Migration is not a great word to use when forcing the end of life of a service that was useful to many.
In the literal sense, migration reeks of physical violence and war turmoil, of broken families and refugees. A migration is typically done not by choice.
GoDaddy migrated our Uniregistry account to their own system 18 months ago.
In the months since these domains were moved away from GoDaddy; it wasn’t a migration, it was an exodus—a voluntary, organized exit which was necessary.
As of October 16th, Dan.com won’t exist as we known it. I heard that some Dan.com accounts are already witnessing some type of forced redirect to Afternic pages. The time for the new exodus is now.
You can download your data from Dan.com by going here. By far, the most useful of all are the transactional data and all invoices. You will probably need these for your tax returns. Exporting your Dan.com domains will also give you access to your portfolio’s custom descriptions, should you want to reuse them.
In typical GoDaddy fashion, there is no way to export leads. GoDaddy wants you to cut the cord with your previous use of the platform, in case your choice was to not migrate them to Afternic.
As a final farewell to the Dan.com platform I chose a different path, reaching out to all the leads that did not result in sales. I sent them a note informing them of the transition and the continuity of the domain’s ownership. Assuming that the platform still allows such communications, you can still have a say in what your own leads can be used for.
Here’s a quick draft of a message that you can copy/paste into any lead that took place:
I hope you’re doing well! I wanted to reach out and give you an exclusive opportunity to revisit your interest in this domain name, as it will soon be transitioning to a new project. While the domain will still remain within our corporate portfolio, this is a final chance to make a competitive offer before it moves to a different venture.
If you’re still interested, I’d love to hear back from you! Please feel free to get in touch with any improved offers by October 10th.
That’s it. No need to customize the domain or the recipient’s name, it’s all part of the continuity of a conversation that might have ended a long time ago. By following up in this manner, you are making it clear: It’s still my domain no matter what the next lander will look like and I expect you to make a better offer.
Of course, you can add your contact info, such as email or phone number. Keep in mind that Dan.com, not just GoDaddy, might be filtering these out.
Best of luck—see you on the other side of the fence.
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