opinion Does the industry need another auction place?

[AndyM]

Just a general query.

Do you think the industry could benefit from another auction/market place.

A site built by domainers for domainers.
A site that wouldn't charge astronomical success fees and listing fee's.
A site that could potentially go into direct competition with Flippa. (eventually)

Let me know your thoughts and opinions and then watch this space!

Thanks in advanced
AndyM

 

[AndyM]

Only 8 so far. But it has only been a week and it is the holidays. Thanks for signing up though

 

[AndyM]

Auction page example here for view only
. Not open for registration yet

 

[Name Trader]

looks clean and minimal. With large font. Just how I prefer it. Unlike almost everywhere else. Well done.

 

[Samer]

I don’t like the idea. Another auction site means another hoop I have to jump through to get myself verified to participate in an auction. It also means another auction site to watch for. It’s more important to build a platform buyers want than one sellers want.

What a garbage opinion imo
Daaz has no verification Bs for any bids under $5,000

 

[Samer]

Auction page example here for view only
. Not open for registration yet

Been waiting for this day, for a looooong time.

Let me know when you open; I'm #1

I offer LLLL.com no reserve to spicen things up

 

[Samer]

Thank you for your service!!

Seriously, Sick of the monopoly auctions in this industry.

Sav auctions don't accept Paypal.

Signed up! excited.

 

[AndyM]

Logged in view

 

[AndyM]

Have launched for testing. Site still being developed but I invite you to come aboard to get a feel for the site and give your thoughts, feedback, critique and any issues you find on the site.

Please remember that I have done this all by myself and have had no one else to work/help with the development so I do expect to see some issues with the site in the early days.

You can leave feedback here or email me direct at [email protected]

 

[eternaldomains]

For a new competing auction service with upfront fees that costs a lot more than GD I think you'll have a very hard time getting clients.

And spelling/grammar mistakes:

Seller Account
$18 / month

Auction up to 10 domains at one time

Hand picked premium domains featured in newsletter and Twitter

Add domains to your portfolio using Whois API

Completely free for [the] fist 30 days when you create your account

Choose Plan

 

[AndyM]

For a new competing auction service with upfront fees that costs a lot more than GD I think you'll have a very hard time getting clients.

And spelling/grammar mistakes:

Flippa charge upfront fees for every auction listed - starting at $9 per domain. Then you have your success fee after that. Want to upgrade your listing with them then you can pay hundreds of $$$ for that.

For the price of 2 domains listed at Flippa you could have 10 separate auctions running every 7 days - that's 40 auctions a month ($360 at Flippa or $18 at Kingdom Names) and I don't take a success fee/commission.

GoDaddy may only charge $5 per year but they then take commission on each sale. A $5k sale and you loose $1k in commission. $5k sale with me and you get $5k.

The whole idea of this platform is to facilitate in putting the buyer in direct contact with you the seller. For example with a buy now through PayPal, when the buyer clicks and gets directed to PayPal the money is going direct to your PP account and does not come to Kingdom Names. Same for Escrow.

Also included in your $18 is portfolio management. And like I say on the site itself, when you sign up you get 30 days completely free to use the site and list domains for auction, bid on domains etc.

I honestly feel that for the price of 4 or 5 Starbucks Lattes, $18 for what I'm offering is a fair price.

 

[AndyM]

Have started a live "test" auction - no reserve starting at 0.

You are welcome to sign up and take part if the name is to your liking.

https://kingdomnames.com/market/details?domain=liteqoin.com

 

[AndyM]

Dan.com now a payment option for buy now domains. Will be looking into crypto methods in the coming weeks.

I have also got txt record verification to confirm domain ownership so no need to change name servers.

 

[AndyM]

Made some changes to the site. No longer needed to be logged in for buy now and make offer listings. My initial thinking was an extra layer of deterrent against spammers.

No need to id verify only domain ownership verification.

Dan.com pay monthly is now an option. Only on the old upto 12 month Dan payment option. Looking into the lease to own upto 5 years and will try to get integrated this week or next.

For buy now listings, I've added in a currency converter api to show price in some other currencies for buyers benefit.

Visit kingdomnames.com to see more

 

[AndyM]

Currency conversion example - updates daily.

 

[AndyM]

Site has gone through a bit of re-design and colour theme change.

I've added a function for you to upload a full page background image for each listing you create. Have a look at here to see example.

Remember this platform is completely free at the moment so you have nothing to loose if you sign up and list a few names to try it out for a few months.

 

[Name Trader]

Hi Andy,

I must say I thought the old white background was quite>very boring, even if it was practical. The example you show of a full page background image doesn't really suit very well when it's displayed 2.5 times on 1 page. You should have only 1 picture for the whole page, not 1 picture repeated 2.5 times per page.

My other criticism is it seems that you have everything in only 1 column to the left of the page. You are not taking advantage of the space unused to the right of that 1 column. I think you should make use of that white space to shorten the length of the page, and make it easier to read. Your picture example, gets too much in the way of the data. IMHO.

Maybe it might have been better to have gone with different colored pages before going to full-blown pictures. At least it would have been a logical step from the plain white pages.

This is meant to be constructive criticism. I think you are doing a good job. Keep up the good work.

rgds
stu

 

[AndyM]

Thanks Stu. Points taken onboard and will work to get something better. Will post an update soon.

 

[Name Trader]

I'm probably commenting before you have finished. But this looks much better. I'll comment again when you've finished.

 

[King]

A couple of acquaintances and I were working on a Flippa competitor, our biggest issue was getting people to actually stay active. In other words, it's hard to attract bidders and when there are no buyers sellers don't bother posting even if it's free. It's not as easy as it seems. We would have to all contribute as a community.

 

[AndyM]

A couple of acquaintances and I were working on a Flippa competitor, our biggest issue was getting people to actually stay active. In other words, it's hard to attract bidders and when there are no buyers sellers don't bother posting even if it's free. It's not as easy as it seems. We would have to all contribute as a community.

Couldn't agree more. This is my biggest issue at the moment. The more sellers I can get to sign up and list some good quality names then hopefully that will attract some buyers in.

The other issue I want to combat is that I don't want the site getting bogged down with worthless names. I'm thinking maybe 2 separate listing pages, one with quality - manually verified listings and another page that holds everything else.

@stub I want sellers to have the option to list any type of background they would like - anything from images to vector graphics. I want to give sellers some sort of control and customization over landing pages, anything that may help sell a name and promote is possible use.

I've fixed the repeat issue and it should also look a bit better on mobile view too.

Like I've said before - All feedback is welcome and I take it all onboard and will do my best to implement and change the site so "most" people are happy

 

[Name Trader]

Hi Andy,

Here are my updated comments... It looks a lot better already

1) You aren't going to use your own logo?
2) I think the currency conversion should be in the 1st box with the price. Maybe with 2 or 3 currencies per line, if it can be achieved.
3) Although, I quite liked how you had the currency before with Buy Now price in 1 column and Term Price in another column for each currency. However I really wonder how much people are really put off by US$ Pricing. Since it is pretty much standard. Is this currency pricing a "big deal"?
4) The Vitals Box looks odd with square corners. It should be the same as every other box with round corners.

rgds
stu

 

[AndyM]

Currency box will display monthly Payment if the option is available. You can decide this in portfolio management section. Just make sure it matches with Dan listing.

Moving it across to other side should be fine and is something I'll look at.

The currency conversion was just an idea I had one night. Found an api that does it so thought I'd put it in. Most people can go to xe.com if they want to convert to own currency if needed. I know Dan shows eur, usd and gbp.

With regards to logo, do you mean a logo for the site itself or an option for users to upload a logo for listings?

I will get a logo for the site but looking to get a designer to do it at some point.

 

[Name Trader]

Hi Andy,

Yep. I think the currency conversion is related to the purchase price, and is better associated with it. Is all processing done by Dan? Then I wonder if it's wise to quote those currencies at all if they are not got from Dan. Could lead to confusion.

Actually I was thinking about your logo. I think you should at least put a placeholder there. There may also be some merit in allowing the users to upload some kinda logo and generic text also. But you need to be careful about any confusion between that and your logo.

I haven't looked at the backend yet. Been concentrating on the frontend

I think the footer (quicklinks, policies, follow) could be smaller font and centralized.

rgds
stu

 

[AndyM]

Users can upload there own logo/avatar. This will be displayed by name under seller tab in the listing. Their name also links to all their listed names. Same layout as market place.

Will get footer changed to look more appealing.

Thanks

 

[AndyM]

With regards to payments, it's not all done through Dan. PayPal is an option also and I'm looking to implement Escrow which is about 90% done.

I'll keep the currency conversion for now - It only took an hour or so to implement so no biggy to keep it or remove it.

Edit - have removed currency conversion - Almost maxed out free tier of 2000 request a month in 8 days