By Peter Askew | November 5, 2007 - 11:45 am - Posted in Domaining
Since a majority of auctioning domain activity has shifted to NameJet, I thought I’d give my 2 cents on this new service.
The Good:
- On average, a lower entry fee than Snapnames. Namejet charges $70, versus $99 at Snap. Snap does auction a few domains at $59, but it’s a rare occurence.
- Alerts users of cut-off time for pre-release domains headed for auction (8PM). Snap never provided this (although we eventually figured out the cut off was roughly 3pm).
- And on that point, Namejet allows users up to 8pm to order pre-release domains. Snap’s cut-off time was, like I said, around 3pm. Those extra hours help, cause if you’re working another full-time gig, it can be tough to get all your prospects uploaded in the middle of the day.
- NameJet reveals how many users have pre-ordered a domain prior to auction - a feature I find extremely valuable.
- Namejet also reveals the high bid during the pre-order period.
- Features a ‘Quick Backorder’ function, where users can add an auctioning domain to their pre-release list with one click. Very handy.
- Domain registration price is included in purchase price. GoDaddy’s TDNAM nickel-and-dimes you by requiring an extra $10 reg fee on top of the winning auction bid.
The Bad:
- Namejet blocks the names of competing bidders, a feature I loved within Snapnames. It’s more fun when you can see your competition.
- For auctions that exceed $5,000, NameJet requires full payment via wire transfer. That sucks, cause I track business expenses on my credit card. Also, I want the miles!
- This is temporary, but … The systems is riddled with bugs. Anyone actively using the app is having to sift through mountains of error messages. I have yet to win a domain yet, so I can’t speak to the domain transfer process yet.
- Doesn’t provide traffic estimates for each domain. TDNAM provides this, and I find it darn helpful.
Ya’ll experienced anything else?
This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 11:45 am and is filed under Domaining. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thanks for the breakdown of pros and cons Peter. Seems like a good system, although the required wire transfers over $5,000 could be a problem imo. I agree with you on preferring to to track business expenses on my credit card.
I just read DomainerPro.com comments and quick review on NameJet and I would like to share it here too.
Pros:
*I like the fact that on their home page they feature some of the premium pre-release and deleting domains, and some of the auctions that are closing soon. At this moment in the Pre-Release box I see loansdirect.com, freshwater.com and paycenter.com, all of which are great names. I’m curious to see what sort of bids they will fetch.
*I can add domains to a “Watch List” without actually bidding on them (though I don’t see any way to remove them).
*There are 81 dot com names at auction right now and most have received few or no bids, perhaps because NameJet is not well known yet. This might be a good opportunity to get some expiring domains at good prices.
Cons:
*The site is still buggy. I tried three times to back order a Pending Delete name and got the message “No data returned.” Some other functions are buggy as well.
*Premium domains have higher starting bids. I notice that the minimum bids for loansdirect.com and freshwater.com are $1,000.
*Minimum bid for backorders is $70 - that’s $10 more than Snapnames.
*Because most of these names are dropping from Network Solutions, if you win an auction your domain goes into a Network Solutions account; they offer great service and features, but they are one of the more expensive registrars, charging $30 a year for a .com registration.
*The domains at auction right now are mostly gambling names.
Nice piece Peter I put it a link to it on http://www.dnsalesblog.com. Is it true some domains have a minumum starting bid of $1000 ?
Thank you
some domains have a minimum bid of $1K cause they’ve been bid up from $70 during the pre-release period..
-peter
NamJet doesn’t have Paypal, snap has it. I sent in a request a few weeks ago and they have not yet implemented it.
“some domains have a minimum bid of $1K cause they’ve been bid up from $70 during the pre-release period..”
Right, I realize that now. I have won a few domains through NameJet now and I find the management process to be fairly simple. So that’s another plus.