DAN.COM Domain Marketplace (Official Thread)

[DAN.COM]

DAN.COM (formerly known as Undeveloped.com) is on a path to be become the biggest domain marketplace in the world. We use state of the art technology to solve everyday problems buyers and sellers in the domain industry face. At DAN.COM we focus on automating most processes required to buy & sell domains to increase a more efficient and active secondary market for domains.

What sets us apart is our strong focus on product development and customer satisfaction. We leave nothing to chance and every single feature and element we introduce is professionally and carefully designed and built.

DAN.COM is ranked in the top 5 best-rated marketplaces in the world (According to the biggest review platform Trustpilot) and in the domain industry, we're the domain marketplace with the highest rating with an average of 9,4 out of 10 points.

At DAN.COM you will get the highest value for the lowest commission around. Due to our domain transfer automation, we can offer significantly faster handling of domain transactions and payouts (usually within 24 hours) at the lowest fee charged by any domain marketplace.

We've been the first on many fronts and proudly will continue to keep innovating. We were the first to offer optimized for sale pages since 2013, the first to provide payment plans in the form of lease to own and rentals and also the first and only domain marketplace offering free SSL on all domains parked with us for over a year now.

Read more about DAN and our future plans here: https://blog.undeveloped.com/a-big-leap-forward-3a3cc59ed418

This thread is created to act as an informal communication board between the DAN team and the domain community. Feel free to post feedback here and to discuss how you use DAN.

What this thread is not meant for is support. Please contact our support team here: [email protected] when you need assistance.

Previous reviews under old brand: https://www.namepros.com/threads/undeveloped-com-experience.893201/

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

The domain name itself - doesn't matter at all for SEOmasters...
Actually - they buy SEO parameters...
For such needs - you may consider Flippa, it is very popular among SEObuyers.

 

[davidc1]

Why not start your own marketplace? Sales at Dan are certainly not from inventory searches.

I've done that in the past for seo domains, had a lot of customers coming back every few days, trust was there. Here it's a different game.
I want to see if a simple paypal link on the landing has enough trust or not, it would be a good choice. The problem with paypal could also be that credit card from some customers is not accepted by them.

 

[frank-germany]

That mean that now dan is not made for seo domains.

everything is relative.
99 is cheap but not for everyone. i'm selling worldwide, 99 could be a lot for many customers from indonesia, bangladesh, india for example.

For some people 100k is cheap, is it cheap for you ?

The best price is the correct price for everyone.

DAN should not have a forced MIN BIN
and in case they maintain it
I guess I will switch back to my own page

 

[davidc1]

DAN should not have a forced MIN BIN
and in case they maintain it
I guess I will switch back to my own page

2 ways to put a bin with make offer.
Min should be at $1 or at least 70% of the price you want sell the domain for.

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

My friend (former SEOdomainer) sold majority of his domains (thousands) via GoDaddy.

 

[davidc1]

My friend (former SEOdomainer) sold majority of his domains (thousands) via GoDaddy.

godaddy is good but the best is your own marketplace for them as some customers will take hundreds per months during years... I stopped this game a few years ago, I continue to sell some over my backorder service, but buying for reselling is not as easy as before, the competition is much higher than before due to the spread of tools to detects good domains, it's another story

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

And really good SEO domains (with valuable parameters) you can't handreg... ~always competition there.
My friend started from APIs and later moved to backorders only.

 

[golan]

Why not start your own marketplace? Sales at Dan are certainly not from inventory searches.

I've done that in the past for seo domains, had a lot of customers coming back every few days, trust was there.

My friend (former SEOdomainer) sold majority of his domains (thousands) via GoDaddy.

I've been running my SEO domain shop for years. Lot of constant buyers, but it certainly takes time.

And i never take Paypal, at least not from the first time buyers. They can pay Paypal but via 2checkout, which are checking the payments very well and are always on the merchant side.

And: i never point my domains to the shop. They all are on Parkingcrew. First, most SEO domains still bring some residual traffic which converts to some additional $$ for me; and second, few times i got offers via landing higher than the domain was listed on my site.


However, apologies for continuing derailing the Dan thread with SEO domain discussion. Maybe mods can move this branch to a separate thread.

 

[eternaldomains]

Got the rude-shock email as well, and this is what I see:

That there's nothing in this email that sounds right at all. Not one bit.

You complain about certain users abusing with txs $20 and below, but you don't even let users sell at $30.
You don't go after those specific abusers, instead you kill the chance for everybody with a "shocking surprise".
You didn't even give warnings to let violators know that they're actually abusing it. How the hell would anyone know that he/she abused your system, if you never tell them in the 1st place???

And another (based on memory):
You (Undeveloped, not DAN) used to say that the marketplace is not only for expensive domains, but now it's clear that you no longer welcome non-expensive domains.

What about rentals then? Last I checked the minimum was a high $50, which was also why I never used the rentals.

There are obviously better solutions around this, e.g. allotting a limited monthly/daily quota on small transactions, or put small txs under the lowest priority with delays, or forcing payouts in DOGE (since their mining fees should still be rock bottom + easy exchange) or whatever cheap payout methods (EDIT: + the most obvious one, which is directly going after the culprits), but you rather go through this very rude way.

And the worst part, there are more staff now than what it used to be and yet this happened. I've already long accepted the fact that DAN only operates during Amsterdam office hours and patiently waited for the domains to be pushed, which is still bad for a 24/7 industry, but that is still much more tolerable compared to this.

You've never experienced the anxiety of a really poor seller thinking about whether that $10 is really going to come and stay in the wallet or not, so it's only understandable that such a change could happen.

And the irony? You can translate DAN pages into Hindi, a language for a country well known for it's poverty and weak currency, and yet you can do this.

Why I use DAN a lot? Because many here on NP use PayPal, and I avoid PP as much as possible. Bad fees that are worse for txs $30 and below, countless nightmare stories about PP, and the hidden taxes imposed (can get slapped with 15% taxes) when European buyers (not sellers!) pay me. So I use DAN so that my wholesale buyers can pay me PP while I receive in other forms. Even when I did tiny txs I made sure that you don't get too much damage by choosing ETH as payout (the best method I could think of). I don't know if I did do "high volumes" (and I don't even know how many txs is considered "high volume") of small txs in the past, if I did, I'm sorry, but I know I don't do a lot of that these days. For many bulk sales I just send the best 1 to DAN and push the rest manually, which means I'm also already lightening your workload most of the time.

Good thing I no longer have to rely so much on small wholesale txs thanks to meeting some bigger wholesale buyers, but does it matter? Other people still need it. So do I at certain times.

DAN is (or was) practically the bigger version of Epik, allowing users from other registrars to receive flexible payouts just like the sellers in Epik. To have to depend on only 1 registrar/marketplace for flexi payouts is obviously too ridiculous. So what if so many people sell a lot at GD, when many others don't have the luxury of having the accounts to receive payouts from GD (remember that GD doesn't allow ACH payouts to American bank accounts owned by non-Americans = anti Payoneer users)? Last I read, you can't even receive wires from GD unless you get $1000 first.

For the people who have huge portfolios, lowball leads are obviously a total waste of time. But for the people who have little, every lead is important. It means a chance to sell. It means that the name has at least some demand. Some are able to sell 1 domain at 4-figs. Others are able to sell small/by bulk. Why indirectly kill the bulk/small sellers just because you don't agree with how they sell?

Was happy when Reza mentioned (in PM, sometime ago) that "Once we've automated bulk sales we can offer this service", thinking that portfolio escrows will be possible in the future, but it turns out to be rotten hope.

=====

Don't know about Flippa, might work, but I hope there won't be verification nightmares like some have mentioned. And last I saw they now use Escrow.com, another site that pays like a GD.

I don't have to say all this, I can always go elsewhere for small txs, but there are others who need this. Don't you think of them?

You're obviously not putting any pressure on your clients. They buy the name, they get it, and then they walk away. That's it. It's your sellers that you're putting pressure on.

And don't even bother to end the note with "have a great day/weekend" tied to such a horrible announcement of restrictions when you don't even mean it, since this is very insulting to your users.
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/have-a-nice-day-sarcastic.296757/

 

[YairDD]

First time I'm seeing my name on DAN.com

 

[LaszloSchenk]

Good morning all,

We fully understand that certain changes will not come to benefit all users. If the option to keep the minimum listing price and starting offer below the $99 was viable we would not have changed it. As the vast majority of $1-99 prices ranged sellers abuse the system we had to take measures.

As we have offered the possibility for threshold-free transactions for many years it has nothing to do with us not thinking about our users who sell at a lower price range. The only reason we were forced to make such changes was since the cost became too high. We can't facilitate transfers and assist in transactions when it no longer generates revenue and instead becomes a cost post. If it was a matter of a few users we would have been able to take different measures. It was not only within the $10-20 price range but rather extended to the $99 threshold. The changes therefore will have to remain.

Best regards,

 

[legendarynames]

Good morning all,

We fully understand that certain changes will not come to benefit all users. If the option to keep the minimum listing price and starting offer below the $99 was viable we would not have changed it. As the vast majority of $1-99 prices ranged sellers abuse the system we had to take measures.

As we have offered the possibility for threshold-free transactions for many years it has nothing to do with us not thinking about our users who sell at a lower price range. The only reason we were forced to make such changes was since the cost became too high. We can't facilitate transfers and assist in transactions when it no longer generates revenue and instead becomes a cost post. If it was a matter of a few users we would have been able to take different measures. It was not only within the $10-20 price range but rather extended to the $99 threshold. The changes therefore will have to remain.

Best regards,

@LaszloSchenk Could you please clarify how the new threshold will affect rentals and leasing transactions? Is $99 a minimum for BIN only? What about the other transactions?

Also I think at least part of the bad reception towards this new rule is that it was communicated without time to adapt... I suggest always giving at least a two week notice before implementing changes that will impact sellers.

 

[DAN.COM]

Why not start your own marketplace? Sales at Dan are certainly not from inventory searches.

If you follow DAN for a while you'll observe that we keep iterating and improving on all fronts, including driving continuously more buyer traffic to our marketplace: https://www.similarweb.com/website/dan.com/

32% of all sales conducted at DAN last month, were sales initiated directly from our marketplace search.

One of our company KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) is to drive that number up to at least 50%. Within the next couple of months, we'll get there.

 

[DAN.COM]

@LaszloSchenk Could you please clarify how the new threshold will affect rentals and leasing transactions? Is $99 a minimum for BIN only? What about the other transactions?

Also I think at least part of the bad reception towards this new rule is that it was communicated without time to adapt... I suggest always giving at least a two week notice before implementing changes that will impact sellers.

Rentals and Lease to Own domains always already had a minimum threshold of $99. Nothing has changed on that front.

 

[DAN.COM]

First time I'm seeing my name on DAN.com

Show attachment 161630

Happy to have you with us Yair . We hope the extra exposure results in an additional sale or two!

 

[DAN.COM]

Got the rude-shock email as well, and this is what I see:

That there's nothing in this email that sounds right at all. Not one bit.

You complain about certain users abusing with txs $20 and below, but you don't even let users sell at $30.
You don't go after those specific abusers, instead you kill the chance for everybody with a "shocking surprise".
You didn't even give warnings to let violators know that they're actually abusing it. How the hell would anyone know that he/she abused your system, if you never tell them in the 1st place???

And another (based on memory):
You (Undeveloped, not DAN) used to say that the marketplace is not only for expensive domains, but now it's clear that you no longer welcome non-expensive domains.

What about rentals then? Last I checked the minimum was a high $50, which was also why I never used the rentals.

There are obviously better solutions around this, e.g. allotting a limited monthly/daily quota on small transactions, or put small txs under the lowest priority with delays, or forcing payouts in DOGE (since their mining fees should still be rock bottom + easy exchange) or whatever cheap payout methods (EDIT: + the most obvious one, which is directly going after the culprits), but you rather go through this very rude way.

And the worst part, there are more staff now than what it used to be and yet this happened. I've already long accepted the fact that DAN only operates during Amsterdam office hours and patiently waited for the domains to be pushed, which is still bad for a 24/7 industry, but that is still much more tolerable compared to this.

You've never experienced the anxiety of a really poor seller thinking about whether that $10 is really going to come and stay in the wallet or not, so it's only understandable that such a change could happen.

And the irony? You can translate DAN pages into Hindi, a language for a country well known for it's poverty and weak currency, and yet you can do this.

Why I use DAN a lot? Because many here on NP use PayPal, and I avoid PP as much as possible. Bad fees that are worse for txs $30 and below, countless nightmare stories about PP, and the hidden taxes imposed (can get slapped with 15% taxes) when European buyers (not sellers!) pay me. So I use DAN so that my wholesale buyers can pay me PP while I receive in other forms. Even when I did tiny txs I made sure that you don't get too much damage by choosing ETH as payout (the best method I could think of). I don't know if I did do "high volumes" (and I don't even know how many txs is considered "high volume") of small txs in the past, if I did, I'm sorry, but I know I don't do a lot of that these days. For many bulk sales I just send the best 1 to DAN and push the rest manually, which means I'm also already lightening your workload most of the time.

Good thing I no longer have to rely so much on small wholesale txs thanks to meeting some bigger wholesale buyers, but does it matter? Other people still need it. So do I at certain times.

DAN is (or was) practically the bigger version of Epik, allowing users from other registrars to receive flexible payouts just like the sellers in Epik. To have to depend on only 1 registrar/marketplace for flexi payouts is obviously too ridiculous. So what if so many people sell a lot at GD, when many others don't have the luxury of having the accounts to receive payouts from GD (remember that GD doesn't allow ACH payouts to American bank accounts owned by non-Americans = anti Payoneer users)? Last I read, you can't even receive wires from GD unless you get $1000 first.

For the people who have huge portfolios, lowball leads are obviously a total waste of time. But for the people who have little, every lead is important. It means a chance to sell. It means that the name has at least some demand. Some are able to sell 1 domain at 4-figs. Others are able to sell small/by bulk. Why indirectly kill the bulk/small sellers just because you don't agree with how they sell?

Was happy when Reza mentioned (in PM, sometime ago) that "Once we've automated bulk sales we can offer this service", thinking that portfolio escrows will be possible in the future, but it turns out to be rotten hope.

=====

Don't know about Flippa, might work, but I hope there won't be verification nightmares like some have mentioned. And last I saw they now use Escrow.com, another site that pays like a GD.

I don't have to say all this, I can always go elsewhere for small txs, but there are others who need this. Don't you think of them?

You're obviously not putting any pressure on your clients. They buy the name, they get it, and then they walk away. That's it. It's your sellers that you're putting pressure on.

And don't even bother to end the note with "have a great day/weekend" tied to such a horrible announcement of restrictions when you don't even mean it, since this is very insulting to your users.
https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/have-a-nice-day-sarcastic.296757/

Hi EternalDomains,

Obviously we do not ever intend to insult our users and our actions in the past should give us more credit than you're giving us at the moment.

We're the only marketplace not asking for a minimum fee to make sure the smaller players in the market can continue to use our service. When we change our policy, we do that simply because we are forced to due to some users using our service for other purposes than for which we've built this marketplace.

We cannot share all ins and outs publicly but when we change our policy it's to protect the majority of our users and to protect the integrity of our marketplace.

Do you want faster escrow and payouts for example? We optimize our service to deliver the maximum in terms of value. If we'd keep processing these smaller transactions our performance would only get worse due to mass volumes of too little transactions being conducted on our marketplace. We're also automating a lot of processes, we transfer your .com's into our own registrar at our own costs and don't forward the bill to you. However, some use this model to renew their domains for free via our service. Do you want us instead to offer less good service by charging you the seller for the transfer fees?

To conclude, give us some credit. We've done a lot for this industry and will keep improving but some decisions we make are to make the DAN experience better for 99% of our users.

Kind regards,

Reza

 

[davidc1]

I'm affected by this change and I'm not part of abusing anything, explain me why, you decided to put this change in production, just before a week end wihout any chance for us to find and adapt another solution ?
Do you think it's professional ? How could we trust you now for the future ?
As an emergency I now test with paypal without any seller protection, i have no other choice...

 

[NorthernDomains]

32% of all sales conducted at DAN last month, were sales initiated directly from our marketplace search.

I'm glad to know this. Thank you for mentioning it.

 

[frank-germany]

@DAN.COM

Reza,

I respect your discission
to no longer want to proceed with low-level sales

But there exist more than 1 way to do so
the way you have chosen is psychologically unwise

the customer should not see any min bid price
as that will make him bid at that level


so that way to reach your goal
( no low sales )
and to reach my goal
( not to show any price )
is this:

disable the "accept the offer"
button when low amounts are offered

 

[frank-germany]

If you follow DAN for a while you'll observe that we keep iterating and improving on all fronts, including driving continuously more buyer traffic to our marketplace: https://www.similarweb.com/website/dan.com/

32% of all sales conducted at DAN last month, were sales initiated directly from our marketplace search.

One of our company KPI's (Key Performance Indicators) is to drive that number up to at least 50%. Within the next couple of months, we'll get there.

so you say,
when I no longer send traffic from my domains
to DAN I will still have sales?