GoDaddy could wipe Efty, DAN, BB + off the map if Afternic were branded to GoDaddy

[Lox]

Read more (Comments @ Twitter ) (Comments @ DSAD)

Readers at DSAD agree and summarized in this great comment from Andy "GoDaddy
could wipe Efty, DAN, BB + clones off the map if Afternic were branded to GoDaddy; the site was updated and user friendly; and they were more democratic with tools, leads and data" (Comments @ Twitter ) (Comments @ DSAD)

 

[scrsteven]

It's my domainer fantasy dream to test a very simple Godaddy themed buy-it-now sales lander with Godaddy checkout page and no upsells.

And then the next iteration - test it with automatic payment plans... and then test it with upsells for hosting where the domain owners get a giant commission since it's their traffic. And visitor stats / analytics too. Whew, I'm really dreaming now.

 

[Sutruk]

The most easy thing Godaddy can do to wipe all the competition off the map, in one second:

Create a landing page, Godaddy.com landing page, only with the domain for sale and the Buy it Now button.

With no domain suggestions, with no selfmade appraisals, with nothing else than the domain and the buy it now button (or make offer, OK).

A landing page for domainers, not showing 100 alternatives to the domain in question to the users, asking them to buy whatever-mydomain.com or usemydomain.com or getmydomain.com alternative.

Something that can be EASILY pointed, like:

godaddy.com/Item.aspx?src=MyDomain.com

No, this url does not exist, is just a dream.

PS: And if they reduce their commission to a 10% - 15%, that would be definitive.

 

[equity78]

Well I remember asking Joe Styler about moving off the Afternic name in 2018.

I wrote to Joe:

But do you think that getting away from the Afternic brand will ever be a thing? I am just wondering,
The biggest thing I see is non domainers don't know Afternic, they know GoDaddy. I have written a few times in blogs and forums, I know people that GoDaddy = Domain Names, they have no idea what Afternic is.

It's funny someone said to me today, after I messaged you here, and I did not bring it up, they were like I wish GoDaddy would just get rid of Afternic, I hate the two conflicting platforms.


His reply

We will not get rid of Afternic as a brand in the foreseeable future. We need a strong non GoDaddy brand to facilitate the DLS service. We cannot use the GoDaddy brand for other registrars or they would be much less likely to participate in Afternic Fast transfer. It is good for them to have a company name that most end user companies do not recognize than to have a big name brand competitor.
We are improving the support there by adding new people and systems. The support team for the Aftermarket is the same team for GoDaddy and Afternic so they give the same service.
We are also looking into branding for sale landers as GoDaddy so if you are selling domains with Afternic you can have brand recognition and trust from a potential buyer vs the Afternic brand. I think that will help a lot in regards to your statement that non domainers do not know Afternic. I think it will help them buy domains more comfortably but still not alienate our other registrar partners.

 

[Rob Monster]

Interesting thread.

A scenario where Afternic 2.0 emerges assumes that Godaddy could execute an innovation agenda. In recent memory, no compelling evidence of this concept. This is why I predicted that GD will go buy it.

See here:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/happy-new-years-what-is-your-2020-forecast.1170533

This is largely a DNA issue. You can go hire that talent but it takes 2-3 years to get an innovation program firing on all cylinders, let alone for an organization with massive legacy data and likely outdated systems.

As near as I can tell, the internal innovation got cost-saved under the prior regime of beancounters. Either that, or the engineers were too busy putting out fires to line up an innovation agenda.

So, yes, it is a nice theory that Afternic 2.0 will emerge from an internal skunkworks project, but knowing the enabling requirements, I put low odds of a substantial Afternic 2.0 appearing in 2020.

A propos the comment from Reza about open access, Epik is on the Afternic MLS. That said, our request for the Godaddy auction API was formally declined. I was not entirely shocked, but still disappointed.

All indications are that Godaddy is a late-stage aspiring monopolist, milking the cow. And yet, they are nice people on the front line. Also, NamesCon, controlled by Godaddy, have been great to work with.

All that said, let's see what Aman Bhutani has to say at NamesCon in his keynote. Perhaps he will bring the beef. After all, he used to lead engineers. One man can make a difference so let's see what Aman brings.

The good news is that there is plenty of upside to go around.

 

[bmugford]

Too funny that domain investors hash out arguments on social media. Does anyone else see the irony?

I get the irony, but not much actual business is done on social media. It is mainly used for bitching and giving unsolicited opinions that others don't care about

Brad

 

[bmugford]

Afternic is one of the best venues for sales as is, but I have mentioned this many times...
GoDaddy is a global brand. Afternic is not. Not many people outside the field know Afternic.

I think if Afternic was just branded as GoDaddy, it would be beneficial.

I wish they had a selection of more (better) landers and analytics available.

It would also be nice if they would just act as an escrow company on outside transactions.

I used to guide buyers to GD all the time when it was 10% fee on auctions. But I am not going to bring the lead, and pay a 20% commission. This would be beneficial to buyers, sellers, and GoDaddy.

Brad

 

[.X.]

well, first of all, we don't a need a monopolized Walmart situation in the domain name industry, so i would 100% be against GD and Afternic attempting to take out any of other after market options.

I personally hope to see more innovation put into our aftermarket options, I think we will see that this very year of 2020.

I would like to see Godaddy and afternic bring in some of that new innovation though, beginning with more reasonable and competitive pricing on registrations and renewals would be a start.

$17.99 for a .com registration or renewal is not a feasible option IMO, when you can get the same service for $8.99 to $10.99 , every dollar counts in this industry.

 

[frank-germany]

We do have GoDaddy branded landers if you point to ns3 and ns4.afternic.com like expertmine.com as an example. They have improved sales and were based on customer feedback.

ns3 /ns4
never worked for my domains
aka made no sales
plus I have no traffic insight


by the way
you don't need to use
ns3/ns4 to get that landing page

redirecting to
https://www.afternic.com/forsale/domain.com
will do the same

correct:
you need to add
?traffic_id=daslnc
to the string
in order to display the GoDaddy Logo

$afternicurl ="http://www.afternic.com/forsale/";
$afternicurl .=$domain;
$afternicurl .="?traffic_id=daslnc";
header("Location: $afternicurl");


when you have a BIN set
this is the link:
https://www.afternic.com/domain/pkws.com

 

[boker]

It wouldn't make sense not to use their huge name.
+
Strange that they haven't been working on afternic (platform and bugs).



I definitely think they are working on something.
@Paul Nicks has accepted the challenge.
Forgot to say it's almost ready.

So, godaddy, the company with most bugs around, it's trying to update afternic....I have a deja vu regarding this( see freelancer, web-namejet and all the others) Probably the main development will be the payout, so the 11 days payout from afternic will be raised to the 22 days payout from godaddy.

 

[Recons.Com]

It is fascinating to see some of the above advice that if followed would hurt the bottom line of the company greatly!!!

They charge $17.99 because they can! They have put themselves in that position. They take loss luring regular customers for $1.99 and then keep them on hook with auto payments for $17.99

And then, they actually get to keep most larger holders, like domain investors, by offering DCC with Costco-like membership fee which pays itself off, compared to even cheap registrars, after 200-500 names.

So, again, if they were to go 9.99, at which point they would be still not competitive from price perspective, to domain savvy clients, they won't gain considerable number of new names, but they will lose (17.99-9.99)*50 million = $400 million/year in profits, from which they can keep paying for their $1.99 promos and ads everywhere.

 

[.X.]

You already get $8.xx registrations. Discount club.
Not talking about you in particular but in 2020 domainers should really stop complaining about paying for discount club, happens everytime they are prompted to use it.
There's no way on earth the world's largest registrars is going to lower it's .com registrations for its millions of customers, makes no sense.

The only thing we can wish for is nice platform, nice landers.
They won't be lowering any commission. They get all the marketshare and domainers aren't going anywhere, they have no reason to do it.

Free privacy with discount club could be do-able.
Don't think it's happening.

So i have to sign up and pay to be in a "Discount Club" No i don't either , and that is another ridiculous thing.

I had 99% of my domains with Godaddy from 2004 to around 2012, I have a grand total of 4 domains there right now, that only waiting until renew time comes. then they will transferred out.

understand something, I do not dislike Godaddy, I have always loved Godaddy , in the beginning, i would venture and be confident in saying it was domainers who built that platform, NP , DNF, DP and more. and with that said, they should give me a discount, they should be intetive to the very people who made them IMO.

They forgot

 

[Sutruk]

It's on a domain. Twitter.com You're acting like my bicycle is going to devalue the value of my car. Twitter, Instagram and Namepros all have their value and can be complementary to a website. Each person can determine what they use it for. It may be marketing, it may be for entertainment. I tweet because its a quick way to communicate. And the real irony in your statement is my tweet is the headline of this thread. A tweet given publicity to me and our group over at DSAD.com. It's gotten people to think and discuss a topic, not just on Twitter but on other "domains" People may have even visited DSAD.com because of it. Pretty sure that's good for domains

We only need a Godaddy.com landing page, only with the domain for sale and the Buy it Now button. (not an Afternic.com landing saying that's Godaddy's brand, people want and needs to be at Godaddy.com to make the purchase).

With no domain suggestions, with no selfmade appraisals, with nothing else than the domain and the buy it now button (or make offer).

Something that can be EASILY pointed, like:

godaddy.com/Item.aspx?src=MyDomain.com

We just need this, something that the Godaddy engineers can make in 24h. Let's say just for domains listed for sale at Godaddy, not at Afternic, to begin with.

Would be nice to test this one and see what happens.

 

[bmugford]

It's hard to make a case that domains are important when you cause drama on Twitter. LMAO

There is plenty of drama on domains as well. Just look at NamePros over the last several months.

Social media is often a good way to at least get the attention of a company, or a limiter on terrible service as companies are often scared of the potential backlash from their actions.

Brad

 

[.X.]

Agreed and without lower commission 5 to 9 percent, crypto accepted as a payment option and payment plans they have a long way to go. Would love to hear @Paul Nicks comments on those 3 aspects because in my opinion they are 3 of the most important features.

Bob Parsons was hungry when he started building Godaddy, That fire has been gone for many years and Godaddy has settled into the "Gucci" of domain name registers and after market providers, Yet you get nothing more in return from them than you do shopping at Walmart.

They need to get fired up again at Godaddy, get hungry, they are stuck in being complacent with accomplishments made.

 

[tonyk2000]

why would anyone pay double the price for the exact same product

Because Bob Parsons did a great job promoting GoDaddy... all those superbowl ads, tv commercials and the like. imo.

 

[tonyk2000]

Something that can be EASILY pointed, like:

godaddy.com/Item.aspx?src=MyDomain.com

So far:
https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?domain=MyDomain.com

Somebody needs to convinience GD management to change something in their internal competition between departments for results and $$$ earned. So far, "winners" are not aftermarket dept, but those depts who sell new gtlds, as new gtld registries are likely paying GD for extra visibility... Without this, our domains will be forever shown only in search results together with tons of alternative suggestions.

 

[Joe Styler]

@Joe Styler

yes please, can we have that soon?

We do have GoDaddy branded landers if you point to ns3 and ns4.afternic.com like expertmine.com as an example. They have improved sales and were based on customer feedback.

 

[Nikhil Jain]

We do have GoDaddy branded landers if you point to ns3 and ns4.afternic.com like expertmine.com as an example. They have improved sales and were based on customer feedback.

Can't agree enough with this @Joe Styler .
Yet many of us here are of the opinion that these landers really need a BIN option and you'll surely see a surge in number of investors using them for parking their domains for sale.

 

[Windoms]

I think they are either going to kill Afternic or develop a whole new Afternic that is directly accessed through Godaddy. It wouldn't make sense to have 2 different platforms with competition lurking around.

It wouldn't make sense not to use their huge name.
+
Strange that they haven't been working on afternic (platform and bugs).

They left all these errors behind which is telling me they are working on something brand new (as @Joe Styler has said. But redesigning everything from the ground up and not merging (strengthening) Godaddy is quite odd, especially with competitors lurking around.

I definitely think they are working on something.
@Paul Nicks has accepted the challenge.
Forgot to say it's almost ready.

 

[bmugford]

At least it's on a "domain" and not a competitor to domains. How can anyone make a case that domains are important and needed, while on Twitter? The irony is massive.....

I don't want to get this discussion sidetracked, but I don't really see it that way.

Social media has a use, but conducting actual business is not really one of them.
You still need to drive the traffic somewhere else to promote something, usually a website.

Brad

 

[equity78]

well, first of all, we don't a need a monopolized Walmart situation in the domain name industry, so i would 100% be against GD and Afternic attempting to take out any of other after market options.

I personally hope to see more innovation put into our aftermarket options, I think we will see that this very year of 2020.

I would like to see Godaddy and afternic bring in some of that new innovation though, beginning with more reasonable and competitive pricing on registrations and renewals would be a start.

$17.99 for a .com registration or renewal is not a feasible option IMO, when you can get the same service for $8.99 to $10.99 , every dollar counts in this industry.

Agreed and without lower commission 5 to 9 percent, crypto accepted as a payment option and payment plans they have a long way to go. Would love to hear @Paul Nicks comments on those 3 aspects because in my opinion they are 3 of the most important features.

 

[.X.]

It is fascinating to see some of the above advice that if followed would hurt the bottom line of the company greatly!!!

They charge $17.99 because they can! They have put themselves in that position. They take loss luring regular customers for $1.99 and then keep them on hook with auto payments for $17.99

And then, they actually get to keep most larger holders, like domain investors, by offering DCC with Costco-like membership fee which pays itself off, compared to even cheap registrars, after 200-500 names.

So, again, if they were to go 9.99, at which point they would be still not competitive from price perspective, to domain savvy clients, they won't gain considerable number of new names, but they will lose (17.99-9.99)*50 million = $400 million/year in profits, from which they can keep paying for their $1.99 promos and ads everywhere.

where do you suppose they got all of that inventory that drops and they are able to sell in their after market?

we are talking LLLL.com and some nice premium domain names that people are letting drop, those names came in years ago to Godaddy , that inventory is going to run out, once that inventory runs out, domainers wont be running to the Godaddy after market anymore if Godaddy pricing continues to be double of its competitors. why would anyone pay double the price for the exact same product , with pretty much the exact same features.

 

[Lox]

... And if they reduce their commission to a 10% - 15%, that would be definitive.

This decrease in commission will have a huge impact on all AN partners/registrars. Most of would leave the table asap. Most registrars don't earn enough (AN%) on PDN (chargeback risk etc) so they'll add an additional 5%+ .

 

[tonyk2000]

Free privacy with discount club could be do-able

I'm wondering who is still buying privacy @ gd and what for... With their current whois output format, only organization name is shown (if it is entered by the registrant) and a state/country. For most registrants, it is not critical whether those remaining details are hidden or no. So, yes, it might be techically easier to start offering full privacy for free.