Well, ill be back =)

As i say in other thread here, i am a mexican Reseller with three years in the business. My own domains for personal purposes are around 400, and i pay 250. The other 250, are free .com.ar domains, because a good Argentina Friend give me the data, and i sign =)

When i begin the reseller business, was because all or nearly others the other resellers was expensive, and bad service. In 1998 i bought my first domains, but in the 2000 my main name was used in a political campaign, and my provider try to steal it... and both lose it to the governement.

Results ? I learn always have in my name the domains i have.

I Bought three domains in 2000 to a strange provider i forgot the name, and dont renew it because was too much difficul understand the provider, he was an EU,

Some day in 2001 or 2002, i receive a spam email around a cobalt host, but was interested for some things, and i sign. At the moment was an offer for 10 years of domains, and i bought in GODADDY.

Explain how i become a reseller is not the matter of this thread, but in few time i become a domain addict. In the time to 2003, i only buy in godaddy but hear something about directi. One of my host providers in that time give a free DIRECTI reseller ( you know, the order box ) and i feel Directi can be good, and try it. Really i dont know how i become a reseller in Directi, something related with 30 domains in Godaddy go expiring soon, then i transfer via paypal at voila, only push later the "directi host providers domains" to my "real reseller directi".

I understand you need have many registrar contacts to simplifiy. If your new customer have godaddy, is good he push to you to made the changes, and you push to him. In the past i get customers because i have an account in the same registrar.

IMHO, Directi have the best potential but some minor flaws.

Main Tips: Monitoring the expiration date, have some accounts with major registrars, if u dont know the NameServers. use mydomain.com

I currently using Directi, Godaddy, BlueRazor, RegisterFly, Mydomain.com and try others. Let me say what i think about them.

The Best: Directi
The worst: Aplus.net
The Middle: Cheaper but feel risky, Registerfly.

Pros and Cons.

Directi: (4.8/5)Pros: Easy to manage, you can have the domains grouped by tour customers, professional emails with your name, correct prices, some interest offers in time in time ( currently a org and info promos ). Your expenses low the prices at some points. Currently i am put in them around 4000 USD in three years, and have good price. Many Directi resellers dont understand somethings. Many times i can recover the domain of one of my customers, and push to a new directi account.
Cons: No special prices for transfers. If you need renew the domain or change nameservers, need unblock and block. You have not some services, if is not for a fee. At the moment i only pay one extended service for a domain i have in the beta with google.
I use it for: Registrar promotions with info or org, and for new com in most of cases.
I transfer out for: Because sometimes i need risk a little and save money. I transfer out many .net and .info domains, and renew in Registerfly at lower prices.
Tips: Safe for have your main domains, Is professional.
Domains here at the moment: 360
To transfer out soon : 140
To transfer In soon: 140

Godaddy: (4/5)
Pros:Easy and common, some special offers sometimes.
Cons: Really not good prices when you use directi,
I use it for: Having alive for can receive some customers.
I transfer out for: Price.
Domains Here at the moment: 3 or 4
To Transfer Out 3
To Transfer Or register soon 1

BlueRazor: (4.5/5)
Pros: Good prices for BackOrdering, looks more professional than Godaddy, and is easy too.
Cons: Around 8 USD tearly for membership. No offers. If they have a rebates, i buy more here.
I use it for: Backordering and my main domain. Look more professional Bluerazor than godaddy.
I transfer out for: Domains grabbed via backordering.
Domains Here at the moment: 4
To Transfer Out 3
To renew soon 1

Registerfly: (4.5/5)
Pros: CHeap renews when you are short of funds. Good offers for .net nearly weekly. Free or cheap protect whois.
Cons: Sometimes problem to transfer, in or out. Some horror stories. Dont Use paypal, but i have a phantom Account and one customer of mine webhost put me here the payment via Credit Card, i made the ned things and push myself to my principal account.

I use it for: Cheap renews or new domains, but never the real ones.
I transfer out for: In nearly future because they renewal is costly, and the prices is better in Directi. I see in the near future a ping pong domain life of my middle or low domains between directi and registerfly.

OpenSRS: (3/5)
Pros: ??
Cons: Harrasment. No the quick things to proagate, expensive for resellers.
I use it for: One customer who want the domain in openSRS.
I transfer out for: Common Sense and Price.

DirectNic: (4/5)
Pros: Good Service at first glance
Cons: Price.
I use it for: One domain i buy to a specialized site.
I transfer out for: Pass to directi in near future the only domain i have here.

Enom: (2/5)
Pros: Many tlds.
Cons: Many of my customers have horror stories around enom problems with near expiring domains.
Not customer of they at the moment.

Aplus: (-1000 / 5 )
Pros: Cheap price... if you want domains you cant use.
Cons: Liers. They use the same photo in many live chat, and only help me when i buy bewareaplus.net ( expired now ).
I use it for: Studpidly see a good offer, 5 USD via Credit Card. The problem was they charge later, stay the domain with them or not.
I transfer out for: Peace of mind.
Reason i come in: Three friends and mine buy 5 domains pack. Of them, 17 was useful when we transfer out. Two of my friends be rebilled by CC, y cancel my CC for secure measures.


If you want i can talk around Monitoring expiring dates techinques, too.

It is unfortunate that you can't post in Spanish as this is an English board but I got it well enough and thanks for sharing your ratings and the reasons for them. Other than that it might almost be of sticky quality.

Gracias, me Español es mierda... Es bueno que usted escribió en Inglés.
Thank you, my Spanish is crap... It is good that you wrote in English.

Any thoughts on NameCheap?

KGIII

Can you give an example of the "horror stories" from customers when working with ENOM? My experience with ENOM is that they are partner friendly, well staffed and growth enabling.

It's all well and good writing reviews but if you're going to rip in to a company your review needs some substance. This applies to all the companies you have reviewed in this thread.

Simon

I have been using Enom for a few years now and could not be happier.

Enom: (2/5)
Pros: Many tlds.
Cons: Many of my customers have horror stories around enom problems with near expiring domains.

That doesn't sound like an issue with Enom, but someone forgetting to renew their domains. Enom has an auto renew feature that has always worked perfectly for me.

I was just testing out a sub-reseller account of Directi [ResellerClub]


From what I could figure out the sub-reseller is not protected for price freeze guarantee.

If the parent site increases the price then the same is reflected in the subreseller account.

Even worse : if the subreseller is not informed of a price increase the retail price [set by the sub-reseller] does not change.

Imagine I go away for a few days on a vacation and upon my return I find I have sold domains at a retail price less than my purchase price. LOL

I am losing my mind trying to figure it out. :nuts:

I like to hear about "Monitoring expiring dates techinques"

Thanx

Well, the problem with the horror stories is they need be gore =)

My most recent horror story was with RegisterFly, and the domain was reclutamientocorporativo.com , second domain of a small firm of mexican human resources consultory. I transfer out from Directi, because the customer not payment at the moment, and in registerfly i have funds. The customer received the transfer request, authorize... and never be reflected in registerfly panel. I let expire the domain because the customer not pay yet, and Register fly refund me the transfer fee. At the moment i have two .com transfers to registerfly in the same situation, nut the .net and .org are fine. Maybe i need renew that in directi, but are my own money, no much problem but i prefer ade myself y transfer in near 60 days of the expiration date and have time to "manouver".

Enom have a strange politic, this is a "informed hypotesis", no a fact. Look as if they have many domains with 10 thousand hits daily in some monitoring. Sometimes they change to DOMAIN LOCK, to REGISTRAR HOLD, for force you to register with them, and recently i have some cases. One of my customers write here : http://kambiz.wordpress.com/2006/02/07/registerflycom-s u c k s/ ( rmove spaces )

In other way, i have too some ENOM customers who have no funds to renew in ENOM, and try to recovr after expired.. only to see Enom have now the registrar later, at the ENOM email or a NameCheap subbrand.

As far i know, the expired domain names of a ENOM account have a high chance to be grabbed and never released, if not for the ENOM iteself, because is in some manner made public available in a pool of ENOM affilled Registrars for BAckorders. Then if u have a good domain name, nearly to expire in ENOM, you can lose it.

I get some domains in the past with this method.

In December of 2005 RegisterFly have similar problems with the protectfly option, and i think is more related to ENOM than with them, because have the same syntomps, high traffic sits, changed to Registrar Holds.

I try to put only in Registerflys domains i can "lose", and put aspecial alarm for near 75 expiration days. Next month i try to transfer out a good .net of them and i say the results, but at the moment, i dont take the risk with my customers to pay, or with my important domains.

As a note, i have my brand name domain in bluerazor, and all the oher linked to a email in the bluerazor domain, in other words, my email for directi is in bluerazor, and the godaddy email is in directi.

Thread move to Domain Name Forum.

BlueRazor is a GoDaddy company and probably has all the same policies as well.

This is an off-topic but I would like to know. Licnatropo, I would like to know how do you manage the domain business (based on your experiences with serveral registrars). You provide direct online registrations for your customers or you do as part of your manage services? In case of if you manage direct online registrations for your clients, how do you manage your site to get attraction from the clients? Especailly, in these days like people are aware of known domain registrars and many cheap places like GoDaddy, RegisterFly, and alike although they do not know any about the horror stories. What I wonder is how do you survive in the domain business and do you manage any SEO and Adword campaign for your domain reselling websites?

Is some simple. In few words, the more easy and secure is DIRECTI. I have a new customer ? Yes, if he have not a domain, i suggest him register in my .net domain ( points to the order box ), as a customer. They anyway pay me in money via Bank deposit. If he have few money, i sign him in a .net under registerfly, and send regular a email remembering give me the full name and info for the domain owner, if he dont give me, stay in my name.

I have two rules here:
a ) I dont buy a domain until he pay me.
b ) If i dont know what want the user, i put ns1.mydomain.com and ns2.mydomain.com because propagate more quickly.

But... i am in the webhosting business, no in the domain business, is a secondary business. I dont made much publicity, mainly are for mouth to mouth references.

Thanks for sharing your Licantropo. :)

I'm in the process of researching registrars as well. I'm using the AWBS software and they're suggesting Enom, Directi and iRRP.net.

Does anyone have any suggestions on registrars that work well with the AWBS system?

Thanks!