New Namesilo Marketplace

[cocaseco]

Just saw this and the 7.5% commissions stood out!. Nice to have another option.

https://www.namesilo.com/Support/Marketplace

 

[Arca]

Yes, you are correct in both of your assumptions. As long as no individual payment is over $5k then the Buyer can use any method of payment, and, in your example, yes, the Buyer would get the domain as soon as they pay the initial $1k down payment.

If an “Offer/Counter Offer Sale” listing is priced above $5000, both the “Buy now” and “more info” button on the landing page lead to the same “Offer/Counter Offer Sale” page. If the buyer hovers the cursor over the payment plan question mark icon on the “Offer/Counter Offer Sale” page, they are told that:

“The Seller has agreed to accept a payment plan for this domain. If you click the Buy Now link on this page, you will be taken to a page where you can select to either buy the domain for full price today, or setup a payment plan requiring a partial down payment today and then monthly payments for your desired term until the full purchase price has been paid.”

However, clicking the buy now button does not lead to this page, but instead to a sign-up page asking them to register an account first. There is no way to set up a payment plan or even access the payment plan info page without registering an account first if a domain is priced above $5000. This seems to create an unnecessary obstacle for potential buyers, because as you confirmed above, if a domain is priced at $7500 and the buyer opts to set up a payment plan to pay for the domain, for example a $1000 down payment followed by twelve monthly payments of $625, then the buyer can put the domain right into their cart and pay the $1000 via any payment method. Setting up a payment plan where no single payment exceeds $5000 obviates the need to register for an account prior to making a purchase.

So it seems like buyers are asked to sign-up sooner than necessary, as they have to do this even if they just want to get more info about how the payment plan works. Some buyers might be a bit interested in a domain, and the payment plan option is something that could convince them, but they may not bother to provide their info and register for an account just to be able to access this info.

Alternatively, would it be possible to have domains with a listing price above $5000 initially work the same way as those below $5000? So when a buyer first clicks on the "buy now" button link, they are taken directly to the same One-time Payment/Payment Plan page that is shown right away for domains priced below $5000, without having to sign-up first.

Then on that page if they select the “One-time Payment” option, that would be a timely moment to ask them to sign-up, because at that point they really do have to sign-up in order to confirm the purchase and initiate the wire transfer.

However, if they go for the payment plan option and no single payment will exceed $5000, there is no need for the them to sign-up ahead of setting up a payment plan, and they can simply put the domain in their cart and check-out right away via paypal/credit card (and get signed up as part of that process, when they have already decided to make the purchase). Giving potential buyers easier access to this option would probably increase your sell-through for domains priced above $5000.

 

[Arca]

Good news - you can now case your domains within the Marketplace and on landing pages. Here is an example:

http://www.digitaldelivery.network

The proper casing will appear on landing pages (per the above link) and on any other Marketplace pages (like the main Marketplace page, auction/offer pages and payment plan pages). We may also extend this to the shopping cart for consistency, but that will take a bit more work.

To add casing to any domains in your account, please access the Financial/Marketing page from within the Marketplace Manager section of your account:

https://www.namesilo.com/account_marketplace_financial_marketing.php

You can find more details on how that section works via the middle video on this page:

https://www.namesilo.com/Support/Domain-Investor-Tools

Hope you enjoy!

On the "Financial/Marketing" page (https://www.namesilo.com/account_marketplace_financial_marketing.php), can you please add a “delete domains” button in the top “actions for selected domains” area? A number of my dropped domains (that were registered by others after I dropped them) and domains I have sold on different platforms and transferred out still show up as “active”, even though they are now at other registrars with other owners. It would be good if there was an option to simply delete domains in this overview.

Maybe you also add a yes/no column for something along the lines of; is this domain currently in your namesilo registrar account?

In short, it would be good if you could enable deleting for any domain that has been dropped, moved to another registrar, to another namesilo account, or re-registered anywhere after it has dropped (which leads it to show up as "active" a lot of the time) in the "Financial/Marketing" area, while perhaps also disabling it for all domains that are currently active in your own namesilo registrar account.

 

[namesilo]

If an “Offer/Counter Offer Sale” listing is priced above $5000, both the “Buy now” and “more info” button on the landing page lead to the same “Offer/Counter Offer Sale” page. If the buyer hovers the cursor over the payment plan question mark icon on the “Offer/Counter Offer Sale” page, they are told that:

“The Seller has agreed to accept a payment plan for this domain. If you click the Buy Now link on this page, you will be taken to a page where you can select to either buy the domain for full price today, or setup a payment plan requiring a partial down payment today and then monthly payments for your desired term until the full purchase price has been paid.”

However, clicking the buy now button does not lead to this page, but instead to a sign-up page asking them to register an account first. There is no way to set up a payment plan or even access the payment plan info page without registering an account first if a domain is priced above $5000. This seems to create an unnecessary obstacle for potential buyers, because as you confirmed above, if a domain is priced at $7500 and the buyer opts to set up a payment plan to pay for the domain, for example a $1000 down payment followed by twelve monthly payments of $625, then the buyer can put the domain right into their cart and pay the $1000 via any payment method. Setting up a payment plan where no single payment exceeds $5000 obviates the need to register for an account prior to making a purchase.

So it seems like buyers are asked to sign-up sooner than necessary, as they have to do this even if they just want to get more info about how the payment plan works. Some buyers might be a bit interested in a domain, and the payment plan option is something that could convince them, but they may not bother to provide their info and register for an account just to be able to access this info.

Alternatively, would it be possible to have domains with a listing price above $5000 initially work the same way as those below $5000? So when a buyer first clicks on the "buy now" button link, they are taken directly to the same One-time Payment/Payment Plan page that is shown right away for domains priced below $5000, without having to sign-up first.

Then on that page if they select the “One-time Payment” option, that would be a timely moment to ask them to sign-up, because at that point they really do have to sign-up in order to confirm the purchase and initiate the wire transfer.

However, if they go for the payment plan option and no single payment will exceed $5000, there is no need for the them to sign-up ahead of setting up a payment plan, and they can simply put the domain in their cart and check-out right away via paypal/credit card (and get signed up as part of that process, when they have already decided to make the purchase). Giving potential buyers easier access to this option would probably increase your sell-through for domains priced above $5000.

Hello, and sorry for the delayed response...

Yes, we are aware of this purchase path and how it could be cumbersome for Buyers of domains over the wire requirement. We have a few ideas for how to better handle that path which are very much inline with what you have suggested.

 

[namesilo]

On the "Financial/Marketing" page (https://www.namesilo.com/account_marketplace_financial_marketing.php), can you please add a “delete domains” button in the top “actions for selected domains” area? A number of my dropped domains (that were registered by others after I dropped them) and domains I have sold on different platforms and transferred out still show up as “active”, even though they are now at other registrars with other owners. It would be good if there was an option to simply delete domains in this overview.

Maybe you also add a yes/no column for something along the lines of; is this domain currently in your namesilo registrar account?

In short, it would be good if you could enable deleting for any domain that has been dropped, moved to another registrar, to another namesilo account, or re-registered anywhere after it has dropped (which leads it to show up as "active" a lot of the time) in the "Financial/Marketing" area, while perhaps also disabling it for all domains that are currently active in your own namesilo registrar account.

The Financial/Marketing area was developed to maintain tracking for all domains you have ever had in your possession (whether with us or different registrars). If the domain stays in our system, but is no longer in your account (likely due to a domain push, expiration, Marketplace sale, etc.), then our system should automatically change the status from "active" to "dropped" or "sold". If you added the domain from an external registrar via DomainLink, and our system sees the domain has been dropped (not renewed and completed the expiration process - also not drop-caught elsewhere), then the status should also change to "dropped". This means that the only domains in "Active" status are those that are in your NameSilo account or active within DomainLink. If there are domains that you have sold elsewhere or no longer are the Registrant for, you can change the status accordingly using either one of the system defaults (such as "Dropped" or "Sold") or creating your own statuses. If the domain was sold elsewhere, we'd also recommend entering that sale to that your Profit/Loss can be kept current.

Again, maintaining a record of all domains via the Financial/Marketing section allows you to keep a historical record of all domains you have ever registered, sold, allowed to drop, etc. This let's you track profit/loss as well as to maintain a list of all domains under your control. We view this as different than the main Domain Manager page within your account as that page is always limited to only the domains actively within your NameSilo account.

You can also use the Advanced Search on the Financial/Marketing page to limit results by Status. For example, you could select to only view/update domains in the "Active" (or any other) status.

Hope this helps better explain the goals and usage of the Financial/Marketing section, but please let us know if there is anything we can provide more information about, or add/modify.

Thanks

 

[anantj]

Hello. Are you referring to Marketplace landing pages and Marketplace bid/offer pages? We have looked at compiling and providing data on visitors for both, but once we started looking at the data, it was pretty obvious that the vast majority to both were bots and therefore not reflective of actual people looking at the pages. We added a few filters to take out obvious sources (like Googlebot, Bing, etc.), but there are a number of other bots rapidly crawling Marketplace domains for other purposes. So, the short answer is that once we can come up with a better way to filter bot traffic from actual human traffic then we would make that data available.

What about providing sellers to add a GA tracker id? Your platform can include the GA code and dynamically add our tracker id to that code for the relevant pages?

 

[namesilo]

What about providing sellers to add a GA tracker id? Your platform can include the GA code and dynamically add our tracker id to that code for the relevant pages?

Yes, this is something we have considered adding, and we may very well do so. I'll reply once it has been implemented or we have come to a different decision/method. Thanks

 

[simmplex]

@namesilo

Maybe you can ask the tech to replace the following(or only the first sentense) in the meta part of the MarketSites with Header Text Sub or Home Page Text in the setup page?
Which will make MarketSites indexed in Google rusults better.

This domain is parked free of charge with NameSilo.com. NameSilo offers the cheapest domains on the Internet as well as.

 

[namesilo]

@namesilo

Maybe you can ask the tech to replace the following(or only the first sentense) in the meta part of the MarketSites with Header Text Sub or Home Page Text in the setup page?
Which will make MarketSites indexed in Google rusults better.

This domain is parked free of charge with NameSilo.com. NameSilo offers the cheapest domains on the Internet as well as.

Hello. Can you please provide an example perhaps? I'm having a bit of a hard time following. Feel free to PM us, or also email [email protected] and someone will take a quick look. Thanks

 

[simmplex]

Hello. Can you please provide an example perhaps? I'm having a bit of a hard time following. Feel free to PM us, or also email [email protected] and someone will take a quick look. Thanks

@namesilo

Thank you for your quick reply.
Please check the attached screenshot.

 

[namesilo]

@namesilo

Thank you for your quick reply.
Please check the attached screenshot.

Hello. That would show for our default parking page, not for MarketSites. My guess is that the domain in question was parked with us prior to becoming a MarketSite so Google could need some time to update its cache.

 

[simmplex]

Hello. That would show for our default parking page, not for MarketSites. My guess is that the domain in question was parked with us prior to becoming a MarketSite so Google could need some time to update its cache.

No.
It was not parked at Namesilo before.
Maybe you can check others' marketsites to confirm.
Thank you!

 

[namesilo]

No.
It was not parked at Namesilo before.
Maybe you can check others' marketsites to confirm.
Thank you!

Hello. Please see here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ww.smalldomain.com/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

As shown, the domain had been parked with us and was cached by Google on May 2, 2017.

Just so we can keep this thread on topic, please either email [email protected] or PM us here with other questions on this issue. Thanks!

 

[namesilo]

Hi Everyone. Wanted to let you know we have just added a new "Seller Resources" section within the Marketplace Manager section of your account. Currently, it only does 2 things, but we will be expanding it with a few other pieces of information and controls. However, for now, you can:

• View all sales with an open offer/counter-offer as opposed to needing to locate any such open offers via the Active Sales page.
• Add a Google Analytics ID to be used on your Marketplace Landing Pages.

We wanted to get these things out quickly since we've had a few requests to do so (including on this page), but this Seller Resources page will grow to have more information.

 

[anantj]

• Add a Google Analytics ID to be used on your Marketplace Landing Pages.

Awesome. I was looking forward to this feature. Going to try it out now

 

[campout]

I'm trying to list a name for the first time, and I'm a little confused. It seems there are only two listing options: auction vs. offer/counteroffer. I just want to have a landing page that shows a BIN and offers a payment plan.

My guess is I'm supposed to select offer/counteroffer. Now, if that is the case, am I supposed to mess with this Reserve field, or is that only for auctions? Will I be subject to getting a bunch of lowball offers even though I am trying to list this just as a BIN?

EDIT: I think I figured it out. The "Reserve" field also functions like a Minimum Offer field.

 

[campout]

Can you perhaps let us have the original landing page design as an option too, by making it optional whether or not to display "annual renewal price" on the landing page for standard-priced legacy extensions like .COM, .ORG, .NET?

Sure thing - there is now a "yes/no" option for displaying the annual renewal price or not on the landing pages.

Is this option still available? I can't find it.

 

[namesilo]

I'm trying to list a name for the first time, and I'm a little confused. It seems there are only two listing options: auction vs. offer/counteroffer. I just want to have a landing page that shows a BIN and offers a payment plan.

My guess is I'm supposed to select offer/counteroffer. Now, if that is the case, am I supposed to mess with this Reserve field, or is that only for auctions? Will I be subject to getting a bunch of lowball offers even though I am trying to list this just as a BIN?

Show attachment 58842

EDIT: I think I figured it out. The "Reserve" field also functions like a Minimum Offer field.

Correct, for offer/counter offer sales, "Reserve" works as the minimum offer you would accept.

 

[namesilo]

Is this option still available? I can't find it.

Yes, it is on the page for configuring your landing page for your sale:

 

[Keith]

If you buy a domain regged at namesilo can you push to godaddy or transfer?

 

[namesilo]

If you buy a domain regged at namesilo can you push to godaddy or transfer?

Yes, you can transfer to any registrar you like after 60 days. Of course, we'd encourage you to check out our system while the domain is with us and hopefully see why so many people transfer to us and not nearly as many going the other way

https://www.namesilo.com/transfer_compare.php

 

[NameOmnia]

Hi guys,

is there an ETA for NameSilo to show the whois searches of domains registered with you?
Epik has that feature and I find it handy.

Also...is there any website layout update happening in the near future?

 

[Keith]

Yes, you can transfer to any registrar you like after 60 days. Of course, we'd encourage you to check out our system while the domain is with us and hopefully see why so many people transfer to us and not nearly as many going the other way

https://www.namesilo.com/transfer_compare.php

Thx. Nothing against namesilo but I'm spread out amongst too many registrars now.

 

[namesilo]

Hi guys,

is there an ETA for NameSilo to show the whois searches of domains registered with you?
Epik has that feature and I find it handy.

Also...is there any website layout update happening in the near future?

Thanks for the note. We used to show WHOIS counts, but the vast majority were bots and we therefore felt the data was misleading. Also, as you may not be aware, but VeriSign is moving to a thick registry (specific date still not announced) so registrars will not have access to the majority of look ups as they will go directly to the registry as already happens with the majority of TLDs as most use a thick registry. Our current understanding of the implementation is that registrars will therefore only have access to know about look ups on their site.

Regarding the front-end of the site, yes, it certainly has gotten pretty old on us and it could do a much better job promoting our services. However, most people really like the simplicity and control afforded by our management screens/tools so our plan is to redo the front-end of the site (non-account pages) but leave the account area mostly untouched. I don't have an ETA at this time, but it's definitely on "the list".

 

[simmplex]

@namesilo

I need this WhoisCounts info too.

Please check the attached screenshot（from godaddy）.
WhoisCountsPrevDay WhoisCountsPrevWeek WhoisCountsPrevMonth WhoisCountsCurrDay WhoisCountsCurrWeek WhoisCountsCurrMonth

Hi guys,

is there an ETA for NameSilo to show the whois searches of domains registered with you?
Epik has that feature and I find it handy.

Also...is there any website layout update happening in the near future?

 

[Arca]

@namesilo - In view of the many updates that the NS Marketplace has seen so far, along with my own experience of using your landing pages on the majority of my domains for some time now, here are some issues and suggestions for improvements that you can take into consideration as you continue developing the marketplace:

Offer/counter offer sale payment deadline
A buyer’s payment deadline after a price has been agreed on is 48 hours. Can you extend this deadline in order to give buyers more time to pay for offer/counter offer sales?

When somebody buys the name at full BIN price, they know that they will be paying for the domain. When somebody makes an offer they don't whether or not the outcome will be a price agreement between seller and buyer. Maybe the seller will reject their offer. Maybe they will end up agreeing to a higher price than what they had planned for. They enter negotiations not knowing whether they are going to spend thousands or nothing. So when a price is agreed upon, sometimes unexpectedly for buyer, they sometimes do not have the funds ready and available within 48 hours. I already had one buyer who did not pay within the 48 hours, and another buyer that made an offer I accepted, that did not pay on time, but I contacted your customer support right before the end of the 48 hour deadline, and he was given an extension and then paid for the domain.

I've had lots of buyers at delay payment at other platforms, and the majority seem to take more than 48 hours to pay after a price has been agreed on via offer/counter offer. Some even stall for weeks before they finally muster up the funds. While giving buyers multiple weeks to pay as a default is too much, and not something I would recommend (at the same time, it did help those transactions close successfully), a 48 hour deadline seems to be too short considering the nature of offer/counter offer negotiations.

Would it be possible to give buyers more time to pay than 48 hours after an "Offer/Counter Offer Sale" sale has been agreed on? Perhaps a 5 or 7 day deadline instead?

Good "closing" follow-up/payment reminders on your end to gently nudge buyer towards making the payment can in some situations be imperative in terms of getting hesitating buyers to pay.

Seller resources
I know this section is a work in progress, but just wanted to note that it would be great if a list of ongoing payment plans (with monthly payment amount, next payment due date, and paid/remaining amount) could be added here.

Default landing page settings
Every time after I set up a domain listing, I need to navigate to active sales, select the domain (or the group of domains) I have just listed for sale, and then change the landing page settings. Instead of being a 1-step process, setting up a domain for sale is a 2-step process for me (setting up the listing and then setting up the landing page settings).

Can you let us create and save a default landing page setup? Instead of manually having to change the settings every time after creating a listing, it would be a great time-saver if we could set up a default landing page set up that all new listings automatically revert to. Alternatively, if we could set up landing page settings at the same time as we set up the listing, that would also be more convenient than the current solution.

Landing page indication - Active Domain Sales
In the Active Domain Sales section, can you make the red "for sale" sign/symbol in the far right column be gray if the domain is not currently using your for sale landing page? Right now it's red for all domains, regardless of whether they use your landing page or not, and there is no way to see whether a domain is using your landing page in this section. Whether a domain is using your for sale landing page is indicated in the domain manager section (for sale landing page symbol, parking symbol, other nameservers symbol, etc), but it is not possible to edit the for sale landing page via this section, so it would be good if you could start to show this in the Active Domain Sales section too. Would make it easier to make sure all names that should have your landing page is set up correctly.

Active offer notification
When we get an offer, this notification is shown under account overview:
“Active Offer: You have 1 sale with an active offer
View active sales”

The "View active sales" link currently links to all active domain listings. It would be more convenient this notification linked directly to “seller resources”, where you are now displaying active offers.


I have primarily been using landing page template 1, and here are some comments on that particular landing page:

Asterisk
Two asterisks are used on the landing page to "signpost" the payment plan option. Technically, according to typographical conventions, an asterisk should preceded the note it refers to. So instead of the current setup where the asterisk is located between Payment Plan and a colon: "Payment Plan*: Payment plan available", it should be arranged like this: "*Payment Plan: Payment plan available".

However, because the price and the payment plan availability indication are located in close proximity, and within the same box, the asterisks are redundant. If the payment plan availability detail was located in the footer of the website, using an asterisk like this would make sense. Removing these asterisks will not have any impact on visitor comprehension of whether or not there is a payment plan option, and would clean up the typographical layout of the landing page.

Payment Plan availability indication

The text breaks into several lines in the Safari browser and on mobile, even though there is room for it to be shown on one line. The different font sizes look particularly messy when this happens.

Right of the decimal/cents
The NameSilo marketplace permits users to add both a dollar and a cent value (right of the decimal) to domains. If I price a domain at $2000, this is how it is rendered on the NameSilo landing page versus that of a number of other domain marketplaces:

$2,000.00 - NameSilo
$2,000 - Afternic
$2,000 - Flippa
$2,000 - BrandBucket
$2,000 - DomainAgents
$2000 - HugeDomains
2000 USD - Sedo

Same price at all marketplaces, but at first glance $2,000.00 looks like a larger amount than $2,000 when the landing page first resolves, and might increase the sense of "sticker shock" that some visitors might feel when learning of the price of the domain, and I assume this is why the other marketplaces listed above don't show this.

Suggestion: If sellers do not include a cent value for their domain prices, how about rendering $2000 as $2,000 instead of 2,000.00 on the visitor type-in landing page template? E.g. If I list my domain for $2000, the namesilo landing page could render it as $2,000, but if I list it at 2000.99, it would get shown as $2,000.99. I'm only talking about the initial buyer-facing landing page (template 1/2), not on the domain's offer/counter-offer or auction page, which would be hard to implement due to how these are integrated with the broader marketplace.