BrandRoot Experience...

[gina ferrano]

Since there's a thread for Namerific and BB, I started a thread on BR. What are people's experiences?
Jury is still out...not sure if I should submit more names, as names pending in the cue waiting for logos jumped back 20 spaces. What's the turn around time? On the front end, names being approved are on par with namerific, BB is very slow, w/o a yay or a nay, though maybe once the names are approved it may be faster going into the description, logo stage.

Also, paying more than $100 on logos for names valued at under 2k, is it worth it to pay more. Does it make a difference? How long to wait till name is published? Do the logo designers pick and choose? The $10 fee, what does that insure? The idea behind BR is a sped up process, how long must one wait...

 

[Michael M]

I had applied months back and was finally accepted recently. To test the marketplace - I submitted a sample batch of 10 mid-quality names at the same time. 7 were rejected, and 3 are still sitting in queue for acceptance for a while. (which I am guessing they may be accepted since the others from the same batch were quickly rejected, and these names were higher in the list).

I am waiting to submit more domains to them as I wanted to see how the processed flowed first. Hopefully they will approve these soon. Though I also wonder if they are waiting until I submit a certain # of acceptable names (say 10) before they approve a batch. Some clarification might be helpful if anyone has any insight.

I am always interested in new Marketplaces, but no way to truly know until you have names of your own on there to draw conclusions from.

 

[cocaseco]

Are you a brand ambassador, staff?

No and never would be. I want to use all markets that meet my goals, as well as being able to objectively comment good or bad on any.

 

[Theydon]

Surely there is no excuse for lack of communication in business, forget the reasons why they have or they haven't communicated feedback, its just common courtesy and good business practice to keep people updated isn't it. Waiting months and hearing nothing is not a way to do business imo.

 

[slimjim270]

@Robozy and a couple others shared their 2015 results, I will do the same.

I have been an active seller on Brandroot since Dec 2014 and on BrandBucket since Oct. 2014.

My experience on Brandroot (BR)...

1) During 2015, I had 6 sales on 84 names listed with Brandroot ( 7% sales rate for 2015).

2) I currently have 119 names listed with Brandroot and already kicked off 2016 with a sale in January 2016.

3) I only ask 2 things of a broker - A) they sell product, and B) they pay promptly after the sale. Michael Rader (Brandroot) has met both these objectives consistently.

4) My experience dealing with Michael Rader? I am prompt to transfer when requested, my tone with Michael is respectable, and Michael has consistently responded the same way with me. He is brief in his responses and does not appear to be a conversationalist. Okay by me... He sells. He pays. That is all I care about! I hired the guy to do a job for me... and he is doing it well.

My opinion - When BrandBucket recently implemented their new $10 Listing Fee, they made a mistake. It has become a catalyst for many loyal BB sellers (those in the Top 50 account size and expanding) to rethink their channel partner strategy. What BB should have done was grandfathered their existing Top 50 members to not have to pay the new $10 Listing Fee (or at least provide them a discounted rate of only $5 per listing as a show of allegiance to top members). What BB should have done instead, was they should have only initiated the new Listing Fee requirement for new members and let it phase in over time as new members joined the site and expanded their inventory. BrandBucket's new Listing Fee along with Brandroot's higher sales rate opened the door for Brandroot to gain experienced product suppliers. (or at least caused many experienced sellers to think twice about giving BrandBucket 1st dibs on submissions) If BrandBucket want's to stop the bleeding, they should immediately offer 50% off their Listing Fees for their Top 50 members, otherwise there will be a consistent flow of capital and experienced members migrating to Brandroot.

I hope this overview is helpful...

-Jim

 

[slimjim270]

Also... thought you might like to see my sales breakdown..

(1) 5L
(3) 6L
(2) 7L
(1) 8L

Hope it's helpful...

-Jim

 

[Recons.Com]

Also... thought you might like to see my sales breakdown..

(1) 5L
(3) 6L
(2) 7L
(1) 8L

Hope it's helpful...

-Jim

Thanks for info, Jim. How do your sales from BR compare with sales from BB? Are the names of comparable quality and similar category?

 

[slimjim270]

@Recons.Com

Yes, near identical quality and naming styles. I submit names to each platform periodically and am benchmarking the 2 platforms based on $ produced / inventory count.

Units sold is less informative than assessing ($ dollars produced divided by total inventory supplied). On that note, for me BR outproduced BB by 3X for $ / units on shelf.

BB sales are more "high line" (higher $ / sale), but BR produced more cash-flow per total units on shelf.

FYI - I currently have over 220+ names on BB. My 2015 sales rate for BB was less than 2%.

Will I shift all-in to BR? Not yet, but it is on my radar for consideration. Like others, domains are an investment for me... and I vote with my wallet.

My current plan is to continue to expand my portfolios on both platforms, then will make adjustments in early 2017 when I review year-end 2016/2015 results.

Hope the response is helpful...

-Jim

 

[Recons.Com]

@Recons.Com

Yes, near identical quality and naming styles. I submit names to each platform periodically and am benchmarking the 2 platforms based on $ produced / inventory count.

Units sold is less informative than assessing ($ dollars produced divided by total inventory supplied). On that note, for me BR outproduced BB by 3X for $ / units on shelf.

BB sales are more "high line" (higher $ / sale), but BR produced more cash-flow per total units on shelf.

FYI - I currently have over 220+ names on BB. My 2015 sales rate for BB was less than 2%.

Will I shift all-in to BR? Not yet, but it is on my radar for consideration. Like others, domains are an investment for me... and I vote with my wallet.

My current plan is to continue to expand my portfolios on both platforms, then will make adjustments in early 2017 when I review year-end 2016/2015 results.

Hope the response is helpful...

-Jim

BB just reported Jan sales. Annualized, it is about 3.8% sale rate. What do you think of that?

 

[slimjim270]

BB just reported Jan sales. Annualized, it is about 3.8% sale rate. What do you think of that?

@Recons.Com

A couple thoughts...

1) well... 1st... it appears someone is doing better than me. glad they shared that data and also glad to hear others are having better success on the platform.

2) the data would be more informative if you separated out out sales from "Ambassadors & BB Management" accounts and provided a sales rate number for "all others". Why do I suggest this? Well, BB Mgmt has a unique selling advantage of seeing exact Search Metrics. The typical seller on the platform (you & I) do not have this data to assess and provide product for. Generic category results are not the same as exact "search term" metrics. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate what they provide, but I am an analyst by trade and like to draw my own conclusions based on supporting detail specifics.

3) 3.8% < 7 % (had to toss that out)

4) As I briefly mentioned in my earlier (above) posts... "$ produced / inventory units on shelf" is a better standard as it normalizes units sold to cash-flow produced / total units on shelf. All inventory has cost, not just those sold. I focus on average $ produced per item listed. Gives a better sense of overall production.

Another way to look at it... shelf space is key in retail. All retailers measure "$ produced per square foot of retail space" as a metric to determine individual store success. Translate that to the internet... and you end up with a similar formula of "average $ produced per units listed".... then you bench against average cogs and you get a sense of how you are doing.

My suggestion to BB, BR and others is to segment their data and show what products sell better... this would give product providers (domain owners) a true sense of what sells and what doesn't on their platforms.

Hope I answered your question...

-Jim

 

[pablohc86]

Around 4 weeks ago or a bit more i've submitted a name to Brandroot and since that time i got no reply from them about if they accept it or rejected it.
1 weeks ago i sent a mail to their support in order to get information.
Never got a reply.. is this normal for Brandroot?
I'm at the first contact with them.. at least brandbucket send a mail also if the name is rejected.

Do you guys thing that i should have to wait more?

 

[JimJammy]

For those that might have missed this!

https://www.namepros.com/threads/brandroot-wants-to-pay-your-renewal-fees.926966/

Hi everybody, we have new system rolling out at Brandroot soon. I wanted to get your comments and feedback before it's officially launched. Please let me know if you have any questions about the system or anything you thing we could change or make better. This systems is totally tentative and will likely be revised as we get more feedback and suggestions. We hope you like the idea!

They are certainly emerging as a brand to be reckoned with!

 

[slimjim270]

Hi Everyone,

Good news... I just had another sale on Brandroot. S*Y*N*E*P (.com)

That is 2 sales in the first 10 weeks of 2016... with only 118 currently listed.

Looks to be another 7-8% sales year. (for 2015 I had 6 of 84 sold = 7%)

-Jim

 

[pablohc86]

Hi Everyone,

Good news... I just had another sale on Brandroot. S*Y*N*E*P (.com)

That is 2 sales in the first 10 weeks of 2016... with only 118 currently listed.

Looks to be another 7-8% sales year. (for 2015 I had 6 of 84 sold = 7%)

-Jim

Great!!
i would never put 10$ on that name

 

[Recons.Com]

That is actually a very good name for Chem Industry...

 

[Zoltan P.]

Great sale before the long weekend. Domain pushed, waiting for payment.

I am really impressed with BR so far!

 

[Grilled]

Great sale before the long weekend. Domain pushed, waiting for payment.

I am really impressed with BR so far!

Congratulations, and thank you for reporting the sale!

 

[Zoltan P.]

Thank you. I bought this name on GD auction a few months ago. I knew it was a good name, sold pretty quickly for a nice price.

I N S T A R U N dot C O M

 

[Grilled]

For those unaware, BrandBucket published the following the logo's and refused to redesign them. They claim to listen to your concerns, and welcome private messages to remedy the issues. Yet, when doing so, they stood by their designs and offered no recourse. BrandRoot stuck up for @Simdes by offering to right the wrong that BrandBucket clearly would not. I hope @Simdes accepts @BrandRoots offers, because I'd really like to see the before and after logo's from a BrandRoot designer.

BrandRoot's offer to right @Simdes wrong was done in the relevant BrandBucket thread. However, when invested BrandBucket members noticed that BrandRoot was selling at above a 6% annualized sell rate this month, it sets a panic that if BrandBucket loses it's hype, the reseller market will decline as it slowly has throughout the year.

Fortunately, I quoted BrandRoot's post within my post, and am happy to redistribute this once deleted post that details how BrandRoot stepped in to offer help to a seller BrandBucket ripped off with low quality generic logos. It's gestures like the following that promotes healthy competition, and is demonopolizing a once hyped-up monopolized market. We;ve asked BrandBucket for more stats, and they keep blowing smoke. BrandRoot has already released some industry changing features this year, and is still promising to rollout more features that's all about helping the sellers.

BrandRoot - 3/27/2016​

"@Simdes, I'm sorry about your experience at BB. Brandroot can offer you free listings for the domains you move over from BB and we will guarantee that you will like the logos we provide for them. If you don't like them we will redesign a new one for you. Here are few things Brandroot offers:

1. Provide suggestions to our logo designers with your name submissions so it's right the first time
2. Domain bulk upload option for our special account holders
3. Add up to 10 of your own keywords, plus choose up to 15 more from high traffic keywords that we recommend for the categories assigned to your names.
4. Option to purchase 2 additional categories (total of 5) per domain and even more keywords.
5. Free Brandroot domain push option

And coming very soon for our sellers:

1. Customizable Brandroot profile page featuring only your domains, which will be searchable by keyword and category, decked out with optional professional profile details.
2. A new navigational feature for our buyers, where visitors can now browse domains by our "Naming Professional's."
3. Seller analytics. See who and how many are visiting your domains and how they get there.
4. Option to point your IP address to our server or point your Nameservers instead of the old forwarding method at Brandroot.

So far Brandroot has sold about 40 domains this month and are getting close to hitting half a million in sales for 2016. We have a higher turn over rate than Brandbucket and Namerific combined and our organic traffic is how we get 99.9% of our sales. (We closely monitor and track all BB sales on a daily basis and have even reached out to their buyers for even more verification.)

There's a reason why we get a least one seller per week at BB request to move their domains to Brandroot. We also have over 250 seller applicants waiting to get on board but we are very careful and selective, mostly now targeting unhappy BB individuals who are eager to sale at Brandroot. If your portfolio is good at BB we want to show you what domain sales look like at Brandroot and why we have so many happy sellers. PM me a link to your BB portfolio if you are interested. Hope to hear from you soon and hope to turn around your unpleasant experience with designed domains, the precise reason why we started Brandroot. "

 

[kaposzta]

We also have over 250 seller applicants waiting

Waiting? I think it's a terrible strategy to "steal" sellers from BB in such an agressive way, meanwhile hundreds of potential sellers are waiting (for how long?) BR is telling them: FU, you are not important, only ex-BB sellers are. It's disgusting.

 

[Grilled]

Waiting? I think it's a terrible strategy to "steal" sellers from BB in such an agressive way, meanwhile hundreds of potential sellers are waiting (for how long?) BR is telling them: FU, you are not important, only ex-BB sellers are. It's disgusting.

I'm sure the sellers at BrandRoot appreciate the exclusivity. To me, it seems like the founder wants to protect their sellers 6%+ annualized sales percentage by growing at a rate their growth can handle. I say this because the BrandBank program also makes BrandRoot an equal investor. Organically speaking, they're years ahead of their time.

I agree the practices can use some fine tuning. But I equally respect BrandRoots decision to grow selectively at a rate their marketplace can handle. By having a waitlist to a quality product, BrandRoot can allow 20,000 listings in less than 18 months like BrandBucket at any given time. Why doesn't he? It'd sure make a lot of money in listing fees! I think it's because they don;t have as much manpower as the other marketplaces, and the founder doesn't want to lose site of quality by expanding to quickly. This is just an assumption. Take it as only that.

[PS] BrandRoot has more messages than likes. I see more members treating him negatively than positively. I belive michael to be a coder first, customer service rep second. He's juggling perfection, and at times his customer service does lack. My customer service also lacks when I spend most of the time fighting with other NamePros members who miss the point. You'd be surprised how nice they can be when you aren't putting forth FU words in their mouth.