news Will you be signing up for a paid Namebio membership?

[equity78]

Namebio rolled out memberships today, Michael Sumner announced it on the Namebio blog. A lot of new features: Sales Below $100 Search In Bulk Export Your Search Results Saved Searches With Email Notifications There are three paid membership categories Collector $10.00/Month 500 Results Per Search 2,000 Bulk Search Results 5 Saved Searches 10% Off Featured … [Read more...]

 

[MapleDots]

The new feature "sales below $100"

hm, what this is going to be useful for?

Ok... you left yourself open to this one......

New gTLD sales

 

[Michael]

@Michael Since this thread starts to be NB feature suggestion thread, here is one from me -

Can you please add a negative filter? Like, i want to search for domains containing "chain" but lot of results will be about blockchain (didnt check actually, it's just for example, but for some of my searches in the past that was really a big problem) cannibalizing result positions, - so i would like to put Contain: chain, Not Contain: block. Thank you

Sorry this took so long, but the negative keyword functionality is done. I haven't had a chance to test it really thoroughly so let me know if you notice any problems:

https://namebio.com/?s==ATMxYDN5AjM

You use an exclamation point before the negative keyword, so if you want sales containing "chain" but not containing "block" you would put the keyword as "chain!block" (without quotes).

When you use a negative keyword, the "Position" filter becomes just about the positive keyword and has nothing to do with the negative keyword. So "chain!block" At the End will look for sales with "chain" at the end but also not containing "block" anywhere. Of course that only applies to Anywhere, At the Start, or At the End since Exact/As a Prefix/As a Suffix wouldn't make sense for this situation.

It should also work fine while using brackets for strict match, like "[chain]!block" and At the End:

https://namebio.com/?s==MzMxYDN5AjM

In that example it would be looking for "chain" as the last parsed keyword in the domain, but also not containing block anywhere in the domain.

You can't use a negative keyword without a positive one though (i.e. "!block"), if you do that it will just strip out the ! and treat it as a positive keyword. I might add this in the future though if people would find it useful. You also can’t use multiple negative keywords like “chain!block!gold”.

It also works for the Sales Under $100 search form if you're a paying member.

Let me know if you have any questions or notice any problems. Thanks again for the suggestion!

 

[MapleDots]

So many subscriptions now.... wow
My credit card gets hit over 30 times a month with subscriptions already.

I am much more in favor of a one time membership fee. This way you can evaluate the cost against the value of the service and decide if you want it or not.

 

[Kassey Lee]

I have been using the paid service for about 2 months and I find it very useful. For instance, it helps me identify keywords that are popular currently as well as for all times. It's an important tool in my toolbox.

 

[equity78]

The new feature "sales below $100"

hm, what this is going to be useful for?

It will show some of the Emperor's who have no clothes. People who for years love to take shots at others anonymously who might throw out a sale they made, knowing Namebio did not chart sales under $100. Now more fact checking can be done. It will also be a secondary validation when someone like Mike Mann says he acquired a name for $20 on Twitter. Many a time I read someone questioning Mike if that actually happened and asked for proof.

 

[Brands.International]

The new feature "sales below $100"

hm, what this is going to be useful for?

 

[JudgeMind]

I think it’s great to have the new options available, especially the bulk search. Fees do seem a bit steep, there’s a huge price leap between Domainer and business

 

[D Haynes]

I won't be paying for anything. I don't have any paid subscriptions to any domain related services....

That I can think of...

 

[Michael]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone.

So many subscriptions now.... wow
My credit card gets hit over 30 times a month with subscriptions already.

I am much more in favor of a one time membership fee. This way you can evaluate the cost against the value of the service and decide if you want it or not.

Just out of curiosity, how would a one-time fee help evaluate the cost vs. value? In my view it makes it even more risky for you, because instead of getting to test drive it for $10 or $25 you'd probably have to pay $500 to $750 or more up front.

Plus it shouldn't be that hard to determine if NameBio data helps your business make an extra $120 in an entire year by having so much data at your fingertips, or by saving you time not having to watch all marketplaces all day every day to be in tune with pricing trends.

I think the domain industry is too small to offer a one-time fee. That pricing structure is ideal for something like a training course that is largely "build it once", or for an industry that has a very large and constant flow of new entrants. I don't imagine that is something we'd ever be able to offer.

The new feature "sales below $100"

hm, what this is going to be useful for?

Spotting trends before they hit the mainstream. Everything that gets big has to start somewhere, and that's usually below $100. Think crypto, 5N, etc. Seeing sales under $100 would let you see those trends forming before everyone else notices. Also just being able to see more data on what people are paying in auctions.

I think it’s great to have the new options available, especially the bulk search. Fees do seem a bit steep, there’s a huge price leap between Domainer and business

True, but there is also a huge leap in the benefits. There's a big difference between being able to go 25 pages deep at 100 results per page, and being able to go unlimited pages (thousands) deep. Also there's a big difference between being able to export 10k and 50k search results per month, the latter would let you export all sales $100+ in a little over a year. Since we generally add around 7k new sales a month above $100, with the Domainer tier it would take you something like 18 years to export the entire database.

Honestly I don't expect anyone except full-time domain investors or brokers to go for the Business tier. But we had to have tier with practically unrestricted access for people who do this for a living instead of a side hustle. The first two tiers are for the individual investors.

It appears that namebio makes money from advertising. With adblock technologies becoming de-facto standard for surfers, paid subscription (preferably with zero ads) is a natural development. It would be great.
Should namebio become 100% paid service, it would also benefit all domainers who are selling to endusers (as it would be harder for an average enduser to obtain unnecessary info - how much this or that domainer paid /wholesale/ for domain they are trying to purchase /retail/).

I updated the Collector tier to also be ad-free, and then I also changed the definition of ad-free to remove the featured listings bar at the top per user feedback. So no paying members have ads any more making for a much cleaner interface. This doesn't apply to the blog though, just the main part of the site. I don't expect we'll ever go 100% paid.

It partly depends on the results per search, and how they are ordered. For $10/month you get 500 search results (which should be enough), For $25/month you get 2500 search results. How to get relevancy for the results? If you need to spend $25/month to get relevant results, which you might not get with 500 search results. When most domainers (I know) cannot afford the $10/month, let alone the Domainer Level of $25/month. Personally, like others, I think the pricing is too high. I definitely would not spend $25/month for Domainer Level.

Will there still be any free level. Or is it totally subscription now.

I'm not sure what you mean. The search results are the same regardless of how many you get to see, it's just a question of how many pages deep you get to go. They're all only as relevant as you are good at using the myriad of filters available.

We didn't change the limits for using the site anonymously without registering, it is still 100 results per search. And if you register for free we bump that to 150. The subscriptions are pure value add, not pay to keep what you already had. So more results per search, bulk searching, saved searches with email notifications, searching sales below $100, discounts on featured listings (which could pay for the membership alone if you use them enough), and no ads. I feel like those perks are worth the cost of admission if you are a power user, but people will obviously let us know with their wallets.

-

For those who just flat out said no, is it that you think the price is too high, the benefits don't interest you, or you just don't want any more (or any at all) monthly subscriptions? More specific feedback would be helpful in shaping the future of the tool. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

 

[karmaco]

Too expensive for average domainer. We have enough to pay for just to be in this business.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

It will show some of the Emperor's who have no clothes. People who for years love to take shots at others anonymously who might throw out a sale they made, knowing Namebio did not chart sales under $100. Now more fact checking can be done. It will also be a secondary validation when someone like Mike Mann says he acquired a name for $20 on Twitter. Many a time I read someone questioning Mike if that actually happened and asked for proof.

Another take on the inclusion of lower price sales data, but only for subscribers in the upper two levels, that Michael makes is as a way to early on see trends before they get to big bucks. In the blog post he uses a specific example to demonstrate the idea.

 

[Furquan]

No, I am not.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I'm somewhat torn. I do like especially the larger number of sales reports, the sales under $100 in top two tiers, and the ability to export results. The email notifications might be helpful too.

That said, it seems to me a bit high the subscription levels, especially for the top two plans that have most of the features.

I would like to show support for NameBio, but it is a lot of money for the scale of my domain operation.

Not sure.

Bob

 

[MapleDots]

Just out of curiosity, how would a one-time fee help evaluate the cost vs. value? In my view it makes it even more risky for you, because instead of getting to test drive it for $10 or $25 you'd probably have to pay $500 to $750 or more up front.

The 500-750 would for sure be too much for most domainers, but another monthly subscription fee is also a pain. I was thinking more of a smaller one time fee for all the light users of the service.

You have to be careful though because I can name numerous situations where someone started to charge for services and a competing site ended up on top. Heck you can even look at namepros as being one of those sites.

As long as there are some free services you will probably do alright but as soon as everything becomes paid some smart guy is going to figure out how to harvest information and toss up a competing site.

I've seen that happen over and over again so the trick is to hit the sweet spot where you can monetize the site yet not make it advantageous for a competitor to come along and undercut you.

Personally I see enough sales reporting that I don't visit namebio often enough to warrant paying a subscription fee. I think I may visit the site 3-4 times per year because I follow all the blogs. So for a super light user it would not make sense to pay. People that use your tools every day should but I guess the magic question is how much before the shift away starts.

I wish namebio lots of luck because it's a great service, I just hope this does not start a shift away to a different service., that would be a shame.

 

[Michael]

The 500-750 would for sure be too much for most domainers, but another monthly subscription fee is also a pain. I was thinking more of a smaller one time fee for all the light users of the service.

You have to be careful though because I can name numerous situations where someone started to charge for services and a competing site ended up on top. Heck you can even look at namepros as being one of those sites.

As long as there are some free services you will probably do alright but as soon as everything becomes paid some smart guy is going to figure out how to harvest information and toss up a competing site.

I've seen that happen over and over again so the trick is to hit the sweet spot where you can monetize the site yet not make it advantageous for a competitor to come along and undercut you.

Personally I see enough sales reporting that I don't visit namebio often enough to warrant paying a subscription fee. I think I may visit the site 3-4 times per year because I follow all the blogs. So for a super light user it would not make sense to pay. People that use your tools every day should but I guess the magic question is how much before the shift away starts.

I wish namebio lots of luck because it's a great service, I just hope this does not start a shift away to a different service., that would be a shame.

Understood, that's why we not only left the site exactly the same for anonymous users, we allowed people to register for free and get a 50% bump in results per search. The service is the same or better even if you never pay us a dime. But if you do pay, it's way better. Of course it would be impossible for us to create a membership plan that someone who visits only 3-4 times a year could justify

We just added annual plans with a 50% discount because of the overwhelming feedback. We also made a few other changes, the full announcement is here:

https://namebio.com/blog/save-50-with-annual-memberships-other-changes/

Thanks for the feedback everyone, please keep it coming.

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

No, I don't plan to be signing up for any paid plan. May be something changes in future so I don't know about that. But right now, surely not. Because I don't benefit a lot from NameBio as I occasionally check latest and/or relevant sales.

Thanks!

 

[Michael]

Hi Michael

glad you started charging

now maybe there will be less posting of uncomparable - comparables, to compare.

cuz domainers will run any good 'free' thing into the ground, like what happened to overture tool
and i'm sure the load on nb is heavy, considering every newbie and their mama hears about it sooner or later.

so, in that respect....I ain't mad at ya

imo…..

Sorry to break it to you, but the site is unchanged for anonymous users, and you can get 50% more results per search just by registering a free account. So I don't expect anything will change in that regard... might actually get "worse" now that users can get more or even unrestricted access to the data

People will always stretch when it comes to quoting comps, that's just salesmanship... don't let it get you down. I hope people aren't stretching like that when they're researching to make a purchase though. I've said it many times, don't sell yourself when buying a name. Instead try your best to convince yourself why you shouldn't buy it, and if you still want it at that point then it's probably a good deal.

I know you're not a fan of comps in general though, you've been very outspoken about never using the site. It must be nice to have gotten to the point where you can value any domain without research. I still haven't gotten there yet... it seems like there is always something new to learn. I bet you would dominate on our mobile game, give it a try some time.

Thankfully all the newbies and their mothers have a way to learn what sells and how to value a domain, without having to pay the "tuition" of figuring it out through many years of trial and error. Imagine what they would think their domains are worth if they not only lacked your decades of experience, but also had no way to research historical sales and get a reality check.

Glad to hear you're not mad at me though So far nobody has gotten upset about getting more for free and having the option to pay to get a *lot* more.

 

[Tatiana Bonneau]

I got the yearly plan and happy with it, generally I'm not a fan of free services - either you are the product or you are getting someone to do work for free - ether way not something I like/want to be part of. Free trials are ok and fair to get people to see if what they pay for is what they need but that's about it. And it is generally hypocritical to be against paying for a service since nobody would want to themselves work for free.

 

[barman]

I use Namebio almost every day so I bought a yearly membership. Even though I could get by with a free membership, I like supporting good software that I use a lot.

I do wish they move some of the better stuff like "Domain Discoveries" behind a paywall to make it more worth it.

 

[Michael]

Just got this warning...


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======================


Well if this is some kind of incentive to buy membership, i even don't know what to think. Didn't expect such low tricks. Come on, i've been working from this room for three years already.

@Michael

That has been in place for around three years now and has banned more than 50,000 bots with very little impact on legitimate users.

Before you simply weren’t allowed to use a VPN because then there’s no way for us to ban bad actors, as you can click a button and get a new IP. But now that we have memberships and we know who some users are, it is possible to let them use a VPN without the security risks. So that’s how we let people know. It’s only an incentive to get a membership if you really have to use a VPN for some reason, it’s not a low trick. Even NamePros blocks VPNs...

If you’re not using a VPN then you were probably banned for unusual activity. We have a number of automated checks in place which I won’t go into in detail. But again they have been in place for 3+ years and has nothing to do with memberships, it has to do with how many people feel entitled to abuse our server. It may have also been a temporary rate limit for searching too fast.

If you email me like it says to do on the ban page I’m happy to look into it and remove it.

 

[Michael]

Thanks for your response. Can you clarify two things for me so I can decide between collector or domainer level?

Is there a limit to the number of searches that can be done with a membership? I'm not talking about bots - just by hand? I can type quickly and have had issues with "unusual activity detected" before where I either searched too quickly or too much in day or per hour. I emailed you about it and I think there was a limit in place so I and ended up changing my habits to not run afoul again figuring I'd just get a membership when I was ready to continue doing alot of searches. Again, it's by hand.

Under "Export Your Search Results" explanation it says "You are only limited by the number of Bulk Searches you have available". I'm assuming this relates to the 10k "Bulk Search Results" benefit with domainer level. So if I search a term and the results are say - 2000 and I then download them then that counts against the 10k with domainer level - leaving 8k for the rest of the month?

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We don't rate limit paying members (e.g. searches per minute), although there is an unpublished limit for how many searches you can do in a day. Although it would be pretty much impossible to hit it manually unless you don't sleep and you keep smashing the pagination over and over without reading any of the results.

Yes, exporting search results from the homepage and doing bulk searches both share the same quota, since an export is basically a bulk search of all the domains in the results. So if you exported 2k results from the homepage, you'd have 8k left between exports and bulk searches for the remainder of the month on Domainer tier. Although if you switch to Domainer, you can send me a PM if you don't plan to use the API, and I can convert your API credits to bulk search credits (giving you 20k/mo).

Is the 150 search results still available for free members?

Yep, that's still in place.

 

[tonyk2000]

It appears that namebio makes money from advertising. With adblock technologies becoming de-facto standard for surfers, paid subscription (preferably with zero ads) is a natural development. It would be great.
Should namebio become 100% paid service, it would also benefit all domainers who are selling to endusers (as it would be harder for an average enduser to obtain unnecessary info - how much this or that domainer paid /wholesale/ for domain they are trying to purchase /retail/).

 

[MapleDots]

.
Should namebio become 100% paid service, it would also benefit all domainers who are selling to endusers (as it would be harder for an average enduser to obtain unnecessary info - how much this or that domainer paid /wholesale/ for domain they are trying to purchase /retail/).

If I'm an end user I will not pay for namebio but to have the service not available to an individual doing research on a purchase would be a shame.

Remember domainers are only a small part of the market and nambio is useful to the general public as well.

 

[Brands.International]

Ok... you left yourself open to this one......

New gTLD sales

Witty comment

But, imo one should really distinguish what is reported there - for example, in case of new gTLDs, you will see lot of "sales" under $100, where venue will be Dynadot. This is because all of their expired auctions are reported there.

So what does it mean: when I like some new gTLD name and buy it (for reg fee) at Dynadot expired auction, you will see it reported there. Although you can consider that as "aftermarket sale" it is not really that: it is just that domainer is overtaking name from another domainer, particularly when we speak about names with higher renewal fees.

There are many more subtle things when it comes to new gTLDs and their reported sales, but I am too lazy to describe them today here. I wrote entire articles about it:

https://www.namepros.com/threads/re...re-still-comparing-oranges-to-apples.1107878/

GL with ccTLD sales