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.

 

[Future Sensors]

Anyone else been around long enough to remember when they were literally the only registrar? It was $100 to register a domain name. The registration period was 2 years, and renewals were $50 per year. To top it all off, you got paper invoices sent to you in the mail. Ahhh, those were the days!

Yes, the same time you could buy your web browser on a floppy disk in a physical store with a huge box around it.

 

[NameGroove]

You were involved in this discussion back on May 19th. Some of us explained why we don't wish to use Escrow.com. If you're happy with keeping them as an option, great -- go for it (I mean that sincerely). But some of us are very happy that we now have the option to opt-out. Kudos to @Atom for listening to us and taking action. It did not go unnoticed.

May 19? Jeez, what did I have for breakfast that day?

I'm all for choice (toggles for everything) and am happy Atom provides choice to domainers. Min landers, escrow toggle, etc.

Anyway, I was sincerely trying to learn if I am missing something. And SuperBrander may have hit on what it was.

Why involve a service that doesn't communicate well, delays transactions and makes buyers jump through hoops- when the alternative is a smooth process, great customer support 24/7, and super quick payment? In some cases, Escrow.com's verification requirement can directly get in the way of sales (speaking from experience). I recently had a transaction at Atom where the buyer wanted to use Escrow.com. It took almost two weeks to complete. Totally unnecessary. I don't recall any other Atom transaction that took more than 5 days to complete. Most are much much faster.

I'm not worried about losing sales by not showing the Escrow.com option. Most people probably never heard of Escrow.com anyway, and anyone who googles Atom.com can see that they're dealing with a serious and trustworthy company. The domain Atom.com itself also helps establish trust. Serious buyers who need a specific domain will do their due diligence and use Atom.com. The other ones can go buy something else as far as I'm concerned. Domaining should be fast paced and efficient- not a sad crawl where the money arrives whenever. Atom provides that.

Thank you for your thoughtful response. I think I see the flaw in my prior reasoning. I've used Escrow previously and the process went fine. Yea, it took some time, but never lost a buyer. However, what I missed was - the buyer has no idea who I am. And I have no idea who they are. So we both used Escrow (which I believe still makes sense for direct sales). However, Atom is a much more known entity (and if unknown, the buyer can readily Google them to figure out who they are). The odds of a buyer being so distrusting of Atom as to walk from a domain they want due to "no Escrow" seem quite miniscule. Much different than the possibility of me personally losing a buyer if I don't offer Escrow.

Escrow seems to be used by the major sellers however (at least they put out reports of their top sellers, and many of the major players use them). So it's not like Escrow can be that bad - or these guys would've gone elsewhere by now. But even though they are large sellers - perhaps they have the same issue as me - buyers don't know who they are. Here we have Atom as the go between and that layer of trust may make Escrow redundant.

I don't make enough sales on Atom for a true test so will have to wing it (either toggling off or keeping on based on gut instinct rather than data). But now I have more food for thought.

 

[NameGroove]

Anyone else been around long enough to remember when they were literally the only registrar? It was $100 to register a domain name. The registration period was 2 years, and renewals were $50 per year. To top it all off, you got paper invoices sent to you in the mail. Ahhh, those were the days!

Yup, my hand regs from 1999 were exactly that... received paper in the mail for them. In fact, I lost a domain that way (I renewed it, but couldn't find the mailed receipt and as such, couldn't prove it). I also recall the prices were quite high. I still may have some of the old receipts. I'll dig around someday and see if I can find one and post it. Will be fun to see.

 

[NameGroove]

Perhaps this has been previously discussed, but some of my names are not showing a description in Google.

Google says this is because the info is being "prevented".

@Atom.com - unsure if what Google is saying is true, do you know if this is a known issue?

 

[SuperBrander]

@NameGroove Take into account that big domainers very likely get VIP treatment at Escrow.com. Things used to be better there but I've witnessed Escrow.com deteriorate in recent years and now I only use them if I absolutely have to. Besides the potential to lose sales at Escrow.com, if you think about it, Atom didn't even offer this feature for most of the years the marketplace exists. So the fact that now it's an option, doesn't mean that I'm losing sales if I don't use it. Just like I didn't lose sales because of the option not being there previously. So many choices are made by domainers that can influence sales and we can never know what could have happened had we listed elsewhere, or at a different price, or while being at a certain registrar that allows both Sedo MLS and Afternic etc. The bottom line is- buy the right names at the right prices and some will sell as long as they're listed, have a lander and the price is something an end user is willing to pay.

Since you haven't had a bad experience with Escrow.com from your perspective, then you certainly have no reason not to use them. However, since you said your transactions with them take longer too, take into account that when you get paid faster, you can reinvest the money earlier, and when a domain you bought arrives to you sooner you're gaining more time of its yearly registration to try and sell it, and when everything flows business tends to get better.

 

[Dane]

May 19? Jeez, what did I have for breakfast that day?

Toast.

I thought it would be easier if you just went back to that date to read the comments (rather than me copying and pasting), but maybe not. Bottom line: it's not just a matter of having to wait a full week to get paid with Escrow.com. There's more to it than that.

Escrow.com was a joy to work with back in the day, before they got bought out. But then things changed, and not for the better.

 

[DomainRecap]

Why is everyone opting out of Escrow? Assuming a buyer chose it, aren't you risking a lost sale (if it weren't there)? From reading the thread it appears Escrow causes a delay in payment... but is that the reason? You don't want to wait an extra week to collect payment on a sold name? I'm guessing there has to be another reason

We've outlined the reasons multiple times and Atom has replied to these comments multiple times as well.

When a buyer accepts an offer and chooses to pay by escrow.com, the seller HAS NO IDEA THE TRANSACTION EVEN TOOK PLACE.

There is no integration between Atom and Escrow.com, so you may have completed a sales transaction, but you will never know it until a week or more when Escrow.com formally approves the payment and passes that along to Atom, who then passes that along to the seller. Atom also has stated they will NOT advise sellers when a buyer accepts an offer and pays via escrow until the escrow payment is finalized and released.

So what's the problem with that?

1) The seller may think (and rightfully so) that from their silence that the buyer is not interested at that price level and counter lower. Ooops! That's bad news and may lead to a a lost sale if the seller stops the escrow payment to get the lower price. At the very least it's a bad look.

2) The seller may agree to a sale elsewhere (or let a domain expire) since there is no communication of a potential sale on Atom.

There are others, but these are the core issues that concern me personally.

Point 1) is the big one, as it causes me massive delays in negotiations. When I send a price I always wait at least 5 days after it expires before countering, just on the off-chance that it's been accepted and paid via Escrow.com. Part of me thinks that ignorance was bliss, as I was doing a lot better when I didn't know this and just negotiated quickly, rather than having the specter of an "mystery escrow sale" causing me to be tentative.

Being able to disable Escrow.com payments will allow me to negotiate quickly and counter back right after my initial offer expires, rather than an imposed "waiting period" with escrow enabled.

 

[Dane]

1) The seller may think (and rightfully so) that from their silence that the buyer is not interested at that price level and counter lower. Ooops! That's bad news and may lead to a a lost sale if the seller stops the escrow payment to get the lower price. At the very least it's a bad look.

2) The seller may agree to a sale elsewhere (or let a domain expire) since there is no communication of a potential sale on Atom.

3. The buyer, not knowing what's going on or why it's taking so long, might get nervous, might have second thoughts, and might want to stop the sale.

 

[DomainRecap]

3. The buyer, not knowing what's going on or why it's taking so long, might get nervous, might have second thoughts, and might want to stop the sale.

Exactly and that was covered a few times on here.

With an Escrow.com sale the buyer also sees an "Offer Expired" notice on the transaction and there is no indication of payment made or any updates at all. One of my buyers was concerned and sent me the Excrow.com transaction ID to send to Atom.

 

[End Game]

To make sure I fully understand Atom's Premium listing if accepted?

Since I'm listed on GD/AN, I would have to change nameservers to Atom's DNS. Also, I will have to delist my listing from Afternic or any other listing service?

If this is true, would my domain show up in Godaddy's reg path like now, since I'm using boost?

Premium Listings

"Premium Listings approved on Atom are exclusive to the Atom platform. You must point the domains to Atom’s name servers at all times while the listing remains active.

You are allowed to list the domain on approved selling platforms as long as they qualify under our

 

[Dane]

Exactly and that was covered a few times on here.

On May 19th !!

 

[NameGroove]

To make sure I fully understand Atom's Premium listing if accepted?

Also, I will have to delist my listing from Afternic or any other listing service?

No, you do not have to delist. You keep your name listed on Afternic at a price + 10%. So it still shows on GD reg path.
Atom will list on Sedo + 10% for you

 

[Embrand]

No, you do not have to delist. You keep your name listed on Afternic at a price + 10%. So it still shows on GD reg path.
Atom will list on Sedo + 10% for you

So Atom sellers are allowed to list at Afternic with a premium, but BrandBucket is not?

 

[NameGroove]

So Atom sellers are allowed to list at Afternic with a premium, but BrandBucket is not?

Correct. She claimed a variety of reasons (which I won't mention here), however, the bottom line is it was a choice, not a requirement. Which, imho, resulted in her making a very poor decision.

Other sellers I've spoken with say, around 25% of their listings on the brandable marketplaces come from Afternic. Which means, BB sellers now put at risk 25% of sales.
So the choice is to take that risk - or list with Atom.
BB's loss, is Atom's gain.

 

[Dane]

I've expressed my concern about using @Atom due to random bugs and issues I'm finding in their system. I even moved a bunch of names away from Atom recently. So it's only fair that I point out some of the good things:

1. The fact that we can now opt-out of using Escrow.com is huge for me. Being forced to use them was part of my reasoning for moving names away from Atom.

2. Making the "Down Payment" amount visible on the landing page (without having to click on the 'Pay in Installments' button) was another big one for me. I pushed hard for this one because I felt very strongly about it. They fixed it.

3. A few days ago a name of mine sold on Atom. Since it was a Standard listing the commission was only 7.5% (which is awesome). Luckily the buyer did NOT choose Escrow.com and DID choose the Push option, so the entire transaction took just ONE DAY. I had the funds transferred to my bank account the very next day. There's nothing better than a smooth, quick, clean transaction -- for me AND for the buyer.

I'm still concerned about the random bugs, I'm not gonna lie. But it's clear that they are trying to fix things, AND they are listening to feedback and making positive changes... which I appreciate very much. So I thought I'd take a minute to give credit where credit is due.

 

[DomainRecap]

So it's only fair that I point out some of the good things:

There are a lot of very good things about Atom, otherwise I would not still be there. Plus, they react pretty quickly to rational/logical suggestions and the system is getting better, not worse.

 

[End Game]

No, you do not have to delist. You keep your name listed on Afternic at a price + 10%. So it still shows on GD reg path.
Atom will list on Sedo + 10% for you

Thanks, that helps.

Another question, if we apply with a name for premium and their price range is lower than we want to sell, then we have no choice and don't go forward with the listing?

Also do most of you go for plus too while applying for premium? TIA

 

[NicTraders]

Escrow seems to be used by the major sellers however (at least they put out reports of their top sellers, and many of the major players use them).

Keep in mind that most of them are brokers. This is their only job. Most of their sales are going to be 6-figures so it's in their interests to hand-hold the buyer through the whole escrow process, and it usually doesn't matter if it takes a bit longer. By contrast, most of us listing on Atom are going to be selling names for $2k, $5k, $10k in the majority with maybe a few here and there @ $20k and $50k. For many of us it's more about being hands-off and having a quick reliable transaction.

I personally have a significant dislike for Escrow.com. They directly cost me $5k at the start of my domaining journey. I was paying $10k for a portfolio and Escrow.com was taking days to approve my documents. In the meantime (some days later) the seller got a $15k offer, and was still willing to sell to me, but obviously with the attraction of the other offer would only do so at the higher price. That only happened because of Escrow.com - if they had completed the transaction within a couple of days it would have been a non-event.

They kept refusing my official Government business documentation. They seemed to have no understanding that non-US businesses have documentation that might be called something different from what they saw in the US. They held things up for many days as I just could not provide anything else (with the document names they wanted to see). So I told them if they didn't get it sorted within 24hrs I was canceling the transaction and going elsewhere. They magically approved my documentation within about 20min (even though they previously told me it wasn't possible). So, they either lied when they said the docs I sent weren't sufficient. Or they did the wrong thing by approving them just to keep my business. So I lost trust for them and have never done another transaction with them since.

 

[NameGroove]

Thanks, that helps.

Another question, if we apply with a name for premium and their price range is lower than we want to sell, then we have no choice and don't go forward with the listing?

Also do most of you go for plus too while applying for premium? TIA

You can do an "appeal" and ask for a higher price along with the reason/data that supports your request. Atom will review and decide whether to increase or not. I have had an appeal approved, so I know if you make a reasonable request, with data, they can accept. If not, you can reject the approval and simply list wherever else you like (with only the loss of the $1 coin).

I use Plus as a stepping stone to become Sapphire approved. There are only 2 benefits of Plus, retargeting ads and broker assistance. Since all my names are BIN - I do not require broker assistance. I do think retargeting has value - and that value will cost 7.5% extra in commission (+7.5% over a Standard listing).

Notice the one benefit that is not mentioned for Plus. Additional views/marketing. So while retargeting is great, without being findable in search, your chances of the name being seen on Atom are very low (unless of course it gets Sapphire approved).

Up to you to decide whether the extra 7.5% is worthy or not. It's still a competitive rate against Afternic and Sedo... but if the name isn't Premium or Sapphire, it seems to me Atom loses it's luster (meaning it's just a lander then similar to all the others). Except of course this lander comes with retargeting.

 

[NameGroove]

Keep in mind that most of them are brokers. This is their only job. Most of their sales are going to be 6-figures so it's in their interests to hand-hold the buyer through the whole escrow process, and it usually doesn't matter if it takes a bit longer. By contrast, most of us listing on Atom are going to be selling names for $2k, $5k, $10k in the majority with maybe a few here and there @ $20k and $50k. For many of us it's more about being hands-off and having a quick reliable transaction.

I personally have a significant dislike for Escrow.com. They directly cost me $5k at the start of my domaining journey. I was paying $10k for a portfolio and Escrow.com was taking days to approve my documents. In the meantime (some days later) the seller got a $15k offer, and was still willing to sell to me, but obviously with the attraction of the other offer would only do so at the higher price. That only happened because of Escrow.com - if they had completed the transaction within a couple of days it would have been a non-event.

They kept refusing my official Government business documentation. They seemed to have no understanding that non-US businesses have documentation that might be called something different from what they saw in the US. They held things up for many days as I just could not provide anything else (with the document names they wanted to see). So I told them if they didn't get it sorted within 24hrs I was canceling the transaction and going elsewhere. They magically approved my documentation within about 20min (even though they previously told me it wasn't possible). So, they either lied when they said the docs I sent weren't sufficient. Or they did the wrong thing by approving them just to keep my business. So I lost trust for them and have never done another transaction with them since.

From reading on NP it does seem Escrow's issues largely stem from International customers (both buyers and sellers). It would seem to me then, that International buyers wouldn't chose it as a payment option. Perhaps things would go more smoothly for a US buyer who may choose it.

I do agree though, it adds more "stuff" to the lander which is suboptimal and likely redundant. Since Atom is clearly a company one could trust (in fact if one doesn't know of Escrow, and most probably don't) hard to see how Escrow lends any more credibility to the transaction than Atom. Plus, now that Atom increased the amount a buyer can pay using a credit card (for Trusted Sellers - but I am one), I'm likely to opt out of Escrow. I am still considering so appreciated your thoughts.