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.

 

[synecdoche]

For all the experts who have sold names on SH before, I have question. What is the average number of "views" and "shortlist" that your domain received before it was sold? Any insights on that front? Thanks in advance!

 

[Ntmt]

Yesterday, I had 20 rejected names from 20 submitted. This is the first time I have 20 rejected/unregistered domains/ from 20 submitted So I lost 20 coins with no result

Maybe that is because of quality of unregistered domains is becoming low over time?
Or just learn what they accept now and play on their rules.
Anyway SH is more attractive for me due to fast review process comparing to other brandable marketplace.
Also they review unregistered which is also advantage. Imagine if you spend reg fee for each domain and they all got rejected... So $1 per domain is not so high price to try and learn what they accept or do not accept.

 

[Cdomains]

For all the experts who have sold names on SH before, I have question. What is the average number of "views" and "shortlist" that your domain received before it was sold? Any insights on that front? Thanks in advance!

I have domains with lots of views and shortlists and they have not sold.

Domains I have sold have not been among the highest in views or shortlists.

I don't think it matters that much.

The dashboard in SH is just there to dazzle you

and make you feel good about keeping your domains with them.

Most of the info they show has no connection to actual sales in my experience.

 

[Seyikp]

For all the experts who have sold names on SH before, I have question. What is the average number of "views" and "shortlist" that your domain received before it was sold? Any insights on that front? Thanks in advance!

There are domains with 1k views and not sold. And there some with only one view and cash out.

 

[DomainBanana]

A few thoughts on the review policy:

Squadhelp has been doing some amazing things over the past few months that have, in my view, made them the premiere brandable marketplace.

The Afternic, Sedo, and Flippa integrations. The rewards program that provides incentives for listing more domains with them. The aggressive marketing spend. Etc.

The speed at which they innovate is encouraging and I give them a great deal of credit for always being available (24/7 customer support) and listening to seller feedback.

This being said, I think the new review policy is problematic as it currently stands:

1) Allowing a small group of competing sellers to review domains presents a conflict of interest. Even though there are attempts to mitigate this by having multiple reviewers (currently about 16 per domain) and monitoring reviewers' activity, something doesn't sit right when a tiny group of competing sellers is allowed to control what gains acceptance onto the marketplace. To be clear, I know and respect some of these reviewers. But the small number of reviewers presents too much of a potential conflict of interest in my view for this to be comfortable.

Possible solution: increase the number of seller-reviewers to at least 30

2) Reviews are now conducted by quick multiple choice polls (which name do you like best?). Reviewers do not see descriptions. I believe the review process should involve more than a superficial polling process. Domaining involves some subjectivity, but it's more than just "I like this, I don't like that".

Possible solution: Stop the multiple choice polls and encourage domains to be evaluated carefully, one at a time

3) Seller-reviewers get large rewards that help them keep their domains at the top of the marketplace. These rewards include 10 points per domain reviewed plus 100 points per domain they review that is approved. That is 110 points per domain that makes it onto the marketplace.

Suppose reviewers review 100 domains per day and suppose 10% of those make it onto the marketplace. That's 2,000 points per day (100 points x 10 points per review plus 100 points x 10 domains approved).

In just two months, reviewers will have earned 120,000 points, equal to 60 super-boosts, 240 standard boosts, or 120 lifestyle images.

In a year, seller-reviewers will have earned 720,000 points, equal to 360 super-boosts, 1440 standard boosts, or 720 lifestyle images.

This reward system ensures reviewers will keep their domains at the top of the marketplace and will make it much harder for non-reviewers to compete.
​

Possible solution: give sellers a larger number of points for listing an approved domain to help balance out the massive points that reviewers are accruing, or allow anyone who wants to be a reviewer to become a reviewer and weight reviewer scores based on variables like STR and contest ranking

4) Seller-reviewers have access to data that other sellers don't and can take inspiration from others' submissions. A related example:

A 9-letter invented domain has been listed on SH for a couple years:
-------us.com ($1799)

One of the reviewers recently listed the same domain with a slightly different ending:
-------um.com ($1999)​

This new listing was likely inspired by the old one. It didn't come from the new review process, as the older listing has been on the market for about two years, but it's an example of how reviewers could easily take inspiration from submissions.

Reviewers have special access to submission data. They see most names that pass through the marketplace (accepts and rejects) and can easily monitor trends and submit similar names if they want. Not every reviewer will do this, but it will undoubtedly happen. This asymmetric access to submission data is troubling.
​

Possible solution: make this data transparent for all sellers.

To be clear: I am not accusing SH or seller-reviewers of anything underhanded here. Over the past year, seeing what SH has accomplished, I have come to have a great deal of respect for the organization and I understand that they believe the new review policy will help to create a better curated marketplace. Watching the latest approvals, I believe this is true -- the quality of approved domains has been much higher lately and I'm grateful to SH and the reviewers for this.

So, while I don't question SH's motives or the reviewers' motives, I feel the policy as it stands gives a disproportionate advantage to seller-reviewers and I hope this can be addressed.

Until then, I will try to become a seller-reviewer myself :D

 

[November]

After 1 year all seller-reviewers will buy lifestyle images for 100% of all their domains and they'll boost them all the time. This is not ok for the other sellers.

 

[Ntmt]

Watching the latest approvals, I believe this is true -- the quality of approved domains has been much higher lately and I'm grateful to SH and the reviewers for this.

Where can we watch this?

 

[Rhinnnn]

Where can we watch this?

https://www.squadhelp.com/premium-domains-for-sale/all - sort domains by New Arrivals and you can see what names are published daily (after being approved, obviously).

 

[Rhinnnn]

Now that most people have mentioned that the expert system is leading to more rejections, can people post some of their rejects so that 'non-experts' in this thread can weigh in on them?

Here are some of my rejected names.

I don't post them to receive feedback (though anyone's free to weigh in), but to allow other SH users to see that rejection does not necessarily mean a name is bad - this is true for all marketplaces.

I'm fairly confident that I can sell some of these names by myself at some point. I'm in no hurry and I can renew them forever.

 

[Seyikp]

Here are some of my rejected names.

I don't post them to receive feedback (though anyone's free to weigh in), but to allow other SH users to see that rejection does not necessarily mean a name is bad - this is true for all marketplaces.

I'm fairly confident that I can sell some of these names at some point by myself. I'm in no hurry and I can renew them forever.

Show attachment 152808

If I'm one of the expert reviewer, I will also reject all of these names.

 

[Rhinnnn]

If I'm one of the expert reviewer, I will also reject all of these names.

That's funny. Thanks

 

[E-Thunder]

Hello everyone. I wanted to share an updated Squadhelp review from my last post 2 weeks ago.

A lot has happened within that time. I now have a total of 16 approved names listed. This is up from the 4 I had as of my last post.

Approval rate is just over 20%.

All that have been approved are 2 word combinations or compounds.

Rejected names include some compounds as well, but I do want to note that all made up words or plays on words were rejected. When I say a play on words, I mean blending two words together or adding an ending to a word that normally wouldn't be there like "fully".

For my domains at least, there seems to be a pattern as to what types of names are chosen versus rejected. This has been a learning experience, and I do feel that they are probably right in rejecting some of these. I would say the experts and Squadhelp themselves have a better idea than I would regarding what will sell there, so I have been trying to cater submissions to this criteria.

I have spent a bit of time on the site, and looking at what contest holders want for their businesses. Sometimes I think that the names they like aren't what I would chose, but I have to be objective to the tastes of prospective buyers. It really is eye opening if you look at these contests to gauge what names real end users want! I suggest everyone check these out. I now participate in these, although unlikely to win, I enjoy it and now track results of these.

I now mainly am using Squadhelp over Brand Bucket and Brandpa. The turn around from submission to acceptance or rejection has been averaging just a few days. Then logos usually a few days after this. It is about 2/3 or 3/4 logos that are pretty nice too. I have had a few questions and customer service has gotten back pretty quickly where Brand Bucket is much slower in response.

For someone navigating their site, I personally find it more user friendly than other brandable marketplaces. This in my mind will lead to more sales. Now with incentive to increase names there with thresholds for benefits, I plan to try increasing submissions to grow my portfolio there.

I have a post in "Available Domains" where I plan to keep adding unregistered domains that were rejected. This may be useful to see what names are less likely to be accepted. Also, you may see something that you feel has potential. For all with lots of rejected names, I would keep trying. I know it is disappointing when 9/10 or the majority are rejected, but Squadhelp sales appear strong due to the massive amount of marketing they do. I would welcome everyone to share rejected names here or in "Available Domains" section here on NamePros. This will help us all better understand what might have a better chance.

 

[gina ferrano]

I'm curious are most of you submitting unregistered names @ 1 coin per, submitting unregistered names for SH to own for no coins, or already registered names? I'd do a poll but I don't think I can. I can see the benefit of owning the name (risk/reward) one needs to go through the expert reviewers in which case. One of the pluses submitting unregistered names is that it's vetted by staff. So far I've taken a slightly higher commission 32% on accepted names no coins or points, rather than paying 1 coin/$1 per. My sense SH is more lenient with accepting unregistered names giving them them the option to buy. I may try that on lower valued names, just wondered what others do. I'm kind of in their sweet spot $1999-$2399 when pricing my own names. I also noticed with lower priced names they also take a higher commission (<1799)

 

[Footprint789]

[Redacted by myself until further investigation]

 

[Cdomains]

I would say the experts and Squadhelp themselves have a better idea than I would regarding what will sell there

Not true at all.

Most of my sales at SH are from names that were rejected at first.

I submitted them for review, and they were approved and later sold.

This was before the whole "Experts Panel" thing started.

My experience is that, as a whole the SH domain reviewers

do a poor job of judging names.

My sales of domains that were rejected, then approved, then sold

prove this!!

 

[GrantP]

So finally, an original idea of a name did not make it to the marketplace but someone who stole the idea managed to get it on to the marketplace successfully.

We typically do not respond to specific incidents like this in a public forum, however since you have made a public accusation, it is important to set the record straight:

1. The name Genius / Analysis / com was submitted to the Marketplace on April 24 (05:56am CST).

2. Your name Genius / Analyst / com was submitted one day after the above submission on April 25 (11:43am CST).

Based upon the timeline of submissions, there is no possibility that your idea could have been "stolen" by the other seller. Moreover, the other seller in question is NOT an expert reviewer.

We receive several thousand submissions every week, and sometimes there can be coincidences. If you suspect that there is an issue, you are encouraged to report it to our 24/7 support team so that it can be investigated. Of course you are free to post such examples publicly, however we do not believe it is fair for the reviewers to be accused in this fashion without allowing SH the opportunity to investigate.

I would also like to address the broader topic about our review process as well as acceptance rates. As a Marketplace, we have taken a strategic decision to manage our growth in a very controlled fashion. This means that at this point, we are only accepting those names that we believe will resonate very strongly with our customers.

The Expert Reviewers do not have the ability to approve or reject names by themselves. Any names that receive even 4 votes (out of about 20) must be reviewed by the SH team before they can be rejected. Even in case of less than 4 votes, certain names are still reviewed by the SH team before they are rejected. We have been watching this very closely, and in general, if a name receives less than 4 votes, it is likely not a good fit for our Marketplace. However even in those cases, you have the option to request another review, which is done directly by SH internal team.

Brandable domains are very subjective, and it is entirely possible that your name was not accepted in the SH marketplace but it ends up selling for a great price elsewhere. We will definitely not get it right all the time, but we strongly believe that the current process is allowing us to make much better decisions.

 

[DomainBanana]

Based upon the timeline of submissions, there is no possibility that your idea could have been "stolen" by the other seller. Moreover, the other seller in question is NOT an expert reviewer.

While it didn't happen in this case, it's plausible that it could and will happen.

I already provided an example where one of the reviewers did list an invented name where only the last letter is different from an existing premium listing.

There's no doubt that some reviewers take inspiration from other premium listings and it's only natural. This is not wrong or stealing. What is unjust is when a small group of sellers has special access to submission data that makes it easy for them to do this while other sellers do not.

Giving a small group of competing sellers special access to submission data as well as the concerns I've detailed above makes the new system concerning and a clear conflict of interest.

_______________________________________________________________________

(Note: at least one and probably both users who disliked this comment are Squadhelp reviewers. Once again demonstrating that reviewers are competing sellers, not disinterested parties, and they will fight hard to maintain their new advantages.

This also demonstrates how the new review policy has driven a wedge between seller-reviewers and non-reviewer sellers. I have experienced a great deal of antagonism and personal attacks from the seller-reviewers for questioning the new policy, even as I continue to make clear that I'm not questioning their individual motives or integrity but how the process naturally lends advantages to this group.

I respectfully ask that Squadhelp reviewers not engage in downvoting remarks that question the new system. This, too, is a conflict of interest.)

 

[Footprint789]

We typically do not respond to specific incidents like this in a public forum, however since you have made a public accusation, it is important to set the record straight:

1. The name Genius / Analysis / com was submitted to the Marketplace on April 24 (05:56am CST).

2. Your name Genius / Analyst / com was submitted one day after the above submission on April 25 (11:43am CST).

Based upon the timeline of submissions, there is no possibility that your idea could have been "stolen" by the other seller. Moreover, the other seller in question is NOT an expert reviewer.

We receive several thousand submissions every week, and sometimes there can be coincidences. If you suspect that there is an issue, you are encouraged to report it to our 24/7 support team so that it can be investigated. Of course you are free to post such examples publicly, however we do not believe it is fair for the reviewers to be accused in this fashion without allowing SH the opportunity to investigate.

I would also like to address the broader topic about our review process as well as acceptance rates. As a Marketplace, we have taken a strategic decision to manage our growth in a very controlled fashion. This means that at this point, we are only accepting those names that we believe will resonate very strongly with our customers.

The Expert Reviewers do not have the ability to approve or reject names by themselves. Any names that receive even 4 votes (out of about 20) must be reviewed by the SH team before they can be rejected. Even in case of less than 4 votes, certain names are still reviewed by the SH team before they are rejected. We have been watching this very closely, and in general, if a name receives less than 4 votes, it is likely not a good fit for our Marketplace. However even in those cases, you have the option to request another review, which is done directly by SH internal team.

Brandable domains are very subjective, and it is entirely possible that your name was not accepted in the SH marketplace but it ends up selling for a great price elsewhere. We will definitely not get it right all the time, but we strongly believe that the current process is allowing us to make much better decisions.

Thanks Grant for your response. I see. I have immediately redacted my post based on your response. This is what I saw when I searched for it in whois.

It says April 25, I am not sure what time zone it is mentioned there and I do not remember at what time I submitted the name as I cannot see in SH dashboard. May be it's in a different time zone. Also you can see that it you have access to data that it was submitted on Apr 24, which I do not and have no possible way of knowing it. As per whois, I saw that it was on Apr 25. If it is indeed Apr 24 then I am taking back my words and I apologise for the owner of the said name and also experts in this particular matter.

I mean the similarities were too good to be true to be coincidental. May be this is one of those million cases where it is coincidental unfortunately.

Also, I thought of directly contacting support first. I also send a feedback message couple of days ago to your mail and also consulted support about the said name although it's about how good quality name mentioned in the original post is rejected and other similar issues. Support made it clear that I will not get a response on this. Seeing this couple of times, I did not see if it even be read if I sent it to support and so thought of directly contacting you here as you seem active here giving people like me the only way to contact you.

Thanks @GrantP for clearing air about this. Much appreciated. Although you might agree with other things I mentioned, I still think some of the good names are being rejected and that experts have special advantage in this whole process. These two names show clear contrast of what SH team reviews and considers as good based on their internal data and experts who solely consider their own experience.

 

[Footprint789]

@GrantP

Would it be possible to increase 5 review requests limit per month. Honestly, it is nowhere near sufficient with all the rejections that are going on.

Also, these 5 includes logo requests too leaving almost no scope to request review for names rejection.

As names such as aforementioned ones genuinely warrant a second look. I hope you see the potential of names like this. But I was out of limits so it was not possible for me to request review on it.

FYI, I also contacted support about this but no response which is why we have to find other ways to get our feedback infront of people like you.

Please consider this request as even some premium acquired names are being auto rejected. This will enable SH internal team to evaluate with better insights they have.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Crypto2020]

@GrantP, there are 3 genuine issues / concerns being raised in this thread (over and above the Rejections and Acceptance Rate debate) with regards to the new Expert Review system:

1. Conflict of Interest: You have addressed and explained the counter-measures used for this in your past responses, which seem reasonable. But still it does not reduce this potential to zero.

2. Carte Blanche for Thievery: This is the issue recently raised by @Footprint789. Whether it happened in this particular case or not, you have to agree its just so easy for the expert reviewers to check for variants of interesting submissions and submitting them themselves. In fact, the whole system seems to give special access and privileges to a select few sellers (the experts) Vs the rest. Don't think there are any measures or checks implemented in this regard either at SH.

3. Cornering the Top 10% or more of the Marketplace Visibility: Here the argument is that by amassing tons of SH coins and points over a month or a year, and with no option to encash them, the only sensible way to spend them would be on Super-boosts and Life-style images thus leading to cornering of the Marketplace visibility by the select few experts. Again this gives the perception that SH intentionally or unintentionally wants to court a select few sellers Vs the rest.

Would love if you could address all 3 concerns individually.

Also would second @Footprint789 motion to increase the review limits. In fact, I had requested the same in my earlier post https://www.namepros.com/threads/squadhelp-marketplace.1120686/page-58#post-7717704

Best Regards,
Crypto

 

[NewDayBrand]

We typically do not respond to specific incidents like this in a public forum, however since you have made a public accusation, it is important to set the record straight:

1. The name Genius / Analysis / com was submitted to the Marketplace on April 24 (05:56am CST).

2. Your name Genius / Analyst / com was submitted one day after the above submission on April 25 (11:43am CST).

Based upon the timeline of submissions, there is no possibility that your idea could have been "stolen" by the other seller. Moreover, the other seller in question is NOT an expert reviewer.

We receive several thousand submissions every week, and sometimes there can be coincidences. If you suspect that there is an issue, you are encouraged to report it to our 24/7 support team so that it can be investigated. Of course you are free to post such examples publicly, however we do not believe it is fair for the reviewers to be accused in this fashion without allowing SH the opportunity to investigate.

I would also like to address the broader topic about our review process as well as acceptance rates. As a Marketplace, we have taken a strategic decision to manage our growth in a very controlled fashion. This means that at this point, we are only accepting those names that we believe will resonate very strongly with our customers.

The Expert Reviewers do not have the ability to approve or reject names by themselves. Any names that receive even 4 votes (out of about 20) must be reviewed by the SH team before they can be rejected. Even in case of less than 4 votes, certain names are still reviewed by the SH team before they are rejected. We have been watching this very closely, and in general, if a name receives less than 4 votes, it is likely not a good fit for our Marketplace. However even in those cases, you have the option to request another review, which is done directly by SH internal team.

Brandable domains are very subjective, and it is entirely possible that your name was not accepted in the SH marketplace but it ends up selling for a great price elsewhere. We will definitely not get it right all the time, but we strongly believe that the current process is allowing us to make much better decisions.

My registered names biotyc.com apexbrick.com and togrowup.com got rejected by the experts. When it's SH team who reviews (unregistered) i usually get better approval rate. I will not accuse anybody but i prefer SH to review my registered names also. By the way SH is my brand naming school and thank you for all what you have been teaching me through approval and rejected

 

[NewDayBrand]

@GrantP, there are 3 genuine issues / concerns being raised in this thread (over and above the Rejections and Acceptance Rate debate) with regards to the new Expert Review system:

1. Conflict of Interest: You have addressed and explained the counter-measures used for this in your past responses, which seem reasonable. But still it does not reduce this potential to zero.

2. Carte Blanche for Thievery: This is the issue recently raised by @Footprint789. Whether it happened in this particular case or not, you have to agree its just so easy for the expert reviewers to check for variants of interesting submissions and submitting them themselves. In fact, the whole system seems to give special access and privileges to a select few sellers (the experts) Vs the rest. Don't think there are any measures or checks implemented in this regard either at SH.

3. Cornering the Top 10% or more of the Marketplace Visibility: Here the argument is that by amassing tons of SH coins and points over a month or a year, and with no option to encash them, the only sensible way to spend them would be on Super-boosts and Life-style images thus leading to cornering of the Marketplace visibility by the select few experts. Again this gives the perception that SH intentionally or unintentionally wants to court a select few sellers Vs the rest.

Would love if you could address all 3 concerns individually.

Also would second @Footprint789 motion to increase the review limits. In fact, I had requested the same in my earlier post https://www.namepros.com/threads/squadhelp-marketplace.1120686/page-58#post-7717704

Best Regards,
Crypto

I agree with the 3rd part at 100%
Regarding the 2nd part i disagree because in my opinion nobody needs inspiration from submitted and not yet published names. I think that All marketplaces and SH sold names in the bottom of marketplace dashboard are enough as a source of inspiration. I think There are still many fishes in the sea for everybody. All types of names

 

[ecomslice]

Hey everyone, you should really stop posting your names and whining same time, just makes you look bad.

Domains are subjective sure. agreed. But the truth is if your in your first 1-3 years of domaining, what you think is so good, is probably really crap. this goes for me also in my 2nd year.

just accept it. and push to learn, not complain non stop.

if an idiot like me can be humble often, so can you. in my entire portfolio about 90% of my domains sucked bad first year. and now about 70% of mine suck this year as my second year.

 

[RozasMD]

Regarding this so called Expert review system I can only say one thing.

A couple of years ago there was quite a lot of fuss about the possibility of ambassadors being privileged users and the treat to 'insiders' in BB. Lots of accusations flying around and all that stuff.

Well, to me SH has created this same problem out of nothing by implementing this system. As a seller it's not that easy to ignore the potential problems and conflict of interest.

SH staff and 'Experts' may prefer to ignore it and call all of us a bunch of paranoids. But the potential issues are there and have been perfectly explained and reasoned. It's a legitimate complaint.

I feel I'm playing in disadvantage compared to the Big Boys/Girls in SH. Now they have the power to decide what names compete against theirs, and they can boost all their names by earning loads of points, twisting the system to their favor. And as they have literally thousands of names, they will just fill the top positions for virtually every search, cornering all weaker -I mean regular- competitors.

Yes, I know... Just trust the system, everything will be fine. It will just be great for everyone. But that's a matter of faith.

Sorry, I don't like this situation. Don't like it at all.

 

[Arjun Oli]

I listed two names. thanks, SH
TrueLibrary.com
RealGrocery.com