This has troubled me a lot for years but its hugely negative impact really bothers me now!!

I have been working with a serious buyer since last October and we have exchanged dozens of emails for the last 6-months. During that time he slowly come up on the offer. A few days ago he sent me a message saying it was his best and final offer for the dot-org name he was going to use for a new startup nonprofit organization.

He asked if the price was okay with me and needed to know if okay right away. It took me until the next day to decide and it seemed certain we had a deal. However, he had already purchased an alternate name the night before via Godaddy or Afternic!

I asked why and the reply was he believed I would not accept his price and he noticed a very similar name for sale via GD/Afternic so he grabbed it right away rather than wait to hear from me the next day.

He explained how he typed in my name in GD to double-check price and on the same GD page below my name he noticed the plural version of my name for sale. Not only was the plural for sale it was also 6k less vs my singular name i.e. 2k vs 8k. He also indicated a reason he got it was by seeing it under my name on GD and not because he was looking for it.

When I told him the plural was far less known and significantly less used so maybe he should have both names (example.org and examples.org) he said it was good enough for him (but admitted my name was a lot better) saying he can use the 6k lower cost as working capital for the new nonprofit.

That type of scenario I am sure has happened to a lot of NP members but it's unlikely you would know about it. It really SUCKS big time when you think about it and how GD, DAN and others do not truly care if the visitor buys your name or an alternate name.

To help avoid that I recommend you use your own landing pages, or as an option find a place where no other domains show except your own name(s).

P.S. From messaging the best known member of NP there's a place named squadhelp (who I am not familiar with and never used) where it can be setup so someone else's similar names will not be there. Its a powerful plus, IMO. However the fact so many buyers automatically check at GD makes the situation hard to work around if not impossible to resolve.

 

a simpler solution imo, is to just reg both singular and plural versions if it makes sense both ways.
for example I have a couple of domains ending in wallet, token and coin.. but just to stay on the safe side, I had also picked up the wallets, tokens and coins as well (plural versions) and have priced them both on the same level as singulars.

but of course I only do this for domains where the plural makes just as much sense as the singular.

 

This situation is not only on plural vs singular but of course is relevant with all names, where GD, DAN etc display similar and related domains and/or other extensions.

 

I dont think you can ever avoid being compared to similar names.
surely most potential buyers do their due diligence and look up their options and send offers after weighing pros and cons of picking the elite domain vs similar but not-that-great domains.

it doesn't matter if you have your own landers or whatever.. they probably run a search on most registrars to find similar names if that is what they are willing to settle for anyways.


But I see your point. it is a problem. I just don't think its something anyone can fix.

 

Plus, sites like BrandBucket, where you are dealing with many variants off a name that a client might not think to look for until they see options at the bottom of the landing page for your brandable.

 

You are saying that it could happen at Dan, but I've checked my landing pages at Dan and they don't recommend other names and I did that by checking a name through dan marketplace as well and it was the same, so as I ca see it, it doesn't happen at Dan, but it's happening at sedo, afternic, godaddy, brandbucket and as well at squadhelp premium names, I'm not sure about squadhelp WLM.

 

To explain the issue in more detail, I have a nice and easy to use search feature on my portal website where you can type-in a domain or anything else and get the results. If you type-in a name plus its extension you would only get search results on that exact domain.

So if I had clients who listed their names for sale with me (I don't actually do that) only the clients domain would be displayed in the search results, assuming the EMD was typed-in. If they omit the extension other and similar returns may be there, not just the exact domain.

That is how Dan and Godaddy and the others should operate IMO. They can assume as does my own search feature that if a searcher types-in the exact match name and extension no other domains need to show except the EMD. They obviously don't do that because they could care less if your name sells or they sell someone else's name. That is a hostile and non-businesslike attitude shown toward you, the customer.

That's what happened with my lost dot-org buyer. He typed-in example.org EMD but was presented with exampleS.org NON EMDs and a lots of others. If the name was not listed for sale then the looker could be presented with all the variations with a notice the EMD was not found.

In other words I would be loyal to my customer and do everything possible so my clients names sell and not act to its detriment so other domains are sold. Why can't that be done at Dan and Godaddy etc?

 

An interesting problem.

Do you mean an individual, isolated landing page for each domain you have on sale? Or a page for your business linked to each landing page with the landing pages linked back to it?

Some sales sites do offer white label listings so your stuff doesn't get mixed up with your competitors on the same site. One of them, so far as I am aware, is setting up such a facility right now. Click on the biix advert below, at the foot of this page.

Or you can set up your own sales site and landers.

But each raises the same significant new problem: how do you drive traffic to your untainted viewing space? I'm not saying you can't do it but it is another layer of work which must be done. Or you fail.

The problem with selling is competitors. Whatever you try to sell, competitors are competing with you. You have to find ways of dealing with it, not only in the market place but also in your own head.

You have to also bear in mind that the sales sites you mention and many others are there to make profits. In order to do so they must sell domain names. That is often the only thing they offer but even the ones with wider remits have staff to pay and those people need to spend their time on profitable pursuits, not on dead ends.

Hence they couldn't give a twopenny fig which of their customers' names they sell so long as they sell names.

 

Upon reading that I was thinking maybe DAN no longer does that based on what you said so went to DAN.com main page search feature which is where a typical end-user would go and more or less randomly typed-in one of my dot-org names with tld extension and received 11 similar domains for sale. Next, typed-in a dot-com with ext and got 122 similar names for sale!

 

If you're already negotiating with a buyer directly, why use GoDaddy or Afternic... isn't their fee around 15 to 20%?

You could instead use other options like Sedo.com (fees start at 3%), or sites like DAN.com, Dynadot.com, Epik, NameSilo, etc. (fees range from 1.5% to 7.5%, depending on payment method).

Yes, like at GoDaddy, there is still a risk with each of those sites that someone may see other options. But Dynadot and Epik let you setup your own "buy now" pages at least.

Depending on the domain and how many other options the buyer may have, I sometimes keep it vague and say we can use an escrow process, without giving details about which site, until the deal is agreed upon.

Escrow.com avoids the problem, but has the problem of them wanting too much ID info.

 

Thanks for the feedback but I do not believe you understand the basic issue because what you said has no relationship to my subject. I apologize if it was not made more clear.

P.S. I was not using GD/Aftenic for that sale but always dealing with him directly for 6-mos. Originally he contacted me thru my own landing page. He recently went to GD on his own like many others do to see if listed there to check the price. It was listed on GD but he was going to buy directly from me at a discount until he discovered the lower priced plural version of my name on the Godaddy search.

 

At this point, I don't think that there are to many end users going to dan marketplace directly and using the search feature. As far as I know, 99% of the sales are done through dan landing pages, so that doesn't affect a sale to much. Even more, if you own a particular domain he wants, he will go first directly to that landing page to chekc it out and not search it on a particular marketplace. Usually, if they are open to different options, than they do a search for a particular keyword.

 

Place a time limit on the offer & acceptance.

Cheers
Corey

 

Yes but Dan was an example. I am sure a large percentage of buyers check the name on the Godaddy search feature to confirm an asking price, in addition to landing and parking ages and far far less anywhere else.

 

6 months is way too long to come to a deal on this kind of price imo. Trying to squeeze money out of a turnup. I am all for asking as much as you can but when the money isn’t there it isn’t there.

Any name you possess you should know the status and prices if possible on plurals and close alternatives. You can’t blame GD that you stuck to your price. Would you be less upset if he was lying and he typed it in? Offers should be answered in a few hours if they sound urgent not next day.

 

It would be nice to have a study of the last 100-1000 end users sales from namebio or from our reported sales here at namepros, but I would suspect that only around 30% of end users are are checking godady prices, mostly end users from US, Canada and UK. I don't really use godaddy directly, but I'm using godaddy through afternic bins and only around 10% of sales are coming through them, Out of last 15 sales, 2 are from afternic( possible godaddy way) and I was using dan landing pages in euro and afternic/godaddy prices in $, so the end users would have bought them in $ if they checked them before buying. Some of the end users from the last transactions are from countries like Turkmenistan, Poland, Russia, South Africa, France, Nederland, China...not really godaddy markets. There were two US buyers who came through Dan landing pages, so didn't really checked godady prices. So, probably this is different from one domainer to another, but the average should be something around the same. (if you are using godaddy marketplace and godaddy/afternic landing pages, than probably 90% of your buyers will use godaddy/afternic networks)

 

This is exactly the reason I stopped listing on BrandBucket years ago.

 

I recently had a buyer at BB paying for the name (I also sent the auth codes) and then -suddenly- the purchase was refunded because buyer 'regretted' it.

I admit I spent the next couple of days thinking about that incident, whether it was really a regret or buyer was offered directly (from BB) or indirectly (via the suggested options) a better name.

I do believe it was a regret but I won't ignore the possibility of marketplaces taking advantage of the buyer's emotional confusion.

 

You are assuming that end-users enter all search terms with their desired tlds attached everytime they search for domains. I highly doubt that.

 

Most end-users are domain-savvy these days. Even if you use your own landers, potential buyers research names and shop around now.

No third-party marketplace, that is in the business of making money, will restrict their search function to what you are describing. The idea is to sell as many names as possible instead of one particular name or nothing. That's the business model.

 

in this case buyer told me he only desired a dot-org because of its well-known charitable giving aspect as he was starting a a nonprofit so he typed in example.ORG as the only extension he wanted to buy.

 

I do not doubt he searched for the .org. But most guys I know just search for the keyword of a domain they hope to buy.

 

Hi

to me, below says it all

you had, according to quote above, 6 months to accept at least one of their offers

and even after 6 months, it took another day to make up your mind.?

so, what is seen as negative, may be result of hesitation.

we know there are other choices for potential buyers out there
and buying can be an emotional, sometimes spur of the moment thing.
which means sometimes you gotta reel it in, before it gets away.

imo....

 

A possible unique business model could be where a place like Godaddy for example charges a yearly fee to only show your name and no others of say $1,000., or maybe $500 assuming extension was typed-in but even without extension charge say $250 to at least show it at top of all search results, assuming you paid for that premium service.

I would be more than willing to pay GD a lot but pay others less based on traffic.

 

Why will GD do that when they make more advertising ngtlds on search results?