GoDaddy explains why it introduced Afternic Boost, plus plans for Dan.
Last week Mark Levine and I gave our initial feedback on Afternic Boost, a new program from Afternic that promises extra exposure for a fee.
Today, I’m joined by Alan Shiflett. Alan manages all of GoDaddy’s products for domain investors. He talks about how Afternic Boost came about and why it costs extra. I’m still not sold on the product, but I think it’s worth understanding what’s going on behind the scenes to get an idea of what might happen in the future with GoDaddy and Afternic.
Alan also discusses the coming sunsetting of Dan.com, Make Offer landers, and how domain investors can sell domains in an upcoming auction.
Also: Atom commission match, a bogus $10 million sale, and more.
Sponsor: Sav.com backorders
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16 minutes in, “we’re not going to go into specifics”. Right there, he lost me. If he could prove, with hard data, then MAYBE I’d be intrigued. But its basically a trust us – this black box works and you will be charged 5% more for those sales. Trust us.
We’ve all had a lot of lessons on trust these past several or more years. I, for one, want hard evidence. Lets face it, who would NOT want to prove their actions resulted in better sales by doing X (see we dont even know what X is). Its some secret sauce and I, for one, am not buying it.
Plus, I do not like the idea of outbound or I’d do it myself. I am not keen on inviting potential UDRPs or having my names black-listed by Google when someone receives one of these outbound email campaigns.
Keep the boost. 🙂
For years, I’ve had a positive experience with GoDaddy/Afternic and have appreciated their services. The Boost plan marks the first time I feel they’re abusing their market position. This initiative has dramatically shifted my perception from positive to strongly negative, and I’m not alone – almost everyone I’ve spoken to is disgusted by the introduction of Boost.
1. Lack of transparency: No verifiable data supporting the “up to 10%” performance claim.
2. Ethical issues: Appears to be “double-dipping” by charging sellers extra for optimizations that already earn GD/Afternic more revenue from sales.
3. Unfair structure: All-or-nothing approach and additional commission on all sales, not just Boost-driven ones.
4. Questionable timing: Coincides with other fee increases, putting additional strain on sellers.
5. Broker responsibilities: Conflicts with the ethical duty to represent all clients equally without demanding extra payment.
6. Monopoly abuse: GoDaddy/Afternic seems to be leveraging their dominant market position to impose unfair terms on sellers who have limited alternatives.
GoDaddy/Afternic should abandon this exploitative plan. At minimum, they should provide clear performance data, allow selective application to individual domains, and only charge extra commission on Boost-driven sales.
I urge GoDaddy to prioritize fair competition and long-term partnerships over exploitative practices that take advantage of their market dominance.
I believe I heard Alan say that Dan.com is going to be phased out, correct?
Yes. They are moving everything to Afternic for selling. They’ve been talking about this for a while.
Alan Shifflet suggests the extra commission was necessary because he believes domain investors should contribute to the cost of search path promotion. However, what he seems to overlook is that the high commission we have always paid Afternic already included search path promotion. Afternic removed this feature, only to bring it back under the “Boost” label, charging extra. This feels like Burger King removing the bun from their burgers, then reintroducing it for an additional fee. It’s frustrating doublespeak to see Afternic position this as a “Boost” when it’s something we’ve always had with our commission payments.
Shifflet also claims investors should be treated like registry partners for search path promotion, but unlike registry partners, we don’t get the same performance metrics or placement guarantees. If we’re expected to pay like registry partners, it seems only fair that we receive similar metrics and assurances. This inconsistency in treatment leaves domain investors without the transparency or control we’d expect when paying for what is essentially a form of advertising.
Most concerning, Afternic has stated domains opted into Boost that exactly match the GoDaddy search term will appear in GD search results. However, they’ve acknowledged this feature isn’t working properly—many exact match domains do not appear as promised. Afternic support even suggested I opt out of Boost until this issue is resolved. It’s disturbing that Afternic continues to auto-opt accounts into Boost and charge 5% extra commission for functionality that isn’t fully operational, without disclosing these problems to customers upfront.
Afternic, step up. Give domain investors the transparency, performance metrics, and functionality we’re paying for. The trust of your users depends on it.