I'm working with an investment group that will be buying 10,000 to 20,000+ domain names. Most new registrations, but also taking our database and scouring the expired list. What is the best way to go about this? Things like... What registrar to use? We'll be buying in 100 to 1000 amounts at a time... I was just looking at godaddy's bulk registration and prices can get down to about $7 w/privacy per domain. I used to get $3 domains as promos at some registrars a year or two back, but I'm not seeing those anywhere now. (edit: nearly all will be .COM) For trying to grab expiring domains (smaller volume), what service is best to go with or should we write our own software? Domains should automatically go online immediately/soon after purchase with a parked page (our page, not a 3rd party parking service) anyone have experience with this? Using software to automatically set up domains, get them online on an linux/apache platform with templeted parked pages... We're fine with writing some of our own domain acquisition, management and parked pages code, but don't want to recreate the wheel so to speak. If there are good software/scripts already out there, we'd love to use them. Just looking for some pointers. Thanks. If have experience/software, feel free to PM me.
We have a business model once the domains are acquired. But would love some feedback on how best to go about the acquisition from a standing start...
I don't know your business model but i'm not sure if you calculated renewal fees after the first year. GoDaddy for me is the worse choice you could make (read www.nodaddy.com) I don't want to discourage you but i never saw a serious domainer to take this huge bulk domain load and build his portfolio in one night Creating a good domain portfolio needs time, several months or few years. Parking doesn't make things easier Purchasing domains from expire grabbing services with minimum $60 per domain and most of the times several $X,XXX will not help you reach that registration number I also don't know the amount of money you want to invest but to get back even $6 per year from new registrations having them parked somewhere is not easy at all. Most of type-in domains are registered so you forget type-in traffic and you are not allowed to use any kind of promotion for these fresh domains To build your own parked page you need a huge load of traffic to start dealing with feed providers like Google (for example Google last time i checked required at least 750K per month) To create your own interface you need api development.... Sum all these up and you will see that your idea is ok but the implementation is difficult. I knew a person who wanted to invest about $6mil for a similar project and at the end he skipped the project for something totally different
domnom: Thanks for the godaddy link. I have a small 100 domain personal portfolio there and can usually get away with ok renewal prices only because of the constant stream of coupons, etc. I'm also a godaddy reseller. Would be different for a much larger portfolio. Do you have a suggestion for another registrar? I concur with what you said about domain REIT's, that business model, etc. We have our model... maybe it's a quick way to throw a few hundred K down the toilet. Regardless, just looking for advice on how best to do so.
Call GoDaddy. If you own/buy over 1,000 names or so, you get yourself an account exec. The nice part is you get a little better pricing, but you also can have them do a lot of stuff for you like updating all of the dns entries a certain way. I have had a few thousand domains with them for a while and have to say they are on top of their game and have helped me deal with a number of headaches along the way.
This happens to all reputable registrars, GoDaddy/TDNAM takes about 3 days to reply to my questions. (24H for the first wave of the ignorant staff, 48H when it is forwarded to people they know few things) Name.com has a nice bulk features that you can update anything you want by yourself
1. you will have to write your own code if your want to compete with all those traffic tasters these days 2. some registrar like Enom or Reseller Club will be better for you as they allow API access to the account which can help u in your coding
to do what at enom ? i like enom but it's not the cheapest registrar out there however it's good solution to get a decent api
basically , you can beocome eNOM resellers.. you just need to deposit an initial amount and you can enjoy ome really great and cheap pricing
I wouldn't say they have cheap pricing compared with the same directi reseller program but they do have quality services Everything is based on quality and price, you can't have both at the same level
The nice part is you get a little better pricing, but you also can have them do a lot of stuff for you like updating all of the dns entries a certain way.
i personally like those Directi interface as well.. their API is very very simple even for a noob like me i personally use them only for my drop catching
Well, my rep typically gets back to me within 30 minutes or so. That is my experience and has not been the same with any of the other registrars I have used in the past. In my experience, owning a few thousand domain names, I would recommend anyone looking to buy a serious amount of domain names to use an account exec at GoDaddy. YMMV
Writing your own software to compete against drop catchers like pool and snapnames is a waste of time. They make thousands of dollars a day reselling expired domains, they have a "special" agreement with registrar so the domains never go to public hands before being auctioned off or tasted by them. Its a multi-million dollar industry and they secured the system so the average joe cant compete with them. Good dictionary .com and .net will never go into auctions either, they will keep them for themselves. Now for the best registrar y prefer moniker, it may not be the cheapest but its the most secure. If you have the skill to develop a program that can create custom templates with adsense or any other PPC and content for every domain i say go for it, its better than just parking them. shopperx