Today we sit down with Michael J Krell, managing director at BrandBucket.
Michael took the time to answer the tough questions not just things like what makes a good brandable ? He took the time to address controversies and why they charge what they charge for commission.
1) How long have you been buying and selling brandable names ?
I got into the domain industry about 4 years ago, and started buying brandables right off-the-bat.
2) Why did you decide to join BrandBucket and not sell on your own website ?
The simple answer is that I made more sales and money with BB. I started selling names by just putting up simple Wufoo contact forms for all my domains and sold maybe a dozen or so in the low $xxx. I had read an article about BrandBucket and couldn’t believe that the prices they were getting for some of the names listed on the site. About 1-2 months later I decided to submit around 50 names. About 10 were accepted and I sold one the first week it went live. I started my own site for inventory that wasn’t good enough to be on BB and for a few non-brandable names in my inventory.
3) What is your routine like for finding domains ? Do you seek out brandables each day ?
I search for names about 4-5 days a week. I have a few different lists that I go through. I look at all GD names that are expiring of a certain age under 14 characters. I also look through GD expiring names and deleting names filtered by a list of keywords and other variables. I usually try to take a look at NameJet and Name.com, but I don’t always get to those.
4) What are your thoughts on hand registering brandable names ?
The only time I hand-reg a brandable is if I let it drop without backordering it. I might periodically check a name generator and get a few that I feel are good enough to register. I don’t often try to think up names. We do have successful BB sellers that solely hand register names, so it is a viable option.
5) Some think that you get special perks for your own names on BrandBucket, can you put those rumors to bed ?
I would love to! When I first joined BrandBucket as a seller, I was fortunate enough to have a very high sales rate which was a major reason Margot reached out to me to become a Brand Ambassador and which ultimately led to my current position as Managing Director. As my personal portfolio has increased my sales rate has stayed fairly constant.
None of my names receive any special treatment in any search results or category listings.
My names are also not disproportionately suggested to potential buyers if they contact us directly about helping them choose a name. I am completely separated from the sales team and the sales process. My names are treated exactly the same as every other name on the marketplace.
6) In your opinion what are the best kind of brandables to focus on for a newcomer ?
I’m probably biased, but I would definitely say keyword brandables which make up 90%-95% of my brandable portfolio. If a new domainer isn’t currently following the tech industry, I would recommend reading TechCrunch and looking at CrunchBase to see what the successful and newly-funded companies are calling themselves. After a month or two, you should see patterns emerge that can help you make wise investments.
7) Some say BrandBucket charges too much in way of commission, 30%. Can you say what BrandBucket does to earn that 30% ?
Sure. The overhead to run our marketplace is much greater than a normal brokerage house. We have a substantial marketing budget, a dedicated team of developers, and a full-time sales and seller support team that all require substantial financial resources. This is in addition to our team of 6 name reviewers that look over each submission.
8) With new gtlds becoming more prevalent and a way for brands to be creative with their domain name, do you see brandable .com names being negatively affected ?
I don’t see the new gtlds negatively affecting .com brandables anytime soon. Here are a few of my reasons why…
Most of the better new gtlds have either been registered by domainers, held back the registry or contain prohibitive yearly renewals.
The majority of the public have no idea what these new gtlds are in the first place, so any company is taking a risk going with something that isn’t a .com.
I took a look at my sales over the last 90 days, I only see one of my keyword sales that contains a word that is currently a gtld. In other words, I think the prevalence of domain hacks in the new gtlds is very limited for the majority of the new gtlds, especially when it comes to startups primarily in the tech industry.
As some of the better ones come out like .shop, .cloud, etc this will open things up a little. There are obviously going to be new gtlds that succeed, but I believe those will be the extensions that are the most generic such as .ly, .me, etc. I would say that the majority of names I sell have the .net available for them to purchase, so if a company isn’t going to go with a .net why would they go with something that is only a year or two old ?
9) Why the need for exclusivity ?
The domain world is confusing enough to most end-users and we don’t want to confuse them even more by them seeing a name they might be interested in buying on several different platforms and several different prices. Our regular buyers know that names listed on our marketplace can only be purchased through BB which adds a great amount of credibility and strength to our marketplace which benefits all of our sellers.
In addition, logo design, editorial work, and our overhead is spread across each name. It wouldn’t be possible for us to flourish if we put in the time and capital to accept, list, and market a name, only to have it sell somewhere else. It isn’t a sustainable model in our opinion.
10) If a member does not like the pricing BrandBucket suggests can they persuade you to raise it ?
Yes, if an owner feels a name should be priced higher or if they want us to take another look at a rejected name, please email info@brandbucket.com and we will be happy to do so.
11) Any thoughts about releasing sales numbers on a quarterly basis ?
We have been experimenting with releasing data monthly such as the average sales price, ratio of keyword vs. invented, percentage of sales in each price range, and top search terms. Our goal with this is to help new sellers understand the market, and help more experienced sellers make educated decisions when choosing names to add to their portfolio and when pricing those names.
We have released a year-end overview of sales in the past and will be doing this for 2015 soon. There is a chance we may release specific sales numbers quarterly; however, being the largest and most successful marketplace, anytime we release numbers it makes us a target of speculation and gossip — usually negative and spurred on from competing marketplaces. We prefer to keep our focus on overall growth and to use our time to spread positive, useful information instead of fighting fires, this approach is better for the domaining industry and sellers.
12) What do you say to the member or prospective member that believes there are too many names listed to get noticed ? Will you stop accepting submissions at a certain number ?
Well, first and foremost domaining is all about quality. We have sellers that have less than 100 names published with double digit sales figures because they found names that attracted a broad user base and were fairly priced. Every week we see new sellers make their first sale, all of which have very small portfolios. It is great to see those sellers put that money into more great names and see their portfolio increase.
We don’t have a particular number in mind for our marketplace. As traffic continues to increase at an accelerating rate, it is vital that we add as many quality names as we can to meet their demand. The more quality options that buyers have, the better for all of our sellers.
13) There has become a secondary market on Namepros where people buy and sell BrandBucket approved names at wholesale pricing. How do you feel about this?
I think it goes to show the strength of the brandable marketplace. Brandables are much harder to quantify than something like Chinese domains, but almost everyone agrees that brandables of a certain quality have real value. The fact that our accepting a name has become the de-facto stamp of approval is very flattering and shows not only the strength of brandables, but of the authority of our marketplace.
Thank you for your time Michael
Oren says
Great interview!
Was hoping he’d answer why they don’t showcase their sold domains 🙁
John says
Tldinvestors has already written a popular blog back in 2013 about Brandbucket sold domains and this year he wrote another at https://tldinvestors.com/2016/01/brandbucket-sales-data-with-actual-sales-figures.html which might be what you’re looking for.
Lyle says
If you google brand bucket sales they are public. The data is out there, and free for all.
30 percent is to much to pay a greedy exchange.
I don’t trust this poster, to many inside sales data, including sales which gives him an edge, stay away.
Oren says
Show me some where consistent and recent, doesn’t exist
Eric says
Wow what a FLUFF piece…
Nothing hard hitting or indepth in this belly button fluff piece.
Managing Directors of companies would and should be challenged about a potential conflict of interest for ‘listing their own considerable portfolios on their companies market place. An insightful Managing Directors would release it is a conflict of interest and reflects poorly on themselves and calls into question their companies good corporate governance. They would also realise it would be seen to be a slap in the face and provoke raised eyebrows from their customers.
As Managing Director I am sure Michael is overseeing the Sales Team and Sale Process is he not? I’m sure his staff would feel conflicted sometimes dealing with his own private portfolio. Hmmm pretty feeble rational if you ask me.
X says
Why would he not sell his domains on BB? He stated he gets no preference.
Oh and what is your domaining resume ?
Ryan says
Don’t believe everything you hear, just like Adam is going to make you a million dollar business on UsedNickelPlatedDoorKnobs.biz, take everyone in this industry with skepticism.
I MEAN EVERYTHING!
X says
Yeah I don’t take that same skepticism all the chickenLittles and people who have never done anything in this business criticizing people Who have. I just ignore ignore the haters ignore the whiners, Michael is a better human being than any whiner here.
Eric says
Because, it is an issue of perception from his customer base. It has already been raised by a number of his customers. Wake Up!
Do you not understand or think that it would be called into question? It does not matter if he is getting preferential treatment or not. Its the perception of his customers that counts and matters. Its not about you drooling over his or your own loooong domaining resume.
X says
Perception of what ? that a few whiny cry babies who are part time domainers don’t like that MichaelKrell sells domains and also works for brand bucket ? I would be willing to bet that’s not affecting his life in anyway. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t care what people on namepros think about him selling domainnames and also working for brand bucket.
Eric says
Perception of his customer base and potential customers. Those whiny cry babies you mention are his and BB customers.
To his credit Michael clearly does care what his customers think, about him and their perception of BB, hence this article. I sure he is concerned because its bad for business and bad for him.
I think you are very wrong and quite foolish to suggest that Michael does not care about what his customers say, think and their perceptions.
Many of those people you belittle on Namepros, those cry baby, small part- time domainers are his bread and butter customers and his potential customer base.
You make yourself look foolish and pompous by suggesting people who are part-time or small time domainers are not worthy of comment or opinion. I don’t know of and have never heard of anyone that did not start off as a beginner, small or part-time domainer.
K.J.Haroon Basha says
Thank you very much for this useful interview. At least we came to know something about Brandbucket. Their plan to issue monthly report is encouraging. It will really help us to send more brandable names to their marketplace.
Get A Job says
Michael Krell is one of the best people in domaining. Top 5 brandable guy in the business. Why don’t the whiners create their own site and kick Brand bucket’s ass ?
I think I know the answer.
Jordan says
Just a tip, if you see one of Micheal Krells domains listed on sale at Godaddy for a ressonable price DON’T go to the Brandbucket landing page, he ups the price straight away. He’s done it to me a few times and did it again recently with Etherly.com
Rizki says
As stated above, BB requires exclusivity. I am sure the one who listed it on GD is the previous owner, not Michael.
Jordan says
No, I checked on Whoisology and he’s had it a while plus I have emailed him last year about a domain and he acknowledged it was listed on Godaddy
chris says
Sorry OP. I enjoyed the comments more than the interview itself.
It would seem Michael is strategically doing a FLUFF interview in light of the recent controversy on the BrandBucket experience reviews on NamePros detailing issues logo quality, and listing fee’s among other unanswered issues.
They say listing fee’s pay go towards marketing efforts among other things. My problem with this is why take the greedy approach to it. I say greedy because I don’t think BrandBucket actually received $200,000 in listing fee’s over the 20,000 domains published to their marketplace in the last 18 months. I ASSUME certain sellers were granted free listing fee’s. If my calculations are correct, Michael has sold over 20 domains this year. Does he pay $10 listing fee’s to keep him accountable like the rest of us?
Thank you TLDInvestors for trying. I came here expecting to see Michael Krell answer some tough questions. I was sadly disappointed.
Bart says
Michael keep doing what you are doing, it is too bad the author doesn’t make people use their real name, these complainers are probably your competition.
BB kicks everyone’s ass in this niche. Bets that Krell has sold more domains than all the negative commenters combined ?
Chris says
Hey Bart,
I was thinking the same thing about poster, Get A Job. It sounds like they are related to the company, if not just another BrandBucket cheerleader fearing the hype is fading.
Yes, Michael Krell has sold more domains than the negative commenters combined. He has sold more domains on BrandBucket than anybody else.
You talk about competition, as a former BrandBucket seller, Michael was my biggest competitor for selling domains on BrandBucket. It’s not fair if your competitor is also the director.
Chris
Dodo-dodo says
Lol…Are you in anyway proposing that Michael should stop selling names on BB because he is the MD?
Chris says
Michael has obviously invested too much time and money to leave BrandBucket all together. I’m simply proposing BrandBucket values their other sellers as they do their managing director.
At the current growth rate, BrandBucket will have 100,000 domains. 100,000 published domains = $1,000,000 in listing fee’s. Why should some pay for listing fee’s while others don’t?
BrandBucket got to where they are today by practicing superior customer care despite MK being a seller and managing director. If they adapt, and improvise, I have no doubt they can overcome. This would require them owning up to their past mistakes, and reverting back to the excellent customer care they once provided.
Sam says
Who said life was fair? Grow up. You are one of over 800 sellers on BrandBucket. Do really think that more than 1% of them give a rat’s ass about your whining? If you don’t like BrandBucket then move on. You and Michael Radar are cut from the same cloth. A couple of drama queens. You guys should do business together. I give your two three months before your fighting with each other on NamePros over logos and money.
Chris says
Hi Sam,
I am fully aware of the issues BrandRoot has been and is currently associated with. Michael Radar has shown a willingness to listen to their sellers. I met him at NamesCon, and found him to be a smart technical individual. If BrandRoot is willing to show an empathetic concern to my now wasted BrandBucket listing fee’s by offering free listing fee’s to their marketplace which is currently selling at over a 6% annualized rate? I will accept his offer with open arms.
I will not be putting all my eggs in one basket that charges listing fee’s and 30% commission fee’s, period. I’m any promoting marketplaces who show a willingness work with their sellers. I didn’t like how BrandBucket was seemingly creating a monopoly on the marketplace, and as such, felt their sellers concerns could be swept under a rug.
A notion has been developed that a Brandable isn’t valuable if it’s not a “BrandBucket” domains. BrandBucket rejects were selling less than reg fee’s on the reseller market and resold at $X,XXX on other marketplaces. Brandable domains are extremely subjective. If BrandBucket won’t list your domain, there are other places who will.
BrandDo.com offers $0 listing fee’s + 12% commission. Right now, this is the industry standard of a “sellers” marketplace. I am in no way affiliated with the company, I am a new seller who found them ranking high on google for keywords “Brandable Domains”
Chris says
Hey Sam,
You called it. It took less than a month before Michael Rader, and I were going at it on NamePros.
In my last response, I mentioned I felt my BrandBucket listing fee’s were now wasted. It was later explained to me that the only thing making these listing fee’s a “wasted” was my decision to remove them from BrandBucket. Simply put, they are lifetime listing fee’s. Should I chose to return to BrandBucket at a later date, these listing fee’s will once again retain value.
I say this because I recently learned that BrandRoot has deleted several accounts in the past due to their strict exclusivity rules. What happens to my BrandRoot listing fee’s if they delete my account because a domain owner before me had listed my domain on another marketplace without my knowledge? Will I be banned from their marketplace? BrandBucket sends you warning emails, and if not corrected, they will unpublish your listing.
I don’t want to waste anymore time or money trying out other exclusive marketplace’s. I appreciate BrandBucket’s professionalism, and hope in time they will adapt to some better practices. This is not to say all their practices are bad. For instance, It’s comforting to know they will not ban me from their maketplace, and my listing fee’s are never truly wasted. Despite the fact I’ve been very vocal about the policies I disagree with.
Once I leave BrandBucket later this month, I’ll be moving my domains to nonexlcusive marketplaces such as Sedo, Afternic, Flippa, and Namerific. If anybody has found success in any other nonexclusive marketplaces, please comment below. I’d appreciate the suggestion.
Douglas says
Nice and honest interview, good to see. I do caution with using domain tld’s like .ly and .io that in a search engines eyes, you are offering services pertinent to that country, which is stated in the geo-targeting guide.
.Com remains the most powerful platform for a brand to exist on the web on a global presence. Other gtlds can be useful for more niche uses, such as internal and focused promotions which I have discussed before.
Great read, thanks.
chris says
Hi Douglas,
You bring up an interesting point with BrandBucket selling new tlds like .IO, .LY, and .ME.
I recently learned that BrandBucket doesn’t allow you to search their site for these .TLDs. When you search .ly, or any other gTLD, the returned domains are all .coms.
I posted a advanced search hack that enables you to search their inventory of new gTLDs on Google. See my NamePros post for details:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/brandbucket-experience.793278/page-215#post-5419766
In my post, I mentioned 8/10 mentioned domains were owned by Michael Krell. At a later look, I noticed the search results resembling 8/10 MK domains were not solely because of the .ly search. It was because they were the last domains to be published (recently added)
It’s not the first times I’ve noticed Michael’s domains featured in the recently published section of BrandBucket over the weekends. Most commonly, I have noticed long weekends, such as this past Easter weekend, Michael strategically owns a disproportionate amount of domains featured on the home page.
The growth of the market place enables him to continue making sales. Heck, he’s had over 20 sales this year alone. As the BrandBuckets inventory continues to grow, so will his, yet he will leverage the system to ensure his sales don’t drop. If he is continued to be held unaccountable for his actions, I fear Michael’s involvement will be the downfall of the original marketplace.
Thank you everyone for a healthy discussion. If you disagree, please share facts. I’m happy to debate, and admit my wrongs when evidence is brought forth.
Douglas says
Thanks for the link and reply.
I think at some stage BB might have to make a choice for Michael to be a Director \ Manager OR a Seller.
I wish him all the best, he seems like an honest guy, but the choice may have to be made soon as the inventory keeps growing.
jill says
Nothing wrong with .io, Douglas….
Douglas says
Nothing wrong with it per-say, but it is a cctld.
Tommy says
Probably one of THE best, well-written, information-packed, industry-shattering, blog-disrupting pieces I have ever read in my entire professional life. This article should wake up the domain industry, nay, THE WORLD!
Michael Krell says
Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview, Raymond!
As I stated in the interview my names do not receive preferential treatment in the marketplace. If you don’t believe me, there is nothing more I can say. My sell rate has always been one of the best from the time that I joined BB as a small seller up to this point as Managing Director . I’m not going to apologize for the time and effort that I have put in to get to where I am today.
I am always more than willing to give advice and guidance to domainers in their quest to improve their acquisition strategy. There is plenty of room to make money in this industry and improving your investment is the number one way to make that happen.
DomainPizza says
I would think that the quality and pricing of the names figures in more than who actually is the seller. Maybe M. Krell gets better logos? While the %30 does seem to be a family-sized bite, if the name resonates with a prospective end user, finding and buying it at a prominent high end marketplace may outweigh price. A seller with a quality name who wants 15K for their name just lists it for 21.5K and hopes the site’s reputation brings the right buyer.