Poll: Will you participate in the Afternic Boost program?

[Future Sensors]

Afternic was thrilled to announce their new Afternic Boost program.

Afternic Sellers have been automatically opted-in to the program, but you can choose to opt-out if you prefer.

In this Poll, Afternic Sellers can indicate whether they will remain opted in, or if they have opted out of the program.

Members’ choices in this poll will be visible to everyone.

 

[davidc1]

As usual, will split test :
- with boost - with afternic/dan landers
- without boost - with afternic/dan landers
- without afternic - without afternic/dan lander, hugedomains choose this option so why not testing it myself.

 

[NameGroove]

I decided to opt-out. The primary reason is I was unable to find my names when searching the reg path for similar names. I was honest, and only typed names that were clearly of similar style. What was promoted was mostly garbage. I see no reason to pay 5% for happenstance - which is what one gets if their names aren't cross marketed properly.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/in...ore-domain-sales.1332052/page-30#post-9240078

 

[NameGroove]

As usual, will split test :
- with boost - with afternic/dan landers
- without boost - with afternic/dan landers
- without afternic - without afternic/dan lander, hugedomains choose this option so why not testing it myself.

I look forward to the results of your test. A smart way to do it imo. How many names do you have in each bucket? How long will you test for?

 

[johnn]

Unless they can convince me that I will get more sales.
Otherwise I would rather give money to Charity than to them for doing nothing.

 

[davidc1]

I decided to opt-out. The primary reason is I was unable to find my names when searching the reg path for similar names. I was honest, and only typed names that were clearly of similar style. What was promoted was mostly garbage. I see no reason to pay 5% for happenstance - which is what one gets if their names aren't cross marketed properly.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/in...ore-domain-sales.1332052/page-30#post-9240078

the problem is that it seems that domains without boost will not appear for exact match without tld, example, if your domain is "domainsample.com", if a user type on godaddy "domainsample", the domain will not appear and i think i sell a lot with that case...

I will test a few weeks without boost, at the beginning of the boost day (4 September), i will have enough data after 1-2 weeks i think as i make many sales a day..., we are currently with boost...
I will also check if it changes something to landers sales (i use dan), as it's possible that buyers will use landers instead of afternic if they can't see the domain on godaddy+partners.

It's not possible to split test during the same period as it needs multiple afternic account, as we cannot choose boost or not per domain...

I will only test "without afternic" if i see that i sell much more through landers during the "no boost" period.

 

[NameGroove]

the problem is that it seems that domains without boost will not appear for exact match without tld, example, if your domain is "domainsample.com", if a user type on godaddy "domainsample", the domain will not appear and i think i sell a lot with that case...

I will test a few weeks without boost, at the beginning of the boost day (4 September), i will have enough data after 1-2 weeks i think as i make many sales a day..., we are currently with boost...
I will also check if it changes something to landers sales (i use dan), as it's possible that buyers will use landers instead of afternic if they can't see the domain on godaddy+partners.

It's not possible to split test during the same period as it needs multiple afternic account, as we cannot choose boost or not per domain...

I will only test "without afternic" if i see that i sell much more through landers during the "no boost" period.

It will show for exact match without boost. What will not show is keyword+exactmatch for exactmatch. So if someone types home.com into GD and you have a website called myfavoritehome.com, that won't show without boost. However, my point is this - type in a word that you honestly think is similar to one of your words. And see what the ai boosts/promotes. When I did a test like this what I saw was either complete garbage or unregistered similar names with "hypens", "the" or "my".

As for your test - it won't be a proper test then (not your fault). Seasonality could be an issue for example. And testing for such a short time period (unless you have 10k+ names) will not prove statistically significant.

 

[davidc1]

It will show for exact match without boost. What will not show is keyword+exactmatch for exactmatch. So if someone types home.com into GD and you have a website called myfavoritehome.com, that won't show without boost. However, my point is this - type in a word that you honestly think is similar to one of your words. And see what the ai boosts/promotes. When I did a test like this what I saw was either complete garbage or unregistered similar names with "hypens", "the" or "my".

As for your test - it won't be a proper test then (not your fault). Seasonality could be an issue for example. And testing for such a short time period (unless you have 10k+ names) will not prove statistically significant.

My afternic account manager tells me it will not show for exact match without TLD.

I have more than 10k names.... and make many sales everyday, so the test would be ok.

I've just checked from October 2023 to march 2024, the part of landers/afternic is the same monthly and sales number also is about the same before and after... (in this check i only consider BIN and not LTO)
So IMO i dont need boost...

 

[ResoluteDomains]

I am out because I am not so keen on them outbounding my domains without my knowing who, where, etc. What is the criteria they'll use to outbound? How will they determine the audience?

I dont want them inviting trouble for my domains which IMO outbounding may invite. Are these recipients of their outbound work wanting to be contacted? If not, become angry, and report a domain to a registrar as "abuse" or to Google for spamming or even decide to attempt a reverse hijack on the domain - who do we turn to for help? All for the promise of "up to" EXACTLY 10% extra sales? I've made two sales via GD/AN in the past year, all of that risk and extra fee for "up to" a .2 increase to, perhaps, 2.2 sales per year? My names, as @NameGroove mentioned, too, dont all show up in the reg path anyway pre-boost. As I've said elsewhere on NP, if I wanted to do outbound I would have done it myself by now. Some do, that is great, I am not keen on outbound for me and dont want to be forced opted-in to such a program.

So, no thanks. I am happily with NP landers now controlling more of my own destiny. Time will tell but I feel I made a better choice.

 

[Mister Funsky]

I opted out shortly after the announcement.

Now the majority of my names use NamePros landers.

 

[Future Sensors]

Thank you all for voting so far. There’s still time to cast your vote.

Here’s an easy way to sort the results by the number of current votes.

Happy boosting.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Opted-out.
Even if the sales will be affected, I'll not opt-in because it's not worth it.
The same thing which already existed is now being charged on the name of boost! I'm not falling for this trap.

 

[DN_Hunter]

I’ve “downgraded” (opt out)

The marketing / emails to potential buyers should have its own “optin”

I wonder if we can get portfolio sizes for those who opted out? Just to see if we can make an impact…

 

[markfromslo]

I wonder if we can get portfolio sizes for those who opted out? Just to see if we can make an impact…

6,000 and out.

 

[Mister Funsky]

2K plus out

 

[bmugford]

I opted-out.

I made (2) unboosted sales today.

One .COM and one .US.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

I wonder if we can get portfolio sizes for those who opted out? Just to see if we can make an impact…

I think what I predicted is basically happening.

The smaller, lower quality portfolios will "opt-in", or just not do anything since that is the default.

Many of the larger, high quality portfolios will opt-out.

GoDaddy will have less quality domains to promote because of that.

Brad

 

[HotKey]

10% increase for maybe a huge opt-in is: everyone boosting means no one gets boosted because it's all the same fight.
Just go the the name itself people, disregard the shiny frame.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

As usual, will split test :
- with boost - with afternic/dan landers
- without boost - with afternic/dan landers
- without afternic - without afternic/dan lander, hugedomains choose this option so why not testing it myself.

Because you have to opt all of an account in or out, how are you planning to A/B test? Will you have boost turned on for a couple of months, then off, and compare? It is of course tricky because of other changes that happen over time. I wish they had let us boost certain names, so that a better A/B test could be conducted.

I any case, I really look forward to seeing your results, and trust that you will share them with NamePros members.

Thank you,

Bob

 

[bmugford]

If this vote was a baseball game, it would end early due to the mercy rule.

Brad

 

[Name2go]

After careful consideration, I will opt-out for my 6,300 listed domains. I am looking at further developments and Godaddy/AN are well advised to introduce an opt-in, preferably on a domain-by-domain basis.

I don't want to hide my reasons.

The emotional side: I feel blackmailed and taken for a fool. It was almost exactly a year ago that Afternic's sales suddenly plummeted. And now I'm supposed to pay more for a glimmer of hope that things will go back to the way they used to be? That seems like bad marriage counseling to me.

The business side: My portfolio is large and mediocre. Most of the coms can be kindly described as brandables. They are not sought after with or without a boost at Afternic. If there's going to be a fee of up to 30%, these babies have a better chance at Atom, where they're looked after very well. Attractive selection process, great websites with AI-driven description and price targets by Atom help me.
My abundant ccTLDs are better off at Sedo. I have already delisted .si from AN. My last sale could not take place there after an offer at AN, but had to take place via DAN. (The dead live longer.)
For the near future, I'm relying on NamePros Landers. I haven't had the time yet.

The legal side: I am an EU citizen and need at least the buyer's country of origin for VAT purposes. I've hit a brick wall with this request so many times with AN. That's enough now, I'm not going to slip into criminal tax law because of unwillingness, incompetence or cover-up.

The outlook: I have nothing to gain from Godaddy joining the Dow Jones at some point, because as a loyal customer I will have ended up in the Domaining Pink Sheets by then. I also don't want to have a guilty conscience when I transfer a domain. Yesterday, after months, I transferred a single domain to another provider and received five (!) identical e-mails about the transfer. That's annoying.

 

[davidc1]

Because you have to opt all of an account in or out, how are you planning to A/B test? Will you have boost turned on for a couple of months, then off, and compare? It is of course tricky because of other changes that happen over time. I wish they had let us boost certain names, so that a better A/B test could be conducted.

I any case, I really look forward to seeing your results, and trust that you will share them with NamePros members.

Thank you,

Bob

True, impossible to AB test, except being with/without boost during a period and compare results.
If I consider boost is ON on 2024 and OFF before, all of us can compare with their portfolio..., I did it from October 2023 to march 2024 : https://www.namepros.com/threads/wi...e-afternic-boost-program.1333652/post-9240721

 

[davidc1]

The legal side: I am an EU citizen and need at least the buyer's country of origin for VAT purposes. I've hit a brick wall with this request so many times with AN. That's enough now, I'm not going to slip into criminal tax law because of unwillingness, incompetence or cover-up.

Same problem here, tax law is very complicated, i fighted a lot as i had a control few months ago.

 

[NameGroove]

My afternic account manager tells me it will not show for exact match without TLD.

I have more than 10k names.... and make many sales everyday, so the test would be ok.

I've just checked from October 2023 to march 2024, the part of landers/afternic is the same monthly and sales number also is about the same before and after... (in this check i only consider BIN and not LTO)
So IMO i dont need boost...

that is not what Afternic told me (perhaps we are talking about 2 different things?)

 

[davidc1]

that is not what Afternic told me (perhaps we are talking about 2 different things?)

Show attachment 261917

When I asked my manager I had this answer :

I confirmed, it's exact match with TLD, so the buyer would need to type in the name directly for it to show under GoDaddy Search, if you are opted out of "Boost".