Dynadot

I am planning to start a new domain registrar

Spaceship Spaceship
Watch

Recons.Com

Top Member
Impact
19,833
Dear NP members,

I am planning to start a new domain name registrar within a year.

I am aware that there are tons of them, but I have to find one yet that would be excellent in most categories.

I would love to hear some feedback as to what are the most important factors you are looking for in a registrar.

Some things that I have already decided upon:

- Price (for .com) at under $10 for general public and at $8.49 for domain investors (don't like the term domainers)

- Rich interface and functionality

- Name: probably am going with Regz.com

- Focus on what sells (.com, .org etc.) and stop confusing customers with lots of bad extensions

Again, comments and feedback are appreciated
 
Last edited:
31
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
If indeed the cost for a Registrar is around eight dollars then with what I pay at DynaDot they are making about nothing off me for dot coms.

I'd be mindful of what your margins are going to be, even at 8.49 you'll apparently make only .46 per, and still I would not change over to you because I pay a lot less at DynaDot.

Basically, the problem with your venture is - that in order to get a lot of clients you will need to make a lot of concessions and offer very low prices. And in order to accomplish all of that, you will end up with little or no profit margin. And therein lies the rub. Registar business is a very cutthroat one not one I would pick for a new venture.
 
Last edited:
1
•••
Thank you for such a detailed post.

I cannot target everyone. I won't target those who want to have everything, including cctlds, new gtlds etc., under the same roof. And, to be honest, don't see them right away moving everything to the new registrar.

My niche would be the most popular gtlds + most popular few cctlds and then basically making most sense for keeping valuable names with. Kind of opposite of NetSol.

I do have long term ideas and plans here. I want to make it possible for a domain owner to have his domains being treated as real assets, possible to pass as inheritance, for example. For me it has been a concern, for example. What happens to my valuable names, if I die suddenly? My kids are still young, my wife won't go anywhere near domains, and then they will go to domain vultures that will auction them off at expiring auctions and get all the money. The services, features, that will differentiated REGZ will be along those lines, primarily.

I see an easy way to accomplish your noble goal. Just have auctions for expired domains and give the owner or their heirs a fair share of the proceeds from the auctions. (y)
 
Last edited:
1
•••
Isn't it what Domain Guardians does ? There may be a market but in my opinion it is tiny, even domainers can't be bothered to make those arrangements. Those who are incorporated can do without such a service if they have a partner, and a documented inventory.

PS: perhaps you could add a poll with multiple options to your thread, in order to outline the features that are perceived to be most important.

I have a few in mind. And they were run by well-known and rather successful domainers. The registrars I have in mind were terminated by Icann due to payment arrears and sometimes on compliance grounds, such as failure to escrow whois data or maintain a functioning whois server on port 43.
I understand that the registrars were not public, in fact they may not have been used much at all. Probably the goal was to manage their own portfolios and do some dropcatching. It makes sense to be your own guinea pig first and then scale up when you're mature.
So that was about a decade ago.

Either it was not cost-effective for them, or they underestimated the administrative and financial burden this entails. One registrar owed 13.5K, another owed 30K.
I think they didn't plan ahead well enough. A business plan must be realistic. Even if you anticipate to be profitable within a year you have to plan for less favorable scenarios and secure adequate, long-term funding for your business.
I also need to stress the need for compliance. Your IT operations have to be smooth and reliable. Loose accounting practices or bad whois maintenance are things that will jeopardize your status as accredited registrar. Laziness, failure to address complaints or implement UDRP rulings will also cause problems and can lead to termination.

In conclusion, domainers do not automatically make good business managers, they are not always good at running a domain registrar.
Domainer-friendly registrars, or registrars made by domainers for domainers are not as popular among domainers as they should. I think that trust is an issue, and people are creatures of habits too.
It takes a long time to establish trust. If I were to start a registrar I would not expect industry recognition in just one year. Not even in 5 years.
Look at all the registrars (your future competitors) that are more or less well-known/popular today, and when they were established. They are not young.
You really have to aim for the long term to be successful. In one year you will still be the new kid on the block. If you are not prepared for a slow growth, you will be discouraged and lose motivation, and money. I mean it.

Responding from phone, so apologies if miss something.

Domain guardians: not sure what they do. Seems like now they focus on promoting new brand evergreen.

Poll: did not do it on purpose. Preferred to get discussion rather than percentages.

Compliance: third party that is experienced in this will make sure everything is in compliance for a fee.

Competitors: My focus will be different from gd, ns, ns, dd, nc, etc. Not head to head competition.
 
0
•••
this name does not look professional

There is no name everyone will like, unless it is something like class.com ))

More than half of pros like it, that is a great start for a brand. Think about it:

REGistrar - only handful of 4l names would be descriptive and pronounceable enough and Regz is one of them, others being rego, regs, rega, regy, regi, regu, namo, namy etc. Whoever will think it is not good enough will soon get over it, like they did for Microsoft, name cheap, godaddy, etc. But advantage of being short, descriptive, memorable, tm-able well remain.
 
1
•••
I see an easy way to accomplish your noble goal. Just have auctions for expired domains and give the owner or their heirs a fair share of the proceeds from the auctions. (y)

That is an amazing idea 💡!

Thank you
 
0
•••
I think you can do it. And we know you'll be on NP to give out support! :xf.grin:
 
0
•••
No regrets, follow your dream, build a better mousetrap
 
2
•••
others being rego, regs, rega, regy, regi, regu,
I sold regys.com 😀

I like Regz.com just fine. Along the lines of Bidz.com, Hotz.com, Padz.com, Menz.com, Eatz.com type sites, they convey what they need to with a Z. Not many people have 1.2M laying around to buy the S.
 
0
•••
I sold the perfect domain name for a new Register for $1200. (too cheap) not long ago. Buyer used it as a redirect only.
 
0
•••
Terrific idea! I would be hapy to test the beta waters with few of my domains.

As for the ideas: for me, apart of obvious reliability and pricing etc etc, the most important is handy interface. And convenient bulk operations. An user should be able to easily choose groups or bunches of units (domains) of any kinds and by any feature, and to process any possible bulk operations with them.

That's where Namecheap has fallen for example, once they change their UX, not too user friendly even before, to a new one that you can't do any bulk operation there at all, the very next week they lost couple hundreds of my domains, and i'm pretty sure i was not the only one. Heck even Namesilo is not so user friendly in this respect, once you have chosen a bunch of domains and done some bulk operation with them, their selection drops and for the next bulk operation you must select them one by one again. Sorry, these examples are not "other registrars review" but mere examples of how you should do better.

And the best of luck of course!
 
Last edited:
0
•••
I sold regys.com 😀

I like Regz.com just fine. Along the lines of Bidz.com, Hotz.com, Padz.com, Menz.com, Eatz.com type sites, they convey what they need to with a Z. Not many people have 1.2M laying around to buy the S.

Regys or Regy? )

Btw, strangely enough, the most popular names in the industry are the weirdly branded ones, including namesilo, dynadot, godaddy, namecheap and the ones on perfect name are mostly disliked, like register.com or domain.com ) Regz would be in between ) Or, wait, should I come up with something weird like, nametower, tntdot, gogranny, namedirtcheap? ))
 
2
•••
Good luck @Recons.Com . It is certainly a great idea. You have the business experience and skills to succeed. The name is good and well known between domainers but did you think of non domainers if they will be able to easily remember?

Thank you, Abdullah

People can remember 4L acronyms, more so if they are pronounceable. But, will definitely test that before launch.
 
1
•••
If indeed the cost for a Registrar is around eight dollars then with what I pay at DynaDot they are making about nothing off me for dot coms.

I'd be mindful of what your margins are going to be, even at 8.49 you'll apparently make only .46 per, and still I would not change over to you because I pay a lot less at DynaDot.

Basically, the problem with your venture is - that in order to get a lot of clients you will need to make a lot of concessions and offer very low prices. And in order to accomplish all of that, you will end up with little or no profit margin. And therein lies the rub. Registar business is a very cutthroat one not one I would pick for a new venture.

If you add the credit card processing fees, $8.49 is close to at cost. But, again, I am not targeting for anyone to switch to me. I will have a value proposition that makes sense for a segment. Normally trying to target everyone does not work for a business.

Also please note that if a business can get customers even at break-even that represent certain target audience, that in itself is valuable. Who registers domains? Domain investors, entrepreneurs, webmasters, IT guys, startups, bloggers etc. That is an important audience you get to work with.
 
1
•••
2
•••
I sold the perfect domain name for a new Register for $1200. (too cheap) not long ago. Buyer used it as a redirect only.

Would you share what was the name? )
 
0
•••
Terrific idea! I would be hapy to test the beta waters with few of my domains.

As for the ideas: for me, apart of obvious reliability and pricing etc etc, the most important is handy interface. And convenient bulk operations. An user should be able to easily choose groups or bunches of units (domains) of any kinds and by any feature, and to process any possible bulk operations with them.

That's where Namecheap has fallen for example, once they change their UX, not too user friendly even before, to a new one that you can't do any bulk operation there at all, the very next week they lost couple hundreds of my domains, and i'm pretty sure i was not the only one. Heck even Namesilo is not so user friendly in this respect, once you have chosen a bunch of domains and done some bulk operation with them, their selection drops and for the next bulk operation you must select them one by one again. Sorry, these examples are not "other registrars review" but mere examples of how you should do better.

And the best of luck of course!

Agree with you completely. Thank you. I found NC to be really confusing. They list with the domains their "services" (that I did not ask for in the first place). Very confusing.
 
1
•••
@Recons.Com We didn't forget about you )) How're things going?
 
1
•••
Regys or Regy? )

Btw, strangely enough, the most popular names in the industry are the weirdly branded ones, including namesilo, dynadot, godaddy, namecheap and the ones on perfect name are mostly disliked, like register.com or domain.com ) Regz would be in between ) Or, wait, should I come up with something weird like, nametower, tntdot, gogranny, namedirtcheap? ))
Does NameCaller strike your fancy? I can give the NP discount:laugh:
I would be happy to be a tester, keep us updated.
 
0
•••
Does NameCaller strike your fancy? I can give the NP discount:laugh:
I would be happy to be a tester, keep us updated.

Hi. Thank you for the suggestion )

I already registered a company under the name "Regz, LLC".

I already launched the process so the registrar should be live in few months.
 
1
•••
@Recons.Com We didn't forget about you )) How're things going?

Thank you for remembering ) Registered a company in Delaware few days ago and launched the process ) Will keep posted )
 
2
•••
It is an interesting idea, but profit margin on .com seems very low and competiiton high. Everyone want to register .com for cheapest possible price, particularly .com domain investors, and it is of course understandable.

This is the reason I would add some new gTLDs in the mix. One does not need to add ALL of them, but one can study which registries operate which new gTLD extensions, and maybe choose one or 2 new gTLD registries to cooperate with (sell their extensions).

Now, lets say you choose just one new gTLD extension to add to the mix, for example .vip, and agree some good deal with relevant registry, aka transfer promo. If the price of that promo is good and beats the competition, I can tell you that you will soon have thousands of .vip domains transferred to your registry. New gTLDs are generally more expensive then .com, and investors are therefore very price sensitive - in another words, whenever there is a good transfer promo, massive bulk transfers are on the way :)
 
0
•••
Dear NP members,

I am planning to start a new domain name registrar within a year.

I am aware that there are tons of them, but I have to find one yet that would be excellent in most categories.

I would love to hear some feedback as to what are the most important factors you are looking for in a registrar.

Some things that I have already decided upon:

- Price (for .com) at under $10 for general public and at $8.49 for domain investors (don't like the term domainers)

- Rich interface and functionality

- Name: probably am going with Regz.com

- Focus on what sells (.com, .org etc.) and stop confusing customers with lots of bad extensions

Again, comments and feedback are appreciated
Hope you can realize it in 2023 , awesome plan ...
 
0
•••
With the margins so low, I am not sure I am clear on the justification to start a registrar. The strong majority of what we pay goes to the registry and is not, supposedly, subject to deals. In fact regularly multiple registrars offer .com at less than their wholesale cost. They literally are losing money every time we register with them.

They can do this because they have expectations to get back in other ways such as hosting services, being part of a fast transfer network and commissions there, selling on their own marketplace, making money from names left to expire, etc. All of these need a pretty substantial scale to make sense. Also registrars are hit with with constant headaches dealing with legal and abuse issues brought to them, and need to stay in all the ICANN loops re regulations and compliance.

I just don't see the argument for a registrar. It seems to me now we have multiple choices that offer competitive rates, almost certainly as low as a new startup registrar could go even on a zero profit model, and numerous registrars offer a stable and attractive set of services for the domain community.

Personally, I think there is a greater need in the community for a new marketplace. I think there is lots of room there to use automation and technology and a creative mindset to make something that is not currently offered. Not under estimating the challenge of that too. Alter did many things very well, yet still in the end decided it was not worth it. Afternic/GD/Dan have so much market share hard to make inroads, and SH is innovating like crazy and now have $10 million more to up the pace even more. Still I would see more room to introduce something there than in registrar.

Anyway, best wishes if you do decide to follow it.

-Bob

PS I do see that the following argument presented by @Recons.Com is compelling, though;
"Who registers domains? Domain investors, entrepreneurs, webmasters, IT guys, startups, bloggers etc. That is an important audience you get to work with."
 
Last edited:
6
•••
Back