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.

 

[loredan]

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.

Yes they do which is indeed misleading!

So ... I pay SH for the right to list MY domain at Afternic, if I make an external sale I pay an additional 10% commission to SH for the "privilege" to have MY domain listed at their crappy marketplace and on top of that they also attribute the sale to themselves even if they never lifted a finger and the sale happened at a different marketplace? Wow, just wow!

I wonder what would happen if lets say Sedo would steal sales data from Afternic and attribute these to themselves, I wonder how the hell no one ever mentioned what SH is doing because this clearly isn't right, is it? I also wonder how the hell none of you guys with hundreds of names listed never said anything, you basically have a look at your own STR and kid yourselves that everything is fine and you're so cool to have 4% when in reality you have 1.8%?

 

[JudgeMind]

So ... I pay SH for the right to list MY domain at Afternic, if I make an external sale I pay an additional 10% commission to SH for the "privilege" to have MY domain listed at their crappy marketplace and on top of that they also attribute the sale to themselves even if they never lifted a finger and the sale happened at a different marketplace? Wow, just wow!

I wonder what would happen if lets say Sedo would steal sales data from Afternic and attribute these to themselves, I wonder how the hell no one ever mentioned what SH is doing because this clearly isn't right, is it? I also wonder how the hell none of you guys with hundreds of names listed never said anything, you basically have a look at your own STR and kid yourselves that everything is fine and you're so cool to have 4% when in reality you have 1.8%?

I keep track of my own STR stats and don’t pay much attention to Squadhelp’s metrics. While I do find some value in their stats, I don’t use them to make my own business decisions. Cheers

 

[Bima Priyo Sembodo]

Calm Down Guys Because This Is Covid 19 era so maybe sales is plummet

Why not give it try @JudgeMind Until 2021 may we see the result

 

[Ntmt]

Another decent $16k sale (not mine) reported at SH today

 

[karmaco]

I think the point Judge was trying to make is SH pricing is generally so damn low its hard to keep a large portfolio while having any profit. His profit goes for renewals. That’s a problem in the long run.

 

[gblasting]

Another decent $16k sale (not mine) reported at SH today
Show attachment 173275

Anyone has an idea why SH accepted this name for $24,444?

Dofo and DotDB do not show many end users.

 

[NameWell]

So ... I pay SH for the right to list MY domain at Afternic, if I make an external sale I pay an additional 10% commission to SH for the "privilege" to have MY domain listed at their crappy marketplace and on top of that they also attribute the sale to themselves even if they never lifted a finger and the sale happened at a different marketplace? Wow, just wow!

I wonder what would happen if lets say Sedo would steal sales data from Afternic and attribute these to themselves, I wonder how the hell no one ever mentioned what SH is doing because this clearly isn't right, is it? I also wonder how the hell none of you guys with hundreds of names listed never said anything, you basically have a look at your own STR and kid yourselves that everything is fine and you're so cool to have 4% when in reality you have 1.8%?

Well, I see it in a completely different way. Before you had to choose if you want to list your domain names at Squadhelp OR at Afternic & SEDO. If you choose to list at SH, you might lose a sale on AN & SEDO and vice versa. Then SH moved a finger and made partnerships with AN and SEDO. While SEDO integration is automatic they went an extra mile and showed a lot of trust to sellers to let them list domain names individually on Afternic, report sales and pay the difference in commission.

You're paying those 10% for the privilege (yes, privilege) to make your domain name visible to all three audiences of Afternic/SEDO AND Squadhelp. You have a lot better exposure and bigger chances of selling your domain name. They eliminated the risk of losing a sale on AN/SEDO if you choose to list solely on SH. They deserve those 10% because they made partnerships and enabled you to have significantly bigger exposure. And they deserve to show those sales in their stats because they moved a finger in order for them to happen.

Vast majority of my sales happened through SH. Three happened via their partnership with Afternic. If they wouldn't have made that partnership it's very likely those three sales wouldn't have happened. So I'm grateful they happened and I got to benefit from that

SH invests a lot in attracting buyers to their marketplace and someone in this thread said, that they are selling 4,5 domain names on average per day. But if you think exposure on SH is completely worthless and most of your sales will happen elsewhere, you can always unlist all of your domain names from SH and list them on Afternic/SEDO and all other marketplaces that don't request exclusivity.

 

[Ntmt]

@NameWell, I agree in general with the post above, but what kind of integration with Afternic SH has? I have to list SH premiums at Afternic by myself.

 

[NameWell]

@NameWell, I agree in general with the post above, but what kind of integration with Afternic SH has? I have to list SH premiums at Afternic by myself.

@Ntmt you don't have to, you get to And yes, it is not ideal. If I remember correctly, it was mentioned on SH forum that the reason why there is no direct integration for seller owned domain names with Afternic via Squadhelp like it is with SEDO lies on Afternic's end. They are not enabling third party (SH) to be involved in listing domain names that are owned by someone else... or something like that. Anyway, I hope they will manage to improve this in the future.

But for now, I'm happy that I can list my domain names on Squadhelp AND Afternic and get a lot bigger exposure and better chances of selling my domain names even if the process is clunky.

 

[loredan]

Well, I see it in a completely different way. Before you had to choose if you want to list your domain names at Squadhelp OR at Afternic & SEDO. If you choose to list at SH, you might lose a sale on AN & SEDO and vice versa. Then SH moved a finger and made partnerships with AN and SEDO. While SEDO integration is automatic they went an extra mile and showed a lot of trust to sellers to let them list domain names individually on Afternic, report sales and pay the difference in commission.

You're paying those 10% for the privilege (yes, privilege) to make your domain name visible to all three audiences of Afternic/SEDO AND Squadhelp. You have a lot better exposure and bigger chances of selling your domain name. They eliminated the risk of losing a sale on AN/SEDO if you choose to list solely on SH. They deserve those 10% because they made partnerships and enabled you to have significantly bigger exposure. And they deserve to show those sales in their stats because they moved a finger in order for them to happen.

Vast majority of my sales happened through SH. Three happened via their partnership with Afternic. If they wouldn't have made that partnership it's very likely those three sales wouldn't have happened. So I'm grateful they happened and I got to benefit from that

SH invests a lot in attracting buyers to their marketplace and someone in this thread said, that they are selling 4,5 domain names on average per day. But if you think exposure on SH is completely worthless and most of your sales will happen elsewhere, you can always unlist all of your domain names from SH and list them on Afternic/SEDO and all other marketplaces that don't request exclusivity.

No offense but this is exactly the kind of fan boy reply I expected at some point to be honest. You wrote a lot but you haven't said much. Looks like people with many domains listed have no interest of discussing the SH problems and tend to hide them under the rug (perhaps) because they're afraid SH will turn off the sales tap?

My main issue is none of the ones you talked about, my main issue is they take the Afternic sales and add them to the STR making the STR data irrelevant for most people (including yourself). Those sales happening at Afternic have nothing to do with the SH platform and shouldn't be added to your STR regardless of all and any partnerships they might have with other marketplaces. You simply cannot claim you worked hard and made a sale for one of your members as long as the domain actually sold somewhere else and you had absolutely nothing to do with the sale itself (no listing, no promotion, no support, no escrow, nothing at all) but all you do is begging for some 10% commission.

 

[NameWell]

No offense but this is exactly the kind of fan boy reply I expected at some point to be honest. You wrote a lot but you haven't said much. Looks like people with many domains listed have no interest of discussing the SH problems and tend to hide them under the rug (perhaps) because they're afraid SH will turn off the sales tap?

My main issue is none of the ones you talked about, my main issue is they take the Afternic sales and add them to the STR making the STR data irrelevant for most people (including yourself). Those sales happening at Afternic have nothing to do with the SH platform and shouldn't be added to your STR regardless of all and any partnerships they might have with other marketplaces. You simply cannot claim you worked hard and made a sale for one of your members as long as the domain actually sold somewhere else and you had absolutely nothing to do with the sale itself (no listing, no promotion, no support, no escrow, nothing at all) but all you do is begging for some 10% commission.

Then list all of your brandable domain names on Brand Bucket and you will not have this issue as they simply do not allow sellers to list same domain names on BrandBucket AND Afternic. Problem solved. Oh wait, but they have SEDO integration and I'm pretty sure they include those sales in their stats too Otherwise, why bother with integration if you can't have significant benefits from it (commission from sales that otherwise wouldn't have happened and higher overall STR rate)?

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

No offense but this is exactly the kind of fan boy reply I expected at some point to be honest. You wrote a lot but you haven't said much. Looks like people with many domains listed have no interest of discussing the SH problems and tend to hide them under the rug (perhaps) because they're afraid SH will turn off the sales tap?

My main issue is none of the ones you talked about, my main issue is they take the Afternic sales and add them to the STR making the STR data irrelevant for most people (including yourself). Those sales happening at Afternic have nothing to do with the SH platform and shouldn't be added to your STR regardless of all and any partnerships they might have with other marketplaces. You simply cannot claim you worked hard and made a sale for one of your members as long as the domain actually sold somewhere else and you had absolutely nothing to do with the sale itself (no listing, no promotion, no support, no escrow, nothing at all) but all you do is begging for some 10% commission.

I agree with you on the STR part. They should remove it if that is what they are doing.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

Then list all of your brandable domain names on Brand Bucket and you will not have this issue as they simply do not allow sellers to list same domain names on BrandBucket AND Afternic. Problem solved. Oh wait, but they have SEDO integration and I'm pretty sure they include those sales in their stats too Otherwise, why bother with integration if you can't have significant benefits from it (commission from sales that otherwise wouldn't have happened and higher overall STR rate)?

I believe what he is saying is that they shouldnt add to the STR but not about getting the benefits. The market places should correctly reflect the STR and stats and adding the names that sold through other means and platforms is not a correct way to present the STR.

 

[NameWell]

I believe what he is saying is that they shouldnt add to the STR but not about getting the benefits. The market places should correctly reflect the STR and stats and adding the names that sold through other means and platforms is not a correct way to present the STR.

I understand what he's saying, I just simply disagree with it He has a point, but I just don't think it's THAT important since if SH would not allow sellers to list same domain names on SH AND Afernic those sales that happened on Afternic probably wouldn't have happened at all.

On the same note, then why are we not demanding marketplaces to exclude all direct type-in traffic sales from their STR, because hey, they didn't move a finger! The buyer came up with the name themselves, typed it in their browser and bought it. That's it. The seller could have had a trustworthy looking landing page created by themselves and have the same result. Also, why are we not demanding them to exclude all sales that came when a buyer clicked on a link a seller shared on their social media, forum or elsewhere?

 

[Ntmt]

My main issue is none of the ones you talked about, my main issue is they take the Afternic sales and add them to the STR making the STR data irrelevant for most people (including yourself). Those sales happening at Afternic have nothing to do with the SH platform and shouldn't be added to your STR regardless of all and any partnerships they might have with other marketplaces. You simply cannot claim you worked hard and made a sale for one of your members as long as the domain actually sold somewhere else and you had absolutely nothing to do with the sale itself (no listing, no promotion, no support, no escrow, nothing at all) but all you do is begging for some 10% commission.

I do not agree. I will explain my personal point. When SH reviews my domains and accepts it, I treat it as a confirmation of that domains worth to invest in renewing (or registering in case of unregistered ones) and listing at Afternic. With this confirmation I feel more confident about my names and this is where SH adds value for me. Let's imagine I had no that confirmation - I may drop a domain and it may not be sold at Afternic.
I know that SH rejected domains may be great and may be sold elsewhere, but SH accepted kind of add more confidence for me that I'm not holding a heap of junk. This is where I see SH input in Afternic sale.
Of course in case someone has another source of confidence in their names - my point will not work for them.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

I do not agree. I will explain my personal point. When SH reviews my domains and accepts it, I treat it as a confirmation of that domains worth to invest in renewing (or registering in case of unregistered ones) and listing at Afternic. With this confirmation I feel more confident about my names and this is where SH adds value for me. Let's imagine I had no that confirmation - I may drop a domain and it may not be sold at Afternic.
I know that SH rejected domains may be great and may be sold elsewhere, but SH accepted kind of add more confidence for me that I'm not holding a heap of junk. This is where I see SH input in Afternic sale.
Of course in case someone has another source of confidence in their names - my point will not work for them.

Change your approach , I would suggest. Dont value a domain simply because a marketplace told you it can list. I have sold many names that these places rejected and I kept and renewed them. The last two ones? Already this month.

 

[boker]

I understand what he's saying, I just simply disagree with it He has a point, but I just don't think it's THAT important since if SH would not allow sellers to list same domain names on SH AND Afernic those sales that happened on Afternic probably wouldn't have happened at all.

On the same note, then why are we not demanding marketplaces to exclude all direct type-in traffic sales from their STR, because hey, they didn't move a finger! The buyer came up with the name themselves, typed it in their browser and bought it. That's it. The seller could have had a trustworthy looking landing page created by themselves and have the same result. Also, why are we not demanding them to exclude all sales that came when a buyer clicked on a link a seller shared on their social media, forum or elsewhere?

Probably because you have started your domaining journey just couple of years ago, you have missed the period from a few years ago when namerific started and they where the same as SH today. They allowed anybody to list their domains everywhere, including afternic and sedo. They didn't made too many sales, but afternic and sedo were booming those days. So, how it would have been to not make any sales, but report hundreds of sales made through afternic and sedo and which were listed on their site as well and to count the STR including them? You are comparing them to BB and because of this, it seems like they are doing you a favour, by letting you list them on afternic, but the reality is that they don't have anything to do with afternic.

 

[Ntmt]

Change your approach , I would suggest. Dont value a domain simply because a marketplace told you it can list. I have sold many names that these places rejected and I kept and renewed them. The last two ones? Already this month.

You better tell how to value domain properly.
I also have majority of sales outside of SH, but additional source of valuation in a shape of acceptance/rejection will not hurt.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

You better tell how to value domain properly.
I also have majority of sales outside of SH, but additional source of valuation in a shape of acceptance/rejection will not hurt.

It will hurt you because you are basing your business on that.

 

[Atom.com]

I would like to chime in and address some of the recent discussion.

The STR metric simply provides an indication of what % of your SH listed domains have sold. To put things in perspective, about 93.5% of these sales happen on SH platform, and 6.5% happen on platforms outside SH.

Keep in mind that SH is an exclusive Marketplace, and in return for that exclusivity we make significant investment in Advertising as well as offer certain options to list domains outside SH. While it is likely that several of those 6.5% external sales had nothing to do with SH advertising, it is also not correct to assume that none of those sales were influenced by SH. In fact, we have heard from at least a few buyers that they decided to purchase a domain from a registrar after discovering the domain at SH first because they already had some names at that registrar and they felt more comfortable with that method.

As a platform, we share a significant amount of data and metrics (including almost our entire sales database). The point of providing this data is not to mislead the sellers, but to offer helpful and actionable information that can allow the sellers to make more informed decisions. On that note, we continue to hear from few sellers that the metrics related to visits, shortlists, STR etc may be "misleading" or "fake". While we will continue to share data and metrics as much as possible, we will re-assess the level of information shared, especially at a broader platform level. We will be making few changes to the dashboard in the upcoming days. We will also be adding "sales venue" information so that sellers can easily see which one of the reported sales actually occurred outside SH platform.