Re: Brave New World?

On 1/7/2004 3:28 AM Jim McAtee noted that:

 

There a now several _hundred_ accredited domain registrars selling directly to domain purchasers, some with and some without resellers/affiliates.

180 or so, plus their associated resellers.

I can't help but wonder if the whole idea of profitably reselling domain names has become a thing of the past with the new registrar landscape.

I sold my first domain name as a reseller in 1996 or so. tanda.com. IIRC, I got $100 for the registration, plus NIC fees, plus $500 for 5mb of web space plus $250 for a virtual host entry. We didn't do any web design for this customer, but we usually charged out at $50 per hour or so (and somehow managed to lose money on every single design deal we were doing at the time - go figure :)

The registration was like bread in a restaurant. We put it out because it set the right tone, whet the appetite of our customers and made the statement that we were a one-stop shop that could serve 100% of their needs.

Point is this - I'm pretty sure that the days of domain resellers being able to profitably survive on domain registrations alone were a nice bubble. The bubble hasn't popped, but like a blister, it has subsided (unless you picked at it :) My dad got his first domain name last year - he didn't ask me for a domain name though, he asked me for a better email address than bobkat312@hotmail.com. My sister got her first one recently as well - so that she could have a cool address for her blog. People like buying functionality - its like getting the batteries included with the Radio Shack toys you get at Christmas. Better yet, its that same feeling you got when you realized that the nifty Palm V you got didn't need batteries, all you had to do was drop it on the cradle it came with.

I would take your final statement one step further Jim - the registrar landscape itself is a thing of the past. Some boutiques might make a go of it, just like in the automobile accessories business, but they have to really differentiate themselves. The easy money lies with the finished products. Be GM, be Palm, be a shop that sells a finished good that a target market wants.