GoDaddy.com is the largest domain name registrar in the world and they offer several options for user to sell domain names. The problem IMO, is when a company gets so big like GoDaddy, things get confusing. This has happened to GoDaddy with the many options they have for customers to offer a domain name for sale.
So I wanted to do a “fact finding” with several questions I had relating to domain listings of my own and wanted to share the Q&A with you, as you might have some of the same questions I did.
To my knowledge, the following are methods of listing a domain name for sale with GoDaddy.
- Premium Listing
- GoDaddy Auctions
- Afternic.com, which is owned by GoDaddy
That is a little confusing in its own right, with Afternic being separate, but each listing results in a different way a domain name is displayed when listed for sale and displayed to a potential buyer. So I hope the below will help clear up some of the confusion.
Question & Answer
GoDaddy Premium Listing. You can only list a domain with a buy it now. Does a premium listing domain go onto auctions.godaddy.com as well or only if somebody were to search if the domain name is “available” on the home page?
Yes, GD Premium Listings also gets populated to GD Auctions. There are a small number of cases where this wouldn’t happen, but in general a listing in Premium also gets you on auctions.godaddy.com
Do GoDaddy Premium Listings get listed someplace else other than the home page domain availability search?
Premium Listings also get spun as alternate suggestions on GD avail checks.
Listing with Afternic, allows a user to set a Buy Now and Make Offer price together or only set a make offer price minimum. Do both formats list the domain where? (home page search only, auctions.godaddy.com)
If an Afternic domain has a buy now and is enabled for fast transfer, the domain will show on GoDaddy main search as an exact match and spun result. When a customer selects the name it is immediately added to cart. These names also show on GoDaddy Auctions search results. If an Afternic domain is not enabled for fast transfer, regardless of the price settings, the domain will show on GoDadaddy.com main search as an exact match, but when a customer selects the name it is a link over to the Auctions site. These names also show on GoDaddy Auctions search results.
Of the above answer with Afternic, I think this is the route to go. It allows you more options and with Fast-Transfer, it’s basically on auto-pilot if it sells. The buyer gets the domain instantly and you do not have to deal with any push or transfer. The bad thing? Getting your domains onto Fast-Transfer is a mess! (it has and is a mess at least for me).
What if I list my domain on Afternic AND Premium Domains on Godaddy? What determines the listing on GoDaddy? What if the pricing is different at both locations, which one is picked?
GD Premium is the first check we run, so it takes precedence over Afternic and Auctions
Example Domain of mine: MyRefill.com
https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?domain=myrefill.com
The above listing shows a minimum offer and buy now option (which I like BTW). I assume this listing is from my Afternic listing?
Yup, that’s from the Afternic integration with GD
Does a buyer (interested party) need to A.) pay for a GoDaddy Auctions account to make an offer or use the Buy Now?
They do not need to purchase a membership to make a buy-now purchase but they do need to pay in order to make an offer
Sales Commission rate? 20%
This depends on the sale price, our commission goes down (20% is the max) as the sale price rises. The name has a buy now price of $25,000, which is an estimated commission of $4,000 or 16%. If the name received an offer and sold for less than $25,000 the sale price would change. Definition and calculator for commission: https://auctions.godaddy.com/trppricing.aspx?ci=91827
Premium Direct Link
http://www.godaddy.com/api/dpp/search/single?domainToCheck=myrefill.com
Shows the buy now option only. This listing is displayed when a user does an “available” domain lookup. This is likely the Premium Domain listing directly from within my GoDaddy account?
Yes, if you have it listed as a GD premium listing then that one has preference and is displayed as an exact match or spun.
Interested party would only need a GoDaddy Account to purchase?
Yup, it would go right into their cart and transfer into their account immediately after successful payment
Sales Commission rate? 20%
All of our commission structures are the same across listing types, so a buy now price of $25k would result in a $4k, or 16% commission
Other forms of listing a domain name for sale not mentioned?
We also have public auctions, and the ability to push an offer to an auction with the offer being the starting bid.
Statistically, are you able to share which listing option is better than another?
Exact difference depends on the portfolio, but almost all of the time, Afternic DLS premium promotion (which is bin pricing and fast transfer) is orders of magnitude better than make offer as far as sell through rate goes. Many portfolios see a 10x increase in sell through rate after pricing and switching to premium promotion due mostly to the increased exposure. Many of our resellers only take fast transfer inventory so it opens your inventory up to far more demand.
Sedo.com requires a user to “purchase an appraisal” or use its automated pricing tool to list any domain name over $10K USD. GoDaddy allows users to list domain names up to $99,999. (what if you want to price higher than $100K?)
We require an email to our auctions support team [email protected] in order to list domains over $100k.
End of Q&A
Well, I hope this has helped you, brought to light something you were not aware of or at least makes you think if GoDaddy may be a good choice for you selling your domain name. This wasn’t intended to be a step by step article on how to list a domain name for sale, but one to answer some questions you might have when you do list one for sale and provide some facts about what actually happens when you do it.
I personally think that the best way to sell your domain name is with a trusted service, that somebody may naturally go to for a domain name. GoDaddy is this service. Due to the vast amount of advertising the company has done, the brand is well known and trusted.
Yes, people even still today, over 30 years later, “check to see if domain names are available to register” although many have been registered for 20+ years! If they do perform this search and your domain name matches the search… and is listed for sale using one of the methods above, it will greatly increase your chance at selling it!
You also have the option of parking your domain name or something I like to do, redirect it to a specific location or page etc. This can be done at GoDaddy based on what you like. Below are two direct link options at GoDaddy:
Premium Listing Direct Link
http://www.godaddy.com/api/dpp/search/single?domainToCheck=domainhere.com
Direct Auction Link
https://auctions.godaddy.com/trpItemListing.aspx?domain=domainhere.com
It is important to actually know what is happening, who is going to see it, where, why etc and many people fail to think of this and I think it’s something that shouldn’t be over looked.
Nice write up Jamie! I’ve often wondered about all these listing variations myself. I’ve been listing many of my domains with slightly different pricing at the different venues, just so I can tell from where the listing is originating. Thanks for the article.
Nice article, Jamie. Many of us have had the same questions. Reading this should save a few wheels from being reinvented a few scads of times.
The trio of overlapping methods would confuse anybody, and I hope to see GoDaddy one day consolidate them into a single selling interface. This can be done and would benefit GoDaddy. Confusion aside, anybody who isn’t listing their inventory for sale at GoDaddy is losing out.
Thanks Jamie
You provided answers for questions that I didn’t even know I had. thanks again very helpful.
Afternic would definitely be the way to go. Sadly, the listing process is broken. There is no easy bulk upload process. Listings take weeks / months to get approved – when all it would take is a simple whois check to verify ownership. It seems people who do not actually own domains, have an easier time posting fake listings. I still list everything with a premium listing, because at least that works.
Great article. It still is confusing though. How long ago did GoDaddy acquire Afternic? They have been very slow to consolidate. If I am not mistaken, there is a price limit of $25,000 for GoDaddy premium listings. I wish there was a make offer option for these as well. The auction listings also show how many views the domain has had whereas GoDaddy premium listings do not.
@Gary Dell,
I agree it is confusing and the reason for the article to at least try to help. GoDaddy acquired Afternic September 2013. Price limit via GD Premium Listing it $99,999 but you can email them as stated in the article and request a higher price. Thanks for mentioning the page views in the auctions listing.
I don’t understand why godaddy came in force in Europe some years ago and has been doing absolutely no concurrence to sedo since then. At Sedo they know in Europe English is spoken by few persons as their primary language, so they pemit you to search domains on their website based on various languages. Godaddy never ever added that simple feature, so basically they came in Europe but it’s clear they have a tacit agreement with sedo, according to which it seems the European pie must be eaten by Sedo only.
For European domain investors selling not English domains on godaddy don’t make any sense and that is the reason I transferred out all my doamins from godaddy and I use them less and less.
They could eat half of the European not-English domains overnight, but they don’t want to compete with sedo. This situation clearly reflects the problems within this industry…
https://domainnamewire.com/2014/09/15/godaddy-premium-listings-to-afternic/
synchornizing
Thanks Jamie for the great article.
I have a couple questions related to it, would really appreciate if you can advise.
1] Do you know what happens with a domain that is under Afternic Premium but is not registered with GD? Will GD list it anywhere?
I know a domain doesn’t need to be with GD to get listed in GD Auction but am not sure what happens when this domain comes from Afternic (Premium)?
2] For max exposure it would make sense to list in both Afternic/GD and Sedo, what’s the best practice?
To register with GD, then to list with Afternic Premium [BIN and fast transfer] and also to put this domain under a “Listing Price” with Sedo [this way you won’t be able to potentially sell it in both market places at the same time] ?
Thanks.
@Mark U,
From my understanding, a domain name has to be registered with a “partner” registrar to qualify for Afternic Premium / fast transfer. They call it “Premium Network” and those registrars can be found here: https://www.afternic.com/domain-reseller-network
Best exposure. Yes, I would consider it a wise choice to list your domain name with Afternic and Sedo for maximum exposure. To further this along, it is common for interested parties to do a whois search, so having info in whois that the domain may be for sale is another added boost. I also feel that many interested parties will visit the domain name directly that they are interested in… so what you have on the domain name, is also important.
In general, the likely hood of the domain name selling “at the same time” at two different marketplaces would be extremely rare.
i bought a domain from go daddy how can i sell that domain in go daddy