*** Update: We will not be moving forward with these updates. To avoid any confusion, the original post content has been removed ***
I’m not sure how I feel about all of this. We may have asked for better things for commissions, renewals, and such but this doesn’t seem to be it. Every different aspect individually, at least to me, seems a bit on the pricey side be you a small novice domainer or you’re lucky in how many sh owned names you’ve gotten approved.
Maybe I’m not interpreting this right and I’ll let moretal, Clinks, able, fx or someone more knowledgeable chime in.
I worry there really needs to be more ways to earn points or points for things to be much higher. Not everyone has an amass of points built up, and those that don’t —deserve to have ways to have them. That is aside from winning, considering SH is no longer just about contests and there is other things you can do too.
I also worry about the monetary output that creatives are asked for because I don’t know much about this. So much yo wonder about and think about.
Grant, right now, I have names that are due to renew in January for the first time that would drop by 5% if SH renews them. Will this structure apply to names that are in the midst of the renewal option process? Because it is shocking to me that SH would charge me an additional 5% on them after only 1 year and yet have this new policy in process for new names with no track record.
Honestly, this new policy like others makes things more complicated. Complicated isn’t very popular around here. It would have been great if SH had kept the original commission structure and just stuck to it.
Thanks for your feedback. These changes are in response to previous feedback about need for more transparency in renewals as well as greater flexibility (such as ability to get ownership of names from SH instead of dropping the domain names).
As per the current policy, the SH paid renewals typically result in a greater drop in commission and the creatives do not know about the exact drop until it is time for renewal. These changes allow creatives to know in advance exactly what to expect and they will likely be able to maintain better commission rates with each renewal.
However, we will hold off on implementing these changes for now and wait for additional feedback from creatives. If most creatives feel comfortable with current system, we will keep the current policies, and simply fix some of the issues in renewal process that currently lead to confusion.
I like the option to buy the names if Squadhelp doesn’t want to renew them. The rest makes sense but honestly it makes things rather complicated.
I like the option to purchase them too, but for $50? Isn’t this a little steep? It’s almost like we’re paying SH back and then some for registration when some names are a bit buried in marketplace and not easily discoverable. I had SH, like many others have, register my ideas because I knew nothing of domaining and still am not completely sure about things. However, when I did advertise my names they registered, it could have brought views and sales (just not of my own names) to the site, it could have started contests … I don’t know. Do you and everyone else that may know more than me see this as a good price? I’m just curious for my own curiosity of aquiring a couple of mine but being on a very fixed income and probably not being able to afford this.
Oh My God, $50 is VERY VERY high. If creative has around 100 sh owned domains that mean $50 x 100 = $5000 investments.
If creative has 200 SH owned domains that mean $50x200 = $10000.
Theres no certainty also for how many domains creative can sell in 1 year.
Geez that so high, is there any other option? Like we buy the names for $15, and SH comnission rise to 40%. From this 40% commission, i think still very profitable for SH. I mean $700 commission still better than nothing if SH drop the names.
IMO, from a domainer’s perspective, buying a handregged domain for $50 and giving away a 35% cut from a possible future sale probably isn’t smart. For $50 (or less), you can buy better aged domains in the aftermarket.
If the potential risk/reward would have been high enough for a specific domain- then maybe betting on it was worth a shot in some instances. But the max amount for each domain is $2399 which means a $1560 cut in the best case scenario. Add to that the fact that SH isn’t interested in renewing that specific domain (which means that it’s probably not the best in the bunch and/or that it didn’t sell in the last three years). The individual sell through rate at SH is also on the decline due to the influx in domains. And don’t forget that you’ll have to continue to pay for renewals.
So let’s say that chances of making money from this investment, especially if you do it with multiple domains… isn’t favoring you unless you get extremely lucky. Probably not a very good investment strategy.
I agree that $50 is high. I just meant I am glad that Squadhelp is at least considering the idea of letting us buy names rather than drop them.
@ALDaisy If you think about it- it’s a domain that you came up with which you were willing to get only a 25%-36% commission for if it sold. You’ll have to now pay $50 for your own idea. And a 35% commission if it sells.
It’s kind of like a painter who creates a painting and gives it to someone who invested $10-25 in it and tries to sell it for the artist. If it sells, the artist only gets a small cut. It didn’t sell for awhile. The artist now buys his own painting back, but still has to pay a 35% commission if it sells. And yearly fees to keep the painting up for sale. It’s just a weird concept, IMO.
@Moretal I guess I was thinking more about freeing up a name to take it elsewhere. If a name hasn’t sold in three years because it just isn’t very good, obviously it would be silly to buy it. But if I felt I had a strong name that was being lost in the shuffle here…in any case, you are much more experienced in domaining and I respect your opinion.
@ALDaisy1 Still, you’ll be paying $50 for your own idea. If you believe in a certain domain that much, then it should have been handregged by you in the first place. If you feel like you made a mistake letting SH reg it and it’s worth a $50+ gamble on it 1-3 years later… then sure, buy it. But just know that you could have probably bought something better that wasn’t handregged recently with that $50. Aged domains aren’t always great, but better than average domains are almost always aged.
Either way, I don’t think that offering creatives their own ideas for $50 is something people should go for (or something SH should be doing). Especially due to all of the reasons I detailed earlier. Everybody can make their own decisions of course and in some cases, maybe it’ll pay off.
I think the intention behind giving people the option to get their domains is good, but slapping a $50 price tag on these domains and ignoring where they originated… not a very good implementation of the idea. Plus, note that SH’s 35% commission is fixed, regardless of future renewals. Creatives commissions go down or they have to pay for them not to go down. Like in the casino- the house always wins so it’s usually better to consider all the options before betting on something where the odds are against you. Even if you take it elsewhere, chances for a specific handregged domain to make a profit in the endless sea of bradables aren’t very high to say the least so it better be a killer handreg to be worth $50 plus renewals until it hopefully sells one day.
I think that if the Squadhelp does not want to renew the domain, this does not mean that it need to get rid of it at all. Designers created the logo, the domain was advertised for a long time on the site, efforts were made to promote it. It would be logical to give the domain to creative for a simvolic amount of $ 10-15 than to lose it forever.
I am sorry, something is not right here. Whose feedback? Because I’ve never seen anyone happy with this commission. Correct me if I am wrong.
I’ll need to take some time to look over this thread again before I add my thoughts to the discussion, but from a quick skim I definitely agree with holding off on any changes. This doesn’t seem to be creative friendly. I would really hate to see this platform lose the quality and reputation it’s earned. I know every business is looking to grow and increase revenue, but many fall into the trap of sacrificing quality which costs more in the long run.
I appreciate that SH is still so attentive to our feedback, Hopefully that will continue well into the future and we can all reap the benefits of success.
I think it’s important for SH to keep in mind we do a lot of “free work” here, so it’s important that we have ways to make earnings that justify our time and efforts. The admin side gets steady pay while we don’t have that guarantee, so it’s important to appreciate our commitment to seeing SH succeed without a guaranteed salary.
I didn’t mean to go on like that, but I just felt it’s important. With the amount of people looking to make a quick buck online it’s important to maintain the quality and integrity of this amazing community. Much love to you all.
I should mention I’m fairly new here myself, but I took the time to learn the platform and policies and took it seriously because I saw the great community here and the unique commitment and work ethic of everyone. So thank you for making me feel so welcome. I’m thankful and proud to be part of the SH community.
Thank you for everyone’s feedback. We have decided to not move forward with these changes at this time. We will continue to look for other ways to improve the platform experience for everyone.
@grant I think it’s the right call. Giving people the option to get their domains was a good idea though. To my understanding, SH’s position is that it can’t just transfer domains without a fee because then your staff will be busy all day long transferring domains to people. Since some people would want their domains if SH doesn’t want to renew them anymore, I think option A could be to assign a token sum like $10 or something to cover the trouble of the transfer, factoring in the fact that people are basically paying you for their own idea. If you guys feel that might not cover the resources involved- another option is that SH could charge the cost of the initial registration and renewals up till that point. That way SH gets back the money it invested in the domain and the creative can get the domain and basically pay retroactively what they would have paid anyway had they owned the domain during that time period. Though paying a token sum would naturally be better for creatives, the second option makes sense to me too and could be a reasonable compromise.
Other creatives, please chime in with your thoughts.
Maybe can put another option like lower the commission of sh owned domains to 13 - 15% on the 4th year instead of drop them. Because many domains may need more time for closing sales. Some domains may need even 5 years to be sold.
Lets say total SH owned domains for the 4th year renewal is 20000 domains.
Creative commission for the 4th year is 15%, with STR for example just 5%.
STR = 5% x 20000 = 1000 domains sales/year
SH then will get commission for = 1000* $1444 = $1,444,000 vs renewal fees 20000*8.99 = $179,800. I think still profitable.
Note $1444 is a 85% commission for SH, for $1699 domain’s price.
This just an idea to help creatives that dont have much capital to acquisition SH domains.
@fxpreneur Yeah, if SH is willing to lower the commission further- what you suggested is an option that could help some people.