More data and an easier offer submission process come to self-brokering.

When Afternic launched self-brokering in March, it was decidedly bare bones. Call it an alpha version.

Although it still has a long way to go, the platform has since released several improvements.

There are three improvements worth calling out.

1. More lead insights – previously, you could only see the buyer’s country and timezone. Now, you can see how they answered Afternic’s screening questions (why the buyer wants the domain and if they are a first-time buyer).
2. No account registration required – buyers can now submit an offer without creating a GoDaddy account. This was a significant friction point I noted when the system was released. Now, users can submit an offer by just verifying their email address. That said, the verbiage in that process suggests the person is creating an account, not merely verifying their email, which could reduce inquiries. [Update: it turns out they are creating an actual GoDaddy account, but the sign up process only requires their email.]
3. You can now communicate with the buyer after they accept a deal. This allows you to push them toward making the actual payment.

There’s still a lot to be done, but it’s nice to see these incremental improvements. I’d like to see further refinement of the login/verification process, as well as the ability to self-broker leads submitted through the Request Price lander, rather than requiring an offer on the Custom Lander.

More improvements are highlighted in this GoDaddy update.