In April of this year, I wrote an article with 5 reasons to consolidate your domain names at one domain registrar. I still believe it is wise to consolidate domain name holdings at one, two, or possibly three domain registrars, but there are some reasons why you should think twice about consolidating your holdings.
Recently, I ran into a bit of an issue after transferring one of my domain names, and I thought it would be wise to share several reasons for you to not consolidate your domain names at one domain registrar. Luckily for me, my issue was resolved after a bit of back and forth, but it could have cost me a sale.
Here are 4 reasons to not consolidate your domain holdings:
Domain Sales: When you transfer a domain name to a different registrar, there is a period of time where the domain name is locked at the new registrar, preventing the domain owner from transferring it. Although this may be a useful security measure, it can also hinder a sale. For example, if you transfer a domain name from GoDaddy to Uniregistry, a buyer may balk at having to keep the domain name at a registrar he doesn’t know.
Account Security: If you suffer an account breach and one of your domain name registrar accounts is compromised, you could end up losing a significant amount of your domain names. If you have accounts at several domain registrars and use different login information (user names and passwords), it will likely be more difficult for a hacker to gain control of all of your accounts.
Relationships: Generally speaking, it may be better to have an excellent relationship with one company rather than a good relationship with several. That said, if the company has issues such as solvency (as Frank Schilling pointed out in the last article), merger or acquisition, data loss or breach, or other problems, you may need to scramble to find an alternative. If you have accounts with a variety of domain registrars, you can easily transfer your holdings.
Customer Support Access: – If you are in the process of doing a deal with someone and need to contact the domain registrar for support, you will likely have an easier time with that process if you have an established account as opposed to being a future customer. For example, if you buy a domain name from a person who isn’t knowledgeable about domain names and they have issues with the transfer, you might not be able to open a support ticket if you don’t have an account with domain names in it.
As always, your thoughts are welcome.
If a U.S. based company is buying a domain name from a U.S. based domain investor then chances are they are only comfortable buying from a U.S. based registrar. If you are trying to sell domains to U.S. based companies from international registrars then you are probably not completing many sales. I would assume most U.S. companies are not comfortable dealing with international registrars.
I know you don’t like to rank one company better than another but what would be your top five U.S. based domain registrars in no particular order.
On another note, What percentage of your domains do you sell to U.S. based companies?
I couldn’t answer that question because I don’t have strong relationships with 5 US-based domain registrars, and my domain registrar requirements would be very different than most people since my portfolio is small.
I don’t know the % of sales to US based companies. I would say it’s the majority, but I couldn’t say for sure. For example, I sold a name via Afternic last week and I have no idea where the buyer is domiciled.
Best case scenario if you have a quantity of valuable domains is to operate your own registrar. Or even if you have, say, more than several thousand domains. It surprises me the number of large domain name holders who don’t do this.
What are the costs and technical requirements?
I think each registrar costs $15,000 each.
Having an ICANN Accredited registrar is not just a matter of money. There are many compliances involved which could be difficult to follow. One of my acquaintances recently had to surrender his accreditation.
Probably, you could be a reseller instead. Recommended ones would be eNom, ResserClub or maybe KeyDrive.
*ResellerClub