What does Afternic do for their 20% commission?

[xynames]

I listed on Afternic (AN) marketplace just a few weeks ago. Process very easy, just gave them my email address and they found all my domains. Some were disallowed though it seems, because they are apparently adult. One was loveminute How is that overtly adult, or even adult at all? They were supposed to notify me of any disallowed domains but have not - a small number of my 1500 domains are simply not there.

The same day I listed on AN, I received an inquiry to post a buy it now (BIN) price for a domain. I did, and ten minutes later the buyer bought it for $3500. (Guess I should have asked for more!).

Since then I have received multiple requests to set BIN prices on other domains. After I do this, what does AN do? Do they enter into discussions with the buyer? What are they doing to earn their 20%?

Obviously in the case of the ten minute later buyer, they didn't do much, but what about the buyers who don't buy right away?


With uniregistry, just to test, I made an inquiry on one of my own domains. All that happened is that I started getting boilerplate emails regularly asking me if I was still interested. Perhaps a little more interesting than what I describe as boilerplate, but not really much to them. I did not respond to the emails - perhaps I should, to see how the process goes, and how hard these guys try to sell my domains. Uniregistry commission is 15%, although they have told me that if I bring over my portfolio to them for registration they will lower that rate.


So at AN though, what do they do once a price inquiry is made? Maybe I should test out the process myself with a "buyer" to answer my own question.

 

[Lox]

Domain Name Wire article + discussion; Brokerage pitch from Afternic

 

[Tank]

They get your domains out there to be seen..

 

[ultradog]

No, do not test the Afternic system by posing as a buyer. This could get your account closed for fraud (or the appearance of it) or suspicion of money laundering. Marketplaces make efforts to ensure that buyer and seller are not on the same computer, or using the same IP, because both of those things can hint at possible money laundering.

I guess commissions are for the big audience you get from this marketplace, their escrow service, etc.

 

[xynames]

I followed through with the uniregistry inquiry and in the emails their broker sends is a link that opens up a sort of chat box, where you may chat with the broker.

Money laundering sounds pretty far fetched, if you're just paying yourself where would that get you? I could see though that it might seem like a form of shill bidding, but then it's just an inquiry, and it's not an auction.

Actually, now I remember exactly - with Uniregistry (UR), their marketing director was trying hard to get me to list all of my domains in the UR marketplace using their nameservers (I have not done this yet - I have my domains parked with PPC links elsewhere - however, my domains are LISTED with UR, just not parked there), and specifically had me send the inquiry from a UR link after searching for my domain at UR because she wanted to show me how it worked. And then on another domain of mine, she had me even make the offer to buy, after which UR was hounding me to no end to get me to pay (well, not hounding, but - repeated emails). I eventually asked this marketing director how to get the UR payment requests to stop and she said don't worry, they will eventually, which they did.

 

[Tank]

Yes, "testing" is not the word they will ofthink of if they catch onto you inquiring on your own domains.. best to just accept that they get your name out there to sell for their commissions. As much as the 20% hurts I just tell myself I might have sit on the name for another yr if it didn't sell on their marketplace.

 

[Tank]

Money laundering may sound far fetched but creating a "hype" is possible with certain names to get more for others in the same category or even the same name later?

 

[xynames]

What I do like about AN is that you get exposure simply by being listed in their marketplace.

However at UR, supposedly you get zero exposure unless you park your domains for sale using their nameservers. At least that is the way the UR marketing rep explained it to me.

 

[NamesMax]

Afternic is worth the cost for the exposure they get your name. Much greater exposure, imho, than any other service including Sedo.

Play with your prices in differnt marketplaces. When I set a BIN price, I will usually discount it a little on my landing page to encourage the sale to happen there (commission free)

I recently sold a name that I had listed at 3 different prices. 1 price on my landing page, a higher price on Sedo, and an even higher price on Afternic.

Guess where it sold......Afternic because of the added exposure the name got on their extended network. If nothing else, that is how they earn their money.

 

[SpareDomains]

Most of my sales over 14 years have been direct through my own landing pages with no commissions being paid and then routed direct to an escrow service as most leads come in from the sales page so no sense handing those leads away at a cost. I have never been much of a domain parker even years ago when it paid better as a good sale can trump many years of parking earnings.

I have tested so many sales pages and domain market scripts over those 14 years and I'm currently happy with the simple page I'm using as week after week I receive names, emails, phone numbers, ip addresses so the database of end users continues to grow which builds your future instead of an aftermarkets future. Made sense back in the day when parking paid better but today doing your own thing is the winner if your in this for the long haul. Even though I'm seeing the best results ever on my current sales page yes I'm just about to test another one as the A/B split testing never ends.

If I had to pick 1 aftermarket to use and could only pick 1 to use it would definitely be Afternic as it's all about reach and they have the network. Do I think they could use some upgrades you bet but even though frustrating at times the best network is there.

So I use my own sales pages and the majority of sales happen direct but Afternic shows me more leads/sales than any other aftermarket as they have the reach and my domains don't even point to them they point to my own sales pages.

 

[xynames]

I recently sold a name that I had listed at 3 different prices. 1 price on my landing page, a higher price on Sedo, and an even higher price on Afternic.

I really appreciate your mentioning that, because I've been making certain that the BIN prices I have listed at for example DD are identical to the BIN at AN. (Then again, those two seem linked by the AN fast transfer.) I thought I was obliged to do that, have them listed at the same BIN price throughout the web. If not obliged, I just thought that this was the way it should be.

I can see now how, that's not a necessity.

 

[offthehandle]

I followed through with the uniregistry inquiry and in the emails their broker sends is a link that opens up a sort of chat box, where you may chat with the broker.

Money laundering sounds pretty far fetched, if you're just paying yourself where would that get you? I could see though that it might seem like a form of shill bidding, but then it's just an inquiry, and it's not an auction.

Actually, now I remember exactly - with Uniregistry (UR), their marketing director was trying hard to get me to list all of my domains in the UR marketplace using their nameservers (I have not done this yet - I have my domains parked with PPC links elsewhere - however, my domains are LISTED with UR, just not parked there), and specifically had me send the inquiry from a UR link after searching for my domain at UR because she wanted to show me how it worked. And then on another domain of mine, she had me even make the offer to buy, after which UR was hounding me to no end to get me to pay (well, not hounding, but - repeated emails). I eventually asked this marketing director how to get the UR payment requests to stop and she said don't worry, they will eventually, which they did.

Domain Name Wire article + discussion; Brokerage pitch from Afternic

Read all the negative comments on that domain name wire posts loxline gave you about whateveregistry. They have all sorts of conflicts of interest like competing with their customers, selling snakeoil like the XYZ bitcoin thing, etc.

Read from the horses mouth on domaining tips too, if you want to know who you are dealing with.

http://domainingtips.com/the-post-i-never-wanted-to-write-new-gtld-conclusions.html

Quoted:

1. Frank Schilling Says:
   June 3rd, 2015 at 10:57 am
   I agree with your findings. I’d even agree that this space is NOT for most domainers to participate in. It’s for hungrier newcomers who don’t have the same choices and options in the legacy space. It is “challenging” to go out and buy new GTLD names then turn around and try flipping them in the same day/week/month/year
   
   The key is having the strength to buy some names and hold to be able to make the sales pitch to buyers “chin high” .. The history of .com taught us that adoption is slow (glacier like) and then suddenly while nobody is looking demand ramps, the good names are gone by then and you’re stuck filtering drops, only in this new era drops are going to change and be combed over more closely by registries hungry for profits and marketing revenue.
   
   These names will be proven to have bigger fans than their .com equivalent over time. I said the same thing about .com before this and it turned out to be true. Half of all new generic GTLDs are in General availability today.. the best are yet to come.
   
   All of them together will inexorably change the market for .com over the next 5 years. The good names in new gold’s will be gone in 5 years, but between here and there, everything you are seeing is true."
   
   1. frank.schilling Says:
      June 3rd, 2015 at 1:01 pm
      I clearly hope to do well, but the truth is, it’s unlikely any registry will make a killing while registrants do poorly. If you’re right and we (the registries) are going to be successful, then what’s more likely to happen is newcomers, (those who don’t have pre-conceived notions from the past, or lofty expectations), will take registrations and evangelize the names they register to buyers of the future. Not today but in the next few years ahead. We do that every day here. As more strings come out a new market will emerge and that market will change the market we know today.
      
      @Alton, which company?.. Last time I checked Uniregistry (one of my companies) spent tens of millions in new g’s. I am still buying the names on the side of the road as they come out. .lol is next (i’ll take 20k).. .mom (30k) .game, (maybe 30k). Those names belong to the registry and are for the benefit of the namespaces in promoting and pushing them forward, but judging by my ICANN bill this month, I paid for them. At the same time Name Administration Inc. (another of my companies) will spend a few million bucks this year at namejet replenishing our sold .com inventory.
      
      When Uniregistry customers compete fairly, head to head with Name Administration that’s just business.
      
      The fact that I own some of each company is moot.
      "

 

[xynames]

Most of my sales over 14 years have been direct through my own landing pages with no commissions being paid and then routed direct to an escrow service as most leads come in from the sales page so no sense handing those leads away at a cost. I have never been much of a domain parker even years ago when it paid better as a good sale can trump many years of parking earnings.

I have tested so many sales pages and domain market scripts over those 14 years and I'm currently happy with the simple page I'm using as week after week I receive names, emails, phone numbers, ip addresses so the database of end users continues to grow which builds your future instead of an aftermarkets future. Made sense back in the day when parking paid better but today doing your own thing is the winner if your in this for the long haul. Even though I'm seeing the best results ever on my current sales page yes I'm just about to test another one as the A/B split testing never ends.

If I had to pick 1 aftermarket to use and could only pick 1 to use it would definitely be Afternic as it's all about reach and they have the network. Do I think they could use some upgrades you bet but even though frustrating at times the best network is there.

So I use my own sales pages and the majority of sales happen direct but Afternic shows me more leads/sales than any other aftermarket as they have the reach and my domains don't even point to them they point to my own sales pages.

This is definitely the primary, if not only, way my friend did his sales from 2003 - 2016 - via his own landing page, (but, in his case, directed from a parked page with the PPC links). It's old school and I like it myself, but I am trying some of the other places too, where commission must be paid.

As far as the clicks, I'm rather surprised that anyone clicks at all, but they must be for me to collect $150. a month. Most all of the revenue comes from a few dozen top traffic sites, among the 1500 or so that I own.

 

[hookbox]

I would think some of the 20% goes to whichever partner exposed the name to the buyer. The 100 partners are definitely not showing your name for free and not getting some type of cut for a sale when it occurs.

 

[GoFish]

Interesting that Afternic reaches out to the potential buyer at least 4 times within the first 48 hours. I would have thought that signals desperation, but I guess they know best.

 

[musicman]

Does using AN NS matter in reference to overall traffic?

If I use UR NS and list on AN marketplace, is there significant difference in traffic on AN vs AN NS and UR marketplace. Also the same question using SEDO vs UR vs AN in reference to traffic?

I'm noticing that price point of domains matters in each of these marketplaces.

AN Afternic
UR Uniregistry
NS Nameserver

 

[xynames]

Currently I use domainadvertising.com 's nameservers (NS). That way I get their PPC links, but also a "______.com is for sale!" URL link at top and bottom of each page, that connects to my universal landing page xynames.com where there is a FormMail.pl submit form to submit an inquiry or bid.

In order for me to maintain my own landing page, I cannot use anything like Uniregistry (UR)'s NS. If I were to do that, then I would be locked into having anyone who lands on my domain directly going only to the UR marketplace form. I believe the same would be true if I used Afternic (AN)'s NS.

It is one thing to load your domains into these marketplaces and quite another to use their NS, in my opinion. If you want to wash your hands of any possibility of direct sales, then use their NS.

And then you ask about traffic. Well, I have still sold domains and received inquiries at AN without using their NS, while I have had zero inquiries from UR. The rep at UR claimed that unless I use their NS, that I would get zero exposure - and this may well be true; obviously this is not the case at AN.

 

[xynames]

I expanded on this thought here:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/do...-exposure-if-you-do-not-use-their-ns.1025728/

 

[musicman]

I'm curious to see how other investors are using each. This has been great feedback so far.

 

[xynames]

Follow up: what's difference between AN and AN premium services? Anyone use their premium? Supposedly the best results come from Afternic Premium which puts your domains in the registration path at 19 out of the top 20 registrars - but what does it take to become premium, and has anyone here been premium for long enough to notice a difference?

 

[xynames]

Okay, so straight from the horse's mouth (from AN directly):

Here are all of the criteria that domains must meet to be eligible for the Premium level:
• .com, .net, .biz, .org, .pw and .info TLDs only
• Listed domains must have a Buy Now price
• Buy Now price must be below $25,000
• Registered for 60 days or longer with the current registrar
• Registration must not be within 30 days of expiration
• Registered with a Premium Network Partner
• No transfer holds at the registrar

Our list of Premium Network partners includes GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, Name.com, eNom, Domain Discover, Tierranet, EuroDNS, Tucows, Dynadot, Public Domain Registry, Big Rock, NameSilo and Domain.com.

You do not need to change your nameservers to participate in the Premium Network. You just need to wait to receive opt-in emails from the registrars of your eligible domains and follow the steps to approve the domains for Premium at the registrar.

 

[xynames]

I received a "price request" inquiry at AN on one of my domains several days ago. (Get these emails all the time - most of my listings are of the "Make Offer" variety.)

Input a buy it now (BIN) of $3000.

Few days later got a direct email from the AN broker saying that he had brought the potential buyer up from 400 to 1500, and would I be willing to set a floor price (lowest minimum price at which I will sell) beneath 3000.

I showed him a couple of comparables on the 'net, one of which was for a clearly inferior but keyword (KW) related domain for sale, for $4K. I told him I'd accept 2500 (set a floor of 2500), and added that if not sold I'd be raising the price to $5K the next day.

Ten minutes later broker emailed me and said the domain sold for the 2500 floor price.

ALL VERY COOL, BUT - my question is: are these brokers at AN real salesmen? Did this broker try to get my BIN of $3K and then after some negotiations it all settled at my floor of 2500 or did he simply let loose immediately the information to the buyer that, Listen, the seller will go for $2500.?

If I were, for example, selling a house and told the broker I'd accept $1.2M and asked him to list it at $1.5M, if he flat out told a buyer that I'd accept $1.2M, I would think - that's a weak broker!

I am a master negotiator and good salesman, and I'd never just immediately give a potential buyer my bottom line if I were asking only 20% more as my list price.

 

[xynames]

Sold a domain at AN, Friday, July 7th, buyer paid with credit card that day, cleared payment on Monday, July 10th, domain fast transferred same day to AN/GoDaddy, received funds in bank account today via ACH, Wednesday, July 19th. Yes, it takes that long to get paid!

 

[alcy]

well.. you need to set bins.. to get into premium networks... I think you said you have it all makeoffer only yes?

still nice quick sales there.. and quick interest.. must be good domains!

I know brokers will make calls for you.. do emails.. and also importnat: they'll check their database for past sales with the potential nbuyer... often they developed relationships.. with repeat buyers.. that can help close deal a lot!!!

and often they can revisit with buyers.. ask if they changed mind.. I had one sale happen good few weeks aftr initial price request...

I guess broker just kept at it!

however, not sure I follow why for each price request they ask you to officially set bin and floor on your afternic listing. instgead of just giving it to them by email.. which makes it official anyway.. cause if I do it on afernic listing.. anyone can buy it then.. and it can mess up broker negotiations.. plus I heard that when broker closes deal they never ask buyer to go click bin on official listing anyway.. but raather send them a special checkout link.. cause broker receives that way a share of that 20% fee.

maybe @Joe Styler can explain more? ty.

 

[alcy]

What I do like about AN is that you get exposure simply by being listed in their marketplace.

However at UR, supposedly you get zero exposure unless you park your domains for sale using their nameservers. At least that is the way the UR marketing rep explained it to me.

well.. unless you have bin prices.. and get on their premium network+fast transfer.. the exposure is still there.. but much less imo