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Which Domain Name Registrar is Best for Domainers?

Andrew Allemann — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:13:21 +0000

In battle for domainers, which domain name registrars deliver?

In the 2009 Domain Name Wire survey, I once again asked domainers what the most important factors were when selecting a domain name registrar. Here were the top four responses:

1. Security
2. Price
3. Customer Service
4. Account Management tools

With these top considerations in mind, which registrars make sense for large portfolio holders? A couple immediately come to mind (I should note that GoDaddy was voted top registrar overall).

The first, based on personal experience, is Moniker. I keep most of my domains there. Not only is pricing competitive, but there are several levels of security you can apply to your account. Although the user interface could use some work, I like being able to bulk manage up to 5,000 domain names with the click of a button.

Another top registrar for domainers, based on feedback from others, is Fabulous. It offers good pricing and has a reputation for great customer service.

There’s another benefit to using one of these two registrars: selling your domains. Moniker gives you access to selling on both SnapNames and in live auctions; Fabulous gives you access to Domain Distribution Network (and perhaps soon direct listings on NameJet).

There are other domain registrars that focus mostly on the domainer crowd, such as Rebel.

Which registrars do you think are best for domainers?

Review and rate domain name registrars at Registrar Judge.

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Domain Name Wire Turns Four

Andrew Allemann — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:15:41 +0000

Happy birthday, Domain Name Wire

Domain Name Wire launched four years ago today. Looking back, it’s certainly a time capsule of the domain name industry. Articles in that first month included:

“Moniker Unveils Paid Parking Program” – Moniker’s now closed TrafficClub program got its start

“Yahoo to challenge Google Adsense” – we all know how that played out

“Registrars drop .us privacy protection this week” – privacy protection was nixed from .us domain names

There are many reasons for Domain Name Wire’s longevity and success. Of course it starts with readers. Equally as important are the many advertisers. Growth in advertising has allowed a site that started as a part time hobby to turn into a nearly full-time endeavor.

I’d like to call your attention to a handful of advertisers that have been with the site for a long time. I appreciate all advertisers; here are some of those that have helped send DNW to the next level:

National A-1 Advertising – these guys want to buy your premium domains. Don’t believe me? They just bid $5M on toys.com

Sedo – domain brokerage and parking services

Domain Capital – domain name financing

Rebel.com – domain registrar for domainers

TrafficZ – exceptional domain management and parking

Escrow.com – the #1 choice for domain name escrow

Parked.com – high payouts, twice a month

NetFirms.com – longest running text ad sponsor

Please visit these advertisers and thank them for their support, along with all of the other advertisers (including the text link advertisers on the right).

Over the coming months, you can expect a few changes. The basic formula won’t change, but it will be tweaked. Site Graduate is helping me with a minor site redesign. And we’ll be adding more subject matter experts as writers. DNW has always had multiple writers, with me as the lead. This will stay the same but we’ll be adding more in the future. So stay tuned.

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Be Careful What You Believe Today…

Andrew Allemann — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 14:37:15 +0000

Reminder: It’s April Fools’ Day.

Leave it to domainers to go hog wild on April Fools’ Day. I promise not to pull any April Fools jokes at Domain Name Wire, but here are a few “stories” you may read about elsewhere…

DomainTools announced a new tool that predicts which typosquatters will register certain domains before they do, allowing lawyers to sue them in advance. Isn’t there a Tom Cruise movie about seeing crimes before they happen?

Rebel.com wants to be like GoDaddy, and announced a new “sexy spokesperson” today. The company says “As the domain industry gets more media recognition, Rebel.com has updated its image to mirror the allure of domain registration. The new Rebel.com spokesmodel is edgy, innovative, fun, and sexy — all qualities we identify with at Rebel.com.” Here’s a picture of the new “sexy spokesperson”:

Domain Name News reports several interesting developments:

California is going after Canada’s .ca extension, reports Adam Strong. (All joking aside, Canada did consider opening up the domain to registrants in California as a way to generate cash, but it took the high road instead.)

ICANN is dropping the last ‘n’. Apparently it’s going to Auction it off.

There’s a new domain conference in the works called T.R.A.G.I.C. It will showcase women in the industry. All 5 of them.

Get Certified Parking Stats at DNW Certified Stats.

It’s April Fools’ Day Somewhere in the World

An Update on GoDaddy Whois Issue and Other Registrars’ Responses

Andrew Allemann — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:19:27 +0000

GoDaddy will not return domain; other registrars say what they would do in the same situation.

It’s been just a few days since Domain Name Wire broke the story about GoDaddy deleting a domain registration due to an invalid e-mail address in whois. GoDaddy responded to the article but few people seem satisfied.

Here’s another update. After agreeing to give the previous registrant of FamilyAlbum.com his domain if he indemnified GoDaddy, GoDaddy today decided that it will not give the domain back. In a message to the former owner, GoDaddy said:

Thank you for your message. After further review with our Legal Department, it does not appear that we are able to assist you with this issue. Since the name was cancelled following ICANN standards and the name is now registered to another party, you will need to contact the current registrant regarding the domain name.

I’ve never actually seen ICANN’s complete policy on this but would appreciate anyone experienced with these rules to comment.

In the mean time, I contacted a number of registrars to ask them what they would do in this same situation. Would they cancel a registration after just trying to contact the customer via e-mail? What do they do about inaccurate whois data? Here are the responses so far:

DIRECTNIC
“We operate the domain name registrars directnic.com and domaincontender.com as well as the parking service Parked.

You asked what steps we are willing to take instead of deleting a customer’s domain due to invalid WHOIS data. Well, we are willing to make a Federal case out of it. We literally will go to Federal court to protect our customers, including for WHOIS privacy.

In 2002 we at directNIC.com refused to delete the domain name of a customer who allegedly had invalid WHOIS information. The fact that this client also was being sued for allegedly committing slander was not an issue for us to judge. The attorneys involved demanded that we delete the domain name. However, we considered the rights of our customer too important to be swayed by impending litigation. Some registrars will take the position of “not having a dog in that fight” and so they will roll over on their customers. That is not our position. As a result, we ended up fighting a Federal lawsuit, titled Gregg Lloyd Smith versus Intercosmos Media Group, Inc., which we ultimately won on summary judgment. The end result of the lawsuit was that, under U.S. law, domain name registrars were deemed to be interactive service providers with federal immunity from the postings of the registrant of a domain name. See http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/docket/011303smith-ruling.pdf.

In another example, several years ago we had a customer who refused to update WHOIS information on a domain name and an attorney threatened to sue us at directNIC.com over it. Ultimately, the customer used a WHOIS protection service and the attorney who was making the threats ended up in jail.

Aside from the anecdotal replies above, when we receive a WHOIS complaint, we specifically state and adhere to our policies published on directNIC.com and http://domaincontender.com. The first action we take is to attempt to verify the WHOIS information ourselves. Sometimes people complain an email is invalid when in fact, the owner was on vacation and their email box was just full. We are not going to consider a client’s WHOIS information incorrect if their email box is full, or if their mail server is temporarily down, or some other trivial issue. Catastrophes, such as Hurricane Katrina, also caused many people to have “invalid WHOIS” information for a long time, and we take such things into consideration before acting on a complaint.

If we conclude that a domain’s WHOIS information is false or outdated, then we try to contact the customer. We generally spend at least 15 days trying to contact the customer. (Exceptions to this rule include when it is clear a domain is being used for serious financial fraud or child porn.)

Sometimes a customer will respond with valid reasons for not wanting their WHOIS information on the domain name. In those cases we propose that they use directNIC’s WHOIS identity protection service.

If the customer fails to respond to our requests to update their information, then we generally place the domain name on hold. However, this is more than two weeks after the process has started. Such rare and drastic action typically gets the attention of the customer, and they usually are very quick to respond to us at that point.

Sincerely,

Sigmund Solares, J.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Intercosmos Media Group, Inc.”

REGISTER.COM
“We certainly appreciate your concern in this matter; and would like you to know that I have taken the time to review this article as well – which I found this to be very interesting. While the statement is true; that it is required by ICANN that we keep valid contact information on file for the domain name, many customers will register with bogus information to keep their information private. Register.com makes every possible attempt to contact the customer to give them an opportunity to update and validate thier contact information. We willl contact them via telephone; email; snail mail and also fax if it permits – however have not in my career with Register.com in the last 3 years have experienced an issue to an extreme where an account has actually been deleted. Also as was mentioned, there are services provided by most domain registrars which will keep the whois information both valid private.”

GANDI.NET
(In addition to the message below from Gandi’s CEO, I received a phone call from the company. In short, they explained that they’d do everything possible to contact the owner before taking action. It would contact the customer based on all information in whois, on the web site, etc. It wouldn’t cancel a registration if unable to reach the customer because the customer might call back later…which is what happened with FamilyAlbum.com.)

“- it’s a case per case basis, which means that we take a look at the domain and website attached to it to. Obviously Familyalbum.com is not the same than a domain name leading to fraudulent activities,

- depending on the case, we try to contact our customer by ANY means to have his data corrected,

- if we do not have ANY answer, we NEVER cancel the domain. We hold it instead, and wait for a reaction,

- Gandi has never and will never purchase domain names for itself in order to put ads on it or whatsoever close to that. We are registrars, not real estate-short-term-view-agents”

REBEL.COM
“While there are many “you could or you should” advisories for
the Registrar from ICANN, it comes down to your business model. At
Rebel.com, we are a registrar focused on satisfying the needs of the
domain name professional. We understand the value of our customer’s
assets and offer the tools and the personal service they would expect.

Emails are sent, phone calls are made. We look for contact
information on developed sites. We reference our customer records for
contact information for parked sites. Ultimately every problem report is
resolved considering all available registrant information and the
required policies of ICANN.

-David Chiswell, CEO of Rebel.com”

I anticipate further comments from registrars over the coming week and will post them as they become available.

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