Hello Mason,
Speaking for myself, YES, I'd be interested in having the
back-ordering services available to me.
The only caveat I would have is that I would want it to
follow the RSP model that Tucows now uses, under which
my customers are my customers, and I am free to develop
my relationship with my customer without interference.
We don't hide the fact that we are an OpenSRS reseller,
but we don't tout it either. We brand and sell domain
registrations as our own service, with appropriate disclosures
about our relationships. My customers do business with
Atl-Connect (in most cases) because they're dealing with
*ME*. They know that there's a knowledgeable, helpful
person on the other end of the line who will handle the
technical details for them.
All of this is a drawn out way to say that I'd definitely
be interested in your service. If it is offered to me in
a "wholesale" model (meaning that I have the flexibility to
set pricing, collect payments and manage my relationship
with my clients), then I'm even more interested.
Regards,
Eric Longman
Atl-Connect Internet Services
+-------------------------------------------------------+
| Atl-Connect Internet Services http://www.atlcon.net |
| 3600 Dallas Hwy Ste 230-288 770 590-0888 |
| Marietta, GA 30064-1685 [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
+-------------------------------------------------------+
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mason Cole" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 28, 2001 12:52 PM
Subject: ATTN: Resellers -- input requested on domain name back-ordering
Dear TUCOWS Reseller:
Several substantive conversations with TUCOWS' Elliot Noss and Tim Denton,
specifically about the changing nature of registration services demand, have
developed into working ideas about what SnapNames can bring to registrars
and their resellers to increase conversion rates. TUCOWS has asked us to
forward our thinking and seek your input.
As everyone knows, it's very hard to register a .com name because any
sensible word or phrase has been taken. New registrations have fallen from
their all-time high of over 60,000 per day to about 30,000. That's why, on
average, only 3% of customers who came to register a name actually succeed
in doing so. To the other 97% of ready-to-buy customers, credit card in
hand, no sale is made -- everyone is dissatisfied.
Meanwhile, the number of daily deletions has risen from only about 1,000 per
day last spring to nearly 30,000 today. What that says is there's just as a
big a market in connecting customers with about-to-expire names as there is
in registering new names for them. And we've confirmed that customers will
pay substantially more to get an about-to-expire name. By operating at the
customer's point of greatest frustration (the failed WHOIS search results),
SnapNames' partners achieve over 9% conversion (it grows along with
awareness) on a back-ordering service. Next to the text that says, "Sorry,
this name is taken," partners can put a link saying, "Back-order it now". A
lot of customers do. Our partners' revenue per clickthrough often exceeds
US $1 per visitor.
Additionally, SnapNames is the most efficient and scalable solution to the
problem the Registry is reacting against -- we have great confidence we'll
be a major part of the long-term solution.
Our question is this: Would you be interested in OpenSRS offering SnapNames'
back-ordering services to you, and, ultimately, to your customers?
Please let us know your thoughts. We'll answer more specific questions as
they arise and as you wish.
Regards,
Cameron Powell
Vice President -- Business Development
Mason Cole
Director of Corporate Marketing
