I have always been a big fan of GoDaddy Auctions, because it never gets the attention of the expired auction services like NameJet and SnapNames. This is often due to “quality” but everybody has a budget for investing or buying domains and GoDaddy Auctions seems to fit my budget better. GoDaddy Auctions has become more competitive than it was before though.
No site or service is perfect but here are some things that I would add or remove to GoDaddy Auctions if I could.
Free Domains!
Yep, Free Domains! Currently if a domain name doesn’t get a bid during the normal auction period, the domain goes to closeout auction where the auction price drops to a buy it now of $11, the next day $10, $8, then $5. If no takers after the $5 buy it now, GoDaddy allows the domain to follow the normal drop process and you are out of luck until the domain is released from the registry many days later.
Wouldn’t you know… a lot of these domain names end up getting registered after they drop. Not all, but A LOT.
So what if GoDaddy offered these domains for FREE after the $8 auction and skip the $5 period? I don’t have the numbers to see how many $5 domains are purchased but I can tell you how much money GoDaddy makes by dropping the domain, $0.
So by FREE Domains, I mean, skip the $5 auction and list the domain for Free for one day + renewal. It’s no different then somebody registering the domain after it drops. Yes, there is the chance of making money with backorders but GoDaddy doesn’t play that game well. They do play the registration game well and I think this would excite people! Free domain with age, links, some with traffic etc, all for “registration fee”. 1 day only, hurry because once they are gone, they are gone… same thing with just letting the domain go after the $5 auction. Not sold, $0. Free Domain auction, profit from the renewals instead of just dropping the domain!
Notes
On average, I watch about 100 domain names at any given time at GoDaddy Auctions. Sadly on my part, I watch domains for a lot of different reasons and since inventory is posted 10 days prior to the auction ending, I forget why I was watching an auction by the time it matters, at the end of the auction.
If I was able to put a small note by each watched domain, I would likely spend more money because I wouldn’t forget why I watched it in the first place. Clearly if I watched it for the “keywords alone”, I wouldn’t need a note but there are a lot of reason we all watch a domain auction.
Auto Refresh
I’m sure we would all like this! Hitting the browser refresh button 20 times at the end of the auction is a pain in the ass. We do this on DropAlert.com, auto refresh every 20 seconds and it basically puts the auctions Live! Sitting back and watching is a lot better and more fun then having to refresh the page all the time. I’m sure there are technical reasons behind this but GoDaddy makes a lot of “free money” from expired domain auctions selling domains they do not “own”, plus it’s a huge company… so I think they should be able to afford it and figure it out!
Expired / Member Listed
I would like to easily tell if a domain is expired or member listed. This needs to be a visual thing (color maybe). Right now, one would have to click on a specific domain to see if it’s expired or member listed. That takes time and shouldn’t have to be done.
The Hover Box
If you put your mouse pointer over a domain name, you are currently supplied with the following data:
I really don’t give a shit about the Item ID, because it means nothing to me. It shouldn’t be taking up that valuable space of a quick view window. Neither should the Description: (none provided). Expired domain auctions do not have descriptions, never! Again, not needed, wasted space!
- Domain
- Traffic
- Domain Age
- Views
That is the data that I would like to see in the quick view window. It may also be a good place for my “Notes” suggestion.
Remove Underlines
I really, really hate when domain names have an underline. Like really hate it. No need for the underline, people will figure out that it’s a hyperlink if they want to click it. It is much more visually appealing having no underlines on domains than having underlines. domainwithout.com domainwith.com
What would you suggest? Like any of my ideas? Please feel free to post a comment, as I know GoDaddy is a DotWeekly reader and the man that matters is too! Paul Nicks will be reading this article, so please share your suggestions if you would like.
Some great suggestions there. I remember a few years ago they had $1 closeouts for a bit. I guess they decided that wasn’t working for them, but it didn’t seem to run for too long.
You had a few good suggestions. Here are some I would like to see.
1. Under the “time left” section of a auction name instead of saying 6 days 18 hours I would like it to be an actual date and time instead. For instance Aug 5@3pm instead. It’s a pain in the ass getting out the calendar and then figuring out the time also.
2. An automatic text or email alert that I can preset for each name would be nice. For instance an alert on a name 10 minutes before the auction expiration time would be great. This way I don’t have to preset about 20 different alarm times every day to remind me an auction is ending.
3. When you list a domain in the auction to sell, it gives a choice of categories to choose from. For instance if you choose the Business category it will then give you 25 subcategories to choose from under the main Business category. The problem is when someone goes to search for a domain in the Business category it doesn’t allow you to choose any of the 25 subcategories to search. It only allows the one Business category. Doesn’t make sense at all.
All great suggestions Todd! I also get a useless “auctions are ending” email every morning at 7 am central time… so this relates to your alert.. it would be more helpful coming in 10-30 min prior to auction end. I also agree about the end date suggestion as it can be a little odd looking at the current format.
Note I have used the item ID when referencing a link where buyers could purchase the name (and I avoid the Godaddy Premium Listings commission of up to 30% – as well certain TLDs don’t appear in Premium Listings).
I wish Godaddy allowed monthly leases. As the largest registrar this is a feature they could offer better than anyone because they can maintain control of the domain and many visitors to their site are used to low-cost services. A $25 to $50 monthly lease for a premium domain might well fit into a small business’ budget whereas the BIN price may still present a sticker shock scenario.
One suggestion I made but have not seen it implemented is UDRP insurance.
Thanks for sharing Leonard. I wrote this article https://dotweekly.com/direct-linking-domains-sale/ which contains link structures for direct linking to a GoDaddy Auction domain. https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?domain=domainhere.com so you wouldn’t need the id number. There are other link structures in the story that I wrote as well.
My top feature request is the ability to bulk add domains to my watchlist. Just copy and paste in a list of names to add…
I agree on that one as well Steven! That would be a nice option!
Thanks for the suggestions Jamie (and all in comments so far). I think auto-refresh is a good idea along with the hover info and visual cues on auction type.
We’ve got some cool new product things coming up this year and next and we’ll definitely work in as many of these as we can. Keep the suggestions rolling!
-Paul
Real time ticker would be a great addition because at the end of auction we just need to refresh the page every time to see how much exact time left for closing. It’s already implemented at Pheenix which make things easier.