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

 

[Theydon]

I hear you, that's why I am always searching for ways to increase sales. I'm hoping the brandable space will develop over the next year or so to give more opportunities. I hope your next sale comes soon, I'm sure it will.

 

[hookbox]

Today marks a month with zero sales for my 490 domains portfolio on BB. The difference between my last sale and the one before was almost 2 months! I do consider the quality of my portfolio to be amidst the best there. That makes my annual sales roughly at 1 sale every 1.5-2 months. which is less than 2% a year.
I dont get parking revenue as well. Dont get to negotiate with buyers, and get a 30% cut + logo + listing fees.

If I sell 1-1.5% outside BB, I might be in a better financial position!

Some serious decision soon... most probably... and Unfortunately

Every made up name at BrandBucket is exactly the same as the last one with a slight variation here or there. A large majority of your names are 6 letters that end in 3 letter sequences ano, ora, amo, ito, oca, oro, oko, ovo, ara etc..........and 250 other 3 letter endings. The quality of your portfolio is no different then the quality of every other name that is there. These made up names are so easy to create and most are no better then the last.

BrandBucket used to be good at selling them when it was perceived to the end user that they were special. With 22,000 names listed end users are realizing they aren't as special as when there was only 1,500 names listed. They do sell but not as much as before in my opinion. You may want to remove them but I think you have to realize that you have almost zero chance of selling them off of BrandBucket. I sold every single 5 and 6 letter from my portfolio because they don't sell on their own. These types have to be listed at a brandable site to sell.

 

[bazabizo]

Every made up name at BrandBucket is exactly the same as the last one with a slight variation here or there. A large majority of your names are 6 letters that end in 3 letter sequences ano, ora, amo, ito, oca, oro, oko, ovo, ara etc..........and 250 other 3 letter endings. The quality of your portfolio is no different then the quality of every other name that is there. These made up names are so easy to create and most are no better then the last.

BrandBucket used to be good at selling them when it was perceived to the end user that they were special. With 22,000 names listed end users are realizing they aren't as special as when there was only 1,500 names listed. They do sell but not as much as before in my opinion. You may want to remove them but I think you have to realize that you have almost zero chance of selling them off of BrandBucket. I sold every single 5 and 6 letter from my portfolio because they don't sell on their own. These types have to be listed at a brandable site to sell.

Even if my portfolio consists of 50% made up words, they are all VERY clear pronouceables, vs. a lot of others that dont clearly pass the radio test as mine. Im not saying Im the best portfolio out there, but Im saying I should be at least in the average/median! Even if what you said is a 100% correct, there is the remaining 50% which has a lot of high end premiums, which are in the top 1% percentile of names on BB! I appreciate your feedback very much and agree with some part of it, especially the part that relates to selling the names on a brandables website. Thats why I might build my own for a small part of my portfolio.

I would've never had the success I had on BB elsewhere. However, now the traction is fading. My portfolio on BB can get me in average 200 uniques a day, all of which types in. I can get a single sale a month if the rest of the brandables website are names I own, instead of giving away free traffic to other names.

My post wasnt about blaming BB for anything. They do what is best for their business, and maybe if it was me running it, I would've done the same! On the other side, I do some calculations and found lately, its better for me elsewhere at this point in time. This doesnt mean, its best for everyone to do the same, it doesnt mean I didnt have success in there! Its just time for my ship to sail!

I wish you all the best of success on BB, and wherever you sell your names. Its a constructive post, and I never wanna be the person that makes me elsewise!

Good Luck again. You all will need it

 

[KDN]

I hear you, that's why I am always searching for ways to increase sales. I'm hoping the brandable space will develop over the next year or so to give more opportunities. I hope your next sale comes soon, I'm sure it will.

I'm sure it will continue to rise. More and more startups are being established every day.

 

[KDN]

Just had my first sale! I'm so happy!

I will reveal the name after I receive the payment. I love you BrandBucket!

I already received the payment. The name was FrontCore.com. Sold for low $X,XXX. I look forward to more sales in the future. This thread really helped me a lot. Let's help each other make our BB experience better! Thanks, guys.

 

[Brandworthy]

Today marks a month with zero sales for my 490 domains portfolio on BB.

FWIW I'm in a similar situation. I had no sales from November forward up until 2 days ago. Then I was informed of 2 sales in a day, although one has not yet been confirmed. Even if these 2 sales are confirmed they are both at the low end, and really don't meet my sales expectations. I have ~800 names now, and was adding more, but right now it's difficult to know whether I'm throwing good money after bad.

I too am waiting to see how BB turn this around. I expect at least 1-2 sales per month. If this doesn't come to be then I too will be making some hard choices. Something tells me you and I aren't the only large portfolio holders that are questioning the effectiveness of BB these days.

On the pure brandables - they seem to be rejecting more 5-6L names that previously would have been accepted I think. Perhaps the November Seller's Newsletter might point to some changes in buyer behavior?

 

[Grilled]

On the pure brandables - they seem to be rejecting more 5-6L names that previously would have been accepted I think. Perhaps the November Seller's Newsletter might point to some changes in buyer behavior?

I experienced the same with a recent batch of 5Ls. I suspected the same after reading the newsletter.

 

[bazabizo]

FWIW I'm in a similar situation. I had no sales from November forward up until 2 days ago. Then I was informed of 2 sales in a day, although one has not yet been confirmed. Even if these 2 sales are confirmed they are both at the low end, and really don't meet my sales expectations. I have ~800 names now, and was adding more, but right now it's difficult to know whether I'm throwing good money after bad.

I too am waiting to see how BB turn this around. I expect at least 1-2 sales per month. If this doesn't come to be then I too will be making some hard choices. Something tells me you and I aren't the only large portfolio holders that are questioning the effectiveness of BB these days.

On the pure brandables - they seem to be rejecting more 5-6L names that previously would have been accepted I think. Perhaps the November Seller's Newsletter might point to some changes in buyer behavior?

There are 99 pages of 6 Letter domains on BB. Even if they realized lately its over crowded with these short brandables vs. the keyword based names, they should've saw that coming earlier when they were accepting dozens of these a day! We spend time submitting, then forwarding, then paying listing fees, to get something out of it!

What is sold is more and more what is there within the staff picks section, which holds very little of these short names, mostly the keyword based names. If someone who is clueless about domains, and gets to BB through typing a certain short name, he/she will end up in the staff picks section to choose a name. Guess what, you gave traffic for someone to buy something else!

I remember very well frank Schilling's words, a domain's traffic is the key! It gets you either direct enquiries, or leads to other domains you own.
In BB, you give these leads to someone else!

I also dislike the fact that 40% of the domains in the staff picks' first page are owned by BB. Thats not good! They own 15% of the total portfolio in there, they cant have almost tripple the ration in the staff picks section!

If more 6 Letter domains are in there, they will sell more! Tell me if you are a new startup, and want a name, which one would you like to see in the Staff picks section : SillyNilly for 10K or Ronora for 1.5K?

With a brandables site like BB, you have the power to shape the customers' thinking! you are the BRANDER. You can drive them to think that 2 word combinations are the best or short ones are!

With the latest newsletter, I was wondering, why am I receiving the same requests from BB that I receive from Brokers who want to sell fast and easy? Seriously, you want me to send 1 word domains to a Branding website? BB is the best (I admit), but if i owned Cost.com (If Im the castello brothers ), why wouldnt I just sell it on my own? What is a brander gonna add on top?

BB should work more on selling the existing portfolio, coz thats the portfolio they accepted from sellers, and thats the portfolio they received $150K+ just to list them! A startup with limited cash, can think a 100 times before buying a domain for 2k, but if you give him an offer to get free Cloud hosting worth $500 from someone like AWS with each purchase, that would ease them in. Guess what? AWS might be interested to give you this for free(Ask them)! All cloud hosting companies adore startups! Dont sell teh name and run! There is much more than a name and logo in the beginning. You should think more of easy and creative ways to facilitate sales.

BB, you gave me decent sales earlier, when there were 8-10K names in there. I had a chance for my names to be seen everyday by someone. Today its getting softer. I wont forget the good times, but its time I pursue other channels. I invest in domains my very hard earned money, and I dont have the luxury to stay tuned for improvements. You did the right decision for your company by adding a 100 names a day, regardless of our feedback. I have to do the same for myself and move elsewhere.

This post represents only my opinion. Definitely there are others who are continuously successful on BB, I hope they continue to sell as always. Lets not take anything written personal, we are professionals and my decision was a business one!

GL

 

[KDN]

There are 99 pages of 6 Letter domains on BB. Even if they realized lately its over crowded with these short brandables vs. the keyword based names, they should've saw that coming earlier when they were accepting dozens of these a day! We spend time submitting, then forwarding, then paying listing fees, to get something out of it!

What is sold is more and more what is there within the staff picks section, which holds very little of these short names, mostly the keyword based names. If someone who is clueless about domains, and gets to BB through typing a certain short name, he/she will end up in the staff picks section to choose a name. Guess what, you gave traffic for someone to buy something else!

I remember very well frank Schilling's words, a domain's traffic is the key! It gets you either direct enquiries, or leads to other domains you own.
In BB, you give these leads to someone else!

I also dislike the fact that 40% of the domains in the staff picks' first page are owned by BB. Thats not good! They own 15% of the total portfolio in there, they cant have almost tripple the ration in the staff picks section!

If more 6 Letter domains are in there, they will sell more! Tell me if you are a new startup, and want a name, which one would you like to see in the Staff picks section : SillyNilly for 10K or Ronora for 1.5K?

With a brandables site like BB, you have the power to shape the customers' thinking! you are the BRANDER. You can drive them to think that 2 word combinations are the best or short ones are!

With the latest newsletter, I was wondering, why am I receiving the same requests from BB that I receive from Brokers who want to sell fast and easy? Seriously, you want me to send 1 word domains to a Branding website? BB is the best (I admit), but if i owned Cost.com (If Im the castello brothers ), why wouldnt I just sell it on my own? What is a brander gonna add on top?

BB should work more on selling the existing portfolio, coz thats the portfolio they accepted from sellers, and thats the portfolio they received $150K+ just to list them! A startup with limited cash, can think a 100 times before buying a domain for 2k, but if you give him an offer to get free Cloud hosting worth $500 from someone like AWS with each purchase, that would ease them in. Guess what? AWS might be interested to give you this for free(Ask them)! All cloud hosting companies adore startups! Dont sell teh name and run! There is much more than a name and logo in the beginning. You should think more of easy and creative ways to facilitate sales.

BB, you gave me decent sales earlier, when there were 8-10K names in there. I had a chance for my names to be seen everyday by someone. Today its getting softer. I wont forget the good times, but its time I pursue other channels. I invest in domains my very hard earned money, and I dont have the luxury to stay tuned for improvements. You did the right decision for your company by adding a 100 names a day, regardless of our feedback. I have to do the same for myself and move elsewhere.

This post represents only my opinion. Definitely there are others who are continuously successful on BB, I hope they continue to sell as always. Lets not take anything written personal, we are professionals and my decision was a business one!

GL

I almost gave up on BB last month when I thought that my portfolio of 52 names was too small to sell in a sea of brandables. I ended up selling 40 of them here on NamePros and gave it another try and retained my favorite names. And just last week, just when I was contemplating of selling the remaining names, I was informed that I sold a name and it was listed for only 3 months.

And now, I'm a firm believer of quality over quantity. It also somehow proved that buyers don't just visit brandable names websites without any keywords in mind. I'm pretty sure they also do their homework.

I have never experienced having a portfolio as big as yours so I'm not going to disagree with your points. I wish you all the best and thank you for your insights.

 

[bazabizo]

I almost gave up on BB last month when I thought that my portfolio of 52 names was too small to sell in a sea of brandables. I ended up selling 40 of them and gave it another try and retained my favorite names. And just last week, just when I was contemplating of selling the remaining names, I was informed that I sold a name and it was listed for only 3 months.

And now, I'm a firm believer of quality over quantity. It also somehow proved my idea that buyers don't just visit brandable names websites without any keywords in mind. I'm pretty sure they also do their homework.

I have never experienced having a portfolio as big as yours so I'm not going to agree with your points. I wish you all the best and thank you for your insights.

I agree with you, Quality always supersedes quantity! But when you have a volume, this is when you target the masses. So you cant generalize. Some startups are more organized and plan than others, which have a keyword in mind and choose rightaway. Others are just there and have nothing in mind, a smaller portion has a large investor's money to play with, and will opt to buy an expensive name, although they didnt plan to originally. With a volume, you expect anything and everything!
If I have a small amount to invest, I will just buy a few premiums and sleep for a while and keep adding on top until I have a volume. Without a volume, you dont have critical mass to do stats, and without stats, you cant understand a market. Without a volume, all discussions become subjective, which is not how a business should run.

Again, I agree with you. Quality always wins

 

[KDN]

I almost gave up on BB last month when I thought that my portfolio of 52 names was too small to sell in a sea of brandables. I ended up selling 40 of them and gave it another try and retained my favorite names. And just last week, just when I was contemplating of selling the remaining names, I was informed that I sold a name and it was listed for only 3 months.

And now, I'm a firm believer of quality over quantity. It also somehow proved that buyers don't just visit brandable names websites without any keywords in mind. I'm pretty sure they also do their homework.

I have never experienced having a portfolio as big as yours so I'm not going to disagree with your points. I wish you all the best and thank you for your insights.

Just want to clarify that I sold 40 names here on NamePros and not on BrandBucket. Sorry for the confusion if there's any.

 

[Leopard]

Very insightful thread.. Great work guys !!!

 

[KDN]

Very insightful thread.. Great work guys !!!

That's why I like NamePros. We help each other make more moneyzzz.

 

[Galleshem]

Just want to clarify that I sold 40 names here on NamePros and not on BrandBucket. Sorry for the confusion if there's any.

How much you ended selling them on NP for?

 

[KDN]

$40 lol. Too cheap and now I regret it. Oh well, that's life.

 

[Galleshem]

$40 lol. Too cheap and now I regret it. Oh well, that's life.

$40/each? That's a great price imo, don't regret.

 

[Galleshem]

Every made up name at BrandBucket is exactly the same as the last one with a slight variation here or there. A large majority of your names are 6 letters that end in 3 letter sequences ano, ora, amo, ito, oca, oro, oko, ovo, ara etc..........and 250 other 3 letter endings. The quality of your portfolio is no different then the quality of every other name that is there. These made up names are so easy to create and most are no better then the last.

BrandBucket used to be good at selling them when it was perceived to the end user that they were special. With 22,000 names listed end users are realizing they aren't as special as when there was only 1,500 names listed. They do sell but not as much as before in my opinion. You may want to remove them but I think you have to realize that you have almost zero chance of selling them off of BrandBucket. I sold every single 5 and 6 letter from my portfolio because they don't sell on their own. These types have to be listed at a brandable site to sell.

If you come across made up brandables unregistered that you think have good chances to get accepted on BB, would you buy them and sell them to resellers or do you suggest to completely ignore this type of brandables?

 

[Leopard]

Excuse me for being naive. I am bit surprised why you would sell at $40.

By BB or BR acceptance ratio. Out of 5 to 6 names submitted ...1 gets accepted. So with reg fees of about $7 thats $40. Thats almost $0 profit.

- Leopard

 

[Galleshem]

Excuse me for being naive. I am bit surprised why you would sell at $40.

By BB or BR acceptance ratio. Out of 5 to 6 names submitted ...1 gets accepted. So with reg fees of about $7 thats $40. Thats almost $0 profit.

- Leopard

It's true that if your acceptance ratio is of 5/6 names submitted for 1 accepted, you make no or almost no profit, but you forget that it covers the reg fees of the 5 other rejected names that could also sell.

 

[Leopard]

Hmm not great but helps out a bit i guess. cool cool