Domain Name Registrars

A Domain Name Registrar is and does exactly what it sounds like - it registers domain names. Companies working with this are accredited by ICANN, when it is a matter of generic TLD's, or by a national ccTLD authority. Domain name registrars have not been around for long and it took until 1999 (prior to this everything was handled by NSI) for them to get established. Since then they grew in force and there are now over 500 registrars to turn to when picking a domain name.

It is not possible for an end-user to register a domain name directly to ICANN - a designated registrar must be chosen. Each accredited registrar must pay a fixed fee of $4000 to ICANN as well as dividing a fee of $3.8 million among all registrars.

The rule says that only one designated registrar is allowed to modify or remove information about a domain name. The business is very competitive and as an end-user you are able to obtain services at many various price ranges. When a .com domain name is registered for an end-user the registrar has to pay $0.20 administration fee to ICANN and a maximum annual fee of $6.86. The cost of the registration will often be somewhere between $7.5 and $35 per year for the end-user.

Transferring Domain Names

When you are giving a new registrar the authority to modify, delete or add information about a domain name, this concerns "Domain Name Transfers." When this happens, there will be a transfer process between the end-user and the new registrar. When the process is over, the new registrar will take over all the accounting and DNS issues from the old registrar.

The reason people transfer their domain is most often, they are not satisfied with the services of the old registrar. Perhaps you can save money with a new registrar or get more value for the dollar.

General Rules

All the major registrars can handle and register domain names ending with for example .com and .info but when it comes to ccTLD's it is a bit different. Say that you want to register a .de address - then you have to go through Germany's registrars and this goes for any given country.

Handling the domain name this way is cheap but there are also some disadvantages. As a foreigner there could be some trouble with language, filling out formulas, laws and understanding routines. Do not forget that some countries require that you live in the country where you register a domain name.

There is however also another way of handling country specific top level domains. Four web sites are offering you the opportunity of turning to them if you wish to get rid of the hassle of turning to a local registrar.

With the help of these sites you will be able to buy a domain name wherever you wish. This also goes for countries requiring you to live in their country in order to usually be able to obtain their ccTLD. These four websites have companies in countries worldwide and what they simply do is act as your representative. Of course, you must set up a contract between the two of you but they will stand as owners of the domain in Whois database. The advantage with this approach is obviously that you will get rid of much extra work but their service will cost you a tad more, or in some countries such as Mexico quite much more.

What is there to look at in a Registrar?

There are lots of things to think about when looking at registrars, here are the points we consider to be the most important. They are as follows:

• Price
• Services & Spin-Off Services
• Private Registration
• Where the Registrar is located geographically and juristically
• Reputation
• Possibility of getting actual invoices
• Support
• Experience
• Technical Platform

If you make sure that the registrar will be able to satisfy you when it comes to the bulleted points, chances are high that you will be pleased with the over all experience.

Other Ways of Obtaining Domain Names

There are other ways of obtaining domain names than going straight to a registrar, and one that we would like to recommend is auctions. There are two sites that we think stand out: SnapNames.com and NameJet.com - both have teamed up with a ton of Registrars to offer their services. At these sites you can see domain names that are soon to be expired because of previous owners letting them go or not paying the annual fee. It will not cost you anything to sign up at these sites and if you keep your eyes open you might be able to snap a top domain at a low cost. The minimum cost for an auctioned domain name is around $50 and $60.