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.

 

[Ostrados]

After a slow couple of months with no sales squadhelp has started to re-align. 3 sales in December include:

Vetovia.com
Thredly.com
Accoria.com

I was considering moving my names from the platform but so long as these types of results continue forth I will build on my current portfolio.

Good news and congrats for the sales..
I was thinking about moving my domains out as well! what is your Sell through rate last 6 months?

 

[NameWell]

its retargeted advertising

Yes. Too bad the algorithm can't tell who are sellers and who are buyers and haunts sellers with ads too But I'm still happy they are doing retargeting. It gives a little nudge to potential buyers that are hesitant

 

[DomainBanana]

Yes. Too bad the algorithm can't tell who are sellers and who are buyers and haunts sellers with ads too

It could, if done properly...

 

[bojan1]

Today I sold one domain at SH wholesale marketplace and SH took zero commission.

 

[Recons.Com]

@GrantP I pm-ed you with no response in almost a week. I have concerns given that I have zero sales in considerable time with portfolio of about 60 names and would like to get some insights before deciding to pull out, stay or grow.

 

[Atom.com]

There should be a limit to the number of names sellers can increase their prices, may be 10 to 15% of the entire portfolio, same way you peg make offer. Otherwise, sellers will misuse the opportunity and every crap will be priced at 5k and above. You know the result of such action @GrantP

Thanks for the feedback. We will monitor this closely and if we find that this feature is leading to pricing issues, we will introduce some additional limits.

 

[Atom.com]

Pricing flexibility... and then when you go to see what the price change dropdown list looks like you see that you can only have a max of $200 less than your current price.

Would you mind reporting this issue via Blue Button so we can investigate it? The price dropdown shows the values based upon your original approved price. If your domain is still set to the original price that it was approved for, it should allow you to select a higher price in the dropdown.

 

[Atom.com]

@GrantP I haven’t received an update regarding SH’s investigation into this incident since the 8th. The most recent email states “We are committed to protecting the hard work of our creatives...”. I find “committed to...” a rather shifty term for any business to use. It implies a promise, without explicitly stating so, and thus, leaves some convenient wiggle room.

How committed is SquadHelp? The contest had 21 shortlisted names. 5 of them have since been reported as registered. What steps is SquadHelp taking to “protect the hard work” of those people whose names were reported?

While we can not discuss specific incidents in a public forum, I understand where you are coming from. When a domain registration is reported, we follow this process to handle such issues. We've had too many situations where it later turned out that the domains were registered by someone other than CH (e.g. sometimes by other creatives, sometimes by a person unrelated to CH etc). Therefore we can not automatically assume that the registration was done by the CH - and we follow the above process in every situation.

Our recommendation is to always register your good domains before submission to contests (you can submit them as Basic listing or Basic Plus even if they are not approved as Premium domains). However we understand that this can get costly, and you may need to balance the risk vs reward when deciding whether or not to participate by submitting unregistered domains to contests.

 

[Atom.com]

Ouch...

Yesterday (12/25), I regged a domain, then earlier today (12/26), submitted it to SH...

... but noticed it has a (12/18) submit date.

Show attachment 140008

As the domain was recently dropped (after full expiration cycle), I assume this domain was submitted unregistered? If it's accepted, will whomever submitted it unregistered assume SH registered it themselves?

This is one of the several scenarios where two different creatives/ sellers have likely thought about the same name within a short period of time. Our contest platform alone receives more than 200,000 submissions per month, and it is surprising to see how often the same name was thought about by two different creatives/ sellers within a short period of time.

 

[Atom.com]

anyone else notice their percentile ranking drop immensely over the past few days?

4 days ago I had a 92% score, today my score is 39%...

@GrantP

Our percentile scoring algorithm is highly sensitive to number of contest blocks one creative may receive in comparison to other creatives who participated in the same contests. We are closely monitoring the algorithm and may adjust it in near future to handle the contest blocks slightly differently. In the meantime, the score should recover on its own as long as you accumulate more likes by submitting relevant names in contests.

 

[JudgeMind]

k

 

[NameWell]

Today I sold one domain at SH wholesale marketplace and SH took zero commission.

I think you will have to pay a 10% withdrawal fee from that amount when you decide to withdraw your money. But I might be wrong.

 

[bojan1]

I think you will have to pay a 10% withdrawal fee from that amount when you decide to withdraw your money. But I might be wrong.

Actually I have already withdraw money without paying any commission. That's why I wrote that
Before, I used to pay... but now didn't.

 

[NameWell]

Actually I have already withdraw money without paying any commission. That's why I wrote that
Before, I used to pay... but now didn't.

Oh, I see! That's cool!

 

[wwwulff]

I sold a name today with a 6 month installment plan - This is my 2 sale out of 11 name listed (had my first sale in august 4 week after I opened an account)

 

[NameWell]

I sold a name today with a 6 month installment plan - This is my 2 sale out of 11 name listed (had my first sale in august 4 week after I opened an account)

Congrats on your recent sale! 2 out of 11, that's pretty good!

 

[bojan1]

@GrantP I have acquired domain name that used SH nameservers in past. Tried to check with SH support was it a premium listing or not, but they didn't give me an answer. Instead they simply said that I should resubmit domain again.

Does that mean that previous SH listings cannot be automatically relisted again in order to avoid waiting again for evaluation process? And also, if one SH name was approved as a Premium is it guaranteed that it will be accepted as a premium again and at the same price? Thanks

 

[Atom.com]

@GrantP I have acquired domain name that used SH nameservers in past. Tried to check with SH support was it a premium listing or not, but they didn't give me an answer. Instead they simply said that I should resubmit domain again.

Does that mean that previous SH listings cannot be automatically relisted again in order to avoid waiting again for evaluation process? And also, if one SH name was approved as a Premium is it guaranteed that it will be accepted as a premium again and at the same price? Thanks

For acquiring SH domains, there are three scenarios:

1. Acquiring it via SH wholesale marketplace: In this case the transfer of your listing happens automatically and no additional approval is required. We recommend this method of acquisition, especially since SH no longer charges any commission other than the credit card/Paypal fees paid by the seller (which is about 3%).

2. Acquiring it privately outside SH: If the domain listing is still active on SH, you can ask the seller to use the "Transfer Ownership" feature and the domain listing will be automatically transferred to you, without needing any additional approvals.

3. Acquiring a delisted domain outside SH: If the domain listing is no longer active at Squadhelp and you acquire it outside SH, you will need to submit it again for approval. While there is a good chance it will be approved again, there is no guarantee. An easy way to tell whether the domain listing is active on SH is by visiting the domain's landing page. If you are able to see the landing page on SH along with the logo, it means the listing is currently active.

Please note our policy does not allow listing premium domains for sale on third party sites. Any such sales must be handled privately.

Hope this helps.

 

[Bernard Wright]

While we can not discuss specific incidents in a public forum, I understand where you are coming from. When a domain registration is reported, we follow this process to handle such issues. We've had too many situations where it later turned out that the domains were registered by someone other than CH (e.g. sometimes by other creatives, sometimes by a person unrelated to CH etc). Therefore we can not automatically assume that the registration was done by the CH - and we follow the above process in every situation.

Our recommendation is to always register your good domains before submission to contests (you can submit them as Basic listing or Basic Plus even if they are not approved as Premium domains). However we understand that this can get costly, and you may need to balance the risk vs reward when deciding whether or not to participate by submitting unregistered domains to contests.

I understand the process. SquadHelp, as far as I can tell, has fulfilled its commitment to following that process; however, the process, itself, does not fulfill SquadHelp's expressed commitment to "protecting the hard work of our creatives". It offers no protection whatsoever. SH makes an attempt to ask a (quite-likely) devious contest holder whether they are indeed devious. And when no response is given by that contest holder (no surprise), SH throws their hands in the air and says "we tried" ..."we followed the process". The process is flawed. As you stated, the only real protection is for the creative to reg the name; and thus, SquadHelp's expressed commitment is indeed quite meaningless. In fact, SquadHelp is complicit in such transgressions, as there is no transparency. Here is what I mean:

I just spotted yet another incident. A name was shortlisted in a contest in August and regged in early September. I just reported it. I'm number nine now, of reported registrations in that contest. Nine regs in one contest? That's rather suspicious. But I will never know anything substantial about the other eight domains. Maybe all nine names were regged on the same day. SquadHelp would know from the reports if such were the case, while the creatives remain in the dark, and if the CH were never to respond to an email inquiry, SH could conveniently hide behind having followed "the process" while claiming a commitment to protecting the creatives. Did such a thing happen in this case? It could have. I'd never know. There is no transparency. I could raise the issue ...and you could again advise me to reg names before I submit them. It would be irrational to reg names as such. ...and here is what I mean, again:

I have had over 100 separate shortlisted names in the past year that did not win the contest. If I were to have regged each one, I would be out at least $800. ...and that's not regging the good names before I submit them, as you advised in your reply; that's regging the shortlisted names that might actually win. With the preponderance of $100 contests as of late, there is little financial upside to regging names in contests, even if the name wins. SH deducts 10% upon withdrawal, effectively making the prize $90. Further deduct $8 for the name, and you're looking at $82 if you win. You're asking your creatives to act irrationally, plain and simple.

All this said, I don't believe in magic. I don't expect SH to magically make things better for those creatives who have been slighted. What I do want is for SH to be honest and not hide behind a veil of "commitment to protect" when, at the end of the day, the real answer is "reg the names you don't want to miss out on, because we don't really have any way to protect you".

And, as it's already clear that regging names to the extent that they will not be "stolen" by the CH is irrational, all that remains, if SquadHelp is indeed to have the creatives' interests in mind, is for SquadHelp to increase the contest prize payouts. Make it worth the time, effort, and financial investment that creatives must make in order to come up with good names and ensure they're not stolen by the CH. Fortunately for SH, there are currently creatives who don't seem to mind acting irrationally. But I have read accounts from others in this thread who have woken up. I'll bet they were good contributors. I know I am. It would be a shame if SquadHelp's business model were to attract creative minds, but retain only the irrational ones.

What do I want, beyond griping about an issue that has been faced by many creatives, no doubt? Well, a solution is not cut-and-dry, surely. But here are the two things I'd like to make clear:

1. I'd prefer if SH didn't claim this commitment to protection. It's shifty. It's not true. "Protection", demonstrably, cannot be achieved, and to claim that it can is dishonest.

2. Perhaps there could be "premium/basic plus name only" contests. I have noticed in recent weeks that the ratio of $100 to >$100 contests has increased. It has been quite high all year, in fact. It seems that the CHs are trying to go the cheap route. Such a trend dis-incentivizes we creatives to participate and try to come up with (let alone reg to protect our IP) quality names when the prize is so low. Furthermore, if the CH is not willing to spring for even $200 for the contest, they are unlikely to want a premium/basic plus name, so it is not worth submitting our regged names, which could result in our score taking a hit when they rate it "No Thank You".

Encourage CHs to try to extract our best ideas, and compensate the creatives accordingly. Find a way to make it worth the time to come up with good names and protect them by regging them. Seems reasonable. Anything less is irrational.

 

[DomainBanana]

SH's policy of rejecting domains if the seller's expected list price is too high is a lose-lose scenario:

• Sellers lose by not getting listings with SH
• SH loses by not getting the opportunity to list many solid domains

I'd rather not play the game of guessing what price might be acceptable for SH and risk losing a listing just because I ask for too high or too low of a price.

A seller's suggested price should not be a reason for rejecting a domain.​

Domains should be reviewed on their fitness for the marketplace alone and, if SH believes the domain is suitable for sale, they should accept the listing and assign the name a price. Then, sellers could have the choice to accept SH's offer or not.

It is particularly strange that SH would reject names if sellers' suggested prices are too high given that SH recently announced that sellers with 50 or more names can double the price of their accepted premium names!

This is a quick fix for SH. How about it @GrantP ?