BrandBucket Experience

[xtremex]

hello

I am new to BrandBucket. Before getting my hands on this

I wish to experience about brandbucket from my fellow members


Thanks

 

[Brandworthy]

Care to share what your sold to published ratio is and perhaps what names you've sold so far? This would be the most interesting intel imo.

Hi Doron

I've had 12 sales on BB to date. Some I've mentioned in this thread. I've been a member for around 18 months, and based on my experience I work with an assumed sales rate of ~5% per annum.

I hope this helps.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

@Brandworthy thanks for sharing. I'm at just under 10% but my portfolio is smaller with 75 published domains.

 

[Brandworthy]

I think working out a sales rate is very difficult, with the error increasing as portfolio size decreases. To get anything statistically significant based on the total population of ~10,000 names you'd probably need a sample of around 2,000. This is further complicated by time horizon.

My 5% figure is a (very) rough guestimate TBH.

 

[pokainc]

I had some of my better names refused which I was almost sure would've been accepted 2 months ago. Then I see the name being published and more and more I'm thinking BB exclusivity is no longer that appealing...
Some of the ones rejected surprisingly:

jumbostart 2015-03-25 Rejected
neatfiler 2015-03-25 Rejected
pillowhero 2015-03-25 Rejected
slimmish 2015-03-25 Rejected
supbot 2015-03-25 Rejected
wildstay 2015-03-25 Rejected
givoa 2015-03-25 Rejected
livoa 2015-03-25 Rejected
digidose 2015-03-26 Rejected
optimalspot 2015-03-30 Rejected
nauticaly 2015-03-28 Rejected
slimscale 2015-03-28 Rejected
expandyoursite 2015-04-02 Rejected
harvestmix 2015-04-02 Rejected
actimom 2015-04-03 Rejected
cheaplift 2015-04-03 Rejected
restolux 2015-04-03 Rejected

All these and others rejected (also DebtSwipe.com accepted for 995$ ahaahah)

Seriously think their radar is off these days especially with their mass approval of crap... (Then again it's manure season)

 

[thekiller]

All these and others rejected (also DebtSwipe.com accepted for 995$ ahaahah)

They rejected my 10 domain and accepted one domain for the same price as you mentioned, which I thing could have gone for more.

 

[Brandworthy]

If there are names you feel should be reviewed I think now is probably a good time to reach out to them. I imagine they are interested in hearing direct feedback at this time more than usual, but FWIW the names I'm getting approved are pure brandables, with a few loosely connected to particular themes. Perhaps this is a side of the market they are targeting right now, and in a way it makes sense since niche brandables have a smaller potential market.

 

[hookbox]

On BrandBucket there are 2 categories on the homepage and it's either Invented names or Keyword names. There is actually a third which is Creative but we don't count that one because those are the .LY names.

There are 6,009 invented names and 5,319 keyword names on BrandBucket. Michael Krell is the biggest supplier of keyword names having now listed 1,705 names which is 32% all names listed in the keyword names category. There are 103 pages worth of keyword names with about 50 names per page so Krell has 16 names listed on each and every page. This is why he constantly has sales because 1 out of every 3 names in the keyword category is his.

Brandworthy is correct in saying that they are probably only accepting pure brandables (invented) now because Krell has the keyword category on lock down and being that he is the biggest supplier they are giving him priority when it comes to this type of name and this is probably why 2 word keyword style names will not be accepted anymore unless they are outstanding or owned by Michael Krell.

 

[Dominic Belley]

Two domains rejected this morning. I now have 4 accepted out of 7.

tavalia 2015-04-02 Accepted $2,095
canaso 2015-04-02 Accepted $2,195
riviesta 2015-04-02 Accepted $1,395
greeniva 2015-04-02 Accepted $1,495

oparko 2015-04-02 Rejected
blokol 2015-04-02 Rejected
soundorium 2015-04-02 Rejected

I am now waiting for the logos to be created. I put 200$ for the designers, I don't know what is the normal amount but it sounded fair.

I submitted my rejected on Namerific

 

[campout]

What is everyone's preferred method to "dispose" of your rejects? I don't hear about many sales on Namerific.

 

[Brandworthy]

Krell has the keyword category on lock down and being that he is the biggest supplier they are giving him priority when it comes to this type of name and this is probably why 2 word keyword style names will not be accepted anymore unless they are outstanding or owned by Michael Krell.

Or maybe @michaeljkrell is just very good at accumulating high quality two-word brandable domains perhaps? If anything I'd expect them to try hard to keep Michael happy. He's probably as much a threat to them as any other marketplace given that he could pull 15% of their inventory and probably set up a decent shop overnight.

 

[Arca]

What is everyone's preferred method to "dispose" of your rejects? I don't hear about many sales on Namerific.

I've seen many people put them up for auction here at NP. They usually don't sell for much, but at least enough to cover reg fee if the names are decent.

Since they usually have 10 months left before renewal after they get rejected, I don't see why some people try to "dispose" of them the moment they get rejected from BB (unless they think those rejects are "crap" names that can sell only if listed at BB). And since the number of domains listed at BB keep increasing, now almost at 11700, I think its getting harder and harder to sell both crap and good names simply by having them listed at BB (if you read way back in this thread, it seems people had much better sales % when BB had less than 3000 names, and just having it on their marketplace would mean that it had a good chance of getting sold).

So far I have just listed my rejects at DNS with make offer/price inquiry, though BIN would probably be better. Interestingly most of my brandable names get more traffic and inquires than my keyword domains. Before I started focusing on brandables I always saw people saying they tend to get very little traffic + my acceptance rates at BB are not very good, so I expected it would be hard to sell the rejects outside. But they get more interest than I had expected, and also I am increasingly feeling that BB's approvals/rejections are quite random, rather than a good indication of the quality of a name..

Its hard to get the same prices as on BB though. Some people start out with a $300-400 offer, but from my experience so far, many are just not willing to go up even to low $x,xxx. I guess these buyers who find the name on their own know more about buying domains than those who buy from BB, so they are probably looking at several other options if they can't get your domain for the price they want. If you spend some time searching for a certain niche brandable at sedo/afternic/dns/hugedomains/buydomains/domainmarket, it's amazing what can be bought for lower prices than at BB (or you can get something far better for the same prices).

Also, I don't know if the owners are NP'ers/BB suppliers, but new private brandable "marketplaces"/BB copycats of varying quality keep appearing all the time. If you have a lot of brandable names, I guess this is a good option that could lead to a lot more sales.

 

[hookbox]

Or maybe @michaeljkrell is just very good at accumulating high quality two-word brandable domains perhaps? If anything I'd expect them to try hard to keep Michael happy. He's probably as much a threat to them as any other marketplace given that he could pull 15% of their inventory and probably set up a decent shop overnight.

Or because Margot doesn't have experience with 2 word domains so she gives Krell more freedom in what she is willing to accept from him compared to everyone else. She assumes that he knows more than her since he is making sales with this type of name so she may say yes to him and no to everyone else.

For the first 7 years of BrandBucket's existence they didn't have these type of names so their experience is very little. I do agree that they go out of their way to make him happy and that is why he doesn't have to pay for each submission upfront because the cost is deducted from his sales so there is no out of pocket expense. I can almost guarantee that his commission rate is probably only 20% compared to everyone else's 30%.

Since his names are listed so much faster than everyone else I would also think that he has someone personally do his logos so his names can quickly get submitted and also helps save the logo fee when one of his names sell. Anyone with 1,700 names will get all kinds of perks that no one knows about. If it was my site I would allow him because it does no harm to BrandBucket or the system they have created.

 

[JimJammy]

If anything I'd expect them to try hard to keep Michael happy. He's probably as much a threat to them as any other marketplace given that he could pull 15% of their inventory and probably set up a decent shop overnight.

I don't agree that they are probably trying hard to keep Michael happy. Anyone with any business acumen would realise it would be business suicide to allow one user so much power.

The more he sells, the more contacts he gains, and the more he sells, the more BB regular purchasers see his details in the whois before they buy. It's only a matter of time before one contacts the other and deals are done direct.... however, if BB regular purchasers are seeing different names in the whois details of the domains they buy that is a lot less likely to happen.

I can only assume that Michael being an ambassidor is benefiting them in some way offline, and that's why he gets the privileges he gets, because he certainly hasn't done anything visable for them online for a long time, even this thread only has a couple of posts in the last few months.

 

[Beezy]

Is this check box new? And does it imply that there will be other options to check there at some point?

Found on the Edit Description pages. I don't remember that being there at the bottom.

 

[Dominic Belley]

Is this check box new? And does it imply that there will be other options to check there at some point?

Found on the Edit Description pages. I don't remember that being there at the bottom.

Maybe there will be some other kind of fees in the future. I don't know.

Also, I had 4 approved domain yesterday, meaning 40$ in fees .. who pays these fees? I voted for 15 minutes yesterday while watching the Ducks/Hawks game and gained enough credit to pay the fees.

Why would anyone ever pay those fees .. except for big players who are rich and don't bother paying.

 

[pokainc]

Is this check box new? And does it imply that there will be other options to check there at some point?

Found on the Edit Description pages. I don't remember that being there at the bottom.

if you click on the "vote" button get the 100 votes for 10 credits instead of the 10$ listing fee, then you click on listing fee and pay with the 10 credits, that box above you posted would no longer be there when you click on edit . If you try to edit the description before paying for the listing fee.. it forces you to pay it.

 

[Beezy]

Maybe there will be some other kind of fees in the future. I don't know.

Also, I had 4 approved domain yesterday, meaning 40$ in fees .. who pays these fees? I voted for 15 minutes yesterday while watching the Ducks/Hawks game and gained enough credit to pay the fees.

Why would anyone ever pay those fees .. except for big players who are rich and don't bother paying.

That doesn't match my experience. I always edit listing before paying and that box was never there.

Just voted 100 times. I have a credit available. Box is still there.

 

[pokainc]

That doesn't match my experience. I always edit listing before paying and that box was never there.

Just voted 100 times. I have a credit available. Box is still there.

Beezy, I used to edit always also before and that box wasn't there. I noticed it the other day. After the listing fee was payed.. then I went in "edit description", the box was no longer there because there's nothing to pay anymore.. you already payed with the listing fee with the credits

 

[12345]

Hey, Guys,

Sorry, I haven't been on this thread more over the last month. I was out of town last week and then the week before I was at a regional startup/tech conference talking with a few managing directors of incubators and VC firms about how BB can help out the companies they invest in.

There are quite a few portfolios I see on BB with very nice keyword focused names. I think the problem these days is that good-great keyword names are getting more and more expensive to buy. I can't believe what I was willing to pay for Chatly.com a couple of weeks ago( didn't win it because it sold for $3K+) and Shareful.com sold for over $1K (I didn't get it. I thought I could comfortably get it for under $500). I bought similar names to these two-three years ago for like $20 each!

Also in regards to quality, very, very few of my names are handregs. My percentages are probably something like 93% drops and GD auctions, 5% handreg, and 2% namejet, snap, dropcatch, broker lists,etc. Even if some look like hand reg names, I found a lot of them on the droplist and just regged them instead of putting a backorder on them.

If anyone has some specific questions regarding names, feel free to PM more or email me, and I would be happy to give you my two-cents worth. I also promise to start updating handreg.com and hopefully get a podcast or two going as well.

 

[campout]

I was at a regional startup/tech conference talking with a few managing directors of incubators and VC firms about how BB can help out the companies they invest in.

Good to hear!

 

[PowerDN]

I had some of my better names refused which I was almost sure would've been accepted 2 months ago.

I do feel the same, some of my keyword names were rejected, while I am sure they would be approved two months ago or if submitted by mr. Krell

 

[12345]

If you feel that some names should get another look, email [email protected] and mention the names you think should be reconsidered.

 

[Brandworthy]

I can only assume that Michael being an ambassidor is benefiting them in some way offline, and that's why he gets the privileges he gets

Again, I don't want to be their spokesperson here, but based on what Margot told me what you're seeing is actually multiple things. Being an ambassador doesn't give you the privileges you allude to. I do hope she'll post to explain as I think there'd be a lot more positive energy here if BB were more open with their plans and processes.

93% drops and GD auctions

I'm starting to think that GD auctions is getting too expensive for decent names these days... If you're the one who snipes at just under 5 mins (resetting the remaining clock back to 5:59), you're the bane of my life

 

[thecleaner]

If you feel that some names should get another look, email [email protected] and mention the names you think should be reconsidered.

I actually tried this about a month ago and the response I received was that the owner no longer does this because she's been getting so many requests to relook at names.

 

[xull]

I actually tried this about a month ago and the response I received was that the owner no longer does this because she's been getting so many requests to relook at names.

Aww man, I just sent the email. Well, lets not keeping my hopes up.