Home Afternic Page 23

Afternic

BuyDomains Testing Simple Sales Lander

A friend sent me the link to a new landing page currently being tested by BuyDomains, and I thought it was interesting. When you have a chance, take a look at the landing page for RemoteGuardian.com, a domain name owned by BuyDomains. You’ll notice how simple the lander is, with a “This domain is for sale” graphic and not much else.

In addition to the large graphic, there is a call to action phone number and form to submit information for a price request. There is no monetization on the landing page (aside from the sale notice), and there isn’t a price listed either.

My gut says that they are probably testing this on low/no traffic domain names, and excluding PPC links won’t cause a loss on those types of names. Many small business owners and individuals visit a domain name they are interested in owning to see if anyone has anything built on it, likely because many aren’t all that knowledgeable about finding a domain owner using the Whois database. In my opinion, there’s little sense in having PPC links on no traffic names, since that may look like some development to these visitors who may be reluctant to make an offer if they see any type of development.

I reached out to the company to ask for details, and Ted Olson, Director Monetization at Afternic and SmartName, gave me a bit of insight: “As always, we test new ideas and concepts on our own portfolio before rolling it out to our partners. This is the first of many iterations to come, and we are excited to see how well it performs.”

If BuyDomains rolls out with this on a wider range of domain names, perhaps domain owners should take note of the change since they may consider this on their own domain names that get little traffic.

Thanks to NameBio for mentioning this to me.

Guest Post: The Domain Market Is Booming, And It’s No Wonder Why

This is a guest post from Jason Miner, who oversees  Afternic’s  Sales, Business Development & Customer Service departments while also guiding the Product and Development teams. With over 6 years at Afternic and more than 15 years of senior management experience, Jason brings adept leadership skills to the helm of Afternic.

The domain market for primary registrations and premium domains shows no sign of slowing down. From the latest Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief :   “Registrations have grown by more than 20.4 million, or 10 percent, since the fourth quarter of 2010” and “the .com and .net TLDs experienced aggregate growth, reaching a combined total of 13.8 million domain names in the fourth quarter of 2011.”

It’s also been almost two decades since the first e-commerce purchase, yet recent studies estimate that around 40% of small to mid-sized businesses still don’t have a website! From McKinsey’s Internet Matters report:   “All business leaders, not just e-CEOs, should put the Internet at the top of their strategic agenda.” These indicators show that there is a great deal of unmet need for premium domain names for ecommerce sites that are yet to be built.

Since a solid domain is the foundation of any business’s website, the domain industry – and especially the aftermarket – is poised for a huge amount of growth. Improvements in the premium domain transaction process and increased trust in the aftermarket have made it easier for customers to find and purchase premium domains.

Improved Processes Leads to Improved Liquidity

Afternic has made a substantial commitment to and investment in technology to improve the premium domain sales process. Whereas premium domains were previously subjected to a lengthy escrow process, those for sale through Afternic Premium Promotion are now available to the buyer almost immediately. This fluid transaction process is critically important to the growth of the domain aftermarket; customers expect that what they are buying online will be available right away.

Improved Trust by Partnering with Industry Heavyweights

This improved infrastructure has brought many of the world’s leading registrars on board with listing premium domains for sale alongside primary registrations. This both expands the audience for premium domains and lends added legitimacy to the domain aftermarket – which is newer and less known than older registrars.

New Domain Extensions Increase Awareness

Domains have been in the news a lot lately, especially with ICANN’s announcement of new TLDs and the varied responses to this announcement. Any news that keeps domains and their value “top of mind,” is good for the industry.

We expect that consumers will value past performance (.com domain extensions being the most trusted historically, for example) as a predictor of future success, ensuring that .com will still remain the gold standard.

Learn more about selling your domains on Afternic today.

Congratulations to Bob Mountain

I want to extend congratulations to Bob Mountain on his very recent promotion to Senior Vice President of Business Development at NameMedia. The news was announced in a press release this afternoon.

Long before Afternic was an advertiser on my blog, I was a customer of NameMedia, buying 6 figures in domain names from  BuyDomains  over the course of a couple years. When Bob was first hired by NameMedia, he reached out to me to learn how I operate my business and to see how he could help grow my company’s relationship with NameMedia properties.

Bob works tirelessly for the company, and he is a presence at conferences and other events where domain investors and potential domain buyers are present. Bob’s role with the company is important because he is often the person who promotes the importance of the acquisition of good domain names to end user clients. These people then visit marketplaces such as BuyDomains and Afternic where they purchase our domain names we have listed for sale.

Congratulations to Bob on this well deserved promotion. I’ll drink a glass (bottle) of sake in his honor.

Press release below:

Sisters Working in the Domain Industry

Forker sistersThe domain industry is relatively small with considerable overlap between companies and individuals. Many people have worked for different companies in the domain space, and there are strong relationships that have been forged over the years. I want to share a story about one relationship that I think you’ll enjoy reading about.

If you’ve ever been to a domain conference before, you’ll notice the team from NameMedia is very close. One reason for that is because Christina Forker, Customer Service Manager/Business Services Manager at Afternic, and Danielle Romeo, Business Development Associate at NameMedia, are former high school classmates that stayed in touch with each other.

After graduating from college, Christina worked for a payroll company for several months and wasn’t interested in pursuing a career in that field. Danielle told her about an opening for a Customer Service Representative position at NameMedia, and Christina was intrigued by the idea of an online domain marketplace to buy and sell online real estate. Christina applied for the position and was hired by the company.

At DomainFest last year, I was introduced to Christina, and she and I spent some time discussing how I could work with her to have some of my domain names listed for sale at Afternic. We also had a friendly conversation about the town of Newburyport, since she lives there and I owned Newburyport.com. It was a fruitful discussion, and I continue to work with Christina when it comes to Afternic sales listings.

A couple of months after DomainFest, my wife and I flew out to Denver on our way to a ski trip in Breckendridge (awesome skiing there fyi). We made a quick stop at the Name.com offices, where I met Marketing Coordinator, Ashley Forker. After speaking for a little while, Ashley mentioned something about her sister working for NameMedia, and I connected the dots.

I asked about how Ashley found her job in the domain industry since NameMedia and Name.com don’t have a formal relationship (aside from being partners on Afternic’s DLS). According to Ashley, “I had recently graduated college and was again trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life when my sister offered me a gig working for her doing compliance (eye opening experience, there really are some foul domain names out there!!!).”

After working there for a couple of months, Ashley emailed Andrew Hyde of Boulder.ME to ask about job opportunities in the Internet/tech space, and he passed her resume on to Paul Carter, VP of Operations at Name.com. They called Ashley in for an interview, and after “15 minutes in a room with Bill Mushkin, I was sold on Name.com being the right place for me and the rest is history 🙂

As you can imagine, the Forker sisters are able to use each other as resources since they operate in different areas of the domain industry. According to Christina, since the industry is so small, “it is so awesome to have my sister as a part of it, to bounce ideas off of, to talk in what everyone thinks is code at dinner parties mentioning SLD’s TLD’s ccTLD’s, gTLD’s, DNS, ETC. It is also great that we both work on seemingly opposite sides of the industry, her working for a registrar and myself in the aftermarket but are still involved in each other’s worlds. She is an immediate resource for all of my registrar-esque questions and the Name.com team is so helpful as well.”

It’s been great to get to know Ashley and Christina over the last year, and when you do get to know them, you’ll know why Ashley and Christina are valued by their companies and clients.

Big Week in Domain Aftermarket

Both Sedo and Afternic posted big numbers in the domain aftermarket this week. There were also several mid to large sales I followed that closed on NameJet as well. Close to $5 million in domain sales were reported at Sedo and Afternic, not including any sales that closed in private.

According to an email from Sedo, the company closed $3.5 million in sales last week, with over 1,200 transactions reported. 31% of the sales on Sedo were buy it now listings.  At Afternic, the company closed just under $1.4 million in total sales last week. From what I can see, there weren’t really any blockbuster sales reported.

I don’t want to make a prediction that we’re in the midst of a recovery, but I do want to point to the IDNX. The stock market is touching highs dating back to the financial crisis, and the domain market seems to be recovering in the same pattern. I am seeing the same with my own sales, as I detailed last Saturday. Hope you are seeing similar things.

Here are the top 10 sales from Afternic last week:

apartmentlistings.com $87,500.00
TECH.pro $25,500.00
acuto.com $13,000.00
medicals.com $9,000.00
BathSheets.com $9,000.00
seedbed.com $8,800.00
languageclasses.com $8,500.00
askalex.com $7,900.00
aboutmeditation.com $7,500.00
webbuilding.com $7,288.00

Here are the top 10 sales from Sedo last week:
kboing.com 150000 USD
landmarkgroup.com 50000 USD
e-liquid.com 25000 USD
romeapartments.com 15000 USD
tev.de 15000 EUR
medlaser.com 14000 USD
tanga.de 13599 EUR
graniteworktops.com 10500 GBP
sucre.com 10000 USD
cdnreviews.com 10000 USD

Guest Post: Why Priced Domains Sell Better, Faster

This is a guest post from Jason Miner, who oversees Afternic’s Sales, Business Development & Customer Service departments while also guiding the Product and Development teams. With over 6 years at Afternic and more than 15 years of senior management experience, Jason brings adept leadership skills to the helm of Afternic.

Online Pricing Models:   Auction/Un-priced vs. Buy it Now

For over a decade, online companies including eBay and Amazon have experimented with “buy it now” (BIN) pricing vs. auction/un-priced listings. The auction/un-priced model may be falling by the wayside though, as online shoppers have come to expect that websites will offer the ability to make online purchases instantly. This only makes sense since the majority of ecommerce sites are set up like this.

One major indicator that online shoppers prefer “buy it now” (BIN) pricing is that eBay – the world’s most famous online auction platform – dedicated a large portion of its marketing budget in 2011 toward a “Buy it new. Buy it now.” marketing campaign; and, in 2011, 62% of eBay listings were BIN prices vs. 43% in 2008!

Why Choose Fixed Prices for Domains?

Web design best practices include limiting the number of actions a visitor must take to accomplish a purchase. Requiring a potential buyer to bid or request a price before they can make a purchase just adds an extra step to the purchase process – one that some customers may not be willing to take.

This is one of the main reasons why priced domains sell faster and for higher average sales prices. Pricing your domains up front makes transactions faster and easier for both parties because priced domains meet domain buyers’ expectations for a smooth, fast purchase process.

Fixed Prices Mean Higher Sales Prices

Buyers are always looking for a deal. If there is no price, you are likely to get an offer far below the figure or threshold you have in mind. This is why setting price expectations by setting a fixed price usually eliminates the need to entertain lowball offers.

When the price is set by the seller, the buyer understands the expectations and will usually make a more reasonable offer, resulting in better negotiations and eventually a higher sales price.

Fixed Prices Give You a Larger Audience

Afternic’s Domain Listing Service (DLS) offers domain sellers the largest audience for their names. Only priced domains are eligible to participate in Afternic’s Premium Promotion program, however. Premium Promotion puts your names in front of over 35 Million potential buyers per month across a network of partner sites.

This unmatched exposure to buyers who are actively seeking for domain names, greatly improves the chances that your domain will sell faster.

Send an email to Afternic to learn more about how to price your domains.

Recent Posts

Resolved: No Sound Notification for Email on iPhone 16

0
I've been dealing with a frustrating iPhone issue for a while. I don't recall when it started, but my sound notifications have not been...

Rick Schwartz Responds to Digital Citizens Alliance Report

11
Bill Hartzer wrote an article about a report issued by a group called Digital Citizens Alliance that was critical of domain investing. This is...

Sponsor our 2025 PMC Domain Industry Jersey

1
John Berryhill, my wife Karen, and I are raising funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute via the 2025 Pan-Mass Challenge ride in August. Together, we...

Atom.com Transfer Center Status Meanings

0
I frequently see people posting screenshots of their domain name sales on Atom. There are different messages overlaid on the images of the logo...

Escrow.com: 2025 Master of Domains

1
Escrow.com announced the winners of its 2025 Master of Domains awards. The awards are typically given out during NamesCon, but the conference isn't being...