Go Daddy Rectifies Invalid Whois Issue on Moniker Transfers

Elliot Silver
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2

After transferring several domain names from Moniker to Go Daddy recently, I noticed that the Whois lookup looked funky on these names, and after further investigation, I found that Godaddy was reporting a contacts error  inside my control panel. It probably wouldn’t have caused any problems for the domain names, but it’s not good to have incorrect Whois information.

A couple of days ago, I received a notice from Go Daddy’s Nick Fuller informing me that the issue has been resolved. When I posted the article, the company was in the process of getting its parsing updated on transferred Moniker domain names, and that process has been completed.

The company may still be working on the parsing script for transfers from other registrars (like Network Solutions), but it is something that is being fixed as we speak. If you find this error on transfers that are completed from now on, please post a comment here to let the company know. It will be helpful to know the losing registrar and transfer date.

Leap Year Domain Registrations

Elliot Silver
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8

It’s February 29, 2012, and there won’t be another February 29 until 2016. I am sure more than one person is wondering what the expiration date would be for domain names registered on “Leap Day” since there will be no February 29th next year.

For that question, CentralNic CTO Gavin Brown has your answer:

Twitter is a great place to learn new things!

I Wouldn’t Want To Be in The Domain Registrar Business Serving Domain Investors

Elliot Silver
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27

I was going to write this long comment/rant in response to a couple of the comments left in the Moniker sale post, but I believe it merits its own post. I can only imagine the domain registrar business would suck if the primary target audience is domain investors.

As a domain registrar catering to the needs of domain investors, there are a whole lot of downsides and few upsides that I can see. You have demanding and time consuming clients (like me) who only wish to pay just above the actual cost for the domain name, so the profit margin is slim. You also need to have tech support and customer support staff, and that certainly isn’t cheap. When there’s a problem, people are quick to complain on forums and Twitter, without regard for the people working behind the scenes.

From a legal perspective, the company would frequently face litigation from other companies who claim the registrar is contributing to trademark disputes, although I don’t know if there has been a case where a registrar has lost. There are ICANN compliance and regulation issues to deal with, and many registrars need to send representatives to ICANN conferences. All of this is super expensive, considering that customers only want to pay a few cents premium over cost for their domain names.

There are also significant technology costs to consider, since domain investors want an advanced user interface that performs well and is easy to use. In addition, there are hackers who are always trying to find ways to hack into the company’s database to steal credit card information, user information, and of course, domain names. These are additional expenses.

One reason end user-centric registrars like Go Daddy, Name.com, and Network Solutions have seen success and continue to have success is that their end user customers buy add-ons like hosting and storage. These products and services have significantly more robust profit margins, driving profitable revenue for the registrar. Most domain investors don’t buy these additional products.

With all of these costs, a domain registrar needs to have massive scale, and that isn’t easy to achieve, especially with some of the factors above. I really wouldn’t want to be in the domain registrar business servicing domain investors like myself.

After the Sale, Are You More or Less Likely to Use Moniker?

Elliot Silver
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19

I’m sure you’ve already read the news that Moniker and Snapnames  were  acquired by KeyDrive in a private transaction. I am very surprised that neither Oversee.net nor Key Drive sent an email to Moniker / Snapnames clients, and I don’t see anything that would indicate that either company issued a press release to announce the news yet.

I have met a few employees of KeyDrive, although I don’t know a whole lot about the company, aside from some of its business assets and location. For some people, having a registrar whose European corporate “home base” will come as good news, while others may not wish to have their domain registrar located outside of the United States (keep in mind that the .com registry is of course located in Virginia).

Technical support and customer service are both important to me, and I don’t know anything about the support or service that will be given by KeyDrive. At one time, I knew I could send an email to Bari Meyerson, and she would handle any issue very quickly. That changed in recent months, and I was then required to submit everything directly to Oversee.net support.

With all of this said, I am wondering what your immediate thoughts on the sale are, and if you plan to use Moniker going forward.


Importance of an Account Manager at a Domain Registrar

Elliot Silver
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10

A little over a week ago, I expressed my dismay that Bari Meyerson no longer works as my Account Executive at Moniker. Today, I want to share some reasons why having an Account Executive or Account Representative at a domain registrar is important to me.

Obviously we all put a lot of trust into our domain registrar. Our assets are digital, and there is always a concern they could be stolen and pushed to another account or transferred out all together. Should something like that happen, the process to recover domain names is a bit opaque, and having someone to help with that process is assuring. Knowing I have someone to email who would advocate for me and help me is important and reassuring.

In addition to this worse case scenario, there are every day issues that come up. There have been a number of times where transfers were denied for various reasons, and it’s always helpful to have someone tell me exactly what the problem was. Further, instead of having to submit a ticket to resolve the issue and then submit a ticket to get a refund and re-try the transaction, it has been helpful to have someone willing to make this easier and expedite it.

When I receive renewal notices via email, I am often away from my desk. It’s great to be able to forward the email to my account representative and ask him or her to take care of the renewal for me. It’s one less thing for me to worry about, and it also means that I won’t end up transferring the domain name elsewhere.

Oftentimes, domain registrars are larger companies with various products and services (hosting, web design, marketing…etc). When a problem arises, it’s nice to know you have an ally within the company that will speak with the people who can get things done when they aren’t able to do it themselves. My account representatives know what steps need to be taken to resolve an issue or head off potential trouble, and they are proactive on my behalf.

In various domain related surveys I’ve taken over the years, I’ve been asked to state the importance of having an account representative and/or good customer service compared to other needs like pricing, security, back-end user interface, additional products and service offerings, and other features/aspects. I am pretty sure that customer service was the first or second choice for me – always.

With a dedicated account representative, it’s likely I will do more business with the domain registrar. I am inclined to work with people I like and trust, and if I have an established relationship with an account person, it’s more likely I will register and renew domain names at that registrar.

I understand that it wouldn’t be economically feasible for companies to assign Account Executives to each client, but I can tell you that it does impact my decision when it comes to registering and transferring domain names.

Registrars Increasing Prices More Than the Verisign Price Increase

Elliot Silver
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23

One of my biggest pet peeves is being nickeled and dimed. It’s usually not that I can’t afford to pay a tiny bit more for something, but it’s annoying to pay more than I should be paying.

Yesterday at midnight, Verisign increased .com and .net domain prices by 7%. The wholesale cost for .com domain names increased from $7.34 to $7.85. Obviously domain registrars are going to pass this price increase along to customers, but one would assume they’ve already got the profit margin they want, so the price we pay should correspondingly increase by 7%.

At least that is what I thought would happen.

It seems that some domain registrars are increasing prices by more than the 7% increase that was passed on to them. One registrar I use increased my prices by 12.5% and another by about 10%. I would imagine other companies are doing the same to their customers.

Perhaps this is standard across the board, but it’s annoying. My portfolio only has about 500 domain names at any given time, so an increase isn’t going to cause me any issues, but it’s an annoyance, and I am sure there are people who will be impacted by this.

It doesn’t sit right for me that domain registrars are using the Verisign price increase as a way to pad their margins. Have you noticed the same thing?

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