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.

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

i have been a seller at squadhelp since they were small with just 12,000 or so names in their portfolio. I have noticed over the last year a significant reduction in exposure for my portfolio. I understand it’s important to spread the exposure across all sellers and respect this. I do believe that although STR are dropping, squadhelp does have a pool of buyers that is quite different from other marketplaces and many of the sales I’ve made would not have sold as quickly through afternic or sedo. Being a larger portfolio holder, I’m on the cusp of failing in my business at squadhelp as sales are currently only paying renewal fees. After having pretty good success with Squadhelp early on, I scaled from around 100 premium listings to close to 600 now with hopes that more listings would equate to more frequent sales. Because there is so much competition in the marketplace and exposure of my portfolio has been greatly reduced the frequency of sales has not increased and the majority of sales are occurring around the $1500 mark. That being said, earlier on in my time with Squadhelp, my average sales were around $2000. More competition is forcing sellers to be more competitive in their pricing which in turn has resulted in a very large selection of names available to buyers for lower pricing. I’d like to see Squadhelp set a min price point for all of their names around $2000 instead of the $1299-$1399 min pricing they currently allow.

realistic sell thru rates for my portfolio and at least one of the bigger portfolio holders that I’ve spoken with is between 2-4%. There was a blitz of high priced 4L com sales a few months ago at squadhelp but these don’t seem to hot anymore, I’d still suggest them though. As for high end brandables, I believe squadhelp is one of the best places to list these and sales reports have shown these sell for great prices and are likely to sell relatively quickly compared to made up 6-7L names.

100% same situation here , No sale from last many months with big fishes arriving on SH , Dead for me, it is getting even harder day by day to renew names now , I have 245 listings 3 sold , last sold name was 4L around 7 months ago...

 

[DomainBanana]

I’m on the cusp of failing in my business at squadhelp as sales are currently only paying renewal fees.

How could this be? You're one of the top sellers on the marketplace. Your STR is 4.42%.

Seems like you're far above breaking even here.

 

[JudgeMind]

How could this be? You're one of the top sellers on the marketplace. Your STR is 4.42%.

Seems like you're far above breaking even here.

overall for the year I’m on top with 16 sales. However, the past 5 months I have had just 5 sales, of these, 2 were instalment plans of 6-12 months. Monthly carrying costs for the portfolio $1127. Factoring in all business expenses associated. With the goal of a 15-20% end profit, I am currently only at 3%-5%. These past 5 months historically are slower in the calendar year and one should be factoring in the effects covid has on the industry as well. I have not experienced these “historical” reductions in sales on other marketplaces such as afternic.

 

[DomainBanana]

overall for the year I’m on top with 16 sales. However, the past 5 months I have had just 5 sales, of these, 2 were instalment plans of 6-12 months. Monthly carrying costs for the portfolio $1127. Factoring in all business expenses associated. With the goal of a 15-20% end profit, I am currently only at 3%-5%. These past 5 months historically are slower in the calendar year and one should be factoring in the effects covid has on the industry as well. I have not experienced these “historical” reductions in sales on other marketplaces such as afternic.

We all have business expenses.

I understand the marketplace has become more competitive and your results have slowed but 4.42% STR on a brandable marketplace seems like a very solid return to me.

 

[JudgeMind]

We all have business expenses.

I understand the marketplace has become more competitive and your results have slowed but 4.42% STR on a brandable marketplace seems like a very solid return to me.

im skeptical with these STR statistics. My calculation shows, given my portfolio size, my STR is 2.7%, while my cohort, who has one of the largest portfolios on sh claims their STR is 2.3%.

Squadhelp only includes domains listed for 12 months or more in their annualized STR

 

[DomainBanana]

Squadhelp only includes domains listed for 12 months or more in their annualized STR

Annualized STR includes all domains in your premium portfolio, regardless of list time.

They show the formula here: https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/4489216-what-is-annualized-sell-through-rate-str

 

[JudgeMind]

Annualized STR includes all domains in your premium portfolio, regardless of list time.

They show the formula here: https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/4489216-what-is-annualized-sell-through-rate-str

My math works this way:

16 sales
576 listings

16/576 * 100 = 2.7%

this has been the standard way to calculated STR since I began Domaining in 2008.not to include average portfolio listing age

 

[DomainBanana]

My math works this way:

16 sales
576 listings

16/576 * 100 = 2.7%

this has been the standard way to calculated STR since I began Domaining in 2008.not to include average portfolio listing age

Keep in mind that this year is not over and that you've added domains this year which haven't been listed on the marketplace for the full year.

Annualized STR takes these things into account. It's an accurate formula.

 

[Ntmt]

2 notable sales (not mine) recently reported including $6k .io

 

[Ntmt]

Currently Curated By Squadhelp count is 66123 premium domains.
In October SH sells 4.5 domains per day in general, according to my notes.
Global STR Math basing on the data above: (4.5 * 365) / 66123 = 2.48%

But this math gives lower number because it does not take into account that portfolio count is not constant but permanently growing. So ideally we should wait till domain is exposed for 1 year before concluding STR. That is why SH method makes sense (counting only domains exposed >= 1 year) for dynamically growing portfolio

 

[loredan]

I think SH count the domains sold at Afternic into their own STR which (if true) is a misleading BS.

So... I started listing at SH about 3 months ago, no sales so far however one of the listed names sold at Afternic. This is counted towards my sold names at SH and I currently have a 14.51% STR even if I never sold a name at SH.

 

[JudgeMind]

I think SH count the domains sold at Afternic into their own STR which (if true) is a misleading BS.

So... I started listing at SH about 3 months ago, no sales so far however one of the listed names sold at Afternic. This is counted towards my sold names at SH and I currently have a 14.51% STR even if I never sold a name at SH.

Show attachment 173215

Yes they are including sales at Afternic into your STR.. also, up until the recent grouping of basic listings, basic plus and basic listing sales were also getting accounted for.

 

[Ostrados]

I’d like to see Squadhelp set a min price point for all of their names around $2000 instead of the $1299-$1399 min pricing they currently allow.

Interesting suggestion, but don't you think that will lower STR more?

 

[Ostrados]

I think SH count the domains sold at Afternic into their own STR which (if true) is a misleading BS.

So... I started listing at SH about 3 months ago, no sales so far however one of the listed names sold at Afternic. This is counted towards my sold names at SH and I currently have a 14.51% STR even if I never sold a name at SH.

Show attachment 173215

Yes they do which is indeed misleading!

 

[JudgeMind]

Interesting suggestion, but don't you think that will lower STR more?

I don’t think it would affect it much if the bottom line price of all listed names is $2000. In my experience, there are lots of end users willing to pay $2000-$2500 for a name

 

[loredan]

Yes they are including sales at Afternic into your STR.. also, up until the recent grouping of basic listings, basic plus and basic listing sales were also getting accounted for.

Yes they do which is indeed misleading!

So ... I pay SH for the right to list MY domain at Afternic, if I make an external sale I pay an additional 10% commission to SH for the "privilege" to have MY domain listed at their crappy marketplace and on top of that they also attribute the sale to themselves even if they never lifted a finger and the sale happened at a different marketplace? Wow, just wow!

I wonder what would happen if lets say Sedo would steal sales data from Afternic and attribute these to themselves, I wonder how the hell no one ever mentioned what SH is doing because this clearly isn't right, is it? I also wonder how the hell none of you guys with hundreds of names listed never said anything, you basically have a look at your own STR and kid yourselves that everything is fine and you're so cool to have 4% when in reality you have 1.8%?

 

[JudgeMind]

So ... I pay SH for the right to list MY domain at Afternic, if I make an external sale I pay an additional 10% commission to SH for the "privilege" to have MY domain listed at their crappy marketplace and on top of that they also attribute the sale to themselves even if they never lifted a finger and the sale happened at a different marketplace? Wow, just wow!

I wonder what would happen if lets say Sedo would steal sales data from Afternic and attribute these to themselves, I wonder how the hell no one ever mentioned what SH is doing because this clearly isn't right, is it? I also wonder how the hell none of you guys with hundreds of names listed never said anything, you basically have a look at your own STR and kid yourselves that everything is fine and you're so cool to have 4% when in reality you have 1.8%?

I keep track of my own STR stats and don’t pay much attention to Squadhelp’s metrics. While I do find some value in their stats, I don’t use them to make my own business decisions. Cheers

 

[Bima Priyo Sembodo]

Calm Down Guys Because This Is Covid 19 era so maybe sales is plummet

Why not give it try @JudgeMind Until 2021 may we see the result

 

[Ntmt]

Another decent $16k sale (not mine) reported at SH today

 

[karmaco]

I think the point Judge was trying to make is SH pricing is generally so damn low its hard to keep a large portfolio while having any profit. His profit goes for renewals. That’s a problem in the long run.

 

[gblasting]

Another decent $16k sale (not mine) reported at SH today
Show attachment 173275

Anyone has an idea why SH accepted this name for $24,444?

Dofo and DotDB do not show many end users.

 

[NameWell]

So ... I pay SH for the right to list MY domain at Afternic, if I make an external sale I pay an additional 10% commission to SH for the "privilege" to have MY domain listed at their crappy marketplace and on top of that they also attribute the sale to themselves even if they never lifted a finger and the sale happened at a different marketplace? Wow, just wow!

I wonder what would happen if lets say Sedo would steal sales data from Afternic and attribute these to themselves, I wonder how the hell no one ever mentioned what SH is doing because this clearly isn't right, is it? I also wonder how the hell none of you guys with hundreds of names listed never said anything, you basically have a look at your own STR and kid yourselves that everything is fine and you're so cool to have 4% when in reality you have 1.8%?

Well, I see it in a completely different way. Before you had to choose if you want to list your domain names at Squadhelp OR at Afternic & SEDO. If you choose to list at SH, you might lose a sale on AN & SEDO and vice versa. Then SH moved a finger and made partnerships with AN and SEDO. While SEDO integration is automatic they went an extra mile and showed a lot of trust to sellers to let them list domain names individually on Afternic, report sales and pay the difference in commission.

You're paying those 10% for the privilege (yes, privilege) to make your domain name visible to all three audiences of Afternic/SEDO AND Squadhelp. You have a lot better exposure and bigger chances of selling your domain name. They eliminated the risk of losing a sale on AN/SEDO if you choose to list solely on SH. They deserve those 10% because they made partnerships and enabled you to have significantly bigger exposure. And they deserve to show those sales in their stats because they moved a finger in order for them to happen.

Vast majority of my sales happened through SH. Three happened via their partnership with Afternic. If they wouldn't have made that partnership it's very likely those three sales wouldn't have happened. So I'm grateful they happened and I got to benefit from that

SH invests a lot in attracting buyers to their marketplace and someone in this thread said, that they are selling 4,5 domain names on average per day. But if you think exposure on SH is completely worthless and most of your sales will happen elsewhere, you can always unlist all of your domain names from SH and list them on Afternic/SEDO and all other marketplaces that don't request exclusivity.

 

[Ntmt]

@NameWell, I agree in general with the post above, but what kind of integration with Afternic SH has? I have to list SH premiums at Afternic by myself.

 

[NameWell]

@NameWell, I agree in general with the post above, but what kind of integration with Afternic SH has? I have to list SH premiums at Afternic by myself.

@Ntmt you don't have to, you get to And yes, it is not ideal. If I remember correctly, it was mentioned on SH forum that the reason why there is no direct integration for seller owned domain names with Afternic via Squadhelp like it is with SEDO lies on Afternic's end. They are not enabling third party (SH) to be involved in listing domain names that are owned by someone else... or something like that. Anyway, I hope they will manage to improve this in the future.

But for now, I'm happy that I can list my domain names on Squadhelp AND Afternic and get a lot bigger exposure and better chances of selling my domain names even if the process is clunky.

 

[loredan]

Well, I see it in a completely different way. Before you had to choose if you want to list your domain names at Squadhelp OR at Afternic & SEDO. If you choose to list at SH, you might lose a sale on AN & SEDO and vice versa. Then SH moved a finger and made partnerships with AN and SEDO. While SEDO integration is automatic they went an extra mile and showed a lot of trust to sellers to let them list domain names individually on Afternic, report sales and pay the difference in commission.

You're paying those 10% for the privilege (yes, privilege) to make your domain name visible to all three audiences of Afternic/SEDO AND Squadhelp. You have a lot better exposure and bigger chances of selling your domain name. They eliminated the risk of losing a sale on AN/SEDO if you choose to list solely on SH. They deserve those 10% because they made partnerships and enabled you to have significantly bigger exposure. And they deserve to show those sales in their stats because they moved a finger in order for them to happen.

Vast majority of my sales happened through SH. Three happened via their partnership with Afternic. If they wouldn't have made that partnership it's very likely those three sales wouldn't have happened. So I'm grateful they happened and I got to benefit from that

SH invests a lot in attracting buyers to their marketplace and someone in this thread said, that they are selling 4,5 domain names on average per day. But if you think exposure on SH is completely worthless and most of your sales will happen elsewhere, you can always unlist all of your domain names from SH and list them on Afternic/SEDO and all other marketplaces that don't request exclusivity.

No offense but this is exactly the kind of fan boy reply I expected at some point to be honest. You wrote a lot but you haven't said much. Looks like people with many domains listed have no interest of discussing the SH problems and tend to hide them under the rug (perhaps) because they're afraid SH will turn off the sales tap?

My main issue is none of the ones you talked about, my main issue is they take the Afternic sales and add them to the STR making the STR data irrelevant for most people (including yourself). Those sales happening at Afternic have nothing to do with the SH platform and shouldn't be added to your STR regardless of all and any partnerships they might have with other marketplaces. You simply cannot claim you worked hard and made a sale for one of your members as long as the domain actually sold somewhere else and you had absolutely nothing to do with the sale itself (no listing, no promotion, no support, no escrow, nothing at all) but all you do is begging for some 10% commission.