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.

 

[draco]

Folks,

https://www.atom.com/blog/no-more-coins-one-balance-for-everything-on-atom/

"Submitting a domain to the Premium Marketplace now costs 1 AI Credit ($0.10), down from 1 Coin ($1)."

Is it just me, or is this a really bad idea? Reviews are taking a few weeks now. How long are they going to take after this change? $1 made at least some people give thought to their submissions. At $0.10, people will submit everything.

Hopefully they'll at least keep their review standards so the site isn't suddenly flooded with Premium domains.

 

[NameGroove]

Name Groove @Name__Groove February 7, 2025

Atom has hit 300,000 names in its Premium Marketplace. Do you think they're oversaturated or do think they have enough buyers to support this size? #domainsforsale #atom #brandable #Domains

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In Feb 2025 Atom hit 300,000 Premium names. 17 months later they have >415,000, a 38% increase.

Without growing the buyer base - this will be felt downstream by sellers. And while @Atom.com you've lowered the price of submissions (not that I think $.10 or $1 matters much either way) the overall ratio of names to buyers is worsening as opposed to keeping pace (at least based on reported sales). It doesn't hurt you since overall reported sales are flat, but for sellers, gives us a smaller piece of the same pie.

Substantive efforts to grow acquisition and increase conversion are paramount if your intention is to continue to allow the overall premium folio to grow unfettered.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

When people reach various levels now there are incentives like x free coins. I was wondering how is that working under the new system, @Atom.com?
-Bob

 

[Future Sensors]

Free coins AI credits and a free glossary.

 

[NameGroove]

Not sure if serious.

No, usually the top option for domain discovery is through type-ins (reg path is second)

Here are the stats from June from Spaceship. Landers = 10% of volume (add 5% if you want to include seller folios). Search (aka reg path) 75%.

Spaceship @spaceship July 6, 2026

June has wrapped, so let's look at how the month performed in SellerHub🙂

💡 Sales sources
Around 75% of sales came through Spaceship and Namecheap Search.
For Sale Pages and Checkout Links brought around 10% each, while the remaining 5% was shared across SafePay, Seller…

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[Bob Hawkes]

I appreciate the response, and the changes you've made so quickly. However, I think you should completely disable the feature whereby Sellers can save and display the visualisations. If these are genuinely created in response to one potential buyer's inputs, then they should remain that way, and it should not be in the seller's hands whether they keep these visualisations to show to others.

I think that @NicTraders makes a good point, @Atom.com. A prospective buyer may wish to see how a name/mock site might look but not want possible competitors to see what they have in mind. Why not make it that the seller can themselves do a small number of mockups for public display, but any created by visiting people are kept private?

I do realize seeing that a number of companies are considering ways to use a certain name makes it feel urgent to move on acquisition of a name, just worried how it might be perceived.

-Bob

 

[King]

Exact matches have been moved to a tab along with 'includes'

 

[URL Stream]

Why not make it that the seller can themselves do a small number of mockups for public display, but any created by visiting people are kept private?

The tradeoff is losing the email lead.

 

[DomainRecap]

Here are the stats from June from Spaceship. Landers = 10% of volume (add 5% if you want to include seller folios). Search (aka reg path) 75%.

But without knowing the percentage of Spaceship listings that have SS nameservers, that data means absolutely nothing. The obvious question is 10% of what? If it's 10% of only 10% of total applicable listings with landers, you're actually getting more sales via lander (in relative terms) than through search.

The only way you can compare the two numbers is if Spaceship had a 100% nameserver/active lander rate, and we know they don't. Using this nonsensical "voodoo math" post to supposedly "refute" my statement is pretty nuts. A grade school kid could shoot holes in this crap.

For example, 100% of my sales on Spaceship come from Search because 0% of my domains have SS nameservers, and therefore 0% of my listings have landers. Nifty huh?

 

[Lordaake]

Does an Atom WLM increase sales? I have 700 domains. No WLM atm and dont see the point to be honest, as I think the landing page looks more legitimate with the atom logo etc. Does an WLM help or not?

 

[Future Sensors]

Does an Atom WLM increase sales? I have 700 domains. No WLM atm and dont see the point to be honest, as I think the landing page looks more legitimate with the atom logo etc. Does an WLM help or not?

For a while, I had everything routed through my Atom WLM site, but I've since taken the position that additional trust signals from the underlying marketplace are worth more than the vanity of a standalone WLM lander. My Atom domains now simply point to the main Atom.com site again. Atom already carries a lower buyer‑side reputation than GoDaddy, so any opportunity to strengthen perceived trust is worth seizing, no matter how proud you are of your own WLM and your own WLM domain name. And of course, you can maintain your WLM in the background without actively pointing your domains to it.

 

[TonnyDomains]

For a while, I had everything routed through my Atom WLM site, but I've since taken the position that additional trust signals from the underlying marketplace are worth more than the vanity of a standalone WLM lander. My Atom domains now simply point to the main Atom.com site again. Atom already carries a lower buyer‑side reputation than GoDaddy, so any opportunity to strengthen perceived trust is worth seizing, no matter how proud you are of your own WLM and your own WLM domain name. And of course, you can maintain your WLM in the background without actively pointing your domains to it.

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.

 

[Future Sensors]

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.

Just my thoughts. No investment advice!

 

[NicTraders]

The tradeoff is losing the email lead.

But the buyer only hands over their email if they generate the sample site themselves (by clicking 'see it live') don't they? In that case, it would be better for them to generate their own than to view stored samples. (I haven't tested it myself, so can't say with certainty, but that was the way I read the Atom announcement.)

From the blog:
"After generating a concept, buyers can request a comprehensive brand guide for your domain, delivered to their inbox."
"the buyer just handed over their email address in exchange for a document about your domain."
(emphasis added by me)

 

[TonnyDomains]

But the buyer only hands over their email if they generate the sample site themselves (by clicking 'see it live') don't they? In that case, it would be better for them to generate their own than to view stored samples. (I haven't tested it myself, so can't say with certainty, but that was the way I read the Atom announcement.)

Thank you! I will follow your suggestion.

 

[NicTraders]

Thank you! I will follow your suggestion.

Just my thoughts. No investment advice!

!!!

 

[Lordaake]

For a while, I had everything routed through my Atom WLM site, but I've since taken the position that additional trust signals from the underlying marketplace are worth more than the vanity of a standalone WLM lander. My Atom domains now simply point to the main Atom.com site again. Atom already carries a lower buyer‑side reputation than GoDaddy, so any opportunity to strengthen perceived trust is worth seizing, no matter how proud you are of your own WLM and your own WLM domain name. And of course, you can maintain your WLM in the background without actively pointing your domains to it

For a while, I had everything routed through my Atom WLM site, but I've since taken the position that additional trust signals from the underlying marketplace are worth more than the vanity of a standalone WLM lander. My Atom domains now simply point to the main Atom.com site again. Atom already carries a lower buyer‑side reputation than GoDaddy, so any opportunity to strengthen perceived trust is worth seizing, no matter how proud you are of your own WLM and your own WLM domain name. And of course, you can maintain your WLM in the background without actively pointing your domains to it.

Thanks for reply. Makes sense what you say.

 

[pdilernia]

Hi everyone, long-time lurker, first post here.


I'm Pietro, based in Italy, 35+ years in the digital industry (system integration, web, CRM, AI). I started domain investing seriously this year and currently have 63 listings on Atom (mix of Premium and Plus tiers, mostly invented/brandable .coms in the $1.5k–$5k range). I've also started participating in naming contests with my marketplace listings where contest holders allow them.


So far: decent engagement signals on some names (views, a few shortlists), no sales yet — which I know is statistically normal after only a few weeks, but I'd love to calibrate my expectations with real numbers instead of hopes.


So here's my question for the sellers here: how long did it take you to get your FIRST sale on Atom/Squadhelp, and how many listings did you have at the time? Bonus points if you remember what changed things for you — portfolio size, pricing adjustments, tier upgrades, contest activity, or just time on the platform.


I've read through a good chunk of this thread and the sell-through discussions, so I have rough benchmarks (2–3%/year STR seems to be the consensus). What I'm missing is the shape of the curve at the very beginning: does the first sale typically come in month 3, month 8, month 15? Did your early portfolio look very different from your current one?


Any war stories welcome — including the discouraging ones. Thanks!

 

[Optixgroup]

I've read through a good chunk of this thread and the sell-through discussions, so I have rough benchmarks (2–3%/year STR seems to be the consensus).

It sounds like you're off to a good start, but I'd reset your baseline a little: 2-3% is pretty high. For an average portfolio, 1-2% is a much more realistic expectation. I've been on SH/Atom for three years, and have maintained a 1.5% STR consistently as my portfolio has grown, but when you have a portfolio of 63 domains, 1 sale in 2 years would still fall within a normal range. With your portfolio size, it's difficult to get true feedback from most data, which is going to be unevenly distributed. I had my first sale four months in, with a smaller portfolio, but then had a lengthy dry spell after that. Both of these were normal with that kind of sample size. Until you have a much larger portfolio, focus more on the underlying quality -- do the domains have high estimations and quality scores, do the names have a clear buyer -- and and worry less about the signals you're getting from a small sample size.

 

[DomainRecap]

I've read through a good chunk of this thread and the sell-through discussions, so I have rough benchmarks (2–3%/year STR seems to be the consensus).

If you're selling at a price high enough to support your acquisition/renewal costs and making a profit for yourself, the STR is usually in the 0-2% range on average. I know people with a 0.5% STR, yet they're rolling in money because they only sell high.

If your STR is in the 3-5% range, then you're likely pricing too low or are purposefully flipping/wholesaling at a low profit margin.