I sold a domain name a couple of months ago, and the buyer hadn’t updated his company’s Whois contact information. When I told him about it, he replied that he received a strange error message when he tried to update it the contact information. Luckily, I had a very good contact within the registrar’s tech support group, and the issue was resolved fairly quickly.
I know that attending conferences are expensive and not everyone who invests in domain names can afford to attend. Those are the best places to meet company representatives who can be critical to know when an issue arises. That said, you can create your own opportunity to meet company representatives.
Within many registrar and parking company control panels, there is a listing with an account manager’s name and contact information. If you have this information, you might want to get in touch with your account manager and set up an introductory phone call. I would imagine you could get a speedier response from an account executive that you know than if you contact the rep only when you need something.
If you don’t see the name of the account manager in your control panel, you might have luck reaching out to the company and ask about being assigned a representative. Obviously, the more business you do with the company the more likely it is that you’ll be assigned an account rep. Even if you don’t do a ton of business, calling might yield positive results.
In any business, knowing the right people can be helpful. The domain business is no different. If you don’t attend conferences, you should consider trying to establish relationships with the representatives at the companies with which you do business.
Hello Elliot,
I agree that it’s important to network with company reps and that sometimes not everyone can afford or have the free time to attend a conference to meet some of them. If it helps any, NamePros has been actively involved in providing Official Company Reps with identification badges for the last several years so that viewers know who to go to for support or general questions pertaining to a particular company.
You can find the list of active company reps to contact directly here: https://www.namepros.com/members/?type=reps
Thanks for a good read, as usual. I’ve always enjoyed following your blog.
I think that is a great concept, especially when a rep responds to a thread about his or her company, and other members can see that they are “official.”