Innovation Coming to Domain Sales: Survey

Firms provide innovative twists on domain selling.

Which firm is most innovative when it comes to selling domain names in the aftermarket?

The results show a handful of newer firms are innovating in the selling process — and attracting attention from domainers.

The top response in this year’s Reglike survey (by a long shot) this year was Sedo. Following that are three firms, two of which are smaller upstarts: Rick Latona and Bido.

Rick Latona is perhaps most known for his daily domain sales newsletter, the first “major” sales newsletter in the industry. He also runs an auction arm, Latonas.com, that is the exclusive live auctioneer at TRAFFIC conferences. Latona has a licensing agreement to run TRAFFIC conferences, and just held the first one under the fresh licensing agreement last month in Las Vegas.

Bido is also making waves with innovative auction techniques. It is bringing crowdsourcing to picking the best domain names for auction — and rewarding its clients when they pick domains that sell. It is also adding social aspects to auctions.

GoDaddy makes the list as well, thanks in part to a number of fresh initiatives to help domain owners sell domains to retail clients. It allows domainers to sell their domain names when someone searches for the exact domain they are selling, and also provides data on the popularity of domain names registered at GoDaddy. The firm has a fresh VP of Aftermarket, Chris Kennedy, who will take a fresh look at the platform this year.

Rounding out the list is NameMedia, which sells domains through BuyDomains, Afternic, and syndication deals with top registrars.

Here are the top 5 results:

1. Sedo/GreatDomains 26%
2. Rick Latona 16%
3. Bido 15%
3. GoDaddy 15%
5. NameMedia 13%