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.

 

[NameWell]

I hope our feedback will be taken into consideration.

Also, here's a relevant active forum thread on Squadhelp: https://rule_violation/t/sh-is-improving-but-logos-are-not/9267/2

 

[gblasting]

Now we can earn commission for buyers our domain bring to SH who purchase another seller's domain name.

https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/4599038-revenue-generating-landing-pages-beta

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

SH still dead end for me , No sale no movement , no offers with 245 listings , very disappointed with the results now ...

 

[Pairadice]

I like the cutting edge web design on squadhelp and the fact that they advertise so they can bring new buyers in. I am not thrilled though if you pay for a premium listing and it gets accepted, then you basically lose all control over the price and it's almost impossible to get your domain out of there if you decide later to sell it for more or less. Meanwhile, after they've trapped your domain, if you watch the prices on SEDO, turncommerce will bring in other domains to undercut your domain price with the same keywords while SH has trapped your domain at that price. And they get mad at you and penalize you if you remove you premiums because they say they had to invest time in the logo. Just my opinion but they do have a cool website.

 

[JudgeMind]

^-This being key. What kind of (realistic) STRs are people achieving at SH these days? Do you feel the marketplace is giving your names exposure?

Also has anyone had good success selling "top end" brandables for top end prices at SH?

Seems maybe you have not @JudgeMind ?

i have been a seller at squadhelp since they were small with just 12,000 or so names in their portfolio. I have noticed over the last year a significant reduction in exposure for my portfolio. I understand it’s important to spread the exposure across all sellers and respect this. I do believe that although STR are dropping, squadhelp does have a pool of buyers that is quite different from other marketplaces and many of the sales I’ve made would not have sold as quickly through afternic or sedo. Being a larger portfolio holder, I’m on the cusp of failing in my business at squadhelp as sales are currently only paying renewal fees. After having pretty good success with Squadhelp early on, I scaled from around 100 premium listings to close to 600 now with hopes that more listings would equate to more frequent sales. Because there is so much competition in the marketplace and exposure of my portfolio has been greatly reduced the frequency of sales has not increased and the majority of sales are occurring around the $1500 mark. That being said, earlier on in my time with Squadhelp, my average sales were around $2000. More competition is forcing sellers to be more competitive in their pricing which in turn has resulted in a very large selection of names available to buyers for lower pricing. I’d like to see Squadhelp set a min price point for all of their names around $2000 instead of the $1299-$1399 min pricing they currently allow.

realistic sell thru rates for my portfolio and at least one of the bigger portfolio holders that I’ve spoken with is between 2-4%. There was a blitz of high priced 4L com sales a few months ago at squadhelp but these don’t seem to hot anymore, I’d still suggest them though. As for high end brandables, I believe squadhelp is one of the best places to list these and sales reports have shown these sell for great prices and are likely to sell relatively quickly compared to made up 6-7L names.

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

i have been a seller at squadhelp since they were small with just 12,000 or so names in their portfolio. I have noticed over the last year a significant reduction in exposure for my portfolio. I understand it’s important to spread the exposure across all sellers and respect this. I do believe that although STR are dropping, squadhelp does have a pool of buyers that is quite different from other marketplaces and many of the sales I’ve made would not have sold as quickly through afternic or sedo. Being a larger portfolio holder, I’m on the cusp of failing in my business at squadhelp as sales are currently only paying renewal fees. After having pretty good success with Squadhelp early on, I scaled from around 100 premium listings to close to 600 now with hopes that more listings would equate to more frequent sales. Because there is so much competition in the marketplace and exposure of my portfolio has been greatly reduced the frequency of sales has not increased and the majority of sales are occurring around the $1500 mark. That being said, earlier on in my time with Squadhelp, my average sales were around $2000. More competition is forcing sellers to be more competitive in their pricing which in turn has resulted in a very large selection of names available to buyers for lower pricing. I’d like to see Squadhelp set a min price point for all of their names around $2000 instead of the $1299-$1399 min pricing they currently allow.

realistic sell thru rates for my portfolio and at least one of the bigger portfolio holders that I’ve spoken with is between 2-4%. There was a blitz of high priced 4L com sales a few months ago at squadhelp but these don’t seem to hot anymore, I’d still suggest them though. As for high end brandables, I believe squadhelp is one of the best places to list these and sales reports have shown these sell for great prices and are likely to sell relatively quickly compared to made up 6-7L names.

100% same situation here , No sale from last many months with big fishes arriving on SH , Dead for me, it is getting even harder day by day to renew names now , I have 245 listings 3 sold , last sold name was 4L around 7 months ago...

 

[DomainBanana]

I’m on the cusp of failing in my business at squadhelp as sales are currently only paying renewal fees.

How could this be? You're one of the top sellers on the marketplace. Your STR is 4.42%.

Seems like you're far above breaking even here.

 

[JudgeMind]

How could this be? You're one of the top sellers on the marketplace. Your STR is 4.42%.

Seems like you're far above breaking even here.

overall for the year I’m on top with 16 sales. However, the past 5 months I have had just 5 sales, of these, 2 were instalment plans of 6-12 months. Monthly carrying costs for the portfolio $1127. Factoring in all business expenses associated. With the goal of a 15-20% end profit, I am currently only at 3%-5%. These past 5 months historically are slower in the calendar year and one should be factoring in the effects covid has on the industry as well. I have not experienced these “historical” reductions in sales on other marketplaces such as afternic.

 

[DomainBanana]

overall for the year I’m on top with 16 sales. However, the past 5 months I have had just 5 sales, of these, 2 were instalment plans of 6-12 months. Monthly carrying costs for the portfolio $1127. Factoring in all business expenses associated. With the goal of a 15-20% end profit, I am currently only at 3%-5%. These past 5 months historically are slower in the calendar year and one should be factoring in the effects covid has on the industry as well. I have not experienced these “historical” reductions in sales on other marketplaces such as afternic.

We all have business expenses.

I understand the marketplace has become more competitive and your results have slowed but 4.42% STR on a brandable marketplace seems like a very solid return to me.

 

[JudgeMind]

We all have business expenses.

I understand the marketplace has become more competitive and your results have slowed but 4.42% STR on a brandable marketplace seems like a very solid return to me.

im skeptical with these STR statistics. My calculation shows, given my portfolio size, my STR is 2.7%, while my cohort, who has one of the largest portfolios on sh claims their STR is 2.3%.

Squadhelp only includes domains listed for 12 months or more in their annualized STR

 

[DomainBanana]

Squadhelp only includes domains listed for 12 months or more in their annualized STR

Annualized STR includes all domains in your premium portfolio, regardless of list time.

They show the formula here: https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/4489216-what-is-annualized-sell-through-rate-str

 

[JudgeMind]

Annualized STR includes all domains in your premium portfolio, regardless of list time.

They show the formula here: https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/4489216-what-is-annualized-sell-through-rate-str

My math works this way:

16 sales
576 listings

16/576 * 100 = 2.7%

this has been the standard way to calculated STR since I began Domaining in 2008.not to include average portfolio listing age

 

[DomainBanana]

My math works this way:

16 sales
576 listings

16/576 * 100 = 2.7%

this has been the standard way to calculated STR since I began Domaining in 2008.not to include average portfolio listing age

Keep in mind that this year is not over and that you've added domains this year which haven't been listed on the marketplace for the full year.

Annualized STR takes these things into account. It's an accurate formula.

 

[Ntmt]

2 notable sales (not mine) recently reported including $6k .io

 

[Ntmt]

Currently Curated By Squadhelp count is 66123 premium domains.
In October SH sells 4.5 domains per day in general, according to my notes.
Global STR Math basing on the data above: (4.5 * 365) / 66123 = 2.48%

But this math gives lower number because it does not take into account that portfolio count is not constant but permanently growing. So ideally we should wait till domain is exposed for 1 year before concluding STR. That is why SH method makes sense (counting only domains exposed >= 1 year) for dynamically growing portfolio

 

[loredan]

I think SH count the domains sold at Afternic into their own STR which (if true) is a misleading BS.

So... I started listing at SH about 3 months ago, no sales so far however one of the listed names sold at Afternic. This is counted towards my sold names at SH and I currently have a 14.51% STR even if I never sold a name at SH.

 

[JudgeMind]

I think SH count the domains sold at Afternic into their own STR which (if true) is a misleading BS.

So... I started listing at SH about 3 months ago, no sales so far however one of the listed names sold at Afternic. This is counted towards my sold names at SH and I currently have a 14.51% STR even if I never sold a name at SH.

Show attachment 173215

Yes they are including sales at Afternic into your STR.. also, up until the recent grouping of basic listings, basic plus and basic listing sales were also getting accounted for.

 

[Ostrados]

I’d like to see Squadhelp set a min price point for all of their names around $2000 instead of the $1299-$1399 min pricing they currently allow.

Interesting suggestion, but don't you think that will lower STR more?

 

[Ostrados]

I think SH count the domains sold at Afternic into their own STR which (if true) is a misleading BS.

So... I started listing at SH about 3 months ago, no sales so far however one of the listed names sold at Afternic. This is counted towards my sold names at SH and I currently have a 14.51% STR even if I never sold a name at SH.

Show attachment 173215

Yes they do which is indeed misleading!

 

[JudgeMind]

Interesting suggestion, but don't you think that will lower STR more?

I don’t think it would affect it much if the bottom line price of all listed names is $2000. In my experience, there are lots of end users willing to pay $2000-$2500 for a name