Drop-catching: Your way

[S-B]

Hello everyone,

I am working with a partner to develop a new drop-catcher. I am interested in discussing the project and listening to your suggestions.

1. How much should a backorder cost?
2. How long should an auction run (3, 5 or 7-days)?
3. What is your preferred payment method (Paypal or...)?
4. What are the most important features you need?

I will also need some beta testers in he coming month.

If you're interested in the service and would like to be part of the development process, please answer the question above and let me know that you're interested.

Please keep all comments, suggestions and beta requests in thread.

Thanks,
Shane

 

[S-B]

I am generally against membership fees ... there are too many scams on the internet where they offer you gold from heaven for just a small initial fee and we know how it ends . I think membership fee has important role if you want to get exclusive once the business model already works and its proven, but in the initial phase that can deter many potential customers not allowing you to develop and test every potential revenue stream.

You make a valid point. Everyone promises gold and the owners are usually the only ones who end up making money!

 

[S-B]

Drop-catching platform:

• $30 backorder
• 3-day private no-reserve auctions
• 24-hour and 2-hour reminders
  
• 24-hour transfers (if not instant)
• Transparent aliases
• Proxy bidding
• Pending delete lists
• Paypal, escrow, credit card and wire transfers.

Advice requested:

• Refundable deposit? How much?
• Verification? How so?
• Customer Support? Phone/email?

Looking for feedback on what I've learned so far!

 

[Ilhicas]

what about the Tld's you wish to offer ? More variety would be better. For .com .net and company we already have many dropcatching services.

It might not be as crowded as .com/.net/.org market but some other tld's have a lot to offer too like .pl .de .in .ru .cn .es .fr

 

[S-B]

what about the Tld's you wish to offer ? More variety would be better. For .com .net and company we already have many dropcatching services.

It might not be as crowded as .com/.net/.org market but some other tld's have a lot to offer too like .pl .de .in .ru .cn .es .fr

Initially I plan to offer .com, .net, .org, and .info.

The problem with offering other ccTLDs and gTLDs is that it would require variable pricing.

The previously mentioned extensions can all be offered with a $30 price tag.

 

[Ilhicas]

Regarding the shill bidders. random users creating random catches. Im not sure if it was mentioned but you could use a credit system. People buy credits to create a dropcatch order and that counts towards their bid, in case of auction loss credit it back to account which from a business perspective should not be refundable. But could entice users, if you create a 1st credit cheaper than regular pricing.

 

[S-B]

Regarding the shill bidders. random users creating random catches. Im not sure if it was mentioned but you could use a credit system. People buy credits to create a dropcatch order and that counts towards their bid, in case of auction loss credit it back to account which from a business perspective should not be refundable. But could entice users, if you create a 1st credit cheaper than regular pricing.

The only issue with that strategy is every transaction incurs a processing fee. I'd actually lose money with that strategy.

 

[muttus]

Drop-catching platform:

• $30 backorder
• 3-day private no-reserve auctions
• 24-hour and 2-hour reminders
  
• 24-hour transfers (if not instant)
• Transparent aliases
• Proxy bidding
• Pending delete lists
• Paypal, escrow, credit card and wire transfers.

Advice requested:

• Refundable deposit? How much?
• Verification? How so?
• Customer Support? Phone/email?

Looking for feedback on what I've learned so far!

To drop-catching platform add:
Lot of caught names

Refundable deposit 60$ - I would suggest to put it as part of your credit which is under normal conditions untouchable, but when person wants to close the account or need those funds they could simply click on button allowing this deposit to be used against buying the domain. This way I think you would avoid too many request for return of the money. If people would use this deposit, they could start ordering again once they topped it up. Would it be abused?
Verification - what do you want to verify? 1) Ability to pay? - Hence deposit 2) Identity of the buyer? For what? Bit tricky IMHO. Using whois???? (maybe just a thought for somebody else since I do not know exactly which data are not easily changeable)
Customer support - close and personal I prefer thai massage while domaining , now back to reality I prefer chat over email, but both are having meaning for different cases. Chat for instant short question and mail for big cases.

Can't wait for first domains

 

[Ilhicas]

The only issue with that strategy is every transaction incurs a processing fee. I'd actually lose money with that strategy.

What I mean is a credit within you System, meaning that you would return a "credit point" to the losing user but only one financial transaction would occur. Not actually returning the money to the client but rather a Point / Credit / [InsertNameHere] so no loss on your side.

 

[S-B]

To drop-catching platform add:
Lot of caught names

Refundable deposit 60$ - I would suggest to put it as part of your credit which is under normal conditions untouchable, but when person wants to close the account or need those funds they could simply click on button allowing this deposit to be used against buying the domain. This way I think you would avoid too many request for return of the money. If people would use this deposit, they could start ordering again once they topped it up. Would it be abused?
Verification - what do you want to verify? 1) Ability to pay? - Hence deposit 2) Identity of the buyer? For what? Bit tricky IMHO. Using whois???? (maybe just a thought for somebody else since I do not know exactly which data are not easily changeable)
Customer support - close and personal I prefer thai massage while domaining , now back to reality I prefer chat over email, but both are having meaning for different cases. Chat for instant short question and mail for big cases.

Can't wait for first domains

I was thinking about a $100 deposit that is 100% refundable if the user decides to close their account. I think that it might be a little bit high but it'll separate the time wasters from the people who will actually use the service.

What do you think?

I'm not sure about the verification process at all. I could confirm ones identity but that doesn't do me much good. It wouldn't be worth taking someone to small claims court over $30. lol.

I can't give you a thai massage but I can make myself available by phone and email!

 

[S-B]

What I mean is a credit within you System, meaning that you would return a "credit point" to the losing user but only one financial transaction would occur. Not actually returning the money to the client but rather a Point / Credit / [InsertNameHere] so no loss on your side.

Ah. Now I understand!

 

[aditya11117]

Backorder price like 50-70$. Payment- paypal, credit cards. Auction days 5 or 7 days..

 

[Domaingel]

1. backorder cost? $30 or less
2. auction run (3, 5 or 7-days)? 3 day private auction. Don't want others joining auction that didn't initially place the backorder. Really I don't understand why it can't be a 1 day auction if there is proxy bidding.
3. preferred payment method? Paypal, Credit Card, or escrow.com for higher transactions
4. most important features you need? Privacy. No highlighting of the domains I backorder to others and have a private auction. Competition is good for your business, not mine. Also a text notification reminder an hour prior to auction end.
5. deposit? I like the idea of buying credits. Credits are used for payment of backorder. If user doesn't win backorder, then those credits return back into their online account and don't expire. Credits have a 7 or 30 day refundable period from purchase.
6. verification? retina scan
7. customer service? Chat, email, support ticket system. I always need customer service via phone to be available to make me feel comfortable using the service, even though I'd probably never use it.

Are you going to allow for the auctions to be extended for bids entered within the last __ minutes of scheduled auction end time? I prefer not. That's the point of a proxy bid.

I would also like to be a betatester.

 

[chopret]

Ah, in that case it makes sense. So it's like proxy bidding !?

 

[CrocodileDundee]

Hope you can work it all out Shane! in the mean time some interesting news from NameJet

http://dotweekly.com/namejet-removes-bid-indicators-lower-than-4/

 

[Domaingel]

Hope you can work it all out Shane! in the mean time some interesting news from NameJet

http://dotweekly.com/namejet-removes-bid-indicators-lower-than-4/

I saw that and wondered if this thread had some influence on that decision.

 

[Asfas1000]

I saw that and wondered if this thread had some influence on that decision.

That's what I thought too. Was my exact suggestion to Shane

 

[Domaingel]

That's what I thought too. Was my exact suggestion to Shane

That's why in business you have to move quickly. Smart companies make moves to kill off new entries to the market. Now are they willing to go down on price too. Probably only when they feel threatened by competition like how Flippa did to keep its market share.

"Two men enter, one man leaves." Let the fastest drop catcher win.

 

[indiegrind]

If you have anymore need for beta testers, I would like to be added.

 

[svede]

PM Sent!

 

[S-B]

Can't respond to this. Please feel free to pm me with questions.