Maybe I know the answer to this; maybe.

How do sites like Yahoo at $2.99 and another registrar I saw at $5.99 for .coms... how do they do that? Isn't there a charge of some kind from... oh, what's that place called, lol. Er... anyway. Isn't there are charge for all domains of at least 6 or 7 bucks to register it?

Or... and this was my guess, are they just taking the hit to hopefully get the hosting biz?

Thanks for your input in advance!

The cost to register the domain name is $6 + 0.25 ICANN fee.
So companies like Yahoo offer promotion and provide domain registration service for $2.99 in order to increase customer base.

I presume $2.99 is only for the first year, next year you will pay the normal price.

That's right! I didn't think of that. :) It'll probably be $30 to renew or something, lol.

That sort of happened to me way back when. I got a great deal on the front end, but then the renewals were really expensive. Literally like $30+ a year.

ICANN.. that's what I was trying to think of; I don't know why I can't remember that. Does both the 6 and the .25 go to them or just the .25... and if so, where does the 6 go? (just to clarify)

It is called a loss leader. Many companies are doing this since it probably works out cheaper and more effective than advertising

Every registrar pays a "tax" to the Registry for every registration,
renewal, and transfer they accept within their systems. It's $6 for
.com (I forgot the others) while .25 cents goes to ICANN.

Do the math and you'll have an inkling how much it's costing them.
Just remember that those who offer domains for less than $6 or
even free tend to have strings attached. ;)

Originally posted by IMCoach
Does both the 6 and the .25 go to them or just the .25... and if so, where does the 6 go? (just to clarify)

As others stated .25 goes to icann, 6.00 goes to the registry(verisign for com and net, affilias for .info, neulevel for .biz, us, pir for .org etc)

Originally posted by IMCoach
That's right! I didn't think of that. :) It'll probably be $30 to renew or something, lol.

Nowadays renewal with the ultra-cheapos is more like $8.00 annual - hardly extravagant.