My journey with BrandBucket (and why I'm leaving them)

[BrandVenue]

I have joined BB in the beginning of 2016. Started with only a less than 15 names just to give it a try. Within a couple months I sold one domain (May 2016 to be exact). After that sale I took BrandBucket seriously and listed 250+ names over the years, mostly hand registered domains. That was the time when BB acceptance rate was only around 20%. So I had to submit 100 domains to get 20 of them approved. Unlike now that was the time when submitting unregistered domains wasn't allowed.

For almost a year I had no sale so I sold some of my hand registered domains to other BB sellers here at Namepros. Mostly because I was not getting my 2nd sale, renewals were coming due, I wasn't sure what my next move would be if I didn't have another sale.

My 2nd sale came exactly 1 year after my first sale. After my 2nd sale I have been regularly selling one domain every month or two on BB. With each of these sale I came to realize the importance of quality over quantity. Because on BrandBucket I was only selling the names I bought from auctions. But my portfolio was filled with so many hand registered names. I wasn't so lucky to sell a single hand registered domain there.

For this reason I had changed my strategy. With the profits of each sale I bought domains from auctions. I sold off nearly all my hand registered domains from my BB portfolio to other BB sellers, kept only a few which I really like and filled my portfolio with domains bought from auctions.

Currently I have 138 domains and 70%-80% of those are domains bought for XX, XXX and XXXX figures from auctions. I have stopped hand registering domains long time ago.

Total sold : 8 domains
Total Revenue: $26K (average $3.2K)
Total Net proceeds: $18.3K (average $2.2K)

My dashboard says 3.82% sell through rate, with being top 13% of sellers.

I consider myself pretty successful on BB. But despite that I have decided to leave BB. Why?

Over my journey I have watched BB inventory grow from 20K+ domains to 50K+ domains. But quality of the names did not grow with the same pace. Nowadays BB accepts every kind of domains which would have never been accepted in 2015/16.

At first it was good to repeat last letter of a domain like Domainn , then they started to accept repeated letters anywhere on the word like and .

Even though at this point I thought they wouldn't approve repeating first letter of a domain, but after seeing it's clear that in upcoming days we will see more of this kind first letter repeated domains.

I knew BB only publish pronounceable 4 letter domains but ?

I thought removing one vowel like Tunnl (I've sold this one on BB) instead of Tunnel was good but removing 3 vowel?

And the last one which I saw today is

in the description it says - A clever spelling of "outsourced". The domain is Out/Soursd, S not C. if it was OutSourcd I'd understand why BB accepted it - they removed the last vowel of correct spelling OutSourced but why would they accept or publish a domain like Out/Soursd?

After seeing this name I have said myself enough is enough. I can't have my domains, most of which were bought from auctions for substantial amount of money compete with these kind of names. One thing is clear BB is ignoring quality issue, they now believe in quantity over quality which is against my point of view. So I've decided to leave BrandBucket.

When they were getting good number of sales they would highlight that in their newsletters, but they've stopped publishing any kind of sale related info which suggests their sale rate also dropping.

I did not have any intention to go against any other BB sellers (especially those whose domains I've mentioned here). I only blame BB for their decision to move to quantity over quality strategy. I am not saying these domains I've mentioned here won't sell, they might sell. But BB has proved that we may see more unpronounceable 4 letter domains (even CHIPS too) in future, we may see more first letter repeated domains in future, we may also see more domains like in future.

All these suggests BB inventory will grow rapidly in the future and my small portfolio of domains will be like a small water drop of a ocean, chances of selling a name there through buyer using search option doesn't look bright anymore.

I've sent them 30 days notice to remove my names. It's been a good journey.

 

[nitg16]

One thing I would like to add about is deteriorating logo quality.

A couple of my domain logos were so bad, I was looking at them in disbelief.

They looked liked made from random online word art generators that kids use in completing their school projects.

I always use $100 logos. Not sure if it is intentional on their part to push us on more costly logos.

 

[Name Trader]

I kinda agree on the lack of quality. However, I have found higher number of crappy names on other brandable marketplace.

Where will you list your domains now?

My own landers. Why? The search is a rigged system on BB, and I keep all the money for myself

 

[Name Trader]

bb is the leader in selling brandables domain name.

It sounds like your mind is already made up For the same reason people flock to GoDaddy for Registrations and Hosting.

 

[karmaco]

bb is the leader in selling brandables domain name.

They have the most names. We have no stats on what they actually sell.

 

[Furquan]

BB does require exclusivity for their listings just like BrandRoot and Brandpa. However, any seller can remove a domain(s) from BB by giving 30 days notice.

@Radu054 I think you asked this question in Chat.

 

[frank-germany]

A complicated calculation? LOL. It's clearly just a percentage. I'm sure @Keith DeBoer will provide that simple calculation for you.

@frank-germany Brandroot bans people that leave. Brandpa bans people that leave.

I don't want either of you back, you've both wasted BB's time and resources, that means you've wasted my time and resources, and every other BB sellers time and resources. Time and resources that could have been spent on our names. My blood boils when I think about BB allowing you back.

Brandbucket are being massively generous allowing you to return, if you relist your names you are back in good standing, if you don't then you have to work your way back into good standing. And you are whining about this? Unbelievable!

wow

may be I should ignore you ***

 

[frank-germany]

I guess I have donated enough time and money to your beloved BB system
@JimJammy

and dollarwise I have earned BB enough money
to donate a few hours to my domain to be promoted

 

[Furquan]

you should read all previous posts

Why should I read?

I don't know what you people want, every domain platform are different. Some people get success and other get failed but that doesn't mean to end of domaining.

I still don't understand why people need to think about "Good Standing" when they have no intend to return or failed there in past.

 

[JimJammy]

3 of the 4 sales were 4L.com
I didn't get them for handreg

and I submitted 850 .com domains = 8500 USD
so I am not so enthusiastic as you think

You agreed to the TOS at the time. It's no use whining after the fact.

If you hand regged 850 names specifically to list them on BB and they kept rejecting them, then you should have learned after 30 or so this tactic wasn't working out for you.

 

[Recons.Com]

3 of the 4 sales were 4L.com
I didn't get them for handreg

and I submitted 850 .com domains = 8500 USD
so I am not so enthusiastic as you think

You probably paid around $1000, as only around 100 were listed.

 

[Furquan]

the singular point that's come across to me has been BB promoting BB.

OK then, Can you explain why BB promoting BB?

I would like to know who get most benefit if BB just promote their self as "Brandable Marketplace",

 

[offthehandle]

But what they don't tell you is that it would screw-up your "in good standing" ratio so badly, that it is now impossible for me to buy BB listed names any longer on NP.

Huh? Good Standing? What kind of crap is that? That marketplace is a scam and as pointed out diluted with less than stellar names clouding end user searching.

What I have to consider though. Is it even worth it. Whilst the searches on BB are still so corrupted, against regular BB users, like me.

50,000 names competing? That does not make sense. The other brand marketplaces rank in Google SEO, probably try them.

But dropping all vowels? I don't know if it's becoming trendy but IMO it's weird and very confusing.

It is weird, confusing and frankly stupid. I guess it speaks for a fad of millennial startup's. How does that pass the radio test? How does a corporation even get real funding with such a stupid name?

 

[equity78]

With the expanded promotion through Sedo & their MLS, BrandBucket's exclusivity isn't that bad anymore.

imo

Agreed the Sedo relationship is a plus.

 

[lovely4ever]

How many names did you have there??

27

 

[domainer111]

woops i actually forgot that my account was over 30 days notice, and they are all removed - so thanks for the post!

I decided to stay with BB my sell rate is ok there, despite the expansion of the market. It's actually better than Godaddy but commission is high.

I don't go for misspellings personally.

 

[Constantin S]

Interesting read, personally I would've keep them listed (you paid about $10/domain to have it listed after all).
I also seen the drastic quantity over quality change and as a result their traffic and probably sales too dropped a lot.

 

[KhaledA]

Thanks for valuable sharing !

 

[Name Trader]

@stub look at your account , i think is update at new system and is in good standing , now need pay 1 for submit a domain.

That's weird. I'm sure I checked this within the last 48hrs (72hrs most) and it still had the old system of ratings. Now my ratings are A+, N/A, N/A which means I'm going to rush over to the bradanbles section and buy a domain

I haven't really been following, or understood, this $1 for a listing discussion. I better read up on that

Have they made any comments or changes to the way they produce their search results?

 

[Name Trader]

if you have this :

accepted names listed
metric disabled

this is a update to the new system .

old account : submit for free and listing cost $10

new account : submit cost $1 listing for free

I've been a member for 5 years. So do I pay $1 or $10? Why the discrimination?

 

[Name Trader]

You gave the notice so you didn’t break any rules that would make you blacklisted from the site @stub

Agreed. I am not blacklisted. I never claimed to be blacklisted.

But it does feel funny, that to get my account back "in good standing", so I can buy others BB domains outside of BB, and add them to my BB collection, it's going to require putting approx 4-5 times the number of domains as I originally had on the website. Again. I repeat. If my mathematics are correct. Can somebody help me with the maths? I'm going from negative 30 domains. How many do I need to add to get to a ratio status of "A" or 'B'?

What I have to consider though. Is it even worth it. Whilst the searches on BB are still so corrupted, against regular BB users, like me.

 

[Keith DeBoer]

Yes, brandables are subjective and I respect your opinion on the current letter dropping trends. You are not the first person, amateur or professional, to criticize trends in startup names. A lot of people are scratching their heads.

2018 TechCrunch - Startups are Still Making Weird Choices.

2014 Time - Seven Silly Tech Company Naming Trends

2013 The Atlantic -- The Pitfalls of the Clever.ly Named Startup


BTW if you know of any good keywords that are available to register without vowels, please send them to me via private message. I'd like to register them. I'm serious about this. I've looked and I can't find anything that's 7 letters or less (after the vowels have been removed). So I would really be interested if you come across any. Thanks!

PS they need to be CVCVC...... only one vowel between the consonants for them to work.

Thanks again for putting into words your experience and insights. Much appreciated!

 

[BrandChimp]

I kinda agree on the lack of quality. However, I have found higher number of crappy names on other brandable marketplace.

Where will you list your domains now?

 

[Name Trader]

There are at least 3 other brandable marketplaces. Namerific, BrandRoot, Brandpa. But I cannot tell you if they are better or worse morally corrupt than BrandBucket. But BB would not be easy to beat, in those stakes. Perhaps these others, just fly under the radar

It would be nice to see a comparative review of all four.

 

[Name Trader]

For new purchase I always use godaddy, but for hosting I use bluehost.

There you go. You should love BB then

 

[domainer111]

/ edit!