Dan.com Adds GoDaddy Logo to Landers

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In my opinion, the GoDaddy brand is the biggest advantage for domain name sellers who use Dan.com following GoDaddy’s acquisition of the domain name sales platform. Domain name buyers who are unfamiliar with the Dan.com brand will likely recognize GoDaddy’s brand name. This could help domain sellers close more deals on Dan.com.

GoDaddy Change Should Lead to Fewer Auction Refunds

One of the biggest gripes at GoDaddy auctions seems to be the high number of post-auction refunds. If a domain name is registered at a partner domain registrar, auctioned at GoDaddy Auctions, and then renewed by the domain registrant, the auction is canceled and high bidder is refunded. Any time spent on research and bidding is wasted.

Within the last few years, GoDaddy changed its own renewal policy to cut down on post-auction renewals and refunds. From what I understand, if a GoDaddy-registered domain name is not renewed 3 days prior to the start of the expiry auction, the registrant can no longer renew the domain name.

Afternic Lander: Get Idea of Pricing Without Calling

I search for domain name acquisition targets in many ways. One of the most regularly used methods is simply visiting a domain name to see how it is used. There’s no sense in making an effort to buy a domain name if it is being used as a brand by a billion dollar company or well-funded startup.

Domain names that are available for sale often have a “for sale” landing page either hosted by the registrant or by a platform like Afternic or Sedo. Afternic landing pages, for example, notify the visitor that the domain name is for sale without providing any pricing information. The landing page implores visitors to submit their information to get a price within 24 hours or to call and get a price immediately:

My Thoughts on GoDaddy / Dan “Commission Alignment”

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As part of his coverage of GoDaddy’s pending acquisition of Dan.com, Andrew Allemann published an interview with Paul Nicks, President of Domains, at GoDaddy. The question and answer that caught my attention the most was regarding commission:

Domain Name Wire: Many people use GoDaddy’s Afternic DLS to get in the registrar registration path, but choose Dan.com landers because they’re cheaper (9% vs. up to 20%). Will this still be an option or should we expect to pay higher prices for landing page sales in the future?

Nicks: We are still in the early stages and do not have a plan around commission alignment. Once we have updates to share, we’ll share proactively.

The thing that jumped out at me was Paul’s comment about “commission alignment.”

My Thoughts on GoDaddy Acquiring Dan.com

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I list nearly all of my domain names for sale on both Dan.com and GoDaddy (via Afternic). The domain names mostly resolve to Dan.com landing pages but are also listed via GoDaddy’s expansive sales network. These are the only two platforms I currently use to sell domain names, beyond my own landing pages.

In a blog post published on Medium this morning, Dan.com announced it is going to be acquired by GoDaddy:

Why I Merged Accounts at GoDaddy

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I’ve always had several accounts at GoDaddy dating to when I operated two separate companies. When I shut down one company, I was left with two accounts at GoDaddy. One account held a handful of my higher value domain names and the other had all of my other domain names.

With 2 factor authentication enabled on my accounts in addition to the DTVS added level of security, I did not really have much reason or motivation to merge these two accounts. The domain names all renewed with the credit card on file for each account, and I only actively used one of the accounts for buying domain names. The only issue I had was when I wanted to check on something related to a domain name in one account and logged in to the wrong account.