BrandBucket VS BrandRoot - Which one do you think is better?

[Justin Matmor]

The best way to find out if BR or BB are a good playform to sell your domains, approach them as an end user and see how quickly they respond, how hard they try to sell you a domain, and whether or not they are professional.

 

[Grilled]

The logo designer part, do you mean if I apply as a logo designer for them I will receive discounts with my listings?

I'm glad you asked. I don't have exact clarification on this either. I have some graphic designer friends (students) who would like to build their professional portfolio through brandable domains. What better PR is it for a young designer's career to have a start up internet company using their original logo?

@Brandroot - can you comment on this please. Thank you.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

I'm glad you asked. I don't have exact clarification on this either. I have some graphic designer friends (students) who are would like to build their professional portfolio through brandable domains. What better PR is it for a young desinger's career to have a start up internet company using their original logo both on BR and when / if it sells and the buyer decides to use the logo?

@Brandroot - can you comment on this please. Thank you.

Yup. I am waiting for the answer too. The answer is very very important here, especially if it is a positive one .

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

To BR people

Do you even let users receive emails when they submit domains to you?

 

[NameOffice.]

Thanks @Grilled, I've also heard from others that BR has pretty short review times these days however, according to the owner, he has 250 applications that he hasn't responded to. BR should clean that up. That's not fair to domainers, especially newbies. A lot of people have soured on BR because of that. It's unfortunate.

Hi Keith, I understand your concern. We have reviewed many of these applicants but we are still not caught up. We cannot take on more sellers than we can handle. We have been steadily expanding but we also need to think in the best interest of sellers who have stuck with us from the beginning. The more we add on too quickly the more saturated our marketplace.

Brandroot is run by a little kid in his basement. The owner is a total a*hole and actually called NP users a lotta choice words (anyone recall the Namepros Nancies rant??). He's VERY immature, and I refuse to work with him ever again.

For the record, this is a disgruntled former Brandroot seller who broke our sellers agreement. We never once used inappropriate language with him and actually gave him one warning before he broke another rule and we were forced to remove him from our platform. It's not that you refuse to work with us, we refuse to work with you.

I'm also aware that the thread is a bit old, and things change with time. But BR isn't a company. It's a lone guy working in his free time. He isn't just the face of the "company" -- he IS the "company." I've worked with him once, and he called me every bad word imaginable... even after I stuck up & defended BR many times in the past before then. He may have apologized, but I've still no respect for him. And I'll never do business with him again.

We are an LLC operating with 2 employees out of Hawaii and have several independent contractors that we pay monthly. I (Michael Rader) primarily manage sales and the overall operation of the company. We also have two PHD holders (one of which you may have met at Namescon with myself) who work directly with us as investors/consultants. We are very much a company.

Please share screenshots of the "every bad word imaginable" that I called you. I don't ever speak this way.

My experience with BR has been positive so far.

While it is not very convenient to add names with 10 max daily limit and the site had couple of glitches along the way, the big advantage over BB is:

d) there is no possible/deemed conflict of interest with owner/manager/ambassador/etc getting better info, logos, placement etc.

To your first comment, we now have a bulk domain upload option for special account holders. Contact me if you would like me to review your account for this setup. To your comment on d)... This is essentially why we have held back from taking on any "ambassadors".

How do you know about d)? He keeps his whois private doesn't he and he has never to my knowledge shared how many domains he owns and has listed, even though he does have names listed as he has referred to it here.

The lack of average domain sale price at BR suggests I'm better off at BB.

None of my personal domains are WHOIS private. I have less than 920 names published at Brandroot, 12 of which I have sold this year (2016) so far. Our average sale price hovers around $2,000. BB's is going to be higher because they have a couple of sales in the $XXX,XXX range, whereas we do not.

Who knows more about BrandRoot paying your renewal fees? Doesn't this say, thanks for trying, we're sorry we didn't sell your domain in it's first year with BrandRoot.. Allow us to pay your renewal fee to compensate you for your initial listing fee? Does anyone have experience with this new policy? If so, please share.

We are no longer offering this incentive at this time because of the lack of interest/need. The response to this was mostly negative and we deemed it not worth the time to develop. We are however working on other incentives for our sellers, like Brandlytics and a NameScore assigned to each name that determines it's placement in our search results. We want to soon do away with the newest to oldest sorting method. Instead we will be rewarding names that receive real traffic, inquiries, offers, visits, favorites, etc.

I stopped wasting my time with them after so many times of not replying. I am happy to submit 100 domains and get them rejected but to completely ignore someone even through PMs on NP is well.... you know.

Do you have an account with Brandroot?

They are making strides for better exclusive marketplace standards. I have heard, though, still waiting for clarification @Brandroot:

1) Pays your renewals if you join their loyalty program

2) They have a logo designer / seller program that gives discount listing fee's of $5 + no back end logo fee.

1) We do not have this program
2) We are extremely picky on who we accept as logo designers and currently we are not taking on any others as we do not have a current need, but yes logo designers pay only $5 for listing fees. For the same reason that we are not taking on too many sellers, we are not taking on too many designers. We want the few designers that we have to be very successful as opposed to countless designers making a sell every now and then.

To BR people

Do you even let users receive emails when they submit domains to you?

If I understand the questions correctly, yes all of our sellers receive emails notifying them of accepted or rejected names. They get an email for every step of the publication process.

 

[Recons.Com]

To your first comment, we now have a bulk domain upload option for special account holders. Contact me if you would like me to review your account for this setup. To your comment on d)... This is essentially why we have held back from taking on any "ambassadors".

Thanks for the response. Please check the PM here on NamePros from me sent recently.

 

[Grilled]

I had strong urge to dislike your post but then I consulted with my position:D

Just out of curiosity, even though I already know , why is BB unfair compared to BR ?

I don't know if it is anymore. Some could argue, that BR has a smaller portfolio size, better logos, better descriptions, better search results, but as of right now, I really don't know the answer because BB is the original exclusive brandable marketplace with more sales by volume. I'll run some audits, and come back with a more accurate answer. In the mean time, hopefully others can chime in.

They are making strides for better exclusive marketplace standards. I have heard, though, still waiting for clarification @Brandroot:

1) Pays your renewals if you join their loyalty program

2) They have a logo designer / seller program that gives discount listing fee's of $5 + no back end logo fee.

We are no longer offering this incentive at this time because of the lack of interest/need. The response to this was mostly negative and we deemed it not worth the time to develop. We are however working on other incentives for our sellers, like Brandlytics and a NameScore assigned to each name that determines it's placement in our search results. We want to soon do away with the newest to oldest sorting method. Instead we will be rewarding names that receive real traffic, inquiries, offers, visits, favorites, etc.

I'm sorry to hear the response wasn't positive.

1) We do not have this program
2) We are extremely picky on who we accept as logo designers and currently we are not taking on any others as we do not have a current need, but yes logo designers pay only $5 for listing fees. For the same reason that we are not taking on too many sellers, we are not taking on too many designers. We want the few designers that we have to be very successful as opposed to countless designers making a sell every now and then.

Thank you for the clarification.

Yup. I am waiting for the answer too. The answer is very very important here, especially if it is a positive one .

It appears I was wrong. I had thought BR had an easier domainer / designer program.

I heard that BB designers were given the option to take $5 upfront for the logo, and $0 logo reward. Or, they had an option to take $0 up front, and opt to receive the $100 - $500 logo award if the domain sells. I'm still waiting for BB to clarify on this.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

Hi Keith, I understand your concern. We have reviewed many of these applicants but we are still not caught up. We cannot take on more sellers than we can handle. We have been steadily expanding but we also need to think in the best interest of sellers who have stuck with us from the beginning. The more we add on too quickly the more saturated our marketplace.



For the record, this is a disgruntled former Brandroot seller who broke our sellers agreement. We never once used inappropriate language with him and actually gave him one warning before he broke another rule and we were forced to remove him from our platform. It's not that you refuse to work with us, we refuse to work with you.



We are an LLC operating with 2 employees out of Hawaii and have several independent contractors that we pay monthly. I (Michael Rader) primarily manage sales and the overall operation of the company. We also have two PHD holders (one of which you may have met at Namescon with myself) who work directly with us as investors/consultants. We are very much a company.

Please share screenshots of the "every bad word imaginable" that I called you. I don't ever speak this way.



To your first comment, we now have a bulk domain upload option for special account holders. Contact me if you would like me to review your account for this setup. To your comment on d)... This is essentially why we have held back from taking on any "ambassadors".



None of my personal domains are WHOIS private. I have less than 920 names published at Brandroot, 12 of which I have sold this year (2016) so far. Our average sale price hovers around $2,000. BB's is going to be higher because they have a couple of sales in the $XXX,XXX range, whereas we do not.



We are no longer offering this incentive at this time because of the lack of interest/need. The response to this was mostly negative and we deemed it not worth the time to develop. We are however working on other incentives for our sellers, like Brandlytics and a NameScore assigned to each name that determines it's placement in our search results. We want to soon do away with the newest to oldest sorting method. Instead we will be rewarding names that receive real traffic, inquiries, offers, visits, favorites, etc.



Do you have an account with Brandroot?


1) We do not have this program
2) We are extremely picky on who we accept as logo designers and currently we are not taking on any others as we do not have a current need, but yes logo designers pay only $5 for listing fees. For the same reason that we are not taking on too many sellers, we are not taking on too many designers. We want the few designers that we have to be very successful as opposed to countless designers making a sell every now and then.



If I understand the questions correctly, yes all of our sellers receive emails notifying them of accepted or rejected names. They get an email for every step of the publication process.

Thanks for replying but I uave never received any email from you...EVER.

More than one year I sent names to you and I even told you about this more months through PM here , which you never replied. Before three or four days I again submitted names using an email I have never used and so far I received nothing evwn though I submitted to BB pn the same day and time and yesterday BB sent me some as rejected and some as accepted.


Dont know what is wrong with the system but it appears to just mark every email that is used to submiy and never sends out any password. I evwn tried password reset and it says no such email on system then I try to submit using the same email and it tells me this email already exists.


This is the first time I talked about this publicly cause I wanted people to see that all is not good in BR.


Now plz, what are you going to say about this?

my email is tayodomains at gmail and also aaa at abdullahadam and also aaabdillahi at gmail (this one i used before four days).

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

I don't know if it is anymore. Some could argue, that BR has a smaller portfolio size, better logos, better descriptions, better search results, but as of right now, I really don't know the answer because BB is the original exclusive brandable marketplace with more sales by volume. I'll run some audits, and come back with a more accurate answer. In the mean time, hopefully others can chime in.





I'm sorry to hear the response wasn't positive.



Thank you for the clarification.



It appears I was wrong. I had thought BR had an easier domainer / designer program.

I heard that BB designers were given the option to take $5 upfront for the logo, and $0 logo reward. Or, they had an option to take $0 up front, and opt to receive the $100 - $500 logo award if the domain sells. I'm still waiting for BB to clarify on this.

BB to clarify? I thought we were about BR?

To kniw such thing doesnt exist is good and the kinda answer I was looking for.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

Hi Keith, I understand your concern. We have reviewed many of these applicants but we are still not caught up. We cannot take on more sellers than we can handle. We have been steadily expanding but we also need to think in the best interest of sellers who have stuck with us from the beginning. The more we add on too quickly the more saturated our marketplace.

I am not sure I fully agree with this statement but I have never received submission , rejection or acceptance emails EVER for more than a year I tried.

 

[Keith DeBoer]

Thanks for replying but I uave never received any email from you...EVER.

More than one year I sent names to you and I even told you about this more months through PM here , which you never replied. Before three or four days I again submitted names using an email I have never used and so far I received nothing evwn though I submitted to BB pn the same day and time and yesterday BB sent me some as rejected and some as accepted.


Dont know what is wrong with the system but it appears to just mark every email that is used to submiy and never sends out any password. I evwn tried password reset and it says no such email on system then I try to submit using the same email and it tells me this email already exists.


This is the first time I talked about this publicly cause I wanted people to see that all is not good in BR.

Now plz, what are you going to say about this?

my email is tayodomains at gmail and also aaa at abdullahadam and also aaabdillahi at gmail (this one i used before four days).

This is the first time I'm bringing this up on NP but I have to say I had a similar experience to the above. About a year ago I "applied" to be a BR seller. I received no response. I was a newbie and my names were low quality so a rejection notice would have been understandable but I never received even the courtesy of a rejection email or even an email saying there was a backlog and it might take several months to review my names etc. Then, out of the blue several months later, after I'd established a nice sized portfolio at BrandBucket I was invited to be a BR seller. I went to the BR platform and created an account. I had to do it twice because the first time it didn't take. Then I submitted some names but I also had problems with the names submissions so I just gave up. A month later Michael Radar extended a personal invitation asking me to move all my names from BB to BR but I declined as I am happy where I am. I'm glad that some sellers are having good success with sales at BRoot and I think that competition is good in any marketplace. However, prompt and courteous communication is important to me and BrandBucket offers that in spades (and sales too). So I've become a dedicated BrandBucket seller and I no longer list my names at any other brandable marketplaces.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

To your first comment, we now have a bulk domain upload option for special account holders. Contact me if you would like me to review your account for this setup. To your comment on d)... This is essentially why we have held back from taking on any "ambassadors".

When you say special account holders what do you mean ? Isnt the wholw point of some people saying BR is better than BB is because they claim BR treats all its sellers equally?

Can we then say BR is as much as BB in terms of dealing with sellers, lets say seller with big list, big sales, ect gets preferential treatment. I am not assuming this , I am taking it from your message which I am quoating here

 

[Grilled]

BB to clarify? I thought we were about BR?

BR just stated they aren't accepting applications for their designer / domainer program. So what more is there to look into for BR's designer / domainer program?

BB, meanwhile, urges desinger / domainers to apply to be a logo designer, but they have not publicly confirmed the benefits. I am wondering if it makes sense for my friend to apply, so I can work directly with her to ensure the quality is to my standard. When I was publishing in bulk with BB, it was sickening when I'd see multiple domains published at a time with very similar non unique concept designs. I would never have approved them for publishing, and if they refuse to fix the logo's, what accountability do they have towards logo quality?

To kniw such thing doesnt exist is good and the kinda answer I was looking for.

Just because something doesn't exist today, doesn't mean it won't exist tomorrow. If you are able to provide a high quality concept logo (with full original rights, that meets marketplace size and standards) why shouldn't you be able to use it to compete against other designer / sellers?

I could be completely wrong about logo's here. Has anybody done a logo study? How many of these companies retain the logo? Are there any similarities between domains sold and their logo's?

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

This is the first time I'm bringing this up on NP but I have to say I had a similar experience to the above. About a year ago I "applied" to be a BR seller. I received no response. I was a newbie and my names were low quality so a rejection notice would have been understandable but I never received even the courtesy of a rejection email or even an email saying there was a backlog and it might take several months to review my names etc. Then, out of the blue several months later, after I'd established a nice sized portfolio at BrandBucket I was invited to be a BR seller. I went to the BR platform and created an account. I had to do it twice because the first time it didn't take. Then I submitted some names but I also had problems with the names submissions so I just gave up. A month later Michael Radar extended a personal invitation asking me to move all my names from BB to BR but I declined as I am happy where I am. I'm glad that some sellers are having good success with sales at BRoot and I think that competition is good in any marketplace. However, prompt and courteous communication is important to me and BrandBucket offers that in spades (and sales too). So I've become a dedicated BrandBucket seller and I no longer list my names at any other brandable marketplaces.

Thank you for confirming this. Based on your portfolio on BB, I can say, that BR invited you after they saw what you had. I can be wrong but I am sure I am closee to being right. It is highly unprofessional and unacceptable to treat some users like this. Like I said before , I am happy if any marketplace tells me my names suck and they dont want but to ignore even after rwaching out on NP is something I have to find new adjective for.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

BR just stated they aren't accepting applications for their designer / domainer program. So what more is there to look into for BR's designer / domainer program?

BB, meanwhile, urges desinger / domainers to apply to be a logo designer, but they have not publicly confirmed the benefits. I am wondering if it makes sense for my friend to apply, so I can work directly with her to ensure the quality is to my standard. When I was publishing in bulk with BB, it was sickening when I'd see multiple domains published at a time with very similar non unique concept designs. I would never have approved them for publishing, and if they refuse to fix the logo's, what accountability do they have towards logo quality?



Just because something doesn't exist today, doesn't mean it won't exist tomorrow. If you are able to provide a high quality concept logo (with full original rights, that meets marketplace size and standards) why shouldn't you be able to use it to compete against other designer / sellers? I could be completely wrong about the logo's here. Has anybody done a logo study? How many of these companies retain the logo? Are there any similarities between domains sold and their logo's?

I was talking about BRs $5 listing fee for designers which was running and is STILL running it appears since the old designers only are getting and bo new designers are being accepted.

As for BB , Did they even mention the designer gets any benefits other than the logo fee? If they said ... Could you provide me a link or quoate pls?

 

[Grilled]

As for BB , Did they even mention the designer gets any benefits other than the logo fee?

Which logo fee? The $5 upfront option per logo, or the $100-$500 reward if the domain sells?

I'm still waiting for a public clarification on the benefits.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

Which logo fee? The $5 upfront option per logo, or the $100-$500 reward if the domain sells?

I'm still waiting for a public clarification on the benefits.

The designers of BR payung $5 for their OWN listings... as BR said


""2) We are extremely picky on who we accept as logo designers and currently we are not taking on any others as we do not have a current need, but yes logo designers pay only $5 for listing fees. ""

 

[Grilled]

The designers of BR payung $5 for their OWN listings... as BR said


""2) We are extremely picky on who we accept as logo designers and currently we are not taking on any others as we do not have a current need, but yes logo designers pay only $5 for listing fees. ""

Ok, while this is something I don't agree with, I appreciate BR publicly confirming their designer / seller benefits. Now we know. They don't have a current need for new designers. If enough br sellers wish to become designer / sellers, then br can reevaluate, and open up this program up to other sellers if they feel the benefit of these new designer / sellers will help their business and margins.

Now, I, and others, are waiting for a public response from bb, just as br was kind enough to be transparent with their designer / seller program. I have had several private conversations, and one answer has came up more than once. Once bb clarifies, other volume domainers can then make an informed approach on how to handle their brandable domain portfolio and listing fee's.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

Ok, while this is something I don't agree with, I appreciate BR publicly confirming their designer / seller benefits. Now we know. They don't have a current need for new designers. If enough br sellers wish to become designer / sellers, then br can reevaluate, and open up this program up to other sellers if they feel the benefit of these new designer / sellers will help their business and margins.

Now, I, and other, are waiting for a public response from bb, just as br was kind enough to be transparent with their designer / seller program. I have had several private conversations, and one answer has came up more than once. Once bb clarifies, other volume domainers can then make an informed approach on how to handle their brandable domain portfolio and listing fee's.

Evwn though they...BR..confirmed ....it is still not good as it removes the whole point which you said BB is not following...being fair to all sellers.

Now.BR is not fair ....when you add the buld submission which BR said needs account by accouny review which is again unfair.

With these two points ... I think we can say BR equal BB if we want to talk about certain sellers getting prferential treatment.

 

[Joe N]

This thread has been an interesting read. I'm relatively new to domaining, and to brandables, but lately I've been getting a much better handle on what makes a good brandable name.

For the last couple weeks I've been submitting exclusively hand-reg/deleted domains to BB, with 8 of my last 15 submissions having been accepted.

What I'm hearing about BR is that:

1. As a newcomer, my domains will not be looked at because I have no clout in the industry.
2. The BR backlog basically guarantees that even my good names won't be considered for several months (if ever).

What this means is that the only way BR will ever welcome me, is if I've already paid my dues and built a portfolio with BB. But much like @Keith DeBoer, if/when that time comes, BB will have my loyalty for giving me a chance and responding to my submissions in a timely fashion.

BR doesn't sound very appealing.

I'm sure BR is great for sellers who are already listed there, but @Grilled - it seems like you're trying to pump their tires to new sellers. And I don't know why. I think it's just going to lead to a lot of frustrated domainers getting soured on BR when they don't get a response, or have to wait in a very long line to be approved.

It's a shame BR can't manage inventory and communication a bit better, because they need the loyalty of people like me, who are willing to put in the time and effort of learning this trade and finding great names that we're willing to list on one of these marketplaces.

 

[Grilled]

Evwn though they...BR..confirmed ....it is still bot good as it removes the whole point which you said BB is not following...being far to all sellers.

So to confirm... my previous stance of BR > BB is not true because BR doesn't allow the designer / seller program to all? In which case, BR can't be considered more fair than BB, thus BR = BB in terms of fairness?

Now.BR is not fair ....when you add the buld submission which BR said needs account by accouny review which is again unfair.

I had something of this nature approved for my account a few months ago, and still, I only decided to move forward with listing 24 domains. Heck, I even paid BB $10 to list an old BR domain that I assume br would have considered relisting because they had already completed a logo and description for this domain. I'm unsure if they could reuse the logo, given they sold it to a customer a few years back. My recent br sale sparked an interest to reconsider listing more domains with br. But, given the other options, marginally speaking, I'm still hesitant to invest in br listing fee's, given the industries other options.

With these two points ... I think we can say BR equal BB if we want to talk about certain sellers getting prferential treatment.

This is a fair hypothesis. More evidence could further sway the two, but if you're saying both marketplaces have certain sellers benefiting more than other sellers, than based on what has been presented, I would agree.