A new more Domainer's centered CUSTOM Registrar ?

[dotnom]

We see all this time an effort from fellow users here in this forum (badger and cfguru360) to create something unique to domain parking business
We also see the uncertainty of many domainers where to register, renew or transfer their names and after doing my research i want to ask for your opinion regarding :

"Why don't we create a registrar that will serve exactly our needs and not bow at the demands of each commercial registrar ?"

I'm talking about a registrar that will be more for domainers and less for end-users
A registrar that will use this forum (for example) for their support and have direct communication with domainers
(the only registrar owner i spoke through a forum was the owner of NameCheap.com)
I know the costs up to the last $1 and we can cover it with my company, so money is not problem

However i fail to see the business plan
We all love domains and this is what we like to buy but names by themselves have NO profit
With $0.45 profit per domain gross minus the cc processor (for paypal say 2.5% + $0.30 for the $6.95 transaction would be $0.47) you have $0.02 loss for every domain

So do you think it will be ever possible to create a registrar without selling hosting and ssl certificates or wait the 2nd year to get the losses of the first one ?
Do you think that a domainer's centered registrar will be able to exist when most of them rely to end-users waiting to charge them the extra services to make money ?

The microphone to you ....

 

[.X.]

This a tough one to answer, the process of accreditition is tough enough, But, for instance, Godaddy, once you use thier promo discount codes, they make 90 cents on a DN alot of the times, I remember a couple of years ago, they had $3.27 .com regges, so they were taking a substancial loss, even though it only lasted about 48 hours, they had to eat some cash on that promo, We do need a domainers register, without all the junk, hosting,SSL and ect, But how is possible to sell a .com for less than ..say..6.50? That is making mere pennies,it would ad up with over 50K domainers regging names every day, But would it pay the bills? bandwidth, promotion and ect, I like what you are thinking ..dotnom...i would love nothing more than to see it happen.

 

[dotnom]

From the replies i don't see i assume most of the people are happy with the way things are today or they believe there is no solution to this, right ?

 

[.X.]

From the replies i don't see i assume most of the people are happy with the way things are today or they believe there is no solution to this, right ?

I would definatly agree with you on that, the reason why, how does one over rule the likes of GD and registers that have built a fortune 500 company, it would take millions of dollars just to begin that task, It is a matter of tolerance on the domainers end imo, we have a tendency to get frustrated with one register and move to another, i have done this myself, only to end up at the same register that hacked me off to begin with, There are bundles of politics in this industry, that doesn't help matters either.

 

[dotnom]

I know what you mean, but i refuse to accept that this is the way things will be at the future. I applause GD for the risk he took but realistically he offers a simple sevice with a lot of marketing sauce. I don't plan to make a registrar to take GD down (unless i find betters boobs than him, which is also doubtful) but something that will make domainers lives easier and profitable keeping also the registrar to positive profit numbers

 

[.X.]

I know what you mean, but i refuse to accept that this is the way things will be at the future. I applause GD for the risk he took but realistically he offers a simple sevice with a lot of marketing sauce. I don't plan to make a registrar to take GD down (unless i find betters boobs than him, which is also doubtful) but something that will make domainers lives easier and profitable keeping also the registrar to positive profit numbers

:D about the boobs, Considering we are moving toward the 60K member mark here at NP, I think your idea is grrrrreat! it would be a matter of tugging domainers away from these monster reges, but i feel it can be done, and i would certainly take advantage of a nice domain register that just caters to the domainer

 

[IAmAllanShore]

Costs:
Marketing
Tech Support
Insurance
Verisign's blood money
ICANN's .22
Hosting/Bandwidth

And those are only the unit costs, not taking into account the huge up front fees.

You can't make a profit selling domain names alone unless you are doing it at >$8.25 or so, and at that point you've lost your competitive edge.

I think a lot of us have run the numbers at different points in the evolution of the industry, but found it to be untenable.

-Allan :gl:

 

[BinderGang]

If any domainer here comes across a great idea that Google buys out for millions to billions of dollars...then and only then, do I see this happening.

 

[Spade]

The truth of the matter is that a domain registrar that already exists needs to change or atleast form a secondary service to cater specifically to domainers. For example, GoDaddy at one point created BlueRazor - this registrar was designed simply to be a subscription registrar with discounted domain names. Now that GD's domain charges are low already, they might as well "adjust" blue razor to cater specifically to Domainers.

They could also, I would imagine transfer between the registrars - so If you sold a domain name - it could be transfed to a GoDaddy account.

I think they have the resources, functionality, and setup to do it. Its just about them seeing the market and going after it. They should offer a flat fee registration, and it should specifically be marketed towards domainers with a minimum of domain names. Lets say 100, 200, 500, or even 1k.

They get a different kind of support, and special "considerations" or atleast adhere to the Domainers Bill of Rights.... I think it could be done, and should be done.

Justin

 

[Dave_Z]

Co-op registrar, anyone?

 

[dotnom]

Costs:
Marketing
Tech Support
Insurance
Verisign's blood money
ICANN's .22
Hosting/Bandwidth

All these were taken under consideration
My idea is to limit the marketing to zero level, i know is essential but something must be cut out from the equation to start align the numbers
Less or no phone tech support but good email support

The biggest amounts are not the figures you mention but that you have to prepay the domains you register. You buy in packs for 1000s the names per TLD so you understand that needs a great amount of money for this. Only 1000 take out of your pocket $6K

Another problem is the software solution. It's about $50K for a custom software of this importance, so an rental solution service at an already established registrar is needed.

With today's prices my calculations show a registrar cost at 6 registry+0.22 icann+0.25 registrar expense per name = $6.47
The lowest i can think is $6.69 for a pack of XX or XXX names

I'm not daydreaming or ask non relavant questions
I have two companies i already talked and they are interested as long as i can make them a viable business plan

My idea is to create a shared revenue registrar. Not only provide low or average cost names but the members of the registrar to take commissions for the total amount of profits of the registrar.

- What do you think about the profitability of this registrar ?
- What extra service you would be comfortable to pay (for example whois protection) ?
- Would you support the creation of this registrar by spreading the news and make it viral ?
- What volume of names you are willing to send to this registrar ?

Microphone back to you....

 

[Name Trader]

Fabulous.com appear to relatively domainer friendly.