When the value proposition changes you need to reassess

Things change in the domain business all the time, from certain naming categories that go out of favor, to the new hot extension flavor of the month.

Registrars and marketplaces change both in terms of policy and in popularity.

As a domain investor you have to constantly assess if you are getting what you signed up for ? More importantly do you know what you actually signed up for ?

Over the years I have realized most domain investors don’t know what they are agreeing to when they open a basic registrar account. Only after an incident where a domain is removed in the first 30 days does someone realize that’s in the TOS of every domain registrar.

One marketplace that has certainly grown in size over the years is BrandBucket. As BrandBucket’s popularity has grown the value proposition has changed for some sellers on the platform.

There used to be a much smaller selection of names on the website, the difficulty rating of getting names listed was rather high. Some perks have gone away such as getting free credits for voting.

Another change, which did not come directly from BrandBucket but had their approval, was the wholesale BrandBucket market that developed on Namepros.

BrandBucket has also added some things over the last year, Keith Deboer pointed out on Namepros:

Over the past year, BB has made the following changes and improvements, based on Seller feedback:

1. Portfolio inventory, status and sales metrics added to the seller dashboard
2. Portfolio search added to dashboard
3. Mass NS validation added to dashboard
4. Ability to convert sale income to publishing credits added to dashboard
5. Automated re-submission of rejected names after 9 months added to dashboard
6. Guaranteed review of domain submissions in 72hrs or less!
7. As little as 5 days from the time of submission to the time of publication!!!
8. Improved quality and consistency of logos
9. Private Slack channel with dedicated threads for discussion of names and sales
10. An independent name review board that does not include Michael and Margot
11. Ambassadors, Michael and Margot required to use the same submission and review procedures as all other sellers.
12. Enhanced search algorithms on the website so that invented names come up better in keyword searches
13. Podcasts that review and explain rejected names

Now the fact that Michael Krell and Margot do not read (per Keith’s comment) the BrandBucket experience thread on Namepros and rather will only respond on the Slack channel seems like living in an echo chamber.

Only members in good standing have their thoughts read ? Seems a bit odd to ignore what people are saying about you, I will say this, just my own personal belief, no proof, they either read the thread or have someone like another BB fan relay certain posts to them. By saying you don’t read something clears the way for no response.

But I will say this, it’s a marketplace that started out differently than the bigger sites like Sedo or Afternic. The initial seeding of names came from the founder and then a couple of their biggest sellers who have become affiliated with or actually work for the company.

There has been quite a spirited debate over the last few days on Namepros, some members irate over search placement by keyword.

Now to be fair Michael Krell now owns over 6700 domains on the platform. He is going to show up a lot on the first few pages of search. Now is it proportionate or disproportionate ? I have not personally verified, some feel Michael has too many names on the first page of a given keyword search, other feel it makes sense.

The value proposition has changed for most BrandBucket members who joined back in 2013 – 2014, so each member has to reassess whether or not they should continue to list. Newer members should read before they jump in, they can’t complain as much about the changes because they didn’t sign up for one thing and then watch it change.

Every business goes through changes, sometimes the customer benefits and other times the customers feels pinched by cost saving measures or opening a platform to a wider audience. You need to review your business at least once every few months and decide if you are good where you are or if you should think about making changes.