I am Todd Han, Founder of Dynadot, Ask Me Any Question

[Dynadot]

APA will begin Friday, May 22 from 4-6pm PDT, but wanted to open the thread now in case you're unable to join me during that time. If you have questions or comments you would like to make, feel free to submit them here and I will try to address them during the interactive interview session.​

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I started Dynadot in 2002, in a spare bedroom at home. I still remember getting my first order for $7.99, and jumping up and down in excitement. Back then Verisign charged $6 per .com domain, and there was no ICANN fee yet. In those early days I did everything: customer service, website programming, accounting, and marketing. As the business grew I eventually rented an office and starting building the excellent team running the company today.

I have loved computers since I was a child. Writing code and solving technical problems always came naturally to me. I studied computer science in college, and spent many hours in the dark underground computer labs at UC Berkeley. Sadly I stopped coding about 2 years ago, to focus on strategy and management. But someday I plan to return to my first love, computer programming.

Why did I start Dynadot? I was building a website for my mother for her vacation house. I was using another registrar, and thought to myself I could write a better control panel. Being young and naive, I didn’t think that much and just jumped in and applied to be a registrar. It is a competitive and difficult industry, but I have enjoyed all these years, and am proud of what we have built.

Ask me anything.

 

[Dynadot]

Mr. Han, some registrars offer a cheap .com domain, but only one or more per customer. For example, GoDaddy $1.17, Fasthosts £1.99, 123 Reg £2.99, Porkbun $4.15, etc. (a more complete list is in my signature). Why doesn't Dynadot have such an offer? Are you planning something like this in the future?

Thank you for this suggestion. You are correct that we don’t have many below cost offers. I guess one reason is that you have to make up the money in some other way. For example by charging higher renewals or upselling other products.

Our current pricing philosophy is to charge a tiny margin on top of the registry and ICANN costs. Then we push costs down by automating as much of our business processes as possible. Finally we drive volume to get economies of scale.

- Todd

 

[Dynadot]

Thank you everyone for your wonderful questions. You really made me think. I enjoyed this AMA very much. I am out of time for now.

- Todd

 

[Doron Vermaat]

I've really come to love Dynadot as a registar over the last few years (as I started using them for .co and .io registrations) and reading Todd his answers here (and meeting him at NamesCon in January) has even more confirmed for me what a great company he and his team have built over the years. Most importantly, many of the end-users I have sold domain names too are also happy to purchase a domain name that lives within Dynadot as the company has a great reputation with end-users, is US-based and free from any controversies.

Thanks Todd and @Dynadot for this AMA.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

Ask me anything.

I'm in San Mateo.

I've heard Dynadot is in San Mateo.

When things get back to normal, could it be arranged to meet a Dynadot representative for coffee and/or a chat?

<<in the mean time, maybe a open video call for all Dynadot customers to meet the Dynadot team?>>

I met @Joe Styler at a domainer meet up outside of a namescon event, and to this day, I appreciate that single interaction. I'd recommend more person to person experiences with other registrar/industry representatives to other members.

 

[xynames]

DynaDot marketplace - suggestion to include subject and message in reply to Domain Offers

DynaDot marketplace suggestion - minimum offer

 

[Samer]

You dont have to answer this;

What is your best domain?

Samer

 

[branding]

No questions but just wanted to show my respects as a developer, your interface is unmatched!

Great backstory. I think your company is partly(?) employee owned. Great to see a successful company embracing those that do all the hard work.

People usually follow the money, those that follow quality will surely end up at Dynadot.

 

[Sutruk]

What are the required total fees an ICANN-accredited registrar has to pay out yearly?

From https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registrar-fees-2018-08-10-en

"The annual accreditation fee for all registrars is US$4,000 per year. The registrar may pay the annual fee in one lump payment or if elected, in quarterly installments of US$1,000.00 each."

 

[Dynadot]

Hi Todd, for a long time I have received a virtual barrage of very low ball domain offers as low as $2 or $20 on good quality names. I have asked many times to let us establish minimum offer prices to no avail. Why can't you do that?

P.S. I think your user interface and system is the best of the best. My only issue is all the low-ballers on Dynadot.

Thank you for this valuable feedback. We depend on our customers to tell us how to improve our system. Pretty much every feature in our control panel is the result of a customer suggestion or complaint.

Yes a minimum offer amount is scheduled to be deployed very soon.

- Todd

 

[Skyvisum]

I am a fan of dynadot and love it

Just dont sell to GD and remain independent .I am sure they are watching this and would pitch something to try to take over .

Service has been excellent and my questions and issues gets taken care of through chat.I have got hundreds of domains with you so I am happy with the discounts I get to have them there.

.

 

[mAd MaX]

1. Any possibility of Payouts via wire transfer?

2. Processing fee of 5% on payouts is high, don't you think?

 

[Surya Giri Kurniawan]

Hi Tood. I had using Dynadot as my registrar for years. Until now most of my domains are registered in Dynadot.

I had one suggestion about Forum Name for transfering domains to other Dynadot account. It must be also seen in seller dashboard, not only in Community Auction Field. I had sold domains many times in Ebay, and always got problem for asking buyers the Forum Name. Many buyers sent me their Login names. I had to explain where Forum Name is located with screen shoot. Many ended with making account pull or with a new yahoo mail I made and I hand in the new account.

Honestly for me Dynadot and Godaddy are the best registrars. But buyers in Ebay usually think twice if the domain in Dynadot, it seems because it is not easy to find the Forum Name to transfer I guest. And because Dynadot doesn't sell good Website, Hosting and Email to easily integrated with domains. In Ebay writing Registered in Godaddy makes the domains easily sold.

By the way these are only my feedback. Thank you Todd. Wish a success for you.

 

[Dynadot]

Hi, Todd glad to know another inspiring story that you have started the business from a room at home. Wow! That's really amazing. My case is also quite familiar to yours. I was 20 when I started domaining, I don't have money to buy a domain so I borrowed money from a friend's credit card. I bought an NLN.com domain for around 150 and sold for $350 after a week and the story begins...

I just want to ask about your marketing strategies, where do you most advertise your products and services.

Thanks
Raj

Glad you had to courage to make that first domain investment. Congratulations!

Most of our marketing is through referrals from existing customers (word of mouth marketing). That is why we invest so much in our product and customer service teams. If we give customers a good experience, they will tell their family and friends.

Outside of that, we also run Google and Facebook ads. For our domain investor segment we attend NamesCon every year. For our retail segment we attend conferences like Techcrunch Disrupt and Start-up Grind.

- Todd

 

[Dynadot]

Hi Todd! I like dynadot too!
Nice to finally put a name to the registrar!

I think your costumer support is excellent

Next year, I hope to get into your auctions... still learning them.

I'm curious though - I thought all registrars started out as domainers. Was this the case for you? It sounds a lot more like you were more of a dev.

Were you ever buying and selling pure domains for profit before you applied for a registrar?

Thank you for this question. I have never been a domain investor. I own a total of 16 domains, mostly the names of family members. Meeting and talking with domain investors is important to me, because I don’t have investor experience myself.

Dynadot as a registrar does not own a portfolio of domains either. All the expired domains in our system are either auctioned off or deleted. We don’t keep any of them for ourselves.

- Todd

 

[Dynadot]

Hello Todd,

Congratulations on your registrar's continued success, and sharing it's "garage-style" (bedroom) beginnings. From the Dynadot ui, it is evident you are as passionate about the user experience as you are about domain names.

If you may divulge, my question is;

What are the required total fees an ICANN-accredited registrar has to pay out yearly?

Thanks!

Thank you for your question. There are actually 4 fees that an ICANN registrar has to pay:

1) One time application fee: $3500 (only first year)
2) Yearly fixed fee: $4000/year
3) Yearly variable fee: depends of zone size of registrar (for more info see second link below)
4) Transaction fee: $0.18/domain

https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/registrar-fees-2018-08-10-en
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/registrar-fee-approval-fy20-09sep19-en.pdf

- Todd

 

[Sutruk]

Love Dynadot, but... Why do you ask "forum name" instead of "username"? :D Pretty often it confuses the buyers...

Because that's a basic security measure. The forum name, or whatever you give to the other person to make the domain push, should be different than your LOGIN username.
And every registrar should do this, instead of asking for emails, usernames or whatever you use as login username.

 

[Ante4L]

Nice to see the story behind my favorite registrar and it's owner. I like Dynadot even more now.

 

[NickB]

Best & worst business decision you have made as Dynadot CEO?

 

[Samer]

Everyone jokes about Godaddy acquiring you, since you do everything right, Mr. Han.

What about the other way around?

We obviously know Dynadot isn't for sale;
Any plans to acquire other registrars?

Samer

 

[Dynadot]

I'm in San Mateo.

I've heard Dynadot is in San Mateo.

When things get back to normal, could it be arranged to meet a Dynadot representative for coffee and/or a chat?

<<in the mean time, maybe a open video call for all Dynadot customers to meet the Dynadot team?>>

I met @Joe Styler at a domainer meet up outside of a namescon event, and to this day, I appreciate that single interaction. I'd recommend more person to person experiences with other registrar/industry representatives to other members.

Yes our headquarters is in San Mateo. I would be happy to meet with you when the lockdown ends. Additionally we have been attending more events the past few years. To see if we will be in your area check this page:

https://www.dynadot.com/community/events.html

I agree that having a personal connection makes it much easier to do business. That is a lesson that took me a while to learn. In the early years I was almost entirely focused on software and other technical issues.

- Todd

 

[Dynadot]

Hi Tood. I had using Dynadot as my registrar for years. Until now most of my domains are registered in Dynadot.

I had one suggestion about Forum Name for transfering domains to other Dynadot account. It must be also seen in seller dashboard, not only in Community Auction Field. I had sold domains many times in Ebay, and always got problem for asking buyers the Forum Name. Many buyers sent me their Login names. I had to explain where Forum Name is located with screen shoot. Many ended with making account pull or with a new yahoo mail I made and I hand in the new account.

Honestly for me Dynadot and Godaddy are the best registrars. But buyers in Ebay usually think twice if the domain in Dynadot, it seems because it is not easy to find the Forum Name to transfer I guest. And because Dynadot doesn't sell good Website, Hosting and Email to easily integrated with domains. In Ebay writing Registered in Godaddy makes the domains easily sold.

By the way these are only my feedback. Thank you Todd. Wish a success for you.

Thank you for this great suggestion. I understand what you are saying, that the forum_name is confusing. I will look into changing how our domain push works.

- Todd

 

[Dynadot]

What is your go to business tools?


What are you plans for Domain Reseller program?

Thank you for this question. For internal communication we use Slack. For accounting software we use MoneyWorks. For email we wrote our own system.

Technical: Java programming language. Postgres DB, Linux operating system.

Regarding a reseller program, we have discussed it many times over the years, but as of right now we don't have any definite plans. Reseller registrars are B2B, with long sales cycles, which currently we are not set up for.

- Todd

 

[Dynadot]

Happy to say hello to an successful entrepreneur. My question is, GoDaddy and Bluehost have thier (.in) versions of their international website, and offices in India too. they accepts payments through local internet banking/banks with Indian rupees however, Dynadot needs an international credit card, and a hefty conversion fee / service charges are levied by the credit card company for payments in USD. India being an upcoming market, any plans to step in? locally, with an brick and mortar office?. presently, I only have around 12 domains on Dynadot, this will help me buy more.

I quote here an example of HP printer advertisement for diwali festival on TV during 2018 that was made in an Indianized way, which made HP Printer very popular here ever since, you may plan an entry something like that too. watch here (not affiliated). Thanks.

Thank you for this question. India is a key market for us. India and China are our two fastest growing markets. We have attended domain conferences in India for a couple of years now. You are right though that we need to do more. We have some big plans for the Indian market this year, but I can’t announce them just yet.

- Todd

 

[rajdomains]

Hi, Todd glad to know another inspiring story that you have started the business from a room at home. Wow! That's really amazing. My case is also quite familiar to yours. I was 20 when I started domaining, I don't have money to buy a domain so I borrowed money from a friend's credit card. I bought an NLN.com domain for around 150 and sold for $350 after a week and the story begins...

I just want to ask about your marketing strategies, where do you most advertise your products and services.

Thanks
Raj

 

[Dynadot]

I see on the Dynadot website it shows the dynadot co-op owners behind the Dyna brand;

but i have yet to see your photo, Mr. Han

Also appreciate if got rid 30 and 60 day locks,

Samer

Here is a photo of me:

https://icannwiki.org/Todd_Han