2024 at Afternic: Custom Lander, Bulk Improvements, and More

2024 was a pivotal year for Afternic, introducing new opportunities for sellers and enhancing workflows, support options, and more. In this review, we highlight the 9 most significant changes and releases from the year and offer a preview of what Afternic has in store for 2025. 

A New Afternic.com 

After launching a redesigned user platform, Afternic followed this in early 2024 with a fully redesigned Afternic.com. The new site offers best practices and information about our services, along with key statistics and data to help you make the most of Afternic’s features.  

Along with the new website came a help center, your destination to find answers to Afternic-related questions you have. 

Afternic Moves to GoDaddy Cart 

A major milestone for Afternic saw domain name purchases across the platform move from an outdated Afternic checkout to GoDaddy’s purchase path, providing globally-recognized payment options under a well-known brand name. 

Lease to Own Launches Internationally at GoDaddy Search 

Speaking of GoDaddy, Lease to Own rolled out to buyers across the world through GoDaddy search in May 2024. Exact-match searches at GoDaddy now show a Lease to Own option for eligible domain names, displayed in the buyer’s local language and currency, while sellers are paid out reliably in US dollars. 

Bulk Search, Advanced Filters, and Invoicing 

Throughout 2024, several features arrived at Afternic to help improve the management of your domain names along with features to reduce your reliance on our support team. Bulk search and advanced filtering allow you to narrow down your on-screen selection to adjust settings for more specific domain names. 

Invoicing, introduced later in 2024, provides auto-generated payout transmittals and invoices for Buy it Now and Lease to Own sales through Afternic. Previously, this was a support-led request. 

Custom Lander 

Throughout 2023 and 2024, Afternic brought many of Dan.com’s best features to Afternic and the Custom Lander was one of the most popular releases, inspired by the Dan.com landing page design. 

We took the best of Dan.com’s lander design and combined it with powerful GoDaddy branding to release the Custom Lander, with customizable options for displaying Buy it Now, Lease to Own, and Make Offer.  

Over 1.9 million domain names are using the Custom Lander! (Based on GoDaddy data from September 2024)

Afternic Boost 

Afternic’s merchandising program, announced in August 2024, provided visibility in GoDaddy’s suggested search results, along with perks including email marketing, and Verified tags on search results and landers.  

In the first 50 days after launching, Boost domain names received 230 million impressions in GoDaddy suggested searches (based on internal data from September 4, 2024 through October 24, 2024) , while in a 50 day period from late September, Boost domains were featured in 886,939 emails to GoDaddy customers.  

Live Chat Support 

When Afternic customers need help, they have a number of options. Feedback from our sellers was strong: you wanted a live chat option to resolve issues or questions in a faster time. 

In October, we successfully launched Live Chat, providing customers with fast support through our contact page. Try it for yourself! 

Bulk Upload Improvements 

Late 2024 saw several updates to bulk upload, making it easier to upload and track bulk changes. A new “history” tab provides upload confirmations and reporting, while a new CSV file brings bulk management for Lease to Own (above) and Sale Landers. CamelCasing in bulk, a popular user request, is now possible, too, allowing sellers to customize the way that their domains are displayed on our landers. 

Along with bulk upload improvements came a number of backend improvements, overhauling our “pipes” to streamline our internal listings architecture. 

Custom Checkout Link Moves to GoDaddy 

In December, there was an exciting update to Afternic’s Custom Checkout Link. Launched in 2023, Custom Checkout Link brings support for your externally negotiated deals, allowing you to use our Transaction Assurance process to close deals, for 5% for Buy it Now sales. 

The service originally launched using Dan.com checkout links, but now, you can send your buyers GoDaddy.com links instead! Allow your buyer to checkout through the GoDaddy cart for global payment options in a number of languages and currencies. 

Looking to 2025 

This is set to be an exciting year for Afternic, with a focus on bringing improvements to the seller experience across the board. We’ll be introducing self-brokerage, new automations in the TA process, and a self-serve Pending Review system, to name just a few items.  

Here’s to 2025. Happy selling!