news Thank You and Good Bye Afternic.com

[AbdulBasit.com]

Hello everyone,

I think this is the longest gap I’ve taken in between two posts but I’m sure this will come as a surprise to many of my fellow domain investors that I’m leaving Afternic.com

As many of my readers know that since January 2020, I’ve been using Afternic.com price request lander. It’s been almost 6 years using them and I had an overall great experience. With all the challenges and ups and downs including economic crisis and uncertainty in global market due to wars, I still had many extra ordinary months with the help of Afternic team. It was really nice working with so many Afternic brokers and especially my rep Adam Ramsdell who did all his best he could to get the maximum sales out of my portfolio. I sincerely appreciate Adam and the entire team whoever was involved in getting the sales happen smoothly.

There are two main reasons for leaving Afternic:

1. I’m no longer interested in paying any commission.
2. Like the way I opted Afternic from Uniregistry, now I would like to prefer handling and managing the portfolio and leads myself.

Overall, it’s been a rollercoaster ride with a lot of inconsistencies which I believe is part of the business especially domain investing. It took a lot of time to think and decide about this decision but I believe now is the right time to go and move onto the next level of my domaining journey.

Currently I’m in the process of trying something new and I’ll share more details in my next post, so stay tuned.

Thank you!

 

[boker]

The most likely outcome will be loss of sales. A lot do happen in the registrar path.

I am curious if your landers will have a lease to own option? Domainers that don’t have that option on their landers are straight up losing sales. Currently, I have 650 domains and four are on lease own. I don’t think those sales would happen without that option.

So, for me with average domains, I had like one sale a year with afternic/godaddy ( I don't use their nameservers) and a few tens a year, for the same domains, where I use the nameservers. In conclusion, the registrar path for me it's about 1-2% of the sales. Landing page make's over 90% of the sales.

 

[karmaco]

There seems to be alot of this going around lately. Kudos to you for breaking the chains of commission and not being an obedient sheep.

It's good to try new approaches and not just accept all domaining lore. Very best of luck to you and look forward to updates.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

There seems to be alot of this going around lately. Kudos to you for breaking the chains of commission and not being an obedient sheep.

It's good to try new approaches and not just accept all domaining lore. Very best of luck to you and look forward to updates.

I agree with you.
Thanks for your kind words and I'll surely update the progress.

 

[alcy]

Majority of my domain name sales over 23+ years have not been from Afternic/Sedo as I've never pointed my domain names there the majority of time. Not saying I haven't made crazy sales at the high commission markets $8 into 16k multiple times, $8 into 50k etc... but that's more from me knowing domain values and being firm on my prices until the stars align so those prices would have have happened at any venue as I'm generally firm which is helped by 2 things... knowing who the buyer is instead of anonymous offers and not needing the or pretending I don't need the cash.

Most of my sales have been direct to my own domain sales sites or my own domain sales landers without having an actual site over the decades.

I like where we're at right now....

NamePros =- Few tweaks and ya can make their pages pretty trustworthy looking at 0% commission and basically route the payment anywhere. Wire direct to my own business bank acccount, Escrow.com to my domain brokerage account, AtomPay etc...

SpaceShip =- Nice clean pages, 5% commission, LTO

Atom White Label = Promote your own sales site, standard listings only 7.5% commission, LTO

Even though anonymous offers have never been my thing I will say Sedo has always been very professional with me over many years and I've literally had ACH hit the bank multiple times day after a push.

Afternic has frustrated me more over the years than Sedo but Afternic has also produced more income so. Afternic has a strong MLS network and they also are into LTO unlike Sedo which I think in this economy is important so I do tend to lean to LTO providers.

Options are good as it eliminates the giants from getting lazy. Don't like something ya can easily try something else. At the end of the day doesn't matter what works for me, Abdul etc... numbers don't lie so run your own tests and follow the numbers whether that turns out to be NamePros, SpaceShip, Atom, Efty, or old school Sedo or Afternic, everyone has different domains which may perform better or worse on different venues.

I'll be curious to see how this one pans out for ya as this year has me testing NamePros, Atom, Efty, etc...

@NameGroove

https://www.namepros.com/threads/mega-list-of-landers.1337766/#post-9275704

hmm u do realize pointing means setting dns to use lander and does not mean we wont or dont have names listed on their markets

so which one was it for u... dns not pointed and or no names listed on their markets?

 

[alcy]

So, for me with average domains, I had like one sale a year with afternic/godaddy ( I don't use their nameservers) and a few tens a year, for the same domains, where I use the nameservers. In conclusion, the registrar path for me it's about 1-2% of the sales. Landing page make's over 90% of the sales.

I thought if u use afternic lander and have also names on their markets and networks then it becomes impossible to know if sale happened thru one or the other?

 

[monotheist]

Hello everyone,

I think this is the longest gap I’ve taken in between two posts but I’m sure this will come as a surprise to many of my fellow domain investors that I’m leaving Afternic.com

As many of my readers know that since January 2020, I’ve been using Afternic.com price request lander. It’s been almost 6 years using them and I had an overall great experience. With all the challenges and ups and downs including economic crisis and uncertainty in global market due to wars, I still had many extra ordinary months with the help of Afternic team. It was really nice working with so many Afternic brokers and especially my rep Adam Ramsdell who did all his best he could to get the maximum sales out of my portfolio. I sincerely appreciate Adam and the entire team whoever was involved in getting the sales happen smoothly.

There are two main reasons for leaving Afternic:

1. I’m no longer interested in paying any commission.
2. Like the way I opted Afternic from Uniregistry, now I would like to prefer handling and managing the portfolio and leads myself.

Overall, it’s been a rollercoaster ride with a lot of inconsistencies which I believe is part of the business especially domain investing. It took a lot of time to think and decide about this decision but I believe now is the right time to go and move onto the next level of my domaining journey.

Currently I’m in the process of trying something new and I’ll share more details in my next post, so stay tuned.

Thank you!

Greed has no limits

 

[DomainThrive]

All you are doing is cutting off the main sales channels.

I estimate you will lose 50-70% of your sales as you will have no distribution in any reg path. Yes a few that cant find your domains in reg path might purchase from your landers but no way near making up that loss.

Hardly worth it to save the 15% you were paying GoDaddy is it. And its not even that as you will have to pay around 5% to whoever processes the transaction.

Plus you lose the trust factor of GoDaddy and will have to deal with all the tyre kickers and timewasters yourself.

Back to GoDaddy in a short while no doubt...

 

[alcy]

All you are doing is cutting off the main sales channels.

I estimate you will lose 50-70% of your sales as you will have no distribution in any reg path. Yes a few that cant find your domains in reg path might purchase from your landers but no way near making up that loss.

Hardly worth it to save the 15% you were paying GoDaddy is it. And its not even that as you will have to pay around 5% to whoever processes the transaction.

Plus you lose the trust factor of GoDaddy and will have to deal with all the tyre kickers and timewasters yourself.

Back to GoDaddy in a short while no doubt...

my sense too.

I am kind of Inclined to feel here from message tone that op simply feels years of paying so much resulted In feelings of disgust with their system. which I can understand. and that none of tis decision is actually based on what's best for making sales.

because any sane person knows domain sales do not increase with lesser exposure. but the other way around. and there is zero to experiment there.

in short this is a thread about paying tons of fees for years and getting sick of it and quitting all on principle. not a thread to see if reducing overall all around exposure by 80% will yield 80% more sales.
which it does not cannot and will not

anyway that settles that then I guess

 

[MarkedMarket]

@LeanneMac had quite an interesting post about "how much an average 20% commission eats into your net profit" as a domainer:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1975920228329562271

Some consider it as a given, but it's good to see it explicitly calculated in this way. And that is the reason that I do applaud @AbdulBasit.com for his decision. The more domainers would leave platforms that charge >15% commissions, the more likely it becomes that these platforms have to think about lowering their commission to stay competitive. And the more future customers will get used to other alternatives to GoDaddy, Sedo, etc.

What is certain is that bug paradise Afternic has never used the profits that they made via their commissions on innovating their platform.

 

[VadimK]

I don't agree with those who say it's a bad decision. First, his portfolio is quite impressive - it doesn't have to rely on the marketplaces that much. Second, comparing Afternic today with Afternic 2.5 years ago is like comparing a 95-year-old with someone in their prime - in terms of capability, it's night and day.
And third, I think there's also a bit of genuine desire to shake things up for everyone's benefit.

Best of luck, @AbdulBasit.com

It’s a pretty bold decision, through, because there's obviously a way to stay on both Afternic and Sedo and get all the exposure (if any, nowadays, but still), without paying a dime: to leave the names as ''Make Offe'' and when offers come in, to quote a price that's much higher than what's on your lander (or whatever main channel you choose). Buyers will either come to your main source or force to pay even more through Afternic. It's a win–win.

But I understand you have completely other ideas on your mind.

 

[alcy]

well
2 things

its better to get sale minus 20% than no sale at all.. for most.

2nd.. if u remove names from afternic network does that
guarantee the buyer will buy thru your lander. we all know there is no such guarantee plus I know some on here who in plain terms say they would have no domain biz if it weren't for afternic network sales.

 

[boker]

I thought if u use afternic lander and have also names on their markets and networks then it becomes impossible to know if sale happened thru one or the other?

My point was that I'm not using their landers, so made only one sale a year through their network...and made tens of sales through the landings, where the domains point, so over 90% of them have sold because somebody landed on that domain, not because of a certain registrar like godaddy or a network of registrars. And this is just for average domains. For great domains, 99.99% of the sales should be done by direct landing. If you count the 15-30% commission for all your domains, (including the over 90% where basically it's your buyer, not afternic or godaddy) lost leads and others, you should increase your revenue by roughly 20-30 percent, even counting to occasionally lost 1-2 network sales. Probably the best option should be to list your domains to afternic, godaddy or sedo, but with 30% extra commission (not negotiable), so you will not loose the extra sales, just a few headaches from time to time.

 

[Bipul]

Afternic still lacks self-brokers for all users. Actually, it’s not missing it’s restricted by Afternic for users. I think this restriction is a lack of freedom in domain selling. This is also a major reason for some to move away from Afternic, along with its high commission rate. However, Afternic has a larger distribution network, which increases the chances of domain sales, especially for small portfolio domain sellers.

 

[DomainThrive]

My point was that I'm not using their landers, so made only one sale a year through their network...and made tens of sales through the landings, where the domains point, so over 90% of them have sold because somebody landed on that domain, not because of a certain registrar like godaddy or a network of registrars. And this is just for average domains. For great domains, 99.99% of the sales should be done by direct landing. If you count the 15-30% commission for all your domains, (including the over 90% where basically it's your buyer, not afternic or godaddy) lost leads and others, you should increase your revenue by roughly 20-30 percent, even counting to occasionally lost 1-2 network sales. Probably the best option should be to list your domains to afternic, godaddy or sedo, but with 30% extra commission (not negotiable), so you will not loose the extra sales, just a few headaches from time to time.

You have a highly atypical portfolio then.

Its usually a 50/50 - 70/30 Reg Path/Sales lander split, its been documented on here and I have seen it personally.

So the typical investor on here can expect a sharp decrease in sales if they were to follow OP, not an increase as you state.

 

[DomainThrive]

Put yourself in the mind of the buyer.

Go to the no 1 place people know of to buy a domain (or any registrar for that matter), hmm not there, shame I will have a look for my second choice here with this company that I know and trust.

Or not there, I wonder what will happen if I visit it by typing it in. A page appears with no branding I recognise with a contact form asking me to put my details in with no indication of the price or who is on the end of it.
No I will pass thanks and try another domain.

Forcing the buyer to jump through hoops is only going to work with the best of the best domains and OP doesnt have 10,000 of those, a lot are priced less than $10K.

You are basically eliminating all the impulse buys and buyers that only trust companies they have heard of.

 

[Corey]

#justwondering

Wouldn't a potential buyer type the domain name into their browser bar maybe?

Cheers
Corey

 

[boker]

Put yourself in the mind of the buyer.

Go to the no 1 place people know of to buy a domain (or any registrar for that matter), hmm not there, shame I will have a look for my second choice here with this company that I know and trust.

Or not there, I wonder what will happen if I visit it by typing it in. A page appears with no branding I recognise with a contact form asking me to put my details in with no indication of the price or who is on the end of it.
No I will pass thanks and try another domain.

Forcing the buyer to jump through hoops is only going to work with the best of the best domains and OP doesnt have 10,000 of those, a lot are priced less than $10K.

You are basically eliminating all the impulse buys and buyers that only trust companies they have heard of.

A buyer, first thing will do is to type a name that thinks about. Godaddy or any other registrar will recommend 20 extra extensions, but not your domain, even if you have a .com and a close emd. I've tried it tens of times, they you give you .horse or any other extension. Afternic it's even worse, their system it's from the 90. At this point, your domain has better chances to be discovered by buyers, looking for a certain keyword, at atom, than at godaddy or afternic. The only chance at godaddy and afternic is for the buyer to check your exact domain and extension.

 

[boker]

You have a highly atypical portfolio then.

Its usually a 50/50 - 70/30 Reg Path/Sales lander split, its been documented on here and I have seen it personally.

So the typical investor on here can expect a sharp decrease in sales if they were to follow OP, not an increase as you state.

Can you point where it was documented on namepros. In 10 years I never heard about the 50/50 reg path you are talking about and I've tried all of them.

 

[DomainThrive]

A buyer, first thing will do is to type a name that thinks about. Godaddy or any other registrar will recommend 20 extra extensions, but not your domain, even if you have a .com and a close emd. I've tried it tens of times, they you give you .horse or any other extension. Afternic it's even worse, their system it's from the 90. At this point, your domain has better chances to be discovered by buyers, looking for a certain keyword, at atom, than at godaddy or afternic. The only chance at godaddy and afternic is for the buyer to check your exact domain and extension.

Thats not the case in the US (biggest market for .com), .com will come up without extension. But yes they should improve it for other countries.

But simply not coming up at all is far worse as in OPs case.

 

[DomainThrive]

Can you point where it was documented on namepros. In 10 years I never heard about the 50/50 reg path you are talking about and I've tried all of them.

https://www.namepros.com/blog/what-...nd-insights-from-nikul-at-hypernames.1335812/