Fishy Domain Offer

aeromit · Post #1 (**permalink**) 07-11-2007, 06:57 AM

Hi,

You all know that a few years ago web hosts used to fish for customers offering them "free domain name". It was trendy a at that time... now it is just a small extra. Do you see now many web hosts try to get new customers offering free domains?

GnomeyNewt · Post #2 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 11:51 AM

I know that I used to make that free domain offer. Domains were cheap advertising imho, compared to say paying for a expensive banner campaign, just offering a free domain brought in a lot of customers.

These days I see a lot of offers for free domains when you pay for multiple years. Like "Free domain with purchase of 2 year hosting" etc. A lot of the bigger names do offer free domains too with their standard packages and GoDaddy always has some strange $1.99 or weird sale for their domains when you buy another service from them.

ldcdc · Post #3 (**permalink**) 07-12-2007, 04:24 PM

Quote:

These days I see a lot of offers for free domains when you pay for multiple years.

Yes, that seems to be the trend. Maybe the reason is well explained in this thread at HHO, by Gordon:

Quote:

I decided to half the retail price of some of our domain names. This meant we were taking a loss on some of them.
The result was no increase in sales at all.
It seems that the only way to increase domain sales using price would be to charge $5 or less.
As some of you may know I tried giving away domain names for free last year and only managed to give away 150 in a month (there were no strings of any sort and I had budgeted to give away a few thousand).

People seem to respond best to an unfeasibly low price (i.e. sub Godaddy).

Brooke-TP · Post #4 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 07:51 AM

We (as EV1Servers) did it at $5 a year and at the time it was very effective, but I think that was because we were either the only company or at least one of the few, offering domains at a loss. While I'm sure the idea still works for some people to bring in hosting business, offering domains for cost or at a loss is almost standard, so the effectiveness of the concept has become diluted.

CrazyTech · Post #5 (**permalink**) 07-13-2007, 01:31 PM

I've stayed away from even offering domains. The domain registration business is a terrible way to earn money right now. I'm not saying that it cannot be done, but to be successful you either need a lot of luck or a lot of money. It's too competitive for razor thin profit margins.

As for adding domains on - it has become a gimmick. We thought about it for a while, but the problem is, everyone is doing it. It's not an expected service, but when you can go have control of your domain at a trusted company that advertises on TV compared against the hosting horror stories, it's not worth it for the average client. It really isn't worth it for hosting companies in the end.

GnomeyNewt · Post #6 (**permalink**) 07-15-2007, 12:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrazyTech

I've stayed away from even offering domains. The domain registration business is a terrible way to earn money right now. I'm not saying that it cannot be done, but to be successful you either need a lot of luck or a lot of money. It's too competitive for razor thin profit margins.

As for adding domains on - it has become a gimmick. We thought about it for a while, but the problem is, everyone is doing it. It's not an expected service, but when you can go have control of your domain at a trusted company that advertises on TV compared against the hosting horror stories, it's not worth it for the average client. It really isn't worth it for hosting companies in the end.

Yeah, theres really no money is domains right now. I mean even the TV domain companies are shoving their other services down your throat, so I'm not sure they are making any money off the actual domains. If domains would have stayed at $30+/year it would have been better for the industry and even better for domains in general. Tired of seeing great domain names with such high price tags that they'll never be used! Long live parked domain name pages...