it's not just for confirmation. I'd understand if it was a brandable marketplace like before but now with the sheer volume of names bring submitted, I don't quite see the point.
Deven himself said that most buyers are decided buyers and are going to buy, wherever the namersvers point to.
I tested some and the average views from the marketplace (not direct type in is consiredably less than 1 per name). Since the switch away from the brandable marketplace type is only recent, I suspect the number of names will grow manifold and thus the number of views will fall drastically.
I struggle to see how it's worth it to risk direct type in visitors being distracted by other names for that <0.1 visitors per day my name is going to bring via the marketplace. I understand the average visitor through the marketplace is higher quality than a type in visitor but still. Not that much more surely.
That has always been the case. Come on now.. you can't have your cake and eat it too. We're not running a charity here.
Why is it okay for brandable marketplaces to require you to use their landers? IMO, it should be the opposite. Since they charge you a whopping 30% commission, they can afford to pay hundreds if not thousands to acquire a buyer through paid channels alone. We can't so we reply on type-in traffic to help shoulder that cost. Not sure why you think it's okay for them even though they're already charging you an arm and a leg for it on top.
Beyond that, there are a couple of other reasons why we do this and both have to do with fairness.
- Fairness to us: Since we actually market your names, it wouldn't make sense for another marketplace to get the sale if one of our buyers ends up typing the domain into their browser and purchasing it elsewhere.
- Fairness to other sellers: If other sellers are willing to point there domains to our marketplace and share a portion of their traffic with you then it wouldn't be fair to them if you didn't. This is also true on other marketplaces.
Regarding distractions, based on what we're seeing majority of the type-in leads only want the domains they landed on so those wouldn't be at risk. If they were, nobody would ever use any marketplace (there are millions of domains that use landers on other marketplaces).
However, there are a small number of leads that land on the domain and decide not to buy it. Unless there's a decent number of alternatives available to them, they would just leave. Contrary to what some here believe, you can't just force them to buy another completely unrelated name by locking them in. But a large marketplace can still try to convert these leads with their much larger inventory. Just try and put yourself in the buyer's shoes and think about it. Play it out in your head.
I think a lot of sellers are scared about this unnecessarily. Just think about the fact that GoDaddy has every single name any buyer could ever want available in countless different extensions at $10 a pop. That would be considered distraction overload! Yet, they sell so many aftermarket names. If you have quality names and you believe in them then there's no reason to be afraid.
Again, these are leads that would have never converted on your landing pages anyway. And in return, you receive the same benefit when the small number of leads that land on other sellers' domains end up buying your domains instead. It simply increases your chance of a sale because the leads are better targeted to the names they want. And if the marketplace can still sell that lead something (rather than them leaving), it can reinvest that profit into even more marketing. Win-win for everyone.
Anyway, as I mentioned before we understand that everyone has their own opinion about this which is why we even made the similar names section on landers optional.
Regarding the increase in inventory taking traffic away from your domains, I don't see it that way. A larger inventory would actually help
quality sellers because a lot of that low quality type-in traffic will see the better options. This is one of the reasons you sometimes still get a sale from a non-brandable marketplace even though you're not using their landers (because of other sellers who do use their landers).
Again, let's put ourselves in the buyer's shoes and play this out. Say the marketplace has the following names listed and a buyer comes along with a $5k budget looking for a name to use with his/her new tech blog:
Tech.com - $30,000,000
Technology.com - $5,000,000
TechZone.com - $5,000
Techedd.com - $3,000
YourTechBlogSite.com - $40,000
TechingStuff.com - $100,000
MyTechWorldNews.co - $100
Which name do you think they'll buy? And does having the other low quality ones listed take away anything from the high quality ones?
All in all, I think you're looking at this the wrong way. What you should ask yourself is.. what value are you receiving in return for the 10% commission? If Alter provides more value for your buck then our competitors then what's the problem? Mind you, that's the lowest rate among both brandable and non-brandable industry leaders.
And as I mentioned before, if you think you have a better way to do this then please share your solution with us. We would be more than happy to implement it if it makes sense. Our intention isn't to rip anyone off, it's to build the best marketplace that we can based on everyone's feedback and eventually make some profit from it just like what you're trying to do with your domains.
Why I can't find any domain submission option on alter now?...is it AI powered only? Manual appraisal & acceptance process stopped now?
Just log in to your Alter account and click on the "Domains" tab followed by "Manage Domains". You will see an option to "Add Domains" there. Or just go straight here:
https://alter.com/domains/manage/add
If you still need help, please reach out to support.
And you're correct. Moving forward, we consider all names as premium names similar to GoDaddy (how they consider all aftermarket names as premium). We no longer manually review names. Our smart algo will handle that moving forward.
Our smart search algorithm uses a number of factors to rank names based on buyer feedback. Everything from the domain's extension, length, price, brandability, popularity, and more is used to determine its rank. Just like the Google search algorithm, we continually adjust our algorithm over time based on buyer feedback to ensure an optimal experience and high STR. This means high quality names will continue to thrive while giving new listings an equal opportunity (just like SEO). This levels the playing field for everyone so you don't have to rely on some random person's judgement regarding the quality of your names.
Alter.com is just awesome , I sold a domain recently and whole transaction completion is fast and I just cash out thru wire transfer . Most importantly, the fee in unbelievably 10%
Alter.com is just awesome, sold insuran.com at low 5 figures . 2nd sales within 10 days.
The speed of sales completion are unexpectedly fast, faster than afternic.com fast transfer premium listing sales . Money already in my bank account in Hong Kong.
Sold S/c/o/t/t .xyz for 7500 usd
Seamless process and team was very helpful.
Arcade.xyz sold for 25500 usd. Another seamless transaction through Alter.
Wow, both of you had two large sales this month. Congrats!! If you ever feel like writing a blog about the investment strategies you use, please let us know. We'd love to feature it on our site!
