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!

 

[keywordrichdomains]

I was just wondering, moving from Afternic to Efty Landers is quite a breakthrough decision, especially considering the subscription fee and the additional processing charges for payment gateways. I am also curious to see how this move will be celebrated, as the suspense has been building over the past few days through our ongoing discussions on this thread, even though platforms like NamePros offer beautifully crafted landing pages for free.

If someone feels this is an undue promotion of Efty Landers, we cannot really blame them.

At the same time, there is no point in blaming Afternic either, because everyone here is trying to maximize their profits in one way or another. It is their choice to conduct business according to their model, and it is our choice whether or not to opt for it.

 

[Corey]

I am progressively moving my LLLL.com's to NamePros Landers!

Cheers
Corey

 

[DNabc]

My first domain sale after they forced the 5% opt-in "Boost" was $40k, I removed it immediately after but a lot of money was gone for no reason.
Removing your domain from Afternic/Sedo means that scammers will add them when possible and you lose those leads. Once in a while I receive requests to accept fast transfer prices for domains that I didn't add myself.

 

[JB Lions]

Yeah, I've moved the domains to Efty "price request" lander - https://www.abdulbasit.com/domaining/moved-all-domains-to-efty-lander

Their subscription is based on monthly and yearly. No commission until you use their EftyPay (5%).

I was going to ask who are you going to use for payments once a deal has been made. If you were going to experiment with the different options out there, but you mentioned EftyPay. Are you only going to use them? Or try different payment options? I have Efty, tried to use EftyPay but they use MangoPay and they keep rejecting me. I can still use Escrow or Paypay links but I really wanted to try the Lease to Own option they have, and I believe that's thru Mango that I can't get into.

So I searched if anybody else is having problems with them and......... 527 reviews and 1.2 rating, very low, seems like a wreck - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.mangopay.com

Just reading some of the reviews, seems many are having the same issues I'm having, rejecting the documents I send in to get verified. First replies, suspected fraud. Then other replies, the picture is not clear enough. I took front and back pics of my driver's license, very clear and they reject. Never had this issue before in my life any other time I had to send in pics of the same type of info.

 

[JB Lions]

The first quote was the reply, the second was just a few other arguments meant to you and I didn't wanted to mix them up.

Who knows the future, but there just has been nothing in anything he posted hinting that he wants to start a Dan like service. That takes money, tech, lawyers, employees, finding a good name, learning the different payment rules and regulations around the world etc. It's quite a big undertaking. And he posted sending domains to their own landing page in Wordpress is complicated, so imagine putting something like Dan together.

I think he's just tired of paying high commissions and experimenting trying to find a better way. Different company/landing page. I think he'll still get sales, probably even some big ones. 11,000 or so domains, looks like mostly good .coms, you're going to get sales. The question is more volume and if the move is worth it. I don't see possibly how they could increase, more likely decrease. We're going to find out.

I would be interested if he experimented using different payment options, I think that would be useful to many. Look at all these options - https://www.namepros.com/threads/me...-links-bring-your-own-lead-providers.1353825/

Which of those options is the smoothest for the buyer, which one will give you less headaches.

 

[boker]

Who knows the future, but there just has been nothing in anything he posted hinting that he wants to start a Dan like service. That takes money, tech, lawyers, employees, finding a good name, learning the different payment rules and regulations around the world etc. It's quite a big undertaking. And he posted sending domains to their own landing page in Wordpress is complicated, so imagine putting something like Dan together.

I think he's just tired of paying high commissions and experimenting trying to find a better way. Different company/landing page. I think he'll still get sales, probably even some big ones. 11,000 or so domains, looks like mostly good .coms, you're going to get sales. The question is more volume and if the move is worth it. I don't see possibly how they could increase, more likely decrease. We're going to find out.

I would be interested if he experimented using different payment options, I think that would be useful to many. Look at all these options - https://www.namepros.com/threads/me...-links-bring-your-own-lead-providers.1353825/

Which of those options is the smoothest for the buyer, which one will give you less headaches.

I didn"t really meant a marketplace for all of us ( but you never know) I meant a marketplace for his own 11k+ domains, to have repeated buys from the same company and to not dump lots of leads, something like brandsly has done, with average brandables, she has reached around 40k domains if I'm not wrong.
As a side note, I've tried something like this around 9 years ago, but with only around 500 average brandables and I still had a couple of buyers who came back, so with 11k domains, he could save lots of leads who were going to godaddy or others. Anyway, we will wait and see the results.

 

[markfromslo]

I'll pay 15% all day long for a sale, especially when the broker gives me access to the worlds largest registrar's searches, in addition to dozens of other registrars in the network. It's a no-brainer.

 

[JB Lions]

I didn"t really meant a marketplace for all of us ( but you never know) I meant a marketplace for his own 11k+ domains, to have repeated buys from the same company and to not dump lots of leads, something like brandsly has done, with average brandables, she has reached around 40k domains if I'm not wrong.
As a side note, I've tried something like this around 9 years ago, but with only around 500 average brandables and I still had a couple of buyers who came back, so with 11k domains, he could save lots of leads who were going to godaddy or others. Anyway, we will wait and see the results.

I tried that too in the past, trying out different WP themes and such, then I just went with Efty since it was easy and looked nice. I still eventually want my own deal like BuyDomains, HugeDomains etc do. That takes a bit more doing.

My main thing is I need Lease to Own option. I loved Dan, paying 9% and it's the first time I tried that, and it's a game changer. My last 5 sales:

had one yesterday, paid in full

the previous 4 were all Lease to Own. There is a reason they went with that option. So there is a very good possibility those sales don't happen if that option isn't there.

Everybody is just trying to find the best option/combo out there. Paying the lowest commissions possible, trying to find the best/smoothest option for the buyers, the least amount of headaches for buyer/seller.

But right now Afternic is working smooth for me, and having GoDaddy as the lander and handling payment, it's a name people know. So it helps with conversions, even tho many people have issues with them. Like I said, it's basically set it and forget it. Name sells, they transfer, they take in the money, then send me the money, they get the lease to own payments if that's the option chosen, usually when I'm sleeping.

 

[Timkh]

I'll pay 15% all day long for a sale, especially when the broker gives me access to the worlds largest registrar's searches, in addition to dozens of other registrars in the network. It's a no-brainer.

We're all willing to pay 15% for that. But the problem is, their shopping cart is glitching today, their landing pages aren't loading tomorrow. And that 15% turns into 25% (because if their landings don't work, we're forced to use their competitors).

And even if everything works fine, there's still the risk that the buyer will simply abandon the purchase because of these strange "domain insights" and other nonsense that distract them from the clicking "Buy It Now".

 

[phaethon]

Lease to own is pointless if it's $100-$200 per month, you just block a name from a good sale. With 1% STR you might even go bankrupt having to pay for renewals monthly. Yes, you are getting more sales, because someone sees LTO as a small commitment, having to pay only $100 per month, but the numbers don't work if you end up having only LTO which is very likely if you offer that option. Let's not talk about cancellations which are very likely.

 

[JB Lions]

Lease to own is pointless if it's $100-$200 per month, you just block a name from a good sale. With 1% STR you might even go bankrupt having to pay for renewals monthly. Yes, you are getting more sales, because someone sees LTO as a small commitment, having to pay only $100 per month, but the numbers don't work if you end up having only LTO which is very likely if you offer that option. Let's not talk about cancellations which are very likely.

None of that really makes sense

 

[Eric Lyon]

Lease to own is pointless if it's $100-$200 per month, you just block a name from a good sale. With 1% STR you might even go bankrupt having to pay for renewals monthly. Yes, you are getting more sales, because someone sees LTO as a small commitment, having to pay only $100 per month, but the numbers don't work if you end up having only LTO which is very likely if you offer that option. Let's not talk about cancellations which are very likely.

LTO is definitely more of a numbers game, which generally requires a bulk amount of LTO contracts to be viable when it's only $100 to $300 per month payments.

For instance, taking the middle number of $200 per month would require 10 LTO contracts to feed you $2,000 per month (If none of them bounce checks or stop payments).

Depending what part of the world you're in and the local economy, that $2k could be plenty, However in most the larger 1st-world countries, that's just enough for a single-person household and not a family dwelling.

There was one public report of Templars.com selling for $10,000 using LTO at $85 per month for a 10-year term: https://www.namepros.com/threads/te...3-10-year-lto-at-unstoppable-domains.1363854/

With the above example in mind, one reseller would need 24 consecutive LTO sales contracts to average the same $2,000 per month.

What are the odds? I'm not sure. There's not really any public data to crunch on LTOs to establish the average LTOs per reseller, yet.

 

[JB Lions]

You guys are overthinking this

Whatever you make a month will be more than 0

Most complete

If they don’t, you keep what you made plus you keep the name that you can later sell or another lease to own

You will get more sales with this option, not even debatable. Literally gave an example in my previous post

 

[Eric Lyon]

You guys are overthinking this

Ya, I have a bad habit of over-analyzing things (Sometimes to the point of shooting myself in the foot with second-guessing)... it's part of my Analytical-OCD... lol

 

[tradenameNet]

I have a LTO stopped at middle then I raised the price it’s sold immediately again. I read one guy having a LTO stopped raised the price 10X times

 

[love4ever]

Abdulbasit

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Afternic

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

Their writing your autobiography Abdul
They have it all figured out for you lol
Many benefits to going solo
Interact with the end abusers
Less commission
Learn a new angle
No stalled leads.
Maybe a new career path
And you all think he is broke, terrible financial decision.
He will crawl back to afterdan.
Best thing he could have done. Dump daddy. But leave your names at afternic, just not for sale or drop listers will feast.

Best of luck, thanks for sharing your past and present ventures

Not a big fan of price on request but look forward to numbers you share.

This domain may be for sale
but
Price on request
Kinda says its for sale

Gooogle index.ing?

Show attachment 285733

Thanks for sharing.

I'll discuss the indexed page stuff with Efty and see if anything can be changed.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I was just wondering, moving from Afternic to Efty Landers is quite a breakthrough decision, especially considering the subscription fee and the additional processing charges for payment gateways. I am also curious to see how this move will be celebrated, as the suspense has been building over the past few days through our ongoing discussions on this thread, even though platforms like NamePros offer beautifully crafted landing pages for free.

If someone feels this is an undue promotion of Efty Landers, we cannot really blame them.

At the same time, there is no point in blaming Afternic either, because everyone here is trying to maximize their profits in one way or another. It is their choice to conduct business according to their model, and it is our choice whether or not to opt for it.

I plan not to use EftyPay.
And I'll direct all the buyers to use any external escrow services like Sedo, DaaZ.com, escrow.com, or escrowdomains.com and put the entire escrow fee on the buyers. So eventually I'll keep the entire sale proceeds.

Of course, there is nothing to blame on Afternic as they're working on maximizing profits for themselves and so are their clients.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

My first domain sale after they forced the 5% opt-in "Boost" was $40k, I removed it immediately after but a lot of money was gone for no reason.
Removing your domain from Afternic/Sedo means that scammers will add them when possible and you lose those leads. Once in a while I receive requests to accept fast transfer prices for domains that I didn't add myself.

Thanks for sharing.
Since I've moved all my domains from Afternic to Efty lander, I keep adding new domains to Afternic, Sedo and Efty at the same time in order to avoid anyone else adding my domains to their Afternic/Sedo accounts.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I was going to ask who are you going to use for payments once a deal has been made. If you were going to experiment with the different options out there, but you mentioned EftyPay. Are you only going to use them? Or try different payment options? I have Efty, tried to use EftyPay but they use MangoPay and they keep rejecting me. I can still use Escrow or Paypay links but I really wanted to try the Lease to Own option they have, and I believe that's thru Mango that I can't get into.

So I searched if anybody else is having problems with them and......... 527 reviews and 1.2 rating, very low, seems like a wreck - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.mangopay.com

Just reading some of the reviews, seems many are having the same issues I'm having, rejecting the documents I send in to get verified. First replies, suspected fraud. Then other replies, the picture is not clear enough. I took front and back pics of my driver's license, very clear and they reject. Never had this issue before in my life any other time I had to send in pics of the same type of info.

No, I don't plan to use EftyPay.
I'll use any external escrow services like Sedo, DaaZ, escrow.com or escrowdomains.com for completing the transaction and put all the escrow fees on the buyers side.