sales Swetha’s Sales – The Truth May Shock You!

[Digital Nomad]

Here is a nice article posted on NameBio.com by Michael Sumner the CEO of NameBio.com. He asked for Swetha's aka @DNGear username and password to log into her Afternic account to confirm the sales once and for all, read it all below or go to https://namebio.com/blog/swethas-sales-the-truth-may-shock-you/

Swetha’s Sales – The Truth May Shock You!​

Yesterday there was quite the stir on Twitter after Swetha reported another batch of jaw-dropping .xyz sales. User @jackdomainer did some research and found that an overwhelming majority of her sales were still not developed, which he thought was suspicious given the price tags. Theories started flying around, and even the Castello Brothers and Rick Schwartz chimed in with vague statements alluding to some grand conspiracy.

Grab some popcorn and read it for yourself here:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1596296988966154241

The low rate of development was the only “proof” provided so far. But why report fake sales? Well isn’t it obvious? To boost the value of her own assets so she can dump them on unsuspecting wholesalers, hoping to reproduce her incredible success, for inflated prices.


But ask yourself this… how many times have you seen Swetha wholesaling premium .xyz domains? I may have missed it, but I don’t recall seeing that.


For years I’ve been in the awkward position of publishing these sales reports. All I can go on is a screenshot, which she graciously provided for every single sale report since the day she started sharing. But screenshots can be faked relatively easily.


I could ask her to share her screen with me while she logs in to a marketplace, but even that could be faked with browser extensions that modify the page live. It’s more difficult than faking a screenshot, but not impossible. Not good enough.


To get a definitive answer, I reached out to Swetha and asked for the unthinkable. I asked if she would give me her username and password to her Afternic account, so I could log in myself and verify all the sales she has ever reported at this marketplace.





I felt bad even asking. Here she is sharing her valuable sales data with the community, all while being given endless grief about it. And now some stranger is asking to log in to her Afternic account. A lesser person would have just said “fuck it”, stopped reporting sales, and told me to go away. But you know what… she agreed! It was at this moment I knew it was all true and factual, but still, I’m going to “due diligence” the heck out of this.


So I quickly logged in to her Afternic account and visited this URL to get a dump of all the raw sales data. Then I started taking screenshots of her sales summary page. I logged out and let her know I was done so she could change her password. Then I started diving in.


One by one I checked the sales against what we have in our database. Every single one of them was perfect. Except I discovered something shocking. Quite a few of the sales were never reported. However good you think she’s doing based on what she has reported, she’s actually doing even better. That’s insane!


Now remember, Swetha has been reporting sales for quite a while now. All this time, she had no idea I would ever ask her to log in to any of her accounts, or which one(s) I would ask for. So if she was going to fabricate sales, she would have no way of knowing to always keep Afternic clean, as opposed to DAN or Escrow.com or whatever. Thus I now feel 100% confident in all her reports, not just the Afternic ones.


I also now feel confident in saying that Swetha is probably in the Top 100 of all domain investors who have ever lived, and she is probably in the Top 5 of all investors who aren’t part of the “old guard”. Maybe even #1 of the new generation.


But more than that, she is a kindhearted individual who is generously sharing what is working for her even though it makes new acquisitions more expensive for her. And even when the haters show up in droves, she stays the course. Thank you Swetha.


Is it possible that she’s a shill for the registry, and they’re creating hundreds of accounts across multiple marketplaces to buy the domains from her? I mean anything is possible. But it seems highly improbable that they would lock up funds and trust that she would always give them back, just to create the appearance of demand. They don’t benefit from the wholesale aftermarket, so it would just be for the sake of hand regs.


And then how do you explain the ones that are developed? And how do you explain other people getting large XYZ sales? Believe what you want, and skepticism is generally a healthy thing, but this theory seems so out there and lacking in any evidence that I have to think anyone who believes it is jealous (or loves conspiracy theories more than Rob Monster).


Here is the full screenshot I took of her sales summary page, with unreported sales blacked out for her privacy. Again, I took this screenshot myself while personally logged in to her Afternic account, it was not shared with me. I saw it with my own eyes.

Check out the screenshot of Swetha's sales at: https://namebio.com/assets/swetha-sales.jpg

Source: https://namebio.com/blog/swethas-sales-the-truth-may-shock-you/

 

[Bob Hawkes]

59% is a very high number. Can you show me any other extension with similar statistics?

Can you show me any other case of an investor having diligently, over years, collected maybe half of the best names, without premium renewals, one by one, auction after auction, registration after registration, in any TLD?

That is what is unique here. That she bought when few others were, the lowest years of the TLD, kept at it year after year, probably losing money in many of those years, that is what is unique here.

Now when she has success, suddenly (not talking you Brad but all the detractors on social media) there are people coming up with all sorts of doubts of her authenticity and success.

-Bob

 

[Bob Hawkes]

What do people say to do in domain investing?
1. Learn what makes a good brand. She did that.
2. Be alert to trends. She did that with web3 in particular.
3. Have a strategy and plan. Check.
4. Be disciplined, take only quality names. She did that (realize some dispute the .xyz, but no one can reasonably dispute her SLD choices).
5. Hold out for good prices. Don't give your names away. Check
6. Get all your names listed effectively on the biggest markets. Check.
7. Every name lander works. Check.
8. BIN price most of your names. Check.
9. Don't just price one or two tiers, actually price different names differently. Check

So she does everything most would say should be done, and people think because some guy who joined Twitter in July likes to come up with conspiracy theories each day, that there is something amiss. Seriously, people.

She did what the experts said to do. Just in .xyz. She got lucky when the Ethereum founder announced .xyz was the first centralized TLD to be supported by ENS. That was the springboard to web3 fascination with .xyz. She built on that through appropriate hashtags when she announced sales.

Other people did it on smaller scale in .tv, in .co, .org or a few other TLDs. We should delight in their success.

And you know what? It is good for all of us, even those who invest only in .com. There are lots of examples, and there will be more, of web3 startups securing a good .xyz, growing and gaining funding, and then locking up the .com, .io, .ai or a few others. It is good for everyone, it really is win-win.

What does this constant sowing of far-fetched doubts do? It is a lose-lose for everyone. Seriously, our industry can and must do better.

Honestly. I am so tired of this. Sorry, rant over.

Have a good holiday period everyone.

Bob

 

[bmugford]

Can you show me any other case of an investor having diligently, over years, collected maybe half of the best names, without premium renewals, one by one, auction after auction. That is what is unique here. That she bought when few others were, the lowest years of the TLD, kept at it year after year, probably losing money in many of those years, that is what is unique here. Now when she has success, suddenly (not talking you Brad but all the detractors on social media) there are people coming up with all sorts of doubts of her authenticity and success.
-Bob

You are just proving my point though. It is a unique statistical outlier.
That point can't really be debated.

NameBio acts like 59% is not some extraordinary number. It clearly is.

How that happened is another discussion. I have said before it was an overnight success, years in the making.
These domains were renewed for years when there was very little interest. I give @DNGear credit for that.

The skepticism starts with the numbers, because it is so far outside the norm.

Some people though are taking it way too far from just looking at the stats, to much more toxic attacks involving doxxing, racism, and more.

Brad

 

[bmugford]

So she does everything most would say should be done, and people think because some guy who joined Twitter in July likes to come up with conspiracy theories each day, that there is something amiss. Seriously, people.

On a side note, I have never used Twitter that much.

I started to use it a bit more lately, but after seeing how toxic things on there can be I am not sure how much more I want to use it.

Brad

 

[Bob Hawkes]

seeing how toxic things on there can be I am not sure how much more I want to use it.

It is a strange beast. There are incredibly kind interactions, tons of them, on the platform, but also the most toxic things, as you say.

I find the fascination of the platform among so many domain investors odd. You are investing in something outside your control. Exactly what we tell people not to do and secure their name, invest in their website. I do it too. It just always seems incongruent to me.

Anyway, I am getting off topic.

Have a great holiday period Brad, and thank you for being so engaged on NamePros. And talking sense all the time. Even when I disagree with you

Bob

 

[J.R.]

Now when she has success, suddenly (not talking you Brad but all the detractors on social media) there are people coming up with all sorts of doubts of her authenticity and success.

-Bob

Your argument is disingenuous at best.

With success comes scrutiny, when you secure 9 of 100 spots (nearly $1M) on the DN Journal TOP 100 list for 2022; people are going to discuses your public sales track record. 90% of domain sales are NOT publicy shared a reason - a high priority on privacy.

How many domainers in any extension can take 10 spots in 2022, bear market?

https://domainincite.com/27356-xyz-bosses-pay-1-5-million-to-settle-feds-loan-scam-claims

Moreover, when you read the $1.5M FTC settlement complaint with Negari and his executives and the hundreds of websites and interlinked companies mentioned ; reasonable people become more skeptical of anything attached to (.XYZ).

Madoff, 2008 Housing crises and now Crypto Winter and FTX collapse; every other speculative bubble had these patterns of a mob shouting down truth seekers (see persecution of Brooksly Born before housing crises) until the very moment the scam is fully exposed.

As of this entry, Binance may be on the verge of massive withdrawals and collapse by end of next week.

A year ago, skeptics would have been hounded, spammed, and viciously persecuted by social media influencers for questioning the fundamentals of cryptocurrency, NFTS, and these blockchain exchanges.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-sec-charges-8-influencers-100-mln-stock-fraud-scheme-2022-12-14/

Kevin O-Leary, only a week ago ,was falling on the sword for FTX and SBF - until he was exposed as a $15M paid shill.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/kevin-o-leary-lost-the-15m-he-was-paid-to-be-ftx-s-spokesperson

You may be uncomfortable with the next individuals assessment of the info available, but only time will tell who will be proven right.

 

[phaethon]

Moreover, when you read the $1.5M FTC settlement complaint with Negari and his executives and the hundreds of websites and interlinked companies mentioned ; reasonable people become more skeptical of anything attached to (.XYZ).

Anyone knows how many accounts / affiliates Negari has on NP?

 

[J.R.]

Anyone knows how many accounts / affiliates Negari has on NP?

Good question.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Your argument is disingenuous at best.

I guess that is me, then. I don't feel that way, but ....

I have never invested $1 in crypto or NFTs. Not saying those that do and did were wrong, but I didn't feel comfortable personally. I find most NFTs incredibly ugly. But it is my oldness I guess. Ever invest in decentralized domains? Not for me.

I admire the care that people like Michael at NameBio and Ron at DNJournal do their work.

That is partly why, despite someone complaining that I should be considering sales not in NameBio, I never relent. He takes his job seriously. He does incredible work. I only use NameBio-listed sales.

He did something extraordinary. Without notice, ask for control of her Afternic account. And every sale, every single one, correct. Then Dan co-founder confirmed those sales. It was enough for me.

For those not on social media, there has been a conspiracy theory of the day there. Every time one of their arguments is refuted (the sales reports are photoshopped, the name never sold because it was not developed, etc.) another new one, more lacking in substance than the previous one, pops up. That is what my rant was about. We have to stop giving oxygen, mainly on Twitter, to the bullies and conspiracy theorists.

Now it has reached the point of doubting someone is a person. Seriously. Think when that has been done in history. We must not go back there.

Will .xyz see a pull back? Quite probably, with the troubles of the web3 world of late. But is it all some big conspiracy? No.

Will .xyz overtake .com? No, not in my opinion, never.

Should people invest in .xyz? Each person's decision. It makes sense for some, not for many.

Should people blindly invest in anything because someone has big sales? No, for sure not.

What we can learn from is what she has done superbly well. A lot of that has nothing to do with .xyz at all, in my opinion, and my earlier rant was covering what I see as lessons to learn.

Clear BIN pricing, every name listed, landers that work, attention to pricing, etc.

Maybe it is just me, but I absolutely hate haggling when I buy anything. I used to have a Saturn simply because of no-haggle pricing, well and plastic body for that Canadian salt.
Price on request? I'm gone.
Talk to our salesperson? Really I'd rather not.
Tell us your budget. Really, it's my business.
This name might be for sale? Don't you know if it is? If you are not sure, I'm gone.
Make an offer, we are starting at $5 million for this name registered 2 years ago. I'd rather just buy one at a clear and fair price, thank you.

Maybe it's just me, but I wonder if our industry is failing to see that people might have wanted to go through offers and counter offers and all that in a previous generation, but a lot of the startup founders just out of university, just want clear pricing and a BIN button.

Most web3 startups seem to want a short, ideally single-word name. They can't afford that in .com. Yet. They really can't, as much as domainers say they should. Because early Web3 means you have an idea and white paper and not much more. You don't, yet, have oodles of cash.

So someone acquired the best single words in something else, and presented them all super effectively for the new generation of buyers.

We should learn from success, not to copy anyone in total, but to see what elements might apply to us.

I try to visit thousands of domain names in my analyses over the year. You know what amazes me more than anything else? So many absolutely great names are so hard to determine if they are even for sale. Truly. Zillions of dollars in domains in some hinterland of unclear status.

Take care. Probably another disingenuous at best rant. I guess it's what I do. I'm old. Humour me. I spell funny. It's a Canadian thing. I try to be nice and respect people.

-Bob

 

[Lox]

In web3, the sales follow-up is where most further deals are won. Getting a referral or introduction from web3 gen will help you close more deals and make more sales happen. In your sales story/price, you are not the important… your web3 customer is! Now, if someone recommends someone to you, they suggest that you have what they want, That's how this works... instead of watching Disney+ and popcorn.
Regarding xyz sales and prices.
I have been monitoring all sales, acquisitions, developments, funds etc closely, testing markets very carefully, on a daily base interacting w web3 devs and 32 major web3 VCs and I manage to close 38 xyz deals. Hard cheese $.

Keep watching .... or start changing mindset and sell. < Apply to many extesions. No offense!


Regards

 

[Bob Hawkes]

your web3 customer is!

I think same is true for domains in general. It is not, at all, about the domainer. It is about what a name can do for the client. Period. Thanks for reminding us of that.

testing markets very carefully, on a daily base interacting w web3 devs and 32 major web3 VCs and I manage to close 38 xyz deals.

Very interesting. Following major web3 VCs is something I never considered but makes perfect sense. Congratulations on your success, and thanks for sharing.
-Bob

 

[phaethon]

Good question.

I liked some Negari's affiliate selling point here: if you have only 100 XYZs its unlikely to sell something, you must have thousands XYZs- like Swetha
Btw, Swetha, looking forwards to watching your 1 second video where you just say hi..

 

[J.R.]

I guess that is me, then. I don't feel that way, but ....

I have never invested $1 in crypto or NFTs. Not saying those that do and did were wrong, but I didn't feel comfortable personally. I find most NFTs incredibly ugly. But it is my oldness I guess. Ever invest in decentralized domains? Not for me.


Will .xyz see a pull back? Quite probably, with the troubles of the web3 world of late. But is it all some big conspiracy? No.

Will .xyz overtake .com? No, not in my opinion, never.

Should people invest in .xyz? Each person's decision. It makes sense for some, not for many.

Should people blindly invest in anything because someone has big sales? No, for sure not.

You and I have come to different conclusions on the relevancy of the $1.5M deceptive practices settlement and the precedent it establishes for Registry Operator misbehavior against best interests of domain registrants and others.

I read your post earlier about (.sbs) and the possibility they are purposefully violating ICANN agreement.

My layman interpretation of the Negari FTC settlement is that it could be a violation of the Registry Operator Code of Conduct, especially Specification 9. Likewise, the hundreds of interlinked companies and websites mentioned in the FTC complaint don't inspire trust in (.xyz) public sales.

(.XYZ) settled on charges of selling MILLIONS of innocent peoples information to scammers, identity thieves, and robo-callers. For me, it is not far-fetched to conclude this illegal data practice rabbit hole may go deeper.

How many domainers information was sold to identity thieves upon registering a domain since 2015?

I want to know the name of every company and website involved in the FTC suit and how it may connect to any of the large (.xyz) public sales since 2015 or selling domainer private info.

The same way you are convinced (.sbs) violated ICANN agreements, many other domainers are convinced (.xyz) deceptive practices suit may be a violation.

We may be proven right or wrong, but the questions are absolutely within the realm of rational inquiry.

 

[equity78]

In web3, the sales follow-up is where most further deals are won. Getting a referral or introduction from web3 gen will help you close more deals and make more sales happen. In your sales story/price, you are not the important… your web3 customer is! Now, if someone recommends someone to you, they suggest that you have what they want, That's how this works... instead of watching Disney+ and popcorn.
Regarding xyz sales and prices.
I have been monitoring all sales, acquisitions, developments, funds etc closely, testing markets very carefully, on a daily base interacting w web3 devs and 32 major web3 VCs and I manage to close 38 xyz deals. Hard cheese $.

Keep watching .... or start changing mindset and sell. < Apply to many extesions. No offense!


Regards

Lox you have made 38 .xyz domain name sales through these contacts? Congrats on the smart work, I never understood why others think just Swetha making sales. Monte Cahn said he has sold many .xyz domains, I saw that in a tweet from Elliot at DomainInvesting.com I never knew Monte was into .xyz.

 

[ThatNameGuy]

Can you show me any other case of an investor having diligently, over years, collected maybe half of the best names, without premium renewals, one by one, auction after auction, registration after registration, in any TLD?

That is what is unique here. That she bought when few others were, the lowest years of the TLD, kept at it year after year, probably losing money in many of those years, that is what is unique here.

Now when she has success, suddenly (not talking you Brad but all the detractors on social media) there are people coming up with all sorts of doubts of her authenticity and success.

-Bob

Bob....i can't say I copied the Swetha business model/plan, but I've been doing almost the exact same thing the last six months with .LINK as she did starting out. While i don't have as large a portfolio in .link as Swetha has in .xyz I do own over 1,500 .link names of which 90% of them have an equivalent .xyz name. For example, i registered Revolution.link back in August, paid $118 for it and it renews annually for the same. I don't know exactly when Swetha purchased Revolution.xyz, but I can tell you it's for sale @Dan for $499,888.

Bob...we don't know all that much about Swetha, but we do know she's Kickn Ass. I haven't reached that state YET, but if Swetha's performance is any sort of an indicator, I have a pretty good chance with .link

 

[Lox]

Lox you have made 38 .xyz domain name sales through these contacts? Congrats on the smart work,

Yes. invested an enormous amount of time and electricity.

I never understood why others think just Swetha making sales. Monte Cahn said he has sold many .xyz domains, I saw that in a tweet from Elliot at DomainInvesting.com I never knew Monte was into .xyz.

A big % of ppl don't do DD. Without research, data and timeline, interaction = acknowledgment; only what's left is guessing or "I think".

Sw Is on Domain Aftermarket magazine's cover and almost every " r______r" hit her with a kitchen sink. There are many different ways to buy (direct - *not mine) and sell. Yes, Monte sold many.

Regards

 

[jiy k]

Yes. invested an enormous amount of time and electricity.


A big % of ppl don't do DD. Without research, data and timeline, interaction = acknowledgment; only what's left is guessing or "I think".

Sw Is on Domain Aftermarket magazine's cover and almost every " r______r" hit her with a kitchen sink. There are many different ways to buy (direct - *not mine) and sell. Yes, Monte sold many.

Regards

Which magazine?

 

[3sixty]

I think that it is in the region of $13,000 every year. They must have some awesome plans ahead that will make it pay for itself, which is surely the goal of every domain name that we own. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

Rgrds,

Reddstagg

So, upon further inspection. This means someone regged this for 13k on 21st Dec 2021 and sold it just before renewal for 2150. A loss of 11k.

Meanwhile the new buyer put up a website (sort of) the same day, and the domain is still due to renew on the 21 December 2022 as the transfer appears to have been a registrar push in Sav.

Odd moves all around.

 

[Tatiana_B]

Here is another purchase of Swetha domains as a charitable aid to my family in Ukraine

https://www.namepros.com/posts/8788212/

Best Regards
Tatiana

 

[Mkt Sales Leads]

Bob....i can't say I copied the Swetha business model/plan, but I've been doing almost the exact same thing the last six months with .LINK as she did starting out. While i don't have as large a portfolio in .link as Swetha has in .xyz I do own over 1,500 .link names of which 90% of them have an equivalent .xyz name. For example, i registered Revolution.link back in August, paid $118 for it and it renews annually for the same. I don't know exactly when Swetha purchased Revolution.xyz, but I can tell you it's for sale @Dan for $499,888.

Bob...we don't know all that much about Swetha, but we do know she's Kickn Ass. I haven't reached that state YET, but if Swetha's performance is any sort of an indicator, I have a pretty good chance with .link

Are you a bot that's programmed to spout .Link in every thread you create?

It's annoying.

 

[End Game]

That Sex.xyz sale via Sedo is a shocker. Or is it a reflection of the true .xyz market?

I think you have your answer. I think we all have the answer. All legit domainers wanted was the truth. .XYZ is being exposed daily. We will know the true value of .XYZ extensions in a few months.

 

[phaethon]

An interesting article.

The Perils of an .xyz Domain​

https://www.spotvirtual.com/blog/the-perils-of-an-xyz-domain

 

[DaaZ]

Our customer support team @DaaZ has spoken to Shwetha a year before and invited to join DaaZ.com. She is very humble and nice lady to interact with. That's the fact.

We cant speak about her sales part though , as none of those sales happened at DaaZ. Just letting you all know, what we know.

 

[J.R.]

An interesting article.

The Perils of an .xyz Domain​

https://www.spotvirtual.com/blog/the-perils-of-an-xyz-domain

After switching to dotCom, our initial email open rates rose from 70% to 86%, second email open rates rose from 50% to 72%, and overall meeting conversions rose from .1% to 3%!

This improvement alone is worth the domain switch. ~ Gordon Hempton, Founder - Spotvirtual.com

Original Tweet

https://twitter.com/x/status/1438574239133552666

Mr. Hempton didn't need to read $1.5M FTC complaint to discover XYZ is a meaningless spam magnet extension.

dotCom is
Feel the burn

 

[ThatNameGuy]

Are you a bot that's programmed to spout .Link in every thread you create?

It's annoying.

No.....i'm just a link