BrandPa.com Experience (Brandable Domain Marketplace)

[Chris Hydrick]

BrandPa.com has announced their presence on NamePros...

Hi there! I'm sorry your experience with BB wasn't pleasant :/ If you'd like to try our marketplace please don't hesitate to do so We're new in the domaining industry but very eager to learn! Let me know what you think or if you have any questions This is us: https://brandpa.com/ (or if you'd like to read about the sellers' rules visit this page: https://brandpa.com/start-selling)

Look forward to hearing from you!

Granted, the above post is from the BrandBucket experience thread, and will likely be deleted for being off topic / wrong thread, it was the first time I heard of them. The founder, @Jowita Emberton, had introduced herself in an earlier thread:

Hi guys! NamePros is a great website to get invaluable information about the domaining industry. As a reader, I'm here pretty much every day. As a writer, I'm starting today

I'm the founder of Brandpa (brandpa.com), a domain name marketplace similar to BB, BR or Namerific. We use AI and human knowledge to create and judge the names’ value according to how easy to pronounce and catchy they are.

I'm here to learn, get to know you and your recent experiences with other brandable name marketplaces We're still developing the business so any insight on our site (brandpa.com) or anything you're missing from other marketplaces will be very useful

Thanks!

I'm creating this thread to discuss their marketplace, and for those who have experiences with them.

Here's what I know so far:

The founder, @Jowita Emberton, runs two other online businesses according to her LinkedIn page.

Delighten.co.uk - Web / brand design firm.

Weddination.com - Polish wedding services

According to her LinkedIn, she has been operating BrandPa since August 2016. Though, the last cached Archive.org screenshot is a server error on October 4, 2016 HERE

BrandPa.com (2006) is registered to Oliver Emberton, founder and managing director of SilkTide.com.

Currently, there are 562 domains published / listed on BrandPa. It appears most domains listed are handregged by the owners. Not 100% on this; I will run a check when my program is working again.

After reviewing their listings, I found two errors.

The domain regged is MonoRaptor.com, but the text reads ManoRaptor.com

The domain regged is UnknownVenues.com, but the text reads UnknownVenus.com

At first look:

Pros

• No Listing Fee
• FREE Logos
• Domain Owner sets price ($1,000+)
• Forwards all offers for sellers consideration
• Brandpa is a pretty memorable / catchy brandable domain.
• Select 'On-Sale' marketing section

Cons

• Low Alexa Ranking (4,557,819)

• New site. Assuming low organic traffic, and low type-in traffic due to quality and quantity of inventory.
• Piggy-back branding off BrandBucket in site footer see below

• Reviews are all from .co.uk domains, yet BrandPa doesn't sell any .co.uk domains. A quick glance at other domains owned by the reviewers and I wasn't able to verify any brandable .com's with history tracing back to BrandPa.

Personal thoughts: I respect that they "allow the seller to submit more domain names" by not charging a listing fee. To me this shows they are willing to work for your exclusivity. Should they gain popularity, I wonder if they'll sustain this business model and/or if their logo / listing quality will decrease over time when resources are spread across the masses.

@Jowita Emberton = Feel free to comment / fill in any of the blanks.

 

[DomainsMaven]

Some of you might be thinking i am just making it up. Here is link to my Brandpa portfolio.

https://brandpa.com/sellers/bc49cce9

 

[MitchH]

Some of you might be thinking i am just making it up. Here is link to my Brandpa portfolio.

https://brandpa.com/sellers/bc49cce9

That's very surprising you haven't sold any. Have you received any offers? Have you tried outbound?

 

[EbookLover]

Well, I was right in my first post about the # of domains required to register. You do, in fact, need to have 10 domains to register as a new seller. Once you fill-in the 5th domain, the submit button becomes active. However, if you click it, it tells you that you have to fill in slot #6. Then slot #7 and so on. You cannot submit the registration form unless you fill in all 10 domain slots.

 

[MitchH]

Well, I was right in my first post about the # of domains required to register. You do, in fact, need to have 10 domains to register as a new seller. Once you fill-in the 5th domain, the submit button becomes active. However, if you click it, it tells you that you have to fill in slot #6. Then slot #7 and so on. You cannot submit the registration form unless you fill in all 10 domain slots.

Interesting. I wonder when that was inititated. I registered around 9 months ago and I didn't have to do that.

 

[EbookLover]

Some of you might be thinking i am just making it up. Here is link to my Brandpa portfolio.

https://brandpa.com/sellers/bc49cce9

For the record, I believed you about 400+ domains listed. Maybe I used the wrong emoji. My shifty eyes emoji was because for 400+ domains, and not one sold, to me that means my skepticism of these brand sites (not just BP) is founded. With 400+ domains, I don't care if they were only listed for a month, if they were actively trying to put their listings in front of serious buyers, you would have sold one because you have some some good names there at quick glance.

But form the looks of it, seems like you have been listing there for a while because I noticed a .LY domain.

Ah well, I guess there's no rhyme or reason to sales sometimes. Who knows, maybe soon you will get 5 sales in a short span.

 

[Recons.Com]

Hi my friend,

What is the your reason behind disliking of Brandpa? Whenever i read something that is coming from you is negative. None of these marketplaces force us to stay with them. You have a choice.

I have over 400 domains published with Brandpa and have not sold any yet but still i don't talk bad about them. It is my choice to stay with them.

Stay positive and be hopeful.

That is a lot without sale. What was your average for past 12 months? Could you share what kind of names they mostly are, if you gradually added or bought someone else's portfolio? You should be selling 1+ per month.

 

[EbookLover]

@Mitchell Hengesbach

My guess is that it's a new requirement to somehow weed out "sub-par" sellers or the form is malfunctioning.

 

[DomainsMaven]

That is a lot without sale. What was your average for past 12 months? Could you share what kind of names they mostly are, if you gradually added or bought someone else's portfolio? You should be selling 1+ per month.

No sale yet. Signed up with Brandpa in about January 2018. I have been adding domains over time. About 40% hand reg other 60% bought from others.

 

[MitchH]

No sale yet. Signed up with Brandpa in about January 2018. I have been adding domains over time. About 40% hand reg other 60% bought from others.

So you haven't had any leads at all? No one has attempted to buy your domain, but they went too far below your automatic rejection price? If that happens, you typically never find out. I think that's the biggest thing Brandpa needs to change is that anytime someone tries to make an offer, even if its below the automatic rejection price, the seller should be notified. Many of us want to negotiate.

 

[OnlineDomainShop]

So you haven't had any leads at all? No one has attempted to buy your domain, but they went too far below your automatic rejection price? If that happens, you typically never find out. I think that's the biggest thing Brandpa needs to change is that anytime someone tries to make an offer, even if its below the automatic rejection price, the seller should be notified. Many of us want to negotiate.

I agree to this point of view. I have 58 domains so far on BP but no sale , I don't know how many times BP rejected offers which doesn't met my minimum criteria.

 

[Recons.Com]

No sale yet. Signed up with Brandpa in about January 2018. I have been adding domains over time. About 40% hand reg other 60% bought from others.

I can tell that many names are bought, because they seem "legacy" types. Like, BP doesn't accept digits there anymore and you have couple of those.

But I am still baffled at no sales. Contact and discuss, maybe they can provide some insights.

 

[DomainBarracksRob]

I can tell that many names are bought, because they seem "legacy" types. Like, BP doesn't accept digits there anymore and you have couple of those.

But I am still baffled at no sales. Contact and discuss, maybe they can provide some insights.

I love Brandpa....but if that many names(401) were listed at sedo/afternic with MSL......the offers you "would" and sales maybe.... you'd be receiving ....offers for sure but when listing at Brandpa its exclusive. Maybe they will change their alert system for offers.

 

[karmaco]

I was a big fan of Brandpa before I sold any names. They have sold three names for me since November 24 2018. I have turned down offers on even more.

If you are not getting offers at least, reconsider names in the portfolio, opening offer price and if the name is worth keeping or not. It’s not Brandpa or any marketplaces fault if no one wants that name.

The next part that nobody wants to hear is the large majority of sales reported on BB are domains that have been on BB 1 to 5 years time. That is a long wait. So Brandpa selling multiple for me around 1 year mark is fantastic.

Brandables require good names and patience. If you are missing either this type of selling of names isn’t for you.

I see people throwing in the towel after a few months because they haven’t made a sale. A brandable market gives possible exposure and more eyes on a domain but there is never a guarantee of a fast sale or any sale. You have to have patience to go this route.

 

[Furquan]

They sent an email claiming about some 5% of sell-through rate but as there is no reported data no one can tell how accurate them.

I was using their Slack channel & I found on there reported sales only 1 or 3 domains per month.

Is it all the seller BP are outside of namepros & their slack channel?

I just can't get their 5% sell through rate, may be its BP own portfolio sales as they own large names there.

 

[Furquan]

May be I should start a pool here asking how many people sold names on BP

 

[ResoluteDomains]

Has anyone experienced an unusual uptick in "favourites" for their domains? One of mine in particular has received about 20 additional "favourites" over the past week, which is really odd. It's also trending much higher than normal.

I have not only seen a large increase in likes, but also a doubling of my "hotness" average while I notice the overall BP "hotness" average itself has dropped a lot. Right now I am at 9.2 and BP says 11.5 average. But a week ago or so I was at 1.5 or so and the "average" at BP was 37 or some number around there. So they must be fiddling with that algorithm. As far as the likes count, have no idea why its increased so dramatically across most of my names.

 

[November]

Now their hotness score seems more accurate 1.5 from 37 is not normal ....
There is increase in 'favourites' in my account too...

 

[Haykay2005]

I noticed unusual increase in favorites too.. Might be due to an increase in traffic, time will tell.

 

[EbookLover]

For those of you wondering about the 10 domain requirement, it's official.

In order to be accepted to sell any domains on BP, your initial application must include 10 domains and all 10 domains must be accepted by BP in order to be able to sell on BP.

I know this because yesterday I got an email that my application was rejected. Of course, no specifics.

So I replied to the email with an appeal and asked them to reconsider just a few of my 10 domains with explanations as to why they are a good fit for BP (or any branding site).

The response was...

Unfortunately, you need to have at least 10 quality domain names to be approved as a seller at Brandpa.

No biggie, but I can't make much sense of having such a policy.

But it's their business so they must have a logical reason to have this rule (one would hope, anyway).

 

[cipcip]

The rule is stupid, not to say something else.
Since brandbucket requires money from you to even apply to sell a domain, in the use of credits, now brandpa wants to make $50 for each 10 names that you submit and are approved...

Oh well, bye bye, I will use undeveloped or any other websites that are free, why should I pay when others offer services for free.

If there is a brandpa representative here on the board, I would love to hear their opinion about this.

 

[golan]

If there is a brandpa representative here on the board, I would love to hear their opinion about this.

@Jowita Emberton

 

[BrandVenue]

The rule is stupid, not to say something else.
Since brandbucket requires money from you to even apply to sell a domain, in the use of credits, now brandpa wants to make $50 for each 10 names that you submit and are approved...

Oh well, bye bye, I will use undeveloped or any other websites that are free, why should I pay when others offer services for free.

If there is a brandpa representative here on the board, I would love to hear their opinion about this.

I disagree with your above statement. If it was their intention then they'd accept a lot of new sellers and a lot of names. But it's not the case.

I track BrandBucket, SquadHelp and Brandpa's Nameserver everyday using DomainIQ and these are the results from past 7 days

BrandBucket - Domains added last 7 days = 486, daily average 69 domains added

SquadHelp - domains added last 7 days = 1078, daily average 154 domains added

Brandpa - domains added last 7 days = 171, daily average 24 domains added

It's clear Brandpa is growing it's inventory at very slow pace. They are not after $50 listing fees for 10 names every new seller joins.

Besides they don't get $5 listing fee themselves as they pay that $5 for doing logo to logo designers.

 

[Furquan]

BrandBucket - Domains added last 7 days = 486, daily average 69 domains added

SquadHelp - domains added last 7 days = 1078, daily average 154 domains added

Brandpa - domains added last 7 days = 171, daily average 24 domains added

Nice,

I would love to see how many domains are getting sold on average. I especially want to know about BP sales.

I have been active on their slack channel before the 35 domain published rule & I hardly found one sale in months reported by a member, I am here following the "Report your sales thread" from the beginning I hardly found one or two BP sales in months reported by a member. The last I remember is someone reported their 2018 sales on "Report your domain sales thread".

The question begs lots of attention as I previous month got an email from BP claiming a 5% or 5.6% sales through rate but again I asked myself where is the data?

I will appreciate your effort for this.

 

[BrandVenue]

Nice,

I would love to see how many domains are getting sold on average. I especially want to know about BP sales.

I have been active on their slack channel before the 35 domain published rule & I hardly found one sale in months reported by a member, I am here following the "Report your sales thread" from the beginning I hardly found one or two BP sales in months reported by a member. The last I remember is someone reported their 2018 sales on "Report your domain sales thread".

The question begs lots of attention as I previous month got an email from BP claiming a 5% or 5.6% sales through rate but again I asked myself where is the data?

I will appreciate your effort for this.

You are not seeing many sellers not reporting their sales probably because Brandpa doesn’t allow reporting sales on public forum. Even in Slack I've seen sellers were asked to mask the domain name when reporting a sale. This is probably the reason many sellers have stopped reporting their sales.

In the past I'd also published couple of my Brandpa sales at Namepros but after seeing they don’t allow this I have stopped reporting my sales. Personally I've sold 3 domains this year ( out of 125 names portfolio ) at Brandpa with approx total sale value of $16k. You are not seeing any reported sales but that doesn’t mean nobody is getting sale there.

 

[MitchH]

You are not seeing many sellers not reporting their sales probably because Brandpa doesn’t allow reporting sales on public forum. Even in Slack I've seen sellers were asked to mask the domain name when reporting a sale. This is probably the reason many sellers have stopped reporting their sales.

In the past I'd also published couple of my Brandpa sales at Namepros but after seeing they don’t allow this I have stopped reporting my sales. Personally I've sold 3 domains this year ( out of 125 names portfolio ) at Brandpa with approx total sale value of $16k. You are not seeing any reported sales but that doesn’t mean nobody is getting sale there.

I dont recall Brandpa having a policy about not reporting sales. They have a list of domains recently sold on the front page of their site. So I'm not sure that's accurate, unless something has recently changed.