My company is planning to launch an alternative to DDN/Sedo/Afternic next month. I would be interested in receiving comments, suggestions and constructive criticism of its workings as they are presented below.
We see DDN/Sedo/Afternic primarily as âlistingâ sites. Their sales as a percentage of listings are quite small. But a domainerâs goal is not to listâem, but to sellâem.
We want to create a truer âsellingâ site, a domainers community where domain liquidity is given primary importance. The best domaining business models always include a provision for annual portfolio liquidation/turnover. But, up until now, selling a domain has not been very easy in a marketplace that remains highly inefficient.
Our auction platform will be fully automated, topically arranged, easy-to-use and operative 24/7. The site will be for domains with sale prices $1000+ only. Sellers will submit a list (100 max for now) of their domains for consideration with the appropriate info. Included in their submission, sellers select:
1. Standard auction w/wo BIN or BIN only (not true auction)
2. 5,7, or 10 day auction duration
3. Auction expiration time
4. Low initial bid w/Reserve (attracts more bidders, but how many are willing to bid up to the reserve?) OR
5. High initial bid/no Reserve (virtually eliminates shill bidding, but lowers the number of overall bidders)
The seller is notified as soon as possible of accepted domains.
The company believes that in the past, the ratio of sales/listings at live auctions has been too low (30-40%). This may be due to a number of factors, but in-house studies suggest that the #1 culprit is lofty expectations on the part of the seller. That doesnât mean that we want the seller to âgiveâ their domains away. However, reasonableness (is there such a word?) of the asking price will be an important acceptance criteria. Weâd rather boast having the most sales than boast having the most listings.
One of the ways we hope to help the seller in this regard, and thereby raise every sellerâs sales/listings ratio, is to provide sellers with 2 automatic relists (no charge) of their unsold auctions. If they experience 3 unsuccessful attempts, our hope is that sellers will be receptive to the âmarketâs messageâ. If they are not, they can return the domain to their âvaultâ; if they are, they can resubmit their names for consideration, if pricing has been reduced by at least 15%.
A second way to encourage sellers to keep their pricing as low as possible is for us to reduce the sales commission; all successful sales will be charged a flat 8%.
Yet another feature will be to reward High Performance sellers, that is, sellers with predetermined levels of positive feedback and above average sales/listings ratios. These sellersâ offerings will be featured in a special area on the site; again at no charge. We believe that this increased visibility and positive review will further enhance the likelihood of sales for this group of sellers and will provide incentive for others to follow suit. This benefits the community as a whole.
In addition, there are:
No sign-up fees
No listing fees
No buying fees
No BIN fees
No Reserve Price fees and
No exclusive right to sell
The other area of major emphasis is getting the domain transferred to the buyer and getting sale proceeds to the seller ASAP. We realize that we are dealing with, for the most part, sophisticated buyers and sellers. If these parties are truly motivated and cooperative, there is no reason that transactions cannot be completed in a matter of days, instead of 3-8 weeks.
To that end, all escrow/transfer functions will be coordinated by escrow.com. Their few shortcomings notwithstanding, we believe that they can provide a valuable service to all of our users. Here again, this is provided to buyer and seller without charge.
Once the kinks from the launch are worked through, sellers will be offered the opportunity to create Domain Galleries of their holdings, spotlighting all of their domains (details to follow).
Thatâs pretty much how it is set up to run right now. Would you use this site? Your comments, suggestions and constructive criticism are all welcome via this thread.
If there are questions, plz PM me. Thanks for your help.
S
We see DDN/Sedo/Afternic primarily as âlistingâ sites. Their sales as a percentage of listings are quite small. But a domainerâs goal is not to listâem, but to sellâem.
We want to create a truer âsellingâ site, a domainers community where domain liquidity is given primary importance. The best domaining business models always include a provision for annual portfolio liquidation/turnover. But, up until now, selling a domain has not been very easy in a marketplace that remains highly inefficient.
Our auction platform will be fully automated, topically arranged, easy-to-use and operative 24/7. The site will be for domains with sale prices $1000+ only. Sellers will submit a list (100 max for now) of their domains for consideration with the appropriate info. Included in their submission, sellers select:
1. Standard auction w/wo BIN or BIN only (not true auction)
2. 5,7, or 10 day auction duration
3. Auction expiration time
4. Low initial bid w/Reserve (attracts more bidders, but how many are willing to bid up to the reserve?) OR
5. High initial bid/no Reserve (virtually eliminates shill bidding, but lowers the number of overall bidders)
The seller is notified as soon as possible of accepted domains.
The company believes that in the past, the ratio of sales/listings at live auctions has been too low (30-40%). This may be due to a number of factors, but in-house studies suggest that the #1 culprit is lofty expectations on the part of the seller. That doesnât mean that we want the seller to âgiveâ their domains away. However, reasonableness (is there such a word?) of the asking price will be an important acceptance criteria. Weâd rather boast having the most sales than boast having the most listings.
One of the ways we hope to help the seller in this regard, and thereby raise every sellerâs sales/listings ratio, is to provide sellers with 2 automatic relists (no charge) of their unsold auctions. If they experience 3 unsuccessful attempts, our hope is that sellers will be receptive to the âmarketâs messageâ. If they are not, they can return the domain to their âvaultâ; if they are, they can resubmit their names for consideration, if pricing has been reduced by at least 15%.
A second way to encourage sellers to keep their pricing as low as possible is for us to reduce the sales commission; all successful sales will be charged a flat 8%.
Yet another feature will be to reward High Performance sellers, that is, sellers with predetermined levels of positive feedback and above average sales/listings ratios. These sellersâ offerings will be featured in a special area on the site; again at no charge. We believe that this increased visibility and positive review will further enhance the likelihood of sales for this group of sellers and will provide incentive for others to follow suit. This benefits the community as a whole.
In addition, there are:
No sign-up fees
No listing fees
No buying fees
No BIN fees
No Reserve Price fees and
No exclusive right to sell
The other area of major emphasis is getting the domain transferred to the buyer and getting sale proceeds to the seller ASAP. We realize that we are dealing with, for the most part, sophisticated buyers and sellers. If these parties are truly motivated and cooperative, there is no reason that transactions cannot be completed in a matter of days, instead of 3-8 weeks.
To that end, all escrow/transfer functions will be coordinated by escrow.com. Their few shortcomings notwithstanding, we believe that they can provide a valuable service to all of our users. Here again, this is provided to buyer and seller without charge.
Once the kinks from the launch are worked through, sellers will be offered the opportunity to create Domain Galleries of their holdings, spotlighting all of their domains (details to follow).
Thatâs pretty much how it is set up to run right now. Would you use this site? Your comments, suggestions and constructive criticism are all welcome via this thread.
If there are questions, plz PM me. Thanks for your help.
S
