In the six years that we've been doing this, we get about one or two questions a year that go something like "Why do you charge $[X] for a domain name when I can get one from [one of our competitors] for $[ less than X ]?". And I'm sure there are more than this that we don't hear. Here's the scoop. There's a little bit of background here about domain name registrations in general. If background bores, you can skip to the second section...

The Domain Registration System
Domain names come in different "flavors" called top level domains (TLDs). .com is a TLD. so is .net, .org, etc. There are also Country Code TLDs called ccTLDs which are the two letter international abbreviation for their respective country: .us, .ca, .tv, etc. Each TLD and ccTLD is run by a Registry operator. The Registry is responsible for handing out domain names in their TLD, providing DNS resolution for the TLD, and various other functions.

Registries don't sell direct to the public but to Registrars. Registrars typically sell domain names in multiple TLDs. Registrars pay the Registry a fixed price for each domain name they register. For example, in the case of .com domains, the Registrar pays the Registry $6.00 per domain name year (one domain name for one year). Some Registrars sell direct to the public (GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Register.com, etc.) and some sell through resellers such as ISPs and web hosts (Tucows, eNom, etc.). Registrars provide WHOIS services for their domains, handle abuse reports, and provide the management tools to their customers.

Registrars compete with each other for domain registrations in the TLDs they service. For those that have resellers, this applies to the resellers also. Due to this competition, prices vary between Registrars (which includes resellers unless noted). Since the "product" the end user gets is the same (a domain name), regardless of the Registrar used the differentiation between Registrars is typically price, customer service, and ease of management. While the product is standard, these other differentiators vary.

Ideally, the price you pay for a domain name takes these factors into account. This isn't always the case since some Registrars use domain names as loss leaders for other products. Others take low margins or losses on domains since they sell advertising on parked domains or aggressively market their other, profitable services.

How We Price our Domain Names
We are a reseller of Tucows for domain names. We pay Tucows roughly $10.00 per domain name year (one domain name for one year) we register through them (they pay $6 so they need to make money too). Tucows provides all the systems and support for us and we provide this to our customers. We have time invested in integrating our system with Tucows and knowledge of the various TLDs' policies and registration requirements. Since time is money, we need to price our domains so we make money on them while balancing this with choosing a price our customers--and target market of potential customers--can afford.

For a .com domain name, we have a profit margin of about $9.00/year or roughly 47%. This covers our administrative overhead for reviewing domain name orders to prevent fraud, providing and updating a Knowledgebase of frequently asked questions, providing a domain management interface, and providing support for the domain name.

When we have a decent profit margin, it allows us to do all this to give our customers the information and help they need when they have any questions or problems with their domain name. It also allows us to do this without putting advertising on parked domain names or aggressively marketing other services to our customers who register domain names through us.

We realize that this isn't what every customer wants and that we lose customers due to our pricing not competing with low-cost or loss-leader Registars. However, we have many happy domain name customers that know they can count on us to answer any question they have quickly and get any issue they have taken care of quickly. That's what you pay for and really appreciate when you have a problem with your domain name. For most people, domain names are a critical part of their business and we are here to provide the services and support necessary at a price that we hope is reasonable, yet allows us to do this with a small profit.

Due to the recent problems with the current Email Defense backend, Tucows (who provides us with the Email Defense service) will be replacing the current MX Logic backend with a custom backend. This new backend will be the result of feedback from our customers and other customers using Email Defense and will result in many of the features these customers have requested as well as increased reliability.

Here is a brief overview of the changes:

• Improved Email Defense Portal speed and reliability
• Oracle Enterprise deployed as the core database
• Enhanced message filtering
• Enhanced non-English language filtering, including language blocking
• Ability for administrators to control spam thresholds
• Content and Attachment Filtering will no longer be available

The new Portal system is being designed to mimic the current system as much as possible so that there will be as little change as possible for users. There will be no changes necessary for domains using Email Defense since the same MX records will be used.

When we are closer to the release date of the new backend we will be posting more details on the changes and timeframe.

One of the new features of our Support Knowledgebase is the ability to download a PDF of a selected category--or even the entire Knowledgebase.

To use this, go to the main knowledgebase page and browse to the category you want to download then use the Export PDF link at the bottom of the page. This will download a PDF that contains all the articles in that category and any subcategories.

This is a great way to quickly access the Knowledgebase without having to go online. Please note that we do update the knowledgebase periodically so you'll want to check it when possible. To make sure you know when an article is posted or updated, you can subscribe to the ATOM feed for the knowledgebase.

Our new support ticketing system and knowledgebase is now online. Please note that if you reply to an old support request email, a new request will be opened which we will respond to. Old requests were not imported but are still available to us for reference.

Here's a rundown of the new or changed features of the new system:

• We have removed the Urgent importance level. The new levels are now Low, Default, and High. Please see the guidelines on the request submission page for which level to use depending on your request.
• Links to Knowledgebase articles are much shorter. This should reduce problems with them being broken up when sent via email.
• PDFs of any Knowledgebase category can be created by clicking the PDF View when viewing a category. This creates a PDF with all articles in that category and all subcategories (if applicable). This allows you to easily save sections of the Knowledgebase for offline and quick reference.
• Articles can be saved to a list for quick reference. This list does not require a login but relies on a cookie so it will be browser/computer specific.
• The search will now actually find articles. The old search had a bug where it would not find articles where the keyword only appeared once.
• You can now subscribe to get an email notification when an article is updated.
• The Knowledgebase has an ATOM feed you can use in your feed reader to keep track of the ten most recent articles.
• Text size on Knowledgebase articles can be increased or decrease easily by clicking sizing icons.
• The list of recent System Status Updates has been updated and no longer relies on JavaScript being enabled.
• You will be able to get a list of support tickets in the system emailed to you.

If you have any feedback on the new system, please email it to info@adaptivehostingsolutions.com

On March 8, 2006 we will be replacing our current support ticketing and knowledgebase system with a new system. This new system will be similar to the old system in functionality but adds the following benefits:

• Links to Knowledgebase articles are much shorter. This should reduce problems with them being broken up when sent via email.
• PDFs of any Knowledgebase article can be created by clicking the PDF view when viewing an article. This allows you to easily save commonly used articles for offline and quick reference. SEE NEXT ITEM FOR CORRECTION
• PDFs of any Knowledgebase category can be created by clicking the PDF View when viewing a category. This creates a PDF with all articles in that category and all subcategories (if applicable). This allows you to easily save sections of the Knowledgebase for offline and quick reference.
• Articles can be saved to a list for quick reference. This list does not require a login but relies on a cookie so it will be browser/computer specific.
• The search will now actually find articles. The old search had a bug where it would not find articles where the keyword only appeared once.
• You can now subscribe to get an email notification when an article is updated.
• The Knowledgebase has an RSS/XML feed you can use in your feed reader to keep track of the ten most recent articles.
• Text size on Knowledgebase articles can be increased or decrease easily by clicking sizing icons.
• The list of recent System Status Updates has been updated and no longer relies on JavaScript being enabled.
• You will be able to get a list of support tickets in the system emailed to you.

We will post a new article to the System Status and Main Page of this blog on March 8, with more details when the new system is implemented.