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.

 

[Keith DeBoer]

Dashboard stats are a waste of time, on all platforms, they are nothing but a shiny object to keep you busy why you wait for sales. No correlation between stats and sales. The formula for success is to get quality names and price them at reasonable levels, ready for an impulse purchase.

 

[domainicate]

Dashboard stats are a waste of time, on all platforms, they are nothing but a shiny object to keep you busy why you wait for sales. No correlation between stats and sales. The formula for success is to get quality names and price them at reasonable levels, ready for an impulse purchase.

Thanks. My biggest challenge is that I did not price them for an impulse purchase and I cannot update the prices for a few months (without removing the listings and waiting 30 days).

Overall, I am not thinking that brandable marketplaces are for me. Too restrictive.

 

[Recons.Com]

Thanks. My biggest challenge is that I did not price them for an impulse purchase and I cannot update the prices for a few months (without removing the listings and waiting 30 days).

Overall, I am not thinking that brandable marketplaces are for me. Too restrictive.

I treat brandable marketplaces as a separate basket, mostly just leave and forget for some time.

I have around 600 names between BP/BB/SH, they probably do around $15K-20K sales annually between themselves, minus $5K for renewals, so still net $10K-15K. Not bad, imo.

 

[karmaco]

@karmaco - since you have had some success here, I would like to ask how (if at all) shown in the dashboard compared to sales.

For example, I have a domain that has had about 6,000 views in about a month and another that has had almost 4,00 views in 2 weeks. Normally, these would seem like strong numbers, but I have not seen any offers.

Also, with regard to "hotness", what level (if at all) did the domains that you sold attain? I have had some in the 25+ range, but it fluctuates.

Lastly, did anyone use the "favourites" feature before buying from you?

Many thanks for your time. I am just trying to get a feel for how valid those metrics are as they relate to real world sale.

I agree with the general statements @domainicate about stats/views/faves doesn’t mean much. My experience has been

1) either a name was not hot at all and someone just comes and buys it (likely type in) or
2) a name is hot for months straight and then sells
3) name is hot just before a sale

More of my names have sold in the scenario of number 1 (roughly 60%) scenario 2 (roughly 30%) And scenario 3 (about 10%) Many have discussed this on the Slack channel and most have a similar experience. So overall, the stats are not something to count on.

The thing about views,your names will rise dramatically in views when you domain is “featured” which places it higher on the first page/pages.

 

[domainicate]

I treat brandable marketplaces as a separate basket, mostly just leave and forget for some time.

I have around 600 names between BP/BB/SH, they probably do around $15K-20K sales annually between themselves, minus $5K for renewals, so still net $10K-15K. Not bad, imo.

That is the approach I am taking (waiting and not obsessing). In the beginning, I tend to obsess about things, and mostly try to learn the ins and outs. At this point, I have removed just one and will leave the others to ride the wave (of success!)

That being said, I don't have anything remotely close to 600 names listed.

I just expect that someday, I will wake up to one of those emails saying, "x domain just sold". Two were projects that didn't launch, so it would be nice to recoup some money from those (one personal and one client who failed to pay). The others are all rock solid profit if they sell for over $25

 

[domainicate]

I agree with the general statements @domainicate about stats/views/faves doesn’t mean much. My experience has been

1) either a name was not hot at all and someone just comes and buys it (likely type in) or
2) a name is hot for months straight and then sells
3) name is hot just before a sale

More of my names have sold in the scenario of number 1 (roughly 60%) scenario 2 (roughly 30%) And scenario 3 (about 10%) Many have discussed this on the Slack channel and most have a similar experience. So overall, the stats are not something to count on.

The thing about views,your names will rise dramatically in views when you domain is “featured” which places it higher on the first page/pages.

Thanks again for the feedback. Yes, I am seeing that even today, the domain that was at the top of my hot list yesterday was a 17, today, a different domain is topping at 29.

I am committed to leaving those ones that I have there to wait and see how they do. Incidentally, today is my one-month "Brandpaversary."

 

[RozasMD]

Thanks again for the feedback. Yes, I am seeing that even today, the domain that was at the top of my hot list yesterday was a 17, today, a different domain is topping at 29.

I am committed to leaving those ones that I have there to wait and see how they do. Incidentally, today is my one-month "Brandpaversary."

FWIW, two of my names have been consistently ranking above 100 for months but none of them has been sold yet. I guess they had a certain number of backlinks previously and they're still receiving traffic from them, and that's why they're that high on the hotness stats.

I agree that dashboard stats don't always correlate to sales.

PS: I've just checked it. They're not the top traffic though. And many of my top traffic domains are ranking really low on 'hotness'. So not sure what other factors BP is using to estimate it.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Thanks again for the feedback. Yes, I am seeing that even today, the domain that was at the top of my hot list yesterday was a 17, today, a different domain is topping at 29.

I am committed to leaving those ones that I have there to wait and see how they do. Incidentally, today is my one-month "Brandpaversary."

One month? Oh man, come on. There is no marketplace that will give you a sale in your first month and also it is not a good way to check if you can get sales or not. Just be patient and spread the portfolio around so you might get sales from different places.

 

[domainicate]

One month? Oh man, come on. There is no marketplace that will give you a sale in your first month and also it is not a good way to check if you can get sales or not. Just be patient and spread the portfolio around so you might get sales from different places.

Don't miss my point. I have been doing this for a long time. I was just saying that I have only been there a month, meaning that I am just learning the ropes at Brandpa... not in domaining. I did not expect a sale within a month.

I was committed to having them there long term, I was just not committed to those prices. I now know for future that I have to:

a. Rely less on their automated pricing

and

b. This through how long I want to hold out for a price before setting a longer term price.

For example, I am sure others have done this. You realize you are holding on to a domain name that you just don't want any more. You drop the price on GoDaddy, then it sells. I just think they cut themselves short (and miss out on sales) by not allowing price adjustments, especially for those who may not read the fine print and realize that they can't adjust them for a few months.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Don't miss my point. I have been doing this for a long time. I was just saying that I have only been there a month, meaning that I am just learning the ropes at Brandpa... not in domaining. I did not expect a sale within a month.

I was committed to having them there long term, I was just not committed to those prices. I now know for future that I have to:

a. Rely less on their automated pricing

and

b. This through how long I want to hold out for a price before setting a longer term price.

For example, I am sure others have done this. You realize you are holding on to a domain name that you just don't want any more. You drop the price on GoDaddy, then it sells. I just think they cut themselves short (and miss out on sales) by not allowing price adjustments, especially for those who may not read the fine print and realize that they can't adjust them for a few months.

Many sellers including me raised this issue with Brandpa through the Slack channel, saying that a 90 day lock is simply too long and that other marketplaces have a 30 day rule. BP currently seems to not be changing this any time soon which means whatever domain you want to have in the market should have a price you are comfortable to have for the next 90 days.

 

[kalr]

I have sold a name today...

I will share more details soon

 

[Kachi]

I hardly remember I still have names on BP. Will just remove them. I don't care what happens to my account.

 

[ArielT]

I have 2 but I see many bad names there

 

[kalr]

I have sold a name today...

I will share more details soon

Complete detail here

 

[pixabrand]

FWIW, two of my names have been consistently ranking above 100 for months but none of them has been sold yet. I guess they had a certain number of backlinks previously and they're still receiving traffic from them, and that's why they're that high on the hotness stats.

I agree that dashboard stats don't always correlate to sales.

PS: I've just checked it. They're not the top traffic though. And many of my top traffic domains are ranking really low on 'hotness'. So not sure what other factors BP is using to estimate it.

In case you're still looking for this info, it looks like Brandpa actually calculates hotness essentially as "intent to buy":

Hotness score – how hot your domains are, relative to other domains on Brandpa. A higher score is hotter. Hotness is a measure of potential buying signals, and includes people making offers, starting to buy, looking at the name repeatedly and looking at it for a long time.

(from Brandpa knowledge base)

 

[domain hacks]

How long does it take Brandpa to send the money over to your account once you push the domain name to the buyer? Waiting almost a week.

 

[Haroon Basha]

It is usually within 48 hours they usually send the payment after the transfer of the domain name. You need to contact Support, they will tell you the reason for delay.

 

[Deven Patel]

Dashboard stats are a waste of time, on all platforms, they are nothing but a shiny object to keep you busy why you wait for sales. No correlation between stats and sales. The formula for success is to get quality names and price them at reasonable levels, ready for an impulse purchase.

Agreed, most stats are. I often see people comparing accept/reject rates too without considering the quality of their portfolio. A lot of these stats are vanity metrics that shouldn't be used to determine success. Each seller will have a completely different outcome based on the quality of their portfolio. The same holds true for sales/conversion rates. It all depends on the quality of the domains.

For example, if a seller submitted 100 domains and 99 were low quality then the success rate would only be 1%. On the other hand, if a seller submitted 10 domains and 9 were high quality then the success rate would be a whopping 90%!

No two sellers are the same because no two domains are the same.

 

[domain hacks]

It is usually within 48 hours they usually send the payment after the transfer of the domain name. You need to contact Support, they will tell you the reason for delay.

Contacted them 4 days ago and they are like "It is pending, you can see it in your Dashboard". I contacted them again yesterday, no answer. Contacted bank, they say no incoming payments. The guy got his domain I got nothing so far, waiting for this to be resolved, kinda bored to chase people around for $1700-ish

 

[mani0307]

Contacted them 4 days ago and they are like "It is pending, you can see it in your Dashboard". I contacted them again yesterday, no answer. Contacted bank, they say no incoming payments. The guy got his domain I got nothing so far, waiting for this to be resolved, kinda bored to chase people around for $1700-ish

Use transferwise it's very quick payment from Brandpa...

 

[karmaco]

I have sold a good number of names there and have always gotten paid within 24 hours. Did you ask for something other than Transferwise?

 

[domain hacks]

I have sold a good number of names there and have always gotten paid within 24 hours. Did you ask for something other than Transferwise?

I did not ask anything specific, there was an option to choose the payment and to click . I clicked ACH payment and that is it. ACH never takes more than 5 biz days.There is another thing that happened when I sold the domain, but I dont wanna talk about that because it will look like I am badmouthing them. Will see how will this resolve...

 

[karmaco]

With transferwise it is almost immediate which is what they use. No 5 days. Are you on Slack channel? They might be easier to reach there.

Curious what went wrong but hope you get paid promptly. Its too long a wait.

 

[domain hacks]

Are you on Slack channel?

No Slack link on their site, just Whatsapp, Twitter and FB. Doesn't matter. I will wait few more weeks, maybe they will remember me

 

[Natto]

I can confirm the payment won't take so long (not over 2 days after domain transferred confirm) . have you check on your domain under "Sold"? there will be an instruction there. If you have already pushed the domain you need to confirm in this tab as well.