Domain Registration - 2013 state

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mattwnz

20164 posts

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#812974 7-May-2013 16:14

MurrayM:

Also, what happens when the "one man band" wants to go on holiday? Does all support stop?

They would have to provide support while on holiday, which is easy enough to do these days. Or they would have to employ someone which is an additional cost. Normally the cheap providers sell on quantity and need a lot of new customers continuously. This is one reason I think support is often not the best with the low quality providers across any business type, as they are supporting many more customers, and they tend to use contact centres to do this.

MurrayM

2456 posts

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#812999 7-May-2013 16:32

mattwnz:
MurrayM:

Also, what happens when the "one man band" wants to go on holiday? Does all support stop?

They would have to provide support while on holiday, which is easy enough to do these days.

It might be easy if they don't have a wife / girlfriend complaining that they're bringing work with them when they're meant to be on holiday!

If I dared to do that my life wouldn't be worth living!!

JamesCairns

17 posts

Geek

#813069 7-May-2013 17:17

Not sure how long you have been doing it, but there is a lot more involved. When looking after .nz domains, you have to provide UDAI codes quickly. You have to make modifications to peoples contact details when they request it, manage any technical support and questions people may have. Mange domain ownership changes, which can require quite a bit of time. Handle renewals and and renewal / payment problems, handle cancellations when a customer hasn't renewed their domain in time and needs their domain renewed urgently etc. So you have to add enough of a margin to cover these costs in your time, even if you are just a one man band doing it from home with low overheads. You don't charge any penalties fees do you, such as a fee for uncanceling an expired NZ domain or changing domain ownership? Most registrars don't. But some of the cheapest ones do, and the fees can be large.

Also, what happens when the "one man band" wants to go on holiday? Does all support stop?

I have been doing it for well over 7 years and worked for one of the top web hosting companies in new zealand until fairly recently. Any good domain management system can and does provide easy access to request a UDAI code. Contacts can also be changed on a domain by simply making the change from within an account or filling out a registrant nameholder form and submitting it. sorry not much support required. If a question does come I am always happy to answer it and add the question to FAQ's.

And there is a markup of a couple dollars per domain to cover such costs remember not everyone will have such issues.

Renewals can be set up automatically and emails get sent as reminders. Also payments can be made by the customers account to renew a domain, still standard propagation will be a factor of how long they need to wait for it to come back online. Technical problems? hmm can not see any. of course there could be issues with my system then of course I work to fix that.

Regarding " uncanceling an expired NZ domain" Not sure what you are talking about here. a NZ domain goes into pending release for 90 days at any time during this period the registrant may renew the domain after this period it is released back to the public for anyone to register there is no uncancelling an expired NZ domain you either renew it or register it.

Holidays are you kidding? there are no holidays. however if I do go out or go on "holiday" I take laptop and portable router with me and forward calls to my mobile and I never go into out of service areas. But I do not recall getting any calls regarding domains themselves. If I have it was most likely a simple fix or customer just needed to wait for propagation.

But all in all a domain needs no support it is the underlying services such as website hosting and DNS management that requires support. Generally speaking it is something like 1 in 50 customers that has some kind of issue and those are generally just common sense.

JamesCairns

17 posts

Geek

#813077 7-May-2013 17:30

MurrayM:
mattwnz:
MurrayM:

Also, what happens when the "one man band" wants to go on holiday? Does all support stop?

They would have to provide support while on holiday, which is easy enough to do these days.

It might be easy if they don't have a wife / girlfriend complaining that they're bringing work with them when they're meant to be on holiday! If I dared to do that my life wouldn't be worth living!!

To be honest it can be a drag at times but my Wife is very understanding about it.

onebytemike

90 posts

Master Geek

#813662 8-May-2013 13:22

JamesCairns:
MurrayM:
mattwnz:
MurrayM:

Also, what happens when the "one man band" wants to go on holiday? Does all support stop?

They would have to provide support while on holiday, which is easy enough to do these days.

It might be easy if they don't have a wife / girlfriend complaining that they're bringing work with them when they're meant to be on holiday! If I dared to do that my life wouldn't be worth living!!

To be honest it can be a drag at times but my Wife is very understanding about it.

Your wife's name isn't Betty, I hope! ;)

JamesCairns

17 posts

Geek

#813698 8-May-2013 14:21

onebytemike:
JamesCairns:
MurrayM:
mattwnz:
MurrayM:

Also, what happens when the "one man band" wants to go on holiday? Does all support stop?

They would have to provide support while on holiday, which is easy enough to do these days.

It might be easy if they don't have a wife / girlfriend complaining that they're bringing work with them when they're meant to be on holiday! If I dared to do that my life wouldn't be worth living!!

To be honest it can be a drag at times but my Wife is very understanding about it.

Your wife's name isn't Betty, I hope! ;)

LoL! No! But my mothers name is ;)

onebytemike

90 posts

Master Geek

#813789 8-May-2013 16:25

Testimonial from mum? Really?

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

JamesCairns

17 posts

Geek

#813925 8-May-2013 19:58

Oh that, Totally forgot I had left that up there. Was a fuller while I redesign the footer area.

Will be there for a few more days till I have completed the new design :)

Don't forget I did say it is a fairly new business. (still moving a lot of sites across from a few other platforms as well)

Also all mums give the best testimonials :)

mattwnz

20164 posts

Uber Geek

#814488 9-May-2013 13:30

I don't think you are allowing for costs, such as your wages, credit card fees on each transaction, advertising (to get your customers), insurance, phone etc, even if you are running it from home. Google adwords would probably charge around 50c -$1 per click, and not everyone who clicks will buy a domain. So if the costs were a $1 credit card transaction fee + $1 google adwords click, that essentially eats your profit. Posting of forums could get your some customers, and perhaps help with search engine listings, but not really an ideal way to advertise. These costs are why other companies charge more.
There are companies selling domains cheaper too, from $15 so you are still competing against other businesses selling them cheaper. But I think they are selling them at a loss, and hoping people will buy their other higher margin services, and perhaps that is what you are doing too?.

JamesCairns

17 posts

Geek

#814848 9-May-2013 21:56

mattwnz: I don't think you are allowing for costs, such as your wages, credit card fees on each transaction, advertising (to get your customers), insurance, phone etc, even if you are running it from home. Google adwords would probably charge around 50c -$1 per click, and not everyone who clicks will buy a domain. So if the costs were a $1 credit card transaction fee + $1 google adwords click, that essentially eats your profit. Posting of forums could get your some customers, and perhaps help with search engine listings, but not really an ideal way to advertise. These costs are why other companies charge more.
There are companies selling domains cheaper too, from $15 so you are still competing against other businesses selling them cheaper. But I think they are selling them at a loss, and hoping people will buy their other higher margin services, and perhaps that is what you are doing too?.

Yes I take into account of costs, Domains are not the main business website hosting and website design is.

At the moment I have a lot of work already and only advertise by word of mouth and some times on forums that I am interested in. Due to how I treat my customers with the purpose of getting them what they need and getting them set up and making it as easy as possible for them is how I advertise.

So as far as domains are concerned they are still just a domain nothing fancy add your name to it and it is yours as long as you keep paying the registration fee.

Here is a tip that no .nz domain registrar that sells at a loss will want you to know.

If you purchase a .nz domain you can transfer this domain for free to any other hosting provider after 5 days and then use your domain there and if they are one that charge a lot because they have support then they will be obligated to give you support even though you did not buy the domain from them.

Also if your .NZ domain expires you can transfer the domain to a low cost domain registrar (because .NZ domains can be transferred while in pending release)

See the following regarding .NZ domains http://dnc.org.nz/content/rmc.html
Specifically the following regarding transferring domains in pending release:

14.1 During the "pending release" period, the registrar will able to fully re-instate the domain name for the registrant, so that it becomes active again. The domain name is also able to be transferred to a new registrar and be reinstated by the gaining registrar.

So as I have said before regarding domain registrations I do not believe that companies should be charging extremely high fees on the domains but should be charging for DNS management + support.

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