Dan commission rates are going up by 6-16%, not 5% (3.Viewing)

I had over 500 domains at dan but the nameservers were pointed to my marketpage here at dn.ca and then directed back to dan in my for sale topics.

I have now removed all my domains from dan, I will still use them for the 5% as long as they keep that.

Very interesting Maple, and yes, these big buyouts usually come with "timed events" that happen 1 year, 2 years or even more after acquisition. It usually gets weirder and weirder.

Next on GoDaddy's list, use the 15% "send your traffic to GD" carrot to harm Sedo enough to also buy it out, or just simply run it into the ground in a few years time.

DomainRecap said:

Well, for people like me who forwarded a lot of domain anyway, it might actually help my numbers a bit. My last 3 sales would have snagged me an extra $400+ had these occurred in Feb. I also could have theoretically lost money had these all been at Dan. Flip a coin, but I think on an annual basis I'm a bit ahead or at least breaking even.

What I think GD is doing here is trying to kill the other marketplaces. Other than the GoDaddy Auction Marketplace and its huge intrinsic user base, everyone else depends greatly on forwarded traffic to drive leads and sales. So if GD's new plan steals user traffic from Sedo, then it will cause that business serious harm.

* The thing that has bugged me about this from Day 1 is how Undeveloped/Dan clearly manipulated domain investors. They did a call-to-action to join their "rebel" option and provide an alternative to the "GoDaddy machine" and due to us, started to be a force in the business... then they take the short money payoff and immediately sell out... and worse, to GoDaddy.

That tells me they only started Undeveloped/Dan with the prime goal of attracting a big money buyer and selling out, and all the rest was just lies. Sad world we live in.

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Same playbook as Uniregistry, whether or not it was planned from the start. Godaddy is the 1000 lb gorilla of the domain space flexing its flex.

@jamesiles

Hey James, I would like to confirm/recommend something for when the February switchover happens.

If you haven't already, please make sure to incorporate a notification, at the Offer stage, of exactly what the Commission Rate will be. I know Uni has it built-in, but GoDaddy and Dan do not, simply because these venues previously used a static percentage. Afternic... who knows, as I don't get many offers, just broker requests.

Any new system will have growing pains and my fear is receiving an offer on GoDaddy in February (with nameservers on Dan.com), accepting it, and then finding out it's been erroneously set at 25% commission rather than 15%. This commission number needs to be shown upfront with any offer received on the GoDaddy Network, even just for seller piece of mind.

Peace of mind.

After all these crazy TBR auctions at nosebleed prices, I think I need some sleep.

DomainRecap said:

@jamesiles

Hey James, I would like to confirm/recommend something for when the February switchover happens.

If you haven't already, please make sure to incorporate a notification, at the Offer stage, of exactly what the Commission Rate will be. I know Uni has it built-in, but GoDaddy and Dan do not, simply because these venues previously used a static percentage. Afternic... who knows, as I don't get many offers, just broker requests.

Any new system will have growing pains and my fear is receiving an offer on GoDaddy in February (with nameservers on Dan.com), accepting it, and then finding out it's been erroneously set at 25% commission rather than 15%. This commission number needs to be shown upfront with any offer received on the GoDaddy Network, even just for seller piece of mind.

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Thanks for the suggestion, I'll make sure to feed that back.

DomainRecap said:

Very interesting Maple, and yes, these big buyouts usually come with "timed events" that happen 1 year, 2 years or even more after acquisition. It usually gets weirder and weirder.

Next on GoDaddy's list, use the 15% "send your traffic to GD" carrot to harm Sedo enough to also buy it out, or just simply run it into the ground in a few years time.

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Yeah basically by controlling name servers for all domains for sale it looks like godaddy is the owner not a domainer.

Their new for sale landers only have a corporate phone number, the end user will never know they bought from a private domainer.

Truthfully, I don't really care how they structure commission because the 5% bring your client works for me and so does Escrow should the dan commission go up.

I do a lot via e-transfer within Canada at no fee but the whole nameserver part makes it a monopoly that I cannot support.

That is why I removed all my domains from godaddy auction and dan, which then leads into the fact I have the wholesale discount club and the only reason I have it is so I get better pricing registering at godaddy for the ease of listing at auction, dan, afternic etc.

Now that that is all gone I may as well import to WHC and save hundreds of dollars in registration fees annually.

I still think godaddy has the best bulk tools and network but the nameserver part has me frazzled as all sin, it just makes no sense other than to create an invisible domainer network branded only as godaddy.

I predict another Dan will rise and for us it will be here on my latest Market Page announcement.

NOTICE Get a Free DN.ca Market Page

I think there will always be a "new Dan" just as GoDaddy will always have a big check ready to buy them out.

We need an actual businessman to create this "new Dan" with an eye to developing something for the long term and will ignore the "shiny beads" GoDaddy flashes at them.

DomainRecap said:

I have it off due to the extreme difference in commission right now, but on February 1, it should be 15% across the board, no matter what, right?

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That is my understanding. I have not used Dan-Afternic integration up to now, but my reading is same as yours, if staying after Feb 1 there is no downside in doing so.
-Bob

Obviously the big hit in this is on those who use their own landers, use parking, list and point at another site but also list at Dan, etc. and now the commission for them goes from 9% to 25%. I don't think the service can justify that. Yes, the brandable places charge that, or more, but they do curation of acceptance, online advertising of individual names, pricing, direct promotion and representation of names. It is rather different for someone seeing my name on a lander somewhere else, checking if it is on Dan, clicking buy there, and them taking 25% commission.

Clearly this is going to be really hard on the parking companies, the services to list your names, and the brandable places, or some of them.

The loss of tiered pricing at Afternic means that names that may sell for a high value really take a commission hit at Afternic/Dan.

It is a big swipe at SquadHelp "white label", and in general an effort to monopolize the market even more than they did already. I had used that for my .ca names (and Canadian themed names in other TLDs) but also listed them at Dan, Afternic and Sedo at essentially the same price. Now if someone sees the name on my Rename site, go finds it on Dan, and clicks buy, I will pay 25% instead of 9%. I am going to, for those names, either delist from Dan/Afternic, or list at about 18% higher price to account for the commission difference (7.5% at SH WL vs now 25% at Dan).

With Sedo, it is a tougher call for me. I do have some names pointed there at BIN. Those names would now be 25% at DAN. Not sure what I will do. Since .ca qualifies for Sedo MLS with certain registrars, there is an advantage in registration path exposure to staying at Sedo.

For names you think are most likely to sell in Afternic network, and that is true for many names, it makes sense to simply keep them at Afternic/Dan but make sure you point at one or the other. Probably almost half of my names fall into that category, so will likely make no change on those.

Over past months I have listed a lot of brandable at BrandPa. They allow you to list everywhere else too, just ask not at lower prices. They require you point them to BrandPa though. So for those, any that happen to sell at Dan move from 9% to 25% commission, but that is the BrandPa commission, so logically I guess similar pricing makes sense.

A lot to think about by Feb. 1.

Good discussion here at DN.ca. Thanks for all the contributions, everyone, and Happy New Year.

-Bob

With January off to such a good start, and as I'm selling exclusively through GD, Afternic and Uni (no Dan even though I forward there) at a full 20%, you can be sure that trend will immediately reverse itself on February 1...

Reza Sardeha talks about the Dan future and fee changes - DomainGang

I have a comment there, you will see it once it passes moderation.