DesignersTalk - View Single Post - The misery of reselling domain names, is it actually profitable anymore?

freelancr · 02-02-2008, 13:34

Right I'm in the process of researching either becoming a reseller to an existing registrar, or becoming a registrar, so I can sell domain names.

Nominet (.uk domain name authority)
£400 Membership Application Fee
£100 Per Year
£5 Per Domain Regisration

Well 123-reg seem to be making about £1 on each registration, so to compete with them I would have to sell £100 domains a year to cover the Annual Fee, and hopefully over time pay off the Membership Application. There is no mention of charges for becoming a Registrar with them and getting a Tag, but I suspect there will be another charge.

ICANN (.com/.net domain name authority - I think?)
$2500 Application Fee.... right fuck reading any more....

TuCows (OpenSRS, register nearly all domains, .uk are more expensive than £5)
$95 Application Fee, though it will cost us $33 every time we want to send them money. (HSBC will charge us $18 to send it, and TuCows charge $15 to process it). So thats a no go too, as any money we make will all go on bank charges. They don't have a payment gateway, twats, and I can't think of a free way of sending them money.

So then, whats the best way of doing this? As my new venture looks to be dead in the water before we have begun. I don't want to be an affiliate, or a reseller that adds people to another registrars service, as we wont get the renewal fee, and will be difficult to provide competitive prices.

It's all looking pretty ridiculous, and the companies in-charge of domain names have kinda got people over a barrel, seems the only profitable domain name resellers are ones who have been operating for a long time already.

02-02-2008, 13:34	#1 (permalink)
freelancr Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 2,096	The misery of reselling domain names, is it actually profitable anymore? Right I'm in the process of researching either becoming a reseller to an existing registrar, or becoming a registrar, so I can sell domain names. Nominet (.uk domain name authority) £400 Membership Application Fee £100 Per Year £5 Per Domain Regisration Well 123-reg seem to be making about £1 on each registration, so to compete with them I would have to sell £100 domains a year to cover the Annual Fee, and hopefully over time pay off the Membership Application. There is no mention of charges for becoming a Registrar with them and getting a Tag, but I suspect there will be another charge. ICANN (.com/.net domain name authority - I think?) $2500 Application Fee.... right fuck reading any more.... TuCows (OpenSRS, register nearly all domains, .uk are more expensive than £5) $95 Application Fee, though it will cost us $33 every time we want to send them money. (HSBC will charge us $18 to send it, and TuCows charge $15 to process it). So thats a no go too, as any money we make will all go on bank charges. They don't have a payment gateway, twats, and I can't think of a free way of sending them money. So then, whats the best way of doing this? As my new venture looks to be dead in the water before we have begun. I don't want to be an affiliate, or a reseller that adds people to another registrars service, as we wont get the renewal fee, and will be difficult to provide competitive prices. It's all looking pretty ridiculous, and the companies in-charge of domain names have kinda got people over a barrel, seems the only profitable domain name resellers are ones who have been operating for a long time already.