Arif Mirza

Sometimes the domain industry totally sucks. Back-to-back days with issues .. Yesterday at @Spaceship leading to double renewal of 100 domains (extra $1000 that "can't be cancelled" even if reported minutes later), and now @GoDaddy back to same old Access Denied. :(

@happreneur But I don't think it is varied. Did you just "renew" (assuming it would also unlock), or specifically do all the steps I mentioned to "pay the unlock fee" .. those are two different things.

@TheDomainSocial Lol I like how you put it down step by step Arif 😂🥰 Yes it was for an LTO sale I can't reveal yet. Either way I hope the unlock fee is fixed by them soon and not varied. 🦋

🔘 What do you think of the UnstoppableWeb charge of $11.40 for unlocking our domains (transferred during their free transfer promo) to transfer out?? A year is not added for this price. Found out today charge stays the same even if we have already renewed. I'm Disappointed 🙁

@cultra @unstoppableweb All the fancy theoretical spreadsheets in the world can't make up for the warm fuzzy feeling you get paying off your costs and still have money left over for whatever it is that brings you to your happy place! :) That said .. here's a typical portfolio spreadsheet anyways.. lol

@unstoppableweb @TheDomainSocial Profit pays the bills, margins and sell through is for the analyst

Sell-through rate is meaningless without considering average multiples. In domain investing, profit is the metric that matters most. Valuations shift based on a buyer's business plan and available capital. Featuring: @TheDomainSocial

Hey .. where have I heard that voice before? lol x.com/unstoppableweb…

lol .. that's overload. In the end I was sharing about 500 to 800 new auction domains per day and the trailing 5 days of closeouts on NameCult.com. But all my work was on Excel and the site was a free Wordpress Multi-site installation I did myself for TheDomainSocial.com and a couple other test sites on a shared linux hosting that I think was under $20/month. Super cheap on my end (like my domaining .. lol). That said .. your site is a ton prettier .. lol .. with lots of cool bells and whistles (and filters). Ultimately I never cared how NameCult looked (even the name was silly, but it was a bit on purpose as I didn't really want end users learning about closeouts) .. people who used it only cared about the domains in the lists. I don't do lists at this point, but the site is still there if you're brave enough to handle the fact I only spent about 5 to 10 minutes on the actual "design" (not even sure I'm allowed to use that word .. lol. Josh (@domainpro) was a regular user and made a few $$ from some of the names! :) In the end the sad reality is our industry / community of domain investors is pretty small. Multiple people are trying to do the same thing .. leaving a very small pool of potential users to get affiliate revenue from if the links even work 100% of the time (which they don't).

I have lots of data (nearly 1TB), backups, off site backup, worker server, proxies, Claude 5x, Resend, Claude api, OpenAi api, zone file processing. Yeah, affiliate stuff is hard in the domain space for sure. I will get it figured out, it can just get frustrating during the process.

Unfortunately DotWeekly will be going through some drastic changes. Earning $65.73 a month, you just can't keep the lights on. I really don't want to manage a SAAS, so that will likely lead me to shutting it down.

Their site is not instant to show the fee information. (From memory this is the process) 1- Click on the domain to go to it's management page Unlock the domain. 2- Click transfer. 3- Click the Blue "Unlock Domain" button. 4- IMPORTANT >>> WAIT A BIT (1-2 MINUTES). 5- Refresh the page. 6- You will then see: "Domain was transferred in under our transfer discount promo, which requires managing it with us for 1 year. To unlock early, you must repay that discount. After unlocking you can transfer out." 6b- Click the "Pay Early Unlock Fee" button 7- It will then take you to a checkout to pay $5.09 (+$0.30 processing fee) 8- Maybe wait some more (I forget how long here) 9- Go back to "Transfer" on management page to get the transfer code. 10- Purchase your transfer at new registrar. 11- No indication of a transfer request will ever show up directly on Unstoppable itself (ever as far as I know). Instead ... 11b- WAIT AT LEAST 20 MINUTES (that's what it took me today, but can be longer) 12- Check your email for title: "[Urgent] Domain transfer for ______.___ 12b- Click the "Cancel or Confirm" link in the email. 13- Follow the instructions on the page from the link. BE VERY CAREFUL, what looks like the more notable default button to continue is actually the button to cancel the transfer, so be sure to press the correct link. (Same thing to be aware of after entering 2FA) 14- Go back to your email for the 2FA code. 15- Go back to the last page and enter the 2FA. 16- Not long after that the domain should be at the new registrar. :) 17- (Hopefully you have to transfer because of a domain sale at which point .. do the happy dance) The information and instructions are pretty much a 0/10 the first time you fumble through it .. particularly since things aren't instant and there's absolutely no reason to think anything will be different after the first time you refresh the page and see nothing pertinent for next step .. and indeed as you mentioned .. quick support is pretty much non-existent (thank goodness we have @ntropiq and @mattgould to pester if things go wrong (it's funny .. but also VERY true). :) So the situation is not quite what you're saying .. but it's 0% your fault and 100% on them for not making the process clear from the start. Took me a frustrating while to figure it out the first time .. and eventually I just got lucky after refreshing the page a few more times before giving up as there was no indication anything would be different after the first refresh. NOTE TO @unstoppableweb: - For domains that are under lock, all the information I just put should be on the transfer page from the start. As well as the date the lock ends. Also, as mentioned elsewhere .. now that you have lowered the number of days we can renew/transfer our domains from about 40-42 days, down to 29 days, you definitely need to lower the lock length by at least as much. Some people mentioned 11 months which I think is a fair compromise, but at the very least it must be lowered to 350 days.

Just $5? Very interesting 🤔 Thanks Arif, hope you are doing well. Let's talk soon 🤗💕 I did pay $11.40 twice - first time I was in a hurry and didn't realise it didn't add a year. Got a shock only yesterday coz it was already renewed for $10.50 and still locked. To their credit I like their services a lot so it felt painful to even speak about this online. Their support is too slow and I had to let others know it's happening. Glad I did, i wouldn't have known unlock fee was just $5 (as i thought it should be) for some already. Let's see how they continue, for now looks like as a one off the refunded the unlock fee I paid yesterday 🙏🏽💕🦋

Bit of an inside joke. On the DNX show Josh (@domainpro) mentioned needing to pay the $5 early unlock fee at @unstoppableweb because he sold a domain and needed to transfer it out. I had one such sale last week (and another today) so we laughed that "we needed to pay the $5" (so we could transfer out to Afternic). Basically the deal at Unstoppable was we needed to keep the domains there for the full year in order to take advantage of the super cheap $5 transfers (and registrations I think), so I'm fine with paying the $5 .. in fact it's a good problem to have when the domains you're selling are at $3000-5000! :) Given a 1% sell-through, you're still saving $495 on the 99 other domains still there. I hope I need to have to pay even more $5 fees all year! :) lol

@TheDomainSocial @domainpro Who is charging to unlock?

Just had to pay another $5 unlock fee! @domainpro .. what are we going to do? lol

I remember the frustration doing NameCult.com back in the days. I hear you .. affiliate business within the small number of active domainers is a tough grind. Not only that, but in the end I saw I wasn't even getting all my commissions. Only way it's worth while is if you're already doing everything for yourself (going through lists), then you can write off most of the time involved. Also need to keep it simple. How are you spending $500 a month? I just put it on a multipress WP install with a few other sites like TheDomainSocial.com to keep costs to bare minimum. When I went on a little buying spree over last couple of years I brought NC back for a bit, but probably will never be worth doing unless I'm back in active daily buying mode. Anyhow .. good luck and best wishes however you decide to go forward.

As I mentioned, I do not want to manage a SAAS. If I could get the site to earn at least $500 a month from affiliates or something similar and keep it free for everyone, I would leave it up but right now I'm spending $500+ out of my pocket each month and I can't afford to continue doing that.

They're going to need you to get the signatures of all 2238 people living there before they'll allow it! lol Seems like something an obviously reasonable exception should be made for given the specifics at play here. Let us know what their customer service says .. and more importantly .. how many different people you need to speak to before this is resolved .. lol Maybe @namecheapceo123 can help expedite this? :)

well thats a first, im prohibited from even transfering a domain name with certain words. in this case a famous word is also the name of a city Marriott-Slaterville, Utah @spaceship and @ICADomains not sure this is allowed?? @abcproductions maybe ill drop into law room ...

#1- Security #1- Usability #1 - Customer Service #1 - Pricing #5 - Data #6 - @afternic Fast Transfer (and maybe other with other marketplaces) The four #1 are obvious non-starters, so no point ranking those. SPECIFICS (what you're probably really asking for): For security you're going to know more than me, so all the expected, plus I do like the suggestion from @PCPowerUp1 regarding auditing. Really frustrates me @GoDaddy has this feature, but keeps it behind a paywall. For customer service there needs to be at minimum 24/7 live HUMAN chat. If chat support is good enough I can live with only partial hour phone support (should be some though). I also don't mind front line AI if accurate enough, but absolutely want a HUMAN for cases when I know the AI is wrong! VERY IMPORTANT - Also note that humans can be equally frustrating if not trained or informed enough on your product. Even then, I don't even mind humans who don't know something .. AS LONG AS they are able to in turn contact a higher level of support who does know how to address the issue. For pricing, I agree with @andrewrosener. As someone with 5000 domains, there's a pretty slim chance I'll move anywhere that's more than $0.50 over cost. Which I realize is almost impossible for smaller or startup registrars, but that's the reality and why we likely don't see too many new registrars succeed beyond their below cost 1st year promos. The bigger obvious problem is if the largest part of your volume is domain investors, then you're not going to make much with traditional up-sales like email or hosting. So the real question is where are you actually going to make profits? For you, I'm guessing everything will mostly be around at cost pricing (+/-$1), with your money maker being integrated DNX based sales (commissions and affiliate money). If you get all the @DomainSherpa ballers like @andrewrosener , @AmmarKubba, @BradenPollock, @cultra, @MichaelCyger (the one word big-shot), etc, and other big buyers, then it certainly could be worth it. Otherwise if you only get closeout kings and cheap bottom feeders like me (I am moving up a bit .. lol), you're eventually going to have a problem. For data .. the answer is yes, yes, yes. Whatever data you can think of the answer is yes .. lol. Also make sure it's all cleanly downloadable for those of us with spreadsheet fetishes! I know this isn't going to be a popular answer, but I don't think you need to be focused on building a marketplace right away. Eventually maybe, but only because I think specifically you could build something better than average. But I wouldn't recommend bothering until you feel comfortable you could be in the top 3 (which is pretty big).

"Hypothetical" Question: @DNX is your domain platform/registrar and it can be whatever you want it to be. What is most important to you?

Again .. sorry to see this happen to you. Regarding #1 - A big problem here is that as domain sellers, we actually do not know when the domain "sells". @GoDaddy only sends us the typical @afternic "congrats" email after they have secured the payment. Meaning Payment has been (1) processed and (2) gone through all of GD's security checks. One question is, at what point is a transaction even considered legally "final", is it upon initial payment (has started), or after the transaction has been fully processed and gone through security checks and/or after the domain is transferred? Kinda surprised how "instant" the transaction was, but if it was sold at GD (and not a partner registrar) AND it's a buyer with good history and good standing, then that would be a reason not to slow things down. So it could be the initial payment has started without you knowing before you deleted it. Solutions: 1- Add a 5-10 minute wait after any price change. 2- Give sellers an extra warning if they drop the price of a domain more than X% (maybe 75-80%, or a number sellers can set in their profile setting, even the time delay could be set now that I think about it) 3- Put in a 5-10 minute delay for transactions via API (If not implementing #1). While the whole world knows I think there are issues with the GD platform, the actual management part (when working) has certainly gotten better in recent years. But I too have sometimes accidentally apply changes (in DCC) to domains I wasn't intending to. Thankfully for me it was just domain management stuff and nothing this serious. However, I do have a suggestion for GD: Change the colour of the checkmark(s) depending on what's selected (both for Afternic and DCC). - Green if only one domain. - Blue if multiple (but not all) on current page. - Purple if all domains selected on current page. - Orange if multiple domains over multiple pages. - Red if all domains in your account. (Note I don't really care about the colours, as long as they are different) Also, GODADDY, while we're on the subject, in your pagination PLEASE PLEASE add a dropdown so we can select what page number we want to navigate to. With regards to your #7, depending on what the bug/issue was, this is a non-starter if you contacted them quickly enough. If you weren't able to quickly correct an obvious mistake because of their platform, then the transaction needs to be cancelled. I can't judge either way here without knowing the actual bug(s)/issue(s) and exact timeline, but I do know GD is certainly prone to issues and bugs. Hope you get the solution you're looking for. Tagging @AlanShiflett @jamesiles @jjstyler for obvious reasons. :) As you mentioned, we also talked about this on this week's DNX show w/ @abcproductions and @domainpro Good luck

[this is a copy of my response on the DNX show episode regarding my CVCV that sold this week on @afternic for $100 following a mass pricing update failure and domain selling immediately via fast transfer]: "... I'd love to clarify a few things (I listened to the start where my case was discussed). It's incorrect if @afternic have said that I have a history of this. My memory it has happened twice: first time on one domain (which was mis-priced and the sale cancelled), and then this incident. The @afternic system was bugging / acting irregular when I was making the changes this week/I struggled (I intended for a single page of names only). I do recall refreshing a number of times /retrying (I had forgotten this until Rene mentioned it today, as it was at this time). I made the price changes which changed all 1,000 names (to $100). I realized within minutes and deleted all names - I then got the sale notices on two names a few mins later. I immediately emailed my GD Rep, and called the Afternic contact centre. The contact centre said they would attempt to switch the names from fast transfer to manual, but shortly after I got a transfer notice (from UD where it was). I called my Rep and explained it to him, and he went away to see what could be done. I explained this was clearly a mistake, I had delisted all names prior to the sale, etc. He called a few hours later to say he could not stop the transfer of the CVCV because it was against their terms of use, but they would try to speak with the buyer. That was Tuesday. I have followed up multiple times with my Rep and heard nothing back since... This is not good customer service. @afternic transfer assurance notified me today that it was too late as the name had transferred. I'm pretty disappointed here for a number of reasons. 1. I had deleted the mispriced listing on @afternic very quickly and before the name sold; 2. It clearly is a mistake in pricing for the value of the asset; 3. the @afternic system is arguably defective by design by not allowing users to catch changes (if a name will sell immediately); 4. the domain is still at GoDaddy, so it can be returned; 5. there are examples of GD pulling names back from domainers and cancelling transactions; 6. I spend a lot on GD/Afternic; 7. the afternic mass updates feature was not operating to requirements when I was making the changes (arguably this caused or impacted the inacurate updates). I am hopeful that @afternic will assist here still and allow this to be resolved amicably without recourse to a more formal process"

@DomainJames @GoDaddy @afternic @jamesiles If it's a $5k wholesale domain then it could be worth your while to reach out to @JJNSolutions (Jeff Neuman & @abcproductions) or @Berryhillj Plus in "some" jurisdictions you're allowed 48-72 hours to back out of some kinds of contracts (I'm reaching on that though) Good Luck

@TheDomainSocial @GoDaddy @afternic Thanks. I did do that but my rep said it was not possible. Let me check with @jamesiles

I have always been transparent and so here’s one to share. Today I made a mistake applying price changes to my afternic listings. I applied $100 to ALL names instead of the single page I meant to update. A high quality name sold within one minute even as I immediately removed all names from afternic. Not their fault, it was mine, but annoying that you have zero time to correct this. It was fast track so the name has gone. FYI there are domainers with tools ready to pounce on mistakes.. be careful out there. I just lost a name I paid 5k for 🙄

WARNING (to fellow lazy domainers .. lol) If you didn't change nameservers of domains that were previously at Epik (because they were on previously obsolete non-resolving nameservers like ns3/ns4), about 20% now point to AI generated websites with misleading contact info.

@ishmilly Lmao .. I'd agree .. but I literally own iHeartSushi*com ;)

Domainers are very funny You could make a post about anything and they always think it’s a time to tell you what they have 😩 You can say “I like sushi” Domainer : I have sushilover•me Bro go touch grass please !

@GoDaddy @GoDaddyHelp NOTE - The final email actually did go through. (To a different email account) So transfer notification emails are working as intended.

From 12:13pm to 12:18pm (Eastern, an hour before this post) I got the emails for all but one of the transfers, then when I went to the transfer page all were available to speed up (including the one with a still missing email). BAD NEWS - This doesn't at all excuse the horrible customer service. The fact that 3 tiers of help (2 frontline, 2 supervisor and one upper level a supervisor contacted) were not just flat out wrong, but also pushed back on us incorrectly on multiple facts (see original post above). Making it look like we were wrong on well known facts of the transfer process ... THIS IS 100% COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE! With such a wide-spread colossal customer care failure, it is not the agents who are to blame .. it's management! @sh0kunin, go back and read the original post and let us know of your tangible plans to address this. GOOD NEWS - After accelerating the transfer, the domains were out of my GD account in 20 seconds, and all in my account at the other registrar in literally 2 minutes (faster than the usual ~5ish minutes). PS - As part of your apology, give my rep a raise and a promotion, he's amazing and a perfect example of how GD customer service should be. @synozeer, @jn, @TheBrandable, @cultra, @domainpro, @joedomains, @jamesiles, @GoDaddyHelp, @GoDaddy, @AlanShiflett, @abcproductions, @ravi26329535, @aliiguru, @domainloop, @DCLjasonx, @domainoor

@GoDaddy transfer outs to other registrars are not giving usual speedup option (no email AND not showing on transfer page). @GoDaddyHelp, your chat support is useless, uninformed and incompetent. How could 2 chat support agents, 2 supervisors, and the higher tech support level at least one of them consulted, all think it's not possible to speed up transferring out to other registrars? (1) Your platform is broken yet again. (2) Worse is that you aren't even aware of it. (3) Even worse is that your support isn't even able to understand the problem. (4) Even more worse is that they tried to give false excuses with false information. Telling me: - You can't transfer out expired domains (FALSE) - Just renew the domains at GD and retry (ARRGH) - You can't transfer out domains with limited privacy (FALSE) - Just change privacy to "off" and retry (ARRGH) - You can't speed up transfers to other registrars, but only to other GD accounts (FALSE) - Just wait 5 days (ARRRGH) I tried explaining to them: - That the domains are unlocked. - Privacy has been switched to limited. - Transfer out can be done within 30 days after expiration (at least). - Even then, 35 of the 37 transfers were not expired. - Several of the sub-batches had ZERO expired domains. - That I've personally sped up THOUSANDS of transfers using the exact same steps. - That I actually received the expected emails from GD saying the domains have been removed from @afternic (normal). Worse is that ICANN WhoIs show the domains as "pendingTransfer"! Also, that I'm not alone to experience this. Both things I was going to tell them in my last help session .. if the supervisor had not prematurely cut the session. 2.5 + 0.5 = 3 hours completely wasted in chat, with the last supervisor actually cutting off the chat on me. I fell bad for your chat agents as clearly they have too little training on your products. I can't even rate the experience a 0/10 because they are so extremely inept (on your product). I actually should be charging you for the 3+ hours I spent trying to train your agents and try to be my own tech support. As bad as it is, I wouldn't even have minded them saying they "don't know how transfers work" and then escalating the issue and connecting me to a higher support level. But to continuously push back, waste my time and actually tell me false information and making me seem like I'm the one who is wrong? NO EXCUSES! It boggles my mind management made the decision to continuously make personnel cuts over recent years without knowing that things like this would be the obvious results! You need to issue apologies to your clients and ironically also apologize to those poor chat agents who have clearly been undertrained and left alone to the wolves over a holiday weekend. Note that my personal @GoDaddy rep is AMAZING .. truly outstanding .. an 11/10 .. so it's not like GD doesn't understand what great support can potentially be .. but this experience from your chat support is so horrendous that the blame can only be placed on management decisions to cut costs ahead of increasing customer experience and care! What bothers me most is that over the years I've talked to many employees and upper management, and they are mostly all super nice people, who genuinely care about the GD platform and customer care and experience. I actually feel bad for them. I have seen some improvements over recent years, but not nearly enough. @sh0kunin instead of cutting and turning more and more to AI, maybe actually turn to the remaining employees and get the REAL people who understand the REAL problems at GoDaddy to elevate your offerings, products, services and support up to a standard you could actually be proud of ... As opposed to buggy platforms with buggy products, unclear automated communications, unreliable services and inconsistent help ranging from -1000/10 to +11/10 (my rep seriously deserves a raise and promotion .. particularly for being assigned to me .. lol .. his only weakness is that he doesn't work 24/7). I'll be the first to admit GD is a big ship to steer, and it will never realistically be perfect .. I often push back on fellow domainers who demand nothing but perfection .. But this isn't just about a super frustrating long-weekend bug .. it's one in a long series of issues that point towards an unacceptable overall product and customer experience. @AGreatDomain @DomainNameWire @DomainSherpa @AlanShiflett @jjstyler @DomainGang @DInvesting @DNJournal @DotWeekly @TLDInvestors @DomainIncite @joedomains @abcproductions .. and yes @jamesiles .. lol .. I'll (eventually) send you an email with chat logs, screenshots and details. :) OK .. so now does anybody want to know how I really feel ?!? lol & sigh