Interview: AbdulBasit Makrani on His 6 Month Afternic Experiment

[James Iles]

Six months ago, domain investor AbdulBasit Makrani made the decision to move his almost four thousand domain portfolio from Uniregistry landing pages to Afternic to see whether the established Afternic platform would help to increase sales.

Every month at NamePros, AbdulBasit has been open about his experiences with Afternic, publishing his sales data for all to see. Since AbdulBasit is six months into his experiment, I took the opportunity to chat with him about his Afternic test, and some wider-ranging topics to do with domaining.

Read it in full here

 

[LUP]

thanks for sharing james

 

[Haroon Basha]

Thank you very much, we need more investors like Abdul Basit, far they are inspirational and frank with their experience. Many investors do not share their experience. Thank you @James Iles and thank you @AbdulBasit.com

 

[Samer]

Thanks @AbdulBasit.com

Your willingness share, what inspires me most.

Samer

 

[Ntmt]

Thnaks for the interview! Just one question regarding this paragraph:

Why did you choose Afternic over any other company such as Dan or Sedo?
It was pretty easy to choose over Dan or Sedo mainly because of the exposure Afternic provides. Afternic gives worldwide distribution through 100+ reseller partners with more fast-transfer enabled resellers than any other marketplace. Although I was a bit reluctant in trying at first due to their 20% commission which is pretty high keeping in mind I was paying nothing using Uniregistry when handling the leads myself. But I can say they justify the 20% with the results they’ve shown.


Does parking with Afternic increase exposure even when names are already listed at Afternic?
@AbdulBasit.com , @Paul Nicks , @Joe Styler

 

[SuperBrander]

@AbdulBasit.com Thanks for sharing. It's great seeing your success and always interesting to read your insights. I have a question that I hope you'll be able to answer.

You said that you started adding BINs at the beginning of 2018 and that this decision resulted in more sales. After moving the landers to Afternic this year you're seeing good results, but you say that 2019 was better. Naturally the coronavirus can be a factor and there may be other factors. But do you feel confident that the Afternic landers are indeed worthwhile? Because to my understanding you were getting a lot of sales at Afternic anyway simply by listing there with a BIN, when you were still using Uniregistry landers. So these sales you've been getting at Afternic in 2020 might have happened anyway, even without the Afternic landers and potentially some of those buyers might have bought from you at Uniregistry where you wouldn't have had to pay a commission.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Thnaks for the interview! Just one question regarding this paragraph:

Why did you choose Afternic over any other company such as Dan or Sedo?
It was pretty easy to choose over Dan or Sedo mainly because of the exposure Afternic provides. Afternic gives worldwide distribution through 100+ reseller partners with more fast-transfer enabled resellers than any other marketplace. Although I was a bit reluctant in trying at first due to their 20% commission which is pretty high keeping in mind I was paying nothing using Uniregistry when handling the leads myself. But I can say they justify the 20% with the results they’ve shown.


Does parking with Afternic increase exposure even when names are already listed at Afternic?
@AbdulBasit.com , @Paul Nicks , @Joe Styler

I'm not using their parking landers which is ns1/ns2. I use ns3/ns4 which is simply sales form and this helps you in getting more inquiries and sales. Also far less risky in terms of getting hit with UDRP because when someone park their domains, it's difficult to control the ads which are displayed and what will be displayed in future. Also to manage too many domains while parking isn't an easy task.

I used to park my domains with Uniregistry for years but I learnt some hard lessons. Both by getting hit with UDRPs as well as less inquiries and sales. In return I made few hundred dollars every month which was worthless when comparing the risk/reward factors I mentioned.

Thank you!

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

@AbdulBasit.com Thanks for sharing. It's great seeing your success and always interesting to read your insights. I have a question that I hope you'll be able to answer.

You said that you started adding BINs at the beginning of 2018 and that this decision resulted in more sales. After moving the landers to Afternic this year you're seeing good results, but you say that 2019 was better. Naturally the coronavirus can be a factor and there may be other factors. But do you feel confident that the Afternic landers are indeed worthwhile? Because to my understanding you were getting a lot of sales at Afternic anyway simply by listing there with a BIN, when you were still using Uniregistry landers. So these sales you've been getting at Afternic in 2020 might have happened anyway, even without the Afternic landers and potentially some of those buyers might have bought from you at Uniregistry where you wouldn't have had to pay a commission.

Thank you!

A very good question and I really like it

This was one of the reason where I was hesitant in trying Afternic thinking when I'm already making sales using Uniregistry landers, then why pay 20%

But after I tested their landers and if you see each of my monthly report, you'll see that there are sales happening with their partner registrars as well as Afternic cart.

If I compare Afternic cart sales vs Uniregistry lander sales, I admit that Afternic is converting sales in better way.

One of the best and very impressive thing I've seen about Afternic brokers is that they're able to get the buyer to make payment so quickly after both parties are agreed on a certain price which I've never seen elsewhere.

 

[Save Breach]

Thanks!

 

[Mr De]

Thank you!

A very good question and I really like it

This was one of the reason where I was hesitant in trying Afternic thinking when I'm already making sales using Uniregistry landers, then why pay 20%

But after I tested their landers and if you see each of my monthly report, you'll see that there are sales happening with their partner registrars as well as Afternic cart.

If I compare Afternic cart sales vs Uniregistry lander sales, I admit that Afternic is converting sales in better way.

One of the best and very impressive thing I've seen about Afternic brokers is that they're able to get the buyer to make payment so quickly after both parties are agreed on a certain price which I've never seen elsewhere.

Thanks for info ... which of afternic lander are you using ?

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Thanks for info ... which of afternic lander are you using ?

ns3/ns4

 

[NickB]

@AbdulBasit.com thanks again for sharing, really appreciate the transparency and help you provide.

Quick question, when you set your bin and floor price what percentage or dollar amount difference do you have?

I remember reading you set the prices quite close together - do you have a set discount for floor pricing or does it change depending on the name?

 

[FolioTeam]

Thanks for sharing. Great interview

 

[DrJacoby]

But after I tested their landers and if you see each of my monthly report, you'll see that there are sales happening with their partner registrars as well as Afternic cart.

If I compare Afternic cart sales vs Uniregistry lander sales, I admit that Afternic is converting sales in better way.

How can I see if my sales are through their partner registrars or through Afternic itself?

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

@AbdulBasit.com thanks again for sharing, really appreciate the transparency and help you provide.

Quick question, when you set your bin and floor price what percentage or dollar amount difference do you have?

I remember reading you set the prices quite close together - do you have a set discount for floor pricing or does it change depending on the name?

Thank you Nick!

For almost all BIN domains priced up to mid 4 figures are having the same BIN/floor/reserve/minimum as I don't want to waste time.

For high 4 figures and above, I keep the floor/reserve still the same as BIN. But the minimum price is reduced.

All in all, I still get offers from Afternic when the BIN/Floor/Reserve/Minimum is same. For example, I've set $5,888 in all BIN/Floor/Reserve/Minimum. The broker gets in touch with me with an offer of $4,250 to see if I'm interested and may be have a change of mind of whether accepting this offer or give counter offer.

I'm not sure if this happens with other domain sellers or not if someone following the same pattern as mine.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

How can I see if my sales are through their partner registrars or through Afternic itself?

My Afternic rep send me reports every month which shows the domain sold either via GoDaddy cart, Afternic cart or their partner registrars.

 

[dennisok]

thanks @abdulbasit

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

thanks @abdulbasit

I wonder why so many mistakes are happening with tagging my username. It's @AbdulBasit.com and not @abdulbasit

Thanks!

 

[NickB]

I wonder why so many mistakes are happening with tagging my username. It's @AbdulBasit.com and not @abdulbasit

Thanks!

I had to double check myself yesterday when I tagged you

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I had to double check myself yesterday when I tagged you

At least I've my AbdulBasit.com

 

[Joe Styler]

Thnaks for the interview! Just one question regarding this paragraph:

Why did you choose Afternic over any other company such as Dan or Sedo?
It was pretty easy to choose over Dan or Sedo mainly because of the exposure Afternic provides. Afternic gives worldwide distribution through 100+ reseller partners with more fast-transfer enabled resellers than any other marketplace. Although I was a bit reluctant in trying at first due to their 20% commission which is pretty high keeping in mind I was paying nothing using Uniregistry when handling the leads myself. But I can say they justify the 20% with the results they’ve shown.


Does parking with Afternic increase exposure even when names are already listed at Afternic?
@AbdulBasit.com , @Paul Nicks , @Joe Styler

Short answer is Yes. @AbdulBasit.com shared how it impacted him. We find that it typically gives a noticeable increase to the sales and its recommended as a best practice when listing with us.

 

[Ntmt]

Short answer is Yes. @AbdulBasit.com shared how it impacted him. We find that it typically gives a noticeable increase to the sales and its recommended as a best practice when listing with us.

Thanks for the reply. It whould be nice to hear more details comparing exposure of Fast Transfer vs Fast Transfer + ns3/ns4 landing. I assume ns3/ns4 landing should impact only leads convertion rate but not the exposure via partners channels. Am I right?

 

[Joe Styler]

These two videos go into that in more detail.

as well as this article

https://www.godaddy.com/garage/tips-for-how-to-sell-your-domain-name-on-afternic/

which states: As much as 40% to 60% of your domain sales could come from leads received through your domain lander.

 

[Ntmt]

These two videos go into that in more detail.

The link to the presentation for the first video if someone needs:
https://www.godaddy.com/garage/earl...ium=events&utm_campaign=en-us_dom_events_base

 

[Brian L.]

I'm not using their parking landers which is ns1/ns2. I use ns3/ns4 which is simply sales form and this helps you in getting more inquiries and sales.

Thanks for the great advice. I’ve started testing out the ns3/ns4 landers. I like the look, but my domains with the ns3/ns4 dns don’t seem to show statistics on the parking detail page. Is there a way to track page views and visits with the new landers?