HugeDomains.com Forwarding Name to GoDaddy Search Page

I noticed something interesting over the weekend that I thought I would share with you. I typed in OutOfTheWorld.com to see if it was registered, and I was forwarded to a GoDaddy search results page. As is typical for a domain name listed for sale via Afternic with a buy it now price, the purchase option was what showed up after being forwarded:

What made this interesting to me is that OutOfTheWorld.com is a domain name that is registered to HugeDomains.com, and it is listed for sale via GoDaddy for $2,395. It can also be bought directly via HugeDomains.com for the sale price.

It seems out of the ordinary for HugeDomains.com to not show their own landing page on domain names the company is selling. I’ve always assumed they have tested and optimized their landers to give them the best opportunity to sell their domain names, so I found this approach to be interesting.

I see a few benefits to forwarding domain names to GoDaddy search results pages:

  • Prospective buyers likely know GoDaddy more than HugeDomains.com, and they may trust GoDaddy more when buying a higher value domain name.
  • Customers with GoDaddy accounts can purchase the domain name directly via their account rather than through a third party (HD).
  • It’s a good way to test HugeDomains’ optimized landing page against an industry leader’s optimized sales page.

I also see a few drawbacks to this strategy:

  • HugeDomains.com will have to pay a commission to GoDaddy on a closed sale when they wouldn’t have to pay if it closed via their own landing page.
  • Other domain names listed for sale (or unregistered) are shown to the visitor, so a buyer could want this name but end up choosing something else instead.
  • Lose control over the lead and likely don’t get the lead information.

I reached out to Andrew and Jeff Reberry to ask about this, and I will share an update if they are willing to comment about it.

I think it is an interesting strategy, and I assume it is a relatively small test since I did not see this same strategy employed on other domain names the company owns.

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

11 COMMENTS

  1. this is the error message i got when i tried to forward my domain to godaddy…

    “You can’t forward a domain to any page on godaddy.com.”

    i am assuming since my domain is registered with godaddy, they will not let me forward to a godaddy page.

    This is kind of stupid of godaddy…
    makes no sense at all…

    since a domain registered elsewhere can forward to a godaddy page…but a domain registered at godaddy can’t forward to its own godaddy page

  2. I tried this redirect 2-3 years ago I FWD all of my domains to godaddy page /domainsearch/find?checkAvail=1&tmskey=&domainToCheck u jus and I also tried redirect on Godaddy auction page. Godaddy can change the url at any time or readd the domain on auction so you will getting an error.
    Conclusion: this is a bad strategy.
    Right now i try to develop my domains e.x https://droned.org/

  3. I’m surprised you would even bother checking a domain like that. It’s a horrible domain. Why on earth would you even do that? Were you smoking something on 4/20?

    OutOfThisWorld.com maybe, but Out Of The World is not even a normal phrase.

    • It’s because I had backordered OutOfThePark.com (which sold for $161 today on NameJet) and I was seeing what was unregistered. I wasn’t expecting it to be registered, which is why I typed it in rather than doing a Whois search. Had I looked it up via Whois, I would have missed this.

  4. Does Huge have to pay 20% commission if it sells on a GD for sale page? If so, I assume Huge gets a much reduced rate.

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