Gents, Ladies. I personally got a lot out of this string. I know it is important to understand the competition, and undoubtedly GoDaddy will become our bane in the months and years to come.
Thanks to just about everyone that offered some facts. I'd like to add my 2 cents to this. 1. A GoDaddy partner is an indentured servant. You don't own the customer, they do. 2. A GoDaddy partner has no control. 3. Although they pay you a bounty, it is fixed. You don't dictate what your time is worth. 4. They gain the relationship with the customer. 5. They use the Microsoft mentality. From controlling your cc rates to becoming intimate with your customer, you set yourself up to be cut off if you work with them. If you want peace and love these days, you have to pay for it. Everything comes at a price. As much as I'd love to sell domains at $6.00 per year and make $5.00 profit per sale, that is just not realistic. Collectively we need to hold the line and build on our relationship with our customers. I'll state the obvious, teach your customers. The more they understand why they should pay $11 to $25 per domain with an RSP, the sooner GoDaddy will find out they can't survive long term. They can sell off to AT&T or some other bozo conglomerate that pays too much for its acquisition and die off too, (Excite @Home for example). And I was thinking about a bowling lane in my office too... My whole point is justify your price. Bend but don't break. If you throw in with GoDaddy you are putting a gun to your head. Maybe not today but sooner or later the trigger will pull. I tease here a lot but I'm not joking now. Perhaps this is just a good conversation and no one is actually concerned about GoDaddy. Despite GoDaddy's claims, we (Spy) have seen in increase of domain registrations of about 30% in the past two months and hosting is way way up. People just want solid value for a buck. PS: Didn't anyone get Kai Sch�tzl's note that this topic should be on Biz Ops? :) Luv ya Kai. ;) And I didn't say "blow me" I said "that's below me". <laugh> Regards, Lars Hindsley SpyProductions
