Afternic launches basic self-brokering

First version of self-brokering system is limited.

Afternic launched a new feature today that allows domain name investors to self-broker domain names rather than have Afternic’s brokers manage negotiations.

The self-brokering feature is very much a minimum viable product, and it will only make sense for some domain name investors to consider at this stage.

Sellers need to have an active Premium Domain Discount Club membership ($240/year) to opt into self-brokering. Many domain investors have these memberships; GoDaddy said about 100,000 users are eligible.

If you have the membership, you can turn on self-brokering by going to Settings > Account in the Afternic dashboard.

Perhaps the most limiting part of the system is that it currently only works on “make offer” inquiries made through the Custom Lander, which is Dan’s legacy lander. It does not work on the Price Request lander. Sellers need to choose the Custom Lander and add “make offer” as an option for the lander before they receive sales leads.

When a customer makes an offer through the Custom Lander, they will first be prompted to log into GoDaddy, which will likely cause friction for buyers. After that, they are presented with screening questions to ensure they are interested in buying the domain and aren’t merely confused.

Currently, their answers to those screening questions are not provided to sellers.

Once an offer is submitted, it will show up under Sales > Self Brokered Leads in the account manager. Sellers will see the offer price and basic location data for the buyer.

Sellers can then negotiate with the buyer through the system or choose to forward the lead to an Afternic broker.

I’m excited about the prospect of gaining new insights by self-brokering some leads. However, I feel that the friction the Make Offer system adds (requiring an offer and for the person to log into GoDaddy to make it) will likely reduce sales, so I think I’ll wait for future enhancements to self-brokering before using it for more domains.

Alan Shiflett, Sr. Director of Domain Investor Product at GoDaddy, will be on the podcast this coming Monday to talk more about self-brokerage. He discusses the roadmap for self-brokerage and why it was launched with its current feature set.