5 Ways to use Afternic to make informed renewal decisions

As the world’s largest domain sales platform, Afternic is the go-to destination for thousands of sellers to sell their domain names. While we focus on tools to help customers sell domain names, many of our sellers utilize the data and insights we provide to make informed decisions on renewing or dropping a domain name. 

Offer Count 

An offer is an offer, regardless of the figure. Through Afternic’s landers and our distribution network, buyers can make offers on your domain names. Thanks to the introduction of the Lead Center and Offer statistics in 2023, domain sellers can quickly tell how many offers a domain name receives. 

Sellers often use offer data in renewal decisions. If a domain has received an offer, it signals desirability and could be a strong indicator to renew the domain. 

You can find your offer count for each domain name through a dedicated “Offers” column on your Portfolio page.  

Lead Count 

While offer count can be a strong renewal metric, lead count shouldn’t be discounted. When a potential buyer fills out the lead form on a Price Request lander and confirms their interest in the domain name, that interest is logged in the Lead Center as a lead.  

The lead count is also syndicated to your portfolio page under the “Lead” column. While these leads may not lead to an offer or a sale, they signal interest. Tens of leads for a single domain name over a year can indicate consistent interest. Leads that are stalled are often continued to be worked by our brokers, who may send periodic check-ins.  

While uncommon, brokers have closed sales up to 3 years after the original offer. 

Visitors 

In 2023, Afternic introduced visitor statistics on your portfolio page, tracking visits to your domain’s sales lander. While visits alone shouldn’t influence renewal decisions, consistent traffic is worth investigating. Are visitors looking for another site or is there a similar domain in use? Regular visitor patterns can help inform your renewal choices. The Views column shows basic stats, but for detailed insights, check the Statistics column on your domain’s details page for data from the past 12 weeks. 

Confused Leads 

Including confused leads in renewal decisions might surprise you, but some sellers do consider them. Confused leads arrive through the Request Price lander. After filling in their details, the visitor is asked if they are interested in purchasing the domain name. If they select “no,” the lead is registered as “confused.”  

This method, influenced by Uniregistry Market, has increased sales. While frustrating, confused leads indicate a visitor was looking for a specific service. A high number of confused leads could point to a common misconception or confusion with a company.

Parking revenue 

If a domain has regular visitors and is not infringing on a trademark, some domain owners opt to park their name with Afternic’s CashParking service. This displays ads on your Afternic lander while advertising the domain for sale.  

Parking revenue, tracked through your Afternic parking panel, is generated when visitors click on ads. Domains with regular visitors may earn income throughout the year, which can influence renewal decisions, especially if revenue exceeds the annual renewal fee. 

Bonus: GoDaddy Searches 

For domains registered with GoDaddy, additional data is available to aid renewal decisions: search data. Through GoDaddy’s Portfolio Manager, customers can add “total” and “unique” search columns to their portfolio view.  

This shows how many searches your domain receives at GoDaddy over 30, 90, or 365 days. Search data from the world’s largest registrar can be a good indicator of your domain’s popularity. Regular searches suggest interest in purchasing your domain name.