news Dan.com to increase comission from 9% to 15% effective Feb 1st 2023

[MadAboutDomains]

Just received this email from Dan.com about commission increases (snippet of email):

Thoughts?

 

[twiki]

I would have used DaaZ (just a lander alternative for those in need of one; while I'm still 100% at Afternic). tried them for a bit long time ago. Except their landers are through Cloudflare, which renders them mostly unusable.

I'll never understand that.

 

[Recons.Com]

Question to GD:

Will anyone get preferential treatment or the terms are the same for all?

HugeDomains uses their own landers. Demanding 25% from them instead of 20% before could mean around $5 million a year additional money going from HD straight to GD. I can't fathom them taking this lightly. So are you giving them different terms?

 

[biggie]

Hi @Dane, the standard 25% commission rate will be charged when a domain is sold, for example, through Afternic, with the domain name pointing that doesn't point a nameserver ending in one of the following at the point of sale:

• afternic.com
• smartname.com
• uniregistrymarket.link
• dan.com

• undeveloped.com
• internettraffic.com
• cashparking.com

The 5% commission rate you mentioned is for leads that you import to Dan.

Hi

don't know if anyone questioned this but:

if my domains are pointed to any of above NS, then isn't that traffic, "my lead"?

also, what's the rate charged if someone searches on afternic/dan and buys my domain?
is the commission 5%,15% or 25%.

Thanks

imo...

 

[domaindevil]

If they are interested, I'll just send them a PayPal invoice or they can wire me the funds.

Are you not missing out on "impulse" or drunk buys? I liked DAN because if a customer saw a domain he/she liked, they could just click buy and pay right away before they had a chance to think it through.

 

[twiki]

If they are interested, I'll just send them a PayPal invoice or they can wire me the funds.

You will lose sales in that way.

 

[bmugford]

Thanks @tonyk2000 - these are great points, and in my new role as community manager I'm trying to help affect changes with some of these points you've raised.

Well, outside the commission changes which are not justified, the 25% stuff landed like a lead balloon.
The domain investment community is not for anti-competitive measures like that.

So you should probably relay that back.

Again, this is coming from a long time GoDaddy supporter. I have had an account there almost since they started.
I use Afternic. I use Dan. I am not some "hater".

I just hate these moves by GoDaddy.

Brad

 

[lochdhu]

I sold quite a few domains with Dan.com but F 15% and 25% for anything over 25k, Bye Dan.

 

[BrandVenue]

It's unclear if tiered based commission system for larger sales will stay or go away.

Right now commission for a $100k sale on afternic (without pointing ns to their site) is $11.5k with tiered commission system ($4k + 10% of amount over $25k).

Starting next month the commission would be flat 25% = $25k if the ns is not pointing to their site.

Even a $30k sale commission without pointing lander would be $7.5k when it's currently $4.5k.

Many people have bin at afternic but uses different landing page. This would be a huge blow.

 

[branding]

I asked Namecheap on social media if they could, finally, introduce landers (other than the pathetic solution of redirecting to their marketplace listing). Just landers, like Dynadot, NameSilo, Sav, Porkbun, etc. all have.

Their account first told me they would forward it as a suggestion. But then, their CEO Richard Kirkendall replied to my Tweet saying that Spaceship (their new platform in closed beta testing) would have landers. Good news.

He went on to add in a second tweet in the thread:
"What I plan to do at Spaceship is offer domainers registrations, renewals and transfers at cost. No fee for being part of the "club" or whatever. Offer landers and a low percentage on any commissions." It looks like they are approaching it from a domainer friendly way, make the money as a percentage of aftermarket sales, not on the actual domain registrations and renewals. Their current NC Marketplace commission is 10%.

And then someone asked if it would be just for names registered at Namecheap (which is the case for their existing marketplace) and he responded:
"Will be open to all."

So assuming that really means that a domain name registered anywhere can be listed, and that their marketplace is good (the current one is slow at search) this could be significant competition. He also tweeted about advanced technology and software powering Spaceship.

Is anyone in the Beta trial, and if so are they at liberty to share any opinions, or is it NDA restricted?

-Bob

https://domaininvesting.com/spaceship-com-looking-for-beta-testers/

 

[Webtrader]

I agree. Sedo recently improved, imo, their landers. If they stay with the 10% commission for sales from those landers, and added a lease-to-own option, it could be really compelling.

Even for those who love Afternic and Dan, the domain world is better off with competition, and I hope Sedo will prosper as the main competition left in the general marketplace segment. And perhaps a new innovative startup enter it.

-Bob

I contacted Sedo.com and told them to forward my message to the management/CEO including link to this discussion and requirements like lease-to-own, 10%, pay per month option... Tomorrow I should receive an answer (Germany Timezone)

 

[Ostrados]

To sum it up, you have 2 main options:

1. Use Dan and Afterninc and pay 15% commission on each
2. Use Sedo/other landers and pay 10% on Sedo & 25% on Afternic.

Check your historical sales and make your mind, find out which option will be more profitable for you.

There is a 3rd option which is to use your own lander + Escrow, but I am not sure about the STR in this route.

 

[tonyk2000]

Thanks @tonyk2000 - these are great points, and in my new role as community manager I'm trying to help affect changes with some of these points you've raised.

So, imo, the best bet would be:

1. Fix the above issues.

2. Undo the planned change to 25%, let it be 20% with tiered commisson for high priced domains. It is not yet late.

Do not kill Bodis, Efty, etc. I'm an old GD customer (20 years!), I like GD, but, James, please agree that GD did not do the right thing today. I'm not U.S. citizen or resident and not a lawyer, so hard to comment on legal stuff, but there are enough references right in this thread about potential antitrust issues...

3. Offer decreased commission for own traffic sales, such as where visitor ends up on improved ns5/ns6 lander and buys without external partner like netsol or namejet. This is how it works @ sedo. And, it works.

 

[twiki]

I'm looking at this from the opposite way.

This will translate into a major increase in domains listed in the Afternic network (it already does even before via Dan integration).

Competition has grown already for someone that uses only Afternic (for the sole reason, other landers never worked well in my case, if at all).

 

[enterscope]

You will lose sales in that way.

Not if they want the domain.

 

[Dane]

How will you solve payments? Through Escrow? I am not that fond of Escrow. Too many hoops to jump through for the buyers.

Good point about escrow.com, I agree.

 

[twiki]

Not if they want the domain.

I have to disagree on this. Trust is the most important factor when you take money out of your pocket.

Also, from your end. Wire is OK but accepting Paypal payments for high value domains? Hell no.

 

[DomainBarracksRob]

Good point about escrow.com, I agree.

Sedo offers an Escrow service 3% which you can have buyer pay..

You may also still import lead checkout at dan for 5% if you want...

and you may also use.. many not aware of :
CryptoExchange.com Escrow https://cryptoexchange.com/escrow

 

[FolioTeam]

Curious about the higher value domains though. Currently "$4,000 +10% of amount over $25k" for names priced at "$25,000 and over".

Curious about that myself

 

[twiki]

To sum it up, you have 2 main options:

1. Use Dan and Afterninc and pay 15% commission on each
2. Use Sedo/other landers and pay 10% on Sedo & 25% on Afternic.

Check your historical sales and make your mind, find out which option will be more profitable for you.

There is a 3rd option which is to use your own lander + Escrow, but I am not sure about the STR in this route.

You probably nailed it (or in most part).

 

[Dane]

...you may also still import lead checkout at dan for 5% if you want...

I wonder how long this will remain an available option.

 

[Sutruk]

Right now commission for a $100k sale on afternic (without pointing ns to their site) is $11.5k with tiered commission system ($4k + 10% of amount over $25k).

Starting next month the commission would be flat 25% = $25k if the ns is not pointing to their site.

Right to the point. For domains not pointing to Afternic, it goes from $11.5k (still quite a lot in my opinion) to a whopping $25k of commission.

For a sale where you would have paid $890 using Escrow.com to $25,000 in commission at Afternic.

 

[Name Nerd]

The domaining industry is in disarray. I wonder which marketplaces will rise to the top as a result.

 

[karmaco]

There are no “tiers” for higher end anymore. Its all jumping to 15% or 25%.

 

[Dane]

Not a good day.

 

[DaaZ]

I would have used DaaZ (just a lander alternative for those in need of one; while I'm still 100% at Afternic). tried them for a bit long time ago. Except their landers are through Cloudflare, which renders them mostly unusable.

I'll never understand that.

Thanks for sharing your experience. We can help you any time. If you can create a ticket or chat with our live support agents, we can understand your concern and happy to resolve. Yes, we use cloudflare to fight spam or bots. At the same time we have a lot of sales happening through landing pages. Happy to look into the specific issue you are experiencing and happy to resolve that.