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.

 

[Peak.Domains]

@GrantP Thank you for acknowledging how incredibly poorly this was handled at every step of the way. It was a huge waste of my time.

If I hadn't been proactive to notice names were missing, and then to keep looking into it even after SH told me that no names had been removed from my account, this could have been very bad.

These names were purchased from the SH marketplace itself, and should never leave my account without my knowledge or consent.

It sounds like you're going to make changes that prevent people from easily stealing other people's listings and then silently moving the names to their accounts without giving any heads up and without even leaving a note so that your support staff can see that the names were moved, and that sounds like a positive change.

 

[ecomslice]

@ecomslice we have a 24x7 team that engages with buyers during night and weekends as well. Typically we do not let any offers go unresponded for the entire weekend. In case of Standard listings, the sellers also have the ability to communicate directly with the buyers via their offer center. For premium listings, we monitor any offer activity during the weekends as well, and respond to the buyers as quickly as possible. If an offer requires a routine followup, we typically only do those types of followups during weekdays during business hours.

If you have an example where it has taken longer than expected to respond to a buyer, please feel free to DM me, and we will look into it.

Just an update everyone, I was now responded to within a day on the negotiations update. So I stand corrected. They do have staff dealing with sales on weekends by the details Grant mentioned. Thanks Grant for clarity.

 

[gtldomainer]

I had requested payout on 31st march but its not been released yet. The support is also taking long to respond to our queries, upto to 24 hours. Is it normal at SH? This is my first sale there.

 

[wwwulff]

I have been a seller at SquadHelp for a little over a year and have had 19 names listed and yesterday I had my sale nummer 3 - It's hard for me to complain, so thanks to SquadHelp from me.

 

[ArielT]

I have been a seller at SquadHelp for a little over a year and have had 19 names listed and yesterday I had my sale nummer 3 - It's hard for me to complain, so thanks to SquadHelp from me.

Congrats!

Hangregs or aftermarket buys?

Thanks

 

[wwwulff]

Hangregs or aftermarket buys?

Thanks, one handreg, one bought here at NP 2 years ago (was not listed then), one backordered via DropCatch

 

[gblasting]

I have been a seller at SquadHelp for a little over a year and have had 19 names listed and yesterday I had my sale nummer 3 - It's hard for me to complain, so thanks to SquadHelp from me.

Similar story with mine until last year.

Initially, I listed 7 names on SH and sold 3 in less than 10 months. Added 2 more and sold 1 in less than 2 months. Oh my, I thought I have cracked the SH sales formula and wanted to scale it. I have added 42 higher-priced names since then and sold 1 more name. No formula cracked. It appears $1,799 and below is the sweet spot for SH if you really want to move names.

Please don't increase your portfolio

 

[wwwulff]

Please don't increase your portfolio

I have no current plans to scale my portfolio much because I think you are right that most sales are below $2k (although I have seen more expensive sales) but they move many names - My 3 sales are 2 x $1,999 and the last one $2699

 

[JudgeMind]

March Squadhelp/afternic Sales

.com

BlueTriton $1999 - afternic (squadhelp listed)
NutriQore - $2199 SH premium
JadeAndRose - $2429 SH premium
SharpHawk - $1699 SH premium
urfashionstore - $499 - Sedo SH WLM

.ly

Start - $6799 SH premium

.ca
VitaminShop $3300 (WLM)

 

[gblasting]

March Squadhelp/afternic Sales

.com

BlueTriton $1999 - afternic (squadhelp listed)
NutriQore - $2199 SH premium
JadeAndRose - $2429 SH premium
SharpHawk - $1699 SH premium
urfashionstore - $499 - Sedo SH WLM

.ly

Start - $6799 SH premium

.ca
VitaminShop $3300 (WLM)

Show attachment 187368

Thanks for sharing once again.

I've always believed that "Shortlist" should have been called "Like" or "Love" and your dashboard reinforces my belief. There is no way you can have over 100 shortlists daily if we mean "short list" in the real sense of the word.

Majority of people clicking the heart icon (domainers inclusive) only like the name and are not really considering it for purchase.

 

[NameWell]

@GrantP I would like to draw your attention to the inconsistencies between Squadhelp ads and the names that are available for sale.

For example, the attached ad is currently running on Facebook.

Launchably dot com is sold and has an already established website.
Overleap dot com is recenty sold.
AIVI dot com is currently listed at Dan.com so you're sending traffic to Dan It's name servers were changed from SH to Dan on 16 Oct, 2020
Galore dot com is also currently not listed at Squadhelp. It seems to be listed on Uniregistry.
So out of five names that are being displayed just one (Weblytic dot com) is still available to purchase on Squadhelp. How come?

Sometimes the same problem occurs with your blog posts too. For example, in this blog post https://www.squadhelp.com/Name-Ideas/616/real-estate-business-names-ideas The name HomeMe dot com is advertised as "for sale" in two separate sections of the article while in reality, it's no longer available for sale at Squadhelp.

This situation can potentially bring unwanted results, such as:

1. Potential buyers contacting current owners of sold domain names thinking they are selling their name.
2. Some potential buyers might feel frustrated after they learn that the name they really liked is not available even though the ad clearly says otherwise.
3. Some potential buyers might interpret this as some kind of a "bait & switch" situation.
4. You're sending paid traffic to competitors
5. It's simply confusing for potential buyers.

 

[gtldomainer]

I had requested payout on 31st march but its not been released yet. The support is also taking long to respond to our queries, upto to 24 hours. Is it normal at SH? This is my first sale there.

I added Paypal and I got paid the very next day. Thanks SH!

 

[kaposzta]

Anyone has ever used boost or superboost for their domains? If yes, was it worth it? Which domains are really worth boosting, how do you decide? Thanks!

 

[Atom.com]

@GrantP I would like to draw your attention to the inconsistencies between Squadhelp ads and the names that are available for sale.

For example, the attached ad is currently running on Facebook.

Launchably dot com is sold and has an already established website.
Overleap dot com is recenty sold.
AIVI dot com is currently listed at Dan.com so you're sending traffic to Dan It's name servers were changed from SH to Dan on 16 Oct, 2020
Galore dot com is also currently not listed at Squadhelp. It seems to be listed on Uniregistry.
So out of five names that are being advertised just one (Weblytic dot com) is still available to purchase on Squadhelp. How come?

Thanks for pointing out this issue. You raise some valid points however let me provide a bit more context about our Marketing strategy.

Most of our display ads that we run are dynamic which means they showcase actual domains that are currently listed on SH. The names in those ads are automatically selected based upon the browsing history and interest of the buyer.

We have also been testing some "static" banner ads such as your example. If the Ads continue to provide good results (e.g. good conversions, high CTR, low CPC etc), we typically continue to run them without refreshing them too often. We run different marketing campaigns with different objectives - some are designed to introduce our platform to new prospective buyers (long term focus), while others are designed to present specific names to buyers based upon their recent browsing history (short term/ immediate focus).

For context, in the last 30 days, our ads were shown more than 4 million times across various websites and platforms and the static ads such as this example represent a fairly small % of those impressions.

Having said that, I have shared this example with our Marketing team so that we can evaluate this closely and make any adjustments if needed.

 

[Nametree]

SquadHelp taking on DAN
https://www.squadhelp.com/white-label-marketplace#squad-benefits

Ok, this is a pretty big deal. I’ve been quite disappointed in SH,

Anyone has ever used boost or superboost for their domains? If yes, was it worth it? Which domains are really worth boosting, how do you decide? Thanks!

I have, both - I boost 10-15 domains every other month (no science behind it, just when I remember that I should.) I've boosted names that are either A. already getting traction, good number of views, shortlists (because it means they resonate) and B. names I *just* listed, just to get them to rank higher faster.

I don't know if it works though, I don't track the names I boost and I don't remember an instance of a name I boosted recently selling. But I do have a decent sell-through rate, so maybe it helps?

 

[M Usman]

Ok, this is a pretty big deal. I’ve been quite disappointed in SH,


I have, both - I boost 10-15 domains every other month (no science behind it, just when I remember that I should.) I've boosted names that are either A. already getting traction, good number of views, shortlists (because it means they resonate) and B. names I *just* listed, just to get them to rank higher faster.

I don't know if it works though, I don't track the names I boost and I don't remember an instance of a name I boosted recently selling. But I do have a decent sell-through rate, so maybe it helps?

Can you guide about accepting the names from squad help. They are rejecting very branded and great names.

 

[Nametree]

Can you guide about accepting the names from squad help. They are rejecting very branded and great names.

I pay with coins for all of my submissions, I don't know if that influences acceptance rate (probably not that much) but it certainly influences speed of approval. My approval rate is 37% which seems higher than average but I'm also pretty picky about what I submit because I pay for submissions.

Be picky, have good taste

(I will add this: of all my approved names, probably 2/3rds or more are not hand-registrations, but names I've paid at least $50-100 each at auctions in previous years.)

 

[NameWell]

Thanks for pointing out this issue. You raise some valid points however let me provide a bit more context about our Marketing strategy.

Most of our display ads that we run are dynamic which means they showcase actual domains that are currently listed on SH. The names in those ads are automatically selected based upon the browsing history and interest of the buyer.

We have also been testing some "static" banner ads such as your example. If the Ads continue to provide good results (e.g. good conversions, high CTR, low CPC etc), we typically continue to run them without refreshing them too often. We run different marketing campaigns with different objectives - some are designed to introduce our platform to new prospective buyers (long term focus), while others are designed to present specific names to buyers based upon their recent browsing history (short term/ immediate focus).

For context, in the last 30 days, our ads were shown more than 4 million times across various websites and platforms and the static ads such as this example represent a fairly small % of those impressions.

Having said that, I have shared this example with our Marketing team so that we can evaluate this closely and make any adjustments if needed.

@GrantP thank you for a fast and very informative reply. I understand that the objective of the ad I shared was not to advertise those specific names, but I still think it is better to display either names that are currently listed on SH or success stories (sold names that evolved into strong, successful businesses). But that's just my two cents

Also, I would like to add that this problem is present not only with some of your static ads, but with some of your video ads too. Please see the attached files. It's your video ad that seems to be currently active. Three out of six names displayed are no longer available on SH. Please look at those video ads too.

Anyways, I'm glad your marketing team will be looking into this.

 

[JudgeMind]

Sales update End of April

Only 1 sale at squadhelp in April so far, slowest month ive ever had with sh. I have spent a fair bit of time this month building my squadhelp portfolio. Its getting more difficult everyday to find decent brand names to invest in and the average overall price to pay for these has been going up like the price of lumber in north america . Still hoping to land a decent 5 figure sale with squadhelp. It seems the demand for 4L .com dropped off at squadhelp as soon as i started to list mine last year.

Sold name:

HotLikeMe (c.o.m) $3059

Note: Total sold includes wlm sales

 

[JudgeMind]

Happy May

SOLD - UserSpark (c.o.m) for $3077 on the new flexible financing option

This is a milestone sale as we’ve now sold 50 premium domains through Squadhelp.

Thank you @GrantP for the un-waivering support you and the day to day customer service team provide.