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

 

[NameFit]

I think it would be better to understand the buyer's navigation/search patterns and data display options. Sellers may want to get more insight into how buyers buy names. E.g. it would be good to have data on

- How many buyers search on keywords - if so what are the commonly used keywords, and how are keywords defined for the domains, what ontology is in place for categorization of domains and to help buyers with the search
- How many just start browsing through pages, it would be good to know after how many pages they normally give up on average
- What is the most common buyer navigation pattern
- how are the names arranged - what are the display criteria, One would not expect the older names being buried down and they do not turn into FILO (First in Last out). May be if there is some randomization in play?
- Are there some social aspects in search criteria that play a role
- Are there some geographical criteria for search - some words being popular in certain regions/countries, some word patterns are just no no.
- Also would it be helpful to categorize the names and analyze the sales statistics e.g. pure brandables (made up) vs. keyword brandables vs. meaningful 2 keyword names.. (sorry if my categorization is not perfect/right).

All the data if tracked over duration can give better perspective of 'what sells' and what way things are heading. Knowing the search and navigation patterns of the buyers will help the site decide the correct size of inventory/display patterns that can possibly lead to increased sales - purpose of the site and of sellers.

I personally think it is a scaling up issue - and 'any' site would face the sames issues given
- inventory size (we are looking at 15,000+ names and expected to grow)
- nature of merchandise (type of domains sold, lots and lots of comparable - you really do not have many variables to play with when things are so similar, sound close. How do you distinguish one from another.)

The issues are really not uncommon. I think the current situation would qualify to be a research topic. I would strongly urge every seller to role-play as buyer and understand what buyer feels like/goes through if the have to do some search and buy a name. "Read the buyers mind through simulation and data collection". May be they identify something that they only discovered that is helpful to them. May be company can hire companies that do surveys and prepare questionnaires for users. A comprehensive feedback from the test users should be collected, analyzed, investigated further, and implemented as necessary.

It is a collaborative effort on part of everyone involved with the site, stakeholders, buyers, and sellers, and lot of aspects need to be looked into.

 

[JimJammy]

Bottom line, if 5 sellers have a combined total of 2,000 quality names that have been listed for the past 6 months and Michael Krell has 2,000 quality names that have been listed for the past 6 months then the sell through rate if all things are considered equal should be very very similar. When Michael sells 17 in one month and the other group sells only a couple in three months then there is a major problem. I could understand if Michael sold 17 and the combined group sold 10 but when the combined group adds up to zero, one, two or three sales over the course of many months then something is wrong. People can say to their blue in the face that based on formulas and yada yada yada but this does not add up.

I'm actually with Beezy on this one to some degree but I do see your point obviously.

I'm a target domainer. Like most here, I purchase domains based on a set of criteria that I've set myself (is there an exact domain with a lesser extension as a website, are there at least 3 other websites where my domain would be better eg ThingyOnline.com and I own Thingy.com. If it's keywords, are there ads in Google etc etc). I've met domainers that own hundreds of domains that they bought basically because they liked them, they did no research beforehand, or they think they are jumping on the bandwagon of 'the next big thing' (think of the Virtual Reality thread here as an example!). And they wonder why I sell 10 X the domains they do.

Really, I see no difference with brandables.... was the domain a former (failed) website with existing traffic... do I read the tech websites every day and know what the latest buzz words are... do I watch the newly funded startups... etc etc.

The point I'm making is: Whatever the brandable domainers set of criteria are can greatly sway his sales rate in the same way as the target domainer.

Michael has often referred to buying his domains based on a set of criteria, so he has done his homework and is reaping the benefit. To demand that he supply you with the benefit of his 4 years brandable experience is a little unfair. There is no conflict of interest, it's his/Margots business and they are allowing us the opportunity to also offer our domains to their clients (for a fee). To remove this 'conflict of interest' everyone is talking about, they would have to remove us!

Using Michael as an example of a successful brandable domainer is difficult because I haven't sat and analysed his set of criteria and have no idea what they are, but a really obvious example are the 4 letter brandable domainers, they too are outselling everyone else.

I also agree with you on the 'it's a numbers game' comment, just as it is with the target domainer.

 

[campout]

I think the best way to get inside Michael's head is to read all his past posts on handreg.com.

 

[DKN]

Congrats Michael for reaching 2000 milestone in BB

 

[London555]

Michael Krell- We just noticed Michael that you own TigerCloud.com and it's on BrandBucket at $7695 but here's the catch and this proves there's a double standard at BrandBucket. You also have it listed on GoDaddy in the auctions. Here's what upsetting Michael-not that you have it listed at someplace other then BB but last week alone I got multiple emails stating that some of my BrandBucket listed domains were listed elsewhere and MUST be removed as per the BB agreement. We scrambled around-put in the damn time and got them all removed and now we see this. If we sound upset it's because we are. We acted in good faith with BrandBucket -we expect the same in return.

 

[hookbox]

I'm actually with Beezy on this one to some degree but I do see your point obviously.

I'm a target domainer. Like most here, I purchase domains based on a set of criteria that I've set myself (is there an exact domain with a lesser extension as a website, are there at least 3 other websites where my domain would be better eg ThingyOnline.com and I own Thingy.com. If it's keywords, are there ads in Google etc etc). I've met domainers that own hundreds of domains that they bought basically because they liked them, they did no research beforehand, or they think they are jumping on the bandwagon of 'the next big thing' (think of the Virtual Reality thread here as an example!). And they wonder why I sell 10 X the domains they do.

Really, I see no difference with brandables.... was the domain a former (failed) website with existing traffic... do I read the tech websites every day and know what the latest buzz words are... do I watch the newly funded startups... etc etc.

The point I'm making is: Whatever the brandable domainers set of criteria are can greatly sway his sales rate in the same way as the target domainer.

Michael has often referred to buying his domains based on a set of criteria, so he has done his homework and is reaping the benefit. To demand that he supply you with the benefit of his 4 years brandable experience is a little unfair. There is no conflict of interest, it's his/Margots business and they are allowing us the opportunity to also offer our domains to their clients (for a fee). To remove this 'conflict of interest' everyone is talking about, they would have to remove us!

Using Michael as an example of a successful brandable domainer is difficult because I haven't sat and analysed his set of criteria and have no idea what they are, but a really obvious example are the 4 letter brandable domainers, they too are outselling everyone else.

I also agree with you on the 'it's a numbers game' comment, just as it is with the target domainer.

@ Jim Jammy

I'm not sure what you're reading but I have not demanded Michael to give us any of his 4 years of brandable experience like you say. I want BrandBucket to show sales and to prove to everyone here that BrandBucket actually does sell names and doesn't just live off the submission fees. 115 names added to BB in this last 24 hour period. $1,150 in one day in fees. A very small company like BB can easily profit on $1,000 a day. $30,000 a month is a nice small business. Show your sales BB and prove that you actually sell names. I don't think they sell many names. Like I said before, there are a lot of BB sellers here on Namepros and if they were actually selling names they would be bragging about it.

BrandRoot is a very similar business with very similar names and they outrank BrandBucket in most searches and BrandRoot may sell one name a day and sometimes none. To think that BrandBucket is selling so much more isn't very logical at all in my opinion.

 

[Dominic Belley]

A very small company like BB can easily profit on $1,000 a day. $30,000 a month is a nice small business.

$1000 a day for a company like BB doesn't even pay salaries.

 

[hookbox]

$1000 a day for a company like BB doesn't even pay salaries.

You are so wrong.

 

[Lightthrower]

$1000 a day for a company like BB doesn't even pay salaries.

Or the rent. Anyways, if you take Michael's sales and multiply it by 7.5 accounting for all BB names (he has 2k, there's 15k inventory), you get around 127 sales per month. I know that the other 2k names group doesn't sell as much, but I'll go with Michael's stats here since it's the one we got with the most information. Plenty of sales in a month and listing/logo fees.

 

[Dominic Belley]

You are so wrong.

I work for a small company (7 employees) and if we were making only $1000 in gross revenues per day, we'd be closed! And we all have small salaries between 40K-75K. I am sure BB has a few higher paychecks to write.

And that is just salaries and not taking into account the fixed costs.

 

[London555]

I work for a small company (7 employees) and if we were making only $1000 in gross revenues per day, we'd be closed! And we all have small salaries between 40K-75K. I am sure BB has a few higher paychecks to write.

And that is just salaries and not taking into account the fixed costs.

I think you're missing the fact that they also get 30% of all sales.

 

[soccertrick]

I think you're missing the fact that they also get 30% of all sales.

That's their debate.... is there actually names selling...

 

[Dominic Belley]

I think you're missing the fact that they also get 30% of all sales.

Read above. Hookbox said the $1000 daily income in listing fees was enough to run the business.
Or course with the 30% sales they are ok.

 

[svede]

I work for a small company (7 employees) and if we were making only $1000 in gross revenues per day, we'd be closed! And we all have small salaries between 40K-75K. I am sure BB has a few higher paychecks to write.

And that is just salaries and not taking into account the fixed costs.

Just remember one of the points already brought up - they share space with the rest of the Boxador companies and some of the employees (from my understanding) are also paid through work done for the other companies.

That being said, I think it is impossible to say more without knowing what the details and numbers are, however, so I think this discussion is rather pointless in general. Why do we care what their profit is? I do understand that we care about if we can actually sell via them, but that doesn't mean they need to reveal what they make either... that just means they need to do a better job convincing us. I think sharing more sales numbers and differentiating between their sales and our sales would be helpful, but whether they are making a profit or not is completely unrelated. What should matter to us is if their service is worth our time/money to use. If it is, it doesn't matter if they are making millions on our domains - we make the decision as to whether we want to use the service or not based on benefit to US not them. If they don't build up a case for why we should use them, nobody should use them as a basic business principle (why would I use a service that costs me $$ if I don't think it will profit me?)...

Hope that helps!

 

[Dominic Belley]

Just remember one of the points already brought up - they share space with the rest of the Boxador companies and some of the employees (from my understanding) are also paid through work done for the other companies.

That being said, I think it is impossible to say more without knowing the details and numbers are, however, so I think this discussion is rather pointless in general. Why do we care what their profit is? I do understand that we care about if we can actually sell via them, but that doesn't mean they need to reveal what they make either... that just means they need to do a better job convincing us. I think sharing more sales numbers and differentiating between their sales and our sales would be helpful, but whether they are making a profit or not is completely unrelated. What should matter to us is if their service is worth our time to use. If it is, it doesn't matter if they are making millions on our domains - we make the decision as to whether we want to use the service or not based on benefit to US not them. If they don't build up a case for why we should use them, nobody should use them as a basic business principle (why would I use a service that costs me $$ if I don't think it will profit me?)...

Hope that helps!

You are right. The discussion is pointless.
Case closed for me. I just find it funny when I read that it is possible to run a business with 1K per day in gross revenues.

 

[hookbox]

I work for a small company (7 employees) and if we were making only $1000 in gross revenues per day, we'd be closed! And we all have small salaries between 40K-75K. I am sure BB has a few higher paychecks to write.

And that is just salaries and not taking into account the fixed costs.

Check

You are right. The discussion is pointless.
Case closed for me. I just find it funny when I read that it is possible to run a business with 1K per day in gross revenues.

You are very closed minded. It is possible for any company to profit on $1,000 a day. They do not have 7 employees like your company. The "fake it til you make it" saying fits well here. The Boxaplex houses all the Boxador companies including BrandBucket and I am sure they have a bunch of interns running around doing stuff but to say BrandBucket themselves has a bunch of employees is not true. BrandBucket can be ran out of garage and you wouldn't know any different.

The Boxaplex is kind of nice though. Boxaplex.com I think I'm going to go out there and rent a desk for a few weeks and really see what goes on there.

 

[London555]

I think I read a comment a few pages back regarding the increasing BB portfolio but there still being room in some of the more under-stocked niches/keywords.

Michael are you able to perhaps disclose some of the keywords that your customers have brought to your attention where they were unable to find a suitable domain? Preferably in some sort of popularity order.

I understand the onus would still be on sellers to use this information wisely and not register hundreds of related names and expect immediate acceptance. But I feel like it might help create some transparency and give sellers more information to act on.

Longer term hopefully you could also publish your keyword data for domain sales without disclosing the domain. That way sellers could conduct their own research into keyword demand and trends.

Remember he's (Michael Krell) also a seller-he's not (I highly doubt) going to put out all his keywords-why would he? He really has no obligation to. He'd just be creating competition for himself. This is where the BB "conflict" comes in I believe. That said-your post has merit.

 

[12345]

Michael are you able to perhaps disclose some of the keywords that your customers have brought to your attention where they were unable to find a suitable domain? Preferably in some sort of popularity order.

We will be doing a monthly seller's newsletter that will have this type of info (most popular keywords searched, most popular categories browsed, etc.

 

[12345]

Michael Krell- We just noticed Michael that you own TigerCloud.com and it's on BrandBucket at $7695 but here's the catch and this proves there's a double standard at BrandBucket.

Someone else listed it through GD/Afternic/Buy Domains, etc. This happens all the time. Thanks for letting me know and I will email my GD rep.

I really don't mind answering your questions, but lets keep things friendly...

 

[cocaseco]

P value is a measure of marginal significance anyway, totally used out of context and inappropriately.

 

[London555]

Someone else listed it through GD/Afternic/Buy Domains, etc. This happens all the time. Thanks for letting me know and I will email my GD rep.

I really don't mind answering your questions, but lets keep things friendly...

Thank you Michael but Im not sure how someone else could list it (TigerCloud.com) on GD just 44days ago with their verification system ( we use them all the time) when you owned it then? And as to keeping these comments friendly, of course I will,but pointed doesn't mean unfriendly. Thank you.

 

[Nazz]

It aint about the numbers. I sold my first BB name with only 3 names published at that time.

QOQ.

Quality over quantity.

 

[12345]

P value is a measure of marginal significance anyway, totally used out of context and inappropriately.

I obviously need to hit the books again

 

[London555]

It aint about the numbers. I sold my first BB name with only 3 names published at that time.

QOQ.

Quality over quantity.

and how many names did BB have at that point listed? approx? TY

 

[London555]

I obviously need to hit the books again

Don't worry-I don't think P-Value will come up that often on this thread. lol