The time finally came. Dan.com has been completely shuttered by GoDaddy.
The innovative platform was acquired by GoDaddy in 2022. It was operated independently for a short period of time, and the platform was absorbed by GoDaddy and Afternic. Earlier this year, it was announced that Dan.com would close down over the Summer, and that time has come.
If you visit Dan.com now, you will be forwarded to Afternic with a Dan.com tracking url.
My educational background is in the field of direct marketing. Following my undergraduate degree, I went to NYU and earned a Master’s degree in Direct and Interactive Marketing. I then worked at a direct marketing agency called Wunderman, followed by a corporate direct marketing role at AIG.
One of the hallmarks of direct marketing is testing. I recall one of my professors telling the class about the “test everything” mantra in this field. Testing is the most important thing, and once you have a winning campaign or strategy, you keep testing to see if you can iterate and improve your results. All of this is to say that I am a big believer in testing.
I read a blog post about testing written by GoDaddy’s Adam Ramsdell. While I agree with the testing sentiment, I think it would be very difficult for most domain investors – myself included – to accurately test in a way that will create actionable results.
Earlier today, GoDaddy announced that customers can now create checkout links for Lease to Own (LTO) deals. Customers have been able to import these types of leads for buy it now sales only.
Now at Afternic: Lease to Own for Custom Checkout Link!
Close Lease to Own deals using GoDaddy's checkout process, with a flat 10% commission.
Available from your portfolio page today! pic.twitter.com/Q3zS30v49r
— Afternic (@afternic) July 28, 2025
I discovered an issue with the way Whois records are displayed at GoDaddy that could be problematic for domain investors. I was made aware of this when DomainTools detected a Whois change for one of my domain names that hadn’t undergone any Whois updates. This is an issue GoDaddy is aware of, and I hope the company remedies it ASAP.
All of my domain names are registered / owned by my company, Top Notch Domains, LLC. Within the individual settings page, I can see the Whois information correctly shows my company name and other contact information. You can have a look at how I would like the Whois record to look for SelfCare.com:
As Aziz noted this morning on X, GoDaddy has added an AI feature to its for sale landing pages, allowing prospective buyers to get additional insight into why a domain name is valuable. On the right side of GoDaddy “for sale” landers, there’s an “Ask AI” button visible.
Clicking the button opens a pop-up window with a pre-populated question, What makes this domain name valuable? Clicking the prompt draws an AI-generated response from the tool emphasizing some of the unique traits of the domain name.
I recently noticed that GoDaddy Auctions began incorporating artificial intelligence-generated images and descriptions to its auction listings. This AI-generated content appears in the Details section below the fold, so visitors would need to scroll below the bid field to view this section for each auction. This field appears above comparable sales and other data related to the domain name in auction.
Here’s an example of the AI generated image and description for Trickster.com, a domain name that is currently in auction at GoDaddy:
