@grant - Visually speaking, will the Logo/Icon that has been created for the name already (as listed in the Marketplace) be replaced with this type of background image for the Marketing Boost (per your example) only on the “Name Examples” section? It’s a "Name Example with a “For Sale” sticker? Marketplace remains the same? thank you
There should be some individual limit to this feature (At a time). Theoretically If everybody boosts every domain (Why not?), won’t all the names compete with each other, making things crowded and no different from the current marketplace and nullify any benefits?
Hmmm… I’d like to get more information. Do the boosted names rotate in the ‘Name Example’ page? If they rotate- at what frequency? What happens if everybody boost their names as Lightless pointed out? Names can’t all be shown in a higher position in marketplace listings. And what will determine if one name will be in a higher position than the other? As a whole, I think this boost option will mostly just take more money from creatives who will feel obligated to use it in order not to stay behind and give their names an equal chance to get sold. With all these commissions changing in favor of SH and now this boost option, eventually sellers will end up in debt to SH when they make a sale…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and questions related to boosting your names. Here’s some additional context and clarification regarding this feature:
The primary goal of this capability is to add additional, “lifestyle” focused visual images for the marketplace domains so that they can be presented in additional ways to prospective buyers.
Since our name examples section is visited by thousands of prospective buyers every month, featuring these visual images in that section will improve the discovery of the domains.
There is a cost incurred by SH in creating the visual banners. The $25 fee is meant to offset some of that cost. Since this fee is only collected if a name is sold, the $25 fee will likely only offset a small portion of the overall cost that is incurred by SH to create these banners.
Here are few points to note while deciding whether or not to select the boosting option:
The boosting option is not expected to push your domain to the top of marketplace listing page. It is certainly intended to improve your overall rank, however as others have pointed out, if almost everyone decides to boost their names, you will not see a noticeable improvement in rank. Depending upon the response, we may decide to introduce additional restrictions in future.
The main advantage of boosting is for your name to appear in the Name Examples section, as well as for prospective buyers to see an additional “visual” rendering of the name when they visit your domain for sale page.
We will only show some of the names for sale in the Name Examples section. The primary focus of that section will continue to be examples of names from previous contests, however we will start displaying some of the names for sale as customers scroll through that page. We will do our best to rotate the boosted names so each name has an opportunity to get visibility in that section. We will also display relevant names for sale if someone looks for Name Examples by industry (e.g. Real Estate, Agency etc).
The new banners will not replace the domain logos. They will be used in different locations on the website, in order to drive increased exposure for Boosted names.
The purpose of this feature is not for SH to find ways to make more money - but to offer additional opportunities for creatives to showcase their names to prospective buyers. As always, we will continue to improve the capabilities based upon our ongoing learnings as well as feedback from the community.
I don’t like the idea of paying to boost our marketplace names. I actually find it to be a bit of surprise. I always felt SH to be a fair playing field for Creatives so this feels out of character. By paying for this feature you will definitely be at an advantage.
Thank you - that clarified my questions. I don’t believe at this point I’ll be a player in the MarketPlace Boost, but I do appreciate the efforts from SH in trying to get our names sold.
Ok, so I decided to give it a shot (with my oldest domain, where I have more leeway with my expected commission) so I guess we’ll see…FYI there is no going back, so to speak; once you click the boost option there is no way to remove it. Since I have a couple of names that have been hanging around for almost a year, I’m willing to see what happens, but I’m still skeptical about the affordability on lower priced names.
Thanks for the clarifications, @grant. Promoting domains SH registered seems kinda pointless to me for people who also have self owned domains. If a sale originates from this boost, then it’s much better if it would be of a self owned domain. $25 off from 70%-80% of a higher priced domain certainly beats paying $25 from a 25%-40% commission of a lower priced domain. So I’m going along with it in regard to self owned domains and we’ll see how things go. Again, I have to state that though I’m often critical about new features etc., I do believe in the marketplace and the integrity and good intentions of SH’s staff. I just want to voice my concerns when I see decisions that potentially aren’t good for sellers (and myself as one of them). Keep up the great work.
Hello!
In my opinion, the Marketing Boost will only boost the domain if there are still some other domains on the marketplce that remain “unboosted”. So, there is no advantage in boosting if there is no limitation for it (besides the cost you only have pay when the domain sells). An interesting way to limit the amount of boosted domains would be, for example, to charge some points as an upfront cost for adding the marketing boost. Another idea would be to assign a percentage limitation - for example each creative could only boost 50% of their portfolio. However, this last option would demand that there would also be the possibility to “unboost” a domain in order to be able to boost others.
Just my two cents!
Keep up the good work!!
Or maybe only boost domains that are 3 months from having to be renewed or dropped. If the majority jumps on board there is no possible way to give adequate exposure to all boosted domains so a domain could sell and be charged the fee and potentially could have received very little “boosted” exposure, essentially playing no part in it actually selling. This needs rules and limitations. Something along the lines of what DNFront is suggesting should be implemented to ensure boosting isn’t over saturated becoming the norm.
… because if boosted becomes normal (with no differentiation), the bottom line is that SH just added an extra $25 fee to domain sales… And, I’m sure that’s not SH’s purpose!
For names owned by SH, that you submitted to be ‘protected’ from outside registration, and that you submit into contests anyway, I don’t see that it’s worth it.
Based upon everyone’s feedback, as well as high number of boost requests already received, we have made some adjustments to this feature.
You can now request a boost for up to 5 of your names or 50% of your approved domains (whichever is greater). In this case, you will be charged a $25 fee (if your name sells). For example, if you have 30 approved domains, you can submit up to 15 boost requests at the standard fee.
If you request boost for additional names (over and above your available quota), you will be charged a $10 fee upfront (instead of the $25 at the back-end). You will be able to see the fee details before submitting the boost request. Your account balance may go negative as a result of these fees.
For creatives who have already submitted their boost requests, there is no change in the fees for the names already submitted. This applies to boost requests going forward.
We will continue to monitor and make adjustments (if needed) to continue to improve this capability.
This is a pretty disappointing curve ball development in the marketplace that was not revealed at the onset of the marketplace, which adds to the sting of lower commissions on some names and a fee for changing a logo, making some names worth less than they would have earned in contest wins. Now, I feel forced to boost half of my names because I know I am going to watch my stats drop and I have to “sacrifice” half my names to boost others. This feels like a certain unnamed national bank that kept adding fees. I have always marveled at SH’s full use of the crowdsource you built to develop a better platform and I have always felt that is what set SH apart. But this idea didn’t come from the crowd and I would have MUCH preferred it the team’s time was spent catching on backlogged logos (I have some from July 12th that still do not have logos) and more marketing.
I keep very close track of my stats in the marketplace and I’m going to know immediately if this “boost” helps names I am forced to choose and hurts others.
Sorry, SH, a BIG thumbs down on this one from me. I am always an early adopter but this idea I feel is being forced on me.
Thanks for sharing your feedback. The goal of this feature was to help generate incremental domain sales by showcasing the names in a new visual format in additional sections of the website such as Name Examples - since these sections are being visited by thousands of potential buyers every month.
The overall investment made by SH to support the creation of 1000s of visual images is expected to be much larger than the $25 paid by the creatives (if the name sells). Therefore, if most creatives do not see value, and feel they are being forced into using this feature, we will remove this capability.
We will keep this thread open for another day, and will decide next steps related to this feature based upon everyone’s feedback. If we decide to discontinue this feature, we will cancel the pending boost requests and add back the $25 to the commission rate to all those who have already requested a boost. In that scenario, we may still create visual images for a much smaller number of names, but those names will be selected by SH team based upon their overall fit with the Name Examples section.
We value the feedback from our community - it is important to know when certain changes are not adding value, so that we can divert our resources and time investment into other changes.
Thank you @Darpan. Here are some positive suggestions that could help to boost names naturally and fairly across the board for all creatives, IMHO:
Fix the category listings so that only the most relevant names appear by category. I.E. if someone searches for Finance, names with Fi and Fina are at the top of the list, followed by names that are most relevant (vest, budget, money, etc). Remove names that have nothing to do with that category by any stretch of the imagination. (Yes, there are some).
Allow us to suggest category listings that are not already in the list. You can vet them and add them instead of the automatic add we have with the words included in the name. I always find categories are missing. (Can’t think of them off the top of my head, it happens almost every time I add a name, though)
Allow us to use more than one main category listing in the top tier. For example some names are totally relevant to more than one category and we are forced to choose one. Even though we have the other uses box, I still find that being pigeon-holed to one main category at the top tier of selections is too limiting. The other choice selections may also need tweaking.
Use the “showcase” to highlight names that are not receiving the percentage of shortlists vs. views that they should be relative to the “norm”. This could be done on a revolving basis daily, weekly or monthly or whenever names drop below the norm. Sprinkle some of the oldest names in this mix, too.
Discontinue “sales” on names and instead provide some opportunities for coupons that can be used on any name but limit the amount of the coupon to a percentage of the price that is kept relatively low to ensure that commissions don’t drop so far below what we would earn in a contest that it wasn’t worth it to put the name in the marketplace to begin with. (IMHO, the lowest should be $300 commission).
If you do adopt #4, then also fix the “most popular” category because I know for a fact I have names in that category that re not the most popular.
Eliminate the logo backlog so we don’t lose a sale when the name is new and hotter because of a missing logo.
