Afternic FAQs & Help

Afternic is the world’s largest domain marketplace, providing domain owners a global distribution platform to buy, park, and sell names.  Afternic’s Domain Listing Service (DLS) includes the world’s top registrars and reaches 35 million prospective buyers each month. Afternic’s domain services team has 100+ years collective industry experience and delivers industry-high average domain sale prices for sellers. Afternic’s state of the art monetization platforms also enable sellers to earn while their domains are listed for sale.   

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Yes!  Your priced domains will now appear in Go Daddy’s main search results. DLS names that are priced and live in the system will show up as premium offerings when a Go Daddy customer does a search.  If they click the “Buy Now” option they will be able to purchase the domain name on the Go Daddy site. Note that domains sold through Go Daddy do go through Afternic’s escrow process.

Domain parking allows you to display web pages and earn revenue through Afternic. Content on parked pages is optimized based on keywords to display relevant advertising, generating revenue for the domain owner when site visitors click on ads. Domain owners can also opt to display a “for sale” link on parked pages, generating inquiries from potential buyers. Afternic parking offers several domain development options, including Enhanced PPC, Instant Shops and Full Content.

Before you can earn revenues from parking your pages, you must change your DNS settings so that your pages are pointed at Afternic’s Domain Name Servers (DNS).

Domain Name Servers are easily changed through your registrar. Click below for help to change your DNS with the following registrars:

GoDaddy | 1&1 Internet | eNom | Network Solutions | Register.com | Dotster (Video) | Moniker

For Afternic parking, your domain name servers should be set to ns1.afternic.com and ns2.afternic.com

Depending on the registrar, DNS changes may take up to 24-72 hours. You will be able to see your parked pages after the name servers have resolved. Please feel free to contact your account manager if you have any further questions.

DLS Premium promotion offers maximum exposure for your domains. Selecting DLS Premium promotion puts your domains in front of 35 million prospective buyers on 20+ partner sites. Domains in DLS Premium promotion are 18x more likely to sell than name(s) listed in only Basic Promotion.

When you park a domain with Afternic a “domain for sale” link appears on the page. This link increases the chance that your domain will sell by 500% versus domains not displaying this “for sale” link.

Learn more about:  Domain Parking

To retrieve your username or password, click here and your log in credentials will be sent to the email address you have on file.

Domain optimization is primarily the process of insuring the keywords of your domain align with the appropriate advertisers.  In addition to this, you can optimize the Theme, Template, Platform, Click-Through-Rate (CTR), Revenue-Per-Click (RPC), and more. By ensuring that your domain names are optimized you will maximize user actions on the page; this user activity will drive higher revenues for your portfolio.

Afternic’s integrated sales and parking platform enables domain owners to earn parking revenue while their names are listed for sale. Parking your domains on Afternic is simple:

1. If you aren’t already a member, create your Afternic account free of charge

2. Add your domains

3. Be sure to change your domain name servers (DNS); you cannot begin to earn parking revenue until your pages are pointed at Afternic

4. To ensure that you earn maximum revenue from your parked domains, take a moment to optimize your names

Buy Now Price: The Buy Now price is “ideally” what you’d like to get for the domain.  This is the price a buyer sees on the site and can purchase at that price immediately.  Please note: if unrealistic price expectations are set buyers may turn away and choose another name. Buy Now prices are binding.

Floor Price: The floor price is the amount Afternic sales executives can negotiate (if necessary) to close the sale without contacting you for approval.  Buyers do not see this price.  We recommend setting the floor price 20%-30% less than your Buy Now price.  This is a very effective way to help sell more domains for you on the spot.  The floor price allows your sales executive to pull a buyer into range if they cannot meet your buy now price.  Floor prices are binding.

Reserve Price: The reserve price is used with Afternic Auctions.  If a reserve price is met by a bidder, your domain will be pushed into a 7-day Closing Soon Auction.   At the end of the auction period, the seller is required to sell to the highest bidder.  If you do not have a reserve price on your listing, but receive an offer you would like to accept, you can set a reserve price at that time which is equal to that current offer. This will list your domain in an auction for 7 days, which may help you attract a higher offer.  Closing Soon Auctions are also promoted in RSS feeds subscribed by thousands of buyers and highlighted on the Afternic Buy page. Reserve prices are binding.

Minimum Price: The minimum offer price is the lowest amount anyone can submit for your domain.  It is often used as a starting point to help Afternic sales executives to pull the buyer into your range.  In other words, this is a conversation starter.  If you receive an offer at the minimum offer price you can either accept it, reject it, counter it, take no action at all (not recommended), send the buyer a message through the member-to-member messaging, or contact your sales executive to negotiate on your behalf (highly recommended).  Minimum prices are non-binding.

Pricing Example:

TIP: Use an excel spreadsheet to calculate your minimum offer price, floor price, and reserve prices with a simple percentage reduction.

Note: Offers you receive may fall somewhere between your minimum price and other binding price points (e.g., Buy Now, Floor, Reserve).  In this case, you are not required to sell until a binding price point is met.

If your domains are not showing in search, it’s possible they are still pending review.  Domains are reviewed within 1-2 business days, prior to active listings in order to maintain the quality and integrity of the marketplace for our members. To view the status of your domains, log into your account and select “My Dashboard”.  If have further questions, please contact Customer Service for assistance at service@afternic.com or 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide).

Afternic is committed to providing personalized service to our members. Our staff is the industry’s most trusted and experienced domain services team and we have helped thousands of domain sellers and buyers in more than 10 years of operation.

In order to help us respond to your inquiry quickly, please select from one of the five areas below that best meet your needs…

General Questions: For general customer service inquiries, email service@afternic.com or call our customer service team. 

If you submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within 48 hours.  Please feel free to contact us Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST at 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide).

Selling Questions: For questions with selling, email sales@afternic.com or call our customer service team.  If you submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within 48 hours.  Please feel free to contact us Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST at 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide).

Parking Questions: For questions with parking, email parking@afternic.com or call our customer service team.  If you submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within 48 hours.  Please feel free to contact us Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST at 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide).

Buying Questions: For questions on buying domains, email sales@afternic.com or call our customer service team.  If you submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within 48 hours.  Please feel free to contact us Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST at 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide).

Escrow Questions: For questions regarding escrow, email dnescrow@afternic.com, or call our customer service team.  If you submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within 48 hours.  Please feel free to contact us Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST at 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide).

Domains enter auction automatically once a buyer submits a bid that meets or exceeds your reserve price.  This will start a 7-day closing soon auction, where the highest bidder at the end of the 7-day period wins the domain name.

If you do not have a reserve price on your listing, but receive an offer you would like to accept, you can enter your reserve price at that time.  This price needs to be equal to the current offer.  This will enter the domain into a 7-day auction, where the highest bidder at the end of the 7-day period wins.  Closing soon auctions are featured on our buyer landing page.

Afternic partners with industry-leading registrars to provide special incentives for Afternic members, including savings on bulk registrations.  To maximize your sales potential we recommend you register your domain names through one of our Premium Promotion registrars so you can get your names in front of more buyers.  Call us at 866-351-9586 (US) or 781-839-7990 (worldwide), or email services@afternic.com.

Sellers can opt to list domains for sale through the Afternic DLS Network, or Afternic DLS Premium. The features and benefits of these distribution levels are outlined below:

DLS Network: Your domains will be promoted for sale to 25 million potential buyers each month, you will receive dedicated sales support and all sales are supported by Afternic’s secure escrow service. If you are parked with Afternic for a minimum 14 days before the domain is sold you pay only a 10% commission on the sales price. There is a 15% commission if you are not parked with Afternic. The commission minimum is $60.

DLS Premium: You receive all the benefits of the DLS Network plus promotion to an additional 10 million buyers monthly, an average sales price of $1,600 (vs. $1,200 for the DLS Network) and instant transfer capabilities which make your domains attractive to end-user buyers. Domains listed on DLS Premium must be registered with a Premium promotion partner. If you are parked with Afternic, there is only a 15% commission when you sell a domain. There is a 20% commission if you are not parked with Afternic. The commission minimum is $120. Acceptable TLD’s are .com, .net, .biz, and .org. Domains do need to be priced, and cannot exceed an asking price of $25,000.

Compare the Afternic Promotion Levels >>

Afternic’s DLS Premium option provides exposure to more than 35 million prospective buyers across a network of 20+ world-class partners and delivers an average sales price of $1,600. Domains listed through DLS Premium receive dedicated sales support by the industry’s most trusted and experience domain consultants, secure escrow transactions and qualify for instant transfer, making them especially attractive to the business buyers willing to pay top dollar for selected domains.

TIP: Parking your domains with Afternic and electing to have a “domain for sale” link display increases the chance that your domain will sell by 500%.