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.

 

[Recons.Com]

Guys, give them a bit of slack - imagine the same situation but it was with PP or something...and your name was stolen as soon as the buyer opens a (false) complaint, for example.

In worst case you have a solid confirm that the name has interest and has a better chance of selling, that is positive.

When its $$ its gets frustrating - and fast - I always try to think of the same situation in other products / environments. Retail shaps take a beating on "return" costs. That's the best image that helps keeps things a little grounded - but, realistically no less frustrating.

Customers are finicky, and have the right to be, we have to go with their flow.

Couldn't agree more. We all expect that we can a buy product from a Costco and have a right to return it in 60 days with no explanation needed. Yet, when we sell domains, we expect that it must be absolutely firm commitment.

 

[DomainBanana]

Couldn't agree more. We all expect that we can a buy product from a Costco and have a right to return it in 60 days with no explanation needed. Yet, when we sell domains, we expect that it must be absolutely firm commitment.

Maybe due diligence should be done before announcing to the seller the domain has been sold.

This way, the seller's hopes aren't dashed and time is not wasted.

 

[Recons.Com]

Maybe due diligence should be done before announcing to the seller the domain has been sold.

This way, the seller's hopes aren't dashed and time is not wasted.

And then there will be an uproar that seller was not informed in time? And also most buyers want the process started right away. How do they do that?

Look, cancellations might be 5% or less. Trying to eliminate them is not worth double admin effort.

 

[DomainBanana]

And then there will be an uproar that seller was not informed in time? And also most buyers want the process started right away. How do they do that?

Look, cancellations might be 5% or less. Trying to eliminate them is not worth double admin effort.

Of course, you want to move quickly. But I think other marketplaces perform due diligence before communicating with the seller.

Don't bug the seller until due diligence has been performed and the buyer is firm. It's common sense.

 

[Haykay2005]

It's a wrong thing to do. You ought to have done your due diligence before informing me of a sale.

 

[BrandPlease]

keep in mind the seller only has to pay, SH only has to facilitate the transaction --- and the one who could cause a delay (and loss of sale) is the seller. unlock name, get auth, transfer, deal with any mistakes, etc..

There isn't a good way to make it perfect for everyone - except you own landers, you own BIN button, and only you dealing with all aspects of the transaction + transfer.

 

[GrantP]

Buyer has up to 10 days to make necessary validation on the name after it gets sold, and we can hold on transferring if they would like to check on the name first, such as audience testing or trademark validation.

Seriously ? They should consider removing this option @GrantP

First of all, I am sorry about the recent delays in my responses to several posts. We will maintain a limited presence on NP.

For any platform changes or policy related suggestions I also encourage everyone to participate on SH discussion forum so that other members of our platform can also weigh in with their feedback. Majority of our product roadmap, platform and policy changes are based upon direct input from SH community.

Regarding the refund policy, we believe it actually helps sales than hurts sales. Our philosophy is that we must minimize any barriers or hurdles for buyers when making a purchase, while offering the critical tools that they might need to validate the name.

Imagine a seller finds a name that they are in love with, but they are unsure about the Trademark conflicts. Without this policy in place, they would be on their own to do all the research upfront before making the purchase. At the same time, they would be worried about losing the domain to someone else since it remains available for sale while they are spending time and money in doing the research.

We believe that expecting buyers to do the research on their own adds additional doubts in their mind especially when many of them don't even know how to check for Trademark conflicts. More importantly, it adds more days before they actually commit to the actual purchase. We have found that as more time passes, the less likely the buyer is to purchase that name.

Our current policy allows the buyers to commit to the sale and gives them a clearly defined time window in which they can do any due diligence with support from our team of Licensed Trademark attorneys. Since they have already purchased the name, they are significantly more invested in moving forward with the sale.

Not disclosing a sale to the sellers until the buyer has done the due diligence would not be very transparent in our opinion. Sellers like to be informed about page views, shortlists or any other signals of interest in their name - so why should they not be informed when someone has actually taken the final step to make the purchase? Even if the sale gets cancelled (which is rare), it provides a wealth of information about the quality and potential interest in the name.

To put things in perspective, less than 2% of our sales are actually cancelled during this 10 day refundable window.

 

[Kamaldeen]

Pls what does this mean?

 

[Haykay2005]

Pls what does this mean?Show attachment 139446

That's the notification on names you have liked in the past. Click on it to see

 

[Kamaldeen]

That's the notification on names you have liked in the past. Click on it to see

Exactly

 

[JudgeMind]

After a slow couple of months with no sales squadhelp has started to re-align. 3 sales in December include:

Vetovia.com
Thredly.com
Accoria.com

I was considering moving my names from the platform but so long as these types of results continue forth I will build on my current portfolio.

 

[DomainBanana]

Well, @JudgeMind got sales. I guess we can all relax now.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

SquadHelp just released a new update...

https://squadhelp.com/t/december-20th-updates-to-marketplace/5388

We are announcing few additional updates in order to improve the Marketplace experience for sellers as well as buyers:

1. Much Greater Pricing Flexibility

If you have more than 50 premium listings in the Marketplace, you now have much more flexibility to change selling price of your approved domains, straight from your dashboard.

For domains priced below $5000, you can increase the price up-to 2X of the originally approved price. For example, if your domain was approved for $2399, you should be able to increase the price all the way to $4699 directly from your dashboard.

For domains priced above $5000, you can increase the price by 50% or 25%, depending upon the current selling price.

You also have more flexibility in reducing the selling price below originally approved price.
The pricing flexibility applies to both seller owned domains as well as SH registered domains.

2. Classification & Navigation

We have simplified our category structure by merging the “keywords” with categories. You will no longer be able to select “Keywords” for your domains but you will be able to find more options in “possible uses” and “primary category” selection.

In addition, we previously allowed more than 3 “Emotions” and “Possible Uses” to be selected for each domain. In order to improve discovery of domains, and ensure a level playing field for all domains, we no longer accept more than 3 Emotions and more than 3 possible uses.

Some of the domains have 10+ possible uses and 10+ Emotions - which hurts the discoverability of relevant domains in the Marketplace.If you had previously selected more than 3 Emotions or possible uses for any of your domains, we request that you remove the additional options and only keep the top 3 options that are most relevant. Starting January, our system will only recognize 3 possible uses and 3 emotions from your domains even if you had more options selected.

3. Syllables and Pronounceability

We are working on few Beta projects that allow customers to filter and sort names based upon number of syllables as well as the pronounceability of domains. These options will offer more ways for customers to discover great names, helping improve the overall discovery and visibility of names. Some of these options are currently being A/B tested, and therefore only visible to a subset of users browsing the Marketplace.

 

[bourbon]

After a slow couple of months with no sales squadhelp has started to re-align. 3 sales in December include:

Vetovia.com
Thredly.com
Accoria.com

I was considering moving my names from the platform but so long as these types of results continue forth I will build on my current portfolio.

Congratulations! Seeing your sales, I think I understand a bit more about what does well.

 

[Haykay2005]

SquadHelp just released a new update...

https://squadhelp.com/t/december-20th-updates-to-marketplace/5388

There should be a limit to the number of names sellers can increase their prices, may be 10 to 15% of the entire portfolio, same way you peg make offer. Otherwise, sellers will misuse the opportunity and every crap will be priced at 5k and above. You know the result of such action @GrantP

 

[Chris Hydrick]

We will maintain a limited presence on NP.

Why a limited presence?

Weekly check-ins, or frankly anything more frequent than the current monthly+ check-ins, seems like it would help SH stay in touch with the largest domain community nP in the world.

 

[gblasting]

SquadHelp just released a new update...

https://squadhelp.com/t/december-20th-updates-to-marketplace/5388

I don’t understand SH’s obsession with portfolio size.

A guy has 50 premium names with zero sales and another guy listed 10 premium names and sold 4 within 6 months. SH will give the guy with 50 names a privilege they won’t extend to the guy with 10 names who knows what he is doing. In SH’s world, 50 premium names means you are a guru of brandable names.

I made the same remark when they introduced the coin/no-coin submission options. I am in the business of selling names, not some arbitrary portfolio building.

 

[Laguna]

They are trying to get those with only a handful of names with SH to increase to 50+ to get the benefits. It's quite simple really

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I don’t understand SH’s obsession with portfolio size.

A guy has 50 premium names with zero sales and another guy listed 10 premium names and sold 4 within 6 months. SH will give the guy with 50 names a privilege they won’t extend to the guy with 10 names who knows what he is doing. In SH’s world, 50 premium names means you are a guru of brandable names.

I made the same remark when they introduced the coin/no-coin submission options. I am in the business of selling names, not some arbitrary portfolio building.

I agree with what you're saying. Especially thinking from one of their contest buyers perspective. Meaning, if a buyer knew the basis of the pricing of domains (or contest submissions for those running contests also looking for a matching domain) were partly dependent on if a seller had 50+ domains with SH, it might send mixed messaging about the true value of a domain name. Though, it might cause those with 50+ to value their SH portfolio more, and think twice before violating too many of SH rules?

I wonder if this is a push to get more coin purchases, to push for those to reach 50+ domains listed? Also noting, as of recent all premium domains registered by seller priced under $25 and not containing "cana" have all either been sold or removed from the wholesale marketplace.

So maybe some sellers are stocking up via the wholesale marketplace? With sole hopes of paying more up front now, to be able to raise the price of their currently discounted (discounted when considering their inability to raise the price until they reach 50+ SH listed) domains? And in doing so, cover the cost of their wholesale purchases ($25 x 50 = $1250) with one sale of a raised priced domain ($2399 x 2), only made possible with having 50+ SH domains?

The issue with this arbitrary $1,250 number representing 50+ SH premium listed domains, is it devalues those aiming for quality and not quanity. Almost as if they value 50 random domains (wholesale $1,250), more than they do 3 premium domains that might have cost $500 each (wholesale $1500).

 

[brianviktor67]

how long does it take to review domain in SH? Just added two names with them and will it worthwhile?
thanks

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

SquadHelp just released a new update...

https://squadhelp.com/t/december-20th-updates-to-marketplace/5388

Pricing flexibility... and then when you go to see what the price change dropdown list looks like you see that you can only have a max of $200 less than your current price.

An orwellian chocolate ration announcement.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

https://squadhelp.com/t/additional-options-for-expiring-domains/5398

We are pleased to announce a new feature that would allow domain owners to transfer the ownership of their expiring domains to SH instead of dropping them.

This option is only beneficial if you are considering dropping some of your domains (because you do not wish to pay for the renewal fees). Instead of dropping those domains, you can request an “Ownership Transfer” to SH. if approved, your domain will continue to be listed at SH, and SH will begin paying for renewal fees. If the domain sells, you will receive the commission as per the SH registered domain rules (which is typically 25% during the first year).

As a recap, you have several alternatives while evaluating whether or not to transfer the ownership to SH. Let’s say you have a domain listed at $2500 with 30% SH Commission. Prior to the domain renewal, you have following options:

• • You can continue paying for renewals. If the domain sells, you will receive $1750 (70% of $2500). We recommend staying with this option for most of your domains.
    
    
  • You can sell the domain in wholesale marketplace. Expected selling price: about $25 to $40 (minus 3% transaction fee)
    
    
  • Transfer the ownership to SH. SH pays for renewal fees. If the domain sells within 12 months, your expected payout would be $625. For future years, your expected payout will be lower (typically 22.5% in second year, 20% in third year).
    
    
  • Drop the domain.

While we expect most sellers to continue using the first option (pay for their own renewals), the ability to transfer domains to SH offers one more alternative to sellers who are looking to rebalance their portfolio.

As immediately questioned in the comments of the update link (but not yet responded to by a SH rep), the update doesn't mention if the domain must be squadhelp premium or not.

I think the wording ("Instead of dropping those domains, you can request an “Ownership Transfer” to SH. if approved, your domain will continue to be listed at SH, and SH will begin paying for renewal fees.") might explain it best? In thinking, any SH domain, whether it be Basic or Premium, will have an option to submit "Ownership Transfer" for approval consideration. e.g. As long as domain ownership is validated by SH, then they will enable option of ownership transfer submission request?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

in the comments of the update link (but not yet responded to by a SH rep)

@DomainBanana for the win!

 

[Bernard Wright]

I have sold a Basic Plus name. The CH made it clear in the brief that he had money to spend. I tend to submit Basic Plus names only when I’m confident that the CH is well-funded. ...or, when it’s such a good fit that I know the CH would be wise to splurge. It’s frustrating when the CH ends up giving such a name a No Thank You, only because it’s out of their budget. I had such a situation an hour ago. Perfect two-word 7 letter name that got a No Thank You after SH notified me that the CH visited the landing page.

As others have pointed out, most CH want a bargain, so Basic and available names are usually the way to go.

It’s a very imperfect marketplace, I agree.

@GrantP I haven’t received an update regarding SH’s investigation into this incident since the 8th. The most recent email states “We are committed to protecting the hard work of our creatives...”. I find “committed to...” a rather shifty term for any business to use. It implies a promise, without explicitly stating so, and thus, leaves some convenient wiggle room.

How committed is SquadHelp? The contest had 21 shortlisted names. 5 of them have since been reported as registered. What steps is SquadHelp taking to “protect the hard work” of those people whose names were reported?

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Ouch...

Yesterday (12/25), I regged a domain, then earlier today (12/26), submitted it to SH...

... but noticed it has a (12/18) submit date.

As the domain was recently dropped (after full expiration cycle), I assume this domain was submitted unregistered? If it's accepted, will whomever submitted it unregistered assume SH registered it themselves?