----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles Daminato" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 6:55 PM
> <not speaking as agent of Tucows>
>
> If you have been in the industry for this long, there are other factors to
> consider. Price is one of them.
Absolutely - but price is the first one, because it is that which gets you the
business initially, and the basis upon which to build a customer relationship.
No customer - no customer relationship.
It's like buying a car - it doesn't go faster if you pay more for it :-)
>
> Manageability, support, longevity of the company you're dealing with,
> community standards (these lists being part of why I love working here -
> it's part of the fun!)...
I agree all of those things are important. But a domain is fairly generic, as I
said before, it isn't like a PC or piece of software with alot to it, and a box
of manuals. Of a domain - people expect an ongoing deal, and the ability to
manage that domain effectively with a web browser - at least the basics like
authorititive DNS, and of course people want the usual URL and mail forwarding.
>
> There are others that have been argued before and are not my expertise to
> bring up - but it boils down to more than just a $2 dollar difference. If
> you spend several hours per domain finagling with it to make it work due to
> poor management tools or lack of real support, that $2 'saving' doesn't
> really pay for itself...
I agree entirely. But as I said before - if one is in business, one has to do
things properly by providing a complete service or not at all. Attract your
customer first based on price which is the most visible thing to a customer when
they shop around, and give them an array of management tools to use with a web
browser. Once those tools have been developed, there is no overhead associated
with them per se - it is all a part of offering the best service. And with that
best service comes more business through reputation and referrals. But I say
again - you have to get that customer first, and the fact is, and I know this to
be true, price is always the very first issue.
As for OpenSRS - the more successful resellers are in attracting and retaining
business, the more of a percentage OpenSRS make in aggregate over all resellers.
Principles, like sticking to a price of $10, are all well and good, but
profitable it isn't in the long haul. OpenSRS should incentivise their
resellers by offering a tiered pricing structure based upon volume - that makes
perfect business sense to anyone - otherwise resellers will go straight to the
$8 registrars, instead of paying OpenSRS $10 knowing that they can get to $8 or
whatever if they perform well.
Yes - there is alot more to domains than just price, but without the price it is
moot.
Adrian Cooper.
