All good things must come to an end.
After a full 8 years, I’ve terminated my use of Sedo as a listing venue for my domains, including for PPC parking.
The reasons that led me to this decision were primarily the following:
- Sedo’s decision to enforce the use of SedoMLS partnership with GoDaddy, leading to an onslaught of lowball offers with zero communication with the buyer. Sedo refused to remove these domains from GoDaddy, citing that I’m bound to terms (that did not exist) when I signed up with Sedo, in 2004.
- Sedo increased their sales fees to non-competitive levels, thus losing the advantage they held for years.
- The PPC earnings reached record lows, another disadvantage against emerging services.
So currently, I’m using Frank Schilling’s Internet Traffic outfit, with great results as far as PPC earnings are concerned. The number of sales inquiries has also quadrupled; in the past, I wrote about how Sedo’s “for sale” link is not visible enough.
I would consider using Sedo’s services in the future, if the following points changed:
- Ability to opt out of SedoMLS or other such thin client programs. I want to be able to control where I list my domains, instead of peddling them on every registrar’s own niche market.
- Adoption of clarity and transparency regarding PPC revenue. I want to be able to see what the ad provider (Google etc.) pays per click and what percentage I get to keep.
- Dropping of commission rates for sales to a maximum 10% across the board. There is plenty of capable competition out there and while Sedo has more or less streamlined the process, there is plenty more to improve.
Incidentally, by removing my domain portfolio from Sedo, not all of the domains were removed from GoDaddy’s TDNAM. In that sense, Sedo has created additional work for me and potential time-consuming actions to take against GoDaddy – should they refuse to comply.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I am considering dropping 4000 domains from sedo as we speak.
I have been with IT over a year now, but with the godaddy mls, my offers on it have dropped a bit, and my $60 sedo specials have skyrocketed. This is not good, I have no idea who the seller is, I have no way of followng up with the seller if I change my mind of pricing down the road. I have to pay huge commissions.
This is so wrong in everyway, I thought sedo would fix this, but they are desperate as all these portfolios have jumped to IT now.
I am losing end users if you don’t accept their $60 offer, they are confused with the process, and lack of communication, and run away.
You really had no choice, and I don’t think I do either, so long sedo…
Theo I am doing the same thing. Already removed 3k domains from sedo and will remove another 3k domains today.
Maybe the domains you still find at Go Daddy are coming from Afternic. (if you have domains listed there)
I don’t mind afternic, if they have a serious end user, they get on the phone, give you a call, and let you know what you are working with. Instead of a automated system that promises you $10. As well when you lead end users to sedo, you are leading them to a kingdom of fixed price cheap garbage, something Frank touched on last week. An unsophisticated end user maybe swayed by a cheap domain, rather than something that can help increase business, and bring brand awareness.
I did the same thing 2-3 weeks back and have already made more parked revenue in 2-3 weeks than I did in 6 months at SEDO! Incredible difference. No question that the amount of offers has also increased in $$$ and in volume. Very pleased with the move, as I’m sure you will be.
Vincent, but did you delete all your sedo lisitings?
I dropped over 2 years ago. When insurance clicks are 5 cents and say 3 to 7 bucks elsewhere you get ripped off. Not naming any companies of course.
Sedo.com sucked from begining, when I joined in 2007. I quit them when AFD came out. They were ripping me big time. Upon my earnings then and now, I calculated the difference.
The sedo was paying me about 0.5 to 0.7 cents, when they were taking more than 3 to 5 bucks per each click. I was like wowa, when I moved the domains to adsense for domains. Then I realized, I was making almost 2000 percent more money. SO SEDO. sucks big time.
I dont use them for sell domains. Only to buy domains from sucky and get bargains. Sedo is for only people who dont want to make money and is for losers now a days.
Combiining go daddy and sedo MLS, sucked like ass, there is NOOOOO way you can communicate. I called godaddy once, I wanted to know the seller, but they dont know shit about it, then I called sedo, they dont know shit either.
So I am like screw you guys!
Tom – The GoDaddy TDNAM “blind bid” rollout was the straw the broke the camel’s back.
Kosta – I don’t list domains at Afternic, so these that are still listed at TDNAM come from Sedo. I will give it one more week for those listings to “expire” before contacting GoDaddy about it.
Vincent – Give it 30/60 days and you will be glad you moved to Internet Traffic 🙂
Don – I don’t mind giving up a fair chunk of the revenue but when I get screwed and I’m told I’m getting a “10% bonus at SedoPRO” that’s kind of a mockery.
Jin, Godaddy nor Sedo have no business telling you who the owner is, if you can’t figure that much out yourself, you better find an exit strategy of being in this business.
Godaddy & Sedo MLS work for the perspective companies, but they do not work for the asset holders, and as we are seeing a mass exodus, and deletion of portfolios leaving sedo. Without names, or inventory, there is no basis for a business.
I have decided to delete my entire sedo listings, after I got another $60 offer on a domain which would auction for $5k easy.
Tom – I believe Jin meant to say “buyer”, not seller. 😉
Another “fun” aspect of the SedoMLS/TDNAM situation, is that if someone wants to mess with you, they can just place an offer at TDNAM.
Example: Had an offer of $100 for a domain placed via TDNAM, so got notified by Sedo. Countered with $20k and received a $5000 offer, at which point I canceled the game as it was obviously a fake bid. All my domains are now parked at Internet Traffic and that’s the ONLY place I accept offers at.
@Tom
Acro, thanks for correcting me. BTW, Tom, I know my ways around to know who the owner is and I am in way exiting this business which I started 5 years ago:)
What i did is this:
Removed 3200 domains from premium listings with GoDaddy (why pay 30%) and to avoid the $60 auction offer i went to sedo and apply my minimum bid of $3000.
If anybody from GD is interested in my domain they have to make a minimum offer of $3,000 and if the sale goes through with GD i pay %15.
You can also list your domain minimum offer(for example)$1000 and buy now $1000 this way at GD it appears as a fixed price,buy now
Meanwhile all my domains are park with IT and my direct inquiries a have a have sales rep. fallow the inquire at %10 commission.
Today I think this is the best formula.
Rich – That’s too much alchemy. Things should not be so complicated, and definitely we should be able to control where our domains are being listed. Next thing I know, Sedo will partner with Craigslist; catch my drift?
I pulled my names off sedo too. I received angry emails and angry voicemails. One even claiming they were given my number by someone. . . They do not deserve my listings and they are doing more harm than good, not to mention doing nothing to earn a commission.
Hi All,
I don’t quite understand the bit about getting lowball offers. I thought SedoMLS works only with fixed price (BIN) and we, the sellers, control that BIN price, not Sedo or GoDaddy!
I also don’t understand the rant about not getting to communicate with seller (I think most commenters meant the buyer). Do brokers or selling platforms allow this. If yes, then I am really naive and should dump all my domains into the nearest pond I can find and exit the domain business.
Well, I don’t have thousands of domains but a few hundred and I never heard about Sedo enforcing the SedoMLS – it is entirely optional – I mean it was when I logged into Sedo yesterday. Has something changed since yesterday?
And no, I am not an employee or agent of Sedo; actually hate them, but for an entirely different reason. They won’t allow me to set BIN price above $10000, even for premium domains which their own price suggestion values above $10000.
I dislike sedo as well. For many reasons: low PPC earnings and Sedo MLS which to me just means higher commissions for sedo with as a bonus added disadvantages to the seller.
Anyone tried DomainPower.com here? I just got accepted and was wondering if anyone reading this blog is using it?
I agree….Sedo show all these domains they sold but many of them are garbage. Then, you have to pay $39 + to list your domain. And, if it DOSEN’t sell you are out $$$. They should reimberse you money if the domain does NOT sell.
Yes, i must say the same as you. No revenues or a some cents for a total of 100 domains. I am not parking them at SEDO, just listing. Have some visitors to offer pages but the only sale was a make a mistake and let a domain with a price of $100 (as i have to change to Euros, you can see see what i received for an word domain.in).
I am hesitant to go on and offer them fo IT because i don´t need to be parked (i use domainapps.com but not for revenues, as i managed a main web site i will link to all the domains in there and get backlinks from them, some of them reached more than 523 visitors monthly what is more than average for a domain. I really don´t know if IT accept domains just for listings (for sale, not parking).
I like parked web sites where i can change almost everything and include some advertising, google analytics, youtube, twitter, etc.
Any suggestion on IT listings?
Thanks for the article. Most of my domains on SEDO are SedoMLS. I do understand that Afternic is doing the same?
I think the main thing is to contact Sedo and tell them to set a minimum offer for any of the domains you have for sale, so that you don’t get offers that are too low to bother with. Secondly, just price the domains at Sedo proportionately more to take into accout the commission you have to pay if you sell them.
On September I moved around 3k domains (my entire portfolio) from Sedo to another parking, after 5 years @ Sedo. Reasons: high commission, again high commissions paid on MY buyers (who clicked on “this domain may be for sale” link), again high commissions paid for using an anonimyzed fully automated system which doesn’t provide me with any insight/clue about the buyer, ridiculous parking revenue, again ridiculous optimization, again ridiculous stats with so much worthless info (since they don’t leverage any parking optimization).
I wish i did this earlier.
I am Thinking of what to do with my Domains ? I don’t have that many 80 Dns. I keep hearing this one is better and that one is better than the previous .. I am not satisfied with return at sedo but Don’t know where else to put my names that can provide sales as well as parking.
You guys say that the number of sale inquires/offeres increased after you finished with Sedo and joined InternetTraffic. Why it happened in your opinion?
I’m thinking about moving my names from sedo too.
Yep I pulled about 700 names off Sedo about 3-4 months ago. There are too many reasons but the ones that are listed above are most of them. I think it almost better to have a forward to one site til its developed rather than “park for pennies”. I like the expansion of godaddy but doing it the wrong frustrating way negates the possible potential.
Adam – Regarding “angry emails and voicemails”, who placed them and why?
Justin – You’ve lost episodes; since late October, SedoMLS is enforced even if you don’t set a BIN offer at Sedo. In other words, your domains are on TDNAM right now if they were listed at Sedo. Also, there is no way to send a preselected or a custom message, if the buyer made an offer at TDNAM. That’s the Achilles’ heel of the concept.
Bram – Have not tried DomainPower but I made a well-planned transition to InternetTraffic.com
Victor – Featured listings aren’t always a waste, however that’s a moot point right now.
Carlos – Thank you for the feedback. A big plus of Internet Traffic is that you can forward a domain to any URL (temporarily or long term) if you want, for example, to list it on eBay or host it. It’s still for sale on the DNS web site until you remove it.
Martin – Domains that are listed at Sedo should remain there. The pushing of domains on different venues that work with different methods and additional commissions simply devalues your domains.
Vito – Unfortunately, these complaints fell on deaf ears for years; now they will be noticed due to the windfall and mass exodus, no doubt.
Mike – Take them to InternetTraffic.com, it provides both features. No typo/tm domains though.
Nick – Very simple: a more visible “in your face” link that states (whatever you want it to be) “this domain is for sale” etc. That same link is hidden on the Sedo parking pages. There are other reasons which I’ll get into later.
Lance – Exactly, the GoDaddy thing was unnecessary, forced down on the sellers in the pretext of “more sales” and very poorly executed.
Sedo till how has not paid me for 2 domains i sold through their platform for the stupid reason that they can’t wire transfer to non EU countries and they cannot pay otherwise but through PayPal which in turn for some stupid reason doesn’t include my country on its list (which means i can’t have a paypal account). Can u believe this?!! All this, knowing that i had purchased domains through Sedo worth more than 100k till this date and the folks at Sedo have no problem being wire paid from Lebanon (my country) yet they cannot accept to pay back…
Their creditcard max also is absurd 500$ or so… I mean at buydomains.com or Godaddy u can pay a million dollar using ur credit card…
Sedo prides itself to be the first, but to me, its worthless. I still have my domains there, but i never respond to any offer through them, cz i knw there’s no way to be paid if a sale was generated.
They SUCK..
I used Sedo for parking/sales from 2004 to 2009. Then I tried GD cashparking (not so great), then tried Parked.com unsuccessfully, and then moved them all to a different parking service. It’s been only 60-120 domains at a time so income is modest. Recently I was invited by Sedo staff to try again with them. I moved all my domains and whoa! now I am earning only 25% of my previous numbers. There are only 2 underdog domains that are making a little bit more than before. After reading all these testimonials I think I am moving back. Sales haven’t been great either.
I have also abated action with Sedo and things are on tick over. I think there are a lot of opportunities for small start-ups to branch out into the sale of aftermarket domains.
I was refused by Frank when I applied to move 1500 domains over to IT .. ah well.
That was June 2011… maybe things have changes since but he was saying they were only looking for ‘high revenue’ partners.
‘We’re presently looking for partners capable of reaching significant monthly
revenue, that are making a good living from their portfolios, as we have
limited availability at the moment.’
Do you guys make a lot from parking or something?
Cheers,
Alan
iD
IrishDomainer – The platform is clearly open to everyone since at least TRAFFIC 2012. You should re-apply.
Ah ok.. will re-apply.. cheers!
I fully agree that aftermarket platforms who take control away from domain owners and reduce transparency will ultimately lose domain owners as customers.
A year ago, I had to cancel all my Afternic listings because their partnership with GoDaddy hard-wired prices at GoDaddy such that I could not even control the GoDaddy listings AT GODADDY. For example, I couldn’t start a GoDaddy auction or create a premium listing at GoDaddy because of something at Afternic. We deserve more flexibility and choice when it comes to selling. Ideally, Sedo and Afternic would allow domain sellers to specifically select / de-select which venues a domain will be cross-listed at … For the record, Afternic has said that I can cancel the GoDaddy cross-listing while still utilizing their cross-listing service. Once I withdrew, however, I simply didn’t get around to re-listing.
I do think the lowball offers coming through GoDaddy to Sedo can probably be prevented by setting a higher minimum at Sedo, although I could be wrong. The lack of a communication interface at GoDaddy for offers is an ongoing problem. Sedo’s isn’t ideal, since it doesn’t allow you to know who the buyer is. But the communications interface used by GoDaddy Auctions is much worse. Conversations are rarely started at all. In part, I think that’s because most of the bids come from domainers who are simply looking for very cheap domains. But partly it’s due to the lack of email interaction when replies occur. There are other flaws as well, such as not knowing whether your reply is visible to all 7 previous bidders or just Bidder #7.
Internet Traffic uses a very transparent communication manager. It’s just about ideal. And, yes, the parking revenue is significantly higher.
Some months ago, I mentioned how Sedo had mixed my portfolio with someone else’s so that I had control over his price settings. After much dead-end customer service explanations, I finally got Sedo to take note and change the problem by creating a bit of bad publicity. Yet I still think Sedo is worth keeping around and improving rather than abandoning altogether. Just my opinion.
I’m not sure yet whether it’s a good idea to confine domain listings to just one venue or to use the shotgun approach advocated by Sedo MLS. In their defense, Sedo does attract buyers through avenues other than just parked pages. Since I moved to Internet Traffic 2 months ago, I have sold 2 domains through Sedo. Clearly the buyers found Sedo.com as a result of Sedo’s own marketing and then found my domains as a result of searching the Sedo inventory. Would these people have found me otherwise? I doubt it. If they had my domains specifically in mind from the beginning, then they would have come to my parked pages and interacted with me via Internet Traffic.
So, in spite of the flaws, I’m pretty sure I would have lost 2 sales in the past 2 months if I had removed my portfolio from Sedo.
ImageAuthors –
At Internet Traffic, when people type in your domain, the “For sale” banner is right up there, first thing below the URL in the browser. It’s the single most efficient way to confirm a domain is indeed for sale, and to contact the seller. Buyers that want anonymity – and thus, offer low prices – prefer Sedo. In other words, you achieved two sales, but you left a chunk of money on the table due to high Sedo fees and dealing with buyers that paid less.
One thing sedo does very well that the others don’t seem to bother with… VAT.
You have a full record of the customer’s VAT number if they have one – and those Germans love their VAT numbers!
If the tax man comes to have a look at things – and I believe you should prepare for the eventuality – then you have everything right there on sedo, and this is very good.
On a slightly related topic… the way sedo forces European sellers to pay the VAT… I believe this would not go down well in tax circles. I think they would say it’s complete market power manipulation. Domainers should only be collecting the tax not suffering it.
=====
I got a lead via IT, the buyer was from Germany, it was a subpar name $xxx, buyer offered $100, I countered at $1000, buyer never replied, all other attempts to contact them failed. Then about a few days later an offer popped up at sedo, same buyer from germany, I know this as, this name was very specific to something they were creating. We closed at $900, but some many european buyers like using sedo, even though I offered escrow as a option. I think escrow.com need to do more advertising in europe, it is a great service.
I must agree with the general comments about sedo parking. I moved to InternetTraffic.com earlier this year and this is the best CTR ever parking.
I notice a lot of people saying they hate the $60 offers on sedo. Agreed; there is nothing more guaranteed to get steam out a domainers nose than one of these.
But it is so easy to set a minimum offer of whatever on sedo, and this also carries through to godaddy MLS names. I put this in earlier this year and has been very good for my stress levels.
I think domainnamesales.com is gr8 for high-end sales, I’m trying to sell at mostly the average price, around $500 or so, so I think sedo is fine for this, and with the VAT and admin, plus they do the escrow, it’s a winner.
Sedo is sinking fast
@Tom, no I did not remove the names from SEDO’s listing, just moved the nameservers to park at InternetTraffic. I have no problem with having my names listed in as many places as possible. Glad I didn’t move them, as I just got something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving by selling a $69 drop name I bought in July for $3K at SEDO today. Got to love it!
Dropped them years ago. Best to go independent with each domain (self service auctions like flippa or others) as each domain will be in their respected buying element in their own unique market place, and often too with end users! 🙂
I reckon SEDO is not that great, but still it’s easy to work with. I moved some of my good domains to Internet Traffic (by good, I mean portfolio generating more than a million unique per month and $12-$15k) but Internet Traffic rejected them due to below acceptable quality. Go figure 🙂
Maybe they only accept 2 letters domain names generating 10Mio uniques per month. But I won’t fight to bring them my business. Enough competition outside.
I stopped parking domains at Sedo years ago… just basic comparisons helped that decision. But I left my domains for sale there because they only charged 10% for basic BIN or negotiated sales from simple listings. Now they jacked it up to 15%. Really? Sedo gets 15% for simply copying a domain where the SELLER does the work placing their domains and prices, and if some noobie looks for your domain online and arrives at Sedo, instead of simply clicking the “buy it now” link from some other PPC page burner, or doing a whois search, you lose 15% of the sale of your domain. 10% for listing fees, yes, but pushing 15% with no “outward marketing” of your domain directly, no way. That just makes Sedo look like it’s hurting for cash and taking advantage of all the domains they have in their stable. Once you give any domain selling website the reins, will they stay with the original commission point? Maybe I’m wrong here… but I remember Sedo and Afternic at 10% a few years ago…
Sedo Jacks It Up – Sedo raised the sales fees more than a year ago. However, you can still get 10% if you list your domains with a BIN price.
Hello guys, I am thinking of closing my account in Sedo too, But whats a better substitute for Sedo is there a better website?
Er.shami – I have found InternetTraffic.com to deliver better results. You can also manage your domain sales in a variety of ways there.
So glad I fell on this post! I really could use help!!! I started with SEDO in January after reading how great the site was for selling domains. I have over 200 domains purchased through GODaddy, listed with SEDO for sale. I have tried to figure how SEDO works best and still find myself somewhat confused with the process. Also, trying to reach someone in Customer Service is not a positive experience. Waiting near an hour via phone and still no CS (hung up), and via chat, long waits and still no one responding! I have no clue how much money my domains are earning, nor the best options. I don’t seem to get answers that spell it out. I have a hard time viewing the domain names and seeing ads on them (at first it worked well, now they just show domain name and it is listed at SEDO). This week I received my first offer on [redacted] and it is in auction for 2 more days. It will be the first experience in seeing how domain sale plays out! However, I need advice since I am new at this, and want my best options for sales, for parking, for earning money. I have no clue as to other options. Please share!
The company your are mentioning sucks. I registered with them and never got back to me I AM BACK AT SEDO!!!
pj – Maybe what really sucks is your domain portfolio? That’s a rhetorical question.
I sell my domain and according to the note payment would take place two working days later, but that was ten days ago, even this morning i try to contact Sedo but i have no answer.
Here I am one of the nightmares of any domainer that trusts on “good practices” or good attitude of SEDO after sending your domain. SEDO not want to pay.
From the top :
18.06.15 : Sedo tells me he has sold consulta.info for $100
Comment : First problem here, how this price is possible when 24 hours before i had checked my domain prices and never recognized this, it makes no sense to put a domain $ 100 if sedo charges a commission of $ 60 and my favorite this domain had been sold two times before for $1139 usd and $800 euro.
I must admit that felt doubts in two directions, Or this is a shameless attempt from SEDO, or It’s my fault and made a mistake, so I’ll take the last option and decided to comply with the agreement, – hurts, but a mistake can happen, I thought.
From here happened like usual, to sell a domain when you sell a domain.
Date of transfer confirmation : 19.06.15. –
And here begins my problems.
I expect after the weekend (20 /21.06.16 but Sedo does not pay, the 24.06.15 i sent a claim, An agent tells me that sent a note ” I will ask our finance department to check this”
and the 26/06/15 The transaction appears including payment as finished.
Today this was the response of an agent.
The accounting department has informed me that there was a pending payment from your side for an order for a showcase for the domain name consultinggroup.ws and that is why this payment was not sent
I will ask for more information from the accounting deaprtment.
My comment :
excuse me!!…
At the time, it was perfectly cleared. It is not my fault your bad job, or your interest in not eliminate it from my account as you can see other payments have been made after that date.
But what is this about?
This is a listing on SEDO of 2012, mistakenly made twice, at the time, it was explained, demonstrating that one is paid but the other not. because both belong to the same domain on the same day.
However, for some reason today this no longer appears in my history.
———————————————————–
And all this for $ 39 ?? no, actually not, perhaps because I removed all my domains at Sedo, after this dubious transaction of $100 for a domain of $1000
Maybe Sedo thinks that I must also pay for leave, I do not know but for now I do not see my money. I have included the domain name to demonstrate transparency in this public complaint. Alerting all my colleagues to check SEDO trying to steal $ 39 Now imagine can happen if the amount is bigger. I never thought this could happen to me, but here we are without many options, waiting for SEDO decide to pay or steal.
wow … this thread started in 2012.
my reasons for finally dropping them:
-too many fake bids
-zero customer service
-crookery: i received an offer from a sedo broker in a domain that was not listed for sale ( it was on the portfolio for a bit, but never listed for sale ) i said no, .. then I received an offer directly from the company wishing to buy the domain; phone call and it became clear they ( interested company ) had done an offer through Sedo ( “to determine if it was for sale” ) and it also became clear that if i had accepted the offer via Sedo, they would have filed for an urdp;
dont trust them, period.
Hi All
I came across this post after problems with Sedo, I had about 2500 domains parked with them until they increased the sales commission from 10% to 20% if you did not use Sedo nameservers. This prevents you using the domain for email which is something I do for some of my portfolio.
Prior to this I had sold some domains through them at 4 and 5 figure sums, I have to say that each sale was fraught with problems, I find the staff at Sedo AWFUL at customer service. They are arrogant and do not work for the benefit of the domain owner.
Over the years I have had people ask me to use them just for Escrow but even that was problematic and they abandoned them in the end.
The number of low ball offers was just a joke, my usual response to such offers was to respond with a 7 figure price to piss them off.
I am surprised more people do not email me about domains, I get all the usual spam (I have a dedicated email for domains so not an issue) but very few people contacting me directly.
So who are you guys using these days?
I have found it is better to figure out the potential of a domain and sell it to that market, for example some may be good for Amazon sales or Lead Gen, so I would sell them in the places where those buyers live. Sometimes in groups on Facebook.
One thing is for sure, I will never deal with Sedo again, if people ask me to I just ask them to google them. They have a really poor reputation and do not seem to care.