a few years ago - $6.99 for a .com at domainsite last year - $7.99 for a .com at domainsite this year - $9.99 for a .com at domainsite what's going on!? this is madness!
Inflation - that is the word. Also, as the domains are getting exhausted, the only way to monetize on it is to increase the prices
oh well, at least now I'll be thinking twice about any domains I register and whether or not I really need it. guess we can just rely on coupons every now and then.
Verisign has a 6 year contract with ICANN to operate the .com registry until 2012. The contract allows Verisign to increase their price 4 times in the 6 years up to 7% each time. So... prices will go up again next year when Verisign exercises it's 4th option.
Here is a press release that talks about the fee increase from last year: http://www.spronky.org/2010/06/verisign-to-increase-domain-name-fees.html
It has made me re-evaluate my domains. I dropped a few this year because of the domainsite price increases.
I have dropped a few too. I guess there's less for them to do with more money to do it. Then again, if its all automated, it wouldn't really save them much if they don't have to do anything anyway. That's it, there's no excuse. Just greed (because they can).
I think it's still cheap, everyone can afford it. Maybe there would be more better developed domains if one would cost $50 or so
I'm dropping almost all of my .me's for sure, they're a total waste. I'm even more inclined after these bastards raised the price of the .com renewals. This is a time where it really pays to be a part of your registrar's discount club, if you can justify the annual fee.