Do you recommend offering domain registration? Or just recommending a 3rd party registrar (like godaddy).

I'm contemplating whether I want to set up domain registration for utaria.net to allow my customers to order domains through me. H-Sphere supports enom natively, and I've also taken a look at wildwestdomains. However, is it really worth the investment? Do any of you hosts out there make money on domains?

Or is offering domains just a perk service to offer your clients?

I would personally suggest you to offer domain names. It is kind of a free pocket money because most of these registrars have reseller programs where you have no particular work as such. It is just a one time work to set up the system.
Plus mostly by the time you reach even 75 domains you start getting profitable.


Regards
Amar

We offer domain registration through our hosting plans (using h-sphere) and via another site dedicated to domain registration. We see it as another service for our customers. It makes it easy if they can get everything they need in one place.

The question is why NOT offer domain registration?

I would definitely suggest for you to offer domain registartion/transfer to your web hostng clients.. its sorta comes with the package. Most new order/clients doen't have their own domain name, and its like you;re offering extra mile by providing a domain registration service. That saves them from the hassle of searching domain registration company.. IMHO :)

You can get an affiliate with enom or wildwestdomains and you won't even notice you;re earning. ;)

I agree about offering domain registration because a lot of customers are either lazy or don't understand that hosting and registration can be bought separately and don't want to go to two sites to do it.

And, don't think that you have to do $6.49 domain prices to compete. We experimented with domain pricing and found that we did as many registrations at $20 as we did at a lower price. That money goes right to the bottom line and you will find that a large number of customers will just order the domain through you as a convenience and not sweat the price.

I wouldn't do it...

Its been said before that domains = charge backs and there is a lot of trouble with you having to hand it over after customers leave and how many people don't do it...its just a big mess.

Even if you make any money it would be very little, not worth the trouble.. ;)

We've never had a chargeback on a domain registration and we register 1000s of domains per year. We've had chargebacks on hosting though. :P

--Tina

I think regular people (as in, non-web-tech-geek types) like to register their domains with their web host.

When I talk to people about web hosting and the domain name issue comes up, I tell them they can register through me but they can also do it cheaper through a bigger registrar. 100% of the time they say:"Nah, I'll register with you - it's cheap enough anyway."

Might as well offer it.