How I Manage Dual Listings on Atom and Afternic

I am a customer of Atom.com and Afternic. My feeling is that Atom does a good job of helping people discover branding opportunities with listed domain names, and Afternic does a good job of helping domain name buyers purchase the domain names they are looking to buy.

At the moment, I have just shy of 250 domain names listed via Atom and I have more than 2,000 listed for sale on Afternic. All of my Atom-listed domain names are also listed for sale on Afternic, but there are rules I am required to follow in order to do so. Since I always list my domain names on Atom with “coins,” the primary rule that I am required to follow is a 10% markup on the BIN price at Afternic.

When I have a domain name listed on Atom, I price the domain name on Afternic at more of a moonshot level. By way of example, let’s say my domain name is priced at $10,000 on Atom. I might list it at Afternic for something like $40,000. If I allow prospects to submit an offer, I tend to set the minimum offer amount just above the BIN price at Atom. If an offer is made, any counter offer I reply with would be above that 10% threshold. An offer submission should theoretically give me time to see the current price at Atom to ensure I maintain the required level.

My domain names are unlikely to sell at the inflated price, but if a buyer is looking for a specific domain name and only wants to buy it at GoDaddy, they can do so at that premium level. I have yet to sell an Atom-listed domain name at Afternic, but I have only recently been building my portfolio there.

I list the domain name very high at Afternic so I don’t need to adjust the price in the future. I can essentially raise the price at Atom over time without ever paying attention to its list price at Afternic.

While Atom is doing a great job of helping people find brand names in domain names, I think the Afternic / GoDaddy distribution channel is very strong. If a GoDaddy customer really wants to buy a specific domain name I own that is listed on Atom and they only search GoDaddy or its partners, I want my listing to show up in the registration path even if it is at an inflated price.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

12 COMMENTS

  1. Correct me if I’m wrong….if a name is listed at Atom (I have 16 or so) they do not show up in GoDaddy and other registrar searches if someone is trying to register a domain name, correct? Atom names, and I see their success rate, which is impressive, are sold within their network. I have 1200+++ at Afternic, and love the awareness that occurs when someone is looking for a name that I own from all the domain registrars.

    I am absolutely totally against having to have multiple prices out there. I don’t do it in my brokered names, or my own. Pricing credibility is very important to me. I have given Atom some of my .ai inventory, and some of my more “creative” names that I think they have a good chance of selling, but I do not think I will ever list at both places with different pricing. Let me know what I am missing. Thanks E.

    • I believe you are correct, although they usually show their Domain Broker Service link so people can pay GoDaddy to try and negotiate a deal on their behalf.

      That said, I believe Atom premium listings, for the most part, are syndicated automatically on Sedo and its network. This means the domain name will show up when searched at Sedo and its partners, like Namecheap.

      • Thanks Elliot. Personally, I am surprised at times when Atom approves one of my names as Premium, but not others……meanwhile, I miss the Dan platform. Especially the ability to place content on the landing page, which Afternic still does not have that option to do.

  2. We had the same problem, uploading domains and handling different marketplaces, each with their own rules is time consuming.

    I really don’t like Atom’s ‘monopoly tendencies’ with their 30 days notice for withdrawing premium domains and other stuff, but they do sell names generally. I prefer standard listings with my own landers and an atom pay button with 4.5% commission.

    Lately, we’ve been testing Sudos.com (not affiliated) for portfolio management across platforms. Have you tried it, Elliott?

    • I have not tried out Sudos or other platforms for a variety of reasons. With fewer than 2,500 names in my portfolio, I don’t want to set up a bunch of profiles on different platforms and then add just a handful of domain names. In addition, I don’t think it does any platform justice for me to list a handful of names and report that I didn’t sell any when it’s more of a volume thing than quality of the platform. Finally, I have my own form on Embrace.com where buyers can connect with me and negotiate on names where I want that.

      • First, sorry for the mistype there.

        I get what you’re saying but sudos is for automatically synchronizing prices to multiple marketplaces at once, not really for direct sales as they have atom,sedo and afternic.

        Anyway, I really like the idea of adding ‘current value’ on domain landers. Curious to know if those from estibot/atom or Embrace?

        • I am not fond of providing my login credentials to anyone other than the platform for which it applies. Nothing personal to whoever runs that platform or any other platform. Being able to synchronize prices more easily is not nearly enough of an incentive to give up that information or any of my data.

  3. I am in the middle of moving 500 dot com domains and giving Atom a solid try. I truly like most of it. (Doing Plus) Only thing I wish is they would put more effort and focus on “Make Offer” when you have a BIN price. The Make Offer option is halfway down the page. Most domainers over value their domains, let the buyer counter and let’s close some deals.
    Overall I like Atom so far but maybe that’s because I dislike Go Daddy.
    Also Atom really needs to work on that search engine.
    If I put Fast Car in the search engine and someone owns Car Fast dot com, that fact it won’t show is unique.
    (Not a plug, I don’t own those names) Also putting horrible domains above good names because someone opted to pay premium hurts both Atom and seller, those sellers are willing to pay like 30% if it sells sometimes because the name is horrible and overpriced sometimes.

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