Hello everyone,
This may be good news to some and not so good to others. But since I’m using Afternic landers and already happy with their overall services, I’m happy to see this news for my portfolio because I’ll be paying less commission going forward. Below is the news from GoDaddy I wanted to share it with you all:
“In recent years, the GoDaddy aftermarket expanded beyond GoDaddy Auctions and Afternic. The 2020 acquisition of Uniregistry and the 2022 acquisition of Dan added products and features domain investors love to GoDaddy’s aftermarket.
Scores of talented developers, engineers and brokers from these marketplaces joined the GoDaddy team to provide a world-class aftermarket experience and bring the best of each marketplace together for domain investors and our partners.
These four marketplaces produce thousands of domain name sales every week, but each one operated under a different commission structure, with fees varying anywhere from 9% to 20%.
To simplify commissions, effective Feb. 1, 2023, each marketplace is moving to a 15% commission rate for domain names pointed to Afternic, Dan, or Uniregistry nameservers at the time of the sale. If your domain name does not point to Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry nameservers, the commission charged will be 25%.
Importantly, the 15% commission rate for domain names pointing to Afternic, Dan or Uniregistry aftermarket nameservers includes domain sales closed through for-sale landers and sales facilitated through the domain reseller network. The domain reseller network includes 18 of the top 20 domain registrars. This equates to an ~5% decrease in commission versus the average sale using the prior model.
When we dig into what this means for domain investors in real terms, it suggests that many domainers will benefit.
Recently, we analyzed 38 random, publicly disclosed domain sales that occurred via Afternic. The sales prices varied from $188 up to $40,000.
We found that 95% of sales in this random sample would receive slightly higher net proceeds from their domain sales if closed via an Afternic for sale lander, compared with Afternic’s previous commission structure.
When deciding on this model, teams reviewed how domain investors using a blend of marketplaces may fare under the new commission structure using Afternic and Dan, an example of which is detailed below.
The old plan

The new plan

With Uniregistry and Dan joining GoDaddy, the simplification of the commission structure was a logical move, but one that wasn’t taken lightly. Months of discussions led to the new model that will benefit most investors using a blend of GoDaddy-owned marketplaces.
For a list of approved nameservers, and to learn more about the benefits of pointing your domain names to Afternic’s nameservers, please visit the Sales Acceleration page.”
For someone using Dan, I’m sure that’s a pretty bad news. But someone using Afternic, it’s a good news.
Also in the above “The old plan” screenshot, it shows 20% commission on the sale of $60,000 via Afternic which I believe is incorrect. Suppose a sale happens of $60,000 so the seller pays 12.5% (https://www.afternic.com/sell-domains) but from 1st Feb, for the same amount of sale, the commission will be 15%.
The new commission structure is good for small amount of sales using their landers as one will be paying 15% but for big amount of sales, the new commission structure is bad.
So how do you see this new changes for your portfolio? Did you like it or not? Let your voice be heard.
For anyone using their own landers, and also listing on Godaddy/Afternic/Dan, this change is exceptionally costly if you’re unwilling to use their landers. This will I’m pretty sure mark the last song for Dan. They offer nothing now to customers, and only their tech retains value (to GoDaddy). I’ll be removing all BIN from the GD network, and include mentions of why in all descriptions published on Dan. I’ll continue to import my own leads for as long as they retain the 5% structure (although I expect this to get killed – not exactly clear why they retained it, but… Read more »
Thanks Richard for your feedback.
I totally agree that it’s very costly for someone selling a domain through them and not using their landers because 25% is too high.
You may also use DaaZ to import your own leads for 5% and I highly recommend them as I’ve used their external escrow services several times now.
Thank you Abdul. DaaZ Bin landers cost just 5% only, so there is no need to import leads. Just list the names at BIN and market to check-out. DaaZ supports 22 different payment options for buyers.
Thanks for sharing this. That’s something new for me to learn and good to know. Will keep it in mind for future reference.
Thank you.
[…] Source : AbdulBasit.com – Domain Investing | Domain Sales | Domain Tips | Domain Consulting | Read More […]
Thanks for the feedback, AbdulBasit – it’s truly appreciated.
Thanks for your feedback James 🙂
What about parking domains, for example, if you have 3000 domains and using parking NS and you listed them in Afternic?
So, GoDaddy will charge you 25% commission, lol, it is nonsense?!
If you’re using any of the Afternic/Uniregistry/Dan landers whether it’s of PPC, BIN, contact form or any, the commission will be 15% and if not using their landers and a sale happens via their platform, then you’ll have to pay a punishment commission of extra 10% on top of 15% 😉
Hello Abdul, how are you doing? I hope you are doing well. This change will ‘encourage’ domain sellers to move their landers to Godaddy/Afternic/Dan, because if you do not move then you will be a bigger % pay out due to this change. I think Godaddy/Afternic/Dan have done this to encourage some domainers to start to use ‘their’ landers. In the same way that foodstores/supermarkets/clothes stores use marketing tactics to get buyers into ‘their’ shop doors, compared to their competition. Abdul, you will be able to adapt to this change, if you need to as you have the knowledge and… Read more »
Always great to hear from you Matt 🙂
I’m doing better since I moved to a better place now 😉
Yeah, they’ve indirectly sent the message to the sellers to move to their landers or pay the penalty fee of 25% 😀
Thanks for commenting, your valuable time and feedback which is always appreciated.
Best wishes!
Why did you not go with dan.com instead of Afternic?
I notice on dan.com lander there is a BIN price together with Make Offer field.
Whereas afternic lander only has “Get a price in less than 24 hours”
Surely dan.com is better as it allows inquirer to make offer knowing what BIN price is?
I’ve some reservations using Dan which I’ve shared it in the past – https://www.abdulbasit.com/domaining/my-first-and-last-experience-with-dan-com-as-seller
I believe BIN + Make Offer is not a good option. The best is BIN + LTO.
You are saying best from your experience is: BIN+LTO option, right?
Not [BIN+LTO+Make offer] option?
Is this BIN+LTO option available on Afternic?
Am on Afternic platform but can’t see option.
However I see option on Dan
BTW I also found Afternic takes ages for domain to be live with sales page as domain is “In review” for over 24 hrs whereas with Dan is instant
If you have your own landers, why need Afternic/Dan/Uniregistry?
Surely you can negotiate directly with inquirer & can go thru escrow.com once price is agreed?
I’ve tried that for more than half of my time in this business and after very carefully considering, I started using AN ns3/ns4 landers in Jan 2020. I can see they’re turning more sales so paying them commission justifies it.
Does it mean that it’s time to forget Dan? Especially when Afternic released beta version for domain management, similar to Dan interface.
Dan has still an edge of two things:
Quick payouts and Lease to Own option.