NameMedia

NameMedia Launches “Wholesale” Domain Name Sales Marketplace

Direct Domains

When seeking appraisals, domain owners often ask to distinguish between wholesale value and retail value. The wholesale value is how much another domain owner or bargain hunter would pay, while the retail value is how much a company that needs the domain name would pay to secure it.

NameMedia  operates BuyDomains, which primarily caters to retail buyers, and the company sells millions of dollars in inventory a month. The company also operates Afternic, which sells company-owned domain names as well as privately owned domain names.

This morning, NameMedia announced the launch of DirectDomains.com, which the company is calling a “wholesale marketplace site.” This new site, which is currently being tested with NameMedia-owned inventory, will be targeting “value buyers.”

Here’s what the company has to say about the launch of the new brand:

“As the domain market continues to grow, we recognize that there is a need for a range of price points for difference audiences. We long-ago pioneered the premium domain marketplace, and today we still achieve the highest median price of any domain marketplace that sells in volume. Our research has shown, however, that could be a substantial opportunity in targeting “value buyers” with domains, and so we are testing that concept with this new site.”

I think it’s a good idea, but I hope it doesn’t cannibalize sales from its other platforms. If an end user buyer is looking at two names, I would hope he or she would select the better, higher priced domain name instead of the less expensive option.

Have a look at  DirectDomains.com  when you have a chance to see how the company is positioning the names. It’s a pretty cool looking site, and it’s a neat concept.

Your Favorite Account Manager In The Domain Industry Is…

Last week, I asked you to nominate your favorite account manager / account representative in the domain industry. I was very happy to see that nearly 30 dedicated individuals from more than 15 companies were nominated by happy clients. Several account managers were nominated by more than one person.

Over 1,000 votes were cast in the poll, and I am happy to announce that the winner of the $500 cash prize is Brian Kleiner from Afternic, who was first nominated by Mike “Zappy” Zapolin. There were three people who nominated Brian, and his clients were very supportive of him in this vote.

Neil Kavanaugh, Vice President of Sales and Customer Service at Afternic, had great things to say about Brian:

Brian eats, sleeps and breathes the domain business. It comes as no surprise to me that he has been recognized by his customers and colleagues for his outstanding efforts. Brian came to AfternicDLS with a tremendous background in web and lead-gen businesses, and he’s been able to leverage that experience to help his loyal customer base identify great domain opportunities. He has also been a great role model to his peers on the AfternicDLS sales team who have learned from his unique skill set and dedication to his customers.

There are a two large companies I also want to commend. NameMedia, whose Afternic, Buy Domains, and SmartName business units had a total of seven nominees (Aaron Visaggio, Christina Forker, Dave Helgeson, Molly Reimer, Patrick Calvoni, and Rich Green. Go Daddy also had seven nominees (Brad Larson, Tess Diaz, George Eblacker, Marc Gawith, Brett Meyers, Pete Davis, and Russ Dailey).

It was great to see so many nominees and so many companies represented in this poll. Keep up the good work and great client service. Congratulations to Brian!

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.

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

NameMedia Currently Hiring

1

NameMedia in WalthamAfter posting my article about domain industry job openings, I received an email from my contact at NameMedia informing me that the company has a number of job listings that I didn’t include in my article. Since there are several opportunities at the company (includes Afternic, Buy Domains, and SmartName), I thought I would post an article in case people are interested.

With the US unemployment rate close to 10%, or  maybe more than 10% if you count the people who are out of work, it’s good to see a company like NameMedia hiring. If you are a part time domain investor who does this as a hobby and you have the skill set for one of these positions, you should consider sending in your resume and applying.

The positions are all based out of NameMedia’s Waltham, Massachusetts office. You can find all job openings now and in the future on the NameMedia careers page. Here are the current job listings and some information about each.

Director of Marketing:  

NameMedia is looking for a dynamic Director of Marketing to lead the marketing effort for the company’s product and services. This person will be motivated, creative and results orientated and will enjoy having a hands-on role in developing the strategy and driving the execution of all aspects of a world-class marketing organization—from driving customer leads through innovative SEO, SEM, email and social media, to developing presentations and collateral that support the company’s business development program.

The successful candidate will work across the organization, including sales, technology, product management, business development and senior management to deliver a marketing program that propels the company’s growth.

This is a great opportunity for an emerging leader to have a direct impact on the bottom line of a fast-growing business.   The right candidate must be willing to do what it takes every single day to successfully execute against all goals.

Director of User Experience:

The NameMedia team is looking for a dynamic, highly motivated Director of User Experience. This person will be responsible for managing a team of creative professionals who are tasked with crafting the experience of software and services that enable consumers and businesses to acquire, monetize and divest their premium domain names.

This individual will be a senior member of the user experience team who works collaboratively with product management, engineering and business stakeholders to define the product experience – including interactive design, information architecture and navigation. The candidate will be expected to create an aesthetic design, which is appropriate for the market and fitting for the brand.  This person will also be involved during the planning and research phases and expected to leverage a user-centered process to iterate design comps with stakeholders directly. All projects should result in an intuitive, simplistic experience appropriate for the desired environmental setting.

We’re looking for someone who is passionate, innovative and can drive similar qualities into their team to maintain an up-beat creative atmosphere.

ETL Engineer:

NameMedia is building a brand new BI platform which includes a data warehouse, analytic and reporting systems. The data volumes are high and the functionality requirements are complex. The tools/technologies used are mostly from the open source domain.

The person in this role will be involved in building and supporting ETL for the new BI platform, and addressing other data processing needs across the organization. Hadoop and related technologies are being used for high volume data processing, and this person will be involved in that also.

Java Engineer:

  • Develop cutting-edge, JAVA based 24 x7 web applications
  • Working on our core API’s and system components you will be involved in the full life cycle development process and focused on server side  API development
  • Gathering requirements, coding and development, support and maintenance
  • Working with a dynamic team

QA Engineer:

Namemedia is looking for QA star to assist in delivering high-quality, high-visibility, high-traffic customer facing web sites and company-internal 24 x 7 web applications. The successful candidate will have a passion for designing, building and executing automated and manual tests against Java and Web applications. The individual will work with the team to identify and implement best practices to ensure the software performs as expected and will be an integral part of all team deliverables. This is a fast paced, high energy environment.

Lead Java Engineer:

We are currently seeking a talented Lead developer to join their growing team and be responsible for partner integrations. We need a creative problem solver who can take initiative and deliver solutions without too much direction. The incumbent will be proactive and enjoy putting their own stamp on projects. We are seeking someone that has solid experience in software design methodologies, focusing on web-based JAVA programming.

This is a Lead developer role, however, we are particularly interested in someone with web-based software architecture experience. The right candidate will have experience leading development efforts and researching and developing cutting edge technologies to accomplish your mission.

The Lead Java developer is a key position that is instrumental to building a High-Profile, High-traffic 24 x 7 web application. The Lead plays a key role in the success of our Company.

Account Manager:

The Account Manager position is responsible for successfully selling our monetization services and managing existing accounts. Our world-renowned parking platform  (SmartName.com) monetizes some of the world’s largest and best domain name portfolios. Our Account Managers earn competitive wages and have fantastic benefits.

Here’s a Good Hurricane Domain Name to Develop: GoBags.com

As I’ve done in the past, I want to share a domain name with you that’s for sale and I think the price is pretty reasonable. There’s no affiliate code with this, and I am not going to make a dime if you buy it (nor have I been paid or asked to post this).

With Hurricane Irene fast approaching New York City, I’ve been reading some of the news stories, and many with a local focus discuss hurricane preparedness. One of the essential things these articles mention is to have “go bags” ready in case an evacuation is necessary.

From what I understand, a go bag is basically a bag of supplies you can quickly grab as you are evacuating. According to the New York City Office of Emergency Management,  “every household should pack a Go Bag – a collection of items you may need in the event of an  evacuation. A Go Bag should be packed in a sturdy, easy-to-carry container such as a backpack or suitcase on wheels. A Go Bag should be easily accessible if you have to leave your home in a hurry. Make sure it is ready to go at all times of the year.”

I would imagine Go Bags are recommended in many other places where rapid evacuations are deemed necessary. There are a number of websites that offer tips on what to pack in Go Bags and many have sections where supplies can be purchased. In my opinion, someone could develop a website and sell these bags that are already prepared, and different bags can contain things that would be necessary for different emergency situations.

The domain name is owned by a private domain investor (who doesn’t know I am even posting this) and it’s available for sale on Afternic right now for $4,500, with offers over $500 considered.

I have enough projects of my own right now and no e-commerce experience, so this wouldn’t be a good fit for my company. Perhaps you can make good use of it.

What do you think about this name and its price?

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