Domain Names

steve-hosting36

Hi all,

Just was curious as to where people get their domain names, where is left for great pricing on com/net/org? What makes a good service? Does getting things like dns, forwarding, etc influence? What about .ie?

Steve

ps: those of you that know me know my interest, and those that don;t should know that I work at www.register365.ie (but that this is a personal curiosity issue!)

whiteshadow

are you joking about working in register365?

all the info you require is on your homepage!!?

steve-hosting36

Not joking, just curious about what registrars are popular and why

whiteshadow

ahh...
as far as i know theyre all really much of a muchness...

www.domainreg.com
is about €10 per domain per year
for a .com .net etc

but if you wanted a .ie check out www.register.ie
(...that's the same as ur site init?) but it's more of a pain, registering a business name, going through the long process

steve-hosting36

Domainreg.com are US$12.95 for a 1 year registration - which is € 13.70 (www.register365.ie are € 12.95)

Register.ie are € 69.95 for a .ie (www.register365.ie are € 50)

Surely there are cheaper places??

beaver

Surely you could stop plugging your own company?

d4r3n

jesus did you only post this to pimp your own company?

and btw your price page reads "All register365.ie Prices exclude Irish Sales Tax (VAT) which is applied at checkout at 21%"

steve-hosting36

Was genuinely interested, apols if anyone felt upset - of course we charge vat - why would the pricing page say otherwise?

Steve

Winters

I used register.ie for mine. They give free URL forwarding with your account so i got hosting with a free host and just forwarded my URL to host..... which was nice

d4r3n

i thought you would have put it beside it rather than putting it down the bottom in smaller writing

donaloconnor

I used register.ie , i didn't bother with their crappy dns servers so i went for www.powerdns.com A brellent free Dns service company, i would really recommend it. Free email forwarding too.

I wouldn't go for a .ie unless you were a company or business, there very hard to get and you have no direct control with them.

peterd

When I used to register domain names, I would usually choose a company who was very reputable and has been around for a few years. With domain names, one company doesn't necessarily register a domain "better" then another, all that matters, is that I get my whatever.com registered. I think the things you'd need to compare domain registration companies by, would be...

- Real-time processing. My fav. domain registrar registered domains in real-time, so I could be assured that the domain was not going to be taken by someone else.
- Reputable company. If your registrar goes out of business leaving taking your domain down with them, it's not a nice feeling. There is very little in price difference with domains these days, a few extra euro to register a domain with company who is unlikely to go out of business is worth it.
- Control. Don't know about some people, but I prefer it when a domain is registered in my name. Although it is the "norm" that a domain is registered in your name, there are actually some chancers who will put their name for the owner contact. Also, some registrars offer their clients a control panel to modify their whois info, which is nice.
- Support. To have some form of contact with your registrar is handy. I'd only have to contact a registrar once a year max, but it's just an extra assurance to know you have someone to go crying to

i thought you would have put it beside it rather than putting it down the bottom in smaller writing

It depends on your target market. If he deals with mostly business clientele, displaying prices ex VAT, is common practice, nothing wrong there.

yellum

If this is just a personal thing why repatedly mention your company and its prices. There is a serious conflict of interest here.

Why don't we create a "Hosting365.ie spam " thread and you can **** off in there and not annoy everyone else with your whoring of your services.

I actually think you should get a bill for all the advertising you've carried out here and the business you've gained as a result of boards.

Boards deserves their cut.

donaloconnor

Sorry

dahamsta

i thought you would have put it beside it rather than putting it down the bottom in smaller writing

I actually dislike that too, but it's important to point out that every major Irish host / domain registrar does that. Take a look.

I'm redeveloping my site at the moment and I'm quoting all my prices inclusive. So there!

adam

DJB

Especially when you are trading with businesses - they don't really need to see the inclusive VAT price. They do want to know exactly what is going to go out of their bank account including VAT but they know they can write it back against their vat liablility so they are really only interested in what it is actually costing them! This is the ex VAT figure.

The law states that you must either show your sales price with VAT inclusive or state clearly that the price shown is exclusive of vat. You can do this by using the * and referring to it at the bottom of your page - which is what most of us do.

Anyway, I really like the points made by peterd. It is all about customer service. If you are a web developer or designer, you're going to shop around for the cheapest and easiest way to register. Joe Bloggs isn't going to do it that much cause they will only registering one or two. Developers as you know register a whole heap of domains and need good control over them.

I use www.ukreg.com for a lot of my domains but I am getting sick and tired of not being able to write back the VAT from the uk. They have a very good control panel, and are pretty cheap. For .ie, I just don't deal with the IEDR - I get one of the other lads here to do it. I think they are joke for lead time, customer service and [sarcasim]their unbelievable advances in technology and user friendly registrations.[end sarcasim]

Anyway, with domain registrations you don't make much money. You want to be registering thousands of domains a day to be making a good profit out it all. It's all advertising - advertise cheaply on domain registrations and make back on hosting. That's how most do it. Fasthosts do it in the uk. They own ukreg. When you register a domain you can choose a radio button for their dns servers or put in your own. Simple - and most users sign up with them.

Now... everyone sit back... have a cup of tea... and relax... :cool:

Regards,


Dave

steve-hosting36

Hi Yellum,

I think you'll find ukreg, register.ie and others have already been mentioned more times in this thread than us

As Dave says, all business tend to quote ex Tax, this is common to all UK and most US registrars as well - look at joker.com, they charge Vat/Sales Tax on check-out too. I suppose the issue is that domain registration is basically a not-for-profit business, and the only registrars that will survive long-term will be those attached to other, more diverse companies, or those that charge through the roof

Steve

ps: >>Boards deserves their cut.

We have actually offered free colo for the boards server

beaver

I think you'll find ukreg, register.ie and others have already been mentioned more times in this thread than us

You'll also likely find that those references weren't made by someone like Eoin Costello or anyone else with a vested financial interest, eh?!

steve-hosting36

A vested financial interest in cost price domains lol

How do we know these people aren't EC in disguise At least I was honest, open and put a full disclosure on my thread starter, christ, sometimes this board is so immature!

Steve

beaver

Making a loss then. I don't give a shít. You've got a vested interest either way. Stop plugging your company - whether you're open or not about it.

steve-hosting36

Wrong side of the bed this morning beaver?

beaver

No, Steve. I just don't appreciate having to see your frequent self-promotion on the webmaster board. What prompted me to be vocal about it is that this thread appears (rightly or wrongly) to me to have been started by you for no other purpose than to highlight your recently lowered domain prices.

steve-hosting36

Hi Beaver,

As you will see if you look through my other couple of hundred posts, I extremely infrequently mention any links/promotion and treat this board as it was designed, a public forum for open discussion and assistance. Sorry if you took this thread to be that, it was certainly not intended to be.

Steve

Big Thing

Steve

Great Prices, looks like you are cheaper than the IEDR for a dotIE! How do you do it?

Pray, tell us what other fine offers you have going at this time?

steve-hosting36

The IEDR charge € 125 retail, which is as much to discourage direct dealing with them by the public as anything else.

IEDR Affiliates (like us) get them for €50,

Steve

Big Thing

Steve,

IEDR to you E50
You to me E50?
Your profit: Nil.
Is this how you price your dotcoms etc. too?
And are your hosting charges at cost too?

Begad this is all mighty generous of you.

DJB

The cheapest price you can get a ie domain name is €50 and that's from the iedr directly. Usually, companies charge a few quid for having the hassle of dealing with the least technology advanced company in Ireland - the IEDR!

Steve isn't charging for the adminsitration of the the registrations which is good and it will save you the hassle. You need to buy 10 domains from the IEDR before you can get them for €50 so if you are only registering a few it would just be best to register elsewhere other than the IEDR and save time and money.

It all creates friendly competition and usually makes the rest of us follow to keep up with current prices. Steve - have we got a price war on our hands??

I really don't like the way everyone is giving out about this post. At least it creates a bit of action as it is fairly quite in here. We all want to promote our website and get hits - and if business results from it well and good!

There is my 2 cent thrown in there now. All the best...


Dave

steve-hosting36

Hi Godzilla,

Yes, all the domains at www.register365.ie are at cost price - ie: nil profit. Which is real terms means the site makes a loss.

That said, the up-sell to hosting and other solutions, and the margins we make there are healthy, and can sustain the generosity

Steve

steve-hosting36

It also means even people getting the wholesale price from the IEDR can use us and we deal with all the 'fun' and admin for the same cost as doing it yourself

Big Thing

Steve,

We all know the IEDR is no fun to deal with. Bejaysus, you are a great man to take all that hassle and earn nothing for it.

Are you offering free DNS Services 24/365, free phone services 24/365, free parking 24/365? This is all mighty costly so there can't be much profit here.

Man, you are mighty generous, lets have a pint sometime which of course you are well able to pay for, as you appear to have all the money you could want for. Me has to work for a living.

steve-hosting36

At the end of the day, the consumer is the winner, like all good competition - look at ryanair - who would have though they could make money from fares that low

Steve