discuss Need Advice: Are Domain Reseller Websites Worth Developing?

[BasedBeyond]

Hello there guys, I just wanted to get your opinion/advice about this website/business idea of mine before I actually start it. I am fairly new to web development, and I've never really developed any of my domain names into a fully functional website, but...

I was thinking of starting my first online business where I would use the GoDaddy Reseller Program (or eNom Reseller Program) as my storefront, along with selling my own brandable domains and potentially other services.

My questions:

Which is the best domain online reseller program? So far I'm contemplating whether I should do GoDaddy or eNom. Which do you think is better and why?

Is this a good online business to start? Since there are so many registrars out there, would this type of website even be worth the time and money invested?

Any other advice/tips before I start up this type of online business?


I hope to hear from you all soon.

Thank you,

BasedB

 

[ramkumaritrvs]

You can't earn much unless you are selling huge volume of domains because profit margin is very less in this niche.

You can start hosting business instead and you can do domain reseller for little extra money with hosting.

JMO.

 

[cdboard]

fwiw, you can also sell webhosting through both resellers (godaddy and enom)

 

[Mifuru]

eNom Reseller Program best. Because acceptable design and good functionality

 

[SpareDomains]

If ya have time for support and don't mind pre-funding other options worth a comparison. If not GoDaddy is 100% no hands so can devote 100% to just marketing it along with no pre-funding required. Will you make a killing probably not unless you have your own niche user base to get leads from as the domainer crowd will always look for the lowest price or if you have hundreds of your own domains to help offset the yearly cost of it.

 

[HKIBC]

eNom Reseller Program best. Because acceptable design and good functionality

Plus a 90-day hold on comission payouts, you forgot to mention.

 

[Mifuru]

Plus a 90-day hold on comission payouts, you forgot to mention.

of course

 

[GoKaizen]

Neither, support for both has gone downhill.

Options you should look into; Tucows/OpenSRS, Resell.biz, Internet.bs, NameSilo.

 

[Kuffy]

You have to differentiate between reseller programmes and affiliate selling. Resellers buy the registrations and set their own prices, they then have to collect the funds. I ran a reseller site and had over 2,000 client names registered through my api. It turned into a nightmare because I was offering a non-standard payment method as a favour to a community. It failed when the payment provider turned to scamming, and it cost me several thousand dollars, and a lot of really good .com names.

You do get the chance to pick up a few names when clients disappear, or decide to drop them, but you don't get the chance to evaluate the traffic any more, as the registrar will probably put the name into a parking programme as soon as it expires, and before you get a chance to look at it.

There is also a lot of fraud and theft in the domain name industry, and my problems with PayPal started as a result of my selling a name to a PayPal scammer.victim. He paid me, but it seems his money came from a scammer, and PayPal ran it through to me, this was despite the fact that I was supposed to have a cleared funds account.

 

[BasedBeyond]

Neither, support for both has gone downhill.

Options you should look into; Tucows/OpenSRS, Resell.biz, Internet.bs, NameSilo.

I just checked out Tucows OpenSRS, it looks very enticing. I am still a noob to this, but how much do you recommend for starting up this type of website/business? Would an $XXX amount be enough to start up?

 

[BasedBeyond]

You have to differentiate between reseller programmes and affiliate selling. Resellers buy the registrations and set their own prices, they then have to collect the funds. I ran a reseller site and had over 2,000 client names registered through my api. It turned into a nightmare because I was offering a non-standard payment method as a favour to a community. It failed when the payment provider turned to scamming, and it cost me several thousand dollars, and a lot of really good .com names.

You do get the chance to pick up a few names when clients disappear, or decide to drop them, but you don't get the chance to evaluate the traffic any more, as the registrar will probably put the name into a parking programme as soon as it expires, and before you get a chance to look at it.

There is also a lot of fraud and theft in the domain name industry, and my problems with PayPal started as a result of my selling a name to a PayPal scammer.victim. He paid me, but it seems his money came from a scammer, and PayPal ran it through to me, this was despite the fact that I was supposed to have a cleared funds account.

Thanks for the info Kuffy, sorry I am still new to this idea. Just to clarify for reseller program, I have to buy each domain extension registration first in order to sell them to other people? With signing up for the reseller program, do I have to provide support to my customers or is it white label/ does the reseller company handle customer support? And do you think an $XXX amount is enough for me to start up this type of business?

 

[Kuffy]

I'm probably not a good example, as mine was an unusual situation. I already used a wholesale registrar ( cheaper, but they expect you to know enough not to require basic support), and I had around 1,500 .com and .nets registered with them. There were a lot of webmasters in a community who couldn't register names because they didn't have bank accounts, and couldn't use PayPal - I provided a service for them.

It was a service with my own branding, and I used the registrar's api to provide a registration interface. This was run on my server which was dedicated hosting. Of course there were loads of my sites on there, and not just the registration one. I mention the hosting because the api disn't use the standard port for communication. If you use shared hosting, then your host may not let you open non-standard ports. My current ones don't for example. I had an account with the registrar, and I made sure that there was always $1,000 of credit available in the account. You don't need as much as this if you are prepared to monitor the account, or you have fewer clients. There was very little profit in running this service ( read none), but there were other benefits for me - promotion of my affiiliate marketing sites for example.

To sum up - running a reseller account can be profitable, but usually if you run it alongside some other service such as hosting. I'd suggest you look at an affiliate account with somebody like GoDaddy to get started, and to see how you get on. I've never done this, but I believe you can use your own branding to offer the service. Perhaps somebody who has used GD can pitch in here with some comments or advice.

 

[Kuffy]

Thanks for the info Kuffy, sorry I am still new to this idea. Just to clarify for reseller program, I have to buy each domain extension registration first in order to sell them to other people? With signing up for the reseller program, do I have to provide support to my customers or is it white label/ does the reseller company handle customer support? And do you think an $XXX amount is enough for me to start up this type of business?

I don't think I answered these questiions directly. The client registers and maintains his names through the api. You have control over this thoug, and you set the prices and handle payments.

It's a white label (your branding) service, and you are expected to provide primary support.