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.

 

[DomainRecap]

My busiest lander Cleanzil.com (49m 55s) now has an Australian competitor at Cleanzil.com.au with a website already set up and a logo that looks remarkably similar to mine.

Watch out, as they may be trying to backdate a UDRP by using a similar logo to yours.

 

[DomainRecap]

There is also another psychological aspect, the higher the price, the higher the perceived value.

But the higher the price, the higher quality of the domain (in most cases), yes?

The Atom charts all need serious context - these aren't the exact same domain at different price points. What it's really saying is that Hugabugala.com sells at $4K and RedHotBets.com sells at $25K.

So pricing Hugabugala.com at a much higher price isn't going to magically increase its STR - the domain needs to be worth that price in terms of quality and potential user base.

 

[URL Stream]

Search views on Spaceship are exact match only . Namecheap views are SLD only - and more akin to Platform discovery views

If people are searching and finding the exact match in both the SLD and TLD, how can there be such a disproportionate volume of search views vs. page views and visits?

Thanks for always generously sharing your knowledge.

 

[NYJimbo]

I dont think Spaceship are exact (sld+tld). Look at this image (squished) of one name. This is the "yesterday" searches. 35 for aifor.rent ? But no views or visits ? Looks more like an SLD search.

 

[SpareDomains]

0.26% so far apparently, but it should be 0.10% since only 1 Premium (and it was a direct lander sale) has sold, 0.2 would mean it's counting my standard sale too.

It's been 1 year since my first submission, recently hit 1K names.

I had high hopes for selling brandables on Atom. I'll give it another year or two, but so far it's been horrible.

Show attachment 284589

You have some serious patience. I'd like Atom to do some things since I literally live right down the road from them (8 miles) but not sure I have 3 years of patience for that.

 

[Jannes]

I dont think Spaceship are exact (sld+tld). Look at this image (squished) of one name. This is the "yesterday" searches. 35 for aifor.rent ? But no views or visits ? Looks more like an SLD search.
Show attachment 284669

Search Views = Spaceship search + Namecheap search

(click the domain to see more closely)

 

[NYJimbo]

Search Views = Spaceship search + Namecheap search

(click the domain to see more closely)

ok, now I see. Thanks.

 

[WordMills]

Watch out, as they may be trying to backdate a UDRP by using a similar logo to yours.

An interesting thought. But my domain was first regged in early 2023, not last month as theirs was. Apart from that fact, can a country TLD trump a dot com in a UDRP dispute? Or is that question irrelevant? - Peter J. Mills

 

[King]

But the higher the price, the higher quality of the domain (in most cases), yes?

The Atom charts all need serious context - these aren't the exact same domain at different price points. What it's really saying is that Hugabugala.com sells at $4K and RedHotBets.com sells at $25K.

So pricing Hugabugala.com at a much higher price isn't going to magically increase its STR - the domain needs to be worth that price in terms of quality and potential user base.

The thing is, you may see a low quality domain, but it could be high quality for an end-user.

We all see the crap the sells high 4-5 figures daily.

It's usually the names you don't expect.

 

[sellian]

The thing is, you may see a low quality domain, but it could be high quality for an end-user.

We all see the crap the sells high 4-5 figures daily.

It's usually the names you don't expect.

Yeah, but those are usually outliers that are impossible to predict.

You can't build a sustainable business based on outliers.

 

[King]

Yeah, but those are usually outliers that are impossible to predict.

You can't build a sustainable business based on outliers.

Domaining can be unpredictable, that's my point. We're not selling kettle corn at the weekend carnival.

Care to share how you established a consistent domain portfolio?

 

[Brandisity]

Ive got lots of repeat visitors and Atom asking for a price increase. Do you guys raise your price or lower for interest?

 

[NameGroove]

Ive got lots of repeat visitors and Atom asking for a price increase. Do you guys raise your price or lower for interest?

Depends where the price was to begin with. If I had it priced low (.e.g, <$3k), I let them raise it based on interest. If I had it priced higher, it'll depend more on other factors (how long I owned it, how many TLDs are taken, potential buyer category, etc)

 

[love4ever]

Hopefully this declining curve to stop !

.

 

[NameGroove]

Hopefully this declining curve to stop !


Show attachment 284695


.

Platform discovery views go up and down - have you found any correlation to sales over the past mo?
I'll be stunned if you say yes - as there has been no announcement from Atom stating PDV have any correlation to sales.
Until we hear correlation, I would think time is better spent on improving name quality rather than staring at stats like these.

 

[DomainRecap]

I had high hopes for selling brandables on Atom. I'll give it another year or two, but so far it's been horrible.

Brandables are incredibly tough to sell.

Around 7-8 years ago I did an experiment and by perusing GD Closeouts (back when you could get good domains there) over several months, I purchased 35-40 of two groups with similar domain specs (all aged, all .COM, all high GD valuation, etc.) - Group 1 were Brandables while Group 2 were Two Word domains.

Since then I have sold over half of the Two Word domains, while only two of the Brandables have sold. My Two Words also sold for a higher average amount than the Brandable domains.

I think this is due to the inherent limitations of brandable domains, in that few (if any) potential buyers will type-in a non-word into a browser or a search field. They instead have to somehow "discover" these domains and it's a LOT tougher to do than typing in a dictionary keyword in and having a pile of multi-word domain options pop up.

This is echoed in the traffic stats, with the two word domains displaying much higher traffic and lander stats than the brandables.

 

[DomainRecap]

An interesting thought. But my domain was first regged in early 2023, not last month as theirs was.

The key here is that if they prove bad faith (and displaying an ad for the company or using a similar logo is the clearest path) then you stand a chance to lose the domain. It's not about one domain TLD trumping another, it's in trying to show you are actively targeting a company.

Even sending a For Sale email to a company can lose you a domain in a UDRP, as that's what it's designed for, to allow corporations to steal digital properties from domain investors, so tread lightly.

Now you didn't do anything wrong here, but I would definitely start building some evidence (date of logo, submission date, etc.) that proves this, just in case the company tries to scam.

 

[Velocity.Now]

Brandables are incredibly tough to sell.

Around 7-8 years ago I did an experiment and by perusing GD Closeouts (back when you could get good domains there) over several months, I purchased 35-40 of two groups with similar domain specs (all aged, all .COM, all high GD valuation, etc.) - Group 1 were Brandables while Group 2 were Two Word domains.

Since then I have sold over half of the Two Word domains, while only two of the Brandables have sold. My Two Words also sold for a higher average amount than the Brandable domains.

I think this is due to the inherent limitations of brandable domains, in that few (if any) potential buyers will type-in a non-word into a browser or into a search field. They instead have to somehow "discover" these domains and it's a LOT tougher to do than typing in a dictionary keyword in and having a pile of multi-word domain options pop up.

This is echoed in the traffic stats, with the two word domains displaying much higher traffic and lander stats than the brandables.

Thanks, one thing that may attract people to brandables is the lower acquisition cost as there is less competition for these names amongst investors. Can I ask if you had the brandables on a premium Brandable marketplace ?

The more names on a brandable marketplace the harder it is for your name to be discovered. Also important is the job brandable marketplaces do at putting the correct names in front of the potential buyers.

I think there has to be a limit on the amount of domains on a brandable marketplace for it function for both the buyer (discovery) and Seller (making a profit). I believe one has already passed this point and it sailing off into the distance.

 

[love4ever]

Platform discovery views go up and down - have you found any correlation to sales over the past mo?
I'll be stunned if you say yes - as there has been no announcement from Atom stating PDV have any correlation to sales.
Until we hear correlation, I would think time is better spent on improving name quality rather than staring at stats like these.

Well.. its ok no issue ,The view in screenshot very promising !
The PDV line is what left to watch on this chart actually, The beautiful direct lander line sleeping down at the bottom ! Lol

.

 

[NameGroove]

Thanks, one thing that may attract people to brandables is the lower acquisition cost as there is less competition for these names amongst investors. Can I ask if you had the brandables on a premium Brandable marketplace ?

The more names on a brandable marketplace the harder it is for your name to be discovered. Also important is the job brandable marketplaces do at putting the correct names in front of the potential buyers.

I think there has to be a limit on the amount of domains on a brandable marketplace for it function for both the buyer (discovery) and Seller (making a profit). I believe one has already passed this point and it sailing off into the distance.

Maybe. I initially though this as well. But I've come around to a different perspective; proper search functionality is more important than # of names on a platform. For example, Brandpa only has 20k uncurated names. But the names are all low quality. Low total of names does not equal sales.

What equates to sales are high quality discoverable names. Many names on Atom are low quality. But when search works properly, it mitigates that issue by showing relevant names to buyers. It would not show lower quality names (although in this instance lower quality is in the eyes of the searcher). In fact, one could argue, it could make sense to actually have more names on platform - but only alongside enhanced search functionality showing only "quality" to buyers. One mans trash...

That said, I take a more middling road. Curation enhancement is important (and likely what Atom tried to do moving to internal expert reviewers). Sadly, their Ai Premium Fit is still letting through too much garbage. As are their internal experts. Secondly, their search, while improved, still has a ways to go. Basic searches do not show relevant names and hide extremely relevant high quality names. Not an easy task to fix search, but it still needs to be done.