Afternic began charging for its upgraded “Boost” features on September 4th. Instead of paying 15% commission for selling a domain name via Afternic with their nameservers enabled, sellers now pay 20% commission. Sellers could opt out of Boost if they preferred, and the commission fee would remain at 15%. They would not have some of the search and result page features discussed by Afternic if they opted out.
I have a portfolio hovering around 2,000 domain names. When Boost went into effect, I kept all of my domain names priced below $2,000 opted-in to Boost. Those 1,000+ domain names all have Afternic nameservers, and I think nearly all of them have the new “custom” landing page design. Some have make offer enabled and others are just BIN or BIN + LTO.
For nearly all of the other domain names priced above $2k (with the exception of 100+/-), I am using my own landing pages on Embrace.com or Efty landing pages created with their Smart Lander design.
My feeling is that if someone is willing and able to pay above $2k and only knows the GoDaddy search channel, they can pay $119.99 + 20% commission to try and buy my domain name via the GoDaddy DBS. Other registrars, like Namecheap, offer a similar service or link to a service like DomainAgents. Most others will visit the domain name to see if they can buy try and buy it.
With that being said, I thought I would share some results from the first month with the additional commission fee due to Boost.
- 2 BIN sales of $997
- 1 BIN sale of $999
- 1 BIN sale of $1,999
- 1 LTO sale of $997 over 10 months
This amounts to $5,092 in revenue with a commission fee of $1,018, netting me about $4,073. Had the Boost fee not have been added, I would have netted $4,328, so a difference of a little more than $250. All of these sales have been paid out.
In addition to these five sales, I have two domain names that have gone “On Hold” at Afternic within the last 24 hours. One is priced at $1,999 and the other is priced at $997. Hopefully both sales close.
Five sales at Afternic in a single month is more than average for me and would impute a 3% annual STR for my Afternic listings. Although the revenue number doesn’t move the needle, it’s still nice to profitably move inventory.
I don’t believe the higher number of sales was because of the Boost program since its features have been active for months. Based on the number of inquiries for my higher value domain names, I think there was a bit of repressed demand over the Summer months, and companies are beginning to make more domain name acquisitions as we hit Q4. I could be wrong, but that’s the trouble with trying to observe macro trends with a relatively small portfolio.
In addition to the 5 Afternic sales and two pending sales, I also closed a $16,000 deal via the DBS team. I can say with certainty that I earned more on the deal as a result of the Boost program.
Prior to Boost, this domain name was priced at $14,999 on Afternic. Around the time I moved my higher priced domain names to Efty, I increased the price of this domain name to $25,000. A buyer made a $2k offer via GoDaddy DBS. The broker was able to get the offer increased to $5k. I countered at $18k (net to me). A couple of days later, the broker brought a $16k offer net to me and I approved. The funds will probably be sent today.
Had this domain name sold in August via Afternic with the 15% commission fee, I would have made $12,750. Had it sold via Afternic with Boost enabled, I would have made $12,000. As a result of the strategic decision to remove higher value names from Afternic, I earned several thousand more from this sale. Not too shabby for a $12 auction win from 2022.
All in all, I am content with Boost so far. With a portfolio as small as mine, some months are better than others. Private offers are up for my portfolio in general, so it could just be the overall market that is impacting my business. I don’t plan to make additional changes to my portfolio on Afternic.
Thank you for sharing your experience. Correct me if I am wrong. Are you not listing any of names priced above $2K on Afternic?
I probably have fewer than 100 priced above $2k. I have all of my non-.com domain names on Afternic, and many of them are priced above $2k. I don’t want to have them on Embrace.com or Efty landers with Embrace.com branding.
They could have saved many people a lot of trouble if the boost was applied by a custom price threshold which every seller could set to their preference, and domains above that value would not be included.
Although the incentive to sell high price domains via Afternic has likely decreased greatly for most of the sellers since they abandoned the 4500+10% in favor of 15+10% for not using nameservers…
Also, about 20% commission for DBS, it is kinda crazy that if you do have domain listed with their system, use boost and not use nameservers it is 30%. Looks like a punishment for having your domain listed…
Yes, but the buyer pays the DBS commission, so even though the money is coming out of someone’s pocket, it feels better to get the amount I want and have the buyer pay that 20% fee.
:I don’t believe the higher number of sales was because of the Boost program since its features have been active for months. Based on the number of inquiries for my higher value domain names, I think there was a bit of repressed demand over the Summer months, and companies are beginning to make more domain name acquisitions as we hit Q4.”
You’re not wrong.
The only reason it would make sense is if other people opting out of Boost helped to lift the visibility of my names but I doubt that was the case.
No that’s not the case, domain buyers came back to the table after a Summer hiatus. Domainers included, not just end-users.
Where are you able to see if a domain is on hold? I remember seeing it on the old platform but unable to on this one. Thanks.
Afternic dashboard.
Your ruining your reputation claiming $999 sales are powered by boost, let’s get real, call it like
It is, have a backbone.
I’m not sure if you have a reading comprehension issue or didn’t read the whole thing, but I pretty clearly stated the opposite:
“I don’t believe the higher number of sales was because of the Boost program since its features have been active for months.”
Elliot silver is the 2nd best domainer of all time behind Mike berkins
LOL. That is not remotely true.
I never knew that “On Hold” status in the Afternic Dashboard means a potential sale pending?
Are you sure “On Hold” doesn’t mean something else such as problem with the listing, not owning the domain, domain not registered anymore, Elliot pissing off Afternic :), etc etc?
Btw, where do you see all your stats on inquiries etc…..I don’t think Lead-Center shows everything?
Yes – “On Hold” is for pending sale domain names.
“In Review” means there is an issue with the listing – name expired, Whois changed, some random annoying unexplainable stuff… etc.
Great to know….thanks Elliot.
I see that I also have one domain “On Hold” in the Afternic……hopefully the sale will go thru.
Another big inventory domainer by the name of AbdulBasit does not use Boost and got more sales
So if he had used Boost, he could have more sales???
contradictory!!
The $997 sale is a LTO, so a very small deal. The other is still On Hold.
The $1,999 sale is also a LTO.