SquadHelp - Marketplace

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[Seyikp]

Maybe you should still try more to persuade them and and see if you can work things out. Because going this path won't be in the interest of both you and SH reputation. I've also been having high rate of rejections. Not because those names aren't great fit but for reasons that I don't know. But I'll not relent. Please brother just try to work things out amicably. There is this African proverb that says "it is the beginning of fight that we know, no one knows where it will end" Every revolution starts with a spark, before it turns into wildfire. Pls sheath your sword.

 

[samuel12]

Maybe you should still try more to persuade them and and see if you can work things out. Because going this path won't be in the interest of both you and SH reputation. I've also been having high rate of rejections. Not because those names aren't great fit but for reasons that I don't know. But I'll not relent. Please brother just try to work things out amicably. There is this African proverb that says "it is the beginning of fight that we know, no one knows where it will end" Every revolution starts with a spark, before it turns into wildfire. Pls sheath your sword.

Hello, I'm a beginner in domaining and just got registered on SH, I have submitted 3 unregistered names on SH but one was removed(I checked and it has not been registered).

I replaced the name that was removed and today another 2 names have been removed( they have not been registered).

Any cause for this, I'm getting confused with the SH does it things.

 

[DomainBanana]

Hello, I'm a beginner in domaining and just got registered on SH, I have submitted 3 unregistered names on SH but one was removed(I checked and it has not been registered).

I replaced the name that was removed and today another 2 names have been removed( they have not been registered).

Any cause for this, I'm getting confused with the SH does it things.

Did you check the "rejected" dropdown menu?

If domains are rejected, they end up there with no notification.

 

[samuel12]

Did you check the "rejected" dropdown menu?

If domains are rejected, they end up there with no notification.

Thanks I just checked and it has been rejected, really disappointed I thought the names were good.

 

[Seyikp]

Thanks I just checked and it has been rejected, really disappointed I thought the names were good.

You're welcome. That means they have baptized you. Keep reading on the names that fit for brandable. And don't be deter with the rate of rejections, forge ahead and the sky will be your springboard.

 

[Cdomains]

This has been really bugging me for a while now

and I know other people must be bothered by this too.


I would post this on the SH forum but they shut down

any post that is critical of the platform even if it is a

legitimate concern.


It is mostly the top winners

who "protect" SH from any valid criticism.



Here is the issue-


As contestants we work really hard to come up with good names.

I have lost a number of contests where my names were "loved" and/or

shortlisted and I lost the contest only to find the contest holder

regged my entry and used it instead of the winning name.


They used my name - but picked another as the winner!!

That is B*llSh*t!!!!


It is bad enough to lose a contest and have your name stolen by

the Contest holder.


Worse is losing the contest and the prize and have them pick

another name as the winner, but still reg and use your name anyway.


I know this is not SqaudHelp's fault, but it really sucks to have this

happen more than once.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I lost the contest only to find the contest holder

regged my entry and used it instead of the winning name.

Do you have proof the contest holder(s) themselves regged your submitted domain, and it wasn't just another SH creative?

By proof, I mean. Share the domain you suggested for a contest. Let us see that either the contest holder had regged it (either by WHOIS, parking DRID, or some other verifiable metric) or better yet, if the domain you submitted for a contest, was picked up by the contest holder, developed, and is using your entry as a developed domain, opposed to the winning domain.

As one thing I can think of, off the top of my head:

Scenario (1)

I had an issue submitting "Mommy Jeans" as the business name, for my domain name MommyJeans.com.

I had to submit it as
Business Name: Mommy Jeanss
Domain name: MommyJeans.com

Getting to the point, that sometimes SH creatives are restricted from submitting the same, or a close variation of the name.

And upon a SH creative entry being blocked, either for the exact or similar form of their submission, a SH creative may register different variations of their domain, even if not for the purpose of a SH contest, but because it may be a needed (maybe newly dropped) variation of a current domain in the SH creatives portfolio.

Hence, why I ask, if you know for sure if your domain submission was purchased by a SH contest holder, rather then by a SH creative?

 

[Cdomains]

Do you have proof the contest holder(s) themselves regged your submitted domain, and it wasn't just another SH creative?

Yes - In one or two cases the contest holder used their real name in the contest and even though the

whois does not show the name any longer, I was able to verify from their website.



In other cases the name was redirected from my winning name to their site and again I was able

to verify that way.



In one case I was able to see the nameservers from my name and the site where it was redirected were

the same, and this was not a major provider but a very obscure one where the chances of the two sites

matching were very small.


Usually, the only way to verify now is to do some detective work.


When the name is used for a coaching business or something like that, they tend

to show their name on the site, so it is easy.


In other cases you can look at the page that lists the "team" members to find this out.


This is unrelated, but I have also found some names regged and then for sale at SH,

but it is possible another creative came up with the same name while working

on a contest and regged it.

But this has happened with some names that were so unique it makes me wonder.

'
I forgot to mention one other clue - the names that were regged by the Contest Holders

were usually regged within a few days to a week after the contest ended, and also, at least once

even before the contest ended.

 

[SuperBrander]

@Cdomains Since I'm one of the "top winners" you're referring to- I'll chime in and say that first, I'm not trying to "protect" SH from criticism. On the contrary, I wrote earlier that everybody should air their thoughts. I've been at SH for many years, way before the marketplace existed, and have been one of the loudest critics of issues I found problematic. I still chime in when something happens that I don't like.

Contest Holders regging domains sucks. I've had countless domains that I suggested registered throughout the years during contests or immediately after them and wasn't compensated for 99.9% of them. One of the reasons SH started registering domains and allowing user registered domains to be submitted into contests was in order to give contestants the option to protect domains. From there, the marketplace evolved. Like you said, SH can't prevent CH from doing it. They try to monitor it but it's often impossible to enforce if domains are registered under privacy and Contest Holders don't admit that they registered something. So it is what it is. If a domain is important to you, reg it first or try to get SH to reg it for you so it'll be protected.

As for other matters- criticizing SH and trying to get things changed is all good and well and I'm all for change, if enough people are on board. BUT people are allowed to not agree or say some positive things too without being labeled as company insiders, biased or what not. These exact same discussions were had about BB and they're still ridiculous now as they were then. As for me- my opinion is worth exactly as much as any other creative's opinion and though I know it's fun to point fingers at people who do well, single them out and try to make their opinions invalid- let's grow up. I criticized SH so many times in the past including lately for things that I thought were problematic, that saying otherwise is simply misinformed. The number one seller, by the way, has also been extremely critical of SH regarding certain matters including recently. The fact that you don't know that it happened, doesn't make it unhappen. Nobody is trying to prevent you or anybody else from criticizing. Go for it. But being civil about it and not antagonizing SH is probably best if people want them to listen and consider changes.

 

[DomainBanana]

Nobody is trying to prevent you or anybody else from crticizing.

Squadhelp recently placed restrictions on my account based on my criticism of the marketplace.

Further, Squadhelp carefully monitors its discussion board and censors critical comments. And there are a number of Squadhelp groupies (I don't place you in this category @SuperBrander) who work tirelessly to quash all criticism of the platform.

So according to my experience, @Cdomains is right. This is a serious problem.

For example, another user recently took the time to provide some feedback on the SH discussion board.

Rather than addressing this user's frustrations, the Squadhelp groupies immediately jumped in to drown out the critical comment:

"SH support is by far fastest and best I have ever worked with...

SH is doing a great job...

SH is the best place for freelance work...

SH is a superior naming platform in every way."​

The critical comment was completely wiped away by these groupies.

In a culture like this, it is impossible to have a genuine discussion about our concerns.

 

[SuperBrander]

@DomainBanana Yeah, I read the exchange you had with Grant. I don't know the exact details of what happened in the specific incident that caused this restriction but in general I'm under the impression that you've been too confrontational about things you don't like. I've seen you write a lot of good things about SH too, but when you don't like something- you really go on a crusade about it to an extent that's probably not helpful for what you're trying to achieve. Not sure what happened in their forum, but over here- we're in a public forum and this stuff gets indexed. So don't write anything you'll regret. SH does make a lot of changes within short periods of time and then readjust while they're moving. I don't like it either, or the whole gamification concept for that matter and voiced my opinion about it a few times in the past, but to their credit- they do often make changes quickly based on feedback and often it improves things. If enough people feel the same way you do, they'll likely continue to try to find a solution that will help. Anyway... I hope they'll reverse the restriction.

 

[Cdomains]

Nobody is trying to prevent you or anybody else from criticizing

My experience has been that any time I mentioned something about the platform that was troubling I was

immediately attacked.


It has been a very long time since I last posted on the forum.


After being attacked for simply mentioning some of the problems with the platform

I gave up and realized it made no difference.


I haven't been on the forum for a long time and I have no intention of returning any time soon.


As I said in my original post - I don't blame SH - they can't control what contest holders do

after a contest ends.


It is just very frustrating.

 

[GrantP]

@GrantP I made this post a week ago & still received no response. Can you please address this https://www.namepros.com/posts/7768004/

I apologize about the delayed response. The portfolio popularity is based upon several factors (number of shortlists is one of them). Recency also plays a significant role. For example, if you received many of the shortlists 2 months ago, they do not carry as much weight as the shortlists that you might have received in last week for example. The absolute number of shortlists alone is also not a reliable indicator. For example, if a name has 5 shortlists after 500 landing page views - clearly it is not as popular as a name with 2 shortlists after 20 views. There are also several other factors that play a role in calculating the overall popularity ranking.

There are few ways to improve popularity of your names (or portfolio):

https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/a...sell-through-rate-of-your-marketplace-domains

One of the most important aspects is to ensure that the domain is properly classified with proper root words, industries etc so that it is picked up by our AI technology and is automatically recommended to relevant buyers. More often a domain is recommended, it will give us additional signals that may lead to better popularity.

Participating in contests or allowing other creatives to submit your names to contests can also help. When a name is liked by a contest holder, it typically helps with the popularity ranking of the name.

There can also be a negative impact on popularity if our algorithm detects that someone is attempting to "influence" the popularity in ways that are not allowed.

We continue to fine tune the popularity algorithm based upon our ongoing learnings.

 

[GrantP]

Squadhelp recently placed restrictions on my account based on my criticism of the marketplace.

It is unfortunate that you continue to imply that the restrictions in your account were due to criticism of the platform. We have provided specific examples to you privately about reasons for the restrictions.

 

[SuperBrander]

@Cdomains I don't know what was written to you, but people love having opinions and defending them adamantly (I know I do) and these brandable marketplaces discussions especially tend to derail into heated discussions about policies, favoritism etc. People who think certain policies are impacting them negatively are vocal about trying to change them and people who don't agree are trying to prove them wrong and pushing back. That's the way it's gonna be. Don't take it personally but also don't dismiss other people's opinions just because they don't agree on a specific matter or seem too positive to your liking. Every person has different domains, different perspectives, different experiences on the platform and it's all very dynamic and can change with time, sales, policy updates etc.

 

[DomainBanana]

It is unfortunate that you continue to imply that the restrictions in your account were due to criticism of the platform. We have provided specific examples to you privately regarding your posts which targeted other members of our community, and directly accused them of following unethical practices because some of your names were rejected after the expert review process. In one of your public posts (which was later deleted), you even mentioned a specific name and called out reviewers who owned names containing the same word, implying that they rejected it on purpose.

There is a fine line between criticizing the platform vs targeting other members of our community. We will gladly accept any criticism for the platform, or any of our features but will not stand for any discourse which targets other members of our community.

@GrantP

These are false and slanderous accusations that damage my business. Please retract them and issue an apology immediately.

It is not true that I am targeting specific members of the community.

I did not mention specific reviewers. You have not provided specific examples of posts where I target other members of the community and you cannot do this because I haven't done it.

If you insist that I did, please produce the evidence.

You have refused to take my calls.

Jonathan has refused to discuss this with me.

If you accuse me of something and take actions against my account because of it, the least you can do is show me the evidence.

If you are so concerned with "discourse which targets members of your community", please abide by those standards yourself and do not level false accusations against me.

Once again: you and Squadhelp have falsely accused me without providing evidence and without allowing me to defend myself. This is slander and I respectfully call for an immediate retraction and apology.

 

[Cdomains]

@Cdomains I don't know what was written to you, but people love having opinions and defending them adamantly (I know I do) and these brandable marketplaces discussions especially tend to derail into heated discussions about policies, favoritism etc. People who think certain policies are impacting them negatively are vocal about trying to change them and people who don't agree are trying to prove them wrong and pushing back. That's the way it's gonna be. Don't take it personally but also don't dismiss other people's opinions just because they don't agree on a specific matter or seem too positive to your liking. Every person has different domains, different perspectives, different experiences on the platform and it's all very dynamic and can change with time, sales, policy updates etc.

I agree.

I have no problem with differing ideas.

Like I said, I have not been on the forum in a very long time.

I have no plans to post there in the future.

I am over it.

 

[BrandEntrance.com]

But I've 5 votes in one of my domain but still rejected , requested for review and got no response for over 2 weeks.

I had one rejected for premium, asked for a review (forgotten), then I tried the logo purchace for $5 and put it at max basic plus price $2399.

Now they have accepted for premium at the basic plus max price and want 30%.

That's rich SH.

Moved it to Dan. No more SH time for me. They only prioritise first adopters.

Only site that certify people as incompetent to submit good names ahead of those who registered at the site first. Then limiting entries, access etc.

I wouldn't put a contest there for money. It's hardly a good deal for a paying customer to NOT get name submissions. I would want...

Well... That would be telling.

I have many ideas about how to improve it but I don't submit ideas anymore.

Not worried about reprisals...

 

[Chris Hydrick]

My recent SH experience:

I recently bought M o n e y E a r l y .COM on a nP auction for 4X the price of a hand reg. (shhh nP has good deals)

I felt it had a good chance of being SH premium.

I used a SH coin. (purchased at 50% off using SH points)

It was rejected.

Though, and I don't know if this is because I used a coin, the submission states reviewed by SH Internal Team as well as being provided an Expert Review Score 1/10.

So even though the rejection is disappointing to my expectation, considering a SH coin was used, I appreciate the fact that it was viewed by an apparent internal team. Opposed to the below auto rejected response (which was submitted without a SH coin) that also cost me more than a hand reg, but was rejected at 1/15 with no internal review.

I guess what I'm saying, is if the customer is going to spend the extra funds (a SH coin) for the submission/review, then I hope that review is given a fair shot. Though, in respect to other feedback, should a seller be required to pay SH to receive a fair shot?

Or, is researching the domain, and paying whatever amount is needed to acquire the domain, enough for SH sellers to receive a for review shot?

I don't mean for this review to sound overly critical. As the addition of certain features tells me SH is making a sincere effort. Just providing some feedback.

Additionally, for it not have been SquadHelps valiant decision to forgo (be it temporary or permanent) the wholesale commission fee, I'm not sure how excited I would have been to using coins. But, since it appears SH took a morally responsible high ground, I'm happy to balance out their loss, with paying for some SH coins every now and then, to help balance out the cost of their time (since it appears they're paying it forward).

 

[howudoin8]

I apologize about the delayed response. The portfolio popularity is based upon several factors (number of shortlists is one of them). Recency also plays a significant role. For example, if you received many of the shortlists 2 months ago, they do not carry as much weight as the shortlists that you might have received in last week for example. The absolute number of shortlists alone is also not a reliable indicator. For example, if a name has 5 shortlists after 500 landing page views - clearly it is not as popular as a name with 2 shortlists after 20 views. There are also several other factors that play a role in calculating the overall popularity ranking.

There are few ways to improve popularity of your names (or portfolio):

https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/a...sell-through-rate-of-your-marketplace-domains

One of the most important aspects is to ensure that the domain is properly classified with proper root words, industries etc so that it is picked up by our AI technology and is automatically recommended to relevant buyers. More often a domain is recommended, it will give us additional signals that may lead to better popularity.

Participating in contests or allowing other creatives to submit your names to contests can also help. When a name is liked by a contest holder, it typically helps with the popularity ranking of the name.

There can also be a negative impact on popularity if our algorithm detects that someone is attempting to "influence" the popularity in ways that are not allowed.

We continue to fine tune the popularity algorithm based upon our ongoing learnings.

Thanks for your response Grant.

I've been doing all the things highlighted in this article from Day 1. All my domains are on autopilot discounts, are allowed to be submitted to contests by other creatives, are ON for "Exit Intent Offers" & "Cloud Brokerage" & even the "Negotiation Preference" is set to "SH can negotiate on my behalf and do it what it takes to close the sale at the best possible price."

The only thing that I can think of here is that I've never used Super Boost feature for any domain.

I have 28 Premium listing & just today got approval for my 29'th (First .co).

However, I didn't submitted any names to SH in last 8 months & basically went on a hiatus. Could this be the reason for drop in popularity from 70 to 30%?

I'm now submitting 1 domain per day in hopes of propping my popularity (Approval rate is still at 15%), so is this something that can help?

 

[karmaco]

My recent SH experience:

I recently bought M o n e y E a r l y .COM on a nP auction for 4X the price of a hand reg. (shhh nP has good deals)

I felt it had a good chance of being SH premium.

I used a SH coin. (purchased at 50% off using SH points)

It was rejected.

Though, and I don't know if this is because I used a coin, the submission states reviewed by SH Internal Team as well as being provided an Expert Review Score 1/10.

Show attachment 155091


So even though the rejection is disappointing to my expectation, considering a SH coin was used, I appreciate the fact that it was viewed by an apparent internal team. Opposed to the below auto rejected response (which was submitted without a SH coin) that also cost me more than a hand reg, but was rejected at 1/15 with no internal review.

I guess what I'm saying, is if the customer is going to spend the extra funds (a SH coin) for the submission/review, then I hope that review is given a fair shot. Though, in respect to other feedback, should a seller be required to pay SH to receive a fair shot?

Or, is researching the domain, and paying whatever amount is needed to acquire the domain, enough for SH sellers to receive a for review shot?

I don't mean for this review to sound overly critical. As the addition of certain features tells me SH is making a sincere effort. Just providing some feedback.

Additionally, for it not have been SquadHelps valiant decision to forgo (be it temporary or permanent) the wholesale commission fee, I'm not sure how excited I would have been to using coins. But, since it appears SH took a morally responsible high ground, I'm happy to balance out their loss, with paying for some SH coins every now and then, to help balance out the cost of their time (since it appears they're paying it forward).

They didn’t do anything noble by reducing or stopping wholesale commissions. They were greedy, as always, for pushing their way into the trading of names for the purpose of their financial gain in the first place. Its not their business if you want to sell names privately. Why did they ever warrant a cut?

Everyone else has a no charge Slack Channel for trading names non publicly. A person is free to trade here privately. Everything they do in their ever changing policies is for the benefit of SH and not the sellers.

People just like to be taken advantage of every step of the way it appears from the insane commission, contest issues, coins and so on. Remember when they said never trust a marketplace that charges you for a review? I do.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Why did they ever warrant a cut?

Well, for one, payment processing fee's. I think by SH not charging any fee whatsoever for wholesale sales, they may be losing money in each transaction.

Everyone else has a no charge Slack Channel for trading names non publicly. A person is free to trade here privately.

I get that perspective.

But when I sell on slack, PayPal is generally the payment processor of choice, and in that regards, it's an escrowless transaction (fine), but also subject to PayPal fee's if not paid F&F.

Everything they do in their ever changing policies is for the benefit of SH and not the sellers.

I also see the argument, that the easing up in charging wholesale fee's could be chalked up to customer education, geared towards educating/testing their internal wholesale system. <<similar to the Wendys APP giving away (a) free baconator breakfast sandwich w/ any APP purchase or (b) free kids meal with any APP purchase. I assume financially chalked up to consumer education.

Personally, irrespective of my disappointments with SH review accuracy, I prefer to sell on SH wholesale. Today was a one off in terms of payout requests, I guess I just happened to get the request in, under the cut-off time for a quick payment.

Remember when they said never trust a marketplace that charges you for a review? I do.

Where/when was this said?

I said something similar when BP started out with no listing fee's, then shortly after, realized the volume was too heavy, and started charging listing fee's. Though, despite that, I have heard some good things from BP sellers. Thus, domainers aren't always right.

 

[karmaco]

Well, for one, payment processing fee's. I think by SH not charging any fee whatsoever for wholesale sales, they may be losing money in each transaction.



I get that perspective.

But when I sell on slack, PayPal is generally the payment processor of choice, and in that regards, it's an escrowless transaction (fine), but also subject to PayPal fee's if not paid F&F.



I also see the argument, that the easing up in charging wholesale fee's could be chalked up to customer education, geared towards educating/testing their internal wholesale system. <<similar to the Wendys APP giving away (a) free baconator breakfast sandwich w/ any APP purchase or (b) free kids meal with any APP purchase. I assume financially chalked up to consumer education.

Personally, irrespective of my disappointments with SH review accuracy, I prefer to sell on SH wholesale. Today was a one off in terms of payout requests, I guess I just happened to get the request in, under the cut-off time for a quick payment.

Show attachment 155118




Where/when was this said?

I said something similar when BP started out with no listing fee's, then shortly after, realized the volume was too heavy, and started charging listing fee's. Though, despite that, I have heard some good things from BP sellers. Thus, domainers aren't always right.

They said on their Selling On SquadHelp pages never trust a market who charges you for reviews (On their selling on SH policy pages for at least a year) that was obvi a stab at BB. Then they did it too so quite a bit of hypocrisy.

 

[DomainBanana]

Where/when was this said?

This is from a once-famous post that has since been deleted:

https://helpdesk.squadhelp.com/en/articles/2841850-the-real-costs-of-listing-domains-in-marketplaces​

You can still see a quote on the discussion board where G. says:

"We have aligned our commission structures directly with the success of our sellers. We do not want any revenue if we are unable to sell your names."​

https://squadhelp.com/t/the-real-costs-of-listing-domains-article-discrepancies/3682/8

Better check it out fast before it's removed, too

 

[Chris Hydrick]

They said on their Selling On SquadHelp pages never trust a register who charges you for reviews (On their selling on SH policy pages for at least a year) that was obvi a stab at BB.

Are you referring to this page?

https://www.squadhelp.com/sell-domain-names

The earliest archive.org entry is from March 31st, 2019.

<<>>

(ADDED) Edit:

Better check it out fast before it's removed, too

General word of advice,
If there is a concern of a public webpage being removed soon. Archive it somewhere.
Be it with a CTRL + S on your local device, or on a public archive service such as Archive.li.

https://archive.li/mxiF8