Atom / Atom.com - Marketplace (formerly Squadhelp)

[JudgeMind]

Hey Folks,

I've just started using squadhelp.com to list some of my brandable. So far I have 76 domains listed, there is no fee to list. I've had some decent action so far in the way of interested buyers but no sales as of yet. I've only been with them for 1 week now.

A bit of a summary review of SquadHelp:

PROS

• No Listing fee
• No Logo design fee
• Ability to submit your names to end users holding naming contests
• Ability to chat directly or send a message directly to end users.
• Stats of your marketplace domains are shown in the marketplace dashboard.
• Their customer service and support has been great, 24hr a day chat.
• Ability to increase or decrease the list price of your domains or to show a discount. You can decrease or increase the price yourself by $200. If you want to lower more, you can contact support.
• End users can shortlist your domains before they make a decision on which they want to purchase. The number of shortlists is shown in you marketplace dashboard.
• When you submit your names you get to set the price you wish to get. Because their commissions are high I recommend listing at a higher price to offset the commission costs.
• Their landing pages are fairly basic but they work. Because the marketplace is fairly new, I'm sure we will see style improvements in the future.
• One thing I really like is they accept multiple extensions. I have listed .co and .io along with .com
• Each seller gets a direct link to their marketplace portfolio, HERES MY PORTFOLIO. It is handy if your trying to p[promote your portfolio through social media.
• I like that their marketplace doesn't have tens of thousands domain listings like BB. They are fairly strict on the domains they accept to list and so this helps keep the number of domains in the marketplace down and gets your listings more exposure.

CONS

• Their commissions are very high, depending on the domain name they are usually between 30% and 35%. However, there are no listing fees, no logo design fees, so in the end their commission is very similar to brand buckets.
• Their logos are not top quality, in fact I requested to have some of my logos remade.
• I think they have a big backlog of logos to design, the wait time for logo design has been around 1 week, but your names are still listed while the logos are being designed.
• After your names are accepted you need to agree to their commission rate, at this point you also need to apply your own keywords, descriptions etc. I found this was very time consuming.

 

[NameGroove]

The downside is you have to pay two parties a commission for a lead. Kind of a pain and a convoluted system. Many more sales seem to be originating from GD/Afternic than from the actual SH lander.

That is no longer correct. As of Jan 10, 2024 Atom takes 0% commission on Afternic sales. As I said, there is NO downside to listing on Atom (except for the $1 coin submission to get it listed as Premium and authorized to list on Afternic).

https://www.atom.com/partial-exclusivity-option

 

[trelgor]

The downside is you have to pay two parties a commission for a lead. Kind of a pain and a convoluted system. Many more sales seem to be originating from GD/Afternic than from the actual SH lander.

Please explain the origination part?

 

[karmaco]

Please explain the origination part?

On the reporting side of things have heard more sales coming (originating) from AN versus the Atom lander. But that is probably a small pool of sellers. Things could be different based on portfolio size and actual names. The point is I guess if most of your sales come through AN do you actually need Atom…?

 

[karmaco]

That is no longer correct. As of Jan 10, 2024 Atom takes 0% commission on Afternic sales. As I said, there is NO downside to listing on Atom (except for the $1 coin submission to get it listed as Premium and authorized to list on Afternic).

https://www.atom.com/partial-exclusivity-option

Ok a recent change I forgot. I digress.

 

[silentg]

They added Request Price option for landing pages:
https://helpdesk.atom.com/en/articles/3172811-marketplace-price-request-make-an-offer-features

 

[GoKaizen]

I need to pay to list names on Atom and keep the pricing current on Afternic.

If you have brandable names that aren't going to get discovered otherwise, yes makes sense.

Vast majority of domains get sold on Afternic.

You can list names that are on Atom at Afternic too. So I see no downside to the extra Atom marketing.

 

[NameGroove]

They added Request Price option for landing pages:
https://helpdesk.atom.com/en/articles/3172811-marketplace-price-request-make-an-offer-features

I saw this too - interesting they have Make offer and request price. Sort of a who is going to set the price first sort of thing. Personally, I'd prefer MO over RP. Let them start. Although in my case, 100% of my names are BIN anyway

 

[NameGroove]

I need to pay to list names on Atom and keep the pricing current on Afternic.

If you have brandable names that aren't going to get discovered otherwise, yes makes sense.

Vast majority of domains get sold on Afternic.

Then, respectfully, why are you in this thread? As this is an Atom thread, all names being discussed here are brandables by definition. You even state brandables won't get discovered otherwise. My point remains - for brandables (which again are the only sorts of names we are discussing in the Atom thread), there is NO reason not to list them also on Afternic. Clearly, if you have other types of names (non-brandable) then they are better served via your own landers, Afternic, etc. Atom is for brandables.

 

[GoKaizen]

Most of my domains these days are brandables.

 

[NameGroove]

Most of my domains these days are brandables.

Then I would suggest, Atom (and/or BrandBucket) would provide excellent reach for your folio. Yes, there is a nominal listing fee of $1 per name at each. But you can list on Afternic in addition with both. I personally think it's wise to list as many places as possible. Selling names it the game - not holding names (and paying slightly less).

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Then I would suggest, Atom (and/or BrandBucket) would provide excellent reach for your folio. Yes, there is a nominal listing fee of $1 per name at each. But you can list on Afternic in addition with both. I personally think it's wise to list as many places as possible. Selling names it the game - not holding names (and paying slightly less).

Do they provide a service where you can automatically list with Afternic through your portfolio panel on Squadhelp? That might be very convenient. Then, if the domain sells in either location, it hopefully would be automatically removed from the other marketplace?

 

[NameGroove]

Do they provide a service where they automatically list with Afternic through their control panel? That might be convenient, so if the domain sells in either location, it is automatically removed from the other marketplace?

They both do it for Sedo but I don't believe they do it for Afternic. Not sure why, because I believe Dynadot does it with Afternic so the functionality is there.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

They both do it for Sedo but I don't believe they do it for Afternic. Not sure why, because I believe Dynadot does it with Afternic so the functionality is there.

Would it be helpful if Atom.com provided the ability, with one or two clicks, to add ALL your portfolio domains to Sedo and Afternic, at the same price? Also, if a sale happens on Atom.com, Atom.com could have the other marketplace listings automatically removed? That way, you wouldn't have to worry about manually removing the sold domain from the other databases.

Finally, a very simple question. Did any of you do a direct comparison of the SH/atom landers to AN/Dan lander performance over several weeks or months? Or even tried rotating the landers between them regularly over a period of time, to see if the DNS rotation made a difference?

 

[ran_doank]

Sometime i can't open my dashboard, it just redirect me back to atom homepage. tried it with pc and phone.

edit:nvm, found quick fix just relogin

 

[NameGroove]

Sometime i can't open my dashboard, it just redirect me back to atom homepage. tried it with pc and phone.

edit:nvm, found quick fix just relogin

I had the exact same problem. Had to clear all cache and cookies.

 

[NameGroove]

Nice new tool from Atom: https://www.atom.com/dashboard/marketplace/portfolio-competition

Allows us to see what other TLDs are for sale for our premium listed names. Must be logged in to see this (and it's beta currently).

 

[Sinh]

I purchased 20 coins ($20) and have submitted 20 domains since last week. Up to now, they have approved 14 domains for Premium Listings, still pending 6 domains. (This is the first time I use Atom)

 

[NameGroove]

I purchased 20 coins ($20) and have submitted 20 domains since last week. Up to now, they have approved 14 domains for Premium Listings, still pending 6 domains. (This is the first time I use Atom)

Seems Atom accepts ~70% of everything submitted these days. So it's filled with crapola alongside nice names (not saying your names are crapola). Just saying if it accepts 70% of all names nowadays, that's why Atom is saturated with too many names.

 

[Recons.Com]

Seems Atom accepts ~70% of everything submitted these days. So it's filled with crapola alongside nice names (not saying your names are crapola). Just saying if it accepts 70% of all names nowadays, that's why Atom is saturated with too many names.

It is a good business. For them.

1. Collect $100k for 100k submissions.
2. Approve 70k of those.
3. Have hundreds of owners jump through the hoops, some of them even doing promos via social, outbound etc. 4. Sell about 350 of those naturally a year via landers (like they would with AN lander, e.g.) and about 50 via retargeting ads (let's assume around $20k spent a year). Total 400 names, $2500 average (the ones sold via AN not counted). $1MM revenue, $250k profit, minus $20k card processing fees, $20k retargeting ads, $10k other. Total net $200K before taxes
5. Bonus: additional benefit of getting around 5 to 10 million unique visitors to SH/A website annually FOR FREE and promoting more lucrative higher end names to them.
6. Replace the names removed by disenchanted owners with the new ones waiting in line. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Recons.Com]

The economics for the owners of those 70k low end names from the example above:

1. Invest coins, time, energy getting the names listed.
2. Sell 400 via SH/A and another 350 via AN, 750 total. Gross revenue 750 x 2500 - 25% commission (both for AN and SH/A) = $1.4 million.
3. Pay $750k in renewals, net before taxes and other expenses $650k on 70k names.

Note: the math generously assumes around 1.1% STR for this kind of names with SH/A landers. In reality, some owners with hundreds of names see zero sales in a year, so the math can be way worse. SH doesn't provide any overall or granular stats for the platform. Each seller sees some weird non-industry standard bloated STR calc. in their profiles.

 

[NameGroove]

It is a good business. For them.

1. Collect $100k for 100k submissions.
2. Approve 70k of those.
3. Have hundreds of owners jump through the hoops, some of them even doing promos via social, outbound etc. 4. Sell about 350 of those naturally a year via landers (like they would with AN lander, e.g.) and about 50 via retargeting ads (let's assume around $20k spent a year). Total 400 names, $2500 average (the ones sold via AN not counted). $1MM revenue, $250k profit, minus $20k card processing fees, $20k retargeting ads, $10k other. Total net $200K before taxes
5. Bonus: additional benefit of getting around 5 to 10 million unique visitors to SH/A website annually FOR FREE and promoting more lucrative higher end names to them.
6. Replace the names removed by disenchanted owners with the new ones waiting in line. Rinse and repeat.

It's not that cut and dry. Certain word types are harder to sell via Afternic. Portmanteau made up words for example. They also push traffic through more than just retargeting, running contests for example. And their landing pages may increase STR vs Afternic (for certain brandables).

Now, don't misunderstand. I agree with much of what you said. Many names being accepted are complete crap and many sellers will see few, if any sales. Further, some listed names could sell direct at Afternic for a lower commission. And for those names it could be good revenue wise for Atom. However, I submit in the long run it is bad business for them. Because it makes it much harder for end buyers to find and sift through the crapola and they may become disenchanted with the platform (incorrectly assuming that Atom does not have quality names over time). Revenue today may not be the same as long term viability.

 

[trelgor]

On the reporting side of things have heard more sales coming (originating) from AN versus the Atom lander. But that is probably a small pool of sellers. Things could be different based on portfolio size and actual names. The point is I guess if most of your sales come through AN do you actually need Atom…?

It would probably be nice to know whether exposure on a brandable marketplace led to the discovery of the name which led to the conversion on Afternic/GD/Sedo. Or if the name was discovered as a matter of adoption, irrespective of marketplace exposure.

For brandables, I'm inclined to believe that the former is the typical case. I'm going to try to statistically gauge that using my own PF.

Domainers in general are firmly in the "brandable marketplaces do nothing but take your money" camp. That seems implausible. I'm of the opposite opinion completely and think that names can be sold "pre-emptively" and that this is a significant market.

In comparison, the registration path harvests demand that is already present or mounts by itself, and a brandable marketplace works with it and builds it up.

I'm not counting the registration path as a marketplace since it does nothing other than list and offer exact match search. The registration path only offers an answer to the question whether the domain is available. Not whether it's a name that you may be interested in.

 

[Recons.Com]

It's not that cut and dry. Certain word types are harder to sell via Afternic. Portmanteau made up words for example. They also push traffic through more than just retargeting, running contests for example. And their landing pages may increase STR vs Afternic (for certain brandables).

Now, don't misunderstand. I agree with much of what you said. Many names being accepted are complete crap and many sellers will see few, if any sales. Further, some listed names could sell direct at Afternic for a lower commission. And for those names it could be good revenue wise for Atom. However, I submit in the long run it is bad business for them. Because it makes it much harder for end buyers to find and sift through the crapola and they may become disenchanted with the platform (incorrectly assuming that Atom does not have quality names over time). Revenue today may not be the same as long term viability.

Ah, the old certain words are harder to find argument.

The brandable marketplaces love that one and probably have created it. I sell those fine on Afternic with no logo, description or promo. If it is a good portmanteau, you are probably not the only one who got the idea. There might even be existing businesses using it in some way.

Here is how brandable marketplace sales math works for decent quality brandable .coms:

- 0.5% STR come via registrar search path. This is the same regardless of the lander, but gets mentally attributed to SH (probably wouldn't have sold without presentation thingy);
- the lander STR for AN is normally around 0.5% STR, but SH, BB etc. might actually hurt this conversion. But, let's assume it is the same and stays at 0.5%.
(the two items above are variable, so the more domains, the more sales)
- 500 to 1000 incremental sales via contests, ads, promo, repeat clients etc. This one is fixed, meaning there is so much you do to increase sales without someone really looking for a specific name.

When SH had 20000 domains total, that 1000 fixed increment meant an extra 5% STR on top of the 0.5%+0.5%, giving 6% or so for the marketplace. The same was achieved at certain point by BB, Brandpa, Brandroot etc.

When SH gets to 200 000 domains, that 1000 fixed increment means just an extra 0.5% and decreasing further. So overall marketplace STR is now under 1.5%. And here is another bad news for the holders of those below average names: not only your names are not getting the 1% standard decent names are getting naturally, you are not getting the benefit of extra 0.5% from promos, as SH advertising and portal algorithms favors better names that have better chance of conversion for the precious ad dollars (and portal conversion sales).

In other words, if you see SH ad, it is either is a better premium domain (that probably isn't yours), or if you are seeing few of your domains, you are just being retargeted because you visited your own domains checking for something.

 

[NameGroove]

Ah, the old certain words are harder to find argument.

The brandable marketplaces love that one and probably have created it. I sell those fine on Afternic with no logo, description or promo. If it is a good portmanteau, you are probably not the only one who got the idea. There might even be existing businesses using it in some way.

Here is how brandable marketplace sales math works for decent quality brandable .coms:

- 0.5% STR come via registrar search path. This is the same regardless of the lander, but gets mentally attributed to SH (probably wouldn't have sold without presentation thingy);
- the lander STR for AN is normally around 0.5% STR, but SH, BB etc. might actually hurt this conversion. But, let's assume it is the same and stays at 0.5%.
(the two items above are variable, so the more domains, the more sales)
- 500 to 1000 incremental sales via contests, ads, promo, repeat clients etc. This one is fixed, meaning there is so much you do to increase sales without someone really looking for a specific name.

When SH had 20000 domains total, that 1000 fixed increment meant an extra 5% STR on top of the 0.5%+0.5%, giving 6% or so for the marketplace. The same was achieved at certain point by BB, Brandpa, Brandroot etc.

When SH gets to 200 000 domains, that 1000 fixed increment means just an extra 0.5% and decreasing further. So overall marketplace STR is now under 1.5%. And here is another bad news for the holders of those below average names: not only your names are not getting the 1% standard decent names are getting naturally, you are not getting the benefit of extra 0.5% from promos, as SH advertising and portal algorithms favors better names that have better chance of conversion for the precious ad dollars (and portal conversion sales).

In other words, if you see SH ad, it is either is a better premium domain (that probably isn't yours), or if you are seeing few of your domains, you are just being retargeted because you visited your own domains checking for something.

All possible. But no matter how many stats you throw out - we simply don't know if the sales come from Atom/BB first - or AN first. We can speculate sure.

I've been on BB for 10+ years. I hold some names back and have them for sale on AN, etc. For one name, I held it for 10 years and it didn't move. Once published, the name sold in 2 days. Now I get this is an anomaly. And we still can't know why it sold (could be coincidence). But I know BB moves names for me. Atom doesn't (although that could be because Ive only been active there for 3 mos). Others I know have very little sales on Atom, but based on their sales reports someone is selling on Atom. We shall see how it goes over the next few years. If it remains 1.5% STR or less, then I'll be in your camp. Until then, I'm of the mind that I do not know. And that is one of the hardest things for anyone to do these days. It's ok to say you don't know. instead, everyone posts like they are experts in something (every topic - not just this one) without any inside knowledge.

Is the info you are quoting your personal folio STR? Have you been on the platform for 3+ years? Have you had no (or limited) sales? If so - then you have information that I am happy youre sharing. If not, everything provided is just speculation. And if it is your info - you may save me a lot of time... as I may not continue to pursue listings. But if it isn't, then I'll gather my own info and report back in 3 years.

 

[trelgor]

Ah, the old certain words are harder to find argument.

The brandable marketplaces love that one and probably have created it. I sell those fine on Afternic with no logo, description or promo. If it is a good portmanteau, you are probably not the only one who got the idea. There might even be existing businesses using it in some way.

Here is how brandable marketplace sales math works for decent quality brandable .coms:

- 0.5% STR come via registrar search path. This is the same regardless of the lander, but gets mentally attributed to SH (probably wouldn't have sold without presentation thingy);
- the lander STR for AN is normally around 0.5% STR, but SH, BB etc. might actually hurt this conversion. But, let's assume it is the same and stays at 0.5%.
(the two items above are variable, so the more domains, the more sales)
- 500 to 1000 incremental sales via contests, ads, promo, repeat clients etc. This one is fixed, meaning there is so much you do to increase sales without someone really looking for a specific name.

When SH had 20000 domains total, that 1000 fixed increment meant an extra 5% STR on top of the 0.5%+0.5%, giving 6% or so for the marketplace. The same was achieved at certain point by BB, Brandpa, Brandroot etc.

When SH gets to 200 000 domains, that 1000 fixed increment means just an extra 0.5% and decreasing further. So overall marketplace STR is now under 1.5%. And here is another bad news for the holders of those below average names: not only your names are not getting the 1% standard decent names are getting naturally, you are not getting the benefit of extra 0.5% from promos, as SH advertising and portal algorithms favors better names that have better chance of conversion for the precious ad dollars (and portal conversion sales).

In other words, if you see SH ad, it is either is a better premium domain (that probably isn't yours), or if you are seeing few of your domains, you are just being retargeted because you visited your own domains checking for something.

1. Why would the marketplace-native buyer pool necessarily be fixed?

Agencies grow by adding clients. That is possible if you actually try. There are added benefits for clients that use them. That's why they use them. There is plenty of room for offering more than a flat search box in this space.

There is also plenty of room for disrupting the bloated and inefficient consulting space itself - especially when it comes to names and domains, where "experts" don't know squat.

2. Why would no/few purchases on reagistrar syndication network have originated in marketplace exposure? I see quite a few where marketplace efforts to sell are the likely origin for conversion on registrar.

3. Why would buyers who pay thousands of dollars for a domain not attempt to follow through on the lander if nothing comes up in registration path?

4. Why for that matter would they not follow through outside of Afternic-enabled Godaddy registration path and buy it at another registrar, in which case Sedo syndication could absorb it if active?

I suspect that purchases at the registrar have a combination of causes. The ones that seem most probable are:

1: Pragmatism. Buying at the registrar seems like a shorter, safer distance from purchase to delivery since the vendor is the same. I have purchased hundreds of domains on behalf of clients and I confess that if I have to pick between a shoddy lander and an Afternic listing, I'm picking the Afternic listing. That does not mean that the client would not have followed through on the lander if the Afternic option did not exist.

2. General brand recognition. For registration path, the customer already knew where to search beforehand. They went with what they know. That does not mean that the decision leading up to the name selection did not incorporate marketplace exposure.

Aside from these main causes, the registration path is a monumental hurdle for businesses that do things right and acquire their domain early. You can't brainstorm a good name there. You need input first. Options. Which is where vendors that actually sell domains and not only harvest the customers already decided come in.

Although volatile, the startup numbers in the US, post Covid, is at an all time high development. Startups may be the biggest moneyed buyer pool. Even the ones that fail need a matching domain. They don't want to get stuck for weeks in a search box that offers no solution to name selection. They need (cost-effective) help to professionally find a name to buy in the first place, and to consider all sorts of things in the process. The requirements for rebrands and new launches from established players are similar, although they may opt for more costly alternatives such as naming consultants and trademark consultants. (Who in turn frequent the brandable marketplaces)

As to the idea that it is a lie that naming is a hard problem ("Ah, the old certain words are harder to find argument. The brandable marketplaces love that one and probably have created it.")

I think that the true snakeoil salesman is Godaddy and the registration path in general. They love the idea that domains "sell themselves" and have probably created it, with the gracious help of loyal domainers who conflate the aftermarket with Godaddy.