Web Domain Registration

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Author:
Lois S.

Reselling Domain Names
September 2005
You offer web hosting services. Or web design services. Or both. When your clients need domain names for their websites, do you want to send them to another site, possibly to a competitor, to register one?
Of course not. That's part of why domain name registration is a popular service to offer. Reselling domain names provides an additional service to attract and keep clients as well as another source of recurring revenue. You can offer domain name registrations on their own or bundled with other services you provide.
Features of domain name reseller programs
When you are a domain name reseller, your clients register domain names using the service accessed through your domain name reseller account. The domain name company bills you, and you bill your clients. Or possibly the domain company handles the billing.
You decide on the retail pricing, and you market your services. The wholesale prices you pay before you add your markup depend on your sales volume and on the domain name reseller program you choose.
All of the domain name reseller companies compared in this article offer a reseller API (Application Programming Interface), which enables you to use the features provided with the domain reseller program. When your clients register domain names or update records at your site, the API communicates with the domain name reseller program system. With an API at your website, you keep the appearance and branding of your site when you resell domain names.
Two of the domain name companies compared here offer website creation tools for resellers, which means that you can be in the business of reselling domain names within minutes of having your account set up.
Many domain name reseller programs require the domain name reseller to pay and regularly top up a deposit for domain names. By doing this, the domain name reseller is paying for the domains in advance while making a profit from them when they're registered.
Domain name companies compared
The starting prices listed are the highest current wholesale prices for .com domains. Some other extensions may be higher, and the prices typically decrease with volume pricing.
See the company websites for more details about what each domain name reseller program offers. BulkRegister
BulkRegister's Domain Pilot tool allows domain name resellers to provide their clients with a unique URL and access code to make changes to the Whois data for their domains. Resellers can control which of the fields to provide their clients with access to. Registration can be automated or manual.
Resellers become BulkRegister members and are invited to take part in discussions about product ideas, upgrades, and updates. A $50 Overture advertising credit comes with the first year of membership.
- Setup fee: No
- Annual fee: $99
- Deposit required: No
- Starting wholesale pricing for .com domains: $12
- Website creation tool for resellers: No
- SSL certificate: Yes

eNom
If you resell domain names through eNom, you choose between two eNom tools:
- Automated Registration Software (API), which allows your clients to register and manage their domains through your site
- PDQ, a site that you customize and eNom manages; they handle the billing, and you earn commissions

As an eNom domain name reseller, you can also offer your clients web hosting, web monitoring, SSL certificates, and other eNom products as a reseller.
- Setup fee: No
- Annual fee: $99 if you use the PDQ website tool
- Deposit required: Starts at $199 for 199 eNom points
- Starting wholesale pricing for .com domains: $9.95
- Website creation tool for resellers: Yes
- SSL certificate: No

Tucows
A website builder, blogware, SSL certificates, and email services are among the services you can resell as well as domain names.
- Setup fee: $95
- Annual fee: No
- Deposit required: No minimum payment, but they recommend prepaying one month of credit in advance
- Starting wholesale pricing for .com domains: $9.85
- Website creation tool for resellers: No
- SSL certificate: No

Wild West Domains
Owned by The Go Daddy Group, Inc., Wild West Domains offers several reseller packages. They also offer other products to resell in addition to domain names, including hosting, website builders, email plans, SSL certificates, and merchant accounts.
- Setup fee: No
- Annual fee: Starting at $99; $249 with the API
- Deposit required: No
- Starting wholesale pricing for .com domains: $7.75
- Website creation tool for resellers: Yes
- SSL certificate: Yes


About the Author
About the Author:
Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Domain Names... Domain Name Transfer – What Is It And How To Do It… What is a domain name transfer? Is this an ordinary process of transferring just like those regular transfer processes? These are just two of so many questions that surround the domain name transfer. So you want to know the answer? Then, you read on. Essentially, a domain name transfer is made possible when the current domain name holder or registrant wishes to make some adjustments on the domain name companies that provide the domain name services. So, a domain name transfer is a process that can only be made possible with the effort of the domain name registrant of with the administrative contact who is listed on the recent domain name registration record. A domain name transfer can in fact refer to two detach and unique domain name transactions. One of those is a registrant domain name transfer, and the other one is the registrar domain name transfer. In terms of the registrant domain name transfer, it is considered that this kind of domain name transfer takes place when the current registrant of a domain name wanted to transfer all the domain name rights to a third party. It is only the domain name registrant or the administrative contact who are allowed to perform the registrant domain name transfer process. For conducting the registrant domain name transfer, most of the registrars only require a user name and password for the process. Besides, it is found out that there are also some registrar companies who require a notarized form or other formal recognition documents, but these are just depending on the certain county that the registrants resides in. It is commonly noted that they require such documents for the domain name transfer process to prove that the registrant is the actual domain name holder. So in all instances, the holder contacts their current...