Create Your Own Domain Store!

[Magicpig2]

Saw this being advertised on DomainInvesting.com and thought I'd try it out for one month ($10 p/m).

NameInvestors.com

 

[Ten10]

@Troy Rushton, feedback is the only way we can improve our offering

@Troy Rushton Looks like a great idea,

but seems to target domainers already making profit or someone having funds to invest.

$120/yr = renewal for 12 domains!

$10/m is quite steep for a newbie domainer or someone not making profit or even domainers from underdeveloped countries.

Maybe you could also offer a plan on profit percentage (flat 10%-20% + escrow fees) if domain sells?

Once a domainer starts making profit, they could switch to a paid plan.

I think the platform will succeed well as there is a strong need for it.

best wishes

 

[N-A]

In response to your comments, we also subscribe to the theory that “time is money”, so your quote is the essence of why we built nameinvestors:


"If you want someone to hold your hand, I'll install Wordpress and give you a tutorial how to make a post for $10. (Not really, Im not that cheap)"


Our value proposition is to save costs, save time, improve professionalism and ultimately achieve a better ROI, and this has already resonated with a number of successful domainers who have transitioned from their wordpress website to our platform including www.showcasemanager.com which was built in less than 2 minutes.

I'd like to know how you can improve ROI when each website produced shares the same name servers and IP address. This significantly impacts rankings as each site will be ultimately devalued in search engines as it is essentially the same website with different content. My theory (and some SEO experts might want to chime in to correct me) is that Google will notice this and rank every storefront lower than other custom domain portfolios as the developers not only have their own dedicated IP (or shared) address (that are entirely different websites), but a totally different layout. Google has stated that "spammy" content across the web will rank lower. Ultimately, if each page is essentially the same, in my opinion that you're creating duplicate content selling the same "product" which could be construed as spam, similar to autoblogs.

Why have they done that? Its because even though they may have PHP/SQL/Design skills, they will certainly spend more than "20 minutes" developing, managing and maintaining their domain shop. So they understand that they can leverage our tech dept for $99 yr/$9.99 mth with hosting!!


They email us, we fix it, they request it, we build it.

For $12/year you can get WordPress hosting with 100 GB of space at GoDaddy (http://ca.godaddy.com/hosting/wordpress-hosting.aspx) which includes: a domain name, 1000s of themes and plugins, sFTP access to WordPress files for editing, Nightly backups, Redundant firewalls, malware scanning and DDoS protection, Automatic WordPress core updates, Premium WordPress Hosting Platform (optimizing speed, reliability and security), Award-winning 24/7 support, 10 Fotolia Photo Credits (for stock photos). With this WordPress hosting solution, there is no need to spend more than 20 minutes as a site can be up and running in 30 seconds, obviously more time spent adding domains as posts, but that is a part of your system as well.

In reality, I don't think that you can claim 20 minutes and you're done either.

Point in case, if you revisit the link you provided earlier, you will see the results have already improved

Page Speed of 70 mobile / 87 desktop - our users have benefited from this improvement whilst they were busy doing other more interesting things than website optimization.

While this is an improvement, optimal Page Speed (OP's site that was first tested) should be 95/98 at the minimum if setup correctly (even on Apache). Take in consideration that this is one stated benchmark of Google's algorithm that allows you to rank.

"Quit taking the easy way out" is the exact opposite of our vision, we actually want our users to make the "smart" decision to "make their lives easier" so they can spend more time doing more profitable or enjoyable activities. Poor quality domains don't sell, we all agree with that, and our platform makes no claims to the contrary.

I never insinuated that a poor quality domain name added to your domain portfolio system will increase the odds of a sale (if anything, with my above remark, it will drastically lower it to be honest). This was intended to get people in the mindset of learning to develop on their own so that they can do basic customization's and work with a content management system (WordPress) without needing the assistance or support. Having a skill such as this is vital as you can carry it over to develop out minisites, enhancing the odds of higher passive income cash flow, all the while being still being able to sell the names listed through another channel.

I must also point out that you have a link back to your site, potentially passing on link juice as some portfolios may obtain higher page rank and you do not place a "nofollow" attribute to the link. This is giving you free advertising, when you are getting paid for a subscription. No brand removal if people are paying, even at the lowest level ($10/month)?

Furthermore, you have an automatic escrow system setup with Agreed.com. A really intuitive option to implement as it frees up some time for a user. However, as mentioned, you skipped the part of who really gets the money from using Agreed. If someone is paying you $10/mo and makes a $4000 sale, who gets the commission? Why shouldn't some; if not all of that, be applied to the users' billing cycle as a credit if you're making money from it?

Is there an option for a user to opt out of Agreed.com and use Sedo with a link such as:

http://www.sedo.co.uk/search/details.php4?domain=DOMAINNAME.COM&tracked=&partnerid=AFFILIATE_LINK&language=e&origin=homepage

Allowing this will reduce their overall costs by "lowering" their commission in the form of retaining earnings using an affiliate link.

Be transparent with your platform. Who is making money from the Agreed transactions? I'm sure it's not the customers, or you wouldn't charge them as 1 sale may result in a year's worth of hosting (that is if they make one that results in $120+ commission for you).

If your true intentions were to save a user costs, why are you pumping your service by quite possibly serving eNom registrations and Agreed transactions that you ultimately benefit from?

We have a 7 day FREE trial if you would actually like to experience the benefits and efficiency of the platform, we welcome you to do so and provide us some informed feedback about how we can build in more value. We have an exciting development path ahead including an affiliate network, registrar reseller services and a blog, all of which we see as driving additional revenue and sales for our users.


Best wishes

That's great that you offer a free 7 day trial for people to test the system out. However I forgot to mention that Domanja has a 60 day refund policy if you just cannot learn how to manipulate a WordPress setup in 2 months. This allows you to use your own affiliate networks, reselling services and of course blog. In addition to that, you will gain more organic traffic.

Your overall cost for going through GoDaddy as opposed to your solution for 2 months and attempting to learn your way around Wordpress, but failing (imaginably difficult), would be $12 and come with a free domain (cheaper than hand registering one without a coupon). Obtaining a free domain name and attempting to develop on their own actually saves them money as you will get a discount on the domain name and could transfer it over if they really can't manage to learn WordPress.

That takes the overall cost of ownership to $6 a month.

Having said that though, if someone cannot grasp WordPress and how to add posts, move widgets, change themes, etc.—they are failing as a business or investors—and a portfolio management system won't save them as each domain they add to it could be making a major return if they were to develop minisites on them.

Although, if you don't understand WordPress and/or your schedule is too busy to operate a zero-to-no time consuming website (just adding and removing listings), you shouldn't be in this industry as CPC is going down with parking and the future (or should I say present) is development.

A hosted platform like this harms people more than it will ever help, even if they can make one sale.

Again, be transparent with what you have to offer, otherwise this looks like a cheap WSO ("Warrior Special Offer") intended on making the owner (you) rich and the customers losers as it provides no real value (as knowledge is more valuable, which is unattainable by one-click and done-which is possible by knowing WordPress in-and-out).

 

[garptrader]

While website development skills are valuable, they are not easily acquired. IMO minisite development is a waste of time. If you don't rank in the top half of page one you don't get *&^%$! for traffic. True, Yahoo and Bing do still favor exact match domains but Google AdSense and affiliate networks just don't justify the investment in time and resources. I get my $100 AdSense payment once every few months for the hundreds of hours of effort I put into website development back in 2009/2010. I never made a dime with Commission Junction and only enough to buy a couple of paperback books with Amazon. Great ROI! Penguin and Panda completely changed the payoff from minisite development if there ever was one. All search engines are now placing paid ads above organic search results so I wouldn't say development is an easy way to make money. Yes, development can result in a big payoff but one should not underestimate the risks and resources required to go the development route.

Domain sales leads often result from potential buyers typing in a domain and seeing if it is a developed site. So the idea would be to point one's domains to their portfolio site and separately market them as well.

 

[Name Trader]

I would suggest for the ranking of domains on the landing page a simple rating system from 1 to 5 for each domain. Should be easy enough to implement.

 

[N-A]

I would suggest for the ranking of domains on the landing page a simple rating system from 1 to 5 for each domain. Should be easy enough to implement.

With Schema? Why? This is going to be a new form of "keyword stuffing" and I will only have one person to blame if Google takes away structured data from search results (as it comes with a higher CTR) when and if your idea is implemented. What are the stars based off of? Your rating? Aggregate rating? Schema spam.

If you weren't referring to that, why rank a domain by stars? If a domain has 1 star is it more likely to sell than a 5 star domain? Think about that...

Additionally, with your own hosted WordPress solution, you can add a pre-built plugin to accomplish either of these (though, one is considered spam).

 

[garptrader]

Troy - Another thought occurred to me regarding the graphics on the home page. I really like the graphics for the featured domains which seem to be associated with the domain category. Why couldn't this be done in the lower section titled premium domains as well (though perhaps with smaller graphics)?

 

[Name Trader]

With Schema? Why? This is going to be a new form of "keyword stuffing" and I will only have one person to blame if Google takes away structured data from search results (as it comes with a higher CTR) when and if your idea is implemented. What are the stars based off of? Your rating? Aggregate rating? Schema spam.

If you weren't referring to that, why rank a domain by stars? If a domain has 1 star is it more likely to sell than a 5 star domain? Think about that...

Additionally, with your own hosted WordPress solution, you can add a pre-built plugin to accomplish either of these (though, one is considered spam).

Your reply has nothing whatsoever to do with my suggestion of allowing the store owner to rank each domain between 1-5, with those listed at 5 being at the top of the landing page. Which was what was being requested. It's their store, it should be presented however they see fit.

 

[N-A]

Troy - Another thought occurred to me regarding the graphics on the home page. I really like the graphics for the featured domains which seem to be associated with the domain category. Why couldn't this be done in the lower section titled premium domains as well (though perhaps with smaller graphics)?

I'm not for or against this portfolio management system (more so against as the owner isn't showing transparency and keeps beating around the bush about who actually makes money on sales with Agreed) as it could be useful in the future if they allow for unique class C IP addresses, fix Page Speed, remove their advertising on a site you paid for, etc.

What really rubs me the wrong way is this is targeted for newbies to take advantage of when in 2 months you can learn with a mere 30 minutes a day to do this on your own. It should be posted as a WSO as is, because there is zero value to this.

PS, there are many free stock photo sites offering images you can use on your own WordPress installation.

 

[N-A]

Your reply has nothing whatsoever to do with my suggestion of allowing the store owner to rank each domain between 1-5, with those listed at 5 being at the top of the landing page. Which was what was being requested. It's their store, it should be presented however they see fit.

Sorry, but you should have articulated your suggestion better than what you originally posted as what you wrote can be interpreted in so many ways. With it explained in detail, it's understandable by all.

Either way, you can make your listings more visible with full control of the UI on your installation, providing A/B testing by tracking a users mouse and clicks.

 

[Troy Rushton]

@Troy Rushton
Another thing I would like to be able to do on the home page(under premium domains) is the option to list the domains in the order I want. I want the best names only to be seen on the home page. Is there a way to do this already?

@rivey001 got it, not possible right now, but let me talk with the tech team, thanks T

 

[Troy Rushton]

Hi Troy - not high priority but I believe it would be nice to present the domain names in bold typeface particularly since the prices are bold.

I would agree with rivey that it would be nice to have more control over which domains appear on the landing page. In some cases I actually removed the For Sale status on a few lower quality domains so that they would not appear on the home page under the Premium Domains section.

Great suggestion for bold typeface, that is an easy one, you'll see that tomorrow. Will work on the other ordering/control idea, thanks T

 

[Troy Rushton]

Troy - Another thought occurred to me regarding the graphics on the home page. I really like the graphics for the featured domains which seem to be associated with the domain category. Why couldn't this be done in the lower section titled premium domains as well (though perhaps with smaller graphics)?

@garptrader, we could easily implement that, we took a view on "featured" but, I like your suggestion of smaller images.

 

[Troy Rushton]

I'm not for or against this portfolio management system (more so against as the owner isn't showing transparency and keeps beating around the bush about who actually makes money on sales with Agreed) as it could be useful in the future if they allow for unique class C IP addresses, fix Page Speed, remove their advertising on a site you paid for, etc.

What really rubs me the wrong way is this is targeted for newbies to take advantage of when in 2 months you can learn with a mere 30 minutes a day to do this on your own. It should be posted as a WSO as is, because there is zero value to this.

PS, there are many free stock photo sites offering images you can use on your own WordPress installation.

@David Walker I understand you have a solution for you, which is fantastic, and as you have lots of available time and skills, a wordpress/domainja solution is great for you. We reviewed your website to see if we can make any improvements to ours and were surprised to discover yours is not responsive, speed issues, Blank pages and no domain landers so perhaps you can provide another one for us to review?

Our solution is for the people who do see the value of leveraging this platform, and we have been very encouraged by signups thus far, including some of the most prominent, experienced and successful domain investors in the industry. But we understand that our solution is not for you.

Of course it makes commercial sense for us to join agreed.com's affiliate program, but we are yet to do so, therefore 100% of the fees are going to agreed.com, but you can expect that to change in the future.

If you have developed a "30 min a day" program for "newbies", we would certainly be happy to give it away for you.

 

[N-A]

@David Walker I understand you have a solution for you, which is fantastic, and as you have lots of available time and skills, a wordpress/domainja solution is great for you. We reviewed your website to see if we can make any improvements to ours and were surprised to discover yours is not responsive, speed issues, Blank pages and no domain landers so perhaps you can provide another one for us to review?

Our solution is for the people who do see the value of leveraging this platform, and we have been very encouraged by signups thus far, including some of the most prominent, experienced and successful domain investors in the industry. But we understand that our solution is not for you.

Of course it makes commercial sense for us to join agreed.com's affiliate program, but we are yet to do so, therefore 100% of the fees are going to agreed.com, but you can expect that to change in the future.

If you have developed a "30 min a day" program for "newbies", we would certainly be happy to give it away for you.

I do not use djw.net for any purposes whatsoever but to secure my initials (David J. Walker).

Thank you for running absolutely useless speed tests on one domain of mine, wasting your time, telling me what I already know.

However, you keep seem to keep beating around the bush by trying to point out my faults which are left that way for vanity purposes and I do not intend on ranking djw.net as of yet (only got it at reseller pricing, which was close to end user, but I still thought it was a steal-similar to what you're doing with this service)

Please, just tell everyone.

Are you passing link juice with your banner that you are putting on a website that someone is paying $120 a year for? I know many plugins (and free themes, which this looks like it's built from) that remove branding for less than this.

How much are you getting per Agreed transaction? Is this passed on to the customer?

Is there money coming your way from eNom?

If so, how much does the customer see? I bet zero, or you wouldn't charge $10/month for WordPress hosting when it's comparably cheaper elsewhere from pennies a month to the maximum of $3, with FTP access (whereupon someone could delete your branding).

Quit trying to weasel your way out of the obvious that you're selling WordPress hosting for an inflated price taking advantage of newbies and go to Warrior Forum to pawn this off.

Remember, this is a thread about your services, and not what I provide.

Signed by David

NOT SIGNED BY @Troy Rushton, someone unwilling to answer questions vital to business owners.

PS: Disliking my posts when they are liked by many; because what I'm stating is truthful, only makes you look like the weaker man. So does beating around the bush.

 

[N-A]

@David Walker I understand you have a solution for you, which is fantastic, and as you have lots of available time and skills, a wordpress/domainja solution is great for you. We reviewed your website to see if we can make any improvements to ours and were surprised to discover yours is not responsive, speed issues, Blank pages and no domain landers so perhaps you can provide another one for us to review?

I've decided to entertain you and modify my code in approximately 45 seconds (timed) to throw you a bone on how poor your development truly is. Let's make this about me now, since you won't answer questions. (Please note the time stamp between this post and the previous one above does not indicate otherwise, I had other things to do, such as dropping my daughter off at school.)

Run that test again and notice I achieved a 74/90 (Note: it will bounce back and forth from this and 74/88-73/89 [still beating you] due to external Google calls, so run it more than once before concluding that I'm wrong. Notice transparency I provide? This comes from integrity instilled in me at the highest level: Never lie, cheat or steal and have honor, courage and commitment in everything you do.). Now, let's run your test and notice that you achieved a 73/88 after multiple test runs.

As far as the page being responsive: again, I don't care. I use it solely for the purpose of my About David page which gets me unsolicited job offers. In addition to that, laying claim to my initials. As a possible domainer or marketer, you should know the importance of domain names and the impact they can have, right?

Blank pages? Because I provide no services under the name of David J. Walker as of yet to the world publicly. All are private dealings with companies (and corporations) to outsource with merely a pitch. Some of them wouldn't even understand this post or what the hell we're even talking about as I am in Okinawa, Japan and focus on a geographical market as well (humph, 73/88-matches yours!)

Our solution is for the people who do see the value of leveraging this platform, and we have been very encouraged by signups thus far, including some of the most prominent, experienced and successful domain investors in the industry. But we understand that our solution is not for you.

Yes, I notice that you have 1073 domains pointed to your name servers. A giant leap from the 1027 that I saw yesterday. (Some of which are landing pages and sales pages)

And no, your solution isn't for me, nor should it be for anyone. This is laughably comparable to paying for domain parking (CashParking). At least with GoDaddy, even pigeon wank domains have a chance of making parking revenue and recouping costs.

Again, no transparency here! Where do I see these "most prominent" people in the industry coming out (and not being paid) to say your solution is great AND using it themselves? With only 1073 domains, I'd expect if this statement were true, you'd have more than 100,000 by now.

Of course it makes commercial sense for us to join agreed.com's affiliate program, but we are yet to do so, therefore 100% of the fees are going to agreed.com, but you can expect that to change in the future.

I highly doubt that this is true, I'm sure you have some partnership agreement setup with a Non-Disclosure Agreement. I'll take it as fact for now, because at least you mentioned it. However, why integrate it and not use Sedo so that customers can earn? To back my theory up about you not being transparent about this, it's being promoted across your platforms, so they are paying you something in advertising fees. Correct?

If you have developed a "30 min a day" program for "newbies", we would certainly be happy to give it away for you.

Sure, here's my 30 minute a day program (that can be used over 4 months as previously stated), feel free to give it away for free (as you should this junk). You can even include them in the 10 free lessons you provide:
http://codex.wordpress.org/
https://github.com/php
http://php.net/docs.php
http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/php - You can even ask questions and get answers
https://www.namepros.com/forums/domain-newbies.25/ - OMG, there's even a forum for domaining?
https://www.namepros.com/forums/programming.46/ - And one where you can even discuss code?

Or of course, one can pick up {PHP|MySQL|WordPress} for Dummies (not intending on calling anyone dumb, these are titles of books that are very helpful when beginning any project... then you can move on to the more advanced books) at your local Barnes & Noble on your 1 1/2 hour lunch break and dedicate 30 minutes of that time to reading a book, while you enjoy a delicious scone and sandwich from their in-store Starbucks (intended on pointing out that everyone has 30 minutes a day to dedicate to learning, which will lead to higher earning).

@Troy Rushton , I've dealt with you long enough and called you out on all your bullshit. I would have to say that you are a good salesman, but have questionable intentions. Unless you're paying to be on this forum (a business member, supporter or even advertiser), I'd suggest to go elsewhere. I will continue stating the obvious about everything you post to protect members from being pick-pocketed over and over in this kiss-ass and shark infested industry. On WF, you can get even more "customers" (well, real ones at that as you either have small domainers or one "prominent" domainer inflating those numbers like .XYZ).

As you can see, I've got a backbone. Where is yours?

Signed,

David J. Walker
NamePros VIP, Business Member & Supporter

PS: Don't forget to dislike this post as well @Troy Rushton

 

[garptrader]

I decided to subscribe to this service because this solution seemed to be a major upgrade from the prior design and functionality of my English domain portfolio website GenericDomains.net I am pleased with the responsiveness to numerous user requests made thus far. Yes, I and others were concerned about Agreed's leasing fees and in short order the service took steps to move to another payment processor so that sellers would still benefit from lease transactions. For this service to continue long-term it has to be worthwhile to the provider so I want it to be profitable (though I don't want to see ads for new TLDs on my site). I don't care to be an expert at Wordpress or have to worry about upgrading to the latest version or how to fix a site which has been hacked. Given my experience with XSitePro2 sites I haven't been excited about learning Wordpress or Joomla. Perhaps some day...

 

[Troy Rushton]

@ David Walker, I've answered your question about agreed, but let me restate the following:

1. We are hosted on Amazon cloud, with a customised scalable solution, not wordpress hosting.
2. We are not being paid by enom for the "link", feel free to ask them
3. We have no affiliate agreement with agreed.com, feel free to ask them
4. The link to nameinvestors was an after thought for credibility not link juice, now removed
5. Most domains listed for sale are not pointing to us, which is the power & flexibility of the system.

These are the facts.

I wish you well
Troy

 

[N-A]

@Troy Rushton ,
1. You are hosting either WPMU or single WordPress installations (what a waste) on Amazon cloud. This is what I would call glorified managed WordPress hosting for a target niche offering basically, a theme. As mentioned, you can get secure WordPress hosting, 1000s of themes with a site builder, etc. at GoDaddy WITH a domain for $12 a year. Do you even give 1 domain away for free?
2. If you're not being paid by them, why have it? Why even have branding all together if someone is paying you? Why not the option of Sedo, ccBill, PayPal, Escrow, etc.?
3. Name Investors may not have an affiliate agreement with Agreed, however, you are utilizing them as an advertiser on different networks. Quit beating around the bush with that one.
4. FINALLY
5. What's the real value you provide over a free solution such as Sedo, Afternic, GoDaddy, etc. where one can get more exposure if they aren't pointed to you for $10? By the way, I don't call that power & flexibility, when these 'prominent' domain holders are on all these platforms. It's just another one to pimp their names out.

 

[Troy Rushton]

@ David Walker

1. As stated, it has nothing to do with WordPress whatsoever, please check the sourcecode for yourself. Our platform is a customised framework, built internally by our team.
2. This is an ecommerce solution for marketing of domains names, not a website builder specifically
3. We will be rolling out registrar services with enom, hence why it was there, but we pulled the module back for the time being, so removing the logo is fine for now. Registrar services need a trusted provider.
4. I have no idea what you are referring to with agreed, as suggested last post, contact them yourself.

Where is the value? This is a great question and thank you for asking it. The real value is to provide a shopfront where sellers can self-represent their names and save commission on their own outbound marketing. We have an eCommerce solution that enables sellers to promote their names and drive traffic back to their domain shop instead of driving them to sedo, go daddy etc who will then charge a % on sale 20%++. A seller is able to market their internal landing page within their domainshop rather than just the parking/direct lander.

In addition to saving commission, we also provide sales brochures, landing pages, portfolio management, lead tools, leasing and an integrated escrow process, that then automatically updates transactions and historical sales data.

We have more features and benefits in the roadmap, including "portfolio selling", which we will reveal over time, which will give a network effect that all of our users can benefit from. Sellers can leverage our platform, by pointing just 1 of their names as their "domainshop" and they can leave the rest of their portfolio pointing where ever they like. Our solution does not require the seller to point the name to us, therefore this is an "additional" opportunity to help sell names. Sellers can leave their name with Sedo, Go Daddy, Afternic etc and also have a domainshop with us. Best of both worlds in our opinion. I hope this clarifies it.

 

[N-A]

I decided to subscribe to this service because this solution seemed to be a major upgrade from the prior design and functionality of my English domain portfolio website GenericDomains.net I am pleased with the responsiveness to numerous user requests made thus far. Yes, I and others were concerned about Agreed's leasing fees and in short order the service took steps to move to another payment processor so that sellers would still benefit from lease transactions. For this service to continue long-term it has to be worthwhile to the provider so I want it to be profitable (though I don't want to see ads for new TLDs on my site). I don't care to be an expert at Wordpress or have to worry about upgrading to the latest version or how to fix a site which has been hacked. Given my experience with XSitePro2 sites I haven't been excited about learning Wordpress or Joomla. Perhaps some day...

You got sold by the XSitePro2 landing page, just like you got sold by @Troy Rushton and his landing page.

Being in this industry long enough (2008 by your join date I presume), you should evolve with it. I'm glad that you sought out avenues of development, but there isn't a cheap way out.

Instead, you should have looked into other more difficult tools such as Dreamweaver. This would have given you the scalability of starting out slow and easy, to rounding out the edges on your designs. It doesn't happen over night like both of these tools somewhat imply on their sites.

There is no need to worry about getting hacked. I have hundreds of WordPress sites that auto-update the core as well as the Genesis Framework. I have only had one incident of being compromised on a single site and that is because it wasn't set to auto-update. An easy fix to that was knowing my way around phpMyAdmin and running 1 query. However, it could have been accomplished in WP-Admin as well, just a little more time.

Learning is going to ultimately give you the ability to more earnings.

With that being said, if you do have the budget for $10/month to be on this "platform"... give GoDaddy a try with a hosted WordPress option at $12 a year. Right now as you like this sales platform, I see it as win-win.

For one, you will get a domain name for free. This is a little more expensive than hand registering one with a coupon, but is cheaper than their yearly fee.

Lastly, it puts you in the drivers' seat having the flexibility of choosing a theme, editing what goes where and no need to worry about being hacked as they are secure and you have 24/7 support. In addition to this, you are learning. If you don't try, you will fail. Don't rely on someone else to hold your hand, ever.

If that didn't sell you on trying both, well good luck. You're always going to be a fish in the sea for a "prominent" person or company (Name Investors*) to take advantage of you. Again and again and again.

* Just look at their background.

It's the same service, over and over. For one, you have Name Brokers. This is essentially a search platform for finding a broker, when you can post on a forum for free.

Protrada, an invite only buying and selling platform. How many are there already? Looking at their development history of combining the uselessness of Devname and Parklings, it looks like they will integrate this with Name Investor as well (if they haven't already).

Devname, a design company for domainers. Hmmm, WhyPark minus the parking option?

Parklings, now Devname.

KiWQ, a dummed down version of Keyword Planner (again, if you don't learn, you're going to pay).

Fruitful, a garbage way of obtaining traffic (syndication) that won't help you rank these days.

AdSlide, a cheaper-but yet less effective-solution to AdWords and Facebook.

Looking at XSitePro2 and what the parent company is. Intellimon, which also serves up the same garbage over and over to make a quick buck off small fish: XSitePro, XCommentPro, and XHeaderPro along with a lot of recycled training programs that you can learn on this forum.

Do you notice a trend with Winged Media (Name Investors) and Intellimon? I do. They keep using the same trash over and over with a different brand or copy other brands attempting to get a foothold. When they fail, they merge with a new brand (as seen with Parklings and Devname).

 

[N-A]

@ David Walker

1. As stated, it has nothing to do with WordPress whatsoever, please check the sourcecode for yourself. Our platform is a customised framework, built internally by our team.
2. This is an ecommerce solution for marketing of domains names, not a website builder specifically
3. We will be rolling out registrar services with enom, hence why it was there, but we pulled the module back for the time being, so removing the logo is fine for now. Registrar services need a trusted provider.
4. I have no idea what you are referring to with agreed, as suggested last post, contact them yourself.

Where is the value? This is a great question and thank you for asking it. The real value is to provide a shopfront where sellers can self-represent their names and save commission on their own outbound marketing. We have an eCommerce solution that enables sellers to promote their names and drive traffic back to their domain shop instead of driving them to sedo, go daddy etc who will then charge a % on sale 20%++. A seller is able to market their internal landing page within their domainshop rather than just the parking/direct lander.

In addition to saving commission, we also provide sales brochures, landing pages, portfolio management, lead tools, leasing and an integrated escrow process, that then automatically updates transactions and historical sales data.

We have more features and benefits in the roadmap, including "portfolio selling", which we will reveal over time, which will give a network effect that all of our users can benefit from. Sellers can leverage our platform, by pointing just 1 of their names as their "domainshop" and they can leave the rest of their portfolio pointing where ever they like. Our solution does not require the seller to point the name to us, therefore this is an "additional" opportunity to help sell names. Sellers can leave their name with Sedo, Go Daddy, Afternic etc and also have a domainshop with us. Best of both worlds in our opinion. I hope this clarifies it.

1. How can checking the source code reveal whether a site is running WordPress or not? Great try, but I'm not a tool. It's a custom platform built on WPMU most likely to fit your needs.
2. Sedo, Afternic, etc. etc.
3. So you will be a reseller of eNom. Great. No value in that, unless you provide marked up (pennies) prices on your domains to others using your platform, saving them money. Pretty much the same as GoDaddy Discount Club. Another copy.
4. Whatever.

How is a link to a Sedo portfolio different than what you offer? Ultimately, it's the same, except you get to customize yours. However, one must say, a domain sells itself and not the design. So having fancy graphics, doesn't mean you're going to have more sales. Quit pawning it off (marketing) it that way, as that's essentially what you stated. Many domains will sell just fine with a GoDaddy, Sedo, Rook Media, etc. parking page with a small "for sale" link.

If one is not smart enough to increase their prices to cover direct/indirect costs on a domain, they need to learn accounting. No value. You're basically passing the buck on to the buyer to pay fees, which you can do by marking up prices.

Why pay $10/month to have the "best of both worlds" when you really provide absolutely no value.

You really didn't clarify anything. Just dug yourself a deeper hole as you are making people pay $10/month for something 1) they can do on their own or 2) are already doing with portfolio links.

Hope I summed it up for all the beginners out there that a page design and a storefront doesn't sell a name. Names that will sell will be seen. Whether it's on Afternic, GoDaddy, Sedo, eBay or this custom "solution" to solve the ever troubling problem of sales and a storefront.

 

[DomainVP]

Hope I summed it up for all the beginners out there that a page design and a storefront doesn't sell a name. Names that will sell will be seen. Whether it's on Afternic, GoDaddy, Sedo, eBay or this custom "solution" to solve the ever troubling problem of sales and a storefront.

Correct.

 

[garptrader]

One other reason to have one's own storefront is to avoid marketplace commissions on self-promoted domains. Keep in mind Godaddy charges 30% commissions on Godaddy Premium Listings and I do regularly sell domains through that channel. I have several domains currently in auction at DNX and was doing some marketing of those names. In the process I mentioned where applicable another name which might be of interest to the contact. I have received some responses asking for pricing info. In the case of the auction, I referred them to the auction page. In the case of another domain, I could now refer them to the domain store page rather than a Godaddy or SEDO page. While I agree fancy graphics won't sell a bad domain, a professionally-developed site can help one gain a degree of credibility with an end user who is dealing with someone they don't know and who in many cases lives in a distant location.

I really don't understand the animosity about this service. If you don't like it or don't feel it provides value to you, don't use it.

 

[N-A]

One other reason to have one's own storefront is to avoid marketplace commissions on self-promoted domains. Keep in mind Godaddy charges 30% commissions on Godaddy Premium Listings and I do regularly sell domains through that channel. I have several domains currently in auction at DNX and was doing some marketing of those names. In the process I mentioned where applicable another name which might be of interest to the contact. I have received some responses asking for pricing info. In the case of the auction, I referred them to the auction page. In the case of another domain, I could now refer them to the domain store page rather than a Godaddy or SEDO page. While I agree fancy graphics won't sell a bad domain, a professionally-developed site can help one gain a degree of credibility with an end user who is dealing with someone they don't know and who in many cases lives in a distant location.

I really don't understand the animosity about this service. If you don't like it or don't feel it provides value to you, don't use it.

Your post added 0 credibility to the service as I've already stated, learn accounting. If someone charges you 30%, you mark up prices to cover your in/direct costs.

This is similar to "domain for sell, buyer pays fees". In reality with Name Investors, you're paying $10 a month for fancy managed WordPress hosting as all they do is make the buyer pay fees.

I'm not going to let your 2008 join date effect this either. Tried to play nice with you, but your "prominent" status may fool newbies to take this route and get sold by the sharks again.

To everyone new to domaining: save $10/mo for 1 to 3 domains a month (hand registrations) and list on other venues, marking your prices up to account for commission. There is no value in this service.

A listing/being sold through Afternic, Sedo, GoDaddy, DomainNameSales gives you more credibility.

 

[garptrader]

David, I am not the one offering this service but I do not understand the vile criticism. While it sounds nice to just add 30% to your sales price to cover Godaddy commissions, there is a limit that a buyer is willing to pay and adding 30% to your price can mean losing a sale. Most domain sales are for less than $1000. SEDO's median .COM sale is for around $600. Development can produce a huge payoff but it is not an easy or risk-free solution as I discovered several years ago. Development consumes limited time. Time has a value and people contract services because they do not have the requisite skills or have limited time to accomplish a certain task. Best of luck with your development projects.