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.

 

[Hashim]

What on Earth is a Membership Tier? Yet another way of milking money from domainers on top of the commission and Premium coins? I see references all over the docs to them and yet not a single one defines what they actually are and why they exist.

 

[Simon SE]

I get more and more disillusioned with this platform as time goes on. Decided to stick with it, but this announcement isn't sitting right.

 

[Future Sensors]

What on Earth is a Membership Tier?

https://www.atom.com/marketplace-benefits

 

[Future Sensors]

@Atom.com

Commission rates are incorrect on https://www.atom.com/marketplace-benefits

(charm pricing)

 

[Future Sensors]

Simplifying and Expanding Pricing Flexibility for Premium Listings

https://www.atom.com/blog/simplifying-and-expanding-pricing-flexibility-for-premium-listings/

We’ve updated how pricing flexibility works for Premium listings on Atom, based on seller feedback and real buyer behavior.

The goal is simple: reduce friction for everyday pricing and expand flexibility for exceptional domains.

@Atom.com

This page (and likely more pages) needs an update re: pricing flexibility.

https://www.atom.com/marketplace-benefits

 

[SpareDomains]

Everything else is easy NamePros, Efty, Afternic, Sedo etc... Atom can't go 2 weeks without changing something. Atom should win the award for most difficult aftermarket to understand or keep up with as all their rules seem to change continuously to where ya need a training course every week or two for updates. If your portfolio is brandable do your thing but for those of us that are mixed keyword/brandable the patience is wearing out to deal with the stress that no other aftermarket produces. Too many rules without enough sales.

 

[Simon SE]

https://www.atom.com/marketplace-benefits

So weird that when you try to find this page it's nowhere to be seen on Google. Only the pricing page shows up.

Probably because no-one types "Marketplace Benefit Levels" when searching for membership tiers and it doesn't appear to be linked anywhere on the site.

 

[Future Sensors]

So weird that when you try to find this page it's nowhere to be seen on Google. Only the pricing page shows up.

Probably because no-one types "Marketplace Benefit Levels" when searching for membership tiers and it doesn't appear to be linked anywhere on the site.

I had trouble finding it again, too.

 

[Future Sensors]

@Atom.com listened. The membership status is now more prominently shown in the dashboard. Clicking it will reveal more details about all membership levels and benefits.

 

[King]

@Atom.com

Commission rates are incorrect on https://www.atom.com/marketplace-benefits

(charm pricing)

Looks like it was updated recently.

They should make 49999 count for 20% for the charm pricing there too.

 

[URL Stream]

2. Expanded pricing flexibility above $10,000​

For pricing above $10,000, sellers get more flexibility than before, based upon membership tier:

• Silver: up to 2× approved price
• Gold: up to 3× approved price
• Platinum: up to 5× approved price

Atom’s appraisal system will now have to factor in the owner’s status for most accurate pricing.

 

[NameGroove]

Sounds like we are actually getting some advantages by using Atom as the registrar:

"In 2026, we plan to introduce incentives for domains held with Atom, including reduced commissions, revenue sharing on expired domains, and other programs designed to reward sellers who choose to manage more of their domains with Atom."

@Atom.com approx when will this occur? Obv we all have a lot of domains to renew and depending on your pricing, we may wait until the last minute and prefer to transfer Atom premiums to you. So if you can provide approx dates and/or transfer pricing it would be helpful for planning purposes

 

[King]

Hmm, a recent drop, registered with Atom and already a premium

 

[NameGroove]

Hmm, a recent drop, registered with Atom and already a premium


Show attachment 291652

They do have names they own (sellers can actually request premiums and Atom regs and holds them - and pays renewals). Sellers get lower commission from these sales, if they occur. Perhaps this was one Atom dropped?

 

[Future Sensors]

HNY @Atom.com

On the page where domain upgrades can be approved from Plus to Premium, the commission for domains priced at $4,999 is incorrectly listed as 30% (even after refresh).

According to your adjusted commission structure, the correct rate should be 25% for charm prices just below $5,000. See your help article at https://helpdesk.atom.com/en/articles/4393509-atom-com-marketplace-commission-structure

The exact URL where the incorrect percentage of 30% is shown for a BIN of $4,999:

https://www.atom.com/dashboard/domains?status=pending_commission_approval&page=1&size=25

@Atom.com This should be 25% not 30%.

 

[Velocity.Now]

Could you imagine if you just discovered Atom as a seller today ... I would be like wtf is going on here .... Adiós .

The whole platform needs to be overhauled and simplified.

 

[Future Sensors]

@Atom.com It appears Plus->Premium upgrades don't adhere to the account-wide LTO settings. It says "Custom", and I have to manually correct this to "Use Account Default" every time. Please fix, thanks.

 

[Optimal Names]

Everything else is easy NamePros, Efty, Afternic, Sedo etc... Atom can't go 2 weeks without changing something. Atom should win the award for most difficult aftermarket to understand or keep up with as all their rules seem to change continuously to where ya need a training course every week or two for updates. If your portfolio is brandable do your thing but for those of us that are mixed keyword/brandable the patience is wearing out to deal with the stress that no other aftermarket produces. Too many rules without enough sales.

Exactly. Too many changes. Too many inconsistencies. Too many bugs.

But if I decide that my head is spinning too much and I want off this ride my account will be dinged if I remove all of my premium domains today?

That is entirely unfair.

 

[Future Sensors]

@Atom.com It's confusing that upgrading from Plus to Premium resets the Date Added while leaving other statistics intact. If a domain has been listed as Standard or Plus for some time, the original date should be preserved after the upgrade. I'm not sure whether this can be easily corrected retroactively, but I wanted to share how this behavior affects user experience.

 

[NameGroove]

Has anyone ever seen a premium name approved for less than $2195? I thought that was the minimum Atom allowed for Premium acceptance? Is this a bug or a change by @Atom.com ?

Show attachment 291501

fyi all - Atom's response: "typically the minimum approved Premium Price would be $2195. There likely was a temporary glitch when this domain was approved but since corrected. Any further approved names would be approved at $2195 or greater."

So if anyone else got caught up in that glitch, reach out and prices will be raised to "$2195 or greater".

fyi @Bob Hawkes