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  1. #1

    registryrocket - is going thru a reseller cheaper?

    Is it cheaper going thru a reseller than dealing with enom directly? What are the prices like (low volume - 4 - 20 registrations / year)? When does it make sense to use enom directly?

  2. #2
    If you only have 4-20 registrations per year it's cheaper to go through a reseller.
    You pay a hefty startup fee to Enom for low domain prices.

  3. #3
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    $6,950 deposit for 6.95!

  4. #4
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    Re: registryrocket - is going thru a reseller cheaper?

    Originally posted by cyberx
    Is it cheaper going thru a reseller than dealing with enom directly? What are the prices like (low volume - 4 - 20 registrations / year)? When does it make sense to use enom directly?
    There are those in these forums who argue that with some of the super-low pricing for eNom reseller sub-accounts that we're beginning to see nowadays, it might never make sense to sign-up with eNom directly. The lowest price eNom offers under any circumstances is $6.95 and there are a handful of eNom resellers whose prices are now (or at least can be if you push it) down in the $7.50 to $7.25 range. And one can obtain prices like that with a small ($25 to $30) one-time, up-front fee.

    I've even seen $7.10 -- but, frankly, not from anyone I'd trust. I mean, the parent reseller has to make something or he won't stay in business in the longrun. And if your parent reseller goes away then all the low prices in the world won't help you.

    "What's the cut-off point?", you seem to be asking. I'd say it just depends, in part, on how fast you'd use-up whatever initial investment you made directly with eNom. eNom has a $500 plan (for 55 domains at $8.95 each), and a plan that's around $4K (for 500 domains at $7.95 each), and the biggie at around $7K (1,000 domains at $6.95 each). If you use it up quickly (meaning that both your volume will support such an investment as well as you will not be losing too much interest allowing your money to just sit there waiting to be used-up), then it makes sense to go with eNom right out of the gate.

    But when you can pay twenty five bucks or thirty bucks or even fifty bucks as a one-time, up-front fee and then, in exchange, you can get a price that's maybe $7.50 to as low as $7.25, then you've got to do a little math calculating the "cost" of the $7K investment it would require for you to get a price like that directly from eNom -- i.e., how long it would take you to use-up that investment and, therefore, how much interest you would be losing if that same $7K were sitting in an interest-bearing instrument of some kind. Then also calculate-in as a profitablity penalty (for going with a reseller) the 30 cents more per (domain than $6.95) that you'd be paying (if, for example, you were at $7.25 from a reseller). Then, finally, you've got to factor-in the initial $25 to $50 one-time, up-front fee -- amortized over time, of course.

    Then there's the convenience factor. If you simply don't have $7,000 to give eNom in order to get the $6.95 price, then a $7.25 price from an eNom reseller -- especially one that lets you in for a mere $25 to $50 -- can start looking pretty good. In that case, as a practical matter, interest calculations become moot, don't they?

    At any rate, assuming one is in such a financial position that he indeed has the choice of either spending $7,000 with eNom for a $6.95 price, or signing-up with a super-deep-discounting reseller who's down around $7.25; and when you add it all up, and you calculate the time-value of money, and you factor-in a slowing domain name market, etc., resellers offering super-cheap prices for comparatively miniscule initial investments can start looking real good to some people who are contemplating getting into this business.

    Check-out this eNom reseller's pricing, for an example of an eNom reseller who's down at the $7.25 price level -- at least on one of his plans. And note the low entry fee to achieve it. Now compare that with having to cough-up $7,000 directly to eNom in one chunk and, indeed, getting the 30-cent-lower price of $6.95, but then not really knowing how long that $7,000 will just sit there in your eNom account not earning interest and not yet used-up. If you've got a business plan that will use-up that money quickly, and if one can spare the money, then, obviously, an eNom direct account is the way to go.

    And, obviously, the above logic applied to $25 up-front and then $7.25 pricing at a reseller, versus $7,000 initially for $6.95 pricing at eNom, is applicable to other pricing points as well. For example, if a person has $4,000 he can spare and he can afford for it to be sitting in his eNom account until it gets used-up, then he can enjoy eNom's $7.95 pricing. On the other hand, if he either doesn't have or doesn't want to spend $4,000 in one chunk with eNom, he can go to the same reseller linked-to above (or to NameCheap, or to any of several others that I'm aware of) and he can achieve $7.99 pricing for a comparatively miniscule up-front investment. And, presumably, the same logic would hold true for a potential reseller who would be happy with eNom's $8.95 pricing, but he doesn't have (or doesn't want to spend) the $495 to achieve it. In that case, not only the reseller to whom I linked, above, but a probably a huge number of other eNom resellers would be more-than-happy to offer domains at the $8.95 or $8.99 price point and would let a person in for either nothing or for a mere $25 or less. And for persons okay with that price point, that might be very attractive as opposed to going with eNom directly -- no matter what the interest or other cost situation might be.

    But beware! Deep discounting is the oldest (and, frankly, often the least wise) game in the book. We've seen seemingly countless examples in these forums of hosting companies or domain resellers who cut it too thin and got too much business too fast and none of it was profitable enough to allow the hiring of adequate personnel to handle either the support or the administrivia. There is a law of diminishing returns to consider, here. As my ol' man used to say: There ain't no free lunches. If you can't (or are just unwilling to) afford eNom's $6.95 price, you've got to be careful about going with a reseller who lets you get too near it because he, himself, may not be making enough of a profit to still be around a year or two from now.

    Frankly, after chatting with the folks at the reseller to which I've linked, above, I'm fairly satisfied that they've got a business plan that will result in them being able to make enough money to flourish and stay alive over time. And their tech support seems responsive and helpful -- at least so far. So when I wrote "beware," at the beginning of the previous paragraph, I wasn't actually referring to that particular eNom reseller. In fact, on the contrary, I'm becoming fairly impressed with that reseller, generally.

    I was just making the general comment: In your search for eNom resellers that will allow you to end-run eNom's large up-front investments in order to get lowest pricing, beware of resellers who cut their margin so thin that they just can't make it in the end. At the end of the day, if that happens, you'll just end-up wishing you'd paid eNom the big fee and just gone with them in the first place.

    Just a word to the wise. And my $.02 worth which, as I've said here many times, is often all that it's worth -- or so says my ex-wife... often.
    Last edited by DesElms; 08-06-2002 at 11:21 PM.
    Gregg L. DesElms

  5. #5
    Thanks for your replies guys, especially to DesElms!

    You really have to do some math to find the best deal for you. You cannot only look at domain pricing.

    When I signed up with srsplus eight month ago I wanted to do webhosting only. But only a few weeks later the situtation changed. Since today I have only used up about $ 45 of the initial payment ($500). And it doesn' t look like I will do many registrations in the future, so that the money would be pretty worthless.

    I would not have used one of those unknown, but cheap enom resellers. There prices are very good, but it will be hard for them to keep in business at those prices. There is a good chance of decreasing support or of drastic price raise. It is better to pay more money, but to be certain that there won' t be major problems. You get what you pay for.

    I think namecheap cancelled the reseller program. I will have a look at dnclub.

  6. #6
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    Re: Re: registryrocket - is going thru a reseller cheaper?

    Originally posted by DesElms

    ...And if your parent reseller goes away then all the low prices in the world won't help you. ...
    Why's that?

  7. #7
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    Re: registryrocket - is going thru a reseller cheaper?

    Originally posted by timechange
    Why's that?
    If I'm interpreting your question correctly, perhaps I misworded my statement. Maybe I should have written, "And if your parent reseller goes away then all the low prices in the world from said parent reseller won't help you."

    Does that make more sense? Or have I misinterpreted the question?
    Gregg L. DesElms

  8. #8
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    hehe

    Basically I am asking: if your reseller is buying from enom and for some reason that reseller closes shop, what stops you from getting another reseller (of enom obviously) that is equally competitive.

  9. #9
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    Originally posted by timechange
    Basically I am asking: if your reseller is buying from enom and for some reason that reseller closes shop, what stops you from getting another reseller (of enom obviously) that is equally competitive?
    Not a thing! And you're dead-on. If the parent reseller goes belly-up and you, as a reseller sub-account holder of said now-defunct parent reseller, need to continue operating somehow, then you can open another reseller sub-account at a competing parent reseller and then use eNom's cool "push" feature to push all the domains from the old reseller sub-account to the new one.

    The only potential downside, of course, might be that you might have difficulty finding a new parent reseller that will match the price of the one that went out of business. That could really goof you up, but if that's what happens then that's what happens.

    I suppose if a person were signed-up with a parent reseller at $7.25 and then, later, said parent reseller went belly-up, for whatever reason; and then if you approached another parent reseller who was normally priced at $7.99; and if while you were at the now-defunct parent reseller you registered enough domain names that the new parent reseller would really be getting a helluva windfall of domain renewal overrides when it came time to renew all those domains, then I suspect you could probably negotiate a nice deal with the new, normally-$7.99 parent reseller by pointing out the price you had at the now-defunct parent reseller and how important that price was to you.

    Like any negotiation, you'd simply point out that that's the price you're used to; that that's the price you need; that you're fairly certain you can find someone reliable out there who'll meet that price and that it might as well be him; and that he (the new potential parent reseller) needs to decide if he wants that business or not. I suspect an established sub-account holder with lots of domains to push over to the new sub-account would be able to get pretty close to his original $7.25 price from the normally-$7.99 parent reseller if the parent reseller is smart.

    But, ya' know... that's just conjecture on my part. Who knows how it would actually shake out in the end. One can never predict these things.
    Gregg L. DesElms

  10. #10
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    Very comprehensive reply Gregg, as always! Thanks.

  11. #11
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    I just wonder if I get one of the cheaper ones < 7.25 and sell 100's of domains maybe I could make a deal with Enom directly

  12. #12
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    Originally posted by eddie
    I just wonder if I get one of the cheaper ones < 7.25 and sell 100's of domains maybe I could make a deal with Enom directly
    That would depend, I suppose, on what kind of deal you had in mind. What do you propose might get eNom's attention?
    Last edited by DesElms; 08-06-2002 at 11:42 PM.
    Gregg L. DesElms

  13. #13
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    I don't think enom will lower your prices just because you have 100 domains. There are lots of resellers who own more than 3-400 domains and they have the same rates. You can make 6950 deposit and you will get 1000 domain names, or you can choose from one of the resellers.

  14. #14
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    I love Gregg's explanations. They are always very professional and well thought out.

    Dnclub.com sounds good!

    I also wanted to point out AQHost

    They have two plans: Basic and Advanced.

    Basic offers $7.99/domain with $9.99 one time setup fee.
    Advanced offers $7.49/domain with $29.99 one time setup fee.

    Their customer service is excellent

    Greetings,

    Jessica
    --- To Err is Human ... And Don't You Forget It---

  15. #15
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    Originally posted by Jessicam
    I love Gregg's explanations. They are always very professional and well thought out.
    I paid Jessica to say that.
    Originally posted by Jessicam
    I also wanted to point out AQHost
    Indeed. That was one of the other ones I had in mind also and that I almost added -- and should have, actually. Now I'm sorry I didn't. The guy who owns AQHost and AQDomains (AQHost's eNom PDQ interface for domain sales) is a frequent poster in these forums and clearly knows what he's doing.

    In fact, as I think about it, the one's I've now mentioned here in this thread are my top picks for very low eNom reseller pricing -- in no particular order:

    NameCheap: $7.99*

    DNClub: $8.99 to $7.25

    AQHost: $7.99 to $7.49


    *I think I read recently in these forums that NameCheap has discontinued its reseller program -- or at least isn't taking new sign-ups. Does anyone know if that's true?
    Gregg L. DesElms

  16. #16
    Originally posted by DesElms
    *I think I read recently in these forums that NameCheap has discontinued its reseller program -- or at least isn't taking new sign-ups. Does anyone know if that's true?
    Can anyone borrow me glasses please? Never mind I already found some.

    Here is the post which makes me believe this: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showth...p&pagenumber=4

    Just one week before I emailed namecheap about the reseller program. I received some informations about it, but my second email with more detailed questions was not answered.

  17. #17
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    Originally posted by DesElms

    I paid Jessica to say that.
    I wish! If we were to get even a penny every time we recommend some of the good services/people out there, we'd be rich by now.

    Originally posted by DesElms

    *I think I read recently in these forums that NameCheap has discontinued its reseller program -- or at least isn't taking new sign-ups. Does anyone know if that's true?
    I can confirm this, Gregg. I've received the following email from NameCheap:

    Hello,
    We are sorry we no longer provide reselling services. Thanks and have a great day!
    Kindest Regards,
    Rich Howard
    Jessica
    --- To Err is Human ... And Don't You Forget It---

  18. #18
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    Hmm.

    So why did NameCheap drop its reseller program, I wonder?

    And does it mean that existing resellers get their accounts cancelled or don't get support or get their prices raised to force them away or what? Or does it just mean that existing accounts are fine but that they're no longer signing-up anyone new?

    Anyone know?
    Gregg L. DesElms

  19. #19
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    I'm curious too...

    --- To Err is Human ... And Don't You Forget It---

  20. #20
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    We discontinued offering reseller accounts because it was affecting our regular client base. We prefer to keep our clients with namecheap.com as opposed to sending them to enom. This does not affect pricing or customer support for our previously set up reseller accounts. That being said, we will begin to accept reseller applications again on a case by case bases. We want our customers that we set up with reseller accounts to actually use them for that purpose. What we do not want is our regular clients leaving our brand to another for the sole purpose of saving a few cents. I know there are other resellers who's whole business model is setting up reseller accounts but it just isn't ours. I hope this clears things up for you.

  21. #21

    Thumbs up

    First DesElms, your explainations are great.

    Secondly, I have to throw another resellers name into the ring. I signed up with DomainMaze (ffeingol). The setup prices were not as low as some of the other resellers out there, but I was very happy with the responses that I received. Emails were ansewered quickly and Frank was available on IM when I needed him.

    One of the things that sold me was that he appears to have been around here for a while (and always helping people). Too many of the other resellers seem to have just "appeared", posted their offer and left.

    I believe that DesElms is correct. Cheapest is not always the best.

  22. #22
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    Thumbs up

    Originally posted by pita
    First DesElms, your explainations are great.

    Secondly, I have to throw another resellers name into the ring. I signed up with DomainMaze (ffeingol). The setup prices were not as low as some of the other resellers out there, but I was very happy with the responses that I received. Emails were ansewered quickly and Frank was available on IM when I needed him.

    One of the things that sold me was that he appears to have been around here for a while (and always helping people). Too many of the other resellers seem to have just "appeared", posted their offer and left.

    I believe that DesElms is correct. Cheapest is not always the best.
    I vouch for Frank as well Great!

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