Introducing Afternic Boost: More domain visibility, more domain sales

[GoDaddy]

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Afternic Boost, the new program that can contribute up to a 10% increase in sales performance for participating portfolios!*

We have been experimenting with how to drive more exposure for Afternic domains on GoDaddy, and we're thrilled to announce that these experiments yielded impressive results. As a result, we're rolling out Boost as a standard inclusion for all Afternic sellers starting September 4, 2024.


Why Afternic Boost Works:
We listened to your feedback and developed Afternic Boost to address your need for greater exposure on GoDaddy. Here’s what Boost provides at launch:

• Suggested search results: Your domains will gain higher placement in GoDaddy’s suggested search results, making them more discoverable.

• Verified Badges: Boost Fast Transfer domains will feature "Verified" badges on exact-match searches, aiding visibility.

• Verified Lander Badges: Eligible domains using Afternic’s Buy it Now and Custom Landers will display verified badges. Boosted domain names that aren't opted into Fast Transfer will display a "Premium" badge on Afternic's Buy it Now and Custom Landers.

• Targeted Email Marketing: Our targeted email campaigns will match your domain names with potential buyers at GoDaddy.

As the world’s largest domain registrar, GoDaddy offers a massive, continuously growing audience of domain shoppers. Afternic Boost leverages this vast customer base, ensuring that your domains are seen by a motivated, pre-qualified audience.




What You Should Know:

• • Boost begins on September 4, 2024. All Afternic sellers will be automatically opted in to Boost, ensuring your domains gain maximum exposure.
  • Additional Commission: To support this enhanced service, an additional 5% commission will apply for Boost customers from September 4, 2024.
  • Flexibility: We understand that one size doesn’t fit all. Therefore, you can opt out of Afternic Boost at any time from today (August 7, 2024) if it doesn’t align with your strategy by heading to afternic.com/account/boost.

Investing in Success:
Think of Afternic Boost as an investment rather than an expense. Online marketplaces, such as Amazon, Facebook, and Zillow, offer sponsored listings to increase sellers' exposure in search. Similarly, Boost allows domain investors to enhance their visibility in a digital marketplace, and the results are that Boost can contribute up to a 10% increase in sales performance for your portfolio*.

Next Steps:
Experimentation with Boost will continue through the month of August. On September 4, Afternic Boost will be automatically activated at the account level, optimizing your portfolio's visibility.

If you decide Boost isn't right for you, you can easily opt out. We recommend remaining enrolled to continue benefiting from enhanced visibility across the GoDaddy platform.


If you have any questions, read the launch blog post, or head to Afternic’s Help Center, where we’ve got you covered.

Want to learn more about what Boost offers? Head to our blog.

*Individual results may vary. Based on internal data of GoDaddy aftermarket sales from January 2024 through June 2024.

 

[Future Sensors]

GoDaddy goes AI: Domain giant's evolution is a litmus test for small business adoption

https://www.geekwire.com/2024/godad...is-a-litmus-test-for-small-business-adoption/

This is where GoDaddy's priorities currently are. As you might have guessed, it's not us, domain investors. The majority of GoDaddy’s 21 million paying customers are small businesses, with 90% having 10 employees or less. GoDaddy is now fully committed to offering AI to SMB owners, even while their underlying system is not technically in order. I’m worried about this. Above all, it's called AI Washing and it will probably boost (inflate) GDDY's stock price even more, instead of serving loyal domain investors.

Funny quote from the article, about a hidden persuader in GoDaddy's logo:

"The company’s logo, for one, now consists of the letters "GO" intertwined in the shape of a heart."

Now that GoDaddy says so, let this be another encouragement for domain investors to do exactly this.

GO.

 

[johnn]

It can be both GO OUT or GO IN.
Most likely the First One.

 

[Future Sensors]

It can be both GO OUT or GO IN.
Most likely the First One.

Thanks for stating the obvious.

 

[DomainGist]

GoDaddy goes AI: Domain giant's evolution is a litmus test for small business adoption

https://www.geekwire.com/2024/godad...is-a-litmus-test-for-small-business-adoption/

This is where GoDaddy's priorities currently are. As you might have guessed, it's not us, domain investors. The majority of GoDaddy’s 21 million paying customers are small businesses, with 90% having 10 employees or less. GoDaddy is now fully committed to offering AI to SMB owners, even while their underlying system is not technically in order. I’m worried about this. Above all, it's called AI Washing and it will probably boost (inflate) GDDY's stock price even more, instead of serving loyal domain investors.

Funny quote from the article, about a hidden persuader in GoDaddy's logo:

"The company’s logo, for one, now consists of the letters "GO" intertwined in the shape of a heart."

Now that GoDaddy says so, let this be another encouragement for domain investors to do exactly this.

GO.

I would like to see Atom.com become a registrar (with dynadot level pricing). It would then be the complete package for domain investors, with associated expiring domain auctions of course.

The expiring domains which are already premium approved will of course be marked as such. Could be a game changer.

I think I'm going to use Dynadot as my primary registrar in the meantime.

 

[Future Sensors]

Edit: I don't sleep much anyway tbh, I wouldn't recommend it as there's nothing more important but I'm working towards some goals. Probably be able to keep it up for a couple of more years, not getting any younger

 

[Molly]

Hi @GoDaddy. I see two unexpected changes to my AN listings and I’m wondering, could this possibly be your idea of Boost? Or do you just have gremlins hiding in your code?

1. Many of the BINs that were lower than GD est value were increased to GD’s values without my authorization.
2. Many of my domains are somehow set as 60 installments (5 years!). I do not see an option to change that by dafault, and can promise it’s not something I’d have chosen.

Unlike most, I did not disable boost — out of curiosity. Thanks.

 

[Molly]

1. Many of the BINs that were lower than GD est value were increased to GD’s values without my authorization.
2. Many of my domains are somehow set as 60 installments (5 years!). I do not see an option to change that by dafault, and can promise it’s not something I’d have chosen.

Rethinking this, it’s possible #1 could have been user error. However, there’s no way #2 was. 60 month installments on domains is a waste of my time and money. Thanks.

 

[domainward]

Why's nobody talking about the fact that they're trying to upsell you SAME feature that was previously free (included in default 15%/25% commission)?

 

[Future Sensors]

Why's nobody talking about the fact that they're trying to upsell you SAME feature that was previously free (included in default 15%/25% commission)?

It was already mentioned a few times in this thread, but yes, it's worth mentioning again.

 

[NameGroove]

After a lot of deliberation, I decided to downgrade and opt-out of Boost. I searched similar words to mine and never saw my names showing in the search results. For example, I own Supportyve, a fun spelling of Supportive. When typing Supportive.com into GD - does Supportyve show? No (which is fine). But do you know what does show via Boost? Supportivedxb.com, supportiveksa.com and supportive-uae.com. Does anyone in their right mind think someone searching for supportive.com will be interested in these cross-promoted names?

Most of my names are Brandables and the ones that aren't are keyword+anchorkeyword and even when I type the anchorkeyword (let's say health), my brandable name (keyword+health) doesn't show. What does show are generally 3-4 types keyword-hypen-keyword, mykeyword+keyword, and thekeyword+keyword. While all of these are much better aligned for the original search (vs the dictionary example provided above), it doesn't show alternatekewyord+originalsearchedkeyword. Which, is what brandables generally are.

For someone marketing dictionary terms or exact match I can see the benefit of Boost. I would love some cross promotion for similar names - but it just doesn't happen with GDs ai. Brandables don't have similar names - and where they do it appears ai isn't capable of identifying them properly.

Thus, the odds of the handful of cross promoted names appearing seem very low and paying an extra 5% for the word "verified" along with a badge (if someone types my name into the reg path) does not provide value. Someone typing my name wants it - and if the price is right they'll take it. GoDaddy's brand is verified in everyones mind.

I'd strongly recommend to others to type in what you believe to be similar names to yours to see if your names appear. Be honest now. Think about the name typed and really make sure your name is similar (from the buyers perspective). See what appears (as promoted). If your names show, Boost is a win for you. If garbage shows (similar to what is happening for my names) then I'd suggest opting out until such time that GD upgrades their ai.

 

[FrasierCrane]

@GoDaddy

The real issue is this: Why should we pay a higher commission for sales that originated from our lander?

If the EXTRA 5% were only charged to sales that originated from a "boost" - ie, the domain was listed under "similar domains" in the GoDaddy search results, the user clicked it, and bought it - then yes, I can totally see the value.

As of yet, you have yet to provide any metrics audited by a third party to prove that your new juice is worth the squeeze.

But I'll come back to my original point: Why should we pay a higher fee for sales that originated from our own lander? This seems like poor business acumen on your part, as, frankly, this encourages me put up my own landers with a LOW price and mark-up my afternic prices by 40% to cover the cost of your fees and boost. This way, anybody who lands on my landers will complete the sale outside of GoDaddy (you get nothing) because it's so much cheaper, and still have exposure to Afternic and the boosting nonsense.

Mayber others can chime in here with thoughts on this @bmugford @Future Sensors

 

[Dane]

The real issue is this: Why should we pay a higher commission for sales that originated from our lander?

Yep.

If the EXTRA 5% were only charged to sales that originated from a "boost" ... then yes, I can totally see the value.

Yep.

...this encourages me put up my own landers with a LOW price and mark-up my afternic prices by 40% to cover the cost of your fees and boost.

Yep.

 

[Future Sensors]

@GoDaddy

The real issue is this: Why should we pay a higher commission for sales that originated from our lander?

If the EXTRA 5% were only charged to sales that originated from a "boost" - ie, the domain was listed under "similar domains" in the GoDaddy search results, the user clicked it, and bought it - then yes, I can totally see the value.

As of yet, you have yet to provide any metrics audited by a third party to prove that your new juice is worth the squeeze.

But I'll come back to my original point: Why should we pay a higher fee for sales that originated from our own lander? This seems like poor business acumen on your part, as, frankly, this encourages me put up my own landers with a LOW price and mark-up my afternic prices by 40% to cover the cost of your fees and boost. This way, anybody who lands on my landers will complete the sale outside of GoDaddy (you get nothing) because it's so much cheaper, and still have exposure to Afternic and the boosting nonsense.

Mayber others can chime in here with thoughts on this @bmugford @Future Sensors

You are correct, commission should in fact be lower when you do the landers yourself, but it's the opposite. The measures Afternic imposed were primarily intended to thwart their marketplace competitors, utilizing loyal Afternic Sellers for this purpose.

Moreover, Afternic’s Terms of Service explicitly state that your BIN prices on other landers and platforms must not deviate from the price on Afternic. This becomes even more frustrating when Afternic’s own registrar partners deviate from the price in every possible way, yet Afternic Sellers are not permitted to do the same.

GoDaddy is clearly committed to stifling competition, ensuring that more domains ultimately end up in GoDaddy's ecosystem via Fast Transfer (FT) and expiry streams, and they are determined to further commercially exploiting the (buggy) products as you know them, under pressure from activist shareholders. Unfortunately, any additional income from this will not be used for sensible investments; instead, it primarily funds gigantic share buy-back programs to purchase GoDaddy’s own shares, thereby reducing the number of shares in circulation and artificially inflating the stock price while not improving services for domain investors.

That's it in a nutshell. Let me know if you’d like me to elaborate further on any specific points.

 

[FrasierCrane]

Moreover, Afternic’s Terms of Service explicitly state that your BIN prices on other landers and platforms must not deviate from the price on Afternic. This becomes even more frustrating when Afternic’s own registrar partners deviate from the price in every possible way, yet Afternic Sellers are not permitted to do the same.

I started reading through the terms but could not find it- where does it state that our BIN landers cannot deviate from the price on Afternic? This seems like a potential antitrust issue.

Thanks

 

[Future Sensors]

I started reading through the terms but could not find it- where does it state that our BIN landers cannot deviate from the price on Afternic? This seems like a potential antitrust issue.

It's mentioned in Afternic's Membership Agreement, Part 7-B7:

Seller may change the Buy Now Price at any time; provided however, seller understands and agrees that by changing the Buy Now Price, the Listed Domain(s) is subject to a new valuation by Afternic. In addition, due to the nature of e-commerce and the internet, Afternic is unable to guarantee that any change to the Buy Now Price shall be published on Afternic and its reseller sites before an offer is received. Seller is obligated to complete a transaction with a confirmed buyer for the posted price even if seller tried to increase the Buy Now Price prior to the time of the purchase. Additionally, the Buy Now Price specified for any listing on Afternic must be equal to the price listed on any for sale lander used by Seller.

https://www.afternic.com/legal/agreements/membership-agreement

 

[Future Sensors]

@Kyle Tully has provided an update on the issues currently affecting the Afternic Brokerage team.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/mystery-shopping-your-domains.1332675/#post-9240344

@GoDaddy Please ensure that your brokers adequately respond to leads, and actively assist in selling domains for Afternic Sellers. Their current efforts are significantly inadequate, and the level of service provided does not justify the exorbitant commission fees being charged.

 

[Lox]

ensure that your brokers

are salespeople; they aren't Brokers.

 

[Future Sensors]

are salespeople; they aren't Brokers.

THIS, you should tell @GoDaddy

https://www.godaddy.com/resources/news/afternic-launches-the-lead-center

 

[Lox]

THIS, you should tell @GoDaddy

https://www.godaddy.com/resources/news/afternic-launches-the-lead-center

Lead center is a half-baked idea aka half-joke. People should know; "gd broker" & AN "lead center" d not like each other.

 

[Lox]

.

 

[Future Sensors]

I've created this Poll. Please participate, thank you.

Will you participate in the Afternic Boost program?

https://www.namepros.com/threads/will-you-participate-in-the-afternic-boost-program.1333652/

 

[FrasierCrane]

are salespeople; they aren't Brokers.

What's worse, the process is completely opaque to us. With Uniregistry, we could view ALL communication between broker and buyer.

On more than one occasion, I've been skeptical that the offer being presented to me by the buyer was the actual offer. For example, suppose a buyer calls in offering $6k. The broker then calls me telling me the buyer is offering $2k. If I accept the offer, the BROKER HIMSELF buys it from me for 2k and sells it to the buyer for 6k. How could you EVER prove this isn't happening when their system is so opaque? One way is to change the BIN price on the lander to match the price you tell the broker during negotiation, and hope the buyer checks the lander again (although they probably wouldn't).

 

[Skyvisum]

THIS, you should tell @GoDaddy

https://www.godaddy.com/resources/news/afternic-launches-the-lead-center

Show attachment 261830

I unlisted my names there .Those sales people who claim to be brokers

 

[FrasierCrane]

I unlisted my names there .Those sales people who claim to be brokers

So where do you list them if not Afternic?

 

[Skyvisum]

So where do you list them if not Afternic?

So many options these days if you are looking to pay for subscriptions like (Sudos.com efty) and so many others .
NameprosLander and bodis.And you then import the leads .