Mike Navarini talks brandable domains and his marketplace

An interview with Mike Navarini Namerific.com

Mike gives us some insight into why Namerific is better than their competitors and tells us the top sale so far on Namerific for 2016.

1) How long have you been buying and selling brandable names and how did you get involved with Namerific ?

I bought my first domain as a teenager, and have been collecting them ever since.  I met my co-founder, Zane Gocha while on a vacation in Hawaii and he showed me how I could make money buying/selling domains, and thats when my interest in domains peaked.

2) How has Namerific changed since Zane Gocha left?

We’ve added a new partner to our business, Yancy Naughton of HasTraffic.com. Yancy has brought his wealth of domain knowledge and extensive domain industry connections to our business.  As for the site itself, we have been making development and design changes.  If you’ve noticed, we’ve completely re-designed our site and logo/color scheme. We have several new modules we will be rolling out in the coming months as well.

3) You don’t require exclusivity at Namerific, Margot from BrandBucket told me years ago that exclusivity was a must. Why don’t you require it ?

Yes, perhaps a “must” to make more money. We care more about our domain sellers than our pocketbook. Giving domain sellers the ability to list in multiple sources increases their chances of selling their domains.

4) How is Namerific better than BrandBucket and BrandRoot ?

We offer our buyers a smaller list of higher quality names, which leads to a better shopping experience.

5) Do you spend money on marketing Namerific and client domains ?

We have a large advertising budget for SEO, search, and display traffic and we re-invest a large portion of sales revenues to advertising. We also attend many domain conferences to attract the best domains possible.

6) In your opinion what are the best kind of brandables to focus on for a newcomer ?

Short, 3-4L .com’s are your safest bet when it comes to being able to liquidate a domain, and in my opinion those are the best places to be. However, if you don’t have a budget to work with, focus on finding some gems for hand-reg price.

7) Most domain owners believe 30% commission is outrageous, it is why many don’t even consider brandable marketplaces. So how do you justify 30% ?

For our lower priced domains, the commission is 30% and that covers the cost of hiring our designers, writers, developers, and advertising.  For higher priced domains, the commission is as low as 10%. For a domain seller, all you need to do is figure out what price you want in pocket and we’ll price accordingly for our non-domain industry buyers at retail prices. Yes, you may pay a smaller commission on sales at other sites, but you’d likely be selling to other domain wholesalers and bargain-hunters that want rock bottom prices.

8) Do you sell company owned domains on Namerific and do they get special placement or treatment ?

Yes, we own a large portfolio of names and we feature the best inventory at the top of our site in “featured” and “premium” sections. We also feature, for free, all of the top domains listed on our site, regardless of who owns them. For less premium names, our sellers can pay a monthly fee to have them show in the “featured” section.

9) How do you handle logos ? How much does the domain owner pay for a logo and can they submit their own ?

Many domain sellers pay nothing upfront to get their domain live, they simply pay a $100 commission (or more, depends what they chose when they listed) to the logo designer when the domain does sell. Others that have domains that do not pass our initial review are welcome to pay $8 to cover the initial design fee. For domain sellers that have bulk listings, we charge $5 in some cases.

10) If a member does not like the pricing Namerific suggests can they persuade you to raise it ?

Yes, all of our prices are flexible and we can adjust based on input from sellers.

11) Any thoughts about releasing sales numbers on a quarterly basis ? Do you have any you can post right here ?

We recently sold Soni.com several weeks ago for nearly $30,000.  To protect our buyers, we can’t release all sales info, but we do on a case by case basis.

12) Will you stop accepting submissions at a certain number ?

No, we accept all submissions!