discuss Now the price increase for .com is starting to hit...going to be dropping lots of names

[Mister Funsky]

It seems the price increases are kicking in across many registrars as the hours tick on. Just noticed they went from 8.49 at Epik to 9.99 in the last little while.

Perhaps others could post any price increases they have/are experiencing. The thieves that run .com will soon notice a decrease in registrations. In my case, I will let 25 to 30 percent of my names drop.

 

[private123]

I use Cosmotown for my cheap registrations. They are holding off on increases for a month

Best pricing at time.

Afternic fast transfer support ???

 

[NYJimbo]

In my case, I will let 25 to 30 percent of my names drop.

Seems kinda drastic. I mean, the increase is about $1 per domain. For me it's like 58 cents because volume buying.

Is the $1 per name increase really cause to drop 25-30% of your names ?

 

[NYJimbo]

The other side of this is that there seems to be a bit better quality in the names in the expired list. Its like all the negative factors out there are causing people to drop more AND register less.

Those of us who are surviving this might be better prepared with a good portfolio when things turn around.

 

[KTC]

The other side of this is that there seems to be a bit better quality in the names in the expired list. Its like all the negative factors out there are causing people to drop more AND register less.

Those of us who are surviving this might be better prepared with a good portfolio when things turn around.

Absolutely agree with this. If more quality names drop with domain name price increases, I expect to make a better portfolio from it.

 

[HotKey]

If the bad economy + price increase lead to lots of drops that don't get picked up, the fact that better names might be available won't matter. Most buyers will be comparing your 3k, 5k, 10k better name to a $15 handreg that used to be for sale at $1500-2500 in the previous market. And a lot of them will settle for $15 ok name.

So before:

An ok name at $1500, better name at 3k-10k -> decision to go for the better one

Now:

An ok name $15, better name at 3k-10k -> decision to settle for the ok one.

And, if the spiral keeps unwinding, it will change the notion of what is considered a better investment-grade name.

If anything this might be an underlying shift to better quality domains on the aftermarket. An "ok" name at hand-reg will still nag at people, and gear them towards going for that better name. A trim-down on portfolios along with some price adjustments could help compensate for investors.

I know what it's like to "settle", and it never sits properly.

 

[Mark Names]

Although it would be preferable if someone from Epik came in to clarify/explain pricing, I believe the $35 is the full retail public price.

If someone is an investor and reaches out to them, they will/would adjust pricing based on volume, etc.

Yeah, it would be great if they explained the almost 4x increase! @epik

I have a lot of domains with them (a lot to me). To pay $35 per renewal is CRAZY! Their xyz renewals are the least expensive last I checked (the ones without premium renewal rates). I have already started transferring domains out from them...
How do we get the namePros or volume discount? Just contact their support?

 

[Bertrell]

My epik renewal price is $9.99

Ditto.

 

[tonyk2000]

I like using the marketplace (if there is one) of whatever register has my names so although they might not make much on my regs, they have a decent income on sales.

I second that. But... Dynadot - paypal only withdrawals [or USD check like in the 20th century, cannot deposit outside U.S. at this time anyway]. Porkbun - paypal only withdrawals (and still no payment plans?). Namesilo - just works. Namecheap - overcomplicated. Epik - after the hack do not want to use it. Namesilo looks to be more or less optimal. Any other registrar-powered marketplaces, did I forget anything?

 

[NYJimbo]

This is in regards to Epik's new increases in renewal pricing (now $35 for .com, .net, .org) that was in effect for me. I emailed support @ epik and asked them for their namePros and/or bulk discount. Here is their response that I haven't replied to yet:



* = I chose to not publish their names

Notice, .org was not mentioned, so it will still be $35 to renew. $15 for .com and $13 for .net are my new renewal rates... Not good enough @Epik.com , I'm sorry - but they should be. Well, I guess I'll be playing the transfer game until they wake up. Disheartening, since I thought Epik held domainers in high regard... If you've got $9.99 for renewal rates, consider yourself lucky or maybe you just have crap tons more domains than I do!


Happy Saturday everybody!

$15 renew for .COM is supposed to be a "special price" ? Forget that.

I've pretty much stopped using anybody for .COM except Dynadot. $9.57 renewals for me.

 

[DomainNature]

I see many domains I wanted are dropping, now I question myself if I really need them, but probably not.

 

[Mister Funsky]

Now it is at the two week mark since I started this thread and still no word from epik...disappointing to say the least.

It seems SAV has a transfer deal of 8.55 until the end of September.

 

[private123]

D

Just noticed they went from 8.49 at Epik to 9.99 in the last little while.

Domain investors discount ?????
@Epik.com

 

[Mister Funsky]

Namebright.com
.com from $9.15 /yr.

From the namebright site:

"How ‘at cost’ pricing works​

‘At Cost’ Pricing is what we use for certain top level domains (TLD's) whereby we charge you exactly what we are charged ourselves.

With .com domains, we have to pay $0.18 per domain per year to ICANN, and have to pay $8.97 to VeriSign (the company that manages the .com registry), and we also have to pay credit card processing fees for each transaction.

We do not markup the price, providing the domains wholesale prices."

It is required that an account be prefunded via wire or check...to save .84 per com means my transfer fingers will be busy!

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Thank goodness, verisign _registry_ currently cannot sell dropping .coms on auctions. They tried to enter this market once, but were not successful (google for Wait Listing Service, WLS)

Yes for registries that would be different. I get the distinction now.

 

[The Durfer]

whats "stopmommy's" prices going to be now? $50? yipes.

 

[Sjpals]

@InternetBS increased their domains from $13.55 to $14.91 AUD. For some reason I was convinced it was going to be $14.22

 

[NYJimbo]

If the bad economy + price increase lead to lots of drops that don't get picked up, the fact that better names might be available won't matter. Most buyers will be comparing your 3k, 5k, 10k better name to a $15 handreg that used to be for sale at $1500-2500 in the previous market. And a lot of them will settle for $15 ok name.

So before:

An ok name at $1500, better name at 3k-10k -> decision to go for the better one

Now:

An ok name $15, better name at 3k-10k -> decision to settle for the ok one.

And, if the spiral keeps unwinding, it will change the notion of what is considered a better investment-grade name.

It always gets better. I've been through 60 years of these. Having solid names a year or two from now will have been a good investment. I'm buying.

 

[Recons.Com]

1450 .COM right now plus 600 .XYZ

Buying price for .COM is never factored in. If I try to see a certain STR (sell through rate) at a certain sale price ($2285 for .COM for example), then $9 or $10 or $11 each doesnt mean anything to me. The only thing that throws me off here is when .XYZ goes from 88 cents to $2.00 and then back down again. Thats like .COM going from $8.80 to $20.00 back to $8.80. Makes crunching numbers very hard.

Most of the .XYZ will not be renewed as I am doing pattern bulk buying (50-100 at a time) and seeing STR of each pattern. They are dumped at end of first year. Trying to work odds and percentages on these buys. Seeing 3% STR so far priced at $488 on some patterns. Want to get that higher. My new switch to Sedo for .XYZ should be interesting. Expireddomainslist and daily .com sales help with making decisions on the XYZ. Its too complicated to go through here, PLUS I don't want anyone learning from me.

The .COM will be 85-90% renew (not including "meta" names, which will be about 50%), was renewing 75% last year. I buy about 30-90 a month right now. Bought about 35 so far this month, but part of that was a test based on keyword1+term swapped for keyword2+term against sales history of the keyword1+term. Again, its complicated and I am not going to share what works. Simply not enough good names expiring every day to share.

I've learned its all about STR, sales prices and scaling. It took me 4 years to get here and I am still learning. People ask, "How many names do I have to sell a year to afford to live like...". Thats the wrong question. I ask, "How do I improve my STR ?". Quality of name + selling price is a tricky part of STR, not to mention all other factors outside of that. Improve your STR first (reliable, proven STR is critical). Raise your prices second. Scale third. Then figure out what you need to do with all that to live like you want. But this is MY process, it might not work for you for various reasons.

One thing I will say is that if you sell too low, eventually you will go broke even if you keep making sales. But if you price too high you may not make enough sales and you will run out of money to buy new or renew.

Sounds simple, right ? You would be surprised how many domainers never stop to crunch the numbers.
Anyway, too much typing. My hand is tired.

That is all cool.

So, basically, for your specific model, and at just around 1400 .coms, the raise might not be that important. You just need to focus on one extra sale at around $1800 post commission as your personal tax to the success of Verisign each year (and 2 such sales post 2024, provided your portfolio doesn't grow).

Not a biggie. I bet you can easily scale up your STR to absorb that.

Of course, you could have just reinvested that 1800$ and earned 2 more sales for yourself, but, who cares, right?

 

[zomainhacks]

In the end inflation will hit retail domain prices too, so in the medium term I'm not very much concerned about renewal increases (unless registries are dumb but I don't believe so) .

In the short term it sucks A LOT but I don't see a downward registration trend unfolding from this.

 

[DomainConcepts]

.com is a global extension and even $20 is serious money in poor countries.

Not really.

$20 isn't serious money, even in poor countries – not for a business that is operating internationally and therefore needs, or feels it needs, a .com domain.

For the rest, there are ccTLDs (and many people regard .com as a de facto American TLD, not an international one). And this may surprise you, but in some countries the ccTLD enjoys higher status than .com. In Germany, for example. .de is king: it accounts for 60% of registrations, .com only for 25%. Or listen to the commercial breaks on Dutch radio (on Internet radio, if you actually want to try it): you'd think the most common word in Dutch is "puntenel" (dot N L). It seems to end every third sentence.

Apologies for going OT a little.

 

[DomainConcepts]

You don't need to operate globally to want .com

You might a) aspire to become international/global one day b) not feel safe starting your business with your cctld due to possible corruption, censorship etc. c) use it as a prudent mitigation against potential traffic and email leaks.

Because .com is still affordable, people can register it even for their future aspirations, like their full name in case they run for a political post or become social media star. They can also buy it as an option for a future dev. They have the idea now, but not money or time. So they book the name and hope to get to it one day. And some do get to it.

I don't disagree with any of that.

But: the people/businesses (outside the US) that you're describing now aren't those for whom an annual .com reg fee of $20 is a deal-breaker. Or if they are, they're not typical.

 

[jmcc]

Given their almost perfect name as .com competition, the main factor contributing to this is their pricing. They could have priced just 1-2 under .com and gained a big market share. Instead, it is wholesaling around 2.5x of .com, plus they utilize $1-2 promos for 1 year, that helps only their spam score. On top of this, they introduced premium pricing for names that drop. Basically, they are doing the opposite of what needs to be done for maximizing their profits and market share.

They are basically sweating the assets with domain names that renew. Don't think that the .co has anything like 3.4 million registrations even with the promos.

Regards...jmcc

 

[branding]

@Mister Funsky cosmotown has about the same pricing last time I checked.

Backend looks a bit dated but worth it to investigate. Quite satisfied myself.

Not sure what your window is to move names but Black Friday may provide some opportunities.

I expect NC and DD to be running a promo, maybe even before that.

Have been considering consolidating at namebright or Cloudflare (still at cost) myself.

 

[branding]

That is an excellent idea...waiting for Black Friday deals will make for a better, less rushed, transition.

I've grown to like the Epik tools and would not consider moving for a dime or two but it would not be hard to save .50 per name and possibly as much as .90 without paying a ridiculous prefunding amount to another registrar.

It seems odd to me that the registrars are not eagerly seeking transfers. I know some people like to jump around but once I find a registrar I like, I tend to move all my names there. In my case, I like using the marketplace (if there is one) of whatever register has my names so although they might not make much on my regs, they have a decent income on sales.

Same here. I usually take advantage of promos, move a block of names and transfer back to my preferred registrar in 2 months. It takes a bit of additional funds but the 2 year cost average is worth it if you expect a longer hold period.

Can imagine it's a lot of work at large scale. The majority of my portfolio is in ccTLDs which is less of a monetary concern for me, in terms of renewals.

 

[NYJimbo]

LOL! Yeah, what the heck is happening there?! Definitely transferring out of @epik . They're out of touch - Wish @Rob Monster could do something... Something's a miss! Coincidently he steps down and renewal prices jump to $35?! WTH?! LOL

I don't want to get too deep into Rob, but I think (my opinion) that his beliefs and support of certain people has seriously hurt Epik over the past few years and that me reflected in their bottom line. I'm guessing this, but replacing Rob seems to clean things up a bit.

Look, they lost Paypal and Afternic fast transfer. Those were huge. There are possibly other things I am not aware of, but lets remember that Epik and/or Rob has been branded as a hate group.

Last year NPR did an article on Rob, one line was:

"Monster then went on to describe white supremacist leaders as "shock jocks" who should not be taken seriously."

Sorry, they are white supremacists, not "shock jocks". Anyway, the damage is done. I m done with Epik. Epik may being done be a leader. Only time will tell.