Wanted New Domain Marketplace for Liquid Domains

[sathish g]

Hey guys,

we have been building a new domain marketplace since a year and it is almost complete.

We are in the final stages of deciding the niche and fees.

The domain marketplace will be moderated and will accept only domains that has been vetted by a domaineer to have a value. (Idea is to cut down the amount of non valuable domains in the marketplace from a domaineers perspective). This could be subjectible as value may differ from one domainer to anothers perspective however, this would initally be done based on a few set market paramaters such as domain age, length, etc.

The marketplace will operate with a flat 5% fee model and will have inbuilt escrow, review, portfolio management and options to pay using cryptocurrencies.

Both seller and buyer will be validated through a self verification process during signup.

I would like to hear your suggestions/criticism on the above model before we go for final launch. Also any additional features you would like to see which is missing in current domain marketplaces.

We want this domain marketplace to have some of the top domainers in the board of management (for which we will offer equity)

For anyone interested in checking the platform, please try www.dnfinder.com (note that it is not yet commercially live. So some features may not work. )

The next version will include domain analytics, parking monetization and landing pages. All of these features will be free.

 

[DN_Hunter]

I like the option of cryptocurrencies.

Have a few questions:
1) Does the 5% include the Escrow Service/Fees?
2) Is there a minimum fee per transaction?
3) Your site says you function as the Escrow Service between Buyer and Seller. Do we as sellers push/transfer to your Registrar Account (and then you send payment to Seller and Push Domain to Buyer at the same time)?

If 5% covers Escrow Service, then that is better than the big market places (Afternic, Sedo, etc...). However, how do you plan to draw buyers/traffic to your platform?

Regards,
DN

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for sharing your plans @sathish g and your demo website looks clean, clear and professional. The proposed fee structure and features are very attractive.

While the task of cutting out non-desired names is admirable, I suspect that it will be challenging to implement in a meaningful way. But the idea of an expert verification is a good one.

If the marketplace is for end users (as opposed to domain investors) I would place the category more prominently, since the category and extension are by far the most important aspects for end users (rather than first going through filters like a number, etc.). If I run a financial venture company I am only interested in names in that category. I hope that you will allow a name to be in more than one category, as that is a limitation of many existing marketplaces.

By domain analytics, do you mean as in Estibot, or Google search stats, or something else?

And the key question, as @DN_Hunter asks is how potential purchasers will be drawn to the site. In time, they may go naturally after there is a good number of quality names, but promotion as it is getting started is key.

Best wishes for your enterprise, and thank you for sharing.

 

[Anjani]

Congratulations on your new venture!

The proposed flat 5% fee model is commendable but the overall look and feel of the website is not very exciting.

Maybe it's still a work in progress, Good Luck!

 

[sathish g]

I like the option of cryptocurrencies.

Have a few questions:
1) Does the 5% include the Escrow Service/Fees?
2) Is there a minimum fee per transaction?
3) Your site says you function as the Escrow Service between Buyer and Seller. Do we as sellers push/transfer to your Registrar Account (and then you send payment to Seller and Push Domain to Buyer at the same time)?

If 5% covers Escrow Service, then that is better than the big market places (Afternic, Sedo, etc...). However, how do you plan to draw buyers/traffic to your platform?

Regards,
DN

Thanks.

1. Yes it includes the escrow fees. There will be no other hidden fees except taxes if any.

2. There is no minimum fee.

3. This will work similar to flippa. Basically once a domain is sold, the buyer and seller are placed inside internal messaging box . Once we have secured the payment from the buyer, we will notify seller to transfer domain. Once seller transfers domain, he can submit the confirmation (which our systems will auto verify) + manually our moderators will review the domain transfer. Once the buyer acknowleges the domain, the payment is released. And this will be available 24/7 .

The most important thing for buyers is finding the right domains. Current marketplaces focus on quantity while we want to focus on quality to solve the real buyer problem. We want dnfinder to be a trusted source for finding a liquid domain (could be 3l, 4l, brandable etc, as long as its validated to have some value ) and offerings good quality targetted portfolio. The marketplace will feature 24/7 support, free tools for domainers, full fledge domain portfolio management (like etsy), parking monetization and offering several new payment methods ( including crypto currencies).

It will not be a easy task to build a new brand however we want to grow stable and focus on solving these pain points. Once we have enough good quality names on the platform, we will start marketing the platform aggresively. (we have a seperate marketing budget) We have expertise in building successful web applications with a combined marketing experience of 10+ years so building traffic will not be a issue once we have enough sellers.

 

[sathish g]

Thanks for sharing your plans @sathish g and your demo website looks clean, clear and professional. The proposed fee structure and features are very attractive.

While the task of cutting out non-desired names is admirable, I suspect that it will be challenging to implement in a meaningful way. But the idea of an expert verification is a good one.

If the marketplace is for end users (as opposed to domain investors) I would place the category more prominently, since the category and extension are by far the most important aspects for end users (rather than first going through filters like a number, etc.). If I run a financial venture company I am only interested in names in that category. I hope that you will allow a name to be in more than one category, as that is a limitation of many existing marketplaces.

By domain analytics, do you mean as in Estibot, or Google search stats, or something else?

And the key question, as @DN_Hunter asks is how potential purchasers will be drawn to the site. In time, they may go naturally after there is a good number of quality names, but promotion as it is getting started is key.

Best wishes for your enterprise, and thank you for sharing.

Thanks for the feedback. We have the categories already. We could allow more than one category however its limited to one number. Will look into it and see how we can improve this.

I agree it will be challenging. In terms of new ideas, we would have to execute it inorder to understand how to solve them. This is exactly why we are intending to try this model as we want to solve the pain points of both domaineers and buyers.


Ideally the marketplace is for both.

For domaineers we will offer value in terms of offering domain analytics (similar to estibot), portfolio management (etsy), domain monetization and features such as domain expiry tracking, domain outreach tools and etc. This will be the reason why a domaineer may want to use out platform. (Not only to sell domains ). All of this will be offered free with a paid version offering a much advance level tool. Every feature will be built based on user feedback. Secondly, platform will have verified users improving the auction quality.

You can see a very basic version of portfolio management here https://www.dnfinder.com/profile/kajal-



Yes once we have enough quality names, the buyers will come. As I also mentioned in previous comment, we have expertise in building and marketing web apps successfully so building traffic wont be a issue. Our focus currently is to build enough portfolio and onboarding sellers.

 

[anantj]

A

The marketplace will operate with a flat 5% fee model and will have inbuilt escrow, review, portfolio management and options to pay using cryptocurrencies.

Are you a licensed Escrow provider?

 

[anantj]

You can see a very basic version of portfolio management here https://www.dnfinder.com/profile/kajal-

Your title states that the marketplace is for liquid domains. Some of the domains listed in that portfolio/profile are definitely not liquid. Can you clarify the intended inventory type for your marketplace? And what is the vetting criteria, who's vetting the domains and what is the selection criteria

 

[sathish g]

A

Are you a licensed Escrow provider?

We have agreements with a licensed escrow provider. We use api and white labelling to make the process seamlesss. The escrow service is the same service that is also used by flippa.

As for the domains on the site, the site is not yet commercially live. It is still being tested. The domains on the current site are listed for testing. This thread is to collect feedback before we go live commercially.

The domains will be vetted by a team of experienced domaineers. The criteria will be listed shortly on our site.