Trusting the Keys to the Kingdom...

So you've gone ahead and spent years building your domain portfolio. Great name portfolios can't be built overnight of course...  I chuckle whenever I hear about folks who came late to this biz and registered hundreds-of-thousands of "premium" domain names after me.

The best portfolios have to be painstakingly cultivated over time ..  Lists have to be built and diligently gone through.  You have to wait for that small percentage of premium inventory to come loose... Then you have to be willing to step-up, bid hard, work, try your guts out, day after day, week after week, year after year, never missing an opportunity, never skipping a beat.

Like wine-making, the best vintages take time to mature and come in limited quantity, small batches. Sure, they can be diluted with water (buckets of average or lousy names), but the-best remains the-best. It's obvious to even the untrained eye comparing list to list.

I can't tell you how many times I've rung in New Years Eve, Fourth of July, Halloween etc to the sounds of fireworks, banging pots-and-pans, or trick-or-treat only to say to myself ..  "Oh my gosh..  it's that time already?!?" .. all while going through lists of names. Being a domainer isn't all peaches and cream. You miss a lot of life and the real world.

So once you've built your portfolio and the time comes to administer your hard-won flock who gets to be the shepherd? How do you decide who is going to be the gate-master or key-keeper?

While you worked hard under the radar and kept your head down, the world changed. Predatory Registrars have cratered.  Media companies understand the value of your names now and have the keys to registrars where many of the best domain names live. You and I have explained how great those names are and why -- so it should be no surprise that some traditional retail registrars are holding back the best generic names from expiration.. What law is stopping them from making renewals difficult or more complex? There is a complete lack of clarity or ability to enforce rules which many people assume exist, but which simply don't. The whole thing makes me uneasy.

I trust me and I trust you with my names; but I'm not so sure about you :))  That's my philosophy..  So my advice to you Mr. and Mrs. hard working commercial registrant is "Get your own ICANN accredited registrar as soon as possible". Do not hesitate or throw your hands up saying "I can't". The information on how to go about forming a collective or private company to do so is available online.  There are surplus registrars that traditional drop services such as pool.com, or directi.com may wish to sell to you at a moderate profit.

Regular readers will know I have been preaching the virtues of accrediting your own registrar for years now. For the same reasons. There is simply no excuse for owning domain name media portfolios worth tens of millions of dollars (as many reading this do) and then not stepping-up to protect your nest egg.

Nobody is going to look out for you.  The law moves too slowly.. There is no (viable) Sheriff in this town if things go badly.  I don't know what more to say other than: Don't walk or run... Sprint to get your own registrar, before your registrar pulls a Registerfly or decides to change the "terms and conditions" governing your registration agreement so that "your names" are effectively "their names". The terms and conditions you didn't really read, but agreed to; likely allow for such a kooky outcome.

You wouldn't give a bank tens of millions of dollars in cash if you thought they could take it from you. Why give a registrar your domain name portfolio worth that amount (or more) if their "terms and conditions" of service dictate ZERO responsibility to you?

Think about it.

PS.  I think there is a huge opportunity for a 'Lloyds of London' or 'Swiss Re' insured registrar with favorable "terms of service" (TOS) for registrants, to generate a premium registration business for high-value generic domain names. This is one of the top three busines ideas I would engage in if I wasn't already too busy.  The domain business in 2007 needs the "Swiss Bank" equivalent of domain registrars like the desert needs water.  JMO

Comments

[MyZine.com]

Steps by Steps for dummies

Any one here can help to compile the Step by step for dummies :) of how to start your own ICANN accredited registrar, requirements and cost involved.

That will help heaps

MyZine.com
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[Sahar Sarid]

"The domain business in 2007 needs the "Swiss Bank" equivalent of domain registrars like the desert needs water. JMO"

That's a great way to figure out if a new business is worth doing. Instead of asking what's possible ask what is needed.
At the end both ways may work out well, but one is more solid then the other.

[Snoopy]

Frank, this is a very interesting topic, I wonder if you could outline the processes invoved, what kind of monthly maintenance is involved, costs etc

[Robert]

> This is one of the top three busines ideas...

Care to share the other 2?

:)

[Jack]

http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation.htm

[Nat]

I think you are absolutely on target with this post. The portfolios we have created are no more than electrons in a database. Those electrons get moved- what do we have left?

I am planning to recommend to the registrars that I use that they offer a vault/safe deposit box for the high value names. It would require extra authentication, perhaps personal verification, to gain access to the auth-code. This would not be for all domains, which would be too cumbersome, but just the core domains. I would pay a premium for this service.

I am not convinced, however, that running one's own registrar is the right answer. I learned from hosting my own email that it requires a secure server environment and a secure code base, both of which require constant updates and patches. I think it's likely that a registrar who makes a priority of security would be more effective than if I ran one myself.

[Dave Wrixon]

I don't think it matters what you do there are going to be risks.

I think the lowest risk approach is probably to remove the registrars from the equation altogether.

This wouldn't not be a risk free approach but it does eliminate a whole series of risk factors.

[Chris]

Hi Frank,

I am all for one regarding the controlling of one's destiny - but I wonder where the tipping point is regarding starting your own registrar.

So much of our business entails trust. Registrars like GoDaddy, Moniker, Fabulous, and others are in the business to maintain our trust and provide outstanding service. I have a hard time believing that they would cast-away their bread-and-butter business models and cause pain for their customers.

Alas, if they do, then there *would be a mass exodus to all the newly created registrars. :-)

Chris

***FS*** I'm not so worried about the present registrars and their management teams, but what happens if they sell out and new investors with different ideas come in? Fear of the unknown.

[owen frager]

That must be the thinking behind Mark Monitor being its own...

[Richard]

Frank,

Odd - I just did a presentation in Amsterdam on this topic. Something along the lines of "Know Your Registrar". Basically, I pulled some wording from top Registrars' Domain Registration Agreements and paraphrased them. Just pointing out things like, if you are with one Registrar, you only have 12 days to renew after your domain expires, not 30. Or that with another Registrar, you may not be able to renew at all after it expires. Or that your agree that another registrar can delete your domain if they (in their sole opinion) feel you are using it to embarass someone.

Solution:
1) Know your Registrar, and make sure they know you.
2) Buy your own Registrar
3) Set up your own Registrar

$30k for a Registrar is cheap insurance. I've helped numerous Domainers do all of the above 3 steps.