Brandroot are after Brandbucket listed names

[Ralph2472]

Hello everyone.

Here is part of an eMail I got today from Brandroot. I have some names listed at Brandbucket; and Brandroot are offering incentives to transfer them.


"If you're interested in listing free with us, respond to this message for your personal coupon key, which you must use when you are on the edit domain details page (before you verify the name.)

Additionally, if you are interested in moving your names from BrandBucket to Brandroot, we offer great incentives to do so, including double the free listings, lower commission paid to us for the names you move over, and featured listings on a select few. If this interests you, please respond with the list of names you would move over and we will get back to you with what we can offer you and the names we would like to take to our site.

We have had a couple of individuals who have taken this opportunity and even sold a couple that were moved over within a month of being on our site. If you're not getting the expected results from your brandables at BrandBucket, give Brandroot an honest try. You most likely won't regret it.

Keep in mind that BrandBucket requires a 30 days notice for any names moved from their site."


I guess they're after everyones business in an aggressive way. I haven't sold any thing at Brandbucket; but I will leave my names there for now.

Regards

Ralph.

 

[Jeeps]

For those who've sold names at Brandroot, any thoughts on the "Featured in selected categories for 90 Days" upgrade for $30? How about the "Feature on homepage for 90 Days" for $50? I imagine if you're going to go for one, you might as well spend the extra $20 for the homepage feature, as the category feature is included (please correct me if I've misunderstood).

If you have any numbers, case studies or thoughts you want to share Mr. @Rader please feel free.

 

[Coral Cove]

Hi @Jeeps (I love Jeeps and recently totaled my 1968 Jeep Wagoneer that had a roaring Chevy 350, Edelbrook headers, Turbo 400 transmission etc. You can see a picture of me and the rollover here. lol, long hair long gone BTW.) It was replaced with this beautiful 1984 Toyota Land Cruiser, however.

Anyway....

The featured options are ways to keep your names in front of more people. Many spotlight and featured names have been sold but I'm not sure that we have enough data yet to conclusively say that these publish options make for a faster sale. If it's a premium name, I would say that a featured option would get it the needed added attention, since they often require deeper pockets. The more people who see it, the better. On the other hand, featured listings for even not so premium names will do the same thing, get it front of more people, thus increasing it's chances for a sale. Featured listings do a few things:

1. They take less work to find
2. They get more attention through thumbs-up, commenting and clicks, which make them appear more desirable to visitors (since others seems to like the name... a good indicator that it may be a good name option).
3. For Spotlight names, the name is guaranteed to go out to our subscribers and shared across all our social media accounts (and sometimes with featured listings.) Not a huge deal, but it does get the name more attention than regular listed names do. We also sometimes "Boost" the name on our Facebook page to a targeted, entrepreneur audience, getting the name exposure to up to 200k Facebook users (depending on the boost budget and our budget to even do so)
4. Since listings appear from newest to oldest and featured names appear at the top of their respected pages, the domain takes much longer to lose its fresh and new factor, (a subject mentioned in the email sent out to Brandroot account holders today, which details a new, related Brandroot feature.)

With that in mind, we still sell many domains that are never featured. Many visitors actually enjoy spending the time to hunt and discover that elusive gem.

Thank you for the question!

 

[Domainerr]

Brandroot is really great, i listed only one domain with them and that was sold, good job....

 

[gblasting]

Will BrandRoot ever change its policy of not allowing users, who are yet to pay for some accepted names, to submit more names?

I submitted a name to BB and BR and its was accepted by both. I logged in to my BR account and I realised that I can not submit more names because I have not paid for the name that has been accepted, even though I have two names listed with them. This means if I ever decide to list the name with BB, I can't submit more names with my BR account, again! This is like compelling me to list the name with them. I definitely don't like how this looks.

 

[Coral Cove]

Will BrandRoot ever change its policy of not allowing users, who are yet to pay for some accepted names, to submit more names?

I submitted a name to BB and BR and its was accepted by both. I logged in to my BR account and I realised that I can not submit more names because I have not paid for the name that has been accepted, even though I have two names listed with them. This means if I ever decide to list the name with BB, I can't submit more names with my BR account, again! This is like compelling me to list the name with them. I definitely don't like how this looks.

Hi @gblasting,

Thank you for the feedback and for the opportunity to address this concern. You, and I believe only two others, have mentioned this about Brandroot so far. It is by no means a big concern but it gives me the chance to explain our rationale. We are continually seeking out every small delay that hold's up the line for our committed submitters, and then do what we can to eliminate them.

Long Answer: (see bottom for short answer.)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For several (rather lengthy) reasons we have implemented this feature:

1. Brandroot is not a price evaluation tool. We were finding that a few people were submitting domains just to see how we would price them. Not only are we flexible on pricing but we also allow the submitter to recommend his/her own price, which we edit usually only slightly. So, to be upset about our suggested price cannot be the reason for not choosing to list with us. We are more than happy to change a price that you feel is unfair. We price according to what we believe it will sell for. If you want the price higher, that is up to you, but it will more than likely sit for quite awhile.
2. We have sent out several emails to our users asking them to only submit domains that they have 100% full intention on listing with us. By submitting domains that you are unsure about, other submissions are forced to wait longer for no valuable reason.
3. We take the time to manually review every submission, sometimes multiple times, to ensure it is a good fit for Brandroot. Furthermore, as a way to open our marketplace even more to domainers, we are nearly complete with a new account type that will be given to a few select (and trained) users, where they will be able to vote to accept or deny a domain, modify the price if needed and then select its categories. We will be paying these users for every vote they cast, so we want to avoid paying the users to vote for domains that may or may not get processed all the way. This feature you have mentioned prevents that greatly.
4. As mentioned here in our exclusivity requirement explanation, "Brandroot’s goal is to be positioned as a partnership of domain sellers and a business name club for buyers." We actually prefer not only exclusivity on domains listed on our site, but exclusive sellers. While that is of course not something we require, the sellers that are exclusive to our site are actually the ones who by far sell the most. The ones who spread out their listings reduce the odds of their domain being selected for purchase (at all of the marketplaces). The closer together your great domains are, the better the chance of selling, which is what our data is telling us. Choose a place and stick with it, is my advice. If you're unsuccessful, move them (all of them) somewhere else. So, with this feature in place we reduce the amount of Brandroot sellers who are not serious about our marketplace and increase the listing space for those who are, thus resulting in more sales for our "partner" domainers. From the onset of Brandroot this has been our goal, to have more prime sellers and less marketplace nomads. This is the same for our logo designers. Because we only have a select few designers, they get paid much more often, resulting in fast turnarounds, better and stricter requirements (from our end), and almost no burnout.

It's up to you to choose which brandable marketplace you want to list with, and you are more than welcome to submit some here and some there, but what we do frown upon is submitting your names everywhere and then deciding, after they are accepted, which marketplace to choose. It won't be tolerated at Brandroot and this feature will never be removed. It's one of the ones that set us apart and show our devotion to those who are devoted to us. If you feel compelled to list with BB, please do so. We are not in a position to persuade

With that being said, feel free to PM me the domains you would like removed from Brandroot so you can submit more domains. However, please note that we will not be able to do this again. I hope that our sellers expectations are clear now. Sorry for the long answer.


Short Answer:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We want a marketplace of committed sellers, who sell much more often than marketplace nomads.

 

[Coral Cove]

oops

 

[gblasting]

@Rader Thanks for your clear response.

 

[discobull]

What if someone is choosing not to proceed because of how you've priced the domain?

Hi @gblasting,


Short Answer:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We want a marketplace of committed sellers, who sell much more often than marketplace nomads.

 

[Coral Cove]

What if someone is choosing not to proceed because of how you've priced the domain?

Please see long answer.

 

[discobull]

Please see long answer.

Sorry. That's what I get for doing a quick scan instead of a thorough reading.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Sold my first domain today at Brandroot. The transaction was quick and smooth. I got paid within an hour after pushing the domain.

 

[forge]

Sold my first domain today at Brandroot. The transaction was quick and smooth. I got paid within an hour after pushing the domain.

Congrats. Does BR provide any transaction assurance?

 

[Doron Vermaat]

Congrats. Does BR provide any transaction assurance?

I'm not 100% sure I understand your question correctly but it is safe to assume that they only initiate the transfer process after they have received the funds from the buyer, enabling them to pay the seller directly after the domain transfer.

 

[gina ferrano]

Does there seem to be much of a difference between the price of logos, in terms of how quickly it's uploaded, and especially as it relates to sales? I've only selected the $100 option as the prices on the names are less than 2k.

Two names accepted thus far, one declined accepted at another, waiting on the others...

 

[advaita]

Gina - any news on your 2 accepted names or any opinion on BR in general that you would be willing to share?

 

[carob]

I think BR are accepting less names these days according to what the site owner said in another thread https://www.namepros.com/threads/warning-against-a-namepros-member.836920/

 

[advaita]

Thanks for the thread - I read all the way through! Maybe all's well that ends well? I don't know if he's accepting new sellers or not now.

 

[gina ferrano]

Gina - any news on your 2 accepted names or any opinion on BR in general that you would be willing to share?

I have 15 names with them, 10 of them live. Not a bite, nibble, nada. But I can say the same for the other 40 currently live, mostly with BB too (another 30 in the pipeline) So expect no instant gratification. Caveat emptor. I think a year ago when there were fewer names, there were sales. I suspect the quantity and quality of names has changed all of this.

 

[JudgeMind]

Yes all brandable marketplaces are quickly over saturated, it's disappointing to see the quality of some of the names is lacking. IMO

 

[advaita]

Thanks for the update Gina - so 55 live and no interest shown so far, it puts my 2 live and 3 in the pipeline into perspective! Got to admit that their criteria for rejecting seem pretty arbitrary, as some of the ones they rejected seem to me to be better than the ones they accepted.

 

[gina ferrano]

Thanks for the update Gina - so 55 live and no interest shown so far, it puts my 2 live and 3 in the pipeline into perspective! Got to admit that their criteria for rejecting seem pretty arbitrary, as some of the ones they rejected seem to me to be better than the ones they accepted.

Yeah...I actually have 60 live, with 25 waiting to go... The majority are with BB. It's a numbers thing too.
I'm a bit late to the brandables thing, there seemed to be a lot more sales a year ago. Though I've heard a name could be live for 2 years and out of the blue, you get a sale. It's a gamble either way.

To put things in perspective, because a name might not seem like a good name, may very well be a name that sells. I've seen it happen from the sidelines. If a brandable site passes, we can't really take it personally either. There are folks jonsin' to start up their own brandable biz and plan on asking a domainer to cough up $75 to list on their site (60 names X 75= 4.5K listing fees...yeah right) Market is way too saturated. I struggle with the $10 on BR. On the other hand, a site with fewer names may be easier to navigate if done well, as was the case with BB way back when.

I'll happily post a sale if there is one! (hoping this is the case sooner rather than later)