End User Perspective: Buying a Premium Domain on GoDaddy
Friday, February 19th, 2010
Simplicity helps end user buy domain name.
In October I wrote about GoDaddy’s service that lets you place your domains for sale within the registration path, called Premium Domain Names. Using a “Premium Listing”, your domain shows up in the GoDaddy domain marketplace. But the real value is that they also show up prominently when someone is searching for that exact domain name:
To test the system, I transferred about 75 domain names to GoDaddy and listed them as Premium, with a median price of about $1,000. It’s a small sample size, and I didn’t expect much to happen. But a few days ago I received this email:
Curious, I called up the person who bought the domain name, who told me his thought process and how he came across the domain. (He requested his name not be used in this article.)
“Most of the names I was looking up were taken,” he told me. “But the others didn’t come up as ‘premium names’”.
He said that if some of the other names he tried were listed as available as a premium domain, he may have bought one of the others.
This brings up a good point: most end users don’t know how to find out if a domain name is for sale. Even if they do, they don’t want to bother with the traditional process of negotiation, escrow, etc. Part of the selling point to this buyer was that it was simple and instantaneous:
“It was super simple,” he explained. “It was really no different than buying another domain on GoDaddy.”
Premium domain sales are automatically transferred to the buyer’s account upon purchase.
GoDaddy has the greatest retail reach in the domain name business. Domainers are starting to take advantage of that.
Further Reading:
Okay, I missed the post that you’ve linked in this article. Congratulations on the sale. This is a normal thought process that end users have.
If the other names that he looked up were unavailable, having the Premium Name For Sale sign on a domain name that IS available makes it an attractive buy. That seems to be because it’s almost a kind of “endorsement” by GoDaddy because the sale is made through them. And everybody’s heard of Go Daddy. Thanks for these tips.
*prepares GD-registered domains for premium sale purchase*
Congrats on the sale, please do another post on how the back end of the sales process works, as in how long does it take til you are paid, does everything run smoothly, etc. Would be good to know.
Another way to make additional sales is to capture the type-ins on the name but forward to
godaddy with the search string filled in. The question is, does anyone know how to construct a url search string so a person can get the result of the search without typing in on godaddy? like here’s an example (but doesn’t work) – http://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults2.aspx?domain=domainname.com
notice the “domain=domainname.com” on the end but can be any name really.
Anyone?
@ domain report – as far as backend, I do literally nothing with the transfer. Payment’s another matter. I believe it takes 30 days or so, but I’ll find out and let you know.
Thanks for sharing the exchange with the buyer, Andrew. I am testing this service now also and this was good insight.
that instant transfer is really the best part.
However if someone purchases a premium name and they dont’ have to pay for 30 days then what happens if they’re not happy with the traffic it receives and change their mind?
-Mike
@dcmike77 – the buyer pays immediately and the domain is transferred immediately…GoDaddy just mails you a check within 30 or 45 days.
I’ve sold about a dozen domains through this service. Payment is the biggest problem. Godaddy gets the money but getting it to you takes forever. 30days is what they say they payout on but it’s been very random . . .not 30 though.
as long as they pay when they buy then that sounds like a great service. I think i’ll sign up
@John
https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?domain=
Just put the domain at the end after the = sign. Clearly the domain has to be list on Godaddy’s marketplace.
where it says ‘commission=30′ i take it that’s 30% commission?
you forgot to mention the monster commission godaddy charges
sure you can add it on the asking price, but even still
i heard theres an even higher band?
@ land – yes, it’s 30%. You used to be able to increase the commission to show higher up in search results, but I believe they removed that option. They used to also limit your price to $5k, but that has been lifted.
Can names be on GD concurrently w/other platforms/venues?
@ Steve – you can list it elsewhere but I wouldn’t do it with a fixed price on those other sites. Although unlikely, it’s possible a domain could sell on two platforms the same day, which would be a problem. More likely is you forget to delete it from another platform after it sells on GoDaddy.
30% WOW
The concept sounds great.
But, 30% commission ???
I thought NameMedia’s 20% commission was pushing the envelope.
I realize if you get ‘your price’ what difference does it matter what the buyer pays?
It just sounds excessive.
You have to take into consideration GoDaddy’s reach and reputation within the domain registration marketplace versus other somewhat “unknown” companies. An end-user is much more likely to be familiar with GoDaddy (especially after the Super Bowl) than a company like BuyDomains or Afternic.
Kevin you are 100% correct and Bob knows that. You pay more for them to sell your name because most know Godaddy. I have had people not buy a domain because it was not at Godaddy. I said I would transfer to Godaddy and they were like “What’s a transfer, no thank you, I will stick with Godaddy.” I think its not bad you just increase your asking price on a domain. If you know you want $1000 and would pay SEDO 10%, on Godaddy make the price $1275.
I’m sure there is some price elasticity that will effect Godaddy’s success rate.
For example, If I want to ‘net’ $ 2,000.
Sedo selling price – $ 2,250
NameMedia selling price – $ 2,500.
Godaddy selling price – $ 2,860.
Basically, the enduser is paying a 28% increase over Sedo’s price.
We also know Sedo does NO SELLING.
Whereas, NameMedia does.
I’m not sure if Godaddy is doing any selling or is it all automated?
Thinking about it again look how much advertising godaddy does- they paid millions on a superbowl commercial and might have great success getting end users who wouldn’t have bought your name otherwise…
depends on the name..
Actually one thing you hadn’t covered that is a bonus is that a Premium Listing also gets displayed in searches within tdnam.com.
If someone were to buy your domain at tdnam the commission is not the 30% . Had that happen on 1 of mine. GD says on the site that the commission on tdnam is “as low as 5%” that must be if escrow.com is left out. I was charged 7% commission.
The “in-line” buys are much more prevalent than Tdnam.com buys in my experience, as one would expect.
It sounds like a lot , but when you consider the person searching the term sees your listing you are reaching a specific target , someone who is seeeking your category and the chance to list up to 99,999 should cover any costs
Forgot to say i will be trying this , a sale is a sale ……..regardless of where is comes from
why is http://domain-name-registry.info/ copying all of your blog posts
with no credit to you
“copying all of your blog posts with no credit to you”
I’m sure the other journalist have contacted him (whois privacy) to no avail.
He is doing it strictly for SEO traffic and pump and dump domain sale.
I would contact his hosting company (UK2. net)and shut him down. He is not going to change.
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