GoDaddy Launches Premium Listings at $4.99 per MONTH

[name idol]

You can't miss the announcement if you go to their site - the link is right at the top of the home page.

After the slightly strange start ("Go Daddy and the Domain Name Aftermarket (TDNAM) have teamed up to help you sell your domain names.") the product basics are explained in a reasonably straightforward way.

I just read through the FAQ but still have questions in my mind, most of all regarding the link if any between this product and Fabulous' eagerly awaited DDN, of which GoDaddy has been a key part for some time now, albeit only listing Fabulous' own domains at GoDaddy while DDN is in beta.

The DDN private beta description sounded very similar to the product GD have just launched, but didn't mention anything about payment. Are GD just trying it on perhaps, on the basis that the paid listings idea might just work, before generously scrapping all fees a few months later?

 

[Sameh]

Anyone try it?

 

[JoeCanadian]

Fee structure is interesting - $4.95 per month plus 20-40% commission. You get to decide the percent commission you are willing to pay. GoDaddy will then decide the priority to give your listing.

 

[Ronald Regging]

Fee structure is interesting - $4.95 per month plus 20-40% commission. You get to decide the percent commission you are willing to pay. GoDaddy will then decide the priority to give your listing.

I'm more than willing to pay them 40% commission if they can sell my name at 40% above my asking price Err wait, no that wouldn't work

 

[rodash]

I just read through the FAQ but still have questions in my mind, most of all regarding the link if any between this product and Fabulous' eagerly awaited DDN, of which GoDaddy has been a key part for some time now, albeit only listing Fabulous' own domains at GoDaddy while DDN is in beta.

The DDN private beta description sounded very similar to the product GD have just launched, but didn't mention anything about payment. Are GD just trying it on perhaps, on the basis that the paid listings idea might just work, before generously scrapping all fees a few months later?

In Ron Jackson's current cover story article about DDN he quotes the Fabulous CEO as saying DDN sales will incur a 2% commission. The reason they are going with a 2% commission structure is to make it unviable for others to come in under them. According to the Jackson article, GoDaddy and Moniker are supposed to introduce DDN anytime now. If this is in fact GoDaddy's introduction of that DDN service then what we are seeing is GoGreedy and the concept will have been shot in the head before it's even got started.

Let's face it, who's going to pay five bucks a month to try and sell a domain name at unrealistic and inflated prices. We've been doing that at Afternic for free for the past 10 years. LOL

..

 

[name idol]

In Ron Jackson's current cover story article about DDN he quotes the Fabulous CEO as saying DDN sales will incur a 2% commission. The reason they are going with a 2% commission structure is to make it unviable for others to come in under them. According to the Jackson article, GoDaddy and Moniker are supposed to introduce DDN anytime now. If this is in fact GoDaddy's introduction of that DDN service then what we are seeing is GoGreedy ...[post truncated for clarity of response below]

..

If we were talking about Verisign when it was a monopoly, I would agree with your sentiment completely.

I don't have a problem with greed as such when there is enough competition, and with GD using a 'market creaming' strategy initially if that's what they are doing.

My problem is that the GD system doesn't seem to be working right now, at least based on my personal experience over the last week or so of testing it with one of my generic domains.

I chose the maximum commission rate (40%) and the minimum price suggested by GoDaddy (even though in the low XXX it seems ridiculously low for a highly competitive generic term.

The two things my Premium Listing fee got me were:

a) listing my domain on TDNAM (which I could have done myself for free and saved the full $4.99) and

b) showing the domain with the asking price next to it IF a search is performed for that exact same term (including the plural S ending).

If somebody searched for the singular form, they would have no way of knowing my domain exists - even though it (the plural) is clearly the dominant form and the singular hardly makes sense.

They would see lots of domains that Fabulous are selling, mostly not directly relevant to the search term, but not the plural form of the term searched for.

If they added another word to my domain name and searched for it at GD, they would still NOT know my domain exists.

I assume this is due to teething problems (as in somebody forgot to turn a switch on), but then I thought that was the case last week too.

Before I speak to Support, I would quite like to find out if other people are able to trigger a display of their Premium Listing domain in the Premium Domain Names box in any way.

 

[Sameh]

If somebody searched for the singular form, they would have no way of knowing my domain exists - even though it (the plural) is clearly the dominant form and the singular hardly makes sense.

I was interesting in this service only for this part :o

GoDaddy said that ? or you just assuming?

 

[name idol]

...

GoDaddy said that ? or you just assuming?

I paid the Premium Listing fee of $4.99 per month about a week ago, after GD accepted my domain for inclusion, and I set 40% commission with the lowest price in their recommended range.

Let's say it was InsuranceRates.com (which it isn't, this is just a similar example).

Based on the product description, I would have expected my $4.99 per month to ensure that InsuranceRates.com appears in the Premium Domain Names box when a search is performed say for InsuranceRate.com.

In my case (the equivalent of) InsuranceRates.com doesn't appear when a search is performed for InsuranceRate.com, even though clearly the searcher is most likely to be interested in InsuranceRates.com (and even though I have offered GD the highest possible commission at the lowest price in their recommended range)

What the searcher sees instead is the following list of domains (all regged at Fabulous):

Premium Domain Names

RatesInsurances.com $300.00*
Insurance-Rating.com $2,050.00*
RatingInsurance.com $900.00*
BusinessInsuranceRate.com $2,300.00*
AutomobileInsuranceRateQuotes.com $2,950.00*

LifeInsuranceRating.com $2,150.00*
InsuranceChildren.com $1,700.00*
InsuranceSupplement.com $1,700.00*
OrthodonticsInsurance.com $1,500.00*
Car-Insurance-Ratings.com $3,600.00*

Another (even more puzzling) example:

When somebody searches for a derivative of my exact domain name, say LowestInsuranceRates.com, I would expect InsuranceRates.com to appear in some shape or form in the suggested alternative - whether in the Premium DOmain Names box or outside it. But no, it doesn't.

What they see instead is the following list of domains (all regged at Fabulous):

Premium Domain Names

RatesInsurances.com $300.00*
Insurance-Rating.com $2,050.00*
RatingInsurance.com $900.00*
BusinessInsuranceRate.com $2,300.00*
AutomobileInsuranceRateQuotes.com $2,950.00*

LifeInsuranceRating.com $2,150.00*
InsuranceChildren.com $1,700.00*
InsuranceSupplement.com $1,700.00*
OrthodonticsInsurance.com $1,500.00*
Car-Insurance-Ratings.com $3,600.00*

Again, remember, the domain in question is not Insurance Rates.com (even I wouldn't list that at low $XXX if Ihad it), but this is meant to be an otherwise representative illustration of the issue.

I just hope this is a technical glitch, otherwise we have a problem.

Has anyone else tried it?

 

[Sameh]

Did you contact them about it ?

 

[Domagon]

40% commission ... yikes! I don't see that format lasting too long in the domain listing business whose barriers to entry are relatively low.

Even if a seller is willing to give up 40%, a savvy buyer will see it as paying 40% too much and thus go out of their way to bypass the venue and deal direct with the seller.

It's not only sellers who try to bypass listing venues, buyers will try too when they can yield big savings ...

ie. on a $1K sale - buyer can pay $1000 to the venue or pay around $710 direct to the seller ...

Even if a buyer can't bypass a particular transaction, the word will quickly spread among buyers and sellers to avoid such expensive venues for transacting business.

Ron

 

[name idol]

Did you contact them about it ?

I am an optimist by nature, but even I wouldn't expect the average GD support person to know why Fabulous's system works the way it does - for them DDN is most likely just a plug-and-play black box.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Name Idol, you are correct about the terms not pulling up the singular and not having your named pulled up in other searches. Definetly a problem for Godaddy if so.

 

[Spade]

Perhaps im missing this. And I was looking through the FAQ, but couldnt find it. Is this $3.99 per domain name? or is this $3.99 blanket for all domains?

Justin

 

[name idol]

Perhaps im missing this. And I was looking through the FAQ, but couldnt find it. Is this $3.99 per domain name? or is this $3.99 blanket for all domains?

Justin

$4.99 per domain, per month. Still good value if it does what it says on the tin.

But wait, it's now $3.99 per domain, per month.

Only problem is, so far it doesn't do what it says it does - at least based on 2 out of 2 reports here so far.

Name Idol, you are correct about the terms not pulling up the singular and not having your named pulled up in other searches. Definetly a problem for Godaddy if so.

Thank you goodkarmaco, I was hoping I was wrong, but sadly no!

A problem indeed, even at $3.99 now.

If more people report their experiences here, perhaps the pricing would start to reflect the current service level more closely.

 

[bidawinner]

Anyone have any sales to report yet ?

 

[Spade]

$4.99 per domain, per month. Still good value if it does what it says on the tin.

I cant agree with that. $3.99 per domain name is ludacris. If your portfolio is 600 + domain names, its not reasonable to list them through this system. I imagine in the future this will drop off, or some kind of blanket fee will be in effect.

Justin

 

[Sameh]

I cant agree with that. $3.99 per domain name is ludacris. If your portfolio is 600 + domain names, its not reasonable to list them through this system. I imagine in the future this will drop off, or some kind of blanket fee will be in effect.

Justin

$3.99 or $4.99 not the real problem..

This is the real one

If somebody searched for the singular form, they would have no way of knowing my domain exists - even though it (the plural) is clearly the dominant form and the singular hardly makes sense.

 

[Spade]

EG,

Considering this just launched, Im willing to bet this gets correct. So, Im going to go out and say the real problem is the fee per domain name. If you have a domain name for $500 for sale - you pay $3.99 per month + 40% commision. If it takes you 1 year to sell that domain name. Your profit from the domain is:

$500
- $47.88
- $200
_________
= $252.12

Thats not including renewals or acquisitions. Im sorry, but GD is eating up any chance of profit on these domain names.

I think down the line, they will need to drop the monthly.

Justin

 

[Sameh]

EG,

Considering this just launched, Im willing to bet this gets correct. So, Im going to go out and say the real problem is the fee per domain name. If you have a domain name for $500 for sale - you pay $3.99 per month + 40% commision. If it takes you 1 year to sell that domain name. Your profit from the domain is:

$500
- $47.88
- $200
_________
= $252.12

Thats not including renewals or acquisitions. Im sorry, but GD is eating up any chance of profit on these domain names.

I think down the line, they will need to drop the monthly.

Justin

I don't think i will list my domain there for one year.
i will list it for 3 months "max"

Godaddy getting hit everyday by very large number of end users and domainers who registering or looking for domains.
If i listed my domain for a while and there are no problems like the one which listed above and i havn't sold my domain yet ... so i think something wrong with my price or my domain not really worth it.. IMO

 

[rbedell]

It's $2.99 to have them listed with GoDaddy. I listed some today as a test run.

I think if you take 10 decent domains from your portfolio and list them for 3 months you'll have a good idea of how the system will work for you. You might end up being out $90 in the end, but at least you'll know if you should spend more efforts in this area or not.

Anyone else had any luck with DDN/Premium Listing sales?