First in our collection of reviewed registrars for ISPs is a service located on the Sandwich Islands. In order to merit our attention, registrars must be ICANN-approved and offer ISPs reseller services.

by Jeff Goldman [January 26, 2001]

1stDomain.Net offers a multifarious set of ISP-friendly domain name registration services, including a foursome of partner and reseller options.

The Hawaii-based company is also one of the first to provide multilingual domain registration in Japanese, Chinese and Korean. 1stDomain.Net's premium program features an automatic domain name maintenance system, which allows an ISP partner's customers to manage their own modifications.

Registrars chronicle
Located near the home of the world's second-largest super-computer, with facilities on the Hawaiian island of Maui, 1stDomain.Net currently boasts 10 employees and approximately 150 ISP partners. The company, which was founded in July of 1998 and accredited by ICANN in January last year, is affiliated with Aktiv GmbH, a European founding member of CORE.

1stDomain.Net is also a member of Afilias, the consortium that in September of 2000 was granted the right to administer the .info domain name. Among Afilias' eighteen other registrar members is the incumbent powerhouse, Network Solutions. 1stDomain.Net currently offers the .com, .net and .org domains, and plans to offer the five new top level domains as when they're available.

Four degrees of separation
The company offers four different ISP partner and reseller programs. The options range from a simple click-through reseller agreement to an arrangement that allows direct access to 1stDomain.Net's registrar system through email templates.

For smaller partners such as Web design companies, a straightforward reseller arrangement is available. A banner is placed on the reseller's site, and the reseller receives a $20 commission for each two-year registration (at a fee of $50 for the registrant) made through the link. Commissions are paid on a monthly basis.

For small ISPs, 1stDomain.Net will set up a custom-branded registration site on a transparent secure server. Users who register domains through the site will be paying 1stDomain.Net's parent company G & D International directly, but they'll only see the ISPs partner's name during the entire process.

The ISP chooses the fees its users pay, up to $70 for two years. 1stDomain.Net then takes its fee out of that amount, and sends the ISP a monthly commission check. Discounted fees under this arrangement range from $8.00 to $12.50 per year, depending on volume.

Finally, ISPs who want to build their own user interface can access 1stDomain.Net's registrar system directly by using email templates. ISPs who use this method will be listed as the domain's registrar in a whois search.

Under this arrangement, billing and customer service are the partner's responsibility, and domain fees are prepaid with a minimum of 50 transactions required. Discounted fees for this arrangement are the same as those for the WebInterface, ranging from $6.50 to $10.00 per year.

Bridal registration?
1stDomain.Net is owned by an eclectic parent company, G & D International LLC, which also owns and operates the Hawaii-based wedding and event planning service Maui Lani Weddings. Despite the broad diversity of its business offerings, the parent company doesn't own a Webhosting service.

Govinda Leopold, 1stDomain.Net chief executive officer, said its important to their ISP-partners because G & D International will never compete with their services. "Currently, we defer all hosting references to partners," Leopold said. "We don't want to compete with our reseller partners."

According to Leopold, another important benefit of 1stDomain.Net's offering is its proprietary user interface, which allows ISPs to let their customers administer most of the registrant functions, rather than tying up your ISP staff.

"What many people do not know is that every domain requires a certain amount of maintenance after its registered," she said. "People change their hosting provider, people change their email address, and people change their physical address or even their phone number. That can mean a lot of extra work for our partners."

With a variety of partnership options for ISPs as well as a domain modification interface and the capability for multilingual domain name registrations, 1stDomain.Net provides a solid option for ISPs seeking a registrar partner. But according to Leopold, the benefits don't stop there.

"We offer friendly and reliable customer service," she said. "Unlike some other registrats, we do return phone calls and we do not compete with our ISP partners by selling directly to the public, which is important."

— End