Some domainers get bulk of revenue from Go Daddy sales service.
I’ve written before about my success with Go Daddy Premium Listings that place your domain names for sale directly in front of buyers in the Go Daddy registration path. But with only a few hundred domains at Go Daddy my sample size is small.
While at DOMAINfest last week I spoke to a few people who have large portfolios at Go Daddy. Two of them told me Go Daddy Premium Listings have basically become their business model, bringing in the lion’s share of revenue each month.
One person spends all day buying domains on Go Daddy auctions for $10, listing them on Premium Listings, and waiting for the right buyer to come along.
This changes the math of domain ownership. As your portfolio turnover increases the average income per domain increases.
Afternic now offers a service that syndicates your domain listings in the registration path at four of the top ten registrars, which should help people who don’t have their domains at Go Daddy take advantage of similar distribution.
I also heard that at least one major registrars is trying to hook up with Go Daddy to let its customers sell through Premium Listings. This is an interesting proposition. On the one hand Go Daddy can “lock in” customers to stay on Go Daddy if they don’t partner with other registrars. On the other hand there are people who prefer to use other registrars and this would give Go Daddy access to more Premium Listing inventory. It could also make Go Daddy the focal point of the aftermarket — something it has struggled to do to date.
teendomainer says
I think that if they want to become a leader in the after market they will have to lower their fees 33% is just too much.
Leonard Britt says
I just wish they would include .TV among the TLDs eligible for Premium Listings…
John says
Do you know what’s the average prices set for their domains on Godaddy’s premium listings?
It would be interesting to know what price points are bringing the most sales. There’s a big difference between $495 and $4995.
mike says
I’d be curious to know what mark-up people are using after buying the domain for $10.
Brad says
I have done pretty well with premium listings in the past.
My major issues are –
1.) Lack of extensions. I can’t believe .CO is on there now when much more respected ccTLD are not.
2.) 30% commission. Seems rather steep.
3.) Payment process. It can take 60-75 days to get paid. Seems a company the size of GoDaddy could come up with a better payment system. The waiting time is unreasonable.
Brad
DR.DOMAIN says
@Mike:
Figure a minimum listing of 1,000 bux.
GD takes up to 30% in commission. The point you wanna drive home to any “end user” is that they should expect to spend the money if they’re serious about developing a web property.
SL says
GD really needs to add the equivalent of “offer views” to the premium listing (like Aft. and Sedo, auctions has this feature).
If a domain is searched a lot but never bought, it would help with price discovery. Which of course helps both the domainer and GD by increasing turnover.
j says
i wouldnt mind premium listings, except the 30% is just robbery, and last time I waited 52 days for a check. this is 2011 paypal me damnit
Ian Andrew says
Absolutely, we signed up the Afternic Premium promotion one month ago and have already made 2 sales totalling $18,000 USD.
(Both incidentally came through the Network Solutions registrar)
Looks like it will have increased our monthly by at least 10% at a stroke :o)
Ian.
Favorite Domains says
Thanks. But how much price range at Godaddy premium listing is more successful? I was thinking domains in the range of upto $1,000 might sell well via their premium domain marketplace.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Brad – I think the waiting time for payments has to do with making sure the buyer doesn’t do a chargeback on the credit card.
@ Ian Andrew – glad to hear you’re having success with Afternic
Andrew Allemann says
@ SL – I agree, it would be nice to see how many times someone searches for your domain. Go Daddy shows you the # of whois views, but actual searches for that domain’s availability may be a better stat.
The Big Cheese says
Unfortunately, Godaddy doesn’t offer some of the more obscure ccTLD’s that Name.com has available.
We get at least two lowball offers per month for our “location.vc” domains, but we can’t even list them on Godaddy (unless I’m missing something).
Jamaica.vc, Caribbean.vc, Bahamas.vc (Just to name a few).
Why doesn’t Godaddy offer registration and sales services for ALL ccTLD’s? There aren’t THAT many 🙂
– TBC
Still Chillin' After All These Domains says
30% is thievery really, but I just adjust my prices up a lot.
If they would lower the commission, I’d lower my prices, sales would increase and the total amount GoDaddy would make would be more.
I’d have to say that GoDaddy Premium Listings seem to have improved during the end of 2010. I’m not sure what they did, but it might be that the branding GoDaddy is doing might finally be kicking in and being recognized more by the end users. Ads in the Super Bowl sure don’t hurt. That is ultimate channel for reaching the average person.
Regarding Afternic, I saw the other day when looking at DomainTools.com that Afternic was trying to charge buyers $69 to approach me with an offer, or to get a price. Seriously? What a rip-off! And, what a turn off that is to the buyer. He/she may not even want to buy it after seeing this. I’d say that is hurting my sales instead of helping them. I just keep looking for something good in Afternic and I just can’t seem to find it.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Still Chillin’ – Afternic only charges that if your domain isn’t in their system. Go Daddy has a similar offering.
SL says
@Andrew: Yes, and since we’re on the topic, it would be nice to see whois view counts at Moniker.
I *think* the searches per (owned) domain count is relatively innocent data to give out except for one thing. It would be a valuable datapoint for domainers in determining which domains to drop. Obviously that isn’t good for the registrar.
But it would be a nice differentiating factor for registrars that want to cater to portfolio holders. Might even be worth charging a modest subscription fee.
Andrew Allemann says
@ SL – I assume that domainers use the whois count data at Go Daddy for the same purpose, so I don’t see why they’d have a problem showing views. I’ll pass this suggestion along to the group in charge of this at Go Daddy.
Clay Burt says
Nice reminder – I had one I listed last year and sold it rather quickly, but didn’t correlate the Premium with that. Guess I need to go back and add some more domains to their premium auctions listing!
BTW, 30% of a sale is steep, but not if you know that up front and increase your price… 30% of no sale is 0… easy math.
SL says
@Andrew: True, but I think the raw search count would be of higher value. Only because end users would be more likely to check registrar search or direct nav than whois. Just a hunch, and hoping Moniker implements it moreso than GD.
Interesting topic.
joseph davidovic says
This service is quite good.
Bryan Graves says
Is $5,000 the price ceiling with GD premium listings?