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]

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

As you can see, the first one is type into the browser. And here we are talking mostly about intentional discovery, when you already know what you are looking for. Abdul has mostly domains for which 99% of the buyers know already what they are looking for, most of his domains have already at least a few companies using an alternative of that domain and they want to upgrade, they don't want to discover anything. You are talking about buyers who don't have a clue about what they want, but they have atom with 300k options and a great ai system for recommendation. Now, try to go to afternic and try to look for a domain of yours, typing just a keyword or the root word or the industry and let me know how many hours you needed for afternic to recommend your domain. I've try it tens of times, if you don't type exact words and exact tld, you are out of luck.

 

[DomainThrive]

As you can see, the first one is type into the browser. And here we are talking mostly about intentional discovery, when you already know what you are looking for. Abdul has mostly domains for which 99% of the buyers know already what they are looking for, most of his domains have already at least a few companies using an alternative of that domain and they want to upgrade, they don't want to discover anything. You are talking about buyers who don't have a clue about what they want, but they have atom with 300k options and a great ai system for recommendation. Now, try to go to afternic and try to look for a domain of yours, typing just a keyword or the root word or the industry and let me know how many hours you needed for afternic to recommend your domain. I've try it tens of times, if you don't type exact words and exact tld, you are out of luck.

'As you can see, the first one is type into the browser'

Did you actually bother reading? Thats not what the post says at all.

It says:

• They may search that name at their registrar, or at a domain name marketplace, entering the complete domain name with extension Example.com.
• Alternatively, they might type the name into a browser, and ideally go to an operational lander.

A big picture summary is that roughly half of the sales come via the lander, and the other half via the registrar distribution network.

 

[boker]

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.

Ok, so first of all, you are right, US it's the biggest buyer of com's, but compared to the wole world of over 200 countries, it's about 30% of .com sales. So you already lost 70% of the market. Out of that 30%, think about how many are godaddy buyers, if they compete with namecheap, dynadot, atom and a few other big registrars. Finally, you will have 10% of US buyers and even then, over 50% of that 10% will type the domain into the browser first and they will choose to pay 30% less to the landing page, than the price showed on godaddy.

 

[boker]

'As you can see, the first one is type into the browser'

Did you actually bother reading? Thats not what the post says at all.

It says:

• They may search that name at their registrar, or at a domain name marketplace, entering the complete domain name with extension Example.com.
• Alternatively, they might type the name into a browser, and ideally go to an operational lander.

A big picture summary is that roughly half of the sales come via the lander, and the other half via the registrar distribution network.

It seems that you didn't bother reading, it says: The buyer that knows the name they want, usually does one of two things

And 30% are godaddy sales, out of only 150 domains, so roughly a very small sample. And this was years ago, for certain industries.

 

[Simon SE]

Before everyone starts jumping ship it's worth keeping in mind this is an edge case and op still recommends his sons stay on Afternic. Make of that what you will.

 

[DomainThrive]

Ok, so first of all, you are right, US it's the biggest buyer of com's, but compared to the wole world of over 200 countries, it's about 30% of .com sales. So you already lost 70% of the market. Out of that 30%, think about how many are godaddy buyers, if they compete with namecheap, dynadot, atom and a few other big registrars. Finally, you will have 10% of US buyers and even then, over 50% of that 10% will type the domain into the browser first and they will choose to pay 30% less to the landing page, than the price showed on godaddy.

I already said 'yes they should improve it for other countries.'

It seems that you didn't bother reading, it says: The buyer that knows the name they want, usually does one of two things

And 30% are godaddy sales, out of only 150 domains, so roughly a very small sample. And this was years ago, for certain industries.

You asked for evidence of the 50/50 split you had never heard of. I gave it to you in a excellent written article. His sales split match what I personally can attest to and have heard it from others including Godaddy themselves.

Keep doing whatever you are doing if its working but for nearly everyone else what I have presented is just how it is.

 

[JB Lions]

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.

You broke your chains as well? So what setup are you now using? You didn’t mention that part

 

[boker]

Before everyone starts jumping ship it's worth keeping in mind this is an edge case and op still recommends his sons stay on Afternic. Make of that what you will.

Worst payouts, shit customer service and a 1990 interface...dan and even uniregistry were light years ahead, that's why they liquidate them. They don't really care about domainers and their domains, they make most of the money from registrations and hosting and other stuff sold to small customers. They even make more money from selling expired domains to domainers, than selling aftermarket domains owned by domainers.

 

[boker]

I already said 'yes they should improve it for other countries.'



You asked for evidence of the 50/50 split you had never heard of. I gave it to you in a excellent written article. His sales split match what I personally can attest to and have heard it from others including Godaddy themselves.

Keep doing whatever you are doing if its working but for nearly everyone else what I have presented is just how it is.

A copypaste from the original post: ~150 sales - mostly alt-TLDs)
So mostly non .com's, probably mostly .co and .io, directed to tech industry during the covid years. That's no evidence for .com, for most ngtlds and for 2025. Of course you will sell more .co and .io to silicon valley guys, but that time has passed and they are not buying the same as they used to.

 

[JB Lions]

Worst payouts, shit customer service and a 1990 interface...dan and even uniregistry were light years ahead, that's why they liquidate them. They don't really care about domainers and their domains, they make most of the money from registrations and hosting and other stuff sold to small customers. They even make more money from selling expired domains to domainers, than selling aftermarket domains owned by domainers.

None of that addresses the fact he still recommends his 2 sons to still use Afternic. Let me quote him:

“On a side note, I wanted to share that both my sons are still using the Afternic “price request” lander and will continue to do so. The reason behind this is that they’re in their initial stage of settling down and I think Afternic is still a good choice for them“

I pay 20% since I use their landers and it’s been relatively smooth for me, set it and forget it basically. Sometimes I wake up to an email that my domain has been transferred already, they have the payment, they transfer the domain, they send the payment to my bank. Thats smooth. Doesn’t mean I like some of the other things they’re doing.

 

[boker]

None of that addresses the fact he still recommends his 2 sons to still use Afternic

I pay 20% since I use their landers and it’s been relatively smooth for me, set it and forget it basically. Sometimes I wake up to an email that my domain has been transferred already, they have the payment, they transfer the domain,
they send the payment to my bank. Thats smooth. Does it mean I like some of the other things they’re doing.

Probably you are an US seller and you are using their landers as well. My experience with them was 11 days average payouts( EU based) and on average 3 days for a reply to an email. When I didn't used their landers, everything died, 1-2% sales and a lot of fake price requests.

 

[DomainThrive]

A copypaste from the original post: ~150 sales - mostly alt-TLDs)
So mostly non .com's, probably mostly .co and .io, directed to tech industry during the covid years. That's no evidence for .com, for most ngtlds and for 2025. Of course you will sell more .co and .io to silicon valley guys, but that time has passed and they are not buying the same as they used to.

My own portfolio is 99% .com and I have similar split. So do others I know of and Godaddy own stats who obviously have massive amounts of data.

First you hadn't heard of it 50/50. Now I present you the evidence and the article you try nitpicking them to match whatever you want to believe. Argue all you like against against facts but that doesn't change them. Im done responding to you.

 

[boker]

My own portfolio is 99% .com and I have similar split. So do others I know of and Godaddy own stats who obviously have massive amounts of data.

First you hadn't heard of it 50/50. Now I present you the evidence and the article you try nitpicking them to match whatever you want to believe. Argue all you like against against facts but that doesn't change them. Im done responding to you.

I've traded over 1000 domains with other namepros members over the years,keeping in touch with a good few, so I know what others are doing. You point to an article where Nikul is talking about .co and .io and you want to proove something.
I know also godaddy data, last time I confronted them about lying, a few years ago, neither Paul or other godaddy guys didn't replied back, to proove that I'm wrong.

 

[Ostrados]

@AbdulBasit.com

I respect your decision, and I totally understand your frustration with Godaddy's greed.

But with all respect to people who are applauding this move, most of them agree with it because they hate Godaddy (most of us do), not because they believe it will be the best option.

IMO the wise thing to do is to keep your domains at Afternic & Sedo, and increase the prices to compensate for the commission difference, this way you will keep sales coming from registrars path, and use whatever lander you like.

Atom users do this and it is working fine, they list domains at Afternic at 10% higher price than Atom's landing page to compensate for the extra penalty, this way you will get the same revenue per sale regardless where the domain was sold.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

#justwondering

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

Cheers
Corey

My Afternic lead report shows 1200-1500 unique leads every month. I'm sure most are not qualified/non-serious ones but they all come via lander (price request form).

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

None of that addresses the fact he still recommends his 2 sons to still use Afternic. Let me quote him:

“On a side note, I wanted to share that both my sons are still using the Afternic “price request” lander and will continue to do so. The reason behind this is that they’re in their initial stage of settling down and I think Afternic is still a good choice for them“

I pay 20% since I use their landers and it’s been relatively smooth for me, set it and forget it basically. Sometimes I wake up to an email that my domain has been transferred already, they have the payment, they transfer the domain, they send the payment to my bank. Thats smooth. Doesn’t mean I like some of the other things they’re doing.

Both my sons are 14 and 15 years of age as like I said it earlier at their initial stage of domain investing. And Afternic is still good for anyone with small portfolio who wants to rely on GoDaddy and distribution network.

Since I've enough domains (11,000+) and top quality ones, I know that I no longer need to depend on anyone and simply can make the sales on my own.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

@AbdulBasit.com

I respect your decision, and I totally understand your frustration with Godaddy's greed.

But with all respect to people who are applauding this move, most of them agree with it because they hate Godaddy (most of us do), not because they believe it will be the best option.

IMO the wise thing to do is to keep your domains at Afternic & Sedo, and increase the prices to compensate for the commission difference, this way you will keep sales coming from registrars path, and use whatever lander you like.

Atom users do this and it is working fine, they list domains at Afternic at 10% higher price than Atom's landing page to compensate for the extra penalty, this way you will get the same revenue per sale regardless where the domain was sold.

Thanks for your suggestion and I value your time and sharing it with me.

I'm the kind of person who wants to go all-in at one time. When I switched from Uniregistry to Afternic, I moved all my domains to them and no split testing. The same way I've done it this time as well by moving from Afternic to Efty this time and won't be using AN/Sedo distribution network to see how it goes.

 

[SpareDomains]

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?

DNS not pointed but names still listed on the markets for me.

The 2 things I'm making a point of is that wherever I pointed the domains is where the majority of the leads came from. The second part you may be overlooking is I'm old and have been doing this 23+ years and Afternic has only been owned by GoDaddy for about 12 years now so this MLS didn't exist back when I started so wherever you pointed is where most of the leads came from and honestly still the same for me today. MLS slowly getting stronger but I still don't see MLS as the end all gotta have it. Someday it will get there but as of 2025 where ever I point is where the leads flow and the MLS is just a nice bonus that will someday get there.

Same can be said for domain parking. Acting like this year killed it. Been dead for over a decade as I use to get $60 clicks occasionally back then.

 

[DomainThrive]

So from Abduls own website, Last 2 sales reports:

September 2024

There were a total of 21 sales.

4 was partner registrar sale.
11 sales via GoDaddy search path.
6 sales via Afternic lander.

August 2024

There were a total of 12 sales.

1 was partner registrar sale.
6 sales via GoDaddy search path.
5 sales via Afternic lander


I make that 71% Reg Path Sales for September 2024 and 58% Reg Path Sales August 2024.

Which is inline with what I posted before about Reg path/Sales Lander split.

 

[Altetra]

I was planning to put my domains on Afternic over 2K quantity, then appears Abdul with his post by some coincidence to divert me, I now was thinking maybe try Above parking, but no, maybe Abdul have some AI predictive targeting insights that knows this info, "imagine this guy comes with his unique brands to create more competition for my domains, let me create a beautiful topic on NP's" his topic may be true, but who knows what other outcomes he expects from it, as I said older than Bob copy my reply, it's better to have sales than none at all.