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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:
Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for
http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com
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