Afternic Outbound Email Sales Tactic

Elliot Silver
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5

I was chatting with Adam Strong, and he let me know he has had some success selling domain names through Afternic. He just started listing some of the domain names from his portfolio a couple of months ago, and he has sold five figures worth of names. On one of his sales, he was chatting with the buyer, and she mentioned that she learned about his Afternic listing after receiving an email from GoDaddy.

I had not heard about this outbound sales tactic, and I have not received an email like the one that was described. With Adam’s permission (and encouragement), I emailed Afternic’s Alan Shiflett to learn more about this email campaign. He confirmed that GoDaddy sends out occasional emails to prospective buyers, and he was kind enough to share two examples of the email for me to share with readers. I asked Alan to mock it up using one of my own domain names because I don’t have permission to use someone else’s domain name listed on Afternic, so these two emails are samples:

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$50,000 is Now the Max for Afternic Fast Transfer

Elliot Silver
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14

I just received word that Afternic has increased the price you can list domains for sale on its Fast Transfer Network from $25,000 to $50,000. Domain names listed for sale on Afternic can now have a buy it now price tag of up to $50,000 to be eligible for the convenient fast transfer service.

The Fast Transfer Network is a service that allows domain owners to list their domain names for sale via Afternic and have them listed in the domain search flow at partner domain registrars. When a customer opts to buy a domain name listed for sale in the network, the purchase and transfer process is relatively seamless for the domain name owner. This makes deals easier to transact.

Bob Mountain, Chief Revenue Officer at Afternic had this to say about the change:

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Afternic Resolves Outage

Elliot Silver
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4

For the last couple of weeks, I had difficulty accessing the Afternic website. I posted a note on Twitter asking if others had the same issue, and I was relieved to learn that a few others were also unable to access the website because it seemed like an isolated issue. When I checked Afternic’s status on Down For Everyone Or Just Me, I saw that the site was operating. I was also able to access Afternic when I was on my iPhone.

Afternic and GoDaddy engineers were made aware of the issue, and the outage was resolved late last week. I asked what caused the outage, and Bob Mountain, Chief Revenue Officer at Afternic shared the following information with me:

“In late August, we were made aware that a small subset of customers were unable to access Afternic.com. These customers were unable to access the website, but were still able to completely manage their accounts through our customer services team. We have investigated the issue and determined it was a firewall setting. We have fixed the issue. If someone is still experiencing issues, we recommend they contact us at service@afternic.com.”

During the outage, I relied on Afternic’s support team to add and remove domain names as well as update pricing. Since most of Afternic’s sales are done via GoDaddy (at least in my experience), I presume the outage did not impact sales. In fact, I

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“Invest in your Success:” Afternic Introduces New Landing Page

Elliot Silver
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25

I noticed a new Afternic “domain for sale” landing page I thought I would share with readers. As you can see below, the landing page does not have any pay per click advertising (PPC) on it, and the lander makes it very clear that the domain name is for sale. You can visit Stallions.com to have a look at the landing page in action.

On the top of the landing page, you can see the call to action with a phone number to call an Afternic sales associate. Afternic likes to encourage people to call rather than submit their contact information via form. Their sales team is likely very strong on the phone, and getting someone to call is a good way for the company to sell its domain names.

If a visitor clicks on the “Inquire Today!”

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Share Your Thoughts About GoDaddy Auctions Valuations

Elliot Silver
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23

GoDaddy LogoYesterday morning, I wrote an article discussing  that an updated valuation tool was being released by GoDaddy in conjunction with expiring domain name inventory coming up for auction at GoDaddy Auctions. The refined  domain appraisal tool takes the Afternic sales database into account and predicts the retail value based on its proprietary algorithm.

I think it will be helpful for domain owners to find “hidden” inventory by performing searches based on valuation, and I also believe this will become  a revenue driver for GoDaddy.

One thing you will notice is that when you hover over a valuation, GoDaddy displays the following disclaimer to ensure that people understand what the valuation is and what its limitations are:

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GoDaddy Reintroduces Valuation Appraisal Tool

Elliot Silver
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6

GoDaddy LogoGoDaddy Auctions is set to reintroduce an updated valuation appraisal tool for its expiring domain name inventory. If you visit GoDaddy Auctions  later on this evening, you will be able to see the “Valuation” column will be populated with a valuation range. Previously, the Valuation column was essentially useless because it was based on a parked earnings algorithm that didn’t take the intrinsic value of the domain name into account. In fact, I described GoDaddy valuations  as “laughable” in an article I wrote last year.

According to GoDaddy Vice President Paul Nicks, the new and updated valuation tool’s algorithm uses the (presumably) massive database of Afternic sales to determine the retail price range of the domain names for sale in GoDaddy’s expiring domain name auctions. Essentially, the valuation tool is predicting what the domain names would sell for at retail prices if they  were listed for sale on Afternic.

The Valuation column will offer  a valuation price  range rather than a single number. Domain names that the tool appraises at  less  than $1,000 will be  listed as under $1,000 rather than a more specific range. Additionally, domain names the tool appraises at $25,000 or more are in the $25,000+ category rather than having a more specific price range.

One added benefit of the  tool for domain investors

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