In the past few years, a number of brand marketplaces have opened to help business operators find brand names. While these platforms are ostensibly selling brand names, in reality, they are also helping domain investors sell their domain names. Three of the most well known (to me) brand marketplaces to sell domain names include SquadHelp, Brand Bucket, and Brandpa.
When someone is looking to start a brand or rebrand their business, there is a good chance they will do various Google searches related to brand name creation. I would imagine there are more people looking at brand-related keywords than domain name search keywords. I would imagine that more business owners are looking to find a perfect brand name and then hope to find the most suitable domain name that matches. SquadHelp founder Darpan Munjal touched on this in a tweet on Sunday:
It’s interesting that Google search volume for “Business Name Ideas” has gone up significantly (especially in 2020), but “Domain Name Ideas” has declined over last several years.
Instead of selling Domains as just Domains, it’s better to position them as Brands or Business names pic.twitter.com/yWW09OlMpe
— Darpan (@darpanmunjal) November 2, 2020
Listing domain names for sale on brand marketplaces could be very helpful for domain investors. If a person is primarily looking to find a business name first, they may end up on one of the brand marketplace platforms that sells domain names and begin their search there. If they find a great brand name that is accompanied by the matching domain name, they don’t necessarily have the need to use a domain marketplace or registrar to search for domain names.
I am not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the popular brand marketplaces, but I believe the domain name sales commission is a bit higher than standard domain name marketplaces. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong, but I understand there is a requirement for exclusivity for the brand marketplaces. Assuming the brand marketplaces are driving traffic to their listings, the higher commission rate and exclusivity aren’t huge issues that can’t be overcome.
One other avenue for domain investors who have high value domain names is a specialized brokerage like Evergreen.com, Saw.com, Media Options, and several others that assist buyers with the branding process in conjunction with finding a matching domain name. The top brokerages who work with clients for branding and domain name acquisitions offer more of a white glove, one-on-one service to clients seeking a new brand name.
My domain name portfolio has around 1,000 domain names. Because it is relatively small, I only list domain names for sale in three places – GoDaddy/Afternic, DAN.com, and Embrace.com (my business domain name marketplace). If my portfolio were larger, I would likely choose one of the brand marketplaces to list my domain names for sale.
There is a chance I am losing out on opportunities by not utilizing these large brand marketplaces, so it is something I would definitely consider in the future. I would be interested to hear about your experiences using brand marketplaces if you would like to share.
Definitely one has to list brandable names at these brand Marketplace, viz Brandbucket, Brandpa, SquadHelp etc. One has to list only those names that he/she thinks a sure shot of selling because renewal charges year after year will cost more. One has to wait even three years to sell a name out of 100 names. Yes, brand marketplaces take hefty commission from 25 to 30%, it is reasonable because these Marketplaces advertise a lot on the internet.
Any reason you don’t mention MediaOptions? Clearly and unquestionably the #1 domain broker in the World…since many many years. Seems like a conscious decision considering you named just about every other marketplace and brokerage!
The focus of my article was on the largest brandable marketplace platform that are open to all investors and have very large swaths of all kinds of inventory.
I added one of the closing paragraphs about other brokerages that help companies find brand names with a focus on the highest end of the market. There was no conscious decision to leave anyone out though.
When I asked on Twitter if I had missed any marketplaces, Adam had mentioned Evergreen and I had just seen a Saw name so those two were on the top of my mind. I added Media Options because I agree that you guys sell a lot of inventory at the highest end of the market.
Again, the focus of this article isn’t about the best brokers or brokerages – the intent was to give people who have brandable types of names some suggestions on platforms that cater more towards businesses seeking brands than mainstream domain centric platforms that focus solely on domain name sales.
Just want my love!
An announcement from SquadHelp:
“Today [March 12], we are pleased to announce a partnership with Sedo, which will allow your domain listings to get even more visibility…
“…All Premium and Basic Plus listings at Squadhelp will be automatically listed for sale in Sedo as well as several other registrars via the Sedo MLS feature.”
https://discussion.squadhelp.com/t/announcing-sedo-integration/5992
Basic Plus listings have changed and are now known as Standard listings, I haven’t checked to see if they are listed at Sedo.
My domain Rstaff.com was recently reported as sold at Sedo. That was actually a SquadHelp/Sedo affiliate sale.
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Premium listings can also be manually listed at Afternic. I’m about to try this. I think you used to have to have a minimum of 50 “Premiums” to be eligible which I have just reached – not sure if that is still the case. Here’s the current SH info:
“You now have the option to list your domains on Afternic.
“Requires 4 coins to add this option (no coins needed if you used a coin to submit the domain). For a limited time only 2 coins are needed.
“If the name sells on Afternic, you pay SH the difference of SH commission and Afternic commission (minimum 5%).
“All names must be set to a BIN price on Afternic. The BIN price must be equal to or greater than SquadHelp BIN price at all times. [etc]”
One SH coin costs one dollar.