What price would you pay to join the ICA?

[equity78]

A lot of news today on the ICA (Internet Commerce Association)

Elliot Silver posted something on his blog and then I wrote a post about the ICA and industry companies putting together a discount/benefits package to members.

Membership is not cheap, it's cheaper than it once was for individuals but still pricey for many at $600.

Membership
Platinum Membership $25,000 USD and above
Gold Membership $10,000 – $24,999 USD
Silver Membership $5,000 – $9,999 USD
Bronze Membership $1,000 – $4,999 USD
Individual Membership $600 USD

I commend Nat Cohen and others who lowered the price after some of the conversations had. $600 is still too high, domain investor ranks are growing in many parts of the world and they don’t have $600 to donate to the ICA.

Coming up with a $99 option to grow the ranks makes sense in my opinion.

The other thing I always thought was that there should be benefits like how AARP does it.

Rick Schwartz in a comment on DomainInvesting.com articulated that same sentiment.

I want the ICA to succeed and be flushed with $$$.

Here is the issue and it has always been the issue. But there is a chance to change that.

Today I sent in my $145 for my NPPA membership. That’s the National Press Photographer’s Association that I’ve been a member of for nearly 40 years.

They give me press credentials and negotiate all types of deals and discounts and perks and all types of stuff that makes $145 not a payment but a down payment on benefits that pays dividends.

I’ve had my AAA card for 45 years. That cost me about $150 a year. But I get 10 times that back in benefits.

The ICA needs to have benefits. Lots of benefits and lots of members.

They need to learn how to market and make profit.

It has to be run like a business not like a charity.

You make profit by negotiating deals with suppliers that can only be found through the ICA. That gives people a reason to join. Without that you have no spark plug and that’s what the ICA and the industry needs to be effective and have a strong and wide voice.

I think that’s spot on and when you look at AARP you get a ton of benefits for a membership fee that is affordable to most.

So what price do you think would be reasonable for an individual membership that appealed to investors from all over the world?

Would the discounts and benefits be a determining factor for you to join, things like discounts on domain registrations at registrars, lower commissions at marketplaces, blogs giving you a discount off advertising, tools providers giving discounts like DomainIQ, Efty, DNAcademy etc...

 

[Furquan]

Wow, here is the response from Nat, he nailed it all. To all those who want some perk and more.

Isn’t protecting your domain names enough? It’s all very well and good to issue emergency alerts for the ICA to step in. But if the domain community doesn’t support the ICA, then there is no one to step in.

Do you expect your fire department to give you free movie tickets? Or is stopping your house from burning down enough of a benefit?

This idea that the ICA needs to offer people tangible benefits before it deserves support is nonsense. (I don't know but it will be my line if I was in ICA) Maybe some people will only contribute if it is immediately profitable for them, but that means that they are free riding on those members who do contribute for the benefit of themselves and the entire domain industry.

 

[Ategy]

Honestly .. I wouldn't want a TShirt or anything else. I want all the money to go to pay for whatever it is they need to fight the good fight. Be it paying for Zak (thanks Zak for all your work) to travel to ICANN sessions or to paying lawyers to protect domainers.

I do think it couldn't hurt if they did approach industry businesses for discounts and such .. that could be effective at swaying new members to join .. as long as it doesn't actually cost them anything (like a T-Shirt).

I personally wouldn't think twice if it was $10/month .. maybe $20/month .. that's the price of 1-2 domains.

This is my third year domaining and first being comfortably profitable. I was looking at the $50/month .. but I'm not quite there yet (those of you who follow my blog/daily lists know that I had a previous non-internet side-business where I had a pretty big loss because of the death of our middleman mid-transaction .. so at the moment my domain profits are helping pay back those debts).

$10/m and I sign up tomorrow
$20/m and I probably sign up tomorrow


All that said .. thanks to the ICA for all their work!

I try to help as much as I can .. I post a considerable amounts of what I hope is helpful information whenever I see someone ask about trademarks or UDRPs .. I'm currently helping a fellow domainer fight a very abusive Global Top 100 Brand.


Also .. big thanks to @jberryhill for all his participation and sharing of knowledge here at NamePros!

 

[Business Brands]

$0

Their opinions are powerless. It is a waste of money. They need to direct all of the money towards litigation.

 

[Ategy]

$0
Their opinions are powerless. It is a waste of money. They need to direct all of the money towards litigation.

Kinda hard for them to pay for the costs of litigation if people were to pay $0/year !?

 

[Business Brands]

Kind of hard to pay for your own litigation if you are wasting money on paying for opinions.

 

[Business Brands]

ICA is dancing around the fire while fueling the fire with movie tickets.

 

[Ategy]

Ah .. you meant domainers when you said "They need to direct all of the money towards litigation."?

I thought you were talking about the ICAs actions (do they defend some cases?)

That being said .. Zak goes to ICANN meetings to help set fairer policies that hopefully in some cases would avoid litigation in the first place.

I think that's the goal here .. to help fight for rules that will level the playing field and makes things more fair for domainers who aren't abusive toward legitimate trademarks in their domain registrations.

 

[Business Brands]

Only litigation can protect interests.

 

[Samer]

where is the:

“would only pay for lifetime membership”?

make that 700-800, charge 49-60 annually

$600 is too extreme, but you get what u pay for

 

[Business Brands]

And what exactly are you spending your money on?

 

[DpakH]

I don't know much about ICA.
Seems high fees.
What are the statistics of defending the UDRP case by ICA?
Thanks
DpakH

 

[Mister Funsky]

I voted 99 before reading any of the OP

 

[equity78]

He nailed nothing, did he persuade you to join?

I don't know much about ICA.
Seems high fees.
What are the statistics of defending the UDRP case by ICA?
Thanks
DpakH

They don't defend UDRP's.

 

[Rattyfish]

Wow, here is the response from Nat, he nailed it all. To all those who want some perk and more.

If firefighters asked for exorbitant fees and then rather than fight fires just sounded the alarm it would be the same question:

What am I paying for?

 

[Business Brands]

I am a member of the ICA.

Any serious domain investor should consider joining. They are one of the only groups looking out for registrant's rights.

At the same time, I realize most people are not in position to pay $600 or more every year.

I think having a lower dollar option, to create more inclusion makes a lot of sense.

Brad

So what have ICA done for you?

 

[Grego85]

I'm still waiting for my $200 investment to BaseballWorld's domain group to payoff

should be any day now

 

[catchmesleeping]

They should consider a 'free' option. Often times people with more money have less time, and people with less money have more free time. From what I've seen, most of the current members of the ICA really don't have time to be active participants in the ICANN process. They should have some kind of membership program, where by participating in an ICANN mailing list or perhaps joining ICANN as part of the business constituency, you could be offered membership and access to the ICA.

 

[JKE]

The current $600 is too expensive for me.

$100 is the best price that I can afford.

 

[biggie]

Hi

i'm thinking... puff, puff...

if, ica wanted to grow a base, like a political party, or like a "union"
where the volume of membership could add weight, for opposition to consider, prior to taking action against member of said group

then.....
they would reduce membership fee to $100 a year or less, as a gesture of inclusion.

they could also solicit registrars, ppc's, paid for appraisal services, forum membership fee's etc. to add a "donate" button of $1 to ica

there are some here on np who pay for badges, what if NP donated $1 from each payment to ica and in turn NP gets recognized as ica sponsor?

many still use ppc, one could elect to donate $1 from their monthly payments to ica

there are ways for them to grow it's base and cash reserves, but they have to be willing to reach out.

imo...

 

[The Durfer]

i said $99/year, it just seems like a membership amount. ty

 

[Chris Hydrick]

How many members do they have now?

84

Can anyone help answer what the ICA actually does, or why anybody would want to join them?

Granted, this doesn't apply to every ICA member, but of those 84 members, I've seen a few ICA members (or badges) that I would never want to be associated with, in any capacity. Thus, why risk associating myself with such undesirable people, mostly the anti-nameproer's.

With such representation, I run far, far away from such thoughts of ever aligning myself with this organization. Even if this organization was meant for good, or has done good, it's a shame such members exist (or pay for a badge / title that may look good to unknowing crowds) and by proxy, has tarnished an intended reputation to the point of this comment.

 

[equity78]

Can anyone help answer what the ICA actually does, or why anybody would want to join them?

Granted, this doesn't apply to every ICA member, but of those 84 members, I've seen a few ICA members (or badges) that I would not want to be associated with, in any way capacity. Thus, why risk associating myself with such undesirable people, mostly the anti-nameproer's.

With such representation, I run far, far away from such thoughts of ever aligning myself with this organization. Even if this organization was meant for good, or has done good, it's a shame such members exist and by proxy, has tarnished the intended reputation to the point of this comment.

That is another component to all of this. It's always when someone says We or Our I ask, "Who is we?"

Because over the years I have had people say they did not want to associate with all kinds of people.

"I could never stand with X he owns porn names, porn names are disgusting to me."

"I can't belong to a group that has that scumbag."

One was "I can't be associated to a domain hoarder, people who own 100,000 plus domains make me sick!"

The last one I thought was interesting the person drew a line at how many names to own was ok, he told me he owned roughly 800, I told him there are many outside of domaining that would call you a hoarder. He did not agree.

Hell I have recommended people join here who have told me they can't because so and so is a member.

 

[equity78]

Hi

i'm thinking... puff, puff...

if, ica wanted to grow a base, like a political party, or like a "union"
where the volume of membership could add weight, for opposition to consider, prior to taking action against member of said group

then.....
they would reduce membership fee to $100 a year or less, as a gesture of inclusion.

they could also solicit registrars, ppc's, paid for appraisal services, forum membership fee's etc. to add a "donate" button of $1 to ica

there are some here on np who pay for badges, what if NP donated $1 from each payment to ica and in turn NP gets recognized as ica sponsor?

many still use ppc, one could elect to donate $1 from their monthly payments to ica

there are ways for them to grow it's base and cash reserves, but they have to be willing to reach out.

imo...

You make some good points Don, now I got an email when I wrote my post about the ICA on TheDomains.

The reader wrote, "No Frank, No Mike, No Rick, No Mann, No thank you."

One echo chamber roars another echo chamber basically says F U. I just wish people would stop using WE and OUR, we are not and were never all on the same side.

 

[Lox]

The Domain Name Rights Coalition ?
dnrc.tech / twitter

 

[equity78]

They should consider a 'free' option. Often times people with more money have less time, and people with less money have more free time. From what I've seen, most of the current members of the ICA really don't have time to be active participants in the ICANN process. They should have some kind of membership program, where by participating in an ICANN mailing list or perhaps joining ICANN as part of the business constituency, you could be offered membership and access to the ICA.

I am curious and nothing wrong with it, but you suggested free but voted $600.