Advice Please

[honestman]

Hello every one
I'm thinking seriously to establish a domain reseller business ( new domain registration ) but I haven't practice such a business before and I don't know which ICANN registrar is the best . I plan to offer cheap domain registration with many free features
I was think of Enom but the best price offered by Enom is 6.95 for resellers but there are some resellers like Hostway.com offer the same price for individuals
Any advice will be appreciated .
Thank you .

 

[Jeff]

There are some references here in this thread to some of the different Registrar's:
http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3174

Enom $6.95 Reseller accounts go for a pretty penny, so I hear ... as their standard Reseller account has been upped to $8.95/per. I believe there may be one or two for sale/referral in the "Advertising Forum" at this time. I haven't had a chance to yet contact Hostway regarding their new offers to individuals (or whether they'll be offering the mainly Reseller "free push" option). Until you hear otherwise, I think you should stick with either Enom, NameCheap, GoDaddy, or Dotster ... depending upon your views after researching the contents of the thread provided. This research is paramount, IMHO.
If you wish, I can call Hostway now ... and report back here. Please PM me if it requires this type of urgency.
Thanks and Good Luck here.
PS. Welcome to Namepros!

 

[honestman]

Thank you CoolHost.com for your reply
I don't want to register one or two domains then resell them I want to have a website like hostway or namecheap.com ,,
What I want exactly is to make a website exactly like namecheap.com but with the price of hostway I want to be able to offer my customers a very good service with a very cheap price . ( $7.00 )
Thank you again for your reply

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Honestman I think you should check this out http://www.namefaqs.com/question/qstId/18.html .

 

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Dr.Pepper
Honestman I think you should check this out http://www.namefaqs.com/question/qstId/18.html .

Excellent, Dr. Pepps!
Thank you, and sorry that I misunderstood your initial inquiry, HonestMan.
If you're interested in becoming a Registrar .... big bucks!
Good Luck here.

 

[honestman]

Thank u Dr.Pepper
It is so far to be ICANN registrar ( Don't Have $70K )

 

[Jeff]

Originally posted by honestman
It is so far to be ICANN registrar ( Don't Have $70K )

I would imagine that would only be a chunk of the eventual money you'll need in order to get established, marketing, legal, support, so on and so forth. Very expensive and challenging proposition, IMHO.

 

[honestman]

yes coolhost i agree with you but till I become ICANN registrar I need to find a registrar to deal with ..
I want to be able to offer good and cheap service and make some $$$, any one can help ??

 

[RJ]

honestman, namecheap.com and registerfly.com are enom resellers. You could be one too.

You'll need to get yourself an eNom reseller account. Prices vary, but you can get from directly from eNom withg $6.95 prices if you deposit $6950 with them (credit towards purchasing 100 domains) Otherwise you can buy an account on the reseller market from another enom reseller.

Then you'll need the software to power your site. eNom has a great API which gives you the ability to build a site that will interface with their systems. They have sample code if you wanted to build your own, but you're probably better off starting with a prebuilt system like DRAMS (www.dramsystem.com)

Other option -- you can become a reseller with WildWestDomains. (like I did for my site at registermate.com) They'll provide you with a prebuilt site that you can brand with your own name and logo. Pricing is reasonable too.

 

[honestman]

Thanks RJ
as for enom yes true the best price is $6.95 but I'm still wondring how some resellers like Hostway.com offer $6.95 ???
even more I found someone who is not ICANN registrar and sell (TLD ) domins just for $5.95 so I'm still wondring how they can offer such a service with so low price so I'm still wondring who they deal with ..
any Idea ??
Thanks

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by honestman
Thanks RJ
as for enom yes true the best price is $6.95 but I'm still wondring how some resellers like Hostway.com offer $6.95 ???
even more I found someone who is not ICANN registrar and sell (TLD ) domins just for $5.95 so I'm still wondring how they can offer such a service with so low price so I'm still wondring who they deal with ..
any Idea ??
Thanks

The $5.95 people take a loss on the domain name because they automatically sign all their customers up in a $30/mo hosting plan. It's called loss leading.

Hostway also does something similar. They are a hosting company and sell the domains at a reduced rate to gain hosting customers. They are actually an Tucows/OpenSRS reseller ( http://resellers.tucows.com/opensrs/ )

 

[honestman]

I dont agree with you RJ
yes some force you to host with them but many others dont.
hostway doesn't force you to host with them ..
by the way the resell price for tucows.com is $10 and hostway.com sells for $6.95 ( with no host )
I still can't believe they loose money .
Have a look at this https://www.iregistrations.com
can you solve this puzzle for me ???

 

[SlashRoot.Com]

honestman

RJ is right only the money about the loss leader approach that many employ.

There are many startups that foolishly think they will eventually make money, only if they sell enough domains. The fact is, if one factors in real costs, they lose real money on every transaction. If they are in red on every transaction, things do not turn profitable simply because sales volume increases. If one loses little bit of money on one domain sale, (s)he loses more money as volume picks up. Unless there is another profitable product bundled with domain names, that is no way to make money.

Domain registration services provider has become a very competitive business. If someone thinks its possible to make a ton of money registering only domain names, I would like to sell him/her my beach front property in Kansas City.

Unless you have some unique product packaging to offer, domain names in themselves are mere cheap commodities. Offering only domain registration services and nothing else is like opening a new fast food outfit that sells only french fries, right across from McDonals and Burger King. Sure if your fries are the greatest and the cheapest, you will get some customers, and even repeat business. Would it pay the rent, or meet your cash-flow requirements? It is remotely possible, but not very likely, IMHO.

Most registrars offer deep discounts to volume customers. They often sell names at a price that is less than the price they give to their own resellers. It is a very competitive market. YMMV.

I did not mean to discourage you, honestman, just wanted to give you a few points to ponder.

SlashRoot

 

[Jeff]

Originally posted by honestman
I still can't believe they loose money .

I mentioned this in another thread, having to do with Hostway, others. They DO lose money in this venture on the actual domain name registrations. A little bit on each one. However, their REAL revenue comes from offering e-mail/hosting/DNS services, etc. Especially web hosting, obviously. The reasoning for this small loss on each domain registration is to make it more convenient for the buyer to have one place to go for both a domain name and hosting (and other value-added services). The Registrar's do this, is well ... but their offerings for hosting are much more limited. The likelihood of Hostway and others of opening up to a broader audience and selling value-added hosting services more than makes up for the nominal loss per domain registration, IMHO. This is all by design, and the concept is not new.
My two sense. :D

 

[honestman]

SlashRoot Thank you for sharing your ideas
RJ if you are familiar with Enom ( as a reseller for others ) , would you like please to tell us how to add funds to ur account I mean do they accept paypal or should be credit card , if you add $100 r they going to deduct the transection- fees from your account ?
how you accept payment from individuals ? you should make agreement with a bank to prosess the credit cards or what ?
when an individual ( customer ) pays money where this money will go to ? to your personal account at the bank ? or to your enom account ? and what about the transection- fees in this case ?
What about the customers support ? is it your responsiblity or it's Enom's ( like WildWestDomains )
Thank you

 

[RJ]

Originally posted by honestman
Have a look at this https://www.iregistrations.com
can you solve this puzzle for me ???

Not a puzzle, in fact I already mentioned them in my last post, though not by name.

If you read the fine print at that site, they sign every one of their domain customers up with a $30/mo hosting plan. All it takes is 1 out of 30 customers to go for it for even one month and they've roughly broken even. Everything above that is profit.

It's all different business strategy. Sell for a loss, make your profit on the back end.

I heard somewhere that systems like XBox and Playstation were being sold at a loss by their manufacturers, because they make their profit on the games. I don't know if it's true, but it exemplifies the same concept of a loss leader.

 

[honestman]

what about the following any one can help ?

RJ if you are familiar with Enom ( as a reseller for others ) , would you like please to tell us how to add funds to ur account I mean do they accept paypal or should be credit card , if you add $100 r they going to deduct the transection- fees from your account ?
how you accept payment from individuals ? you should make agreement with a bank to prosess the credit cards or what ?
when an individual ( customer ) pays money where this money will go to ? to your personal account at the bank ? or to your enom account ? and what about the transection- fees in this case ?
What about the customers support ? is it your responsiblity or it's Enom's ( like WildWestDomains )

Thank you

 

[kohashi]

www.directi.com
www.onlinenic.com
www.enom.com
www.wildwestdomains.com
www.registerfly.com
www.namecheap.com
www.dotster.com

i think those are all worth looking at and seeing which offer the best prices and features for the least amount of money. Dont just listen to everyone else... you should read about what each has to offer then ask about certain features and aspects to see if the company can keep up to its word.