Hello Peter,
Saturday, August 19, 2000, 3:07:58 AM, you wrote:
> Should OpenSRS lower it's wholesale price? That's for OpenSRS to decide.
> If resellers though are suffering from low-priced competition they cannot
> hope to match then they are right to point this out to OpenSRS - and should
> be able to do so without fear of condescending feedback.
Resellers shouldn't be expecting domain registration to be a profit
center for them. Then low price competition is not an issue. Domain
registration should be an adjunct to their existing service, a value
add.
For the pricing "requests" (some of them were worded more like
demands) that I have seen here, to get that pricing they would have to
become ICANN accredited themselves.
There will always be someone lower in price, if you are trying to be
the lowest price in your market, and make a profit at the same time, by
being an RSP, you are simply fooling yourself. If you want to try and
play that game, become ICANN Accredited.
The condescending feedback you note is generally from people who have
been in this business a long time, and have said what I spelled out
above for a long time. It gets rather tedious to see people complain
all the time about how the competition (ICANN Accredited Registrars
usually) are undercutting them and they can't compete and make a
profit at the same time, when the writing has been on the wall in this
industry for quite a long time.
These people are just learning the lesson that many of us have been
repeating on this list every month or so.
But there will always be those who think they know better and don't
agree, and set out to do that anyway, investing a lot of time and
money to try and make it happen. Those are usually the ones who come
back and whine when they can't compete on price, or complain that
OpenSRS doesn't include this that or the other service that their
competitors are offering, etc.
Forgive some of us for not being that sympathetic.
Look at the domain registration business as a value you are adding to
your existing services, and you will find it much more enjoyable and
less stressful.
Then you find you CAN compete. You can offer customers domains at a
loss (because you make it up in the other services you are selling to
them). For example, you can give your hosting customers domains for
$6/yr, and make up the $4 to $5 in loss in your first month's hosting
fees, where you have a higher margin of profit anyway. Then you can
charge your higher rates to "non-customers" who you really don't care
if you get their business anyway. This provides and incentive for
people to host with you as well.
What we are seeing is people getting $15/mo virtual servers and
spending $250 on RCU's, and thinking they will have a profit making
domain registration service.
Then they wake up.
--
Best regards,
William mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
