Pay-over-time domain marketplace will let domainers join the party with any TLD.
Names.Club is expanding its payment-plan domain marketplace to allow third parties to list their domain names in all top level domains.
The Dot Club registry originally created the marketplace for new top level domain registries to offer premium domains on payment plans. Buyers make a down payment and get immediate access to use the domain name. They pay off the balance over 60 months.
Opening the service up to domainers and all top level domains is great. I love seeing domain companies innovate. And payment plans are becoming a popular way to close deals when buyers don’t have enough cash.
Dot Club CMO Jeff Sass told me that there will be protections in place to make sure that buyers don’t use domains in a way that could harm the domain’s value. As a seller, you don’t want a buyer to use blackhat SEO or use a domain to spam, only to stop making payments a few months in.
When a domain sells, the owner will transfer it to a holding account managed by Names.Club at the owner’s registrar. The domain can’t be transferred from this account but the buyer will be able to change the nameserver.
I’ve only done a couple of payment plan deals. Usually, I like to understand how the buyer plans to use the domain before doing the deal.
I also think five years is a long time for payments. Five years makes sense for domain registries that are playing with “house money” on their domains, but it would be nice to be able to offer shorter terms.
Personally, I’d feel most comfortable putting names on Names.Club that won’t break the bank if the buyer does something bad with them.
Another innovative thing about Names.Club is how it integrates brokers into the action. They can offer buyers a discount code and then they get paid when someone they refer buys a domain.
Bottom line: kudos on expanding the marketplace. Some kinks might need to be worked out, but I love seeing stuff like this.
Charle Christopher says
Do you have any details regarding what the seller is paid, versus the registry’s cut?
Andrew Allemann says
Sorry for not including that in the post. The commission is 30%, so you’ll want to price your domains accordingly.
Charles Christopher says
Thank you.
And if a broker is involved does that then make the commission 45% (30% + 15%) or do they split the 30%?
I emailed them … Microsoft sent the response from @Names.Club and @Get.Club into my spam folder.
Not a confidence builder.
Andrew Allemann says
That comes out of their 30%
Domainer says
You hit the nail on tbe head with “House Money” 5 years may may be good with house money but it wont fly in the real world where most businesses fail or flop in first 5 yesrs.
12 months is max. Already tried and tested by HugeDomains.
They should allow each buyer to determine lengh of payments like namesilo and undeveloped.
60 months wil initially genterate more sales but most payments will stop when the domain project fails.
snoopy1267 says
That is true of any type of leasing or payment, 50% or more stop making payments (usually within the first few payments), that is just part of it.
PageHowe.com says
im using the “subscription” language when i think of these pay as you go deals.
denote a less than property ownership level transfer and “arrangement” unitl paid
page
mike says
I am sure they take the fees upfront, so after the first few payments, the business usually ceases, and you are pretty much left with squat, but the house will get all their fees.
[email protected] says
Hello,
I listed few dot-club domain names – ‘Maroon.club’, ‘Lava.club’, ‘Maple.club’, ‘SME.club’ , ‘DUKES.club’ etc. & some new GTLDs like ‘CarLoan.direct’, ‘Discover.estate’ etc., however after successful listing of these domains on ‘names.club’, when tried to search these names from the search field on the home page, the listed names do not appear.
I wonder how the buyers will be able to view these listed domain names? I mean from which page of the ‘names.club’ marketplace?