Atom / Atom.com - Marketplace (formerly Squadhelp)

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

These freaking 'experts' is total trash these days...


1. Submit name using coin
2. After it gets accepted - pay $2 for a review.
3. Get this.

Show attachment 170816



Highlighted text is word by word text that I submitted with this domain as a note, they add 1 sentence and call it a day!!! 'expert classification completed.


LET ALONE THE FACT THAT THIS IS NOT EVEN A '4 letter...' brand name.. This is ridiculous, went downhill quickly..

They really do innovative stuff but their experts are ruining everything and every experience on the other side of the floor..

What do you expect for $3?

I must say the logos are cheap and I am pleasantly surprised with 90% of those I ordered.

I think SH should allow us to remove our names that are not being received well in their marketplace after a certain period of time, without repercussions.

 

[DomainBanana]

Just got an offer in the SH WLM and discovered we now have the freedom to negotiate our own sales.

Great addition.

 

[Ostrados]

@Grant whatever changes you made on advertising screwed things up very badly for me! Last quarter in 2020 for me has been very bad although I doubled my premium domains (now at 300) I was doing better at 150 domains! This is very depressing not for lack of sales but for the hard work and the time lost in building a SH portfolio. I dont think it is just me others are also reporting similar down period in sales.

 

[Keith]

I’ve heard the fees are outrageous, verified that actually. How can any platform justify taking a third of your investment (sale)?

 

[DomainBanana]

I dont think it is just me others are also reporting similar down period in sales.

This is why they suddenly stopped disclosing the marketplace STR.

Surprising that more people don't see this as an issue.

 

[DomainBanana]

I’ve heard the fees are outrageous, verified that actually. How can any platform justify taking a third of your investment (sale)?

Because the seller community has accepted it.

If we all got together and decided not to accept it, maybe something would change.

 

[Keith]

Because the seller community has accepted it.

If we all got together and decided not to accept it, maybe something would change.

I don’t accept their fee or Sedo or most brokers for that matter. Paying 15% or 30% like this squadshit wants is crazy.

 

[DomainBanana]

I don’t accept their fee or Sedo or most brokers for that matter. Paying 15% or 30% like this squadshit wants is crazy.

I tend to agree that the commissions are high, however I wouldn't use the term "squads***".

Some domains don't need marketplaces, they sell on their own.

Other domains do benefit from the discoverability boost that a marketplace brings.

For all its flaws, SH does invest a great deal in marketing and innovation. They've built an impressive platform to help buyers find an ideal brandable domain and they earn their success.

 

[Josytal]

Because the seller community has accepted it.

If we all got together and decided not to accept it, maybe something would change.

I'll be glad to even go 50/50 split, if only they sell the domains within the shortest possible time period, e.g. maximum 1 year.
After that I should reserve the rights to move the domains away from their marketplace without consequences.

Right now the equation is not balanced: they receive high success commission while you pay for renewals (no matter how long), you send to them valuable traffic to sell competing names (Similar Names To Consider at the bottom of the lander), and ...

 

[DomainBanana]

I'll be glad to even go 50/50 split, if only they sell the domains within the shortest possible time period, e.g. maximum 1 year.
After that I should reserve the rights to move the domains away from their marketplace without consequences.

Right now the equation is not balanced: they receive high success commission while you pay for renewals (no matter how long), you send to them valuable traffic to sell competing names (Similar Names To Consider at the bottom of the lander), and ...

So you would prefer a variable commission structure that decreases annually? Something like:

Seller - Marketplace
1st year: 50-50
2nd year: 70-30
3rd year: 80-20
4th year: 90-10
5th year and up: 95-5

Interesting idea, though this might incentivize the marketplace to push new domains and ignore/bury the older ones.

 

[Josytal]

So you would prefer a variable commission structure that decreases annually? Something like:

Seller - Marketplace
1st year: 50-50
2nd year: 70-30
3rd year: 80-20
4th year: 90-10
5th year and up: 95-5

Interesting idea, though this might incentivize the marketplace to push new domains and ignore/bury the older ones.

They should also forgo exclusivity after the 1st year and allow me to try sell the domains parallelly elsewhere. After the first year, I should be able to bring in my own leads also - in which case they'll work in the capacity of payment processor and earn only 5% (like DAN or Sedo).

 

[DomainBanana]

They should also forgo exclusivity after the 1st year and allow me to try sell the domains parallelly elsewhere. After the first year, I should be able to bring in my own leads also - in which case they earn only 5% just like DAN or Sedo.

The premium marketplace has "partial exclusivity" that includes automated Sedo/Flippa integration and allows us to list on Afternic.

If you bring your own leads and sell through the WLM (white label marketplace), you get an additional 20% back from the SH share of commission on premium domains or pay only 7.5% for standard domains.

 

[Josytal]

The premium marketplace has "partial exclusivity" that includes automated Sedo/Flippa integration and allows us to list on Afternic.

I'm yet to see the impact of this brand dilution. Maybe others do, can't say.

If you bring your own leads and sell through the WLM (white label marketplace), you get an additional 20% back from the SH share of commission on premium domains or pay only 7.5% for standard domains.

I'm not interested in their WLM.

 

[NameWell]

Like Grant mentioned, it's very different for each seller and each portfolio. I'm happy with my STR throughout 2020. There's no decline so far. And it's better than it was in 2019 and way better than it was in 2018. But to be fair, I have been doing A LOT OF homework. I have a large Excel document that I use every day and I do A LOT OF different analytics on my own. And then make decisions accordingly.

In comparison, I'm not doing good on my own on Afternic. I believe it's because I just put my names there and hope they would sell somehow (=no homework). And they do occasionally, but I don't have a consistent stream of sales like I have on Squadhelp.

 

[griff]

@GrantP Any chance of contest budget ranges being added? have run into holders wanting a name but it falling through due to budget - would help cut out unwanted entries on both sides.

Also will bank wire payouts be a thing? I am trusting PayPal a little less with large amounts nowadays due to their recent closures of domainer-related accounts

 

[NameWell]

@GrantP Any chance of contest budget ranges being added? have run into holders wanting a name but it falling through due to budget - would help cut out unwanted entries on both sides.

Also will bank wire payouts be a thing? I am trusting PayPal a little less with large amounts nowadays due to their recent closures of domainer-related accounts

Could you please clarify your suggestion regarding contest budgets? Currently, the bronze contest costs $299. Are you suggesting SH should have an offer even lower than that?

 

[griff]

Are you suggesting SH should have an offer even lower than that?

I mean as in some way of knowing how much a contest holder would be willing to spend on a name. Sometimes they're willing to buy more expensive names but sometimes if you submit one that's $2500 they'll respond they'd like to get it but only looking to spend $800-$1200. Would be nice to know before submitting what level of names they are expecting

 

[NameWell]

I mean as in some way of knowing how much a contest holder would be willing to spend on a name. Sometimes they're willing to buy more expensive names but sometimes if you submit one that's $2500 they'll respond they'd like to get it but only looking to spend $800-$1200. Would be nice to know before submitting what level of names they are expecting

Ohhh, now I get it! Thank you for clarifying Yeah, that's worth considering. I think why they don't have this in place yet because sometimes a client might pay more than they have originally intended if they see something perfect. Or maybe they didn't know market prices of four-letter .com domain names or one real word .com domain names and therefore they set a lower budget. But maybe they could go above that once they find out that truly premium names are not available at their preferred price level. So it's something that has two sides worth of considering.

 

[BRANDERX]

They are expecting available to register domains, that's why they start a contest. If their preference is premium they would buy one from the get-go.

 

[trelgor]

It’s a process for a buyer. If asked how much you would ”like” to spend - what’s going to be the answer?

1. Get good names. 2. Get them in front of buyers at a fair price. 3. Wait.

Then there is n o need to be anxious or over-sell or under-sell or mind the buyers budget (that is their problem). None.