My Thoughts on the GoDaddy Auction App

I spend a fair amount of money on domain name auctions, but I have only bought a handful of names on GoDaddy’s auction platform. Frankly, I did not like the bidding and searching experience, and I stayed away from GoDaddy Auctions.

Case in point: at the beginning of December, there was a domain name I wanted to own that was at auction at GoDaddy. I was on a brief vacation and away from my computer. I was outbid at the final moments of the auction, and I needed to bid from my iPhone. Needless to say, I experienced some serious troubles and I let Paul Nicks and my account rep know about it. Despite trying hard to bid higher than the final price, I lost the auction, which ended at around $10,000.

A few weeks later, I was contacted by a couple of contacts at GoDaddy asking if I would like to test out their new Auctions app that was undergoing beta testing. I let them know that I was not a regular bidder but would give it a shot.

For the last few weeks, I have been testing the app. I must complement the GoDaddy team on a job well done. I would consider the app to be a companion app, in that I still visit the auctions website to favorite auctions I like and to search for domain names that are coming up for auction. Now that I have saved a couple of searches, the process is simple and it is part of my daily routine.

Once I have my auction favorites, they are automatically added to my watch list in the app. I can then very easily place bids and/or monitor the auctions from the app. Instead of having to log in to my account and wait for a pin code (sometimes over and over), I simply place my bid and enter a 4 digit pass code to place my bid. Nearly all of my bidding action is done from the app, even when I am in my office.

This app has definitely increased my bidding activity. I had probably spent under $500 total on all GoDaddy Auctions I won. In the last few weeks, I have won over $5,000 worth of auctions. I have been involved in many other auctions that I lost, too. The GoDaddy Auctions app is the impetus for my increased bidding activity. Bidding on GoDaddy Auctions is no longer an annoying experience for me.

There are a few minor issues I have with the app. I was able to spend some time with the development team at NamesCon to share some feedback about things I would fix. Most of those changes are aesthetic in nature (ie, my desire to see bidder handles, my home screen preferences, preferences on watch/favorite lists…etc.). I understand they are still seeking feedback from users to improve the app.

I am somewhat reluctant to share this glowing review because it will probably bring more competition to GoDaddy Auctions. I am accustomed to contested auctions, so it is what it is. The app is great, and I will be bidding more on GoDaddy Auctions going forward. If it weren’t for this app, I would not use GoDaddy Auctions.

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

15 COMMENTS

  1. How can you use godaddy auctions without the app when mobile, godaddy has had their head up their ass for the past 2 months with their BID SAVE error, they did nothing about it.

    They lost millions in business, people get fired over stuff like that, to cozy over there, try to report an issue, their customer service reps think you are a mental patient or something.

    • Thanks Elliot and Ron for the feedback. We realized that more people were using the mobile web version of our Auctions site and that the experience was not ideal and sometimes downright inoperable. This is why we developed and launched a native mobile app for ease of bidding that acts as a companion to the full desktop experience for searching inventory and marking your favorites.

  2. GREAT…now we have another bidder on godaddy … go away please … prices were high enough as it was … now with you there … OMG …

    Don’t go away mad … just go away

    ROTF.com

    šŸ™‚

    Can you guess the movie quote above? without a search engine? HINT Clint Eastwood stared in movie…

  3. i gave up on godaddy auctions because the public auctions are too easily manipulated and almost always seem to go too high (in my opinion). i prefer closed auctions like namejet for expired domains.

    • I have to agree, I haven’t bid past 2 months to much, since it never worked, but I used to get many notices where the high bidder failed to make payment.

      I always thought what about the other bids, where those high bidders failed to win, were they erased and the high bidders credited, most likely not, as that would be a 8 figure correction.

    • Hi Ron, I think you’ll find the Mobile is a far superior bidding experience to the mobile web. When we have a bidder that does not pay, we remove their bids entirely and try to re-engage with the 2nd highest bidder. Although you speculate it may be an 8 figure correction, it is the right thing to do and so that’s exactly what we do.

      -Paul

  4. +1. The whole platform is clunky and while I have not used the app I don’t see godaddy fixing anything. There is no leader there.

    • I can’t understand how you expect a utility app labelled investor app, to override a bulky web page, with all those engineers godaddy needs to have a faster, more responsive tdnam homepage, with search, and bid placing functions.

      The other days, I tried placing a bid, it was taking 30 seconds for them to register.

      You are a public company now, everything is up for scrutiny

  5. I also had early access to the app and was impressed with the process and with the current results.

    As you said Elliot, it is currently a companion app, but still very functional while on the move. I won a few auctions that I really wanted yesterday – while I was working out at the gym…

  6. I created my account with Godaddy and paid the annual fee. I downloaded the Investor app for Iphone and guess what? There is no listing in my app! I thought I would see something similar to auctions.godaddy.com front page. There is no listing to watch whatsoever. What have I done wrong?

    Or the app shows only those auctions that we have marked as favorites? Give me some clue or I have to remove the app from my Iphone because the site has better appearance than the app as I see it practically.

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