Domain pricing

[clivejo]

I've been with RSP for a number of years now and have been reasonably satisfied with the level of service and value for money. As with previous years, I have just been comparing prices with some of my other service providers and have noticed that RSP prices are increasing further/more than the market average.

What I cant understand is the cost of .co.uk domains. Via another supplier I can register for £4.99 per year all in. But this same via RSP is £6.46 per year plus VAT. So for standard two year period this is costing me £15.50 compared to £9.98. And that's still at whole prices!! In the past wholesale prices tended to be about the same as most of my other suppliers.

Can someone explain the huge increase in prices?

[Reece]

Hi.

Currently Liquidnet is still using eNom (domain reseller) to provide the .uk extensions which means by reselling resold domains, each and every domain sold from them must be at least $9.

Since Liquidnet is ICANN Accredited it means that they can however sell .aero .asia .biz .cat .com .coop .info .jobs .mobi .museum .name .net .org .pro .tel .travel domains directly from the domain registries and not 3rd parties i.e. eNom thus saving money.

I have actually already suggested that they purchase .uk domains directly from nominet (.uk registry) which will enable Liquidnet to sell the domains for £3.50 ex vat, thus allowing these to be priced very competitively.

Reece

[clivejo]

Good idea, is there some reason they dont do that already?

[Reece]

Don't know. I assume they just didn't check lol. :P

[yav0r]

Unfortunately its not about checking... Being accredited registrar for Nominet requires a substantial investment... something we deem as an investment that would hardly pay off at all considering the number of .uk domain names registered per year.

Thus we are stuck purchasing them from a reseller ourselves.

[Reece]

Maybe that has something to do with them costing so much in the first place

P.s. Its only £100 p/a after the initial £400 sign up fee ex vat.

Reece

[yav0r]

Hello,

I don't know where you got those figures but they are certainly not for becoming an ICANN accredited registrar for .uk domains. Last time I checked was about 10k USD only for the application. Maybe the fee changed but I doubt its that much

[Reece]

Now I understand the restraint to do that ha ha.

From what I understand, ICANN does not actually offer accreditation to register ccTLDs (Country Code Top Level Domains - for others reading this who may not know what that stands for) therefore all you should need to do is contact the registry directly.

Check here for info about ccTLDs: http://www.icann.org/en/about/learning/faqs

Check here for Nominet Fees: http://registrars.nominet.org.uk/reg...s/fee-schedule

I feel the implementation of cheaper .uk domains coming ever closer

Reece

[yav0r]

That sounds reasonable indeed. I will forward it to our CEO for consideration.
Thanks for the info!

[Reece]

Not a problem

P.s. If it gets implemented, do I get 12 month free added onto my account for saving you guys lots of money?

[clivejo]

If you dont get the free 12month you have something a lot more! The thanks of all the UK resellers who are getting a better deal and able to compete locally!!

I do hope they can get this sorted as its been putting people off buying .uk domains via RSP/eNom (myself included) and I've seen people 'park' the domain elsewhere because its cheaper!

[Reece]

Hmm, well I like making people happy, but I also like 12 month free hosting

Yeah I'm in that club as well at the mo! : P

[clivejo]

Is there any update on this regarding registration of .uk domains?

It would be easier for me, to just use RSP, but its cheaper (more profitable and competitive) to park else where and point to RSP for hosting.

RSP it costs me £6.37 + VAT = £7.65 that is whole price.

Other provider its £5.99 INC VAT which is £1.66 cheaper than what I can offer.

I would like to manage all domains from within RSP but I need to stay competitive

[yav0r]

We have been accredited and currently implementing Nominet's API. We are currently processing some transfers/registrations and as soon as we are ready we will make it official . So stay tuned

[clivejo]

That's good news I will definely be staying tuned!