Nick Wilsdon wrote:

>Gordon wrote:
>
>  
>
>>We don't atually sell domain names in their own so we can get reasonable 
>>    
>>
>volume without having to go cut price.
>
>I agree the mark up in the domain business is truly terrible, that was why I
>was encouraged by the auction system. People are willing to pay better rates
>for auctioned domains (for traffic/links/good names).
>
>  
>
I agree with some of your points, the mark up on the domain business is 
terrible due to the business models of some registrars and hosting 
companies that choose to offset domain revenue with other income derived 
from hosting and PPC income from parked and suspended pages. Domain only 
companies are forced to diversify by adding services to compete in the 
market. This is why the Tucows parking program is beneficial to those 
models and should be factored in. If I understand correctly, any revenue 
share for the auctioned domain is given to the reseller.

In addition, I too feel people who frequent auctions are willing to pay 
better rates for auctioned domains and this is the reason why I believe 
the Tucows auctions will be successful. It's also my opinion that buyers 
will pay the renewal fee if they know the charge is forthcoming upon 
checkout. Right now it is not fully disclosed and places a terrible lack 
of credibility on the respective auction seller. The troubling part for 
me is the need to have a "cashier" area to take these payments. By 
design we accept payments upon delivery of a service. I had not factored 
in an "auction renewal fee", easy enough to change, however, the way our 
systems is designed we grab the current expire date and deliver an 
additional year. Right now the additional year is already added 20 days 
before the date the domain enters into the our management system and the 
new registrant could even pay for the name.

~Maxine





>However this auction system has turned into a nightmare. We're now
>effectively paying Tucows $5.48 for a lead in the hope we can sell them
>hosting or one of our other more profitable services. Frankly, I can get
>better value with Adwords.  
>
>The minimum auction price needs to go up to $22-25 *now*. We also need to
>know that the charges at day 80 will not be automatic. Then someone ought to
>work out what happens to people who won an auction but never renewed their
>domain. 
>
>Best Regards,
> 
>Nick 
> 
>CEO
>e3internet
>http://www.e3internet.com 
> 
>
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>  
>

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