BrandBucket Experience

[xtremex]

hello

I am new to BrandBucket. Before getting my hands on this

I wish to experience about brandbucket from my fellow members


Thanks

 

[JimJammy]

Yes I can understand your frustration with tagging.

I'd love to know, out of interest, how many domains you've sold with them (and in what time period) since you are one of the bigger 'average users' of BB. Obviously, you don't have to answer the question if you don't want to.

 

[Brandworthy]

I've answered it before, so no problem answering again. 12 sales, and those were achieved with I think 194 names listed. I'm now at 270 names listed, with another ~100 pending. I had previously worked off an assumption that 5% was the average sales rate. But I'm re-evaluating that - since their inventory has probably doubled in past 6 months I suspect their sales rate may be around 2-3% now. I hope some day BB might share more stats with us, even under NDA so that we can make better portfolio allocation decisions in future.

 

[hookbox]

I agree with you Doron and in speaking with Margot and Zane when he was running Namerific, they both said that many companies don't use the logo after they buy. The logo was more of a help in the prospect process because if you just listed all these names in plain black and white text they would not sell. I always thought it was the real dilemma, or puzzle to solve, because the logo design holds up the process as it takes time, but the logo is not used in the end most times. So its tricky and you never know will a bad logo turn someone off, and a good logo convert an on the fence prospect ?

Personally I think the logo is the most important aspect of the whole brandable business model. A great logo makes a bad name look good and a bad logo makes a great name look bad. The type of names that are being accepted lately on BB are not that great but the logo makes them look much better then they really are.

BrandBucket was created by taking a bunch of mashed up words that mean nothing and look like nothing when in type format and make them look great in logo format. A $8 registration instantly becomes a $2,500 name when a logo is added. This is how powerful the logo is. Having good names isn't good enough anymore if they can't be visualized as a brand. Obviously premium names don't need logos to sell but there are no premium names on BB.

As an example the domain techcarrot just went live on BB and when you see the name with no logo it's not that impressive at all. I personally wouldn't register it but when you see it in logo format you know there is someone that will love it. The logo took an average name and made it look great. The logo took an $8 registration and turned it into a $2,500 future sale. It will sell and not because it's a great name.

 

[equity78]

Personally I think the logo is the most important aspect of the whole brandable business model. A great logo makes a bad name look good and a bad logo makes a great name look bad. The type of names that are being accepted lately on BB are not that great but the logo makes them look much better then they really are.

BrandBucket was created by taking a bunch of mashed up words that mean nothing and look like nothing when in type format and make them look great in logo format. A $8 registration instantly becomes a $2,500 name when a logo is added. This is how powerful the logo is. Having good names isn't good enough anymore if they can't be visualized as a brand. Obviously premium names don't need logos to sell but there are no premium names on BB.

As an example the domain techcarrot just went live on BB and when you see the name with no logo it's not that impressive at all. I personally wouldn't register it but when you see it in logo format you know there is someone that will love it. The logo took an average name and made it look great. The logo took an $8 registration and turned it into a $2,500 future sale. It will sell and not because it's a great name.

I was not making a statement about the logos, I was repeating what Margot and Zane said to me. I will say personally I believe the name is more important, I have sold names like Brand Bucket type names solely on my own with no logos, the name sold on the name alone. I do think a great logo can make someone think "hmmm I see the light, this is the name" But I think many sell on the name alone.

There is also a lot of speculation, we really don't get feedback from buyers of other people's domain names where they say the logo is what sold me, or the keyword modifier was great, etc...

 

[hookbox]

I was not making a statement about the logos, I was repeating what Margot and Zane said to me. I will say personally I believe the name is more important, I have sold names like Brand Bucket type names solely on my own with no logos, the name sold on the name alone. I do think a great logo can make someone think "hmmm I see the light, this is the name" But I think many sell on the name alone.

There is also a lot of speculation, we really don't get feedback from buyers of other people's domain names where they say the logo is what sold me, or the keyword modifier was great, etc...

I don't have logos on my names either and they sell so I do agree with you but the brandable business model doesn't work without logos. Yes you can sell brandable names without logos but you can't support the brandable business model without logos. If BrandBucket, Brandroot, Namerific etc…..removed all their logos their sales would plummet.

 

[NameVerve]

Update: 3 more names form 05/28/15 accepted. So 18 day turn around, hopefully logo design will speed up without lowering standards.

 

[equity78]

I don't have logos on my names either and they sell so I do agree with you but the brandable business model doesn't work without logos. Yes you can sell brandable names without logos but you can't support the brandable business model without logos. If BrandBucket, Brandroot, Namerific etc…..removed all their logos their sales would plummet.

On that I would agree, Zane and I used to talk for hours and one of the central thoughts was around, these logos take a lot of time, they need to get completed and get the name live on a brandable boutique, the thing that made things more complex was I had him tell me the logos matter but they don't, to your point HookBox he said the names can't sell without a logo, plain text nothing sells, but the client usually gets their own logo after buying the domain name.

 

[ApeXX]

We've seen the writing on the wall for awhile now. We are slowly moving towards a higher volume, lower margin Brand Bucket that caters to the public vs cash infused tech start-ups.

Brand Bucket has been accepting thousands of names that have no chance of selling at a $2k price point. But I guarantee you there's some end user out there who will buy those names at $100-200 a pop. That's where their new recommendation system comes in. I don't think it will be the VC backed start-ups using it to find $2000 brands, it will be the mom-and-pop first-time bloggers looking for a unique name for $200.

In the long run, the increased volume at that price point could make up for the significantly decreased margin.
But until then, I wouldn't invest much more heavily into BB.

 

[AndrewRice]

Having a bit over 2% of the domains on BB (brandworthy) I would hope you'd sell a bit more names. That is quite discouraging for us newcomers.

Michael having (14%+) is regularly selling. Of course, I am pretty sure BB is pushing much more his names to their customers.

Hi guys,

I sold a name last week V*A*Z*O*O*L*A and have another name that is in negotiations at the moment and will hopefully sell.

There isn't any way for BB to "push" a certain set of names over another. Domain buyers visit the marketplace and pick the name that they feel is right for them.

Michael does have a high sales rate but it is because he is very selective in the names that he lists on BrandBucket.

I'll be honest, I think that his portfolio of names is a bit higher quality than mine and so I can expect a slightly lower sales rate from my names.

This industry can be seasonal. Think about it like this: Would you start a business right before Christmas? How about right as summer was beginning? Many potential brand buyers are parents whose kids just got out for summer break...

 

[trelgor]

Hi guys,

I sold a name last week V*A*Z*O*O*L*A and have another name that is in negotiations at the moment and will hopefully sell.

There isn't any way for BB to "push" a certain set of names over another. Domain buyers visit the marketplace and pick the name that they feel is right for them.

Michael does have a high sales rate but it is because he is very selective in the names that he lists on BrandBucket.

I'll be honest, I think that his portfolio of names is a bit higher quality than mine and so I can expect a slightly lower sales rate from my names.

This industry can be seasonal. Think about it like this: Would you start a business right before Christmas? How about right as summer was beginning? Many potential brand buyers are parents whose kids just got out for summer break...

Is there a way to tell from the benchmark scorecard what probability BB feels the name has to sell or is that not a factor in determining the domain quality score?

I'm most likely worse off than Michael too portfolio-wise. I'm just wondering how far off you can get considering the review process s h o u l d keep quality up. (Accept names with a good chance of selling.)

 

[AndrewRice]

I think a lot of it comes down to the domain investor. If you can be selective in the types of names you buy then you will be more likely to get the name listed on BrandBucket and eventually sold.

 

[trelgor]

I think a lot of it comes down to the domain investor. If you can be selective in the types of names you buy then you will be more likely to get the name listed on BrandBucket and eventually sold.

Needless to say, I think so too.

BB thinks I am selective enough half of the time right now.

I'm interpreting your answer as acceptance of a name might not be very indicitative of its sales potential.

 

[Lightthrower]

I may be on ignore so you won't see this, but damm you are right on. I have only been back here for a few months , after first landing here over a year ago. I get a fair amount out of it, but there is just so much negativity and pessimism, combined with a solid dose of "my way is the only way". This last week I was working on a new portfolio page for my domains and I established a new twitter account. As I added people to follow i was sort of surprised by the optimism other domainers showed. Many of them had domains that would get severely bashed in this forum. My point being that NamePros is not the world of domaining, it is one stop and it has its own unique feel and tone. There is a really big community of domainers who only occasionally go here, if ever, and rarely post, if ever. To me its super important to keep a healthy balance of inputs and feedback, especially if the negativity starts to take over some days.

You do realize that Jahfree is one of those that bash other domains right? I disliked his pessimism the other day and got an auto ignore from him haha.

 

[AndrewRice]

Needless to say, I think so too.

BB thinks I am selective enough half of the time right now.

I'm interpreting your answer as acceptance of a name might not be very indicitative of its sales potential.

I'd say all of the names accepted have sales potential to varying degrees.

 

[Brandworthy]

I sold a name last week V*A*Z*O*O*L*A and have another name that is in negotiations at the moment and will hopefully sell.

Well done on those sales. I see you're now over 600 names listed, so you also seem to be growing your portfolio at a nice clip of late.

Can I ask how many sale you've had in last 6 months?

 

[Dominic Belley]

June 1st reviewed. Only 16 days.

New domain approved : hugeprogress.com
It was my first "keyword" domain submitted.

 

[gerem]

Two more domain accepted some days ago. Logo design pending.

I wanted to try the new service "name-my-company". A Twitter account is mandatory... It sucks!!

 

[Dominic Belley]

I wanted to try the new service "name-my-company". A Twitter account is mandatory... It sucks!!

It takes 1 minute to create a Twitter account.
But I always get an error when I try to log in.

 

[timestamp]

I'll wait untill they implement login with myspace or pinterest.

Btw. why are we voting on names that are already accepted and published?

 

[ApeXX]

Started getting some of mine from two weeks ago approved today -- pretty quick turnaround. I submitted 80, out of the first 10 they reviewed today I've gotten ~33% in - all hand regs.

Timestamp - I have my own theories about why they include already chosen names. My guess is that it helps them identify which voters are in line with their views on domain worth (IE those who almost always choose the BB preferred domain) and then weight their votes higher, compared to the general populace. I'm sure some people just click randomly to get points - that would help decrease the weight of their vote.