OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
DomainNameSales (DNS) announced the new Godaddy/DomainTools Integration Option on the 7th of October 2013. These new integrations allowed DNS customers to list the names in their DomainNameSales.com account on a make-offer basis at Godaddy.com and DomainTools.com. When a Godaddy or DomainTools customer conducts an exact match search of a DomainNameSales.com customer’s domain name they are directed to an inquiry page where the buyers details are sent directly to DomainNameSales.com. From there the buyer is assigned to one of the DNS brokers depending on language, location, and domain name category.
I was quick to turn on the Name Syndication feature on my account on the 8th of October despite the hefty 20% commision. I don’t like how Go Daddy treated the domains that were sent by Sedo and that was the reason I removed all my domains from Sedo and brought them to DNS. Go Daddy treats all Sedo domains as being in a perpetual auction. I suggest you read the comments from this post. The funny thing is that after Go Daddy bought Afternic they have decided to end Sedo’s integration starting March 31, 2014. So Sedo loses the Go Daddy integration after losing a lot of customers because of it! I couldn’t stop laughing when I heard this.
DNS claimed a lift of up to 30% on inbound sales leads from this integration but I don’t have a lot of data to compare it to. My main problem with this integration is that I get very few offers and of course no sales.
Add to this that the buyer’s info is not trasmitted to the seller even after a successful sale. Sales are handled by Go Daddy escrow and in the event of a successful sale you get paid directly by DNS on the 15th and 30th of every month. Your only chance to find out who the buyer was, is the watch for whois after the sale is completed. I don’t understand this policy. Sedo also withholds the buyer’s details during negotiations but it releases them after the sale is completed. Seller provides an invoice to thte buyer directly. In the DNS Godaddy/DomainTools Integration I was told that any invoices should be sent to DNS directly. I don’t like this approach and it might create problems with my tax office.
So what were my results with this integration?
In the past 57 days (until the 3rd of December) I received 210 Go Daddy leads. That is about 3.7 leads per day. DNS brokers asked my to provide a price for the majority of these leads. I list about 6000 domains.
I got 3 offers from these 210 go daddy leads:
1 $1000 offer (that was below my $1500 minimum offer limit that I have set for all my DNS domains)
1 $1500 offer
1 $9000 offer
0 sales
This $9000 offer was accepted and the sale was pending at Go Daddy escrow but then buyer went unresponsive. The sale finally fell through when the buyer informed DNS that they had no money. And of course I don’t know who the deadbeat buyer was.
There was another $5000 offer I discovered after I contacted the buyer directly. I just saw they had bought the .net version of my .com domain. I guess the broker thought that the offer was not close to my asking price but I think they should have informed me anyway. I am still in negotiations on this one.
137 of the leads have been archived meaning there is no hope of a sale. There are 72 active inquiries but I am not holding my breath for any sales.
I also got 5 inquiries from domain tools but 2 were for the same domain name, 1 for a domain I had let expire and 1 was for domain name that I don’t want to sell. So this is a very small sample to derive any conclutions.
So it is needless to say that I am no fan of this integration. I like DNS and I thought that it had potential but the execution is far from perfect. I prefer the escrow.com/”buyer transparency” method a lot better. DNS uses this method for phone and domainnamesales.com enquiries so this integration rules are probably forced by Go Daddy.
DNS brokers are always polite and professional and my only concern is that $5k offer that I never received. Are there other offers that I missed?
On the other hand maybe my prices are not Go Daddy “friendly”. Most Go Daddy customers are not looking to spend more than reg fee or a few hundred dollars for a domain so a 4 or 5 figure quote drives them away.
My talk with DNS didn’t solve any of my problems with the Go Daddy integration and I have been trying to turn off this name syndication option for about 20 days now with no luck but that is another story.
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Same success rate here, I probably get 3 x the amount of offers you get per day, had a few sales that the buyers had a change of heart. I had my doubts from day 1, it is because of the source of these inquiries. These are people going onto godaddy’s search engine, and looking to register a name for a few bucks. They get sent down a path to capable hands. The brokers at DNS are top notch for sure, but they can’t work miracles when the buyer’s are not willing to pay more than a couple hundred bucks for names worth thousands. It is an education process, which all cannot take a crash course in it, at the end of the day most domain buyers are still clueless over domain valuations, and how they sell into the marketplace. I was going to give it till year end to see how it went. But the fact I haven’t closed one sale, and have no idea who these people are, I am better off to handle the inquiries, and source the buyer info.
Robbie,
so have you tried stopping the integration?
DNS can’t seem to be able to stop this for weeks now.
I agree with everything said, however I have found value in the inquiries. It helps
me determine the interest in my domain names. I can use this data to make renewal decisions, determine pricing and many other things. If I get several inquiries a month
on the same domain name, I will make sure not to short sell it. A sale will come eventually, it may not come directly from the godaddy channel however it will happen.
Since the godaddy search is the most widely used search for domains, this is a great way to gauge your portfolio.
James, but at the same time, some domains just have that one single unique buyer, and can take years to find another, once you burn that bridge, and you do not have the info to find that person again, this could be problematic, if you decide one day to go back, and take them up on their offer if they are still interested. You should be able to gauge which of your domains are good or not, that is not hard to do,.
Robbie
Agreed, but it is nice to see an inquiry as it solidifies my exact thoughts. I look at it as a free way to crowd source the value of your portfolio.
If you’re a good salesperson you will generate lift in the portfolio using the DNS platform. If you’re passive the system will do just as described in post and comments above. If you are ready to engage with the leads the system is a boon and there is nothing else even close to it out there.
Mark, I am not talking about the inquiries that come through my domains and I am handling myself.
I am only talking about the Go Daddy leads that go directly to DNS brokers and they handle all negotiations.
I don’t ever learn who the buyer was.
I am not at all passive when it comes to handling my own leads. I always do follow ups etc.
There is nothing passive in selling a 4-5 figure name for $100 – $500, the buyers are newbies, and do not realize the marketplace. If you look at the aftermarkets domain names are selling wholesale for more than I have seen in a long time. Names that used to go unbid 2 years ago, are selling for a few hundred dollars in domainer auctions… You cannot afford to sell your names for reg fee x 10 anymore…
I haven’t I was going to give it till end of year. Smart team over there, they will figure it out.
It’s a struggle to get any response from support.
I too am having some issues with my listings on DomainNameSales. I wish GoDaddy make all the Afternic listings appear as premium listings on their site so that it would show up in the registration path – and lower the 30% commission.
Konstantinos,
Jeffrey Gabriel here form DomainNameSales. Thank you for your constructive criticism. We greatly appreciate it. Your comments are surprising to me. The Godaddy/DomainTools syndication is a service where you will get more exposure then in-turn more leads for your domains. There is no confusion about auctions, minimum bids, or the values. We as brokers are provided a price by you the seller, a minimum offer that your account requires and we quote it. Like many sales leads they are unqualified for 1,000’s of reasons, and others are very qualified and ready to buy. In your particular case it would be interesting to know the domain that you found the lead we missed because the .net sold. We do a very thorough job on following up, calling and trying to work out an equitable deal. It would be even more interesting to hear what your list price was with us and what you settled for.
We have had sellers quote us 25,000 USD for a domain, but when we say the best we could get is 3,000 they say sure take it. That is a little puzzling at times.
When looking where we came up short in your eyes, I try and look at a solution. One of our clients who we have been very successful with using the Godaddy syndication provides us with a list price, and the lowest he will accept price. He trusts us to get him the best price possible, and we have exceeded his expectations. He views our relationship as us being a team.
Getting into the notion of the buyer who did not end up buying. This is an unfortunate situation for everyone, and it happens to all sellers. After we spoke on the phone about this opportunity you were very adamant about receiving some sort of a VAT tax for this sale, and additional information about the buyer. We attempted to speak with the buyer about that, but he was not very excited about it to say the least. I think that paid a large part in non payment. I think he will be back.
Also during that phone call, being the Vice President of Sales I told you if you needed anything else, or had any issues to please contact me directly. Me hearing that you have tried to opt out of our Godaddy syndication repeatedly is news to me. I do not want our Brokers spending time on opportunities to make you money, when your not interested. We would rather have them focus their time on our clients who do. I will make sure your opted out today.
There is gold and opportunity in every lead….I think looking at our syndication service in 60 days and evaluating it is not particularly fair. We are closing opportunities on our in-house portfolio that the leads were generated over a year ago. That is NO exaggeration.
Sometimes you need to also look toward yourself, your pricing and how you are communicating to the broker who is involved. Make adjustments, just like we do everyday. Perhaps calling our 1-800-818-1828 number and discussing the lead with the broker would help you better understand how to price it. If we can all take a step back and view it from that angle then I think DomainNameSales.com, Konstantinos Zournas, and all of our other clients can learn something to get better. Which equals more sales!
To all of our clients Happy Holidays from DomainNameSales!
Jeffrey M. Gabriel
VP of Sales DomainNameSales
1-800-818-1828
Dear Jeffrey,
I don’t know why my comments are surprising. I simply stated stats and I am not the only
one that have had absolutely no luck with these leads. I know there is no confusion with auctions and that is why I wanted to try the syndication. The problem is mainly with Go Daddy leads. The percentage of qualified leads is so small that is simply not worth the hassle for both me and your brokers. This has nothing to do with DNS as a sales/parking venue.
You didn’t actually miss the lead for the domain for which the .net sold. The broker got a 5k offer that failed to pass on to me. My net price was 50k. When I talked directly to the buyer the offer went immediately to 20k. We are still in negotiations.
I believe that any offer should be presented to the seller. I was presented with an offer that was below my minimum price so I am not sure why I didn’t get the 5k offer.
Now about the non-paying customer. I had already explained to Eddie that I am required
to charge European Union buyers with 23% sales tax if they don’t have a valid VAT number. Eddie told me that the buyer was from the US, so that was the end of it. There was no sales tax. So I don’t understand how this played a large part in the non payment.
Also I didn’t have your email address. I just got it now with your post. I really don’t like talking on the phone especially when it is that expensive. I am in Greece and phone calls overseas cost a fortune.
I have opened 2 tickets requesting that I am opted out of the syndication because the control panel option is not opting me out. It worked to opt me in but not for the opposite. The first ticket was on the 17th of November(request #2374) and the second was on the 26th of November(Request #2416). Still nothing has happened despite being told that I have opted out and that support was looking into the matter.
It seems that DNS support is unresponsive to say the least. I now have 4 support tickets that have not received a single reply with the oldest being 23 days. 1 ticket was closed without any reply from DNS. I assumed that it was solved but I am not sure. The syndication opt out tickets are the only tickets that have gotten a reply.
My evaluation is not based on the 60 days alone. It also based on circumstances that are not bound to change. Like the fact that I am never supposed to know who the buyer was, not being able to produce proper invoices to the buyers, not been able to use escrow.com, being paid twice a month etc.
I have looked toward myself and I have said that maybe my prices are a bit high. But that is especially true when it comes to Go Daddy leads, so that why I need to stop the syndication. It’s a dead end for me.
Thank you.
Konstantinos
I agree with everyone else
About DNS.Mike Vp of Sales
Do not even waste your time.
Let face it Frank has never
Ran a business built a site
Between getting a check
From Yahoo when
Everyone was selling
In the worst .com market yet
What DNS do ?Hire anyone
Who can say the word domain
Frank will come to his senses
Or will go broke.The godaddy
Deal is a mess.Anyone else
Know it 60 days till you get
Paid.Domain Sponsor he we go
Again.