Atom marketplace (formerly 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.

 

[kaposzta]

Wow, another funny but useless reply from support.

"Hi there. This can be filled on your end. By clicking on Edit Details, you’ll be able to edit the description, add the root words, primary category, secondary categories (also referred to as Possible Uses) and the big ideas / emotions.

For your reference, I've linked an article with instructions below."

So basically it's okay for support if the description is just a rehashed version of my submission description, and no categorization was made whatsoever. Then why should anyone pay this $1 for classification? I've asked a refund. Yes, for $1. Maybe this refund will get the attention of someone at SH.

 

[Ostrados]

Wow, another funny but useless reply from support.

"Hi there. This can be filled on your end. By clicking on Edit Details, you’ll be able to edit the description, add the root words, primary category, secondary categories (also referred to as Possible Uses) and the big ideas / emotions.

For your reference, I've linked an article with instructions below."

So basically it's okay for support if the description is just a rehashed version of my submission description, and no categorization was made whatsoever. Then why should anyone pay this $1 for classification? I've asked a refund. Yes, for $1. Maybe this refund will get the attention of someone at SH.

I tried expert classification twice, I got same results as yours, I didn't bother to ask for refund I just moved on and decided to never order expert classification again.

 

[kaposzta]

I tried expert classification twice, I got same results as yours, I didn't bother to ask for refund I just moved on and decided to never order expert classification again.

I'm sorry t hear you've had similar experience. The weird thing is that this classification is great for all my other domains, except this one. I'm not sure what's the reason and support sees no problem

 

[kaposzta]

Finally, a very competent and nice person (Vincent) looked into my case, issued a refund, and when I asked him how I can request another domain classification, he created and sent me screenshots about the process Such a great customer experience!

 

[GrantP]

Other teams of SH support seem to be non functioning at all.

I can't list any new domains since December.

Here's the story:

- December 25 and 30 - I submitted two batches about 50 domains each.

- In few days, i hadn't received any email, i went to check, and i saw two domains accepted but all others were nowhere to find. Neither in "In Review" nor in Rejected.

- January 4, i send email asking where these domains were.

- January 7, no reply, i'm sending another email requesting follow up.

- January 7, got reply: "I see this is still being looked into by the team but I've sent a followup message to be sure. We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything from them on this."

- January 11, sending another follow up request.

- January 11, got reply: "I see that we have not received an update yet but I will send another followup message to the team."

- January 19, sending another follow up request.

- January 19, got reply: "I will send another followup to our marketplace team to be sure."

- NOTHING SINCE.


Now, i don't want to submit any more domains before i know where all those domains are. I'm afraid to list those again and i don't want to waste my coins for new submissions.

@GrantP , what is going on??

Sorry to hear about your experience. It should not have taken this long to address your issues, and we will use this example as a training opportunity for our support team.

Please note that we've been making some staffing adjustments to bring additional support team members onboard and while there may be some "learning curve" in responses especially from the newer team members, our goal is to make sure they are trained adequately to address and respond to the issues in a timely fashion.

 

[GrantP]

I don't know how SH rotates and feature names on marketplace first pages , I am mostly seeing same featured names on first pages all the month , @GrantP can you please elaborate how SH determines first page listings ? any criteria ? I am mostly seeing same names on first page of premium marketplace , never seen any of my names there ever.

We use several signals to determine the default rank of listings in our Marketplace. These ranks change daily based upon additional signals we receive about the names.

In addition to above, as per our recent announcement, we now use AI based Search technology that assigns a different rank to the names based upon what we know about the buyer. What this means is that a buyer who has demonstrated an interest in "Clothing" related names will likely see more Clothing related listings on the first few pages of the Marketplace. On the other hand, a buyer who has demonstrated interest in "Real Estate" names will see those types of names higher up in the Marketplace. In short, if 100 buyers visit our Marketplace at the same time, it is likely they will all see different results.

You can try this yourself by clearing your cookies or by using an Incognito browser. As you visit different landing pages, and come back to the Marketplace listings page, you will notice that the results are now different compared to what you might have seen previously.

You may be seeing the same names because the algorithm has associated you with a certain Buyer persona, and is prioritizing certain names in your case. Clearing your cookies might change the order of the listings.

 

[AEProgram]

If I lower the price on a name, will those that shortlisted it get a notice?

Thanks

 

[freety85]

If I lower the price on a name, will those that shortlisted it get a notice?

Thanks

This is a great question, also would love to know if a discount applied to a name will people get notified?

One thing however I noticed recently I cannot lower the price on the majority of my domains lower than its original approved price ( only for the names I have 5k+ appraisal ). Not sure if this is a new "feature" or a bug on my account.

I wanted to modify some of my older listings under 2k to move some inventory quicker matching to the SH "sweet spot" price for lower tier names. Maybe this is something to do with their scheduled price increase for low priced names.

 

[Ntmt]

It seems that almost all non-registered names get rejected. When it comes to registered names, I got a 43% acceptance rate, but my rate is less than 3% for unregistered ones. I wonder how many of them would have been accepted if those had been registered. Anyway, for unregistered rejected domains I can still use Alter, where my acceptance rate for such names is around 10%.

You are talking about unregistered domains that will be owned by seller, right?

I wonder why... Is it because they do not want to take the risk to register a domain that could not sell at all, or because they just want us to buy their coins to submit a registered domain...?

Or maybe ALL of those reasons that you listed plus they already own a loooot of domain names which means a loooot of renewals to pay and they just don't want to put more of their money in buying a lot of new names on top of what they already have.

I have the same experience with unregistered domains that will be owned by seller (me).

Or, maybe they check my status, and if I'm not at least silver they don't trust me

I have platinum status and have the same 3% acceptance of unregistered domains. If I register the same domains - I'm getting 25% accepted by experts.

 

[kaposzta]

You are talking about unregistered domains that will be owned by seller, right?

I have the same experience with unregistered domains that will be owned by seller (me).

I have platinum status and have the same 3% acceptance of unregistered domains. If I register the same domains - I'm getting 25% accepted by experts.

I'm talking about unregistered domains that will be registered by Squadhelp.
So after they rejected your unregistered domain submission, you registered some of them and many of them got accepted? Maybe I'll try this as well after the 90 days.

 

[Ntmt]

I'm talking about unregistered domains that will be registered by Squadhelp.
So after they rejected your unregistered domain submission, you registered some of them and many of them got accepted? Maybe I'll try this as well after the 90 days.

I meant not the same domains but from the same pool of unregistered domains.
But I also have experience when exact domain was accepted by experts after rejected by SH reviewers. And I doubt I waited 90 days, I think it was the same month.

 

[M Usman]

If I lower the price on a name, will those that shortlisted it get a notice?

Interesting query

 

[cillx]

In the sellers profile, SH shows "sold value". Is it gross price before SH commission or net price after SH commission?

 

[gblasting]

In the sellers profile, SH shows "sold value". Is it gross price before SH commission or net price after SH commission?

Gross price before SH commission.

 

[NameWell]

Gross price before SH commission.

Which, IMHO, is a very untransparent and possibly misleading number. Let's say someone sold three domain names at $2199 each. That would make their "sold value" $6579. Nice number, right? Now let's say all of those domain names were registered by SH and the seller only got 18% commission from each sale. That would make their actual earnings .... $1184. Roughly five times less than what is boldly displayed in their profile.

I think it would be better to let sellers choose if they want to show their actual earnings or if they want to keep their financial information private (in this case only the number of sold domains and won contests would be visible).

 

[cillx]

Gross price before SH commission.

Which, IMHO, is a very untransparent and possibly misleading number. Let's say someone sold three domain names at $2199 each. That would make their "sold value" $6579. Nice number, right? Now let's say all of those domain names were registered by SH and the seller only got 18% commission from each sale. That would make their actual earnings .... $1184. Roughly five times less than what is boldly displayed in their profile.

I think it would be better to let sellers choose if they want to show their actual earnings or if they want to keep their financial information private (in this case only the number of sold domains and won contests would be visible).

What about SH names selling on afternic, are those names count-in as a sale?

 

[NameWell]

What about SH names selling on afternic, are those names count-in as a sale?

Yes, they do.

 

[BRANDERX]

Are we allowed to sell our SH listed names here on NP or other public forums? To other SH sellers..

 

[rayman617]

When SH premium domains are authorized for AfterNic is that only for AfterNic.com or can you also list them on other domain platforms such as Dan or the GoDaddy marketplace?

 

[gblasting]

When SH premium domains are authorized for AfterNic is that only for AfterNic.com or can you also list them on other domain platforms such as Dan or the GoDaddy marketplace?

Names listed on Afternic are syndicated to GoDaddy and their partner registrars. So no need to list names on GoDaddy marketplace if they are on Afternic.

To your main question, SH's TOS says Afternic only. There is no additional benefit by listing on DAN and other marketplaces without syndication if your name is not pointed there anyways. You can be almost guaranteed that nobody will find your name on DAN if your nameservers are not pointed to DAN.

 

[gblasting]

Your domain name, *******.com was viewed by a buyer before they ended up buying other domains (********.com). This is a great validation that the domain is resonating well with buyers. As a result, we have boosted it's ranking in the Marketplace.

I have gotten three of these in the last 13 days and no sale since November. Hurts not to get a sale but nice to know your name is making people's shortlist before purchasing another name.

 

[Ostrados]

I have gotten three of these in the last 13 days and no sale since November. Hurts not to get a sale but nice to know your name is making people's shortlist before purchasing another name.

Same here no sales since Octobor! I used to have 1 sale every 1-2 months before that, and with half number of domains.

It seems SH became super saturated and it is very hard to sell domains. Others might have different experiences though.

 

[boker]

Names listed on Afternic are syndicated to GoDaddy and their partner registrars. So no need to list names on GoDaddy marketplace if they are on Afternic.

To your main question, SH's TOS says Afternic only. There is no additional benefit by listing on DAN and other marketplaces without syndication if your name is not pointed there anyways. You can be almost guaranteed that nobody will find your name on DAN if your nameservers are not pointed to DAN.

Either advertising, either customers who bought something else from dan.com and were looking for other domains, but I had two inquiries( one resulted in a sale, one name was dropped but I forgot to delete)at dan, without pointing the nameservers.

 

[gblasting]

Either advertising, either customers who bought something else from dan.com and were looking for other domains, but I had two inquiries( one resulted in a sale, one name was dropped but I forgot to delete)at dan, without pointing the nameservers.

That's great to hear. All my names at DAN without DAN's nameservers have zero views.

 

[boker]

That's great to hear. All my names at DAN without DAN's nameservers have zero views.

I don't think that they are counting views if you don't have nameservers pointed to them. I've checked and they show something like: 1 inquiry, 0 views, so to be able to have any data, probably you will need to point them to dan.