I want to share some news I received this morning from Victor Pitts of Above.com. The company is set to announce that participants in the soon to launch Expiring Domain Sales Program will “retain 60% of the profit from the sale of any domains that they let expire at Above,” which are auctioned on the Above Marketplace.
Prior to the launch of this new program, customers didn’t receive anything from the sale of domain names they owned that expired, much like most other domain registrars. This presents a new revenue opportunity for clients, and it may give incentive to dropping names instead of renewing them.
According to Victor, about 10,000 domain names are auctioned monthly on the Above Marketplace, and with this new offer to clients, it is expected that this figure will grow. The minimum sale price in the auction is $49, so on a name that isn’t producing for the domain owner, instead of paying around $10 to renew it for a year, they can let it expire, and if it’s won at auction, they will receive at least $20 ($29 – renewal fee).
There are is a bit of fine print including that the customer must opt-in to the program and they must agree to the Above Marketplace TOS. If interested, speak to Victor or visit Above.com for full details.
Press release is below:
Above.com to share sales profit of expired domain names with registrar clients
Above.com announces a program for sharing domain sales profit from expired domains. The Expiring Domain Sales Program is an opt-in program offered to clients with more than ten domain names registered at Above.com. Participants of the program would retain 60% of the profit from the sale of any domains that they let expire at Above. All expiring domains will be auctioned in the Above Marketplace.
“We recognize that not all domains will be renewed each month,” says Victor Pitts, Director of Domain Services at Above. “Domain investors will frequently allow some of their inventory to expire in order to register domains that will perform better in their business model.”
Most registrars will sell what expired inventory they can and keep 100% of the profits. Above.com would like give most of the profit back. “We want to reward our customers for their business they do in our ICANN accredited domain registrar,” says David Warmuz President and Founder of Above.com. “We like the idea of giving our registrar clients a new source of income. ”
About Above.com
Above.com Pty Ltd is a Domain Investment Platform combining three core services important to the domain investor. Above.com is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar, offering easy and secure domain management for ANY size domain portfolio. Above.com is an Intelligent Domain Monetization Management Service, enabling clients to maximize parking revenues and productivity by automatically optimizing traffic across multiple parking services, while retaining control and using their existing parking accounts. Above.com is an advanced Auction Marketplace that gives the seller full control over their auctions. Above all – Above.com is committed to serving the evolving business needs of domain investors.
very interesting
thanks for this Elliot
this is actually very clever and also good of above.com
it may prompt others to follow suit as if they don’t and above.com offer good transfer in rates, why not all of us jump ship to above?
i may just do this
would serve scumnames (snapnames) and namejet right
godaddy would never do this, they are too greedy and being a powerhouse they really don’t need to….. yet?
we live in hope
getting shock if the most greedy Godaddy will do the same…