Domain Marketplace Commission Updates and Details

In order to simplify our commission structure, moving forward, Creative Owned domains priced above $2,499 will receive this standard commission structure:

  • 30% for Domains priced between $2,500 and $5,000
  • 25% for Domains priced between $5,000 and $50,000
  • 20% for Domains priced between $50,000 and $75,000
  • 15% for Domains priced above $75,000

This structure will apply to new marketplace submissions; domains already in the marketplace will continue with their current commission structure. Also, Squadhelp Owned domains and domains priced below $2500 will continue receiving custom commission offers.

Additionally, we have created a new page to share specific information about the unique benefits of the Squadhelp Marketplace, as well as some specific Benchmarks around visits and marketing investments compared to other brandable domain marketplaces.

I think it’s a good move to define the commissions and I’m also glad you guys recently decided to include the withdrawal fee as a part of the commission.

I looked at the page with the unique benefits. It looks good. I wanted to address the traffic issue though. Comparing SH’s traffic to other marketplaces’ traffic is an apples and oranges type of comparison. As opposed to the sites you guys compare SH to- 100% of the people who go there are looking to browse through a marketplace and possibly buy a domain. However, most people who come to SH don’t come here for the marketplace. They come here for the contests. The marketplace is a feature within the site and an upsell for most of your visitors and that, in my opinion, is also the reason why domains at the moment are only selling in the low $X,XXX range while at other marketplaces they’re selling in all ranges.

So… because most people who come to SH aren’t looking to buy a domain- the traffic comparison is problematic and the other sites traffic is better from a domain seller’s perspective. It’s more targeted and geared toward clients who are expecting to spend $XXXX or more on a domain purchase coming in. The existence of the contests within SH serves as a competition to the marketplace because it’s a cheaper alternative that gives potential buyers hundreds of options of available domains to choose from and that’s a problem other marketplaces don’t face. Sure, people can pitch domains from the marketplace in contests- but most CHs don’t expect and won’t be willing to pay for a marketplace domain because it’s a big expense that they weren’t thinking about making.

There’s no doubt that SH’s marketplace is a unique marketplace that has some significant benefits over other marketplaces. But I think that you guys need to be aware of the inherent conflict the contests and the marketplace have and think how to tackle it in order to maximize sales and revenue.

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@moretal - Thank you for this feedback.

The point in providing this information was to share some data around relative traffic and the resulting fact that Squadhelp is the most popular destination for people looking for a name.

Squadhelp offers a full breadth of naming services and we make relatively high marketing investments across various channels. Most people who come to the site do not have a specific method in mind for how they want to get a great name - and they spend time to explore the marketplace as well as the contest process.

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Thanks @Grant. Squadhelp has been advertised and known for many years as a contest platform. I’m sure the addition of the marketplace and the extensive marketing efforts to promote it are helping attract traffic, but the marketplace is still new and Squadhelp is still mostly about contests. The first thing I see when I enter Squadhelp.com is the option ‘start a contest’ and the somewhat vague option ‘try our visual name search’ that starts a process that eventually leads to marketplace suggestions. A random visitor can’t know how to reach the marketplace if they don’t go down that rabbit hole or scroll way down the page. Perhaps changing the ‘try our visual name search’ text to ‘explore our curated marketplace’ could be helpful. Also, please note that on the front page there’s a slideshow of past names which is quite confusing. How am I as a visitor supposed to know what these names are supposed to be? (the word ‘Examples’ that appears below the slideshow doesn’t really explain if these are names that are for sale or past names). But I digress.

A client who starts a contest spends significantly less than a client who buys a domain. It might not be an issue for SH because you’re making money either way but if you’re trying to appeal to domainers- the fact that the marketplace and the contests are competing for the clients’ money makes SH less targeted than a site that’s all about selling domains without distractions and therefore makes their traffic more relevant to domain sales. This conflict is very clear, for example, when doing the ‘visual search’ and being encouraged to start a contest at the bottom throughout the entire browsing experience.

So from a domainer’s perspective, mine anyway- the traffic a marketplace gets and the traffic a site that has a marketplace alongside other dominant features gets can’t be compared. I hope you guys can make it clearer to visitors right from the second they virtually step into the site that there’s a curated marketplace that they can explore and lead them there with one click.

Thanks again!

p.s. During regular browsing at the marketplace a big pop up also appears after a couple of minutes offering people to start a contest. So the contest element of SH is being heavily promoted throughout the marketplace both via the ‘visual search’ where there’s the fixed bar at the bottom of the screen offering people to launch a contest and during regular browsing with the pop up message. That’s why I’m saying that at the moment SH is still mostly a contest oriented site and the marketplace is more like a feature in it. That’s what you guys decided and it is what it is, but the pop up message is just another example of the way the contests and the marketplace are competing for your clients’ money (with the marketplace probably getting the short end of the stick due to the constant reminders to potential clients that they can launch a contest).

@grant explanation makes sense. @moretal, I presume the core business of SquadHelp is contests, and the Marketplace is product augmentation; value addition to the core product. Unless of course this was never the case, or, the Marketplace has overtaken the contests as the primary business of SquadHelp. In which case, I stand corrected.

@Soni Thanks. I agree that what you described seems to be the case. And if the contests are indeed the center and the marketplace is the supplement- that’s the way SH wants it and that’s fine, though personally I would prefer that marketplace viewers wouldn’t be distracted while looking for a name by constantly suggesting to them to start a contest. I was just pointing out that comparing between traffic to marketplaces that focus solely on selling domains to traffic to a site that has a domain marketplace as one of its features is a problematic comparison. Anyway… moving on! :slight_smile:

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