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.

 

[D Haynes]

Maybe Afternic should take a page out of LinkedIn’s book and focus more on building a networking platform for domain investors. They could do this for a small annual fee of just 15% of the total appraised value of your domain portfolio. DDC will be included.

By that logic the fee will vary wildly from month to month and be based on absolutely nothing provable, tangible or truthful... sign me up!!

On a side note, LinkedIn is an complete cesspit.

 

[the_poet]

The "boost" is not worth the added 5% for me. After shutting down Uniregistry and now Dan, I hope they're not going to shut down the basic plan on Afternic as well.

 

[End User King]

Yep.

Even for exact keywords though, the "suggested" section is currently flooded with "promoted" crap.

So, better quality domains are being buried in the list.

For instance if I have a .ORG of a term for sale, and someone searches that exact term, it should not be 14th on the list behind a bunch of "promoted" crap extensions. That makes no sense.

Unless @GoDaddy plans to clean up the "suggested" section, I don't really see much value as is.

Almost any search gets results like this under "suggested". See all the "promoted" stuff wasting (supposed) valuable space?

The first actual "premium" is 12th on the list.

Show attachment 260937

Dynadot shows Afternic FT disabled right now. I guess they are boosting on wrong way.

Did you figure this out?

 

[End User King]

I noticed this yesterday on a lot of my domains at Dynadot. When I look on Afternic it shows the same domains as being Fast Transfer enabled still.

..

 

[Future Sensors]

Fellow Boosters and non-Boosters,

Here’s our regular boost of the poll results!

The poll has now garnered 121 votes.

Yes-vote: 21.5% (remain opt-in)
No-vote: 78.5% (opted-out)

For your convenience, voting will remain open for quite a while longer.

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

 

[Future Sensors]

I not only opted out of Afternic Boost, but I also opted out of the DAN.COM migration to Afternic.

My domains are still listed on Afternic (separate account), but without Boost enabled, and for up to 97% without Afternic landers.

I will continue migrating away as much as possible from GoDaddy and Afternic.

 

[ResoluteDomains]

I not only opted out of Afternic Boost, but I also opted out of the DAN.COM migration to Afternic.

My domains are still listed on Afternic (separate account), but without Boost enabled, and for up to 97% without Afternic landers.

I will continue migrating away as much as possible from GoDaddy and Afternic.


Show attachment 263152

I am doing the same. I am fed up.

 

[MasterOfMyDomains]

Where is daddy’s spokesboy? Been a week, so much going on.
Didn’t turn out like you expected eh?
I see pappy’s stock is in the green this week. That must make you feel good
Little extra time in the playroom maybe, for reward, its Friday.
Nothing in pending review here today, thats great news.

 

[trelgor]

I bit awkward to confess that I have been critical, and still run with it to test it out.

Perhaps they are just unable to convey all the greatness we will experience?

So far, I'm a complete idiot, as expected.

Some 3k in there with lander and some 9k without.

But I'm 100% non search-keyword or literal. Only brandables.

That is not in any way, as far as I can tell, a category of options that will experience a "boost" with this Mr. Rogers setup.

I'll let you know if I keep being a complete sucker.

 

[DomainRecap]

I'll let you know if I keep being a complete sucker.

From a logical point of view, it's pretty obvious that Boost is a sucker bet and the only thing being "Boosted" is GoDaddy's commissions.

 

[NameGroove]

I bit awkward to confess that I have been critical, and still run with it to test it out.

Perhaps they are just unable to convey all the greatness we will experience?

So far, I'm a complete idiot, as expected.

Some 3k in there with lander and some 9k without.

But I'm 100% non search-keyword or literal. Only brandables.

That is not in any way, as far as I can tell, a category of options that will experience a "boost" with this Mr. Rogers setup.

I'll let you know if I keep being a complete sucker.

I'm 80% brandable as well. And the reality is our brandables are not shown or cross marketed via boost. Test it yourself (and stop being a sucker). Type in a similar name (as best you can) into GD's reg path and see what is boosted. Anything similar? Any good options for the end user? Your names? I never see anything of value. I opted out. End the madness and join us

 

[trelgor]

I'm 80% brandable as well. And the reality is our brandables are not shown or cross marketed via boost. Test it yourself (and stop being a sucker). Type in a similar name (as best you can) into GD's reg path and see what is boosted. Anything similar? Any good options for the end user? Your names? I never see anything of value. I opted out. End the madness and join us

I have, and I agree. I'm just stupid and like to try things before I reject them.

 

[DomainRecap]

Afternic Boost as explained by The Simpsons:

 

[DomainBanana]

With Boost, it should be shown for all user search

@silentg, you were right:

Afternic support confirmed that any domain enrolled in Boost should appear in the GoDaddy search path results when the SLD is searched. At the same time, they have acknowledged that this promised visibility is currently not available for some Boosted domains.

I have no idea why any company would roll out a service that charges a premium for certain benefits when those same benefits are not being delivered. This feels like a significant problem, especially when we're being asked to pay 5% extra for search path exposure.

Not only is this unethical, it’s likely illegal to charge a high premium for a service that isn’t being delivered as promised.

If anyone else finds this concerning, please write to [email protected] and let them know how you feel.

 

[Future Sensors]

Discussing GoDaddy's domain offerings to SMBs (audio podcast).

 

[DomainRecap]

The craziest thing about Boost is that GoDaddy is openly and brazenly admitting that their search system for buyers is "pay to play" and is salted to get worse results than before.

If I'm a buyer using GD to look for my 'perfect name', then I am obviously not impressed by Boost for limiting my search results to only those who paid the extra 5%.

 

[DomainNature]

I sold a second domain after migration from Dan, wow!

 

[DomainRecap]

I sold a second domain after migration from Dan, wow!

So were these domains listed on Afternic pre-migration or were they just at Dan?

If they were never at Afternic or GoDaddy, that's a big mistake as you were missing out on the GD path.

 

[DomainNature]

So were these domains listed on Afternic pre-migration or were they just at Dan?

If they were never at Afternic or GoDaddy, that's a big mistake as you were missing out on the GD path.

They were only at Dan and my personal website as a simple page.
Now I realize what a sheep I was. But I can say that when I joined Afternic and created the account it was not so easy to manage domains, now it looks better like Dan. But I can see that there are some things which must be improved, maybe they will do that after Dan get's fully integrated into Afternic.

 

[Future Sensors]

Fellow Boosters and non-Boosters,

Here’s our regular boost of the poll results!

The poll has now garnered 129 votes.

Yes-vote: 22.5% (remain opt-in)
No-vote: 77.5% (opted-out)

For your convenience, voting will remain open for quite a while longer.

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