Experienced domain broker, Arif Sengoren, has had a lengthy career spanning more than 13 years. From Nokta, to DomainNameSales, to Uniregistry, Arif has a compelling story to tell that involves millions of dollars in domain sales.
As the founder of Secret Brokerage, Arif Sengoren provides personalized domain acquisition services to corporate clients; as the SVP of Domain Sales at CryptoExchange.com, Arif is the bridge between the domain industry and the company’s use of crypto and the blockchain to facilitate fast, secure domain sales.
Arif Sengoren | Secret Brokerage & CryptoExchange.com
We reached out to Arif to hear more details about his extensive past experience and his current endeavors.
Note: CryptoExchange.com is a premium sponsor of DomainGang.
Arif, please tell us a bit about your business background, and your current functions as founder of Secret Brokerage.
Arif Sengoren: I got into the domain business in 2010 with Nokta Domains (They were acquired by Huge Domains later). They showed me the magical world of domains and I had the opportunity to learn/work almost every single part of domain investing: Registrations, acquisitions, PPC, sales, marketing/outbound. I attended lots of conferences and met almost the entire world of domains (That’s what I thought at that time) during my time there.
Nokta taught me what the domains are and what their potential is. My time ended with Nokta at 2015 and at the same year, I started working for DomainNameSales.com/Uniregistry (They got acquired by GoDaddy later) as a domain broker.
Uniregistry showed me how deep the rabbit hole is. I had the privilege of working with the famous faces and pioneers of the industry. Uniregistry taught me how to deal with large transactions, how and when to say “no”and, how to deal with lots and different kinds of clients at the same time. Unfortunately, everything has an end and my time ended with Uniregistry at 2019.
After a few chill months with non-stop deliberation and almost 10 years as an employee (we could say “ex” employee), I wanted to taste of working for myself. That’s when the Secret Brokerage idea started and came to life in 2020.
Since there are LOTS of ways to sell domains (newsletter, marketplaces, brokers, even registrars), I didn’t want to start a selling oriented brokerage. Instead, I experienced and found out that the number of people/companies focused on acquisition, appraisal and management. I decided to focus on those and built the business on these parts of the industry.
What is the profile of a typical client of Secret Brokerage?
Arif Sengoren: Most of our clients are corporate companies and start-ups, as well as a few domainers and solopreneurs.
Arif, tell us what what makes Secret Brokerage stand out from the rest of the crowd, as far as domain acquisition services go.
Arif Sengoren: Secret Brokerage is the only brokerage focused on domain acquisition, appraisal and management. The rest of the companies/people/brokers are heavily focused on selling.
Our commission model is unique as our services: While the standard commission rate in the market changes from 10% to 25%, our flat fee is 5% plus, 15% of the discounts we manage to get through the negotiations. It’s a win-win scenario for our clients and us. And, we have a $99 initial price to get to work. The only reason we charge $99 at the beginning is to eliminate people that are not serious.
Here is a quick example: Let’s say a client of ours wants to acquire a domain and the asking price is $50K and let’s say we manage to bring the price down to $35K. Then, our commission is 5% of the $35K + 15% of the $15K = $1,750 + $2,250 = $4,000. A regular commission for a $35K deal is $5,250.
We do not cherry pick clients. We always do our best to make a deal happen whether it is a $1K or $1M deal. We keep on working for the domains that our clients would like to acquire for a long time. How long? Sometimes, until the domain expires and we acquire them through drops. There were domains that our clients were willing to pay up to $50K but we acquired them through drop services for way lower and sometimes for $59 dollars!
Trust and ethics are the most important things we consider. We always prefer losing money over a client. That’s why most of our clients have been working with us for more than 2 years. Moreover, some of our clients won’t even use escrow for the payment, send us the whole amount, we acquire the domain and transfer them. Vice versa, sometimes, we acquire a domain before getting paid, then we handle the payment with our client.
We’re a boutique brokerage. We mostly work 7-days a week around 15-16 hours. Therefore, our customers are able to get in touch with us whenever they need to.
Please share three things that you’d advise company founders, with regard to brands and domains.
Arif Sengoren: My wife is interior architect and doing heavily render work for her clients. To have a high quality render work and to have that fast, she has to use render/gaming computers and they are quite expensive. She recently bought a laptop that cost her almost $5K US. There were more expensive laptops with better and worse features (ex. graphics card, processor, etc). We took some time to research and found out this is the best once she could buy. That’s just the laptop. The laptop is not the result itself, but, it really helps to get premium results with a timely manner. So, only a premium domain won’t get results for anyone, but it helps a lot to step up in your business and against competitors. It’s the best to acquire the best domain for the business at the beginning so that will boost the business way more than you can imagine. That’s number one.
Number two, spend your money wisely. Buying the best domain for your business doesn’t mean you HAVE TO spend hundreds of thousands. Sometimes an ideal domain sits idle in a marketplace for a few thousands of dollars. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Take your time for a research.
Number three, always consult someone. Sometimes, it’s your friends, sometimes colleagues, sometimes partners and sometimes brokers. A few extra thousands spent to a broker will save you WAY more than that, without a doubt. And number four, if you decide to consult/work with a broker, choose your broker wisely
Anything else you’d like to add about Secret Brokerage?
Arif Sengoren: Personally, I’m one of the few people in the business doing this professionally (not like a side hustle) since 2010. Consider working with us, consider using this experience. Sometimes even a 5-minute free phone call or a few back and forth e-mails can save you a lot, maybe more than you could imagine.
Domains and crypto: What makes this relationship unique and how does CryptoExchange.com handle the exchange of domains & crypto.
Arif Sengoren: Domains and crypto are both unique assets. What is unique between them is most of successful domain related people saw crypto was coming while the rest of the world watching. Does that ring a bell? Yes, it was exactly the same with the domains. The world was watching while a very limited of people were busy registering/buying them 20-25 years ago. Additionally, like it or not, believe it or not, cryptos have been liquid assets for a long time. Therefore, why don’t someone buy/sell domain with crypto with a trusted escrow service? CryptoExchange.com goes in at this stage. It’s a simple escrow service that provides buying/selling assets (domains, cars, jewellery, Youtube channels etc.) with crypto and with a small fee.
Describe your role at the company; is it challenging, complex, rewarding, etc.
Arif Sengoren: My role is to try creating a bridge (and maintaining that bridge) between domain industry and the company. Other than that, SecretBrokerage.com is the exclusive broker of CryptoExchange.com. The first part is surprisingly challenging because lots of people, even from within the industry, are having hard time to believe the service itself as it’s the first of its kind.
Are regulatory differences (eg. US vs. Canada & Europe/Asia) making certain operation tasks impossible? How do you overcome that?
Arif Sengoren: Anyone who can send/receive crypto can use CryptoExchange.com without a problem and doubt. Simple as that!
The future of domain name sales as related to the blockchain ledgers and their exchange with crypto, as opposed to fiat money.
Arif Sengoren: It is hard to predict that the domain sales as related to the blockchain ledgers and their exchange with crypto, as opposed to fiat money. But, here is a starter. However, I don’t think that’s going to happen like 100% as I don’t see confidential sales are going away anytime soon. However, blockchain technology has already been bringing a lot to the world and to the domain industry and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Anything else you’d like to add about Crypto Exchange?
Arif Sengoren: Until recently, it was quite hard to do transaction with crypto. However, those days are gone. Try CryptoExchange.com and you won’t regret it. Get in touch with me or the company for feedback, comments and service suggestions.
Arif, thank you very much for this extensive interview; we wish you best of success with your ventures, assisting companies acquire their dream domains and domainers to buy and sell domains using crypto.
Thanks for this wonderful interview. I’ve worked with Mr. Arif when he was working with Uniregistry. He is a great person to deal with.