Domains

Recently, I received a “Domain Name Expiration Notice” from a company called “Domain Registry of America”. What bothers me most about this notice, is that it’s designed to look like a bill, and to the untrained eye, or unlearned domain owner, you are very well led to believe that you need to follow the instructions on this form in order to renew your upcoming expiring domain.

For this reason, I’m issuing this Public Service Announcement to Small Business Owners who may have or will receive a “Domain Name Expiration Notice” from Domain Registry of America. In my opinion, this company participates in an unsavory business practice of preying on individuals, via the mail, who are likely not web-savvy enough to know that this “notice” is nothing more than an advertisement of their high-priced domain transfer and registration service.

And when I say “high-priced”, I mean it. I’ve attached a copy of this notice here:

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And on it, you’ll notice that a one year renewal for one domain is $35! This is highway robbery, especially since the worst case scenario I’ve seen for a domain renewal has only been upwards of $12. So, with Domain Registry of America, you’ll likely pay 3 times more than you would with other registrars!

It bothers me that this company is participating in what I believe is a “shady” business practice, especially since they’re going after people who likely don’t know what they don’t know. I’ve been getting these notices for quite some time now, but it recently came to my attention again because one of my clients inquired to me about it, based on some recent domain purchases that I had just procured on their behalf. They thought, that something mentioning their domain name and having their address on it, with what LOOKS like a bill, was a bill, and if they hadn’t spoken to me first, they likely would have been out of at least $40!

Because I knew to intuitively ignore these notices, I assumed that others did as well, but then I later learned I was wrong in my assumption. For that reason, today I say: BEWARE OF “Domain Registry of America” of 2316 Deleware Avenue, #266, Buffalo, NY 14216-2667. They may in fact be a “legitimate business”, but the way they go about business sucks and they need a new model that doesn’t prey on misleading people and taking advantage of them.

I would suggest, if you get one of these notices in the mail that you REPORT IT TO YOUR LOCAL STATES ATTORNEY FOR CONSUMER FRAUD! That’s what I intend to do! It’s your State’s Attorney’s job to stay vigilant and protect your state’s consumers from companies with unsavory and predatory business practices, and this should be brought to everyone’s attention, to keep “Domain Registry of America” from sending out these faux-bill notices with its ridiculously small fine print on the back.

I hope that this information has been useful to you, and I’d encourage you to share your experience with Domain Registry of America, and similar companies that operate like them. Have you gotten one of these notices before?

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

Beware: Domain Registry of America

When I consult with someone about creating a website or blog, one of the issues that comes up is purchasing a domain. The ideal scenario would be to purchase your company or brand name at its .COM extension, but now days, a full several decades into “The Internet”, you’ll find that many .COM extensions are taken, especially for popular terms and phrases.

In cases where people actually do find their preferred .COM domain, the next issue is how many years should you purchase it for. Meaning, how many years are you going to pay for now, before it’s time to renew your domain again, typically at whatever the “then current” renewal rate is.

Allow me to back up a little bit here and explain how domains work. A domain is like a telephone number. Once you acquire it, as long as you pay for it (typically to a domain registrar) it belongs to you. When you stop paying for it, or cancel it, or allow it to expire, just like with phone numbers, it goes back into the pool of available domains that someone else can then purchase.

So in this respect, when confronted with purchasing a domain, I typically tell my clients to purchase their preferred .COM domain for as many years as they can afford. Most companies, like GoDaddy, will allow you to purchase your domain at a set price and they’ll offer that same price for multiple years. For instance, this current GoDaddy Domain Sale offers .COM domains for $7.49/year, which means that you can purchase your domain for several years, say 5, and pay about $37, as opposed to what you’d pay if you purchase it for just one year at $7.49, then renewed annually at whatever the current rate was at your domain registrar.

The True Cost of a Domain Renewal: A Tip for Purchasing Domains I use the example of a $10 domain on my company’s website (see the image to the right), because I think that gives us good clean numbers to work with. In the example, the domain starts off at $10 per year, and the price of a renewal increases annually by 20% (which is on par with the industry standard). Purchasing the domain the first year at $10, then renewing it annually at its current rate would mean you’ll end up paying a total of $74.42 over a five year period. Whereas, if you purchase the $10 domain for five years, you’d have spent $50 upfront and essentially saved about 33% by making that purchase when you first acquired your domain.

It’s a fairly simple transaction, but a great way to save money, especially in the early years. Add to that the confidence that you have in your brand, and it’s definitely a worthwhile investment.

One other tip I’d like to add is this: If you’re fortunate enough to acquire your .COM domain when you first start off, buy all of the other domain extensions like .NET, .ORG, .MOBI, .INFO, .BIZ, and even the newest .CO that you can afford, in addition to any common misspellings, if you can afford those too. Do this to protect your brand, because there is a whole industry of people that make their living off of buying similar domains of popular brands and either re-selling them to you at a premium rate, re-selling them to your direct competitor, thus siphoning off your web traffic, or worse, positioning themselves as you, under a very similar domain name, and infringing upon your brand name in that way.

Just some tips and advice that I hope helps make the Web 2.0 environment a little less intimidating.

Kindra Cotton, Small Business Survival Specialist

The True Cost of a Domain Renewal