Do you sell domain names too?

[MannDude]

Curious who here resells domain names and if anyone actually orders them. What are you using to offer them? Seems like eNom is pretty well regarded, but there are some other viable options it seems as well. It would expect that your average VPS customer would likely register their domains from a proper registar (NameCheap, GoDaddy, InternetBS, etc) but nothing really surprises me. Personally, I don't find the profit margin on resold domain names (couple bucks a year, if that) to be worth the time spent supporting it, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Kayaba Akihiko]

I agree with you, I personally would never register a domain name with my provider, unless it's free (I'm that cheap), just so that if the company dies I'll still have access to the domain name and so that they can't hold my domain name hostage (Don't know if people actually do this, hope not)

Forgive me if I got anything wrong!

 

[MannDude]

I agree with you, I personally would never register a domain name with my provider, unless it's free (I'm that cheap), just so that if the company dies I'll still have access to the domain name and so that they can't hold my domain name hostage (Don't know if people actually do this, hope not)

Forgive me if I got anything wrong!

That's sort of how I feel too. I suppose if an established provider I was already using had a domain sale, one that was equal to or less than the cost of a domain I can purchase from Namecheap or InternetBS (my main two registars) I'd consider ordering a domain from them instead, but that's often not the case. Otherwise it's just domain I've purchased that I can't find in my main domain accounts so I have to dig it up to locate it when I want to do something with it.

 

[Kayaba Akihiko]

That's sort of how I feel too. I suppose if an established provider I was already using had a domain sale, one that was equal to or less than the cost of a domain I can purchase from Namecheap or InternetBS (my main two registars) I'd consider ordering a domain from them instead, but that's often not the case. Otherwise it's just domain I've purchased that I can't find in my main domain accounts so I have to dig it up to locate it when I want to do something with it.

I would do that as well, but I don't really see any companies that can compete with Namecheap's prices for certain tlds like .pw, .club so on and so forth.

I usually just check LowEndStock.com's domain section for cheap registrations.

 

[SkylarM]

We added in domains a few months ago and it does better than I figured it would. We sell basically at cost + paypal transaction fees, rounded to the nearest $.99. Have about 40 domains sold or so in the last 3-4 months.

Only real value to buying a domain from your provider is keeping everything consolidated in one area. I notice a lot of the time the people buying domains are also paying for an annual VPS.

Personally I'd never buy a domain from a VPS provider, I just like to keep those things separated  -- but I understand the value some people see in one bill (which is why we offer domains, SSL, control panel licenses, and VPS).

We resell NameSilo. Again, not about profit -- about having the ability to purchase everything from one provider if you want to do so.

 

[Aldryic C'boas]

We used eNom for a good while - but aside from it being a pain in the ass (always had trouble topping up our balance there for one reason or another), we saw way too many issues with someone buying a domain, waiting a couple weeks and asking for a transfer code (we allowed clients to move their domains elsewhere if they didn't want to stay with us), and then doing a chargeback on the payment.  I only ever lost one of those, but it was still a pain to deal with.  And then we were stuck with another useless domain, and getting even more spam from the WHOIS crawlers.

 

[D. Strout]

As a customer, I do not buy domains from providers. To my knowledge, most of the providers I use don't even offer them, but if they did, it would be a no-go for me. I can stand to lose a VPS since I back everything up, but to run the risk of losing a domain? No thank you.

 

[datarealm]

We've over domain name registration since day 1.  Even at a premium there are many clients that just like to have everthing under one roof instead of dealing with invoices and logins from multiple places.

Over the years we've tried numerous registrars.  IMHO, avoid enom.  NetEarthOne, otoh, has far and away the best support that we've come across from any registrar.

 

[KS_Phillip]

Curious who here resells domain names and if anyone actually orders them. What are you using to offer them? Seems like eNom is pretty well regarded, but there are some other viable options it seems as well. It would expect that your average VPS customer would likely register their domains from a proper registar (NameCheap, GoDaddy, InternetBS, etc) but nothing really surprises me. Personally, I don't find the profit margin on resold domain names (couple bucks a year, if that) to be worth the time spent supporting it, but maybe that's just me.

We make a few grand a year off domains, mostly ccTLD's.  Nothing spectacular, but it's decent (mostly) passive revenue.

 

[AMDbuilder]

We have always offered domain names, with a majority of our clients taking advantage of this fact.  It's mainly for the unified billing and support.  I've found offering domains to reduce problems, as we can just fix the client's problem(s) quickly in most cases.  The same also applies to SSL Certificates and various licenses, in most cases the ability to say renew it outweighs the egg/basket problem for our clients.

 

[iann_lfcvps]

We offer it and it's really only ever purchased by shared hosting clients, I can't think of any VPS clients off the top of my head that have ever ordered one.

 

[InertiaNetworks-John]

We offer it just as a convenience to our customers, because most of them like having everything under one bill. I understand the concern of taking the domain "hostage", but we have never done that or plan to do it in the future. It also makes it much easier to support, as if there is a problem we can easily fix nameservers or other registration details.

For new websites, when our sales staff are going over the prices with the customer, we usually just add in the domain. It is much easier than saying "Oh, sorry we are only a hosting provider, you need to register your domain somewhere else."

 

[concerto49]

Offer it as a convenience too. Doesn't really make money but nice service add-on.

 

[libro22]

My country's ccTLD sells fast, you just gotta have a nice registry partner! Price your domain with just a little bit lower than the average pricing i(n my case)

Some background story, our ccTLD is monopolized by a single company only, there has been a lot of legal drama in the past and for some reason, they remain the sole company selling these domains. Before, they had these tiered-reseller packages which if you pay bigger setup fees, you'll get the domains for a whole lot cheaper. The registry I am getting these domains from is an old company and they still have this type of contract with them. Right now, the root ccTLD company has changed their reseller policies so you can't get the super cheap pricing anymore. =D Even Godaddy is selling these domains for a lot higher pricing.

 

[BrianHarrison]

We've offer domain name registration services in the past, but we no longer do.

Unless your customers are primarily novices, it really does not provide much of an extra convenience to integrate domain name registration through your billing control panel. It's just as easy for the customer to handle the registration elsewhere.

We ultimately dropped domain name services after we found that we were spending significant technical support resources registrations, transfers, nameserver creation, etc while earning no profit.

 

[AlphaNine_Vini]

You need to have a automated system to manage multiple domain accounts. Otherwise you will need to spend alot to manage things manually. Best is to use a reseller domain services from a known providers. For example Enom. 

 

[Enterprisevpssolutions]

One stop shop is how some clients like it. We offer all services from Domain Reg to the basic shared host. Most of the systems are automated with billing reviewing what they need to. The same worry about a company holding your domain hostage when they go down is the same worry you should have about all your data. Wise to keep backups of what you can and get access to what you need to have access to. If a client wants to transfer ownership of a domain once ordered we can gladly do that for a fee of course.  B)

 

[BrianHarrison]

You need to have a automated system to manage multiple domain accounts. Otherwise you will need to spend alot to manage things manually. Best is to use a reseller domain services from a known providers. For example Enom. 

Even with an automated system you're still going to have to field trouble tickets along the lines of "how do I create nameservers" and "can you help me transfer my domain name".

Unless you're in the business of shared hosting, I don't think offering domain name registration services is worth it.

 

[incloudibly]

Agree on low profit margin, we prefer to focus on our core business.

 

[AutoSnipe]

In all honesty, i contemplated it for the whole of about 30 Seconds before throwing that idea out the window, for everyone that isn't a shared hosing provider I think Domain Name Reselling is a Horrible idea. 

If you want to resell Something to try and attract people, GGSSL's Reseller plan, or do WHMCS Deals like Crissic does.