information New Afternic & GoDaddy Commission and Pricing Structure

[Nitindomains]

Received the following mail just minutes back:-

Hello Member,

Good news! We’ve made it easier for you to list your domain in one place and reach a broader audience of buyers to increase your sales velocity and income.

How are we making things simpler?
• Reduce time spent in pending review, domains are listed immediately after passing the required integrity checks
• Reducing commissions on higher-priced sales to increase your earnings
• Lowering minimum sales price and minimum offer amounts so you can list more domains and earn more money

We’re also taking the guesswork out of promoting your domains. Domains with fast-transfer enabled are promoted through the Afternic Premium Network automatically. Domains without fast-transfer are placed in the Afternic Standard Network.

Know that you can always list a domain without fast-transfer and then enable fast-transfer later. When you do, it jumps from the Standard Network to the Premium Network, which includes 8 of the top 10 registrars, gives you the broadest reach, and exposes your domain to over 75 million monthly search queries.

We also want our fees to be simple and straightforward, so they’re now based on your domain sale price. The three commission tiers look like this:
Sale price of domain >>> Commission fees
$0-$5,000 >>> 20% ($15 minimum)
$5,000-$25,000 >>> $1,000 +15% of amount over $5k
$25,000+ >>> $4,000 + 10% of amount over $25k

To help you list and sell more domains inventory, we lowered our minimum sales prices. The buy now minimum is only $50 (versus $250), and the minimum offer amount decreases to only $20 (from $250).

These changes take place Early April new listings. In the next [3-4] weeks, we’re converting existing listings over.


In a Separate mail notifying the change in Pricing Structure @ GD Aftermarket, the mail states the following:-

Please note we're setting a minimum of $50 for Buy-It-Now Auctions and $100 for Premium listings. We're also setting a $20 minimum listing price for 7-Day Auctions and Offer/Counter-Offer domain listings.

Along with the changes to new listings moving forward, we'll be converting existing listings over to the new system over the next 3 to 4 weeks for an early April launch.

• If your domain is below the new minimum offer price, we'll bump the minimum offer up to $20 for 7-Day Auctions and Offer/Counter-Offer listings.
• If you have a Buy-It-Now Auction listing priced below $50, we'll switch it to an Offer/Counter-Offer listing with a minimum price of $20.
• If you have a domain that's listed as both a Premium Domain and a Buy-It-Now Auction, we'll consolidate it and use the higher of your two price points.

If you don't want us to change your listing prices automatically, simply update your domain pricing manually before March 31st, and it will default to the new listing rules when we roll out the new structure.

 

[mitok]

It is now cheaper to book a flight and do the deal in person. :D

This is not a bad idea at all Especially if you have geo+keyword or keyword+geo domain with possible end users at the same location.

Just kidding, but could be worth of try sometimes

20% minimum fee is way too much!

 

[RU]

I deleted all my domains from Afternic and didn't renew Godaddy Auctions membership.

 

[NameOmnia]

Eh, not really good buyers there. I actually kind of agree with this:

Don't you think there might be a shift to Ebay after this increase? It seems like all marketplaces are getting too expensive to be able to reasonably price our domains but to make a profit at the same time.

 

[JB Lions]

Don't you think there might be a shift to Ebay after this increase? It seems like all marketplaces are getting too expensive to be able to reasonably price our domains but to make a profit at the same time.

No, ebay really sucks for sellers. More buyers at other places will make up for what you think you would save at ebay. While I don't like the price increase, it is a max 20%, then less than 20% for sales over $5,000. Sedo is 10, 15, 20 depending on this and that. There's Flippa but I think more and more you're going to have to pay for an upgrade to get any decent views since they seem bent on flooding the platform with lower end domains.

Usually my normal setup was park, link the sale link to Sedo because it looked professional, it's what I did from the beginning. But then I was thinking link to GoDaddy since most people have heard of them and it's only 10%. But now will make my own site and do it direct, which is what I should have done from the start. But still list at the other places for the buyers that find domains thru them. But go direct whenever possible.

 

[Nitindomains]

Flippa Domains is and WILL REMAIN a flat 10%. Launch auctions with credits, or list in your Portfolio (no cost) -- commission is always 10% with FREE ESCROW.

Oh, and -- Free to relist a domain at auction, too.

Are we missing something here?

Free to RELIST, but not Free to LIST, whereas there is no listing fee @gd Aftermarket (Except an annual Membership Fee), or Sedo.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Sorry everyone, account FAIL.

Here's what I was saying:

Yeah, just received the GoDaddy email as well.

All the same. Now they are killing their marketplace as well. Sedo stands best now @15%

Flippa Domains is and WILL REMAIN a flat 10%. Launch auctions with credits, or list in your Portfolio (no cost) -- commission is always 10% with FREE ESCROW.

Oh, and -- Free to relist a domain at auction, too.

Did Flippa paid them to do that? What a move!

We didn't; what a move, indeed...

I'm surprised by the fee increase. You'd think the success of Flippa would make them more competitive..

We aren't even THINKING about raising our fees. Flat 10% commission, Escrow included.

Listing costs / upgrades too high? Reach out to us via [email protected] to discuss subsidies and deals.

How does this compare to a similar Flippa sale??

10%. That's it. If you paid for an upgrade, you factor that into the cost. Free to relist if an auction doesn't connect the first time around. Free Escrow if it does.

So if I'm reading this right, and I just had a $5000 sale a couple of weeks ago, I paid $500. Now that would be $1,750. haha, what idiot came up with this. And yes, that ends up being 35%, when it was 10%, using the $5,000 sale as an example.

It should be a flat rate across the board, that's the easiest to remember and competitive rate. 10% was nice, this is insane.

It should be 10% and that's where we'll stay.

I think and again just my opinion, I think they were looking at it from the Premium listings was 30% and now we have brought that down. But people who used Afternic got in the registry path for 20% anyway.

The auctions at 10% should have stayed, keep the registry path higher because I do believe that's valuable real estate. Keep the auctions at 10 % and tier the premium network from 20% down to say 12.5%

10% for auction and Portfolio sales and 15% for brokerage -- that's where we're at.

From Afternic: "We also want our fees to be simple and straightforward, so they’re now based on your domain sale price."

I'm sure glad they made it simple and straightforward!:D

Is there an accountant in the house? One who can help us with this simple and straightforward, multi-tiered and controversial pricing structure? Did Afternic hire someone from the IRS to simplify things for them?

I was thinking the same: they took the simplicity out of it. I remember when eBay did this tiered stuff....I hated it.

The most simplest way, and I wish any of these places would do it, again, flat rate. No matter the sale amount. 15%, somewhere close to that.

You know what I'm gonna say, so...

 

[FlippaDomains]

No, ebay really sucks for sellers. More buyers at other places will make up for what you think you would save at ebay. While I don't like the price increase, it is a max 20%, then less than 20% for sales over $5,000. Sedo is 10, 15, 20 depending on this and that. There's Flippa but I think more and more you're going to have to pay for an upgrade to get any decent views since they seem bent on flooding the platform with lower end domains.

I'd love to have a solid chat with you about that. We do have ~ 500,000 domains on platform now; but as for the auctions / domains homepage, do you believe that's flooded with low-end?

 

[JB Lions]

You know what I'm gonna say, so...

That's catalog. But for auction type stuff, small fee, then percentage, then if you want to get any views, upgrades. You need to factor that in.

I'd love to have a solid chat with you about that. We do have ~ 500,000 domains on platform now; but as for the auctions / domains homepage, do you believe that's flooded with low-end?

Yes, I think you're headed in that direction. Like I said in the other thread when I went thru them yesterday, it looks like ebay listings:

ColomboPortCityHotels.com
$500,000,000

And I'm sure they're probably all those free ones you're giving out for appraisals. When it's no risk, free, it's what you attract. We just have a difference of opinion on that, we'll see how it turns out.

And the homepage is more paid for/upgrades right? They look like more premium type placements, hence me saying, you need to factor that into the price as well. Going thru them, Premium.

So listing fee + premium paid placement + selling fee

When you have more of the lower end stuff, it's what you're going to need to do to get any eyeballs over there

 

[Nitindomains]

Flippa Domains is and WILL REMAIN a flat 10%. Launch auctions with credits, or list in your Portfolio (no cost) -- commission is always 10% with FREE ESCROW.

Oh, and -- Free to relist a domain at auction, too.

*To the right Account*

Are we missing something here?

Free to RELIST, but not Free to LIST, whereas there is no listing fee @gd Aftermarket (Except an annual Membership Fee), or Sedo.

 

[Name Trader]

For the sweet spot <$5k. Commission has gone from 10% to 20%. 100% increase. I guess my prices have to go higher to recover this loss.

Incidentally. I just got almost the same eMail from Afternic. So they are consolidating their policies, which makes sense for them. So my sales on Afternic have gone from 15% to 20% commissions, a 33% increase. I'm definitely going to have to be more firm with my negotiations.

 

[FlippaDomains]

And I'm sure they're probably all those free ones you're giving out for appraisals. When it's no risk, free, it's what you attract. We just have a difference of opinion on that, we'll see how it turns out.

And the homepage is more paid for/upgrades right? They look like more premium type placements, hence me saying, you need to factor that into the price as well. Going thru them, Premium.

I'd say "Not necessarily" - on both accounts.

Plenty of sellers think their domains are worth $500k and thus would pay to list. You cannot simply blame appraisals, not even for 10% of the lower-end. I can get some stats, but we really don't give out THAT MANY free credits

Homepage is a mixture between Editors' Choice, Brokerage*, Exclusives, Premiums, Most Active sellers and listings...etc...

(*Brokerage is moving to its own section next week)

 

[morf13]

I like the Premium Auction listings that Flippa has, all the tweets, the hype you get for your listing, etc, but that $350 up front fee is hard to swallow unless you know you are selling a huge domain that will get you in the Thousands $

 

[Name Trader]

@morf13 - I think it's way too much of a gamble, imho. The domain needs to guarantee to sell for $4000+ to make it a 20% commission. 10% commission and 10% listing fee (approx). If it doesn't sell, well then you just wasted $350.

 

[Domainace]

The only alternative is to have your own sales/landing page, and keep it listed at GD/Afternic. For the latter, simply price in the commission. If buyers go to both pages, they have the option of buying direct from you or having the name of Godaddy to rely on at a 20% premium. Pretty much what JB suggested. Or you could direct to DomainNameSales and choose yourself as a broker. though they may use your potential buyer as a lead for their own domain names (everything comes with a price, as Rumpelstiltskin might say).

Flippa's costs entail unnecessary risk for most names, especially names that only have a few potential end users. You can list domains for free at Flippa, though, and I've made a few decent low-end sales that way.

 

[Name Trader]

@FlippaDomains - It would be interesting to know what %age of your Premium Listings actually sold.

 

[m0ss]

Most of our sales come from direct end user contact and we just used Godaddy since most people have heard of them and they trusted it was safe. From here on now we'll just use escrow.com

1500 domain is a $300 commission on GD, and if we use escrow its 48-95 bucks depending on how they pay.

 

[m0ss]

Another scenario I was thinking of is that you list all domains as offer / counter offer. And then you can have a dialogue with the person submitting a counter offer. Just giving them an email addy. Might work

 

[FlippaDomains]

I like the Premium Auction listings that Flippa has, all the tweets, the hype you get for your listing, etc, but that $350 up front fee is hard to swallow unless you know you are selling a huge domain that will get you in the Thousands $

Good feedback. The price is steep for many.

We
a/ are working on revisions to this, and

b/ offer subsidies, especially to those of you who begin dialogues with us via PM, email, etc.

We work with you to pick inventory we believe will do well. I've counted a good dozen or so 'satisfied' Namepros'ers who we've worked with recently. [Feel free to sound off here, don't leave me hangin'...]

@morf13 - I think it's way too much of a gamble, imho. The domain needs to guarantee to sell for $4000+ to make it a 20% commission. 10% commission and 10% listing fee (approx). If it doesn't sell, well then you just wasted $350.

Also true, commission-wise -- but again, see above. We cannot subsidize Ultra ($350) Premium upgrades, for reasons I won't get into here -- but we can work with you on regular premium listings.

We want to sell domains. So do you. We will work with you -- just tell us what you need to make a sale happen. If the domain is deemed to have unrealistic pricing or expectations for our *auction* platform, we will tell you so. Portfolio (free to list) section sales are picking up and we hope to cut through some of the recent clutter that was thrown our way today by our competitors...

 

[Domaingel]

You could always use FreeMarket.com LOL $30 upgrade to be featured in front of no one. All jokes aside, it's free to list and only 5% commission which includes their escrow service.

 

[sofiapartner]

We
a/ are working on revisions to this, and
b/ offer subsidies, especially to those of you who begin dialogues with us via PM, email, etc.
We work with you to pick inventory we believe will do well.

Well I am trying to do that for a couple of days now - to connect with your support - but no answer yet.

 

[tomcarl]

FreeMarket = Great concept but they've lacked promotion. They had to banner-up everywhere for at least 4 months since launch, they let themselves die out of the limelight. I did receive a couple of $xxx offers for some names there though so there's some activity.

 

[carob]

Afaik you don't need a GD auctions membership to list a domain as a Premium Listing at GD. It is really simple and worked for me - it presents the domain to someone just looking to register a new domain at Godaddy and they get the domain in their account as soon as they pay. I doubt the domains I sold that way would have sold otherwise - one sold for 1xxx ten days after registering it. So I am very happy this is now available for only 20%. The listing process is very easy.

Yes it was possible to get the same for only 20% by listing it via the Afternic pathway, but only after any 60 day Godaddy lock passed - including new registrations - and then you have to click around a bit to do it.

But the tiered structure is confusing - they should have presented it with a few examples and making explicit what the max/min commission % is on each tier. I think they are taking customers for granted here.

 

[tomcarl]

It's confusing because they wanted it to be.

No matter where the sale originates, Premium or Auction:

All sales less than $5000 = 20% commission while it was formerly 10%
Sales $5000+ 35% commission while it was formerly 10%
Sales $25,000+ 26% commission while it was formerly 10%

It's more attractive and easier to confuse by breaking it down like sales $5000+ commission = $1000 + 10%, so people focus on that 10% being the same.

 

[carob]

Just an example of how you can present this:


GD email says:

$5,000-$25,000 $1,000 +15% of amount over $5k

5000 = 1000 Commission + 0 amount over 5k = total 1k Com, effectively 20%
25000 = 1000 Commission + 3000 (ie .15 x 20,000) = total Com 4k, effectively 16%

So the 5k - 25k sales range has decreasing commissions in a range from 20% down to 16%.

Maybe they need a handy calculator on their site.

 

[DomainVP]

Just pulled every domain from GoDaddy. If someone wants to buy a domain, they will find you.