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]

I didn't mean to make it sound like I wasn't taking into account our costs. I'm just trying to see it from their side rather than just ours. I'm a business owner myself so perhaps I have that empathy. If I imagine myself in their shoes, I wouldn't want sellers on my marketplace that will ultimately remove names. Time, energy, resources, all wasted. Time I could have spent on buyers, marketing, promotion.

I 100% agree that sellers should not feel indebted to them, but I also feel that sellers that want to work with them (as a partnership) to build a brandable portfolio on their platform should have advantages over those that don't. I don't see it that members are penalised, I see it that those that DO want to work in a partnership are nurtured and rewarded.

For the record, I'm not doubting your support, and I see what you refer to as negativity as feedback, but the choice is ours, we either support BB under their terms or we don't. We can't expect to remove some of our portfolio from their marketplace yet still get the priviledges that those that don't do.

Also, FWIW, I think we sellers forget that we are probably the least important part of their business. If we leave, nothing changes for them, they have plenty of their own names and there are plenty more sellers ready to take our place. I'm not saying we are not important, but the time they must spend on appeasing sellers that could be put to better use must be huge. Not to mention all of the negativity on the internet about BB is by the sellers themselves! Let's hope that potential purchasers are not finding these threads, because we're not doing ourselves any favors here!

 

[Keith DeBoer]

Sorry to call you it Keith, but in fairness implementing that tool could ONLY be interpreted as an endorsement. Any suggestion otherwise is daft.

I have my own separate reasons for disliking this change. I don't sell any names, but if I choose to remove a portion of my names I'll then be viewed as a seller in bad standing. I think that's unfair also.

If the purpose is to try to stem people selling accepted names then why is it impacting sellers who have never sold a single name wholesale?

Thanks for the frank response. I guess I'm daft because I never saw it as an endorsement but maybe I'm the only one.

PS I agree with you that BB is a two way street. It's not a charity. They are making money for sure. But in a good partnership both parties prosper. I think that is their goal and it should be ours too.

Also, I wanted to correct one small point about the Logo designers. They have the option of $5 up front or $100+ at the time of sale. There is no option for $5 up front and the balance later.

Thanks for the lively conversation!

 

[JimJammy]

Richard, your post has really made me stop and think today, thank you for that, and hence this additional followup.

I'm not going to go into the finer points but... here we are, all bickering (I'm not pointing fingers at anyone) about the logos, what the logo designers get paid, what perks BB staff get, what BB should or shouldn't be doing, what we would do if we ran BB, etc etc. At the end of the day, it's none of our business. We've accepted their terms to list our names on their marketplace when we signed up. We wouldn't dream of demanding this information from Flippa before paying our $9 fee.

What we, the members, should be doing is working together and supporting each other!

BB clearly have that area that none of us are qualified in covered. They have VC connections, they sponsor startup events, they do podcasts and work directly with marketing agencies etc.

The rest of us, we could be a positive army of promotion. Why aren't we doing that? I've just set up a Twitter account to promote MY names. What if someone else used Reddit to promote their names, and someone else did Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, Tumblr.... there are 100s of places. Result? = we promote ourselves, and in turn BB and all other sellers.

And to head off the obvious "but that's what I pay 30% to BB for". I consider myself a reasonably successful target domainer but I can't sell a brandable (non-target) domain for $x,xxx+, that's what I use BB for. They look like the professional company they are, I look like a one (wo)man band. I would rather BB do all the negotiation work and sell my domain for $x,xxx in my pocket than I do the work and end up with $xx - xxx in my pocket. I don't mind putting in a few hours a month if it means more money in my pocket.

 

[HKIBC]

...I 100% agree that sellers should not feel indebted to them, but I also feel that sellers that want to work with them (as a partnership) to build a brandable portfolio on their platform should have advantages over those that don't. I don't see it that members are penalised, I see it that those that DO want to work in a partnership are nurtured and rewarded.

Agreed. Assuming you read BB's intentions right, they could do with better communication skills and altogether different labels. The ones currently in use suggest intention of penalization (as in "account not in good standing") and no credit whatsoever to those only "in good standing". All accounts in compliance with BB's published TOS should be " in good standing". Any infractions prior to changes in TOS ignored. Those that meet BB's higher loyalty standards should be labeled accordingly (e.g. "VIP" or something along those lines, suggesting exceptional status).

Also, FWIW, I think we sellers forget that we are probably the least important part of their business. If we leave, nothing changes for them, they have plenty of their own names and there are plenty more sellers ready to take our place. I'm not saying we are not important, but the time they must spend on appeasing sellers that could be put to better use must be huge.

Oh, I think most sellers are aware of their place in BB's operation. This BB manages to communicate loud and clear

Not to mention all of the negativity on the internet about BB is by the sellers themselves! Let's hope that potential purchasers are not finding these threads, because we're not doing ourselves any favors here!

Good point. But I think you overestimate potential buyers' level of concern about sellers' opinions here.

 

[campout]

They over-expanded. It wasn't sellers' fault. We pay them well (30% commission, exclusivity, $10 listing fee, $100 logo) and they need to deliver. They can use my listing fees to hire someone to tweet about my names if they want.

 

[Nappy Bunch]

Logged in to BB this morning and apparently my account is 'not in good standing' very strange since i have never removed any domains from my account. Something not quite right there.

 

[Simon Taylor]

Wow I dropped from a B to F overnight with no actions on my part!

 

[Nappy Bunch]

Something must be wrong with how it is calculated. I have apparently removed 14% of my domain names which is ludicrous as i have never removed any.. ever.

 

[JimJammy]

They don't read these forums. You need to contact them in Slack or at [email protected].

Edited to add: I've just seen that it has already been raised in Slack so it looks like some sort of blip right now since there are a few of you affected. I'll let you know the outcome.

 

[Nappy Bunch]

I emailed them as soon as i logged on to find out exactly what it means and why

 

[Candace]

Wow I dropped from a B to F overnight with no actions on my part!

Same here

 

[cosin]

I read many motivating things about BB, but at the same time, I see many people selling their published bb domains for prices like $1-$5 in selling section, what is the reason? I can't figure it out as a beginner. Is it better to buy some of those instead of registering new ones?

 

[Candace]

I read many motivating things about BB, but at the same time, I see many people selling their published bb domains for prices like $1-$5 in selling section, what is the reason? I can't figure it out as a beginner.

I remember how it was being the new person on here, so being the teacher that I was, I'll try to help. lol

There is a BB aftermarket.

Since some folks have trouble getting their own names approved, they are willing to buy names that are already approved and/or published.

BB approved names can fetch anywhere from $12 up (depending on quality), while published names go for $25 and up (depending on quality). Not sure if I saw any that were in the $1- $5 range.

The Aftermarket is on FIRE these days in terms of people selling their names. There may be multiple reasons for that including:

1. People losing faith in BB. They now think that their names have little chance of actually selling on BB since BB has increased drastically over the past year, and personal sell through rates have fallen.
2. Cash Flow. Many people need cash now and can no longer afford to wait for their names to sell on BB
3. Sellers who are now considered to be in 'Bad Standing' with BB: These are folk who never intended to publish their names on BB in the first place. They hand register names, get them approved by BB, then flip them. However, BB is rolling out a new system to prevent this.

I hope that was kinda clear. lol.

 

[Michael M]

I read many motivating things about BB, but at the same time, I see many people selling their published bb domains for prices like $1-$5 in selling section, what is the reason? I can't figure it out as a beginner. Is it better to buy some of those instead of registering new ones?

Generally speaking the BB names that are being resold on NPs for very low prices are lower quality names that people have made a business model out of hang regging during promos (for $1-$2) and then quickly get the approved and flip them for a small profit. They have been doing this at a high enough volume to generate what I imagine is an acceptable profit for their time.

But, IMHO, this is having a negative effect on BB in a few ways and they seem to be slowing down their acceptance rate and trying new measures to detour the growth of the reseller market.

The growth of BB's inventory has upset many people recently, and now BB's efforts to correct their course is also upsetting people. So BB is in a tough spot at this point and will not be able to please everyone.

It will be interesting to watch this all play out. I personally hope BB can navigate their way through all of this and continue to be successful for their sellers in the future in the terms of end user sales.

 

[HKIBC]

...It will be interesting to watch this all play out. I personally hope BB can navigate their way through all of this and continue to be successful for their sellers in the future in the terms of end user sales.

Most problems can be solved using a carrot or stick approach. BB seems inclined towards the stick. Very few dogs respond well to this kind of treatment. Interesting to watch where this gets BB with domainers

Not that BB is likely to care or listen here. They have no competition to speak of. They're inventory heavy. They can afford to alienate and shed sellers.

 

[disaac81]

BB are losing many sellers.

The lack of being able to, for example, list names with them AND at Afternic is a drawback.

BB also lost sellers due to rejecting good names while they accepted crap from others. Sometimes if feels like they need a refresh course on brand naming.

Just my opinion.

 

[JimJammy]

Margot has just confirmed in Slack that there is a glitch with the scoring system and they are looking into it.

 

[Justin Matmor]

BB are losing many sellers.

Fantastic news. Hope more disgrunted sellers go elsewhere. Less competition for me.

 

[disaac81]

Typical self-serving attitude @Justin Matmor

 

[Dnbolt]

Fantastic news. Hope more disgrunted sellers go elsewhere. Less competition for me.

You fo real?