I recently decided to add a list of about 300 domains to both Afternic and Sedo, the two leading domain sales sites. I’ve sold domains through both of the systems, and find that just listing domains there can spur interest.
The usual process for adding domains to each service involves entering details one by one…by one…by one. If you’re entering 300 domains, it’s going to take you a couple days. Fortunately, each site offers a service that lets you add domains in bulk via a spreadsheet.
Afternic
Afternic lets you download a spreadsheet with your existing domains, add your new domains, and upload the spreadsheet back to Afternic’s servers. The spreadsheet has 9 fields:
1. Domain
2. Minimum offer
3. Reserve (you can leave blank if you don’t want a reserve)
4. Asking price (leave blank if you don’t have a set price)
5. Top level category
6. Second level category
7. Parking status
8. Description
9. Traffic (leave blank)
There’s a simple category list that makes adding the top level and second level categories fairly easy. It took me about 2 hours to add the details for all of the domains. Uploading the list is automatic–you don’t have to wait for an Afternic representative to review the spreadsheet. The system tells you if any domains were rejected from listing. There were two types of rejections I received: (1) if someone had already listed the domain for sale in the system; and (2), if I listed a domain in the “one word” category that Afternic couldn’t find in the dictionary. I was able to clear up the duplication errors with a simple note to Afternic support. As for the “one word” category, I changed the category on most of the domains. I was a bit bummed that it didn’t recognize some true words, like my Ethernet.ws domain.
Sedo
Sedo’s spreadsheet is fairly similar, except that someone at Sedo has to manually add your domains. It’s not added instantly like at Afternic. You complete a spreadsheet and e-mail it to Sedo’s support team. Also, the spreadsheet isn’t specific to your account like Afternic. At Afternic, the spreadsheet you download has all of your existing listings in it. Sedo’s spreadsheet is blank, which proves to be a real pain if you already have a number of domains listed with them (you don’t want to submit them again).
The Sedo spreadsheet has 7 fields:
1. Domain
2. Language
3. Price
4. Currencty
5-7: Categories
The categories fields are fairly simple, as you just need to enter a 1-3 digit code for each category. The spreadsheet includes a reference of all of the codes.
The bottom line: Afternic is better for adding domains in bulk!
Why? After spending hours on the Sedo spreadsheet and sending it in to support, it still hasn’t been added to the system. That was on August 11! I emailed support, and they said they have no record of receiving the spreadsheet. But they requested I send it to them and they’ll get to it by the beginning of next week. Also, Afternic’s spreadsheet includes your existing domains at Afternic already.
In a world of instant results, Sedo’s system doesn’t fit the bill. How about a round of applause for Afternic?
Hello,
I was just perusing the blogs and I saw your post. I work at Sedo and deal quite frequently with the bulk add-in function. My apologies that you have had so many problems with it in the past. One of the reasons that we perform a manual upload is to check domains as they are entered. This way, we can protect the integrity of everyone’s domains.
Please feel free to forward us any suggestions on how you think we can improve this service. We are committed to making our services better and improving the domain market as a whole. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Kind Regards,
Jakob
That’s a good point; Afternic doesn’t check the domains to make sure you own them. But it would be nice if you could download the current list, prices, and categories for your domains and then add/edit before uploading again.
I recently started using Sedo and I like their interface except I wish they were a little less terse. I have two domains stuck on top that says they are checking them for weeks now. Also, I have tried to submit some domains to their top domain section and premium auction and apparently if they are not accepted nothing is heard from them. They could easily have a form to mark checkboxes for the reason domains are not accepted to give the applicant some pointer on why they weren’t accepted. I know I have seen much poorer quality names in both sections than the ones I submitted which brings me to conclude they don’t have a repeatable process in place for accepting domains names. Lastly, their payout for clickes seems awfully low. I rarely get 2 cents from Adsense and most clicks are much higher but the majority at Sedo seems to be stuck at 2 cents. I am thinking about dishing out the 19 bucks for Afternic and see if they are any better.