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.​

 

[Embrand]

I noticed a very neat thing. I had removed some names a while ago, but decided to list them again. Not only were my old purchased logos automatically attached to the listings again, but so were the keywords I had assigned. That saved both money and time.

 

[Samxui]

What's going on with Alter? Give us updates. Sales stats, new tools, etc

 

[NorthernDomains]

What's going on with Alter? Give us updates. Sales stats, new tools, etc

@Deven Patel

This is a problem with Alter. They started this thread and we expect them to interact on this sub forum. They have stated they prefer we contact them directly but that's not how it works here.

Alter needs to have a spokesperson attending to the questions and concerns of its clients.

 

[Charybdis]

Alter needs to have a spokesperson attending to the questions and concerns of its clients.

Yes like Dan, they also have a thread here and they regularly participate in that thread.

But I should note that Alter just works, and there are no burning unanswered questions in this thread.

 

[capybara]

I can't recall even the smallest change on Alter since I started using it. It is likely Alter simply does not have software developers on its team, so it goes on in the same state as it was designed.

 

[capybara]

Two weeks ago I had a sale on Alter, first received a payment email and in a few hours transfer request, the domain was pushed to Alter account promptly and then that was it. Asked in a few days and Alter told me they are unable to contact the buyer. Likely the emails went to spam so there is very little chance it gets better, who knows how long is it gonna be before the buyer wakes up and decides to do something about their purchase... It was not a big sale, less than 2K, and we all know the stories of much more expensive domains which go to the expired auctions the next year after having been purchased, its not unusual when buyers forget about their freshly acquired domains and is likely what happened to my sale as well.

In the buy it now window it is stated "All payments will be final and non-refundable once the domain is in escrow.". I think it means Alter has it covered within their ToS legally, and since its like that, does it make sense not to pay the seller? The domain is in Alter possession so whenever the buyer is back to claim it Alter has been enabled to complete the transfer...

Today I have finally received the payment from Alter for this sale, yay! Time interval between Alter's "Transaction Completed" and Paypal's "You've got money" emails was less than 1.5 hours.

 

[william]

My experience with Alter so far:

My Alter STR after about one year is a whopping 0%. The portfolio size was about 250 names.

Offers received - 1 ($500, which I accepted but buyer never paid).
Sales - 0.

Another thing to consider is that most of the names that were present during this time were approved by Alter, when approvals were needed, and included logos as well. I also took the time to go through each one and optimize them.

My portfolio pricing was pretty balanced from $999 - $xx,xxx.

I also found a lot of the data unreliable, like unexplained traffic spikes same day of the week.

Do I continue listing names there or pull the plug?

 

[Reyginus]

My experience with Alter so far:

My Alter STR after about one year is a whopping 0%. The portfolio size was about 250 names.

Offers received - 1 ($500, which I accepted but buyer never paid).
Sales - 0.

Another thing to consider is that most of the names that were present during this time were approved by Alter, when approvals were needed, and included logos as well. I also took the time to go through each one and optimize them.

My portfolio pricing was pretty balanced from $999 - $xx,xxx.

I also found a lot of the data unreliable, like unexplained traffic spikes same day of the week.

Do I continue listing names there or pull the plug?

Give it one more year and see what's up.

 

[william]

Give it one more year and see what's up.

One more year means another $2,125 in renewal fees (if $8.50 per name). That would make it $4,250 for two years. Which could be costly if the "sales trend" continues.

Is it worth it?

 

[silentg]

One more year means another $2,125 in renewal fees (if $8.50 per name). That would make it $4,250 for two years. Which could be costly if the "sales trend" continues.

Is it worth it?

Do all your domains have bin?

 

[william]

Do all your domains have bin?

Yes

 

[silentg]

Did you have distribution turned on?

 

[william]

Did you have distribution turned on?

Yes, syndication is on.

 

[cabotower]

when a name is listed as bin at alter and it gets snydicated over to sedo, does sedo then list it on its own MLS?

 

[johnn]

Anyone here sold name(s) from Alter listing?

 

[keywordrichdomains]

I can't recall even the smallest change on Alter since I started using it. It is likely Alter simply does not have software developers on its team, so it goes on in the same state as it was designed.

What is the need for changes if your system is functioning well as expected by them? Large companies like Sedo and Afternic also didn't do much about its interface after its launch!

 

[keywordrichdomains]

I can't recall even the smallest change on Alter since I started using it. It is likely Alter simply does not have software developers on its team, so it goes on in the same state as it was designed.

What is the need for changes if your system is functioning well as expected by them? Large companies like Sedo and Afternic also didn't do much about its interface after its launch!

 

[Charybdis]

Sad news! Alter is shutting down! ((

Where will you list your Alter domains now? Maybe Dan?

I had 320 domains on Alter, I really liked the professional logos and the low commission.

 

[DomainBanana]

Very disappointed to see Alter shutting down.

I appreciate Alter's integrity, transparency, and efforts to continuously improve.

Hoping @Deven Patel will reconsider.

 

[Dane]

Wow.