Mike Berkens has every right to be pissed off after finding out that BigGame.Fishing carries a $2,700 yearly renewal fee. Or Quarter.Horse (I’m sorry but even when the domain makes sense, the Dot Horse new G still makes me chuckle).
Just plain ridiculous.
I’ve said this time and time again: by implementing a premium renewal system, registries are essentially trying to replace domainers.
Which is perfectly fine, as they’re well within their rights to do just that.
But as domainers, we’re also well within our rights to just say no. Which is what Mike is doing by dropping all of the names he referred to.
If you as a registry try to squeeze all of the upside out of the deal, don’t be surprised if domainers say no.
At $5,400 per year, you’d be investing $54k if you want to buy and hold for ten years. $54k gets you a gem of a one word dot com… I’d be willing to sell my Fanboys.com domain for just $7.5k or Instability.com for $3,500, after which you’ll only pay 8-9 bucks a year to keep them.
Certainly sounds better than investing in a premium Dot Horse domain.
Quick experiment: try saying “premium Dot Horse domain” out lout without laughing 🙂
There’s no need for conclusions, as this situation speaks for itself.
Domainers who agree to pay such yearly renewal fees deserve to lose money quite frankly, they have no excuse.
September 23rd, 2015 at 8:57 am
And just to be clear the 10 years only comes into play because each registries contract with ICANN is 10 years.
So the premium renewal rate may continue forever, not just for 10 years, unless the registry or ICANN doesn’t renew the contract or the registry reduces the price (or increases the price with notice)
It’;s not like in 10 years you pay a normal renew rate
September 23rd, 2015 at 9:49 am
MM has never been kosher, I am surprised to hear HEXONET covered his reg’s in house, did they do this for all their clients?
September 23rd, 2015 at 1:20 pm
I almost pulled the trigger on a LL .land name, but the higher renewal fee (only $$$ in this case) just didn’t make sense to me in the new G’s when I could get a good .com.
I think a lot of domainers have come to this conclusion.
September 23rd, 2015 at 3:02 pm
Domainer math…
1% portfolio turn industry average
$10 .Com / .Net renewals (perhaps slightly less)
15-20% industry commissions
$1250 breakeven sales price if you hit averages
$600 SEDO median sales price
Test the turnover or sales price you need if renewals are $50/year