Afternic Users Can Now Use Non-PPC Landers

Afternic emailed its customers yesterday to let them know they could now more easily set up landing pages without pay per click (PPC) links on them. These types of “for sale” landing pages make it more obvious that a particular domain name is for sale rather than having a smaller “for sale” notice on them. These landing pages give visitors the option to call a toll free number to speak with an Afternic sales representative, or they can fill out an inquiry form. The asking price is not listed on the landing page.

An example of the landing page Afternic customers can implement on their domain names can be seen below:

Prior to yesterday’s news, customer were able to forward their domain names to this type of landing page, but it took more effort setting up forwarding for each domain name. This nameserver change option will allow users to set this up in bulk.

Commenting on this change, Afternic’s Alan Shiflett shared the following information with me:

We received a lot of requests from customers who wanted the ability to use the Afternic Sales team to manage their inbound leads but did not want to have PPC links on the landers.  While someone could manually point individual domains to our For Sale Landers it was not easy to do so in bulk.  Now anyone can point their Afternic listed domains to NS3.AFTERNIC.COM/NS4.AFTERNIC.COM and visitors will automatically go directly to the Afternic For Sale Lander.  Updating Nameservers in bulk is easy to do at your registrar, so this gives a quick and simple way to get everything pointed.

I use for sale landing pages on some of my most generic domain names that did not receive much PPC advertising revenue. From my standpoint, this is a good way to ensure a visitor knows the domain name is for sale to submit an offer or make an inquiry. GoDaddy’s NameFind has ditched PPC advertising landing pages on some of its better generic domain names, although the company uses a different for sale landing page than the one offered to Afternic customers.

There could be a bit more legal risk to these types of landing pages (in my non-legal be observational opinion). I have seen UDRP panels rule that PPC revenue generation is a legitimate business model, and having a PPC generating landing page might offer a domain investor a bit more protection than a straight-up for sale page. Again, this is not legal advice but a simple observation.

I have noticed “for sale” landing pages generate more inquiries, although that tends to mean many unqualified buyers inquiring. Having the phone number on the landing page will let Afternic sales reps sort that out and pitch your name appropriately.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

4 COMMENTS

  1. Elliot, why not run a poll among your readers whether they would want

    1) option to have same lander avail to domainers as godaddy uses for its own portfolio (see excerpt from your note then below)

    2) real time chat for inquirers (like gd offers on its main site) – for prospective purchasers who may be hesitant to call a) due to either privacy reasons (dont want their caller id tracked, afraid of spamming, though gd is legit, many less reputable sites sell inquirers phone and email info) b) concerned their accents may not be understood c) more comfortable chatting then talking

    3) confirmation that godaddy’s competitively distinguishing 24×7 phone support extended to afternic sales too

    in summer 2017 you posted below:

    If a visitor clicks on the “Inquire Today!” button (or if they scroll down), they are taken to a form to fill out. My guess is Afternic will attempt to call the prospective buyer if a phone number is left, or the team will follow up via email if there is no contact phone number.

    I reached out to Paul Nicks, GM of GoDaddy’s Aftermarket, and he told me this landing page is new and is not publicly available for Afternic clients at this time. NameFind is using this for sale landing page on some of its higher value domain name assets they would prefer to focus on selling rather than monetizing via PPC. Paul did say the landing page could be an option for Afternic clients in the future if there is a demand for it.

  2. Elliot, suggest a poll among your readers to ascertain their desire for afternic

    1) making available the same afternic landers used by gd for its own inventory also – not avail current to others, as noted in your posting in summer, 2017 below:

    2) real time chat on afternic for inquirers, like gd makes avail on its main site, for improved responsiveness – so that prospective purchasers who dont want to call (for various legit reasons, such as: conscious of their accents possibly not well understood) can still get prompt pricing, vs having to wait for 24 ‘business hours’ email response now being promised (that’s 3 business days ! ) hardly ‘internet timeliness’

    summer 2017:

    If a visitor clicks on the “Inquire Today!” button (or if they scroll down), they are taken to a form to fill out. My guess is Afternic will attempt to call the prospective buyer if a phone number is left, or the team will follow up via email if there is no contact phone number.

    I reached out to Paul Nicks, GM of GoDaddy’s Aftermarket, and he told me this landing page is new and is not publicly available for Afternic clients at this time. NameFind is using this for sale landing page on some of its higher value domain name assets they would prefer to focus on selling rather than monetizing via PPC. Paul did say the landing page could be an option for Afternic clients in the future if there is a demand for it.

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