In 2013 we saw the rise of the “Brandable Boutique” sites like Brand Bucket had been around for years but as far as their popularity taking off, that started in 2013. Two of the more prolific sellers at Brand Bucket were Zane Gocha who started Namerific and Michael Rader who started Brand Root.
Last week a poster on Namepros started a thread about a recent email he got from Brand Root, who just opened their platform to other sellers in March.
The email said:
“If you’re interested in listing free with us, respond to this message for your personal coupon key, which you must use when you are on the edit domain details page (before you verify the name.)
Additionally, if you are interested in moving your names from BrandBucket to Brandroot, we offer great incentives to do so, including double the free listings, lower commission paid to us for the names you move over, and featured listings on a select few. If this interests you, please respond with the list of names you would move over and we will get back to you with what we can offer you and the names we would like to take to our site.
We have had a couple of individuals who have taken this opportunity and even sold a couple that were moved over within a month of being on our site. If you’re not getting the expected results from your brandables at BrandBucket, give Brandroot an honest try. You most likely won’t regret it.
Keep in mind that BrandBucket requires a 30 days notice for any names moved from their site.”
The thread became a very active thread with over 50 replies. The replies run the gamut from those who don’t understand the current “brandable” craze, to those who believe the brandable boutiques are going nowhere and that it is a very intersting niche within domaining.
Michael Rader from Brand Root posted:
I can’t speak for BB but we incur immediate costs per name that we accept at Brandroot. Not only do we pay our logo designers $3 per logo design that is accepted (in addition to releasing the logo award when it sells) but we also pay our writers to define names. Not to mention the time it takes to get the name finally published. These sites are not like Sedo, they are not a quick auto-listing, done just by the lister. It takes man power to get the names defined, designed, organized and listed.
As for our traffic, we receive about 5k unique visitors per day (all organic) and rank higher than BrandBucket and Namerific for almost all keywords that we target. We introduced this offer because we’re confident your names will see more people than at our competitors. Our traffic has never stopped growing and our business plan has never stopped improving. We also received a huge influx of names after this offer was sent out. Thank you for your patience as we get your names accepted and designed!
So far this year we’ve released over $30,000 to domainers, but I’m sure BrandBucket’s number is much higher, given that their site has over three times the domains as ours and have been around much longer. I would recommend giving Brandroot a try with other names of yours and which ever site makes you the most money, go all in at that marketplace. We want Brandroot to speak for itself. If we’re not producing, tell us to take a hike.
I think Rader is on to something with the $3 logo fee and getting them created fast. The biggest thing I have seen holding back the brandable boutiques is the logo creation process. I have written about it before and have had a lot of conversations with those in the space that a logo cannot hold up your business model.
Namerific offers an option to pay $25 for an expedited logo completed within 48 hours. The problem is a lot of people are not going to or feel they should have to pay this price.
One commenter, Disco Bull replied to Michael Rader,” I’ve just listed a few domains with you and I have to admit the logos your people created were head and shoulders above the competition ( especially compared to some of the horrible stuff BB has created for me. ).”
So it seems to me that Brand Root may be making some inroads vs the two players ahead of them in this niche. If you can get logos done fast and they are decent you are going to take business and that makes a difference when Brand Bucket and Brand Root require exclusivity. You cannot list one name at all three places, and with some people commenting that they are still waiting 4 months for their name to be uploaded on Brand Bucket or Namerific, Brand Root can start taking a decent piece of the pie if they can maintain their effectiveness in getting logos done and names live on their site.
Disclosure: I have an account open with Brand Bucket but no names listed, no account at Namerific or Brand Root.
This is a juicy story, me likey seeing an upstart go after the established leader. I like your analysis Raymond on the logo issue, you cannot charge people $10 to list on your site and then make them wait. That is not a good business plan.
Yeah it is tough to have the designer stall the upload, you can’t make people wait.
The name is a brand or it isn’t.
A $3 logo is worth Sweet FA ..well $3 if you want to be generous.
I agree with that, but they all seem to feel a logo is needed to close a sale. Personally that depends on the sales method, I just brokered 4 for $8,000 a package deal, there were no logos, I had a seller client give me a list and I presented to a customer of mine.
The logo is there to make tbe name get noticed. If Brandbucket had 1000 names in plain black text not sure how many would sell.
Everyone running these sites has said to me the logo is an integral part of the presentation, even if the buyer does not use the logo.
I agree, any form of good graphical representation could lead to a gateway sale.
Our new forthcoming company DigiLogo . com will have a similar theme.
Brandroot are cleaning up in organic search – ranking for some really good terms and getting tonnes of free traffic.
But if you look at how they’ve achieved this you start to see a serious penalty waiting to happen. Use your backlink tool of choice – you’ll find plenty of spam and obviously paid links. Penalty is when not if IMO. Ride the wave until it happens though!
Thanks for the info Dominic.
The greater the competition, the better.
Although, somehow I can’t see the start-ups knocking on the brandables stores doors – it’s easy enough to come up with domain names that fit exactly your ideas…
They do come to them, Brand Bucket sold over $1Million in 2013, not everyone takes the time like we do, their time may be better spent and they just look for something they like. I do understand what you mean that they could spend the time and think of something but sometimes the brandable holder gets lucky, the start up thinks of their perfect name and its regged, so they come to the brandable boutique.
Thank you for the comment.
Nice to see BrandRoot are well in the 21st Century with their link to ‘Clients’ rather than the dehumanising, vulgar and out dated ‘End User’ term for companies that have bought domains from their portfolio.
po.st/endit
Nice to see the competition is heating up, there are a few new ‘brandable market places’ out there now.. The more competition the better the choice for the end users in my opinion.. Prices are still really high at the moment i predict prices will come down on these brandables as competition gets more aggressive.