Domain companies that have fanatical customers often have these shared traits.
This morning I was reading a thread on NamePros about domain registrars. Someone was asking for recommendations on which registrar to choose. Some names kept coming up including Epik and NameSilo. Others mentioned GoDaddy, Namecheap and Dynadot.
Having someone recommend your company to potential customers is the holy grail of marketing. And it’s not really marketing. It’s just about offering a great product or service at a good price.
There are some domain name companies that come up often as recommendations. Here are some things these companies typically have in common:
- They are active on domain forums and blogs, responding to both praise and criticism.
- They have easy-to-contact point people to help customers when they experience a problem.
- They do some level of marketing in the industry.
- They go to industry conferences.
- They offer a good customer experience.
- They have reasonable prices (not necessarily the lowest).
- They don’t bait-and-switch, which leads to lost goodwill.
- They help customers achieve their goals–whether that is to sell more domains, more easily manage their portfolio or something else.
- They recognize that their product/service isn’t flawless and are open to ideas on how to fix it.
Am I missing anything?
Robert Monster says
Thanks Andrew. This is a timely post as many domain investors are looking around for new registrars right now. As you know, I recently came back to running Epik full-time after 3 years of wearing two hats at the same time. A one-year turnaround side consulting project for DigitalTown turned into a 3 year relaunch! As they say, in for a penny, in for a pound.
Specific to Epik, I think one thing that matters a lot is brand. When it comes to managing digital assets, TRUST is a price of entry. After all, the industry has had no shortage of self-dealing, shill bidding, and general sleight of hand due to its somewhat wild west heritage and the general lack of prosecution when it comes to cyber crime.
Over the years, obviously a vast amount of business has gone to Godaddy whose founder Bob Parsons has now finally stepped off the Board. What many don’t know is that I started Epik because I felt Godaddy went too far. For a trip down memory lane, see here:
https://epik.com/blog/bob-parsons-tear-down-your-privacy-wall.html
It was on May 16, 2010 that Godaddy annoyed me so much that I decided that the domain industry needed an alternative. The decision to become a registrar was made soon after. Not surprisingly, an early centerpiece of Epik was to offer free domain privacy. We have since then taken that further and declared ourselves as the “Swiss Bank of Domains”, with an emphasis on privacy and protecting registrant rights.We also placed a big emphasis on domain finance, leading the industry in domain name leasing (huge opportunity there!) and also were an early adopter of crypto as well as a tax-efficient sale of domains through Masterbucks as redeemable scrip currency.
Over the years, we have never lost a customer domain. The recent addition of Joseph Peterson as Director of Operations has further accelerated our efforts to run a tight ship. At the end of the day, as many people know first-hand, the buck did always stop with me. That never changed, and now as much as ever, I am excited to bring new energy, professionalism, and leadership to the digital identity industry which so many of us love.
I am also looking forward to attending the ICANN meeting in Barcelona starting this coming weekend. I will be there in part to advocate for registrant rights as a member of the Registrar Stakeholder Group. One topic that I am particularly fascinated about is the topic of Freehold registration — the idea that people should be able to buy a domain outright and own it for perpetuity. Stay tuned there. The time has come for that innovation! It was one thing when Uniregistry increased TLD prices by 30x, but now even .COM is poised for greed. Investors need projectability of price. Freehold/Forever registrations will accomplish that.
Already today, Epik is selling Forever registrations — the first ICANN accredited registrar to do so, using Epik as proxy service, similar to how privacy proxy works (check out our free Anonymize.com service). For many TLDs a registrant can secure a domain once and for all at Epik. We in turn register the domain for the maximum period and renew on the anniversary. In the background, we are meeting with registry owners and with ICANN to discuss the future terms of Freehold or Forever registrations arbitraging inflation risk in the interim.
Finally, as announced on NamePros last week, we have a $6.49 .COM transfer promotion going on right now. There has never been a better time to part with underwhelming registrars, move to Epik and build a portfolio of domains where you can park, sell and lease, all in one place, knowing your domains are secure and governed by a team that prides itself on doing the right thing even when nobody is looking!
Mark Thorpe says
Back at Epik hoping to sell the business?