Things to Consider Before You Register a Domain With Any Providers (Part 2)
In this blog, we will be continuing our Part 1 knowledge on things you should consider before registering a domain with any providers. If you have not read Part 1, it is recommended that you do so. Click the link below to read Part 1.
As we all know, a domain name is required for setting up a website. You need to consider many things when registering a domain name, and Part 1 outlines 5 things to consider. Here in Part 2, we outline another 5 important things you need to know, if you are actively helping your customer to register domain names.
6. Make sure of the domain renewal procedure
Every domain name has an expiry date. If the domain owner wants to retain the ownership of the domain after the said date, it must be renewed. Your job is to make sure that the domain renewal procedure of the provider is clear, easy and transparent. You need to ensure the provider communicates clearly and transparently about the renewal rate, and the step-by-step process of going through the renewal process. You need to consider if they offer easy options for you to either auto renew the domain, or provide punctual notifications to renew the domain name manually, or an easy process to cancel the renewal.
It will not be ideal if the provider does a poor job for its domain renewal process, whereby you forgot to renew, or their renewal process is difficult and confusing, or you are shocked by the renewal rate etc. Such things might result in you losing your perfect domain name. It is recommended to choose providers who provide accurate, punctual and transparent notifications for the domain name renewal process.
At WebNIC, we ensure transparency in our domain renewal process. We state clearly the renewal rate, we provide a clear and easy to use dashboard for doing or cancelling the renewal process, we also make sure to always provide in time notifications to inform domain owners to renew their domain names.
7. A crucial factor – customer support experience
When you register a domain name, you have to consider the customer support experience provided by the domain registration service provider as well. It plays a big part and it makes a huge difference to your experience. We have all been there, and it is very unpleasant when you need help to solve an issue urgently, and yet the provider responds to you at a very slow pace. Even worse, some providers might not have anyone there to assist you. It really is the worst ever possible experience you will have if the provider’s customer support service is very poor.
We at WebNIC make it our priority to provide a high-quality customer support experience to all our partners. We are ISO-certified and our standard operations procedure (SOP) ensures that every single support request from our partners are handled within 24 hours. We also provide live chat customer service.
8. Be aware of domain slamming, registrar-lock and auth-code
As mentioned in point number 3 in Part 1, when a user registers a domain name, his/her contact info will be recorded in the WHOIS database. Spammers and marketers will then use programming robots to “mine” this info from the WHOIS database and send the owners tons of spam mails. The contact info will be exploited, if the domain registration provider does a lousy job in protecting it. Therefore, this is why you should take this into consideration when registering a domain name with any provider, to ensure that the provider provides sufficient protection on this aspect.
Another possibility that might happen that is related to the contact info is that some domain registration providers will also “mine” the contact info from the WHOIS database. They then send an email to the contacts, attached with documents similar to a renewal invoice to trick the domain owners to remit payment for their domain renewal. Unsuspecting, the domain owners will make the payment and without realising it, they have initiated a domain transfer. They have been slammed, hence the term domain slamming, also known as domain hijacking. The worst thing that might happen after an event like this is that their websites and email services will come crashing down and become out of service, because the DNS services are terminated from the original provider.
To counter the issue of domain slamming and unauthorized domain transfers, some providers’ domains run on a protocol called “EPP”, and to transfer a domain, an auth-code is required. It is like an extra layer of protection to protect a domain from unauthorized transfer. You need to make sure that the provider offers such protection for the domain name you wish to register. However, extra protection like this works as a double-edged sword, as it can also be used by providers to prevent you from transferring. All they need to do is not provide you the auth-code if you truly need it for transferring your domain name. It is good to make sure that the provider you choose have auth-code protection, and in addition you can truly control it freely on your own.
WebNIC offers free WHOIS privacy and protection, as well as auth-code protection. We have also configured our system to allow you to freely control them on your own through our partner dashboard. You can feel at ease, knowing that our protection will prevent spam mails and domain slamming issue from happening on you.
9. Beware of domain expiry sniping
There is also a thing called domain aftermarket, where people buy and sell registered domain names. It is also big business and can fetch thousands, or even up to millions of dollars. The ideal situation should be that when it comes to your domain names, you are the rightful owner with full control over them, and if someone is interested in them, you are the one selling it to them personally. However, some providers will take advantage of their customers and actively check out the domain names they register to see whether any of them can fetch a premium price in the aftermarket. These kinds of providers are essentially researching advance interest for their customers’ domain names and what kind of price they can fetch. Then when the domain names near expire, they have determined that the domain name is worth more than the owner’s actual renewal is worth to them, and intentionally not remind the owner of the expiry, so that they can snipe it and make it theirs. Make sure to steer clear of providers like these, and ensure that you are always notified about domain name expiry as mentioned in point 6 above.
At WebNIC, we make it our commitment to protect and safeguard our partners’ registered domain names, and ensure that they have full control over their domain names. We do not engage in domain expiry sniping and we always make sure to send domain name expiry notifications to all of our partners.
10. Domain Parking and Monetization
You might not be aware that domain parking is also big business, but it truly is. Domain parking is the act of registering a domain name, but not using it for any services such as an email or a website. You might then ask, how is a thing like this big business? The secret lies in monetizing all the parked domains with ads. You might experience this before, whereby you click a link to somewhere or made typo errors when entering a web address, the browser then shows you a somewhat empty page or search page, and popping up dozens of ads. That is what we called a parked domain and monetizing it with ads.
WebNIC is committed to full transparency and trustworthiness. Our partners have full control over their own domain names, and whether they want to monetize them or not. Our partners’ trust is our priority.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, a total of 10 points combining Part 1 and Part 2 here about the things you need to consider before you register a domain with any providers. Therefore, we would like to kindly remind you to take note of all these things when starting your domain registration business. Be sure to keep them in mind. We hope they are informative for you and you have a clearer understanding that there is more to it than meet the eyes, when it comes to domain registration business. Fortunately, WebNIC is a trusted domain registrar with more than 20 years of experience in the domain wholesale and reseller service. We make sure to provide high transparency and trust to our partners without taking part in any of the unethical actions as mentioned above. In addition, we offer a wide range of domains to help our partners to become a domain reseller and grow their domain business with us, we also work hard to provide a high transparency level and most importantly, a high level of trust and service quality to all our partners. You should choose WebNIC as your preferred registrar to work with for your domain registration business!
About WebNIC
WebNIC is an accredited registrar for ICANN, and various countries including Asia, Europe, America, Australasia, and Africa. With offices in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing, Taipei and Jakarta, we serve 5,000+ active resellers over 70 countries. To join us and become a reseller, live chat with us or email us at [email protected].