SquadHelp: A Game with Too Many Rules ?

[DomainBanana]

Yesterday, SquadHelp launched a new policy of charging $1/submission to their premium marketplace, a marketplace that accepts only 9.79% of names. A major cash grab by SH, this escalates the cost of listing a single name on the SH marketplace to over $10.

Even before this damaging move, I found something about SquadHelp frustrating: the whole site is designed like a giant game.

There are ranking boards to show who's in the lead, sellers earn points for things like winning contests or getting a name approved, and now they've introduced SquadHelp coins to pay for submissions.

Gamifying business can be fun, if done well.

SquadHelp has gone to the extreme and gamified everything, two or three times over. All their points and coins and rules are dizzyingly convoluted and feel demeaning and manipulative. When it comes to listing domains and getting paid for my work, I want a clean, simple, professional, streamlined interface.

I don't want to play Candyland.

Yet, playing a childish boardgame is exactly what SH is making me do to participate in their brandable marketplace, and now this childish boardgame is ridiculously expensive to play.

I'm not interested in points or coins or rankings or any other childish, manipulative games.

I won't pay high prices and high commissions for the privilege of rolling the dice at brandable Candyland.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

But on SH, where the approval rating is so low--even for solid brandable names--it's not worthwhile to participate

Are the acceptance rates significantly different on SquadHelp and BrandBucket? (I have no clue, just asking, I had assumed they were similarl).

Also, is it not possible that once they start charging the quality will go up and the acceptance rate will also go up? Not sure, but that seems logical to me.

I agree that your approach of looking at cost within perspective of acceptance ratio is the right way to consider if it is worthwhile.

Bob

 

[BrandPlease]

@Bob Hawkes I think if you look at "globally" published #s the answer would be yes.

On an individual level, looking at my BB, BP, & SH, accts. I'm at about 10% SH and about 25% on the others. The big BUT here(for me) is I submitted names to SH I would not have submitted to BB - because I didnt think they would be accepted and didnt want to waste a 1. Bet my % about match by EOY? I'll ty and track & update.

 

[bojan1]

I think they are trying to be to much creative and they are just exaggerating, like they did this time. Being creative and unique is a great, being slightly different is OK, but being to much different is never smart.

 

[DomainBanana]

I got an update from them the same day this decision was made.

They've listened to feedback (likely overwhelmingly negative) and are now leaving it up to the seller: pay $1/submission and incur lower commission if sold, or everything remains as it was. The option to toggle is down at bottom of your Seller preferences: https://www.squadhelp.com/marketplace-seller-preferences

I spent a half hour with an SH agent today clarifying various policies. I'm sure I could spend hours more discovering their convoluted rules. They told me this:

In the next 1-2 days, you will have the option "to pay an upfront $1 review fee or continue to list your domains at the original commission rates without paying the upfront fee, provided all criteria are met:

* You have a minimum of 25 names published in the premium domain marketplace
* Your account is in Good Standing (i.e. no violations of our policies)
* You have not delisted an excessive number of domains from the Marketplace
* Your Marketplace approval rate is greater than 5%"

For me, SH just has too many rules.

 

[kriss05]

Stupid, greedy move by SH. If one has good names, one will always find suitable marketplace to list them there for free. This greedy move may result in reverse effect, i.e. their inventory will become of even lesser quality.

Yesterday I tried to submit few nice names and was like wtf, I have to buy SH coins to pay for that. Decided to let less greedy marketplaces have my names listed with them and enjoy commission fees.

 

[DomainBanana]

SH is legit. There is plenty of opportunity there, I just don't like all the hoops they make sellers jump through.

The more solid domain marketplaces there are, the better.

I'm cheering SH on, I just wish they would simplify their policies and their interface.

 

[GrantP]

Thank you for your feedback.

We do not remove domains from the marketplace unless there is a violation of our Terms. If someone lists their domains after agreeing to the Terms, and later informs us that they are no longer in agreement with the Terms under which those domains were added, unfortunately we can not continue to list their domains in our Marketplace.

 

[manpreet]

I think this is just the start of downfall of SquadHelp, didn't like their slow approval process earlier either. Its good by making it public and charging just for eac submission, they have discouraged new users and maybe its time to focus back on Brandpa and BrandBucket.

 

[Ayodeji]

If only that would improve their annoying slow approval time and maze of a site. Even threatened you with ban if you remove a domain from basic listing. SH is just complicated and so arm twisting.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Most of us have not responded to the parts of @DomainBanana post about 'game' aspects of SquadHelp changes. No doubt game features, earning points, likes, etc. have big parts in all kind of commercial activities, some hate them and some like them and some put up with them. The social research that has come to light in last year on FB early development shows that for many people simple feedback features are addictive, perhaps too much so.

Re wait times, does anyone know...

1. Have any of the brandable marketplaces tried automating step one in the process - not the final decision but to immediately rule out some and inform people immediately so that they have fewer to human consider?
2. Do the brandable places typically involve a group in the decisions or is it single person who decides?

Bob

 

[Lord Antares]

Err... I am simple minded I guess, but bringing in traffic from startup owners, selling your domain name and doing the negotiation/transaction for you, it seem to me. People like @richasis seems happy that BrandBucket saw the value in his name, priced it higher than he would have, brought a buyer and closed the deal for $90k.

As has been said, any of us can choose to use any marketplace or not, but I think it is a stretch to claim that they don't do anything.

Bob

Alright, I stand corrected. It seems like I was viewing it behind black-tinted glasses. I admit to being wrong to an extent.

 

[DomainBanana]

I don't have a problem with what they've done at all and I have been part of their marketplace since the beginning. As I recall, BB also charged something but I pulled all of my names off BB and moved them to SH because SH SELLS. I have never felt like a pawn over there. They are always clear about what they are doing and why and I have never had any reason to mistrust them.

SH clear? They have the most convoluted policies out there and they change them all the time.

In my view, BB remains the best brandable marketplace.

 

[Commulinks]

I'm hoping more sellers speak up so the marketplace thrives and becomes better for everyone involved.

The intricacy of the policy update I discussed is totally absurd.

The best place to discuss a problem you have with Squadhelp is with Squadhelp directly. There has been plenty of discussion on this issue and if you want change, you should talk to them. They always listen.

 

[Commulinks]

You're missing the point of the OP -- it's not a single issue, it's their entire approach.

BB charges $1/submission but, as mentioned previously in this thread, their approval rate is much higher so the effective cost of listing names is low.

BB acquired BR -- so what?

I clearly disagree with you but that is fine. It's best if you go where you are happy. I am not missing anything about your post. You are unhappy with SH and want to tell people publicly. I get that. I did NOT find BBs approval rate to be higher - mine on SH is much higher than average. The thing about the acquisition was in reference to someone else who was talking about the two as if they are two entities when I thought it was BP they acquired. Is it BR they acquired or BP?

The problem I think that occurs on SH is pricing. Domainers are coming there will extremely high expectations on pricing and that is bringing approval rates down. SH knows their customers.

Oh well, be happy where you choose to be! I know I am.

 

[raresf]

SH's latest scam:

SH will reg an approved name for free and give sellers a 25% commission for the first year.

After one year, sellers pay a $10 reg fee/name. SH retains ownership of the name and takes a 75% commission on all sales!

Once you let SH register a name that you've come up with, they own it forever, even if you cover the cost of the reg fees!

Well, that's a concern for me too. At first, I was very enthusiastic about the option with SH registering the domains (also, I was not aware that the option to register the domain by yourself after approval was actually working, my bad). Unfortunately, my sales experience was so bad and many of the domains already needed renewal. I would never pay the renewal fee for a domain I don't own, so I choose the option for SH to pay the renewals too. But that diminishes your potential commission even further. I will post this there too, as I guess they should come out with a promise in the lines of '' we will never take more than X commission for a domain we register and pay renewal fees for''. Another concern is if SH would allow us at some point to take over the domains, if they decide they're not interesting for their marketplace anymore.

 

[webcom]

@GrantP Regarding the leaderboard, can you please clarify if the number of domains sold includes only premium listings or does it include basic / basic plus listings as well? If it includes both, would it be possible to include a breakdown of basic / basic plus and premium sales? I believe sales of premium listings are most relevant to the performance of the marketplace and I believe all sellers would be interested in that information.

 

[DomainBanana]

Charging for submissions might make for less submissions but won’t necessarily lead to squadhelp’s being any less selective about allowing garbage in which already there is a good amount of garbage listed at SH.

Well said -- most of their names are pure junk.

 

[urlurl]

With 9.79% marketplace acceptance rate, it's just not economically viable for sellers to submit this way

maybe that's what they want to improve - the submissions sellers send in

im sure some sellers are just throwing anything and everything against the wall to see what sticks - especially when you are able to send in non-registered names.

 

[offthehandle]

Another problem platform? They will probably reject your good names, then reg them themselves next year like what has happened before on the other platforms.

https://www.namepros.com/threads/fe...honesty-trust-integrity.1128903/#post-7159050

https://www.namepros.com/threads/brandbucket-era-is-over.1057812/page-5#post-6507527

Not only that now they have 10,000 names somebody said, wait til its flooded with 50,000 like the other one. Wait till people pay other people to game their system.

 

[NickB]

I have never used this marketplace.
What do you mean with "submission" ?
Do you pay 1 USD or 10 USD per domain you submit to their marketplace ?
What is the commission percentage when selling a name on their marketplace ?

Many thanks!

you pay $1 (coins) per submission with a minimum purchase amount of $5 (coins)

commissions vary quite a bit
https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/997701-domain-marketplace-terms-conditions-for-sellers

 

[DomainBanana]

An Illustration of how SH wants sellers to navigate its marketplace:

 

[Lord Antares]

Sites like BB and SH are a scam. What do they do for you? They charge you for your domains, then charge a commission when you sell the name. In return for what exactly?

The only thing they can offer you is SEO but the marketplace is flooded with such trash that I'm sure it puts off a lot of buyers. Because of their businesses model, they are incentivised to accept as many names as possible (at least BB is). More names accepted = more money

They earn their living from the sellers, not the buyers. Improving this business model is easy as it's so bad.

 

[bojan1]

Having to much submissions is a B.S. explanation. They had limited number of submissions per account, and they were pretty fast (faster then competitors!) in submission time review, which means they handled well with number of submissions.

So, there is no justification for this move.

 

[DomainBanana]

I think this is their third major policy update in less than 24 hours, and do you see how many qualifiers and conditions this update has?

I appreciate SH's responsiveness, but that's not the focus of my criticism in the OP.

Points, coins, rankings, cryptic and convoluted rules -- this is the problem.

Are you familiar with the term kludge? This is what SH is, and it's not fun.

This thread is a bit confusing. I understand that constructive criticism is good, and no - I have nothing to do with SH, nor do I swear by them entirely or absolve them of any criticism.

But what is undeniable is that they listen to customers, respond quickly and iterate based on feedback, much moreso than any other platform in the entire industry.

Here's an updated notice of their decision to *scrap* the $1/submission rule. As you can see, it's still an option if you want lower commissions and to be moved through their queue quicker.

I just found it weird that people are still complaining about the "changes", when in fact the decision was entirely reversed.

If in the event some of you don't get these notifications, here it is in its entirety:

///

From Grant:

We have continued to receive overwhelming feedback from the sellers about the recent changes announced related to Marketplace.

It is clear that a large number of sellers do not wish to pay the upfront $1 fee in lieu of reduced commissions. At SH, our goal has never been to use these fees to generate additional revenue. Our primary goal is to continue to offer the best sell through rates in the industry, while offering the shortest approval times as well as best in class customer support and platform features for our sellers.
As a result of this feedback, we have eliminated the requirement to use Squadhelp coins for ALL SELLERS.

You still have the option to use Squadhelp Coins in lieu of reduced commissions, however if you prefer to stay with the original commission rates, you can simply adjust your preferences in Marketplace Seller Preferences page.

If you are not using SH coins, your account may be limited to how many domains you can submit at a time, and your review and approval times may be a bit longer than usual. In addition, we may decide to remove the free submission option from those seller accounts which are not in good standing, have too many irrelevant submissions or have requested an excessive number of domains to be delisted from their account.

Note: If you are submitting unregistered domains, you will still be required to use Squadhelp coins if you choose to register the domains yourself. This requirement is necessary to manage the overwhelming amount of unregistered domains that are submitted every day for review.

If you have already purchased Squadhelp coins and do not wish to use them for your future submissions, simply contact our support team and we will be happy to give you a refund. Note: In the near future, you will also be able to use Squadhelp coins for other aspects (such as Logo redesigns, Lifestyle images and few other benefits)

At Squadhelp, our mission is to continue to improve our platform every day. While we may not get all the changes right the first time, we are committed to making swift adjustments based upon the feedback from our user community.​

 

[Commulinks]

I don't have a problem with what they've done at all and I have been part of their marketplace since the beginning. As I recall, BB also charged something but I pulled all of my names off BB and moved them to SH because SH SELLS. I have never felt like a pawn over there. They are always clear about what they are doing and why and I have never had any reason to mistrust them.