Let me pose some ideas. First, with the heavy discounting going on, what
can be the sustaining revenue model for resellers? The answer is offering a
variety of other services, including hosting, access, programming, web site
development, etc. Regardless of the marketing concept, the only sustainable
revenue model requires an ongoing customer relationship, hence the need to
consider registrations as an initial event, not a final event. With this in
mind, why not charge for transfers? $10 on the back end. Why not affiliate
with Realnames so that the domain gets more action? Why not create a whole
marketing network, including e-newsletters to your registrants, viral
marketing to them for increased business. etc.
If any of this makes sense to you, you can hire me for $50/hour. I think
out of the box because of my long experience, and out of the box is
different than runningred lights.
----- Original Message -----
From: Derek J. Balling <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 11:51 AM
Subject: Re: Updating Tech Contact Information
> At 1:39 PM -0400 8/11/00, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> >Thanks for the reply...
> >
> >Why should you be able to change anything on a domain name
> >which you do not own? The only reason I can think of is so that
> >every time someone does a WhoIs search on the domain name,
> >you get free advertising. Once you have transferred a domain name,
> >there is nothing else for you to do - you're no longer needed.
>
> It's not JUST transfers. If I sell a domain to a customer [or more
> importantly thousands of domains to hundreds of customers], and I'm
> listed as the technical contact (because I'm their ISP and I manage
> the DNS servers in question), then I need to be able to update that
> tech-contact info if by necessity it changes (because my office moves
> across town and gets a new telephone number, say). It's not "free
> advertising", its "a necessary point of contact for technical
> administration of the domain and its servers".
>
> For some customers, they'll be maintaining their own TC, in which
> case, I agree with you 100%, the RSP should not be able to touch it
> at all, but in those OTHER cases, they NEED to be able to modify that
> information, lest the TC info become out of date and/or out of sync
> with reality.
>
> >What if the owner wanted to use the website developer as the Tech
> >Contact? After all, it's called a Tech Contact...not Reseller Contact.
>
> If the web site developer is in charge of technical issues, I'd not
> have a problem with that at all. But, by the same token, it's the
> Technical Contact for a domain, not a web site support person.
>
> Now, on a completely SEPERATE topic, one could point out that a
> domain-holder's TC gets tromped in the transfer (Even though the DNS
> servers may not be at the RSP at all), and that _IS_ an issue I'd
> agree with you on. (The Tech Contact stuff should get handled the
> same way as the Billing/Admin contact, maybe with a checkbox "Check
> here to use your ISP as the Contact or fill out this info below")
>
> D
>
